Valentine’s Day opened huge over the weekend, easily taken the top spot with roughly 52 million dollars. A sequel to the star studded film entitled “New Years Eve” is already slated for release, which will carryover characters from the first film. Two other moves also had huge opening weekends, Percy and The Lightning Thief did about $31 million worth of box office receipts for a second place finish. The Wolfman did about 1 million less for third place at $30 million. Avatar and Dear John finished in fourth and fifth place with about 22 million and 15 million, respectively.
Fans of the Man of Steel will be happy to hear a sequel to Superman Returns has finally gotten the greenlight and a director. Christopher Nolan, who is wrapping up production on the Leonardo DiCaprio thriller Inception will helm the new Superman movie or Superman 3.0, a rebooted Superman film that has finally gotten off the ground three and a half years after the Brandon Routh starring Superman hit theaters.
A new Hollywood trend has big named stars helming films based off of bestselling books.
While books turning into films aren’t anything new, a new crop of characters are getting set to hit the big screen – with big names attached.
Katherine Heigl will take on Stephanie Plum, a character made popular in a series of best selling books, reports Variety. Heigl would star as Plum, a lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter. Other stars attached to bestselling books, include Angelina Jolie who’s preparing to enter the role of Kay Scarpetta along with Matt Damon, who will continue his role as Jason Bourne in the Robert Ludlum spy thrillers.
Looking to watch the Oscar nominated films before the awards broadcast? A total of ten films were nominated this year for Best Picture, the first time in Oscar history thanks to a special new rule instituted by the Academy this year, making more films now accessible to the public. While the Oscars don’t air until March 7, 2009, a number of this years Oscar Nominated and Best Picture contenders are already on DVD.
District 9
Peter Jackson’s science fiction special effects thrill about an alien earth invasion
Oscar Nominations- Film Editing, Best Picture, Visual Effects, Writing (Adapted Screenplay) [Wait!Theres Tons More…]
Oscar Nominee Matt Damon for Invictus headed to the set today to shoot scenes for his upcoming film ‘Hereafter’ co-starring Morgan Freeman and directed by Clint Eastwood. The film shoot that’s taken them across the globe from Paris to Hawaii, and San Francisco.
The film follows Damon and Freeman who are touched by death in different ways.
A quick note on some recent Hollywood Castings….
Fast and the Furious gets ready for a fifth sequel…Paul Walker and VinDiesl are both on board…
Jake Gyllenhaal is joining the movie adaptation of musical Damn Yankees…
Brad Pitt, Ryan Reynolds in talks to star in Gunsmoke, a remake of the classic television series that aired on CBS…
Iron Man 2 is getting ready for an April 30, rollout. The Jon Favreau directed sequel to the smash hit brings Robert Downey back into the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man in a film that resurrected his career and arguably put Marvel studios on the map. The anticipation is much higher for Iron Man 2 (with a recent trailer for the new Iron man scaling charts as most viral-ly watched trailer on the net) relative to the first one which was considered a risky studio venture at the time with Marvel just a fledgling Studio and its comic book characters locked up in a swathe of development deals. But Iron Man went on to earn over $318 million domestically, and $523 million worldwide at the box office.
In the sequel, Tony Stark will face off against Russian bad guy Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), and gets into it with business rival Justin Hammer(Sam Rockwell).
Don Cheadle joins Iron Man 2 as his buddy James Rhodes, or the War Machine, who is introduced at a an event similar to an early 1900’s world’s fair.
Stark’s growing dependency on alcohol, the stress of the world aware now of his identity will all be explored in the upcoming sequel. Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Pepper Potts and has a boyfriend in the sequel.
Downey Jr., spent a great deal of time advising scriptwriters on the screenplay and casting decisions that bring new characters to Iron Man like The Black Widow played by Scarlett Johannson.
“We’re going a little darker. But there’s a way to do that with a playful tone,’ director Favreau told Empire. “The tendency that we will inevitably get a little bit darker, because when the superhero is facing real-world problems the drama tends to get more internal…We gravitate a little more to the tone of the films I grew up with, like the old James Bond films. There was a certain panache to them, a certain happy go lucky feel. You got a sense of danger, but always a sense of fun, too. And a sense of things being a little hyper-real. I think that’s really what Tony Stark is: a little like an American James Bond.”
Marvel Hits and Misses
Marvel Hits Iron Man, The Hulk, X-Men, Wolverine, Spiderman Trilogy
Marvel Duds The Punisher, Electra, The Incredible Hulk
Tobey Maguire was spotted out and about carrying a screenplay. He’s currently freed from acting duties now that he’s officially dropped out of Spiderman.
The film has been on a search for a replacement with a number of actors being rumored to play the role including Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron, and Clive Owen. The latest name to be circulated among the contenders is newcomer Logan Lerman who mentioned he’s been talking to Sony about taking on the role. He’ll next star in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Gerard Butler ‘bomb’ Unveils New Name for its DVD Release and rides to No. 1
Box office disappointment The Game, starring Gerard Butler, has gotten a new title, and is finding a second audience on DVD.
The action film is at number one on the top selling DVD charts.
1. Gamer
2. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself
3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
4. The Hangover
5. Pandorum
6. The Hurt Locker
7. Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball
8. Halloween II
9. Weeds: Season Five
10. Whiteout
Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself is in second place this week. The CGI animated redux of the classic children’s picture book, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is number three this week. And best selling DVD of all times is at No. 4. Pandorum finished in fifth place, and the nine time oscar nominated film The Hurt Locker is at No. 8. The Sequel to Smokin’ Aces, Halloween II, Weeds: Season Five and Whiteout starring Kate Beckinsale finished 7,,8,9 and 10 respectively.
We analyzed the current list of contenders and determined who we thought carried the current momentum heading into the awards. Momentum meaning, it’s theirs to lose. To qualify as ‘carrying the momentum’, the contender won the two major awards leading into the Academy Awards, the SAG and Golden Globe awards and picked up more than two Pre-Oscar awards. (Scroll down to see more Oscar headlines, and some surprise picks and overlooked candidates).
Some of the surprises [Wait!Theres Tons More…]
