Month: February 2009

According to E! Green Lantern, about the ring-bearing Justice League of America member of DC Comics fame, is in the script stages. No cast or director has yet been announced.

Brothers & Sisters star Dave Annable will join American Idol alum Katharine McPhee in Wedlocked. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the romantic comedy will center on a pet photographer who is forced into honeymooning with a mobster’s daughter, who herself is seeking to gain American citizenship. Filming begins in Hawaii next month.

Matt Damon has attached himself to The Adjustment Bureau, a sci-fi flick based on a Philip K. Dick short story, which is currently being pitched to studios around Hollywood, with shooting to begin before the end of the summer.

Several studios were bidding Tuesday on B Team, an Adam McKay directed action comedy that casts Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as cops, with Chris Henchy writing the script.

Ellen Barkin, Famke Janssen and the Cesar-nominated Marc Andre Grondin are joining forces on The Chameleon. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the psychological thriller chronicles the reunion of a previously missing young man and his family, who grow suspicious over whether the man is actually who they think he is. The real-life drama is based on Frederic Bourdin, who assumed 39 identities over his lifetime, three of them missing teens.

Keri Russell is set to star alongside leading men Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford in The Untitled Crowley Project. The film, based on a true story, centers on Aileen Crowley, a wife and mother who seeks to provide a normal home for her children, who both suffer from rare genetic disorders, while her husband and an unconventional scientist race to find a cure. Filming begins April 6.

Dreamworks Animation’s net income fell 45% to $52 million and revenue dropped 31% to about $200 million last quarter. But box office was booming and DWA’s homevideo sales were robust, execs said, making 2008 “the most successful non-Shrek year in our history,” according to chief financial officer Lew Coleman.

Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd are set to star with Reese Witherspoon in an untitled romantic comedy from As Good As It Gets helmer James L. Brooks. The plot reportedly centers on a love triangle between a baseball pitcher (Wilson) and a businessman (Rudd) trying to win the love of Witherspoon’s character. Filming begins this summer.

Per Variety Columbia has set Michel Gondry to direct The Green Hornet, and the studio has set a June 25, 2010, release date for the film. Seth Rogen plays the title character, and Stephen Chow will play his sidekick, Kato. Rogen wrote the script with Evan Goldberg. Neal Moritz is producing through is Original Film banner. Gondry, best known for far-out fare like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep and Human Nature, brings an unusual sensibility to what will be the most overtly commercial film of his career.

The DVD for Iron Man helped more than double Marvel Entertainment’s fourth-quarter profits, pumping nearly $136 million into its coffers. Marvel’s film arm alone generated $255 million in revenue in 2008 for the comicbook company thanks to last summer’s Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, its first self-financed and -produced pics. It didn’t record any earnings for its film division in previous years because most of the grosses of pics like the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises were collected by studios as part of licensing deals.

Universal has attached Gore Verbinski to develop Clue, a live-action murder mystery based on the Hasbro board game that he would direct. Verbinski will produce through his U-based Blind Wink banner, along with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir, who also have an overall deal at the studio.

Melissa Leo has joined the cast of indie drama Betty Ann Waters alongside Hilary Swank, Minnie Driver and Sam Rockwell.

Warner Bros. has acquired screen rights to The Lonely Dog, a limited-edition book of paintings done by Queenstown artist Ivan Clarke. The studio will turn the dog tale into a CG animated film. Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster will produce through Goldsman’s WB-based Weed Road banner.

Sources:
E!
IMDB
THR
Variety

#1 Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail from Lionsgate debuts at #1 this weekend earning $41 million in 2032 theaters. Budget for Madea is unknown.

#2 Coraline from Focus rises to #2 this weekend earning $11.4 million, bringing total earnings to $55.7 million. Coraline showed in 2155 theaters. Budget for Coraline is unknown.

#3 Taken from Fox holds at #3 this weekend earning $11.2 million, bringing earnings for Taken to $95 million, in 3102 theaters. Budget for Taken is unknown.

#4 He’s Just Not That Into You from Warner Bros. drops to #4 this weekend earning $8.5 million in 3050 theaters. Budget for Not That Into You is unknown.

#5 Slumdog Millionaire from Searchlight. climbs back into the top five this weekend earning $8.3 million. bring total earnings to $98 million. Slumdog showed in 2244 theaters, thats 610 more screens than last week. Budget for Slumdog was $15 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Friday the 13th Weekend Gross: $7,942,472, down 80% / Theaters: 3105 / Gross $55,119,663 / Budget: $19 million

#7 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Weekend Gross: $6,821,377, down 37% / Theaters: 2835, down 130 / Gross $121,200,930 / Budget: $26 million

#8 Confessions of a Shopaholic Weekend Gross: $6,742,778, down 55% / Theaters: 2507 / Gross $27,378,049 / Budget: unknown

#9 Fired Up Weekend Gross: $5,483,778 / Theaters: 1810 / Gross $5,483,778 / Budget: $20 million

#10 The International Weekend Gross: $4,463,916, down 52% / Theaters: 2364 / Gross $17,031,200 / Budget: $50 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Adam Green’s Frozen has attracted its three leading actors. According to THR, Kevin Zegers ( Dawn of the Dead ), Shawn Ashmore ( The Ruins ) and Emma Bell will star as college students stranded on a chairlift on a New England ski slope that has closed. The trio are forced to make life and death decisions or risk freezing to death. Green will direct from a script he penned. Shooting begins next week in Utah. Peter Block and Cory Neal of GreeneStreet Films/A Bigger Boat are producing.

Adam Sandler and his former Saturday Night Live cohorts Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider, along with Kevin James, are planning to join forces for an all-star comedy flick due out Independence Day 2010. The film, cowritten by Sandler, follows five high school friends who reunite after 30 years for a July 4 holiday weekend, per Variety. Dennis Dugan (You Don’t Mess With the Zohan) will direct, with cameras slated to roll this summer.

According to THR Pierce Brosnan’s firm is developing a story about famed Hungarian photojournalist Robert Capa, attaching Paul McGuigan to direct. Born Andre Friedmann in early-20th century Budapest, Capa memorialized many conflicts, including the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The colorful journalist also helped found Magnum Photos and traveled in glamorous circles that included a friendship with John Steinbeck and an affair with Ingrid Bergman.

Oscar nominee Josh Brolin joins Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in the ensemble cast for Woody Allen’s next picture, which the Vicky Cristina Barcelona auteur wrote and will direct this summer in London. No word on the plot or title.

Negotiators from the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers and SAG met until 7 p.m. Tuesday at the AMPTP’s offices in Sherman Oaks. It was the first negotiating session since November; the parties were scheduled to resume their talks at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Dark Knight star Aaron Eckhart and Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) are in negotiations to star alongside Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in Rum Diary, the big-screen adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel.

Planet Terror writer-director Robert Rodriguez is going to commence work on his latest film Nerverackers for Dimension Films. according to ShockTillYouDrop.com. Variety is calling it a sci-fi thriller. According to the trade paper, the story is set in 2085 and focuses on a character named Joe Tezca who is part of an elite unit dispatched to quell a crime wave in a theoretically perfect future society. Dimension will release the film on April 16, 2010.

Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington will join together for an action-packed adaptation of The Matarese Circle, a spy-vs.-spy thriller based on the novel by Robert Ludlum Bourne Identity. According to both the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Cruise is in final negotiations to join Washington in the would-be blockbuster, which David Cronenberg will direct.

Geoffrey Gilmore is leaving his post as director of the Sundance Film Festival to take the job of chief creative officer of Tribeca Enterprises. The move leaves a void at the top of the fest he intimately shaped while also providing a jolt to one that’s still trying hard to find its niche.

According to Variety, John Malkovich will do a villainous turn in the big-screen version of DC Comics’ Jonah Hex. The flick stars Josh Brolin as a former Confederaete soldier-turned-bounty hunter who faces off against Quentin Turnbull (Malkovich), a wealthy Southern plantation owner out for revenge after his son is killed during the Civil War.

Casey Affleck is directing a documentary feature on Joaquin Phoenix, his friend and fellow actor who last spring decided to swap the acting business for music. Phoenix is embarking on a new path as a rapper, with an album to be produced by Sean Combs. He is scheduled to make his first public performance Friday at a Las Vegas club, which will officially kick off Affleck’s shoot. Affleck, repped by Endeavor and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, is known for his work in front of the camera with such movies as Gone Baby Gone and the Ocean’s Eleven series. He directed a series of shorts for Sundance Channel in the late 1990s.

Ashton Kutcher is looking to tackle the football comedy Traded for Paramount Pictures. The actor would play a superstar NFL quarterback who magically swaps bodies with a 12-year-old middle school geek.

Sources:
THR
IMDB
Variety
E!
Shocktillyoudrop.com

#1 Friday the 13th from Warner Bros. debuts at #1 this weekend earning $42.2 million in 3105 theaters. Budget for Friday the 13th was $19 million.

#2 He’s Just Not That Into You from Warner Bros. drops to #2 this weekend earning $19.6 million in 3175 theaters. Budget for Not That Into You is unknown.

#3 Taken from Fox drops to #3 this weekend earning $19.2 million in 3109 theaters. Budget for Taken is unknown.

#4 Confessions of a Shopaholic from Buena Vista debuts at #4 this weekend earning $15.4 million in 2507 theaters. Budget for Shopaholic is unknown.

#5 Coraline from Focus drops to #5 this weekend earning $15.3 million in 2320 theaters. Budget for Coraline is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Weekend Gross: $11,700,000, up 7% / Theaters: 2965, down 204 / Gross $110,515,000 / Budget: $26 million

#7 The International Weekend Gross: $10,000,000 / Theaters: 2364 / Gross $10,000,000 / Budget: $50 million

#8 The Pink Panther 2 Weekend Gross: $9,000,000, down 22% / Theaters: 3245, up 2 / Gross $22,321,000 / Budget: unknown

#9 Slumdog Millionaire Weekend Gross: $7,150,000, down 0.4% / Theaters: 1634, down 90 / Gross $86,546,000 / Budget: $15 million

#10 Push Weekend Gross: $6,931,000, down 31% / Theaters: 2313 / Gross $19,325,000 / Budget: $38 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

According to E! casting agents for New Moon, the second film in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, recently held an open call in Vancouver and where so overwhelmed at the response that they closed the doors at noon. The line began forming at 5 a.m. and soon stretched for blocks with fans coming from as far away as Florida just for the one day call. The walk ons will join the likes of Dakota Fanning, AnnaLynne McCord, Lucy Hale and Vanessa Hudgens in the competition for roles in New Moon, due out in November.

Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures has acquired the remake rights to two horrors, Anguish and Room 205, to be renamed The Dorm. Anguish is a remake of Bigas Luna’s 1987 film of the same name, wherein a film-within-a-film tells the story of a mother-fixated optician’s assistant who loses his job and goes on a killing spree. But the real plot concerns the patrons of a small cinema who are watching the film when a killer starts to murder them in ways that mirror the film’s plot. In the remake, the protagonists are two girls who find real life mirroring the horror film they’re watching. The Dorm is a remake of Danish film Room 205, wherein a student finds her college room haunted and some of her neighbours dying off in suspicious circumstances.

Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are uniting for The Baster, a romantic comedy from Blades of Glory codirectors Will Speck and Josh Gordon. Per Variety, when Aniston’s character decides to get preggers via artificial insemination, her best friend Bateman swaps the donor’s sample with some of his own, unbeknownst to Aniston. Shooting is set for this spring in New York.

Sam Rockwell has signed on to star alongside Hilary Swank in Betty Anne Waters. Minnie Driver has also bagged a role in the legal drama. Based on a true story, Rockwell will play Kenneth Waters, the brother of the heroine. When he was convicted of a murder-robbery in 1983, Betty Anne (Swank), an unemployed single mother, spent the next two decades slowly earning a law degree and fighting tirelessly to overturn the conviction. Rumour had it that John C. Reilly had been set to play Kenneth initially, but the charismatic Rockwell seems to be a fine choice for the role. The movie will be directed by Tony Goldwyn.

Camilla Belle is taking the title role in Mary, Mother of Christ, which, per the Hollywood Reporter, will follow the young life and love of the virgin mother. The film, hoping to play to the same audience that flocked to The Passion of the Christ, also stars Peter O’Toole and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who takes on the dual role of Gabriel the archangel and Lucifer. Producers are also seeking to cast Al Pacino and Jessica Lange in the film, which is due for release on Good Friday, April 2, 2010.

Zachary Levi, the star of the hit TV show, Chuck, has bagged his first big movie by signing on to star in Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel. Levi will play the cousin of Jason Lee’s returning Dave Seville in the sequel, which will be directed by Betty Thomas. There’s no word, though, on how big Levi’s part will be much depends on whether Lee is merely making a cameo, or if he’s coming back in the lead role.

Disney star Gomez is set to try her hand as the older sister Ramona Quimby. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gomez will play Ramona’s titular big sis in Beezus and Ramona, based on the Beverly Cleary book series. Ramona will be played by Joey King in the film, scheduled for release on March 19, 2010.

Robert Downey Jr. has denied to MTV that fellow Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke is set to play his nemesis in the upcoming Iron Man sequel. Downey Jr. played the lead role of tycoon-turned-superhero Tony Stark in the 2008 comic book movie and is set to to return for a follow-up. Rumours about actors set to join the cast of Iron Man 2 have been swirling for months, with stars including Emily Blunt, Tim Robbins and Sam Rockwell all linked to the project.

According to Production Weekly, principal photography on Alexandre Rockwell’s Pete Small is Dead is to kick off in March. Amongst the cast are Steve Buscemi, Sam Rockwell and Peter Dinklage, who have worked together on Peter Judson’s Nobody Wants Your Film a documentary about how an independent film gets knocked back every step of the way.

Filmmaker Neil Labute has grabbed a two-film deal with Sony’s Screen Gems arm, with his first project planned as a remake of Death At A Funeral, including Chris Rock as the star. The original Death, which Frank Oz directed in 2007 featured the likes of Alan Tudyk, Matthew MacFadyen and Peter Dinklage in a tale of family secrets and comic misunderstandings.

Sources:
E!
Vancouver Sun
EmpireOnline
Variety
THR
MTV.com
Production Weekly
/Film
TotalFilm News

#1 He’s Just Not That Into You from Warner Bros. debuts at #1 this weekend earning $27.4 million in 3175 theaters. Budget for Not That Into You is unknown.

#2 Taken from Fox drops to #2 this weekend earning $20.3 million in 3184 theaters. Budget for Taken is unknown.

#3 Coraline from Focus debuts at #3 this weekend earning $16.3 million in 2299 theaters. Budget for Coraline is unknown.

#4 The Pink Panther 2 from Sony debuts at #4 this weekend earning $12 million in 3243 theaters. Budget for Panther is unknown.

#5 Paul Blart: Mall Cop drops to #5 this weekend. Cop earned $11 million in 3206 theaters this weekend for a total of $97 million. Budget for Cop was $26 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Push Weekend Gross: $10,204,000 / Theaters: 2313 / Gross $10,204,000 / Budget: $38 million

#7 Gran Torino Weekend Gross: $7,420,000, down 9% / Theaters: 2705, down 310 / Gross $120,280,000 / Budget: $33 million

#8 Slumdog Millionaire Weekend Gross: $7,400,000, down 3% / Theaters: 1724, up 91 / Gross $77,426,000 / Budget: $15 million

#9 The Uninvited Weekend Gross: $6,400,000, down 6538 / Theaters: 2344 / Gross $18,379,000 / Budget: unknown

#10 Hotel for Dogs Weekend Gross: $5,820,000, down 32% / Theaters: 2734, down 426 / Gross $55,234,000 / Budget: unknown

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo