And In Entertainment News...

[The Crow]

Ole Nic must be in worse financial troubles than I thought.

[Hasfarr]

-Charlie Kaufman is making a musical with Nicholas Cage. lolololol.

[Clappy]

I'm bored and I found some more missed news and notes from the past couple days on another movie fan site.

-One big note that I missed today was that the follow-up to I Am Legend is finally coming after years of being in development. No clue yet on whether this will be a prequel or sequel, but Richard Matheson never wrote a follow up to I Am Legend and Warner Brothers should seriously leave the property alone. Of course they aren't going to no matter what I say.

-Will Ferrell will become The Flamingo Thief. It is literally how it sounds. Will Ferrell's character starts to steal flamingo lawn ornaments in order to make money.

-Marlon Wayans will be creating a spoof movie on "found footage" films called Smart Ass. As sick as I am getting of the "found footage" films and as much as it deserves to be parodied, I have no faith in this project. When Marlon Wayans gets involved with a project, it usually leads to terrible results.

-Speaking of found footage films...ugh. A found footage film is being made about the Chernobyl incident. The Chernobyl Diaries is set to be released in time for Memorial Day, so due to this project being rushed, it will probably be bad.

-Kathryn Bigelow's Osama Bin Laden capture movie has added another likeable actor/actress in Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights tv series, Super 8)

-Josh Trank is unsure about doing a sequel to his new hit movie "Chronicle". He would rather work on original projects for 20th Century Fox rather than do sequels on any of his material. While the expression "work on original projects for 20th Century Fox" is an oxymoron to me, I say thank you Trank for at least wanting to be creative.

-The rumored Green Lantern sequel is sadly coming to fruition as the same guys who wrote the first one have finalized an outline for the sequel. They are saying to expect a "darker" take on Green Lantern....and this is the only negative to come from the new Batman trilogy. Just because it worked for Chris Nolan and his Batman movies doesn't mean it's going to work on every single superhero franchise. Hell, the next Superman movie is going to be darker, Iron Man 3 is going to be darker, The Wolverine is going to be darker, and now Green Lantern. Which btw, while this wasn't Batman & Robin bad (always will be the worst superhero movie to me), Green Lantern is definitely one of the Top 5 worst superhero films I've seen along with Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, The Hulk, and Catwoman. Now a sequel from the same guys who want to make it "darker" for the sake of following the trend? Sigh....aiming for a late 2013 or summer 2014 release.

-Harmony Korine (director and writer of Trash Humpers) is attached to write and direct...a Spring Break movie involving Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), and Heather Morris (Glee) doing "dirty work" for James Franco??? What a strange project this might end up becoming....

[Clappy]

Here are the weekend box office estimates:

1 2 Safe House $24,000,000 - $78,300,000

2 1 The Vow $23,600,000 - $85,527,000

3 N Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance $22,000,000 - $22,000,000

4 3 Journey 2: The Mysterious Island $20,085,000 - $53,201,000

5 N This Means War Fox $17,550,000 - $19,160,000

6 4 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (in 3D) $7,865,000- $33,738,000

7 5 Chronicle (2012) $7,500,000 - $50,979,000

8 6 The Woman in Black $6,645,000 - $45,256,000

9 N The Secret World of Arrietty $6,400,000 - $6,400,000

10 7 The Grey $3,032,000 - $47,925,000

Some thoughts:

-Safe House was an amazing action movie. I saw it with my father and I highly recommend it. Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds have great chemistry together.

-The Vow fell harder than projections expected. Maybe bad word of mouth is starting to leak out? Regardless, this will probably be the first $100 million film of 2012.

-Ghost Rider 2 performed half of what Ghost Rider 1 made on it's opening weekend. Believe it or not, this film is being rated worse than the original on all three major cinema review sites (Meta Critic, Rotten Tomatoes, Cinema Score). I guess when Nic Cage peeing fire made the trailer, I should have expected it to be worse than the original.

-I hate to say it, but WB was smart to release Journey 2 when they did. Especially since it fell only 25 percent. Smallest drop in the Top 10. There are no other wide release family comedies out there for competition (sorry Studio Ghibli fans, but Arrietty was only released at about 1500 screens) and Journey 2 will be the only one until The Lorax comes out in a couple weeks. Another Journey movie possibly making 100 million. Wow...

-It hurt This Means War that The Vow was bigger than expected. However, it did perform a bit better than expected. Around 50 million won't be too bad of a final gross, but something tells me McG expected much more for this film.

-Star Wars fell hard in its second week of re-release and made the largest drop in the Top 10. Maybe this is a sign that re-releasing movies in 3D is not good business. Just because it worked for The Lion King doesn't mean it will work for other movies. I would be worried about Titanic 3D in a couple months. Especially since TNT and HBO keep airing it all the time.

-Finally, The Secret World of Arrietty underperformed. As good and critically praised Studio Ghibli films are, they always manage to underperform at the domestic box office. Plus, rewording the tale of The Borrowers wasn't a great idea. It will probably be good, but the tale of The Borrowers has been made into a movie countless times.

The only other news I have includes:

-Rob Corddry (Children's Hospital) has joined the cast of Michael Bay's body builder action heist movie thing "Pain & Gain"

-Chris Colfer (Glee) is releasing his own film, which he wrote as well, called "Struck By Lightning" which will be a high school comedy.

-The Descendants and The Artist (two of the top three candidates to take home Best Picture next week) have racked up more Best Picture wins on the small circuit of awards shows. My prediction is still going to be The Artist no matter what else happens at the other small circuit award shows...but I am still pulling for an upset.

Like I said, Sundays are always incredibly slow movie news days...hopefully more will come tomorrow.

[The Crow]

I still need to see The Descendants. Probably will wait until it comes out on DVD.

[Clappy]

No cinema news yesterday? I think you guys survived without me posting an update.

-The Weinsteins have reached an agreement to take "The Artist" and other company films to Netflix streaming instead of basic cable. Major blow to cable companies like HBO and it will be interesting to see if other studios will follow The Weinsteins.

-Filming for Kick-Ass 2 will begin this summer. While Matthew Vaughn will not be returning to direct, he will still be attached as a producer. I love the over the top original and I hope for more of the same with the sequel.

-Orlando Bloom is trying to make a comeback in case no one has noticed. After a couple years off, he appeared in "The Three Musketeers" last year and will be returning as Legalos in "The Hobbit" this year. Now he has signed on to play opposite Djimon Hounsou in a south African crime tale called "Zulu".

-Percy Jackson 2: The Sea of Monsters is scheduled to come out on my birthday next year (March 26). Happy Birthday to me? I don't really want this present.

-Crank 3D will come out next year as well. If this is more like Crank 2, then I am not looking forward to this.

-Apparently, we are not the only ones who hate the Twilight film franchise. Robert Pattinson hates the films as well. He calls them dull, boring, and every fifth grade insult in the book. He also states that if they continue to make Twilight movies after the last one, then he will not return. He states that he can't play 100 forever. While this is true, news flash Robert. You are an actor. You can insult the Twilight films as much as you want, but at the end of the day, you can make a difference. You are just as every reason as to why the movies are dull and boring as well. Instead of going through the motions like your co-stars, you can try to act.

-James Wan is said to be back on board if everyone else wants a sequel to Insidious. I think everyone wants a sequel to a good horror film, so James Wan, we welcome your return with open arms.

-In "shocking" (sarcasm intended) news, at least 70% Oscar voters are old, white, and male. Congratulations ahead of time on winning the award for Best Picture, "The Artist". May the public opinion not have any input whatsoever for the many years to come. Meanwhile, the Academy will still be scratching their heads as to why viewership is decreasing drastically.

-Shame director Steve McQueen blames the United States fear of sex for Michael Fassbender's Oscar snub. McQueen, if you are reading this right now, read the post above this one and you will see why the Academy can't recognize great acting in modern day cinema.

-John Turturro is joining Michael Bay's new film "Pain & Gain". I guess it's becoming increasingly obvious that John Turturro will be the only actor confirmed in Transformers 4 as well.

-"Galaxy Quest" director Dean Parisot will be the director of "Red 2". Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, and Morgan Freeman

Spoiler

even though he dies in the first one

are all expected to return.

-In sad news, Judi Dench is suffering from macular degeneration and might become blind because of it. However, she states that she will not stop acting because of this. My respect level for Judi Dench has increased drastically and I hope she can overcome this.

[The Crow]

I've been wanting to watch Shame for as long as I've been wanting to watch The Descendants.

And my heart goes out to Judi.

[terminoob]

Oh God. I can't wait to see how well they can translate Kick Ass 2 to film.

[Clappy]

Better late than never, eh?

-Disney is still developing a movie based on a theme park attraction (surprise). This one is on Matterhorn at Disneyland and they hired Transformers 2 and 3 screenwriter Ehren Kruger to do rewrites.

-"A Good Day to Die Hard", the fifth film in the Die Hard franchise, is coming out in February 2013. 20th Century Fox wanted the producers to include a son for John McClane so they can transition the franchise off for the younger character to take over. Well the rumor is finally true. Playing the role of the younger McClane is...Jai Courtney (Spartacus: Vengeance). My guess is Fox decided to go cheap instead of chasing after more well known actors that were legit interested in the role like Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Liam Hensworth (The Hunger Games). Fox seriously has done nothing right so far in making anyone excited for a fifth installment. This is how you run a franchise into the gravel. George Lucas, take note.

-Any American Pie fans out there? I loved the original three movies (screw the direct to DVD movies) and I am excited for the reunion movie, especially since early buzz for the movie has been very positive. Here is the trailer.

-I know this probably crosses into television news, but the screenwriter behind GoodFellas and Casino, Nicholas Pileggi, and the director of Walk The Line and 3:10 To Yuma, James Manigold, are working on a television project for CBS. The 1960s Vegas set project, "Ralph Lamb", is also getting some quality actors interested as well with Dennis Quaid in talks for the title role and Michael Chiklis in talks for his nemesis.

-The long rumored spin-off of Tropic Thunder, a movie based on Tom Cruise's character Les Grossman, is finally coming into full fruition as screenwriter Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs the World) has finalized the script. All he is saying that it is crude, heartfelt, and aiming for a R rating.

-Production on the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, is successfully underway. The only reason I am reporting this is because for those who were unaware of the new Bond movie, the cast list is awesome. I mean Daniel Craig and Judi Dench were obvious, but Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Berenice Malohe and Naomie Harris with Sam Mendes directing? This better not disappoint!

-It has been nearly two decades since Perry Mason has graced the silver screen. Now a reboot is underway with Robert Downey Jr. as the titular character. I bet the new Perry Mason will be slightly sarcastic with quirky humor like all RDJ characters.

-Thanks to Comcast, Robert Rodriguez is getting his own cable channel. Rodriguez's proposed El Rey is “designed to be an action-packed, general entertainment network in English for Latino and general audiences that includes a mix of reality, scripted and animated series, movies, documentaries, news, music, comedy, and sports programming.” Spoiler alert, but this channel might get put on the back burner like Robert Rodriguez's umpteen movie projects like Sin City 2 and Nervewrackers, only for more unneeded Machete movies and crappy family comedies.

-Darren Lynn Bousman, who co-wrote and directed the midnight cult fave "Repo! The Genetic Opera", has created a follow-up musical called "The Devil’s Carnival". The 55-minute film features some returning Repo! players such as Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Bill Moseley, and Ogre of Skinny Puppy. It also has some new faces such as Jessica Lowndes, Sean Patrick Flannery, Briana Evigan, Ivan Moody, Marc Senter and Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan from Slipknot. As a fan of Repo!, I am excited for this despite the short run time.

[terminoob]

Woo, American Reunion!

It'll be hard seeing Alyson Hannigan as someone but Lily Aldrin after so long, though. That'll definitely be weird.

[70s]

CAN'T WAIT for American Reunion. The follow-up to Repo! sounds promising.

[Clappy]

-Half of the Star Trek sequel is being shot in IMAX. As much as I love IMAX, all "big movies" are being shot in IMAX these days, so this really is no surprise.

-FOX News says that "The Lorax" and "The Secret World of Arrietty" heavily push liberal agendas. Apparently the gist is to indoctrinate America’s youth into advocating the Occupy movement and enviromental issues. Finding political meaning in kid's movies equals a slow news day.

-Shawn Levy says that he wants to return to direct Night at the Museum 3. These movies are guilty pleasures to me, so I welcome the idea.

-Stephen King is working on a sequel to The Shining called "Dr. Sleep". Since most novels are adapted into movies, expect a sequel to The Shining in that case.

-Joel Kinnaman has been offered the lead role in the RoboCop reboot. Don't know much about him, but I hear The Killing on AMC is a great show and he stars in it.

-DreamWorks newest movie "Turbo" has quite the interesting voice cast lined up:

Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg, and Samuel L. Jackson.

This is also being written by the guy behind The Wrestler (one of the best movies of 2008), so I definitely have my eye on this one.

-Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is in talks to become Brett Ratner's "Hercules"

-Warner Brothers is making a movie adaptation of the hit manga "Bleach" (YAY!) with the screenwriters behind Clash of the Titans and its sequel (BOO!)

-William Fichtner will be the new villain of The Lone Ranger after Dwight Yoakam dropped out. Fichtner is incredibly underrated so I am welcoming this major role.

-Watch this new clip from the new Pixar film "Brave" (Pixar fanboy squeal)

[Elastic Dawg]

Minor correction on one news item: Darren Lynn Bousman didn't co-write Repo!. That was Darren Smith.

Oh, and a Robocop reboot? Interesting. Is it still the one by Darren Aronofsky or no?

[Clappy]

@Elastic - Thanks for the correction and I think Aronofsky might have left the Robocop reboot. It says that the new director is José Padilha, who has done only documentaries according to IMDB.

It's been a couple days and there is so much news to catch up on (sarcasm). I won't post the weekend estimates box office chart, but here are some tidbits about the new releases:

-Act of Valor overperformed and is the new #1 film in America with about 25 million. I won't even consider this a film because it looks more like a recruitment video. However, the words "actual Navy SEALs" led this to its opening weekend. I don't know how good the legs will be for this film, especially with reviewers stating horrible dialogue and bad acting.

-The new Tyler Perry film opened to 16 million, which landed it at number 2. Seems like usual logic applies. If Perry isn't playing his Madea character, the movie will open under 20 million. I think I'll let this South Park clip explain what I think about Tyler Perry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upkeBDs0pLE

-Both Wanderlust and Gone bombed at the box office with the former making 6 million and the latter making 5 million. A little surprised about Wanderlust since Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston are popular stars. The marketing push wasn't the best since I still had no clue what the film was about, except they were living with hippies and nudists. As for Gone, it looked like a Lifetime movie starring Amanda Seyfried. If Amanda doesn't start picking out her projects better, that is where her career might end up because this is yet another bust with her as the lead actress.

-As for holdovers: The Vow is the first film of 2012 to make over 100 million, Safe House will join it by next weekend, Journey 2 has the potential to make more than both depending on how well it holds against family movie competition The Lorax next weekend, and Ghost Rider 2 fell flat on it's face in it's second weekend with an over 60% drop.

A well known major movie event took place last night. While I will definitely be making a thread for the Oscars, here are a couple tidbits I have to say about the six major categories (and no I won't be talking about J Lo's nip slip...perverts):

-The Artist winning Best Picture was no surprise. I just wish that the silent movie version of Anchorman didn't.

-Best Actor at the Oscar's last year went to a British man who couldn't speak (Colin Firth, The King's Speech). This year, it went to a French man we couldn't hear (Jean Dujardin, The Artist).

-The biggest surprise, at least to me, was Meryl Streep winning Best Actress over Viola Davis. Don't get me wrong, I love Meryl Streep. She is one of, if not the best, actresses ever. However, I have seen The Help. Viola Davis owned that movie with her performance and I feel that she should have won it. Especially with the critical panning The Iron Lady received, minus Meryl's performance.

-Congrats to Christopher Plummer on finally winning an Oscar. One of the all time great actors finally being rewarded for such an illustrious career.

-Octavia Spencer's victory comes as no surprise since she has won virtually every Best Supporting Actress category she was nominated in. It will be interesting to see where her career goes since she has only guest spotted in television series (ex. The Big Bang Theory as a receptionist, Wizards of Waverley Place as an evil wizard at WizTech) before this breakout performance.

-No comment on Michel Hazanavicius winning Best Director because I don't think we'll ever hear from him making a movie domestically ever again. He'll keep making foreign films. Prove me wrong Michel.

I really can't find any real movie gossip to report on due to all the Oscar hooplah going on this weekend, so I'll just post two hilarious videos from yesterday.

-First, we have Sacha Baren Cohen as his newest character, General Admiral Alladeen (The Dictator).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhAg0COnqds

-Second we have Jimmy Kimmel's Movie: The Movie with a hell of a lot of cameos from some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

........

Real movie news and gossip coming tomorrow...

[Clappy]

Back to film news/gossip:

-Let's start this edition with some production news on Nicolas Cage's next film "The Frozen Ground". Also starring Vanessa Hudgens, John Cusack, and 50 Cent; this action movie is about an Alaskan state trooper (Cage) partnering up with a young woman (Hudgens) attempting to catch a serial killer (Cusack) and bring him to justice....oh and 50 Cent has a supporting role.

-The writers of Horrible Bosses will write and direct their own reboot/remake of National Lampoon's Vacation.

-With Warner Brothers and Universal both making Dracula films, Sony wants to get in on this hot action. Yep, a third Dracula film is in the development stages with Jason Keller (Machine Gun Preacher, the new Snow White movie) writing the script.

-If one news bit on too many Dracula films was enough, think again. Guillermo Del Toro wants to do a Dracula film based off the books he wrote and Matt Reeves (Let Me In, Cloverfield) is attached to a project called The Passage, which is indeed a Dracula film. I swear that Hollywood is sucking the blood out of vampires, until they get every last cent out of our pockets.

-Not really news worthy, but it is film related for those who have a Netflix account. February 29 marks the end of cable network Starz’s existing contract with Netflix, and looks like there is next to no chance of renewal. Meaning that this week will be your last chance to stream movies like Toy Story 3 or Scarface and television series like Party Down.

-The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is back from the dead...again. The project has been on and off in development hell for twelve years, but director Terry Gilliam states that it is alive. It is unknown if Robert Duvall and Ewan McGregor are still attached to star.

-Jonah Hill and James Franco are attached to star in the memoir of journalist Michael Finkel called "True Story". Jonah Hill will play Finkel, but James Franco will play a character who got arrested for masquerading as...Michael Finkel? A twist that M Night Shyamalan never saw coming...

-Remember a couple posts ago when I mentioned that Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep were going to star in a film based on 14 years of obtaining the rights to make Mary Poppins? Well now John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) is attached to direct. Despite the talent involved, I still don't know who would be interested in seeing "The Process of Making a Movie: The Movie".

-The director of The Vow (Michael Sucsy) has decided that his next project will be to helm the Beach Boys powered musical "Rosaline" starring Lily Collins.

-Speaking of Lily Collins, she dropped out of The Evil Dead remake. Jane Levy (Suburgatory), who was scheduled to be one of the friends, will now star as Mia. Mia will now be the one who is struggling with sobriety and heads to a remote cabin with her brother and a group of friends, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads to danger and horror.

-In a wtf promotional technique, environment focused "The Lorax" is pushing gas gauging SUVs in a Mazda commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vrvg33vkdFI

[The Crow]

That Netflix tidbit fucking sucks. I love Party Down

[terminoob]

NO MORE PARTY DOWN?

WHAT.

[Clappy]

You know you guys could just buy the series on DVD, right?

[Clappy]

-There is finally a casting note on Spike Lee's remake of Oldboy. Elizabeth Olsen, the youngest of the Olsen sisters, will play the female lead.

-Ryan Murphy (creator of Glee) will be directing a movie called One Hit Wonder. This will team Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz, and Beyonce in a film about pop singers of the 90s who form a supergroup today. Also starring Andy Samberg.

-One of the first couple newsbits I mentioned was about Darren Aronofsky's Noah having Russell Crowe as one of the stars. Well it now appears that Russell Crowe will be playing the legendary ark builder himself.

-Mike Tyson will be returning in The Hangover 3. Woo hoo?

-Jonah Hill has started writing a sequel to 21 Jump Street. Woo hoo?

-Ron Perlman is confident that Hellboy III will never happen. Woo hoo.

-Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones) will be directing a remake of The Osterman Weekend. If there’s a Peckinpah film that begs for a remake it might be this one.

-Marc Foster (Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner, and many other films) has signed on to direct "Cowboy Ninja Viking". For the many of you wondering what the hell this is about, it involves warriors boasting multiple personalities, the better to be prepared to take on a variety of tasks.

-Well it's official. After sending back a torn up script with the note "No-one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts", Dan Aykroyd confirms that Bill Murray is officially out of Ghostbusters 3 and now the film is in “suspended animation”. Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ivan Reitman still want to do the film and while no one has mentioned Rick Moranis in years, I bet he would want to be culturally relevant again too.

On a side note, I smell a possible reboot or remake of the Ghostbusters franchise coming any week now if the third movie doesn't happen. Oh and Bill Murray is fucking awesome.

[Clappy]

-Two newsbits ago, I mentioned a remake to National Lampoon's Vacation written and directed by the writers of Horrible Bosses. Well I have some new details. This is actually a continuation of the Griswold's adventures, with Rusty Griswold all grown up and wanting to take his family on a vacation like his dear old dad. They also have someone casted as the new Rusty Griswold. Sadly, it's not Anthony Michael Hall from The Breakfast Club or Johnny Galecki from The Big Bang Theory if they wanted to have an actual continuation of the character of Rusty. However, Ed Helms, who will be the new Rusty, is a pretty good replacement. I can picture Ed Helms being pretty close to portraying Chevy Chase.

-Men in Black III finally comes out this Memorial Day. What took it so long? Well they started shooting the movie without completing 2/3 of the script. Director Barry Sonnenfield says that shooting with an incomplete script was either "genius" or "really stupid". Well Barry, Will Smith was pissed off about filming this movie, so I place my money on this move being "really stupid".

-Chris Tucker is not excited that they are making a fourth "Friday" movie. Neither am I Chris, neither am I.

-It is now a fact that the sequel to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs will be based on the follow up children's book "Pickles to Pittsburgh". Oh and btw the sequel has a new title: Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers. I'm not kidding.

-Yvette Nicole Brown (Drake & Josh, Community), Missi Pyle (The Artist, Dodgeball) and Mary Birdsong (Reno 911!, The Descendants) have signed to play The Three Fates in the Percy Jackson sequel.

-One of my many lovers, Emma Watson, has signed on to star in Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring". <3

-Michael Bay has casted one more actor and a supermodel (figures...) in his next movie, Pain & Gain. Tony Shaloub (MONK!) is the actor and the supermodel is Bar Paly who looks like this: (believe it or not, this is the most PG rated image I can find of her)

-My final note for the day is not really new. I shared this on Elastic's profile and I thought I would share this with the rest of ya. This is the sequel to the remake of Piranha and I haven't laughed at how bad a trailer looks in so long. Talk about a movie being campy. Watch below if you dare.

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BRING ME MY LEGS!