And In Entertainment News...

[Wumbo]

Regarding 21 Jump Street, I saw that last Friday, and it was indeed very good.

[Clappy]

-Well after that Friday report, the official estimates have rang in for the box office this past weekend. The Hunger Games came in first by a large margin with 152.5 million dollars. That is the third highest opening of all-time. Other records shattered include: highest non-summer opening, highest opening for a non-sequel or remake, highest March opening, highest LionsGate studio movie, and so much more. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I call a box office phenomenon. Where does it go from here is the main question. I do expect it to fall next weekend, but by how much remains to be seen. At this rate, I expect the lowest it will earn is 300 million dollars, but the second weekend will be the indication of how well this movie does in the long haul. One thing is for sure, this will be one of the top earning movies of 2012 without a doubt and that is coming from a movie season that still has The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hobbit, the final Twilight movie, and so many more franchise films still to come.

-As for other box office stories, there are so many left to report on. 21 Jump Street had a pretty solid hold and worked wonderfully as counter programming with 21.3 million. The box office success of this movie will probably be unrecognized with The Hunger Games storm ringing on the next couple weekends, but this actually has a great chance of making 120-130 million dollars when it is all said and done. The Lorax dropped to 13 million and has a current total of 177 million. It is still the highest grossing movie of 2012, but The Hunger Games will surpass this in the next couple days. The Lorax will probably end up making 200 million, but how much more afterwards remains to be seen. John Carter fell hard once again as this flop will struggle to make 70 million dollars. Note to self Disney, stop making movies about Mars. Audiences don't care. After those four a bunch of leftovers that made around 1-2 million dollars. The shocker of this bunch was October Baby (a barely promoted Christian film about abortion). Box office reporters would probably go more in depth about this, but it will be forgotten about with The Hunger Games bonanza going on.

-Next weekend will be interesting indeed with the unnecessary Titans sequel, Wrath of the Titans, and the first of two Snow White movies this year, Mirror, Mirror. I definitely expect it to be an interesting battle between Wrath of the Titans vs The Hunger Games to see which one comes out on top, GO HUNGER GAMES! The wild card here is clearly Tarsem Singh's Mirror, Mirror. I can see this being either: successful counter programming or a box office bust. I can't wait to report next weekend on this.

As for movie news:

-The Hangover 3 will be the finale of the trilogy. If they die of alcohol poisoning, that will be one of the best unintentional comedy moments in cinema.

-Kick-Ass 2 will be focused primarily on the villains.

-Theater owners are talking about decreasing the prices of 3D and increasing the prices of 2D movies to subsize 3D movies. While the prices are not the reason I don't see 3D movies, this is a smart move if they want to go all in on this 3D phase.

-My favorite person ever has decided to call the new "TMNT'" film just Ninja Turtles. I have no more words left to say about this reboot.

-Oh and finally, a teaser for the last Twilight film has been released. I am inserting the link below only because the last 8 seconds had the movie theater I was in cracking up over the unintentional lulz.

-A sequel is coming to The Woman in Black. Daniel Radcliffe is apparently not interested. Smart kid since horror sequels are rarely as good as the original these days.

-Asylum has green lit a third film in their Mega Shark vs. monster series. This one is currently entitled Mega Shark vs Mecha Shark.

[The Crow]

That deer's gonna git raped.

I really need to get around to watching Kick-Ass, especially considering it's still up for streaming on Netflix.

Meh, they should just leave the Woman In Black as is, there really is no need for a sequel. As for the Titans sequel, as unnecessary as I may find it to be as well, the Greek in me wants to watch it.

[Wumbo]

Wumbo Challenge: Work "We're the same temperature now" into your conversation every other day for the entire month of April.

Oh, and...

-Theater owners are talking about decreasing the prices of 3D and increasing the prices of 2D movies to subsize 3D movies. While the prices are not the reason I don't see 3D movies, this is a smart move if they want to go all in on this 3D phase.

Haha, nobody likes 3D.

[Clappy]

Haha, nobody likes 3D.

You are correct, but if they want to make 3D marketable, then they need to lower the price since 2D ticket prices are half the price of 3D movies.

[Clappy]

-This first news bit is...well I just don't know how to say it, but borderline ridiculous. Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the creators of the Harold & Kumar franchise and directors of upcoming American Reunion, have recently been quoted saying they’d like to remake Back to the Future. Yep, I am serious. I could insert a pot joke at a time like this, but this is just absurd. I understand why there are so many remakes of older films, but when you have a timeless classic like Back to the Future being considered for a possible remake, that is just speechless. I am not against remaking old films, but there are some classics that are just untouchable. Please Universal, for the love of all things, do not let Hurwitz and Schlossberg touch Back to the Future.

-Kimberly Peirce is returning to directing after a hiatus. Despite having only two mainstream films on her resume (Boys Don't Cry, Stop Loss), both are positively reviewed films with the former receiving multiple Oscar nominations. She is in the works on two films. One of them being a sex comedy...with a twist (are you saying that all sex comedies are the same?) with Judd Apatow. As for the other, well this one seems to be further along in the production process. What is this other film? A new Carrie film. Before any of my readers facepalm, let me add that the part of Carrie has been offered to one of the best young actors working today, Chloë Moretz. With Peirce behind the camera and Moretz starring as Carrie, I will keep a close eye on this version of Carrie because it could end up being good after all.

-Speaking of remakes, the remake of Total Recall will have a trailer posted by Sunday. A 30 second teaser is on YouTube but it is only hyping the trailer being released Sunday, thus making its existence pointless.

-Joel Kinnaman, recently chosen to be the new RoboCop, says that the new RoboCop will be more human. Lolwut? He's ROBOCop dammit!

-Let's lighten up the mood here a bit with some non-remake stories. Jane Fonda will be playing Nancy Reagan in Lee Daniel's next film "The Butler". Add this to a large cast assembling to support Forest Whitaker, who will be the entitled Butler: Oprah Winfrey as his wife, David Oyelowo as his son, and Liam Neeson and John Cusack as Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon.

-New Line has picked up the screen rights to Andrew Ferguson‘s book Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course In Getting His Kid Into College, and will develop the Crazy U script as a potential film for Will Ferrell. I won't be able to eventually watch this without thinking that Will Ferrell did college better with Old School.

-In the obvious news, Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Iron Man 3. As for other returning actors/actresses, Scarlett Johansson will return from “Iron Man 2" playing Natasha Romanoff aka “The Black Widow”, and Gwyneth Paltrow plays Stark’s closest friend, love interest, and business partner Pepper Potts. Don Cheadle, who replaced Terrence Howard after the first “Iron Man”, returns as Lt. Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes – Stark’s personal pilot and closest friend.

-For those of you looking forward to Will Smith's musical return...well keep waiting. He won't be doing the theme song for Men in Black III. Those dubious honors went to craptacular, Pitbull. May the autotune, "dahlings", and Mr. Worldwide's commence below.

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

[TJ]

OOOMMMMFFFGGG, I've been predicting a BTTF remake for the longest!

[The Crow]

Making RoboCop more human is like taking the Teenage Mutant out of the Ninja Turtles.

Total Recall should be lulzy, I hope.

And for the love of all things good and decent, DO NOT sully BTTF by giving it a remake that would surely involve it taking place during the present day and involve Marty going back to the 80s. And if they do, for the love of all mighty God, do not cast Zac Efron as Marty.

[TJ]

Omg I never thought about zac as marty. It could work lookswise.

[Clappy]

For the love of God, I just hope this Back of the Future remake never ever happens.

Anyway,

-

Words cannot describe how excited I am for a sequel to one of my all-time favorite comedies. Especially with Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd, who became much bigger stars since the original film, returning. No word yet on when this will come out (I assume 2013), but I am beyond excited for this.

-A sequel to Twins is officially coming. But Twins 2 sounds like it won't be the name of the film. Instead, it will be Triplets. Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and...Eddie Murphy as the third. Oh this is going to be incredibly terrible...

-DJ Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye, I Am Number Four) is going to direct Invertigo...and thank goodness this won't be a remake of another Alfred Hitchcock film.

-Human Centipede director Tom Six is preparing to sue Dieter Laser (the evil surgeon from the first film) because Laser found something offensive in the script for the third film and demanded to make changes to script. Offensive? Human Centipede? Nonsense.

-Ben Affleck is set to star in a political comedy called Nathan Decker. The comedy is in the form of Ben Affleck getting political.

-Kevin Smith has one more film left in him, then he is done with film-making. What is he going to do afterwards? Well he wants to make Clerks 3...as a play.

-Ridley Scott is hoping that Prometheus gets rated R. Well, I guess that makes sense since Charlize Theron does 3-D naked push-ups.

-James Cameron wants his 3D deep sea documentary to be released this year. I guess this means he is only going to further delay Avatar 2.

-Rapper T.I. wants to co-star in a movie with Tom Cruise. Silly T.I. That would mean you would have to stay out of jail and become an actor.

[The Crow]

If there was one thing that American Horror Story taught me, it's that twins (and I assume triplets) can have different fathers. Then again, it could have turned out to be Donkey cause of those experiments and shit that they did on them during the pregnancy. Nevertheless, I was actually fond of Twins and I am dumbfounded to find out it's getting a sequel now.

[Elastic Dawg]

Clerks? As a play? There better be terrible community theatre "actors" and cheap sets.

Oh and Tom Six is blatantly trolling. It's not like Deiter forced him to make changes or anything. That's all I got to sa-

Wait, Charlize Therzon? Naked? Push-ups? Alien? Ridley Scott? Hr Giger? 3D? I think I just found something to do.

[Clappy]

-First up is the weekend box office estimates:

The Hunger Games finished in first place once again as it made 61 million this weekend. It currently is the fastest non-sequel to reach 250 million domestically. To put this in retrospect, it took Avatar 12 days to do this, while The Hunger Games did it in 9 days. I do not think The Hunger Games will break Avatar's record because Avatar had amazing legs at the box office. The Hunger Games meanwhile fell about 60 percent from the 152 million it made last weekend. I think The Hunger Games will probably remain number 1 for one more weekend unless people go out in boatloads to see Titanic in 3-D (see what I did there?) which I seriously hope not because Titanic plays on cable a hell of a lot. Also, American Reunion could be larger than people expect. However, I am currently sticking with my original guess. Let's just say the fight for number 1 next weekend will be very interesting.

The first of the new releases was money well wasted. The unnecessary sequel, Wrath of the Titans disappointed thankfully with only 34 million. Which is pretty much about half of what the original remake made in it's opening weekend. Backlash against the sequel was large as there was much hatred for the first and the original brought the major backlash 3-D currently has as the original's 3-D was post converted and just flat out awful. Reviews for the sequel were worse than the original's and clearly movie goers were not going to be fooled twice (for the most part) by Perceus and the CGI monsters. Against a budget of 150 million and a lot on advertising, Warner Brothers better hope to make much more overseas because this will probably struggle to make back half its budget domestically. I betcha Sam Worthington is ready for Avatar 2 to help re-establish his leading man status because this is failure #2 of the year for him (Man on a Ledge being the first).

The other new release was neither the fairest of them all nor the disappointment. Mirror, Mirror finished in third with an ok 19 million. Reviews were split right down the middle and Relativity isn't going to gain or lose too much money here. If anything, no pressure is on this film at all since this was the first of the two Snow White movies this year. Now all the pressure will be on Universal's Snow White and the Huntsmen to see if people are willing to put out their money to see another Snow White movie. As for Mirror, Mirror, I expect somewhere between 55-65 million and to get a similar amount overseas to make back its budget. If anything, this further proves that Julia Roberts isn't the box office titan she once was.

The smallest drop at the box office once again was 21 Jump Street. I am legit surprised at the legs this film has as it dropped only 25 percent to 15 million this week as its domestic total reached 93 million. The real test for this film's legs come next weekend with the new American Pie movie which will be fighting for the audience this movie shares. However, this movie will reach 100+ million next weekend regardless and the sequel that was announced a few weeks before this came out is absolutely justified now.

The Lorax made 8 million this weekend as it marches closer and closer to the 200 million domestic mark. Currently it is 11 million shy and I think it will reach that in two weekends at least. It probably won't make much more after that, but this is still a major win for Universal and its animation department.

Numbers 6-10 from the box office vary from 2 million to barely less than a million with John Carter: Financial Disaster from Hell leading the way with 2 million. The others consist of indy flick Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Act of Valor, A Thousand Words, and Journey 2. Can't wait for these leftovers to finally leave the top 10, but I don't think this will come until two weekends from now when a wide variety of movies come out instead of the one or two flicks these past couple weeks have had.

-Kenneth Branagh has signed on to direct the reboot of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan franchise. This will be interesting to say the least since even Thor had slight Shakespearean tragedy in it. For those who aren't aware, Branagh is more of a classical director. I want to see what he does with this before I write it off just yet because it could surprise me like Thor did.

-Michael Bay not only dropped the Mutant, but also dropped the Teenage. So now its just Ninja Turtles and I still have nothing left to say about my disappointment.

-One giant leap has been made for erotic fan fiction. Current best selling book, Fifty Shades of Grey, is being made into a movie. Universal Pictures and Focus Features came out on top, acquiring the rights to a series that got its start as erotic fan fiction based on the Twilight books. For those who don't know, author E.L. James eventually changed the names and backgrounds of the lead characters to become a female college graduate named Anastasia Steele (nee Bella) and a young businessman named Christian Grey (nee Edward the vampire). But all the filthy, kinky sex scenes... well, they stayed the same.

-Two trailers were posted this weekend. One being a normal trailer, the other a redband trailer. The first below is the remake of Total Recall. To say this looks nothing more like a real life video game of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film is a bit of an understatement. Here it is below. Sorry Colin Farrell. You have been in much better stuff over the past four years.

The other trailer is Seth MacFarlane's feature film debut Ted. For those who haven't heard of the project, it is about a 35 year old man and his teddy bear, who comes to life as the result of a childhood wish. While I like seeing Mark Wahlberg going for the totally ridiculous angle in comedy and Mila Kunis just being...sexy as usual, this seems like nothing more than just MacFarlene's typical humor with the language being uncensored. Watch below if you like seeing teddy bears getting high and making sexual innuendos with candy bars and cash registers.

[The Crow]

Excuse me while I go write more erotic fan fiction. My words must be read.

[Clappy]

-The Razzies were on April Fool's Day. If you had Jack and Jill sweeping every category at the awards ceremony, then you were correct. Congratulations Adam Sandler for making one of the worst films ever conceived.

-Speaking of April Fool's, I was hoping that this was a belated joke, but it's not. Ashton Kutcher is set to play Steve Jobs in a movie about the Apple founder, Jobs.

-After previously reporting about a Leprechaun reboot Leprechaun: Origins, WWE Studios has found it's leprechaun in...you guessed it wrestling fans, Hornswoggle.

-Also in WWE Studios news, they are moving forward with The Marine 3. Randy Orton was originally suppose to be the marine, but he was dropped due to controversy about Orton's military past. Now the part is said to be going to either: CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, or John Cena coming back to the franchise.

-The sequel to Avatar won't make it's expected release date of December 2014. Why? Unknown reasoning, but something tells me it's because James Cameron is the alleged king of the world and doesn't listen to the studios date of release.

-Speaking of James Cameron, he wants to direct the sequel to Prometheus. You see? It's ironic because James Cameron directed the sequel to Alien after Ridley Scott made the original. However, it won't surprise me if Cameron procrastinates on this project too.

-Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone on the record to say that the sequel to Twins, Triplets, is the definition of real entertainment. This is coming from the man who thought Batman & Robin was the bees knees.

-Katy Perry has a 3D movie coming out this year. Because this idea worked well for Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, The Jonas Brothers, Michael Jackson, The Black Eyed Peas, and the cast of Glee.

-George Takei says to not expect a cameo from him in the new Star Trek movie. No original Sulu cameo? Oh my.

-If there is ever another Halloween remake, those rights now belong to Michael Bay and his company Platinum Dunes. Don't get your hopes up high kiddies because this is the same man's production company that remade and failed with Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

-The Farrelly Brothers say expect Dumb and Dumber 2 to happen. Remember when The Farrelly Brothers were actually relevant making good movies in the 90s? Yeah, good times. Then they brought us: The Three Stooges, Hall Pass, Outside Providence, The Heartbreak Kid, Osmosis Jones, Fever Pitch, Shallow Hal, Stuck on You, and Me, Myself, and Irene. Yeah lots of misses since then, huh?

-Clint Eastwood's A Star is Born is inspired by the late Kurt Cobain....wait what? You mean it is not inspired by the previous three versions of the same movie? Shocking.

-Roland Emmerich has already blown up the White House, in Independence Day, and now he’s going to oversee a hostile takeover of the joint. The director is in talks to make White House Down and I fully expect natural disasters and CGI explosions like most of his other movies. Am I right?

[The Crow]

Katy Perry in 3D? Ooohhh, I'm gonna watch it.

That dashing guy in your avi and sig deserves the Marine 3 role.

[Elastic Dawg]

I think someone should remake one of Michael Bay's movies to show him how it feels.

As for James Cameron, I don't think he's procrastinating as much as making sure every fucking detail is perfect. He's apparently that kind of guy, not that that's a bad thing. So was Kubrick.

[Wumbo]

-Speaking of April Fool's, I was hoping that this was a belated joke, but it's not. Ashton Kutcher is set to play Steve Jobs in a movie about the Apple founder, Jobs.

[Clappy]

^ I lol'd, but it doesn't make sense to me either.

-A sequel to Raging Bull is going into production starting this June. Director Martin Guigui has a script he co-wrote with Rustam Branaman, and is casting the film now Robert De Niro will not reprise the role of LaMotta; William Forsythe will play the older incarnation of the boxer. I seriously wish this was a joke, but unfortunately it's the real deal and I am speechless.

-Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone's new movie The Tomb has gathered an interesting supporting cast. Some of the names include: Jim Caviezel, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, 50 Cent, and Amy Ryan. So a couple B-list stars and Amy Ryan? Interesting...

-Disney and Marvel have announced a sequel to Captain America that is aiming for an early April 2014 release date. All that is known about production right now is that it will be primarily set in the present and that the short list of directors for the project include: George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job), and Anthony and Joseph Russ (tv series Community).

-Early 80s film Silent Night, Deadly Night is being remade and set to star is Malcolm McDowell. Since he appears in just about everything these days, I don't have a problem with this, especially since the plot sounds hilarious and makes me want to watch the original. The movie depicted a family being killed by a criminal dressed as Santa Claus; the one survivor of that family massacre then snaps at Christmas many years later, and turns into a killer.

-Warner Brothers has hired director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) to film and actor Bradley Cooper to star in a movie about a Naval officer combating against a giant sea serpent. Odd.

-Despite the movie being set in the past, Pixar's Brave will contain a bunch of Easter eggs. Just like its predecessors.

-Universal is rebooting The Mummy. Originally there was suppose to be another two sequels, but after the third film got critically trashed and the series ran its course in general, Universal decided that a reboot is the way to go. I don't know how to feel about this. Brendan Fraser is one of the worst leading men in Hollywood, but the action comedy was something Fraser pulled off perfectly with these films. It should be noted that one of the original writers of Prometheus, Jon Spaihts has been hired to write the script.

-Taylor Lautner is going to be in the cast of Adam Sandler's sequel to Grown Ups.

-Gary Ross says that he is willing to return to film more Hunger Games films, however it will cost Lionsgate since he wants more money.

[Elastic Dawg]

Well, at least they're not remaking Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2. "Garbage day!"

Oh and Malcom McDowell is awesome.