Welcome to CraveOnline's weekly movie news roundup - a weekly rundown of all the breaking news in the film world, with an eye for what Tinseltown's got in store for us in the near future!
BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
1. Quantum of Solace - $70.4 Million ($70.4 Million)
2. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - $36.1 million ($118 million)
3. Role Models - $11.7 million ($38 million)
4. High School Musical 3: Senior Year - $5.9 million ($84 million)
5. Changeling - $4.2 million ($27.6 million)
6. Zack and Miri Make A Porno - $3.2 million ($26 million)
7. Soul Men - $2.42 million ($9.4 million)
8. The Secret Life of Bees - $2.4 million ($33.6 million)
9. Saw V - $1.7 million ($55.4 million)
10. The Haunting of Molly Hartley - $1.6 million ($12.6 million)
Bond is back! As expected, Quantum of Solace opened at #1 at the box office this weekend with a $70.4 million domestic take, the best ever for a Bond flick.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa fell one spot to #2 at the box office this weekend with $36.1 million, and will likely drop even further when Bolt is released next week. Nevertheless, the film has grossed an impressive $100 so far.
The surprisingly funny Role Models dropped a spot to #3 with $11.7 million, while High School Musical 3: Senior Year also fell one spot to #4 in its fourth weekend, making $5.9 million for a total running gross of $84.4 million, which is just under 8 times what the budget was. So get used to seeing Zack Efron everywhere. Starting with a Footloose remake. I'm not kidding.
Whatever the hell Changeling is fell to the #5 spot. Despite being its fourth weekend in theaters, I couldn't tell you a single thing about the film. Way to go, marketing dept.
A third Meet The Parents movie is apparently in the works, according to FoxNews.com. Robert DeNiro and Gwyneth Paltrow's mom Blythe Danner are expected to return as grandparents to Ben Stiller and Teri Polo's babies. There's no way they could top Meet the Fockers without Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, so bets are on the likelihood that they'll return as well.
The Academy committee has decided that the score for The Dark Knight isn't eligible for an Oscar. The score, composed by Hans Zimmer, James Newton and three other composers, does not qualify because the Academy only allows scores where over 70% can be credited to the main two principles. Despite the Academy being given a signed letter by everyone involved with the score that Zimmer and Newton were in fact responsible for over 70% of the score, the Academy decided not to allow it anyway. Bitches.
Word is beginning to leak about the upcoming X-Men: Origins prequel, Magneto. The film is set to follow the formative years of Erik Lensherr, the World War II concentration camp survivor who would later establish the Brotherhood of Mutants in a war against mankind. The storyline is said to heavily involve Professor X, aka Charles Xavier. X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner said "We have a script on Magneto which is actually sort of Magneto and Charles Xavier," she said. 'It's Eric and Charles in their early, early years."
Can't wait to hear more on this one.
Matt Reeves spoke to MTV last week about making a sequel to the best monster movie in years, Cloverfield.
A sequel was greenlit just weeks after the original film opened in January, and that since the film came out there have been quite a few discussions about the sequel. But as Reeves pointed out, wanting a sequel and making a good one are two entirely separate things.
“There are a couple ideas that have potential but we haven’t quite cracked it yet, ” he said. One thing is for sure - we won't be seeing any of the original characters as central figures in the sequel, and it likely will be filmed in a very different manner.
Reeves is hard at work on his new project, The Invisible Woman.
Leonardo DiCaprio also made the rounds at MTV, to discuss his production company taking on the daunting double-duty task of remaking the classic anime titles, Akira and Ninja Scrolls. He plans to keep his involvement strictly on the production side of things, but he did have this to say about Ninja Scrolls: "I'm a big fan of Japanese anime - I know there a lot of loyal fans out there of the project and die-hard fans, so we're going to try to do the best job we possibly can and we're not going to make the movie until the script is in the right shape."
Yeah... but who's gonna play Miyagi? Columbia's rushing ahead with a remake of the 1984 hit, The Karate Kid, set specifically as a starring vehicle for Jaden Smith. Yep, Will Smith's son. Original producer Jerry Weintraub and Will Smith will co-produce the film, which will be set in Beijing and once again be about a bullied youth who learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor.
Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore has reportedly changed the focus of his forever-promised sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11, in order to address the world economic crisis.
Moore is on a break-neck shooting schedule,in hopes for a Spring release to capitalize on America's bound-to-diminish attention span for all things devastating about the state of our economy and Presidential sacrilege. But several political and entertainment experts are wondering how much Moore's bleak pessimism and ranting bitchcraft people are going to want to focus on once President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
"If Moore offers a prescription for how to improve things, he may indeed find an audience that at this moment is eager for change," said Craig Minassian, entertainment consultant and former aide to President Clinton. "But it's going to be hard for him. What this election shows is what's right with America, and sometimes what Michael Moore does is highlight what's wrong with America."
Marvel has signed director and effects magician Joe Johnston (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park III) to direct First Avenger: Captain America. The plot is reportedly to be set in WWII, as with the original comic, and feature the supervillain Red Skull. The film is also meant to serve as a setup to Marvel's Avengers movie, telling how Captain American was cryogenically frozen, only to be defrosted in modern time to become leader of the superhero team that includes Iron Man, the Hulk and Thor, among others. Expect many a joke about shrinkage and segregation. Or not.
First Avenger: Captain America is set to hit theaters May 6, 2011. The role to land these days among leading men in Hollywood seems to be the Cap, as the actor who ends up playing him will undoubtedly also star in The Avengers, due July 15, 2011.
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