BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
1. Obsessed - $28.5 million ($28.5 million)
2. 17 Again - $11.6 million ($39.9 million)
3. Fighting - $11.4 million ($11.4 million))
4. The Soloist - $9.7 million ($9.7 million)
5. Earth (2009) - $8.55 million ($14.2 million)
6. Monsters vs. Aliens - $8.52 million ($174.8 million)
7. State of Play - $6.8 million ($25.1 million)
8. Hannah Montana the Movie - $6.3 million ($65.5 million)
9. Fast and Furious - $6 million ($145 million)
10. Crank: High Voltage - $2.4 million ($11.5 million)

Obsessed debuted #1 at the box office last weekend, earning $28.5 million with a highest per-theater average, pulling in $11,337 per theater. The film had a budget of $20 million.

17 Again fell one spot to #2 with $11.6 million, raising its two-week total to $39.9 million.

Fighting debuted #3 at the box office, earning $11.4 million, while The Soloist debuted at #4 with $9.7 million.

Earth rounds out the top 5 at the box office, debuting to $8.55 million in sales for the weekend, and a total of $14.2 million since opening on Wednesday.

The Mirage Group has announced that another new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action movie is in development, with a planned 2011 release date. The reboot is said to focus on the origins of the Ninja Turtles, and that it might use some "face replacement technology."

TMNT co-creator Peter Laird wrote an entry on his site about the live-action news, commenting on the hybrid aspect of it:

"So here we go — another live action film! As you may recall from some of my previous comments, our initial discussions regarding the next film had to do with what we were calling a 'hybrid' — live action with realistic Turtles rendered in CGI and blended in. This new idea — which, frankly, I am VERY pumped about — will have actors and stunt performers in full Turtle suits for filming in live action. As of right now, there is talk of using CGI to do 'face replacement' for the suits so that we can get those great, expressive faces possible with CGI."

Remember, the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was an independent film, with a budget of only $13.5 million. The suits they wore kicked ass, and actually made the movie for some, but the big Hollywood production treatment may stomp out the little things that made that film work, like creative spark.



Here's a short video clip hyping the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, featuring Jack Black, Michael Cera and Andy Samberg.



Look for the show on Sunday May 31st, 2009. If you're into that kind of thing.

Empire published an excerpt from their recent interview with Tom Hanks, in which he discusses working on Toy Story 3. He explains that they actually showed him the movie first, with temporary voices, before he went in and recorded his own.

"I have been in and done three big complete recording sessions and will probably have at least one more to do, possibly in about eight months," the Oscar-winning star said.

The studios took a different approach this time when trying to flesh out what'll work and what won't. "They did an interesting thing on this one. They did not send us a script. They showed us a complete story reel of the entire movie, with storyboards moving from one to the next, and the people up at Pixar recorded some voices with some music and sound effects. Tim Allen and John Ratzenberger and I went in a movie theatre, watched the reel and said, 'This is great, let's get to work!'"

Naturally, Hanks will return to voice Woody, Tim Allen is back as Buzz and John Ratzenberger is back as Hamm the Piggy Bank. It's always fascinating to hear those stories behind how Pixar works, and this is definitely no exception. How often does a star get to see the movie first before they start work on it? Oh wait, this is remake-land now. Nevermind.

The Weinstein Company (TWC) reportedly lost the rights to Sin City 2 a few weeks ago, and the film was said to be looking for independent investors. Robert Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios is still in line to produce, but the Hollywood Reporter has just published an article saying that various producers have confirmed that they've been offered the rights to Sin City 2. If I were Frank Miller, I'd want to find a new studio, too.

"If the Weinsteins' option did lapse, it could have happened for reasons ranging from development inactivity to a decision not to pay to re-up," they suggest. However, Todd Bartoo on Twitter emphasizes that maybe "Dimension could be looking to make some quick cash by selling the rights to someone else."

If Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez are able to put their full attention into this film, it could seriously up the ante of the first one.

Will Spider-Man 4 be shown in 3-D? "Could be," says Sony head Any Pascal. Forbes.com has posted a very interesting interview with Pascal and fellow studio head Michael Lynton, discussing live-action 3-D.

"I think James Cameron's new movie [Avatar] could change the world," Pascal said. "I think everyone is in anticipation thinking it's going to be like Star Wars. It's going to change the way you consume entertainment. I don't know that it will ever be the way you see dramas, but I can't say anymore that it won't be."

Keep in mind, this is coming from the head of a competing studio, eight months ahead of Avatar's release. That doesn't sound like hype - that sounds like genuine excitement.

Revolutionary is a huge word, but Cameron's track record speaks for itself. If anyone can be trusted not to Lucas out and take a chainsaw to his own legacy, it's Cameron.


Iron Man 2 news: Scarlett Johansson addresses rumors about her physique, specifically that she supposedly has to lose 14 pounds to get into “superhero shape”:

“Losing 14 pounds out of necessity in order to live a healthier life is a huge victory. I’m a petite person to begin with, so the idea of my losing this amount of weight is utter lunacy. If I were to lose 14 pounds, I’d have to part with both arms. And a foot. I’m frustrated with the irresponsibility of tabloid media who sell the public ideas about what we should look like and how we should get there.”

She hints that her Black Widow character will be as physically close to the comic book version of the character as she can get:

“While training for an upcoming film, I’ve come to this conclusion: chin-ups are near impossible and lunges suck. There is no magic wand to wave over oneself to look good in a latex catsuit.”

If you’re not familiar with the comic book character, here's a refresher:



Yeah.

Robert Downey Jr. recently confirmed that comedian Garry Shandling will be playing a U.S. Senator who demands that the Iron Man tech be turned over to the government. He also said the suit has been improved for the movie, and that the film itself is “artistic and risky:”

“The set pieces have to do with things that aren’t your typical, like, bad guy conflict. The relationships are very complex and hilarious. The motivations Tony has and why he turns around and does things has completely to do with his own internal processes and it really is, I think, as much as we tried to in the first one really see behind the façade of this kind of storytelling. We really, I think, leaving ourselves open to…we’re kind of trying to tell a story about how a dysfunctional family saves life on Earth as we know it.”

For more, including his thoughts on Mickey Rourke and how he (Downey Jr.) is taking this movie more seriously than any film he’s done before, header over to Collider.

Sour grapes once more for Terrence Howard! Pass the baby wipes. He recently let off a little more steam about being replaced in Iron Man 2 by Don Cheadle. Wouldn't you, though? Hell of a bad deal.

"Marvel made a choice, and it was a very, very bad choice. They didn't keep their word. They didn't honor my contract. They produced a great bounty with the first one but they put it all in the storehouse and you were not allowed in. They did the same thing with Gwyneth Paltrow, from what I've been told. They did it with almost everyone except Robert Downey [Jr.]. One of the things that actors need to learn to do is always stick together, one for all and all for one."

With X-Men Origins: Wolverine hitting theaters very, very soon, minds are already working overtime to figure out the next step - or three. X-Men Origins: Magneto, the spin-off about Eric Lensherr that was rumored to be in the works even before Wolverine went into production, has yet to take off. SciFi Wire talked with producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently, but didn't exactly get super-thrilling news.

"I don't know," she admitted. "We will do that. We all want to. Magneto is a fantastic script, and hopefully we'll make it."

She continues, "Honestly, we have all been just so focused on getting Wolverine out that we didn't take the time to sit down and explore 'What are the movies we're going to do next within the genre?'"

So is it a waiting game, to see how well Wolverine does?

"I think this is partly to do with it, yes. And then we have First Class, which is based on the X-Men comics' first class and is very literal to the title. It's the first class in Xavier's school. But that's just being written. I haven't even seen a first draft."

Honestly, the Magneto film concept never tickled m awesome-bone.I'd personally like to see one of these characters featured instead.


Jason Statham kicks ass - I think we can agree on that. But he's certainly not a complex character actor. Every role he's played thus far isn't much different from his Chev Chelios character in Crank: High Voltage, and we can anticipate as much in his upcoming performance in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables. His special brand of badass will also come into play in an upcoming reinvention" of the 1972 Charles Bronson action classic The Mechanic. Apparently Simon West of Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and When a Stranger Calls, is in talks to direct.

The original Mechanic film, directed by Michael Winner, stars Charles Bronson as an aging hitman who's used to working alone but befriends a young man who becomes his apprentice. Together they become an unstoppable killing team, until the pupil's ruthlessness puts him on a collision course with his teacher. What do you think? Can Statham pull it off and do Charlie justice? My vote is yes.


The Half-Blood Prince is hitting theaters in a few months, but talk about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is already swirling. Rightfully so, since they're shooting it as we speak. Franchise centerpiece Daniel Radcliffe talked with Empire recently, along with producer David Heyman, revealing a few details regarding the film split in Deathly Hallows. Warner Brothers has been planning to split the seventh book into two movies since March of last year, but nobody seemed to know exactly where exactly they'll split it. "We've played around with a couple of places," Heyman teases, before continuing:

"We ultimately settled on a place that we think is very exciting, and I think quite bold, in that it's not necessarily where one might expect. You want to give a sense of completion, on one hand, but a sense that there's another piece, more to come. We tried one and then [writer] Steve Kloves, came up with the idea to try it another way and when we tried that, it felt just right." Radcliffe said that the split is made "at a very tense cliffhanger," which may be a bit of a clue for fans familiar with the book.

Considering the success of Fallout 3, it should come as no surprise that publisher Bethesda Softworks has filed a trademark for theatrical rights to the game.

It's simply an early indication that we might one day see a Fallout 3 movie, but there's no real info beyond that. Fallout 3 is set in the year 2277, 200 years after the nuclear war that devastated the world in an alternate post-WWII timeline. The player is an inhabitant of Vault 101, a survival shelter from the nuclear fallout. When the central character's father disappears under mysterious circumstances, the player must escape and journey into the ruins of Washington DC.

If adapted properly, this could be an awesome movie. But if it's not given the proper budget, it could just wind up in the trash heap of half-baked game-based films.

Fox Atomic, the teen-centered division of 20th Century Fox that started in January of 2007, has bitten the big one. Their failography includes Turistas, The Hills Have Eyes II, 28 Weeks Later, The Comebacks, and 12 Rounds. Variety reported that Fox Atomic was likely to shut down last week, and we anticipated the news like little kids on Christmas Eve. We like good movies, you see, and Fox Atomic was not in the business of making them.

FA's chief Debbie Liebling will return to 20th Century Fox as EVP of production and work under co-presidents of production Emma Watts and Alex Young. A brief mention of 28 Months Later made its way into the Variety piece as well: Liebling is still developing the sequel, and that it will "presumably" move to Fox proper. Here's to hoping.


We've got the first pic of Russell Crowe in full costume for his role as Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's remake. Here he is, longbow and all (no tights!):

Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice, Death at a Funeral, Frost/Nixon) has been cast to play the Sheriff of Nottingham in the film.

Robin Hood is scheduled to open on May 14, 2010

The movie is currently shooting, and the cast includes Cate Blanchett (Maid Marian), Mark Strong (Sir Godfrey), Kevin Durand (Little John), William Hurt (William Marshall), Scott Grimes (Will Scarlet), Vanessa Redgrave (Queen Eleanor) and Alan Doyle (Alan-a-Dale).