The Hollywood Round-Up: January 5
More Thor news (yes!), Basterds gets a summer release.
BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
1. Marley and Me - $24 Million ($106.5 Million)
2. Bedtime Stories - $20 Million ($85.3 Million)
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – $18 Million ($79 Million)
4. Valkyrie - $14 Million ($60.6 Million)
5. Yes Man - $13.8 Million ($79.4 Million)
6. Seven Pounds - $10 Million ($60 Million)
7. The Tale of Despereaux - $7 Million ($43.7 Million)
8. Doubt - $5 Million ($18.7 Million)
9. The Day the Earth Stood Still - $4.8 ($74 Million)
10. Slumdog Millionaire – $4.7 Million ($28.7 Million)
When was the last time this happened? The top seven films in the box office top ten this week are in the exact same position that they were last week, as moviegoers stayed consistent for the first time in recent memory. I spent about 40 total hours lugging a bunch of shit I don't need through various airports in various parts of the world over the holidays, so I got to hear a lot of conversations about how shitty Valkyrie is or how hilarious Yes Man was from the people around me. I think I'll wait for the next wave of releases, by the sound of it.
The folks over at IESB brought to light some new details on how Marvel plans to tie Thor into the upcoming Avengers movie - an issue many comic buffs have been debating and speculating on since the announcement of a planned appearance in the 2011 superhero team-up film. To put it simply and end the speculation, the character of Donald Blake has been added to the end of the script.
For those not already on top of the Thor world, Blake is Thor's modern-day alter ego. Evidently, the introduction of the character is essential to how Thor fits into the Avengers, which is set in a contemporary Iron Man/Hulk timeframe. This will be tricky, given that the Thor film is said to be set in the ancient time of the Norse Gods. Donald Blake reportedly discovers the magical Norse hammer Mjolnir and turns into Thor.
Here is some more info on the character of Donald Blake straight from Marvel:
"Thor chased a monster into the land of the Frost Giants, a breech of protocol that nearly sparked a war in all of Asgard. Odin had to teach Thor a lesson. He created a mortal body for him, one with a lame leg, and sent Thor, stripped of his powers and memories, to Earth. Thor arrived on the campus of New York State College of Medicine as Donald Blake. Blake proved to be the humble and patient man Odin had hoped for. He eventually graduated with top honors, gained a reputation as a caring family doctor and a brilliant surgeon, and opened a private practice in New York City. His nurse, Jane Foster, was equally caring and competent, and the two began to fall in love."
Can't wait to see how this one comes together on screen!
Roughly 150 million 3D glasses will be given away for Super Bowl viewers to watch a three-minute 3D sneak preview of what's quite possibly going to go down as the worst big-budget animated feature of all time. Costing tens of millions of dollars, the marketing campaign for the upcoming cross-promotional kid-manipulating blockbuster Monsters vs. Aliens is what DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg calls "perhaps the biggest media-advertising event in history."
Right. Just like Chinese Democracy was the biggest album event in music advertising history. Have you seen the trailer? It's a bunch of useless nonsense that doesn't look the slightest bit funny. My two year-old lost interest at the 30-second mark, if that tells you anything.
Katzenberg promised superior 3D quality to what has been done in the past. The glasses are said to use Intel InTru 3D and ColorCode 3-D, which updates the old red-blue Anaglyph system. The technology supposedly also allows those without the glasses to see an almost ordinary image on the TV screen. But, Katzenberg said, it still doesn't come close to the 3D quality moviegoers will see in theaters when the film opens (March 27).
Monsters vs. Aliens features the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen and Kiefer Sutherland. It's co-directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2), who supervised production of the promotion that will air during the Super Bowl.
Universal Pictures has announced that Quentin Tarantino's wildly anticipated World War II epic Inglourious Basterds will open in the US on August 21, 2009.
The film, about a group of Jewish Americans deep in Nazi territory during the war, stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Til Schweiger, Christian Berkel, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Rod Taylor, and Cloris Leachman.
Yeah, Cloris Leachman.
After much discussion in recent years, Warner Bros. is finally moving forward with plans for a Hot Wheels movie. Joel Silver set to produce, while Matt Nix of TV's "Burn Notice" has already submitted a screenplay for the movie. Mad Max and The Fast and the Furious have been examined as potential models for the film to follow, somehow, but nothing solid has been locked. As for directing, all we've got so far is that McG was once attached to direct but is no longer involved.
Will Smith was voted the star who generated the most box office revenue for theaters in an annual survey by Quigley Publishing Co.
Since 1932, the Quigley poll has asked movie exhibitors to vote on the 10 film stars who drew the biggest audiences each year. Smith is only the second black men to ever receive the honor, after Sidney Poitier first topped the poll in 1968.
Smith's summer was a bankable joyride. His first turn as a superhero, Hancock, grossed $228 million. His latest film, Seven Pounds, is currently in theaters and has pulled in $39 million in its first two weeks.
Following Smith, in order, were Robert Downey Jr., Christian Bale, Shia LaBeouf and Harrison Ford. The top 10 were rounded out by Adam Sandler, Reese Witherspoon, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig.
Last year's winner, Johnny Depp, didn't have a film released in 2008, and therefore didn't make this year's poll. Next year that won't be the same case. As for seven-time winner Tom Cruise, who didn't make the list this year, he'd better pull a Top Gun 2 or Mission Impossible 4.
No need to wait till Halloween for Halloween: The Weinstein Company's Dimension Films has set an August 28 release date for Rob Zombie's H2. It's remake predecessor, Halloween, was released on August 31, 2007, and the film set a new record for the Labor Day holiday weekend with $30.6 million. With nearly $90 million taken in worldwide, it was considered a runaway success for the writer/director.
Zombie's Tyrannosaurus Rex flick was previously scheduled for the same weekend in August, but since he's taking on H2 first, the project's obviously been pushed back.
As for the sequel, "If you thought Michael was f*cked before, you ain't seen nothing yet! He is bigger, meaner and more psycho than Dr. Loomis ever thought possible," Zombie said in a recent interview. Sounds like fun!
The story will pick up at the exact moment the first movie ended, and is said to follow the aftermath of Michael Myers' murderous rampage through the eyes of Laurie Strode, the protagonist.
