The Hollywood Roundup
Hulk Smashes the Box Office!
The Box-Office Top Five
1. "The Incredible Hulk" ($54.5 million) 2. "Kung Fu Panda" ($34.3 million) 3. "The Happening" ($30.5 million) 4. "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" ($16.4 million) 5. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ($13.5 million).
The Incredible Hulk Rakes In The Green - The not-so-jolly green giant defied expectations of virtually everybody who had the misfortune of seeing Ang Lee's 2003 adaptation by kicking major ass both on-screen and off, raking in a cool $54.5 million in its opening weekend. Spoiler town: Hulk doesn't kill Abomination. Samuel Sterns turns into Leader. Tony Stark shows up in a direct lead-in to the upcoming Avengers movie. Did we say it was awesome?
Iron Man 2 and Avengers are set to open a year apart, and Marvel's King Midas of directors Jon Favreau has announced that he doesn't have time to direct both. Favreau is the only member of the original Iron Man crew that has yet to sign on for the sequel, which is due in theaters April 30, 2010. Marvel Studios has announced that The Avengers is set for July 2011, after solo films for team members Thor and Captain America hit the big screen.
With The Happening, director M. Night Shyamalan scored the third-biggest opening of his career, landing in 3rd place with a surprising $30.5 million. It's a fair assumption that none of those people saw Lady in the Water.
Robert Downey Jr., who's made quite a home for himself in the headlines these days (and without the drugs, too!) has signed on for the Dreamworks/Universal film Cowboys and Aliens. It's based on a graphic novel in which aliens land in the 1800's Old West with the intent of taking over and enslaving everybody. The cowboys and Apache Indians team up to fight them, and all hell presumably breaks loose. This movie, set for release in 2010, could be absolutely awesome.
Racing to put distance between themselves and the shimmering lump of ass that is Speed Racer, The Wachowski Brothers have hit full-throttle on their next project, Ninja Assassin: Part 1. Huge points for the title and concept, but will it deliver? James McTiegue is directing, and if the weirdo visual wizards get this one right, we'll likely be seeing all kinds of ninja goodness on our screens for years to come. If they drop the ball for a second time in a row, however, Uwe Boll's probably got some oceanfront space available on his Island of Shitty Filmmakers. It's due in theaters Jan. 16, 2009.
The Vatican has banned the makers of Ron Howard's DaVinci Code prequel Angels & Demons from shooting in not only the Holy City, but all of Rome's churches. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the guy evidently in charge of this kind of thing, said that author Dan Brown had "turned the Gospels upside down to poison the faith. It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into mendacious films in the name of business." The movie centers on a plot by the Illuminati to seize control of the church and, subsequently, the election of the new Pope.
