The Big Screen Bulletin 02.01.10: Avatar Still #1

Posted by Steve Gustafson on 02.01.2010

News on Iron Man 2, Captain America, and The Avengers, and Avatar 2, Sam Raimi could do The Shadow, Ryan Reynolds speaks out of turn about Deadpool, trailers for Wall Street 2 and From Paris With Love, and more!

Welcome back to the Big Screen Bulletin. My name is Steve Gustafson and this is all the movie news coming out of the weekend!

Make sure you're not missing any Steve at 411mania! Check me out:
Monday: Big Screen Bulletin. Hey, you're doing that right now! Good job!
Wednesday: The Silicon Valley 10 & 1. Already the talk of the Game section! The perfect blend of gaming and pop culture! My first column listed the Top 10 Video Games That Should Be Television Shows!
Friday: The TV/Movies Top 5. Funny enough I wasn't able to participate this week. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it anyway! Great stuff!
Saturday & Sunday: The Hollywood 5 & 1. Celebrity gossip and hot women. Of course if you want to read about half naked guys and soap opera storylines, head over to the wrestling section.

You may remember that I had mentioned something about...

I received an email from a good reader that this is being done on another web site, that won't be mentioned here, and I decided to pass on the idea. But it did get me thinking about reviews. The concept for Twitter Movie Reviews was simple. I would review movies in 140 characters or less. Besides the movie reviews on the TV/Movies page, we have a number of well thought out and written reviews in other columns and reports. Would mine stand out or get lost in the mix? I wanted a "hook" and thought the Twitter angle would stretch my creativity. I'll admit, it was fun. Instead of tweaking it, I'm dropping it. But I would like to pose a question to you: How much influence does a critic's opinion make in your decision to see a movie? For me, very little. I'll admit that a review from Chad Webb or Jeremy Thomas can sway me. They, and others here, have a gift when it comes to laying out what makes a movie work or fail. But a site like rottentomatoes does nothing for me. Share your thoughts in the comment section or shoot me an email at [e-mail]

But that doesn't mean I'm going to do straight news week in and week out. Starting next week I'll have something for you that I don't believe has been done before. Keep your eyes peeled.

If you're new to the Bulletin, I've classified the news by a symbol in front of the news segment. That way, if you're looking for certain information, just look for the logo. Easy enough to decipher but to ease your reading pleasure I've provided a legend for you. So when you see one of the following:



Let's dive into the weekend!

Seven Weeks at Number One!

1. Avatar $30,000,000 (-14.1%) ($594,472,000) Read the review!
2. Edge of Darkness $17,120,000 (-) ($17,120,000)
3. When in Rome $12,065,000 (-) ($12,065,000)
4. The Tooth Fairy $10,000,000 (-28.6%) ($26,106,000) Read the review!
5. The Book of Eli $8,770,000 (-44.3%) ($74,373,000) Read the review!
6. Legion $6,800,000 (-61.1%) ($28,646,000) Read the review!
7. The Lovely Bones $4,735,000 (-43.8%) ($38,014,000) Read the review!
8. Sherlock Holmes $4,510,000 (-32.0%) ($197,596,000) Read the review!
9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel $4,000,000 (-37.5%) ($209,297,000) Read the review!
10. It's Complicated $3,720,000 (-36.0%) ($104,027,000)
11. The Blind Side $3,020,000 (-27.5%) ($237,913,000)
12. Up in the Air $2,700,000 (-30.8%) ($73,173,000) Read the review!

I don't know what else to say about Avatar. It's performed above and beyond expectations and has set a new standard at the way films are made, watched, and perform. Crowds of all ages have enjoyed the experience and even in its seventh week at number one, is enjoying healthy ticket sales. "You have to do a double take when you see these numbers," said Paul, Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, marveling that Avatar decreased only 14 percent from the previous weekend. "James Cameron is the king of the box office hold." Who can dispute that?

Let's move on. Mel Gibson's revenge-thriller Edge of Darkness, debuted this weekend with $17.1 million for a respectable if slightly low total. I think this is a good number for Gibson. After being out of the limelight for so long, audiences may need to warm up to him again. Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros. said, "On a normal weekend, we probably would have had the number one film," in regards to the competition from Avatar. Edge of Darkness had been widely seen as a test to whether Gibson can return to headlining a film, after eight years and damage to his image. The last movie he acted in was Signs in 2002. Four years later, he made some anti-Semitic remarks during a drunken-driving arrest. Add in some odd interviews and some drama in his personal life, things looked dicey. But Darkness has received mostly good reviews and Fellman said the studio's data showed approximately 70 percent of those seeing the film said they came to see Gibson. "It certainly marks an interesting return for Mel Gibson," said Fellman. "When this film plays out, I think his star will shine a little brighter." Also coming out was When in Rome, the Walt Disney romantic comedy starring Kristen Bell. It took in $12.1 million, a good number for Bell.

Does Avatar have enough to make it 8 weeks? How will Dear John, Frozen, and The Wolfman do?

You may not be familiar with the name Rich Ross but that's about to change. The new chairman of Disney is going to work and working the company into focus and power. If that's even possible. Variety reported that with Ross the studio now aims to devote most of its development and production dollars to making only a few movies per year, which will capitalize on the appeal of the Disney brand with moviegoers. The studio's slate will likely take the form of five tentpole releases per year: one during the spring, like this year's Alice in Wonderland, and then two animated pics and two live-action films during the summer and fall. The House of the Mouse will become less of a moviemaker and more of a film distributor, turning to Marvel Entertainment and DreamWorks to supply the rest of its slate of releases through the Touchstone banner. Very interesting. Producer Sean Bailey starts this week as the studio's new president of production. Ross sparked to Bailey's long-term thinking about the types of movies that should get the greenlight. He pushed for reboots of Tron and The Black Hole, both of which he set up at the studio through his shingle Idealogy and both of which lend themselves to lucrative opportunities to mint considerable coin through the company's other divisions. The big question is what kind of films they'll make. There are some hints of what direction they'll take. Ross has said that The Blind Side should have been made by Disney. And of course there are also the more recognizable names like a third National Treasure, a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lone Ranger, a sequel to Enchanted, a new Muppet movie, Robert Zemeckis' Yellow Submarine, as well as Jungle Cruise and Tomorrowland, both inspired by Disney's theme parks. Can I say that this new focus is a great blueprint and really stacks things in Disney's favor. Here's some other things Ross has done that I approve.

He has spent the last several months pulling the plug on projects deemed...questionable. He killed Wedding Banned, a comedy that would have starred Robin Williams, and a sequel to Wild Hogs, which was a major hit in 2007. He also ended McG's plans to reboot 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, mainly because of its hefty price tag, creative issues that still needed to be worked out, worries that it's an aging property...and well, IT'S MCG! It didn't help that Race to Witch Mountain failed to re-energize a 34-year-old franchise last year. The irony is that all of these changes come as Disney is readying to unspool one of its potentially strongest slates in years, with Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland," big-budget video game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Miley Cyrus drama The Last Song, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (starring Nicolas Cage in a live-action variation of the tale told in Fantasia), Toy Story 3, an animated Rapunzel and Tron Legacy all on the schedule. "Movies remain at the core of what we do, providing many of the rich stories, memorable characters and compelling worlds that are Disney's hallmarks," Iger said in Disney's annual report. I don't know about you, but I'm excited in the direction this is all taking.



As long as this doesn't distract him from TinTin, I'm fine with it. It was first announced around two years ago that Steven Spielberg would be developing a new live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. Since then bits and pieces regarding the project have come out, but they still haven't really progressed past the development stage on it. Last October it came out that Shutter Island writer Laeta Kalogridis would be writing the script for Spielberg. While out promoting the release of Shutter Island, both MoviesOnline and Screen Rant caught up with Kalogridis and asked her about the latest on the adaptation. The big question was whether she's adapting from the 1989 manga written by Masamune Shirow or the 1995 anime directed by Mamoru Oshii. She said: "Ghost in the Shell was originally the manga. The anime came from the original graphic novel and then...and that anime, as you know, is a relatively famous, groundbreaking piece of material...also generated two seasons of an animated television show as well. And this is an adaptation of the original manga, the original comic book that sort of began everything." When Screen Rant caught up with Kalogridis, she added that it has "a lot of action…lots of action." She also said, "there's still going to be a lot of atmosphere, [the movie] is about vast possibilities, all of this technology, the internet, it's about the limitless possibilities of this technology." So where does that leave us? Not too far along. But if you look down the road, comic book based movies will run through a cycle and if this can gain some momentum, expect more manga/anime "inspired" projects to come along.

Ghost in the Shell is a futuristic police thriller dealing with the exploits of the cyborg Motoko Kusanagi, a member of a covert operations division of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission known as Section 9. The unit specializes in fighting technology-related crimes. Although supposedly equal to all other members, Kusanagi fills the leadership role in the team, and is usually referred to as "the Major" due to her past rank in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. She is capable of superhuman feats, and bionically specialized for her job, her body is almost completely mechanized; only her brain and a segment of her spinal cord remain organic.



Don't you hate it when sites yell, "Big news about a popular movie! Click to find out more!" Then you click and it's a throwaway sentence that is hardly worth the internet space it takes up? Me too.

SlashFilm has heard from a trustworthy source that they've apparently already started hiring technical crew members for Avatar 2, the sequel to the epic blockbuster. I reported the utterly-shocking-to-know-one-news that James Cameron confirmed a few weeks back that the sequel is definitely in the works. What gives me pause is nothing official has been released from FOX. I'm sure they need to get their ducks in a row with details and contracts. Still, in addition to SlashFilm's report, which says that crew members are signing three to five year contracts, io9 separately heard from Avatar production designer Robert Stromberg who said that "we've chatted about certain things" and that when he sees Cameron next week "I'm sure we're going to talk about it." He also says that "we have to think about topping" Avatar, which is going to be quite a challenge. The good: They are starting the ball early. No 12 year wait. The bad: Expect LOTS of news like this in the foreseeable future. With Avatar's tremendous success, everyone wants a piece. Including news sites.



Not a lot to chew on but it's something. Film Journal got an update from director Joe Johnston about his next project, Marvel Studios' The First Avenger: Captain America: "We're in prep," Johnston says. "Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we're set up down in Manhattan Beach [California]. It's the part of the process that I love the most," he enthuses. "We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could do this?' It's that phase of the production where money doesn't matter: ‘Let's put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and [then later] see what we can afford.'" The film, he says at this early stage, will begin "in 1942, 1943" during World War II. "The stuff in the '60s and '70s [comic books] we're sort of avoiding. We're going back to the '40s, and then forward to what they're doing with Captain America now." The First Avenger: Captain America has set a July 22, 2011 release date for the film. This one and Thor are the two I'm most apprehensive about. Cap's costume will be make or break and I hope they lean towards the uniform he wore in The Ultimates. Not exactly like it, but in spirit. He'll need to look like a leader when he's assembling the Avengers to action! Which "leads" us to Jon Favreau.

In a recent conversation with SFX Magazine, Jon Favreau made it clear that he considers Mickey Rourke as both an actor and Whiplash, to be one of the movies most important parts. "Mickey says a lot with very little. And there's a looming, dangerous element to this film that let us explore the relationships around Tony a lot more than other films where you sort of go halfsies-halfsies. Mickey gave us the freedom to have a lot of fun and maintain our tone, while still having a sense of doom looming over the film." When asked how he felt about losing Terrance Howard as James Rhodes and replacing him in the sequel with Don Cheadle he said, "It was hard. I like Terrance a lot. I think he's very talented and it would have been a different process working with him that with Don. Don's a guy I understand, but he makes choices that I don't always understand. But now, just wrapping up a week ago and seeing how he finished off this performance and how he arced it through...He didn't allow Rhodey to be a two-dimensional supporting character. I was proud of the insight he brought." Although he's made it clear in the past that he probably won't be in the directors chair for The Avengers he's excited to see what others do with the characters but it seems that Iron Man is where his passion really lies, "I guess if you're not excited and curious about something, you can't direct it as well. There's no way to half-ass it and have a good movie. Not for me. Maybe others can. To me it's about what you're passionate about enough to explore for two years. Going from directing and creating this world to just being Happy Hogan in The Avengers would be, I'm not gonna lie, strange," he said. "But I'll be involved as an executive producer. It's very different to be a consultant on something compared to the guy calling the shots, but I think Kevin Feige and those guys have a sense of where everything's going, and I'll be involved to whatever extent they see fit." Did you get the feeling their was a little...strain between Jon and Cheadle? I know he covered it, but maybe James Rhodes is a cursed character!



Who called this one MONTHS ago? That's right, ME! Actually, it didn't take a genius to see this coming. Veteran film director Tinto Brass is planning what he calls the world's first-ever 3D pornographic production says The Hollywood Reporter. You may remember Brass most for his 1979's Caligula, the controversial Gore Vidal-penned all-star film version of the life of the insane Roman emperor. Skip the rated version. Horribly edited. The project achieved a level of infamy when producer and magazine publisher Bob Guccione took the project out of Brass' hands and inserted scenes of hardcore pornography into the action without Brass' consent. Brass says the time is right for 3D technologies to be used to create an erotic film which will also be the first 3D film of any type made in Italy. Presently a few select adult websites offer 3D porn, but using the old fashioned red/blue glyph technology rather than the modern 3D stereoscopic version. Story wise he says with the film he plans to "revisit an abandoned project about a Roman emperor that was ruined by Americans, and go from there." Casting and script work is already underway with filming to kick off in May or June. Expect a number of studio's to follow suit and if it's successful, look for industry wide changes to take effect. James Cameron really started something. But is the world ready for 3D adult films? To me, it would almost be treated like a gimmick since adult films today rely more on the action rather than a story. Hey, just like mainstream films! Still, gone are the days of Behind the Green Door and Deep Throat, where technology can enhance the film. There is one company who still provides a bit of quality and that's Digital Playground. Their Pirates series is a great example and wouldn't mind them getting involved in this type of venture.



SUNDANCE UPDATE: Looks like it's been a good week for a number of projects! Various distribution deals have taken place for the films screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Focus Features have picked up Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple for distribution in the US, UK, Germany and South Africa for $4.8 million. The hillbilly comedy Tucker & Dale Vs Evil hasn't scored a North American deal as yet, but has been sold in numerous foreign territories. Expect someone to scoop that one soon. I can it playing big in the Midwest. Hannover House payed out $2 million for Joel Schumacher's Twelve which follows drug-dealing among privileged Manhattan teens. Watch out...You open the door a little, Schumacher will sneak in and before you know it start directing films we actually care about! Here's good news for me, Newmarket Films has scored domestic rights to the Natalie Portman-produced Joseph Gordon-Levitt led drama Hesher for around $1 million. As I reported last week, Lionsgate paid a cool $3.2 million to distribute Ryan Reynolds thriller Buried in North America while Paramount Vantage has picked up worldwide rights to Participant Media's documentary Waiting For Superman. Expect more announcements in the near future.



Since the Spider-Man franchise left the dock without Sam Raimi, rumors have swirled about his next project. I reported previously that he could make World of Warcraft movie his next focus, but IESB posted that he's going a different direction and may do The Shadow instead. You may or may not remember this bit of "news" surfacing back in 2006, where Raimi expressed interest in Lamon Cranston (The Shadow's alter ego) along with an entire series of classic pulp properties. Originally the character received fame in radio broadcasts during the 1930s. In modern times, 1994 to be exact, he was played by Alec Baldwin, and although the movie fell flat at the box office, it has a certain charm to it. turned into a movie starring Alec Baldwin as the titular Shadow. Though the movie was a flop, it's an underrated little superhero gem. Sources say there's already a script for The Shadow reboot, which IESB reviews favorably. It's set up at Sony where Raimi, after his years on Spider-Man, obviously has some connections. The word is Raimi's itching to get his hands on it, I'll wait till I hear it from his lips and see more news about this project. This is very similar to what's been said about WofW and I wouldn't be surprised if this changes by next week. I was a fan of the 1994 version and wouldn't mind an update, but would The Shadow fit into the current comic book movie world? With Batman casting such a long...shadow...over everything, comparisons are bound to arise. Now, if Raimi dusted off his idea the various pulp properties and avoids the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vibe, color me interested.



The studio peeps must love this guy! He's his own best cheerleader. Since Deadpool was announced, Ryan Reynolds has been saying everywhere that the film would be done right. In not so many words, he has made it clear that X-Men Origins: Wolverine dropped the ball on the "Merc with a Mouth" and Reynolds has assured fans that there will be much more attention focused to the source material this time around, promising the scarred face and the classic suit, both of which were missing from the previous go round. However, Ryan may have jumped the gun a bit. He's doing a lot of talking before writers were even hired to pen the script. That might be a problem. Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been assigned the task, so where does that leave things? MTV recently caught up with Reynolds at the Sundance Film Festival, where he was promoting his new film Buried, and asked him what his level of involvement is with the process thus far. He said, "I talk to them every single day...Tonally, they got it. They just knew right off the bat. They're fans of the character and they were so excited. We couldn't have done any better." I wonder if they find daily phone calls from him annoying. "Hey guys, just wanted to follow up on that email, you didn't hit me back. What do you think? Did you read those issues I sent over? Isn't Rob Liefeld wild?" Worse for them, Deadpool is on standby until Reynolds finishes shooting for Green Lantern, which is set to begin in March. That means months and months of phone calls and emails. But I'll give Ryan credit. It's always a good thing when you have someone passionate about the project on-board.



Taken director Pierre Morel was hired a few weeks back to direct Paramount's new adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, and he hasn't wasted anytime talking openly with a number of people about what to expect, even though they don't even have a finished script. Morel most recently spoke with IGN and revealed that they're "starting from scratch" and throwing out the original script written by Josh Zetumer for Peter Berg. "Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we're starting over again. I don't think we're going to keep any elements of the Peter Berg script. It was good, actually. It was interesting. It was just not our vision." TRANSLATION: "It was garbage and I didn't want my name on it."

Speaking of Taken: Screenwriter Luc Besson wants to get the sequel started POSTHASTE! While at a press conference for From Paris with Love, Besson revealed that he has completed the script for the sequel to the surprise hit. When asked about his expectations for From Paris with Love as compared to Taken, Besson emphasized the drastic difference between the two films specifically pointing out the former's sense of humor. He added, "Taken was a big surprise. No one was expecting that the film would work so well." Naturally, the follow up question concerned the status of the second film to which Besson exclaimed, "Yeah, I finished yesterday," referring to the script. Due to time they couldn't follow up for details, so the question remains: what could Taken 2 be about? I'm sure the key factor in that is the status of Liam Neeson. If he returns, where do they take it? Prequel? A look at the team he works with? Eh. That doesn't tickle the bones. If he passes, who comes in? While I enjoyed Taken, I don't feel it lends itself to get "franchise" treatment. It was a good idea, well done. While his character was a bad-ass, the plot could have been lifted for a number of characters and situations. Now John Travolta's character in From Paris with Love, Charlie Wax, HE could have a franchise built around him.

Which leads me to this! The trailer for From Paris with Love! Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and John Travolta. The director, Pierre Morel, says, "The basic plot is that it's the story of a young rookie that works for the American embassy in Paris. He's a wannabe spy, a wannabe agent, but he never gets to go on any specific big missions. All of a sudden, he's thrown into a mission with a rugged badass, played by John Travolta, who is actually a field agent, but he's a big cowboy type…it's a buddy movie, an action comedy...Right away, when I started thinking about that character, I talked with John and said, ‘We need to find a look that goes really well with what you're playing. Having him with that shaved head and the goatee beard was part of building that character bigger than what it's supposed to be. It's larger-than-life. It's over-the-top. It's too much." Check it out and let me know what you think. Coming February 5, 2010!

Creating some buzz this past week was the trailer for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. I'll admit that when I first heard rumblings of a sequel, I was less than pleased. Wall Street is a classic, and while I never sat in my house quoting it with friends as we watched it (QUICK, what movie am I referencing?), I was a huge fan. As images were released I was still skeptical, but now I will say that with this trailer, I'm excited. Michael Douglas has such presence as Gordon Gekko, that even in the brief shots we see, this looks like Oliver Stone has the right spirit here. Coming April 23rd to theaters!





This week brings all sorts of treats! First up is Zombieland. A solid movie all around and reviewed by our own Shawn Lealos here. He liked it and so should you! I was excited when they first announced the casting for this, but a good cast a good movie does not make. Amelia is an example of that. Erik Luers reviewed it here and pretty much nailed it. For all you Jennifer Aniston fans out there, you can pick up Love Happens. Sorry, I can't help you on that one. BUT answer me this: Do you like Dolph Lundgren? How about Jean-Claude Van Damme? Andrei Arlovski? Well, even if you answered yes to 2 out of 3 then I have something for you! Universal Soldier: Regeneration stars that trio. How is it? I'll leave that up to you to judge. But I think we all know what to expect. Last up this week is New York, I Love You. It's one of those anthology movies that joins several love stories set in...surprise...New York! It's got Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Chris Cooper, Andy Garcia, Christina Ricci, Irrfan Khan, Robin Wright Penn, Julie Christie, Ethan Hawke...man, who ISN'T in this movie? Pick it up for your lady friend and check it out.

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The 411 Movies Top 5 Performances of the Decade (2000-2009) by Trevor Snyder.
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Around the World in 24 Frames: Let the Right One In by Len Archibald
411 Fact or Fiction Movies/TV by Ben Piper This week Dustin James and Trevor Snyder debate!

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