Frickin' Eh Movie News 2.10.10: The King is Dead

Posted by Matthew Motiuk on 02.10.2010

Christopher Nolan is enlisted to save Superman, Avatar is finally unseated from the top of the box office, the Terminator franchise is sold to just about the least expected person, Captain America's villain is revealed and more!

How I Met Your Mother is just too unreliable nowadays. I've been indifferent to the last couple of episodes. There have been funny parts in all of them, but not enough to justify watching the entire episode, and compared to the first couple of seasons, they just feel like cheap rip-offs of a great show. And then every once in a while they come out and prove they can actually make a great episode. Take the Valentine's Day episode this week. Priceless, and not even relying heavily on Barney (although he had a good part of the episode). When they can get their consistency right, I'll be happy. For now, I'll just rely on 30 Rock and keep praying Better Off Ted sticks around.

In more exciting news, if you're a video game fan, the teaser for Fallout: New Vegas is out there, and while not really saying anything about the game, it is just amazing and I am once again super excited about Fallout. Now I've definitely got something to look forward to this fall, besides entering my last year of arts. But enough about all that. On to the news . . .


The Mid-Week Box Office Time Machine

Huge news this week! Finally someone else took the top of the charts, as Dear John of all movies crowned the box office with $32.4 million. Avatar fell to second with $23.6 million in its eighth week – now that's a pretty impressive feat. Third went to From Paris With Love which opened with $8.1 million. Edge of Darkness fell from second to fourth with $7 million. The Tooth Fairy fell a spot to fifth with $6.5 million. When in Rome fell from third to sixth and The Book of Eli fell from fifth to seventh. Crazy Heart rose up to eighth with $3.7 million. Legion dropped from sixth to ninth, and Sherlock Holmes rounded out the top ten, falling from eighth and making another $2.6 million.

There are three movies opening this weekend for the Valentine's crowd. The first is the rather obviously titled Valentine's Day. This romance stars a big ensemble cast and follows some intertwining storylines. Another opener is Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, somewhat of a Harry Potter rip-off starring Logan Lerman and Uma Thurman. This actually looks not bad, but I'm a hooker for Greek mythology stuff. And finally we have The Wolfman. This remake, starring Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, looks like it will be absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait to see it. So take your pick.


Mr. & Mrs. Smith Rebooting?

New York Magazine's Vulture* is reporting that the 2005 20th Century Fox action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith that brought together Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (in many more ways than one) is being given the reboot treatment by Regency, one of the development arms of Fox, with Akiva Goldsman attached to produce.

The original movie showed what happened when a married couple, both working undercover without the other one's knowledge, end up on the opposite side of the world of espionage having been hired by competing agencies to kill the other. According to the story, the new movie would involve a pair of 20-something secret agents who are set up in a fake arranged marriage as covers after graduating the academy. Although it's thought that these would be different characters and not exactly a prequel to the earlier film, it would allow Fox to continue it as a franchise without paying the hefty sum Pitt and Jolie would want for a sequel. As mentioned in the article, this tactic is similar to the mindset that created the comedy prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd a number of years back.

Hmm . . . an interesting tactic. It definitely gets around any financing problems by opening up a new cast. It also begs the question, why not just call it a new movie? Why cling to a series that nobody really cares about right now, by making a movie with no real connection to the original? It just doesn't make sense to me. That movie should just stand alone and be done with. And hopefully that is what will happen. But I wouldn't bet on that being what happens.


The Dark Knight Writers to Return?

Last week, news broke that David Goyer was exiting ABC's "FlashForward" as showrunner so that he can again concentrate on his feature career.

"As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions," Goyer said. "I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands."

Once again buried in a story on Deadline Hollywood is the revelation that one of those features is none other than The Dark Knight follow-up:

Of course, Goyer's feature career is really heating up, since he co-wrote Batman Begins, and penned the story for The Dark Knight, and is now writing the third Batman installment with Chris Nolan's brother Jonah.

I've heard mixed opinions of FlashForward so I'm not too concerned about Goyer leaving that one behind. Goyer's a good writer and does a good job in the feature film area. Considering he was involved in both previous Batman movies, it makes perfect sense that he would come back. Jonah Nolan is just as talented in the writing department and the combination of the two should create a really awesome movie if they keep going in the direction the franchise was headed. Hopefully some news on a plot and cast breaks soon.


Valentine's Day Sequel Expected, Kind Of

The New Line/Warner Bros. romantic anthology comedy Valentine's Day hasn't even opened yet, but according toDeadline Hollywood, the film's producers Mike Karz, Wayne Allan Rice and Josie Rosen and studio execs Sam Brown and Michael Disco have been planning ahead for the film's potential success by having screenwriter Katherine Fugate write a thematic follow-up called New Year's Eve.

The idea is that putting together such a star-studded cast at discounted rates makes it easier for a movie like Valentine's Day to be profitable and that "the holiday sensibilities are endless" in terms of other holidays that could get the same treatment. This one would presumably take place in the 24 hours between December 31st and January 1st with the producers hoping to enlist director Garry Marshall to return as well as bringing back some of the characters from the first movie to maintain continuity.

The first draft of Fugate's script has already been turned in to be read by the studio execs, so one can probably expect an announcement in the next week if they decide to fast track the movie.

I hate when studios decide to make sequels before a movie even releases. Who knows? Maybe Valentine's Day, as profitable as it might look right now, will tank. Then again, maybe it will do just fine. After all, people are suckers for this kind of movie, especially a holiday like this one, and New Year's Eve is a very similar, although not quite the same, event. I must say, though, that it has the potential to create a very long series of movies. Bring in bits and pieces of the previous cast, introduce a whole bunch of new ones, and intertwine the stories. You could keep doing that until the end of time. Which they just might end up doing.


Worthington Takes to the Fields

Production Weekly (via ShockTillYouDrop.com) reports that Avatar star Sam Worthington is in talks to front the cast of The Fields, a new thriller by Ami Canaan Mann. Her father Michael Mann will produce.

The site says details on the film's story are not known yet.

Worthington can next be seen in Clash of the Titans on April 2nd.

UPDATE: Variety has an update, saying the film is a murder mystery titled Texas Killing Fields and written by Donald F. Ferrarone. Shooting will start in April in Louisiana.

The film focuses on the true story of a pair of police officers who undertook to solve two decades of disappearances and homicides -- totaling as many as 60 victims -- in the industrial wastelands surrounding Gulf Coast refineries.

Worthington will portray a local homicide detective who works with a New York transplant to wage a war against the unknown but fierce killers.

Cool concept, great casting choice, glad to see Worthington getting more and more roles. All the usual in that vein. The problem, for me, is Michael Mann at the helm, as previous readers of this column know that I despise his style of shooting a movie. Considering the rather lackluster reviews of Public Enemies despite an absolutely brilliant cast and fascinating story, I'd say Mann has his work cut out for him with this one. We'll see what he can put together.


Red Skull Is Captain America's Villain

Joe Johnston, director of the forthcoming The First Avenger: Captain America, has been doing press all day out in Los Angeles for his new movie The Wolfman andShockTillYouDrop.com Managing Editor Ryan Rotten had a chance to talk with Johnston about the movie and what to expect.

Johnston confirmed that the Red Skull will indeed be the villain of the first movie and told Ryan a bit more about why they decided to set the majority of the movie during WWII:

"Virtually the entire story except the bookends are in World War II because we all recognize we have one chance to tell the origin story of how he became Captain America, you can't tell a modern story and then go back and tell the origin story. If you're going to do it, let's do it. Let's do it first. Everyone wanted to tell an origin story. There was a version where it was a modern story and it didn't work."

Hopefully, we'll have more word on Johnston's plans for the movie and answers to some of the many questions that have been on your minds, including the all-important casting of Steve Rogers and what other characters may be appearing in the movie. Johnston did say that they definitely are going for an American actor, preferably an unknown, and they hope to have that person by the end of February.

The First Avenger: Captain America is currently scheduled for release on July 22, 2011.

There are a lot of ways to do a first movie, and I respect Johnston's decision to do the back story first. Why it has to be so far back, I'm not entirely sure. I don't know about the character or the story so I don't understand the chronology, but so far comic book movies haven't had a need to go back very far, because the hero becomes a hero and then fights in the next couple of days, and doesn't take a hiatus of fifty years. Again, this may simply be my lack of knowledge of the story. But let's see how this one looks soon.


Daredevil Reboot in the Works

In order to keep the movie rights to Marvel Comics' "Daredevil" under their belt, 20th Century Fox and New Regency are looking to develop a reboot of the sightless superhero with News Corp VP Peter Chernin producing and David Scarpa (The Day the Earth Stood Still) writing a script, according to Mike Fleming at Deadline Hollywood.

The original movie directed by Mark Steven Johnson and starring Ben Affleck in the title role (and his current wife Jennifer Garner as Elektra) was released almost exactly seven years ago and grossed $179.2 million worldwide.

This probably shouldn't come as too big a surprise as there has been talk of some sort of reboot ever since Disney bought Marvel last year, but this is the first confirmation that one is being actively developed.

As the bit says, this has been in the works for quite some time, and rumours come up every once in a while. The fact that they need to do this to keep the rights should light a fire under their asses. I still don't have much of a problem with the original Daredevil so I wouldn't mind them either continuing the story or brining back Affleck, but that won't happen. There should be more news on this in the near future, I imagine.


Terminator Goes To . . . Pacifor?

UPDATE: Sony Pictures and Lionsgate are now in talks with Pacificor to jointly take control of the property, considering Pacificor has no experience in film production or distribution.

Deadline Hollywood has learned that the Halcyon Holding Corp. has sold the "Terminator" rights not to Sony Pictures or Lionsgate, but to Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor for $29.5 million. What's interesting is that Halcyon has previously accused Pacificor of extortion, bribery, and fraud and demanded $30M in damages.

Halcyon will receive $5 million for every "Terminator" movie made from now on, as well as retains the revenue streams from the third and fourth "Terminator" movies. An arrangement also was made that the sale now wipes out the debt Halcyon owed to Pacificor and all the other creditors.

Back on May 9, 2007, rights to the "Terminator" series passed from producers Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar to the privately funded Halcyon for a reported $30 million. It was Pacificor that lent Halcyon the money to conclude the deal.

Wow, that came out of nowhere. I had a bit written up about Sony joining the race and battling it out with Lionsgate, as they were the only two candidates . . . and now this? This has a bit of a stink to it, I think. If the two companies had it out before, and Pacifor was instrumental in Halcyon taking over the franchise, there has to be something there we're not hearing about. I would assume someone would either have to take control of the franchise for Pacifor, or they'll go ahead and sell it to one of the companies themselves. I'm hoping Lionsgate gets it, but as long as more Terminator movies get made, I don't really care.


24 Film Moves Forward

20th Century Fox's film and TV studios are teaming to finally bring hit television series "24" to the big screen, reportsVariety. Billy Ray (State of Play, Flightplan) will write the script for the feature.

Ray's pitch, which takes Jack Bauer to Europe, was a hit with Fox executives and producers of the TV series, reports Variety.

The trade adds that the script came through "24" star and executive producer Kiefer Sutherland, who is reportedly eager to turn the series into a feature franchise.

Variety cautions that a "24" feature is still very much in the preliminary stages and there are a number of factors influencing how quickly it moves ahead, including the fate of the TV show.

Fox hasn't decided whether to order a ninth season of the show. If Fox decides to pass for another season, Fox TV could shop the show to other networks, which would put the movie on the backburner.

From what I've picked up over the last little while, 24 is losing a lot of steam from its heydays. How long can you really drag on that concept, anyway? Now I've never watched the show, so I can't say much on the matter, but taking it to the big screen shouldn't be much of a jump at all. From what I understand the season openings and finales are usually movie-length anyway. And it'll of course be essential to move to a different venue to differentiate it from the show. If everyone is on board, I see this moving forward quickly, unless something big happens with the show.


Soderbergh's Contagion Gets a Healthy Cast

The Playlist is reporting that Steven Soderbergh is moving forward with Contagion, the deadly virus outbreak script written by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum).

The action-thriller has attracted the likes of Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard who all have deals closing to star in the film. Filming would take place in the fall.

The site says the story takes place over four continents and is "terrifying."

Soderbergh and the producers are shopping the project to different studios with co-financing already in place from Participant Productions.

This sounds like way too much hype for this movie to turn out as good as they make it sound, but with Soderbergh at the helm and a strong cast, they've got a chance at making this really something good. Especially if it's as broad and exciting as this pitch makes it sound. As far as the cast goes, this is a huge one; Damon and Law are two fantastic male leads, and both Winslet and Cotillard as just as strong. If it's going to be as broad as it sounds, though, this cast will be far bigger than these four, and we'll just have to see how far outward it expands.


Nolan to Mentor Superman?

In possibly one of the biggest superhero movie shockers since the last one--when was the Spider-Man reboot, three weeks ago?--Deadline Hollywood is now reporting that The Dark Knight and Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan has been assigned the potentially thankless task of being the latest filmmaker assigned by Warner Bros. to try to save the "Superman" franchise, in this case in a mentoring capacity to figure out the best way to proceed.

Director Bryan Singer helmed the last installment Superman Returns three and a half years ago, which grossed $391 million worldwide, but wasn't seen as a hit due to its reported $270 million production budget. (Remember that the studio doesn't get 100% of those theatrical grosses.)

Since then, various names have been mentioned as possible candidates to get Superman back to the screen, most vocally comic book creator Mark Millar (Wanted, Kick-Ass), but nothing had been confirmed or definite.

This latest news seems to come out of two recent developments, the restructuring of Warner's relationship with DC Comics into a new company called DC Entertainment, headed by Diane Nelson, and the looming deadline of the estates of Superman creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster gaining back the entire copyright for the character in 2013. During a court hearing about the rights to Superman, Warners chairman Alan Horn said that he hoped to make another film for 2012 at the earliest but that no script was currently in development.

Some may remember that before Bryan Singer came on board, various versions of the Man of Steel were floundering in development, including one version starring Nicolas Cage to be directed by Tim Burton based on a screenplay by Kevin Smith. Even J.J. Abrams took a crack at writing a Superman screenplay with both Brett Ratner and McG attached to direct his version at one point.

It's unclear how far Nolan's role as a mentor might stretch and whether he'll just be offering some suggestions on the direction, or will be actively involved in picking the director, writers and casting for the reboot, as it's still very early in what is already being labeled "Superman 3.0."

I'm not sure how to feel about this news. I would guess at this point that it's mostly rumour, but there definitely could be quite a bit of truth to it. Assuming it is true, Nolan is definitely one person who could pull the franchise back up. I could see them transitioning him into director as well, actually. But that's down the road for sure. It all depends how much involvement he actually has. Personally, I think the studio got far too caught up on Superman Returns. They made a bad call, the movie failed; they should have cleaned house, taken some pieces of the success stories around them and cranked out something new. Now they've left it too long, and if they slip up, they're going to have a battle over the rights. There's always been potential for the franchise; Superman was a serious, philosophical series before any of the other comic book movies were, and if they'd simply updated the old movies, made a couple tweaks, they would have had a hit. Instead Singer took a direction he shouldn't have. We'll have to wait and see what Nolan can do, though. Maybe he can save them.


Rapid-Fire: Cellular (2004, starring Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham)

A guy I work with told us how, after this movie first came out, people would call him at the phone company he worked at and complain that their cell phones didn't do the things the ones in the movie did. Ah, you have to love people's intelligence when it comes to movies. The movie which inspired such stupidity is:

The story goes like this: a woman is kidnapped and trapped in a basement, where a smashed phone is her only method of communication. She manages to get in contact with a helpful and resourceful young man who becomes deeply involved after his skepticism is proven wrong. A mad rush to help the woman protect her family and stop the kidnappers, and also unraveling a wider story, follows.

It's a simple movie, based around a rather novel little device, a cell phone, and the possibilities unlocked with this fancy new technology. As such, this can get away with being a pretty low-budget movie. It mostly revolves around both the strengths and limitations of the cell phone, and some of the problems that may arise. Which is kind of cool, because a couple of them are pretty clever commentaries. Others are, obviously, less so. The rest of the movie is a typical action/thriller, and while it's not particularly clever, there is a very nice twist, and some pretty good action, particularly when Statham actually fights.

Evans takes the lead role as Ryan, the guy with the right cell phone at the wrong time, or something. I really like Evans and he does a great job with this role. He's also mostly serious, which is different than what you usually see from him. Basinger as Jessica Martin does a good job as the resourceful and distraught captive. Making her a schoolteacher was a clever move, as this unlocks several resources for her, using her intelligence and science to move along the story in a couple places. Statham as the lead kidnapper is like he always is, awesome. While his role isn't overly large in this one, he's still awesome when he's on screen, and just as sinister as you'd expect. William H. Macy as Sgt. Mooney hits is role perfectly too – a bored cop with a foot out the door, but still with a strong moral compass. The rest of the cast fits very well, and there aren't really any loose ends there. Some cheesier roles, but nothing that brings down the movie as a whole.

This is one of those cheap, lower-budget movies that people make fun of all the time, but when you actually sit down and watch it, it's not so bad, and actually kind of enjoyable. It's got some clever bits, plays with technology a bit, and has a good twist in the middle, along with solid acting all around. So check it out.


Closing Time . . .

I finally got to watch Daybreakers, and I must say, I enjoyed it. Nothing particularly fantastic, of course, but a thoroughly enjoyable movie with a different take on it. I loved the concepts behind the movie – the entire world being vampires, the scientific aspects, they were all such fresh ways of looking at the genre. Done a little better, this could have been a massive hit, I think. But still definitely worth a watch. But anyway, until next week . . .


[All news, images, and other stuff from www.comingsoon.net, www.imdb.com, www.rottentomatoes.com and www.youtube.com.]