Furious on Film News Report 03.18.10: All About Alice Edition
Posted by Arnold Furious on 03.18.2010
Captain America casting continues, double vampire news and all the usual news from Tinseltown
Furious on Film: All About Alice Edition
Furious on Film 170: Captain America casting continues, double vampire news and all the usual news from Tinseltown
So I spent the past few days getting off to sleep by reading High Fidelity. I'm only about 5 chapters in but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I preferred the movie. John Cusack brings Rob to life. Nick Hornby's book a little hard to get into. It's nice that he keeps to the Top 5 routine throughout but one of the best lines in the movie is when Cusack's Rob says his favourite book is "Cash on Cash by Johnny Cash". In the book Hornby lists 4 books of varying degrees of quality and then is really vague about the last one. It's not funny, it's not clever and it drags. The film is punchier throughout delivering better lines, better timing and cutting away Hornby's deadwood. I've also read Hornby's Fever Pitch and found it hard going. His obsession with an irritating and, frankly, crap Arsenal team of the 1980s that I hated watching when I was growing up gets old before the halfway point. There's no doubt that Hornby is a good writer otherwise his books wouldn't keep selling so well and getting adapted into movies but I find him to be unnecessary hard work at times. Like the scene High Fidelity when Rob blubs his way through "Baby, I Love Your Way" when Marie LaSalle sings it. In the film he comes in halfway through and asks "is this Peter fucking Frampton?". "I always hated this song". "Now I kinda like it". None of that is in the book. Kudos to the filmmakers for doing such a bang up job of adapting the book to the screen. If only all adaptations were that good.
NEWS!!
Captain America rumour mill continues to grind out names
CAP
After last week's reports about Marvel having a Captain America shortlist of four (Chris Evans, Mike Vogel, Garrett Hedlund and Wilson Bethel) fresh news has come about regarding potential casting. It seems Marvel may have underwhelmed the comic book community with its potential casting choices and as mentioned here last week. Since then dream casting choices have been come about with Matt Damon being mentioned in particular. Now we're hearing fresh news out of Marvel courtesy of HitFix.com that Ryan Phillippe has done a screen test as Cap. Now the list of actors under consideration seems to be rising rather than reduced to four as stated in many media outlets just 7 days ago. John Krasinski is rumoured to have done a screen-test with other members of the Marvel Universe as Ol' Winghead himself while other contenders Michael Cassidy, Chace Crawford (not a chance) and Scott Porter have all done screen-tests as well. Hugo Weaving seems to be cast as Cap's nemesis the Red Skull but the huge casting decision regarding Captain America remains up in the air. Keep in mind the film is due to start shooting soon and is set for a Summer 2011 release…
Elsewhere Deadline New York is claiming the name of Channing Tatum has been added to the potential casting choices. This might just be more ‘dream casting' as Tatum has come off a few hit movies recently while Phillippe hasn't been a bankable star in some time. That said Marvel does look to be thinking big regarding the Cap casting realising he'll have to go toe to toe with Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark at some point and THAT will be a challenge for an extremely capable actor and a heavyweight performer. Deadline New York also reports the potential list of actresses being considered for the role of "Peggy"; the female lead in the Cap movie. Keira Knightley (unlikely) and Alice Eve have both been mentioned although the most likely is Emily Blunt. The British actress had previously been offered the Black Widow role in Iron Man 2 but had commitments elsewhere and couldn't do it. It seems Marvel has kept her in mind. You'd think the Peggy role would be limited to one movie, the period piece, and not the future Cap appearances where he'd be thawed in the present day.
Twilight Series requires director
According to Entertainment Weekly the final Twilight movie needs a director. Twilight was directed by Catherine Hardwicke while New Moon was helmed by Chris Weitz (About a Boy and The Golden Compass). Eclipse is due to be directed by David Slade but the 4th film remains director-less at present. Summit is looking for a strong director to take over for the final film and has a shortlist of three. Bill Condon, Sofia Coppola and even Gus Van Sant are apparently in the running for the gig. Condon wrote Chicago and directed Dreamgirls. Coppola was pushing for an Oscar for Lost in Translation and also made The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette. Van Sant is famed for directing both Milk and Good Will Hunting. Van Sant would probably be the most capable of the three but would he consider making something so mainstream? It doesn't seem like his sort of movie. Coppola has been somewhat untested since her early success while Condon makes the kind of movies that would probably appeal to fans of the Twilight series. My money is on Condon personally.
and speaking of vampires…
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Sigourney Weaver has been cast in Amy Heckerling's forthcoming vampire movie Vamps also starring Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter. Weaver will play Ciccerus the vampire who turned the two leading ladies into creatures of the night. Like the female version of The Cruiser's LeStat. Heckerling's vampire movie is a much more lightweight affair however billed as a romantic horror comedy. A genre which has thrived since Shaun of the Dead introduced the term rom-zom-com. Heckerling previously helmed ladies favourite Clueless, Look Who's Talking and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Due to go into production next month the cast is now locked down.
Conan adds McGowan
Marcus Nispel's remake of Conan the Barbarian continues to flesh out its cast this week. Jason Momoa is already cast as Conan, Stephen Lang announced earlier in the week that he was joining the cast as the antagonist and with Rachel Nichols, Said Taghmaoui, Bob Sapp and Ron Perlman already on board the cast was rounding itself out nicely. Now Empire Online is reporting that Rose McGowan has joined the cast as a "half human, half witch" character. Filming started on Monday and the film is due for a 2011 release.
Goldsman not directing Paranormal Activity 2
Despite reports yesterday to the contrary Akiva Goldsman will not be heading behind the camera to direct the sequel to 2009 smash hit horror film Paranormal Activity. He was mentioned just 24 hours ago as a replacement for Kevin Greutert who was contractually obliged to film Saw VII already and couldn't sign up as director. Goldsman is onboard but only as an executive producer and script doctor. Goldsman has only done limited directorial work and is better known as a writer turned producer. His multi-million dollar movie projects have included I Am Legend, Hancock, Constantine and famously wrote both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. He lost his way during a series of bad scripts and productions in the late 90s only to return in 2001 by winning an Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind.
TRAILERS!
The Mechanic, the latest film from action hero Jason Statham aka "The Stath". I've never been a big fan of the Stath. He's good in Guy Ritchie movies and British films in general but as soon as he went to the USA his shirt came off and he started to lose his charm. He has his fans but it seems like he's churning out the same movies over and over again. Even the 80s action icons like Stallone and Arnie changed gears every once in a while. The only Stath movie I'm looking forward to is the Expendables, which should allow him a combination of his timing, abilities and action stardom.
Who Do You Love? is the biopic of Leonard Chess. Starring Alessandro Nivola it details how he built up a record label and got the blues out to a bigger audience. Chess was responsible for signing Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Etta James. This film has already been made once as Cadillac Records in 2008 with a better cast. This film was made the same year but because of the rival picture has been delayed release until now. Cadillac Records didn't make waves despite the cast, which included Adrien Brody, Beyonce and Mos Def. I expect much the same underwhelming response for this one.
CHART WATCH
We always get the run-down on the top 10 movies in the US. 411 does a post updating it every weekend and it's covered in other news columns at the head of the week. With Chart Watch I thought I'd take a look at how certain movies are doing on the all-time lists. And in other countries. Here's this week's Chart Watch;
2010 Releases;
Alice has cemented its top spot this week with a healthy $62M second weekend. That means it's now smashed its way through the $200M domestic mark being the first movie of 2010 to do so. Valentine's Day is just about ahead of Shutter Island for the #2 spot but Shutter Island will have surpassed it by the time you read this. Lower down Crazy Heart moves up to #13 on the back of Jeff Bridges Oscar win while Green Zone, the much hyped Paul Greengrass/Matt Damon collaboration started so poorly it currently ranks at #22.
Incidentally Alice ranks at #10 now on the list of films released in the past 365 days thus making it comparable to the summer box office smash successes. Sherlock Holmes is nudged aside. Interesting to note also that Alice's box office has IMPROVED during its run so far destroying theories about negative word of mouth. After 7 days it had the 18th best gross recorded but after 10 days it had jumped up to 10th putting it a mere $4M behind Avatar at the same point in time and better than hit movies like Indy 4, Shrek 3 and Pirates 3. It seems that it may have significantly more box office staying power than was previously predicted.
All Time!!
Alice in Wonderland is starting to make ripples on the all-time list. It made it into the top 100 this week and has now surpassed Sherlock Holmes entire run at the box office. Meanwhile Sandra Bullock's Oscar win propels the Blind Side up another place to #52 on the all time domestic chart passing the mark previously set by Batman…if you can believe that. It needs to bank another $4M to break into the top 50, which would be an enormous achievement for such a small film (having a $29M budget). Worldwide Alice is closing in on a top 100 spot also having moved up 211 positions this past weekend and now ranks as the 107th most money earning picture of all time globally. And it still isn't in the black.
March
No new releases made much of an impact on the March chart. Alice's domination meant that Green Zone's soft $14.5M opening barely registers even on a weak chart like March's debuts. It needed $24.2M to crack into the top 30 releases. $14.5M gives Green Zone the number 63 position on March debuts. I'm sure everyone involved isn't going to be thrilled about that. Green Zone had a budget of $100M. It seems that people still aren't ready for movies about Iraq War II. Hurt Locker never made it into the top ten despite winning the best picture Oscar and there are very few success stories in that respect.
Movers and Shakers
Green Zone had next to no effect on Alice in Wonderland. That means the latest Tim Burton movie has made significant strides to becoming the most successful Tim Burton film of all time. Here's where it stands on the Burton Top Ten!
1. BATMAN $251M
2. ALICE IN WONDERLAND $208M
3. CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY $206M
4. PLANET OF THE APES $180M
5. BATMAN RETURNS $162M
6. SLEEPY HOLLOW $101M
7. BEETLEJUICE $73M
8. BIG FISH $66M
9. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS $56M
10. CORPSE BRIDE $53M
A strong second weekend ensures that Alice ranks at #2 on Burton's all time list and now surely will surpass Batman and become his most successful film of all time. Thus hitting the black and getting the budget back, which must surely have been a concern for those involved in backing Burton's vision.
GREEN ZONE
Not a total disaster but a huge disappointment for Paul Greengrass. It seems neither his or Matt Damon's name alone is enough to make a movie a hit. $14.5M is not good. There have been worse disasters! Eddie Murphy has had several in recent years. Meet Dave and Imagine That both had horrible opening of around $5M. But compare the performance of this film against Matt Damon's recent small pictures, ones where he was the primary attraction, and it trails Invictus ($37M), The Informant ($33M) and the Good Shepherd ($59). Admittedly those are total box office runs for the movies named but surely a big budget actioner like Green Zone would open a lot bigger comparatively. To really put it in perspective Green Zone opened to less money than Matt Damon's last major flop; The Brothers Grimm, which had an opening weekend of $15M but then faded to $37M for it's entire run. There's a danger of that level of bomb here. On the positive side there isn't a great deal of threat from future movies with Repo Men being on the sci-fi side of action so Green Zone may post a strong second weekend.
SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE
With a decent opening weekend it has avoided being a bomb but compare it to the runaway successes of films with similar storylines like Knocked Up and it's a minor release. But then it did only have a $20M budget. Compare this to the $9.6M it earned in its opening weekend and things aren't so bad. Jay Baruchel has been waiting a while to star in something having made appearances in a string of popular comedies like Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder. This perhaps wasn't the best of vehicles for him and essentially copycatted friend Seth Rogen. Rogen has built himself a nice little Hollywood niche since that film as did Knocked Up co-star Jason Segel. It remains to be seen if Baruchel can get the same level of success.
REMEMBER ME
Robert Pattinson; adored by army of teenage females who love the Twilight series and hated by everyone else. Pattinson clearly felt the need to prove himself with a different movie and starred in this Indy romantic drama. It didn't sit well with critics and the majority of the Twilight crowd stayed at home. So much for Team Edward! It also suffered a substantial Friday to Saturday drop-off suggesting that beyond the die-hard fans of his work no one wanted to see this film. It also got bad reviews and after all was said and done opened to $8.3M. The film had a low budget though of $16M so it should be safe in that respect.
SHUTTER ISLAND
Martin Scorsese's big 2010 release is now his second highest grossing film of all time. It surpassed The Aviator and the $102M take of that film this past week leaving only The Departed ahead of it with $132M.
OUR FAMILY WEDDING
Predictably this opened weak with $7.6M. The trailers were shit. The cast is shit (apart from Forest Whittaker). America Ferrara has done better with her previous Travelling Pants movies, which both opened to more money than Our Family Wedding. However it is her third highest opening weekend.
MISC
Brooklyn's Finest has made its budget back but had a huge drop off second weekend. It's up to #13 on the dirty cop movie chart having surpassed Assault on Precinct 13 this past week. The chances of it cracking the top ten have been diminished by the poor second weekend performance though. Cop Out continues to be Kevin Smith's most successful film as director, financially if not creatively, and is up to $39M overall.
Avatar Watch
Now in it's 13th weekend of release Avatar actually showed a spike back in a more positive direction. Yes, it has been effected by Alice in Wonderland taking over 3-D and IMAX venues but has also seen positivity come from Oscar nominations and technical wins. It still has a long way to go before claiming some top ten records. For example it needs another 9 weeks in the top ten to get into the top ten of top ten longevity held by Rainman at 24 weeks. It only has about 6 weeks until the DVD release.
Over the Pond
In dear Blighty it was another strong weekend for Alice in Wonderland. This time claiming £7.3M, which gives it a cumulative total of £23.7M after 2 weeks of release. Having lost most of its screens because of the release of Alice Avatar has now stopped making any serious money and has dropped to 4th on the chart. Shutter Island finally opened this weekend in the UK to a hearty £2.25M, which helped beat Green Zone into 3rd place in its opening weekend. The Matt Damon property posted £2M to open with. As with the US it seems as if only two movies have dominated the scene in the UK this year. Firstly Avatar and then Alice in Wonderland.
Next Week
Opening are The Bounty Hunter, which is predicted to be the strongest opening film of the weekend. It is highly unlikely to knock Alice off top spot. That could result in Alice pushing out a $40M third weekend. Repo Men should do ok but the early expectations are rather low. Seems the concept isn't drawing flies. Much like the bomb that was Repo: The Genetic Opera. All this week's opening movies look like having serious drop-offs because none of them got good reviews and were fairly poorly attended. This is probably good news for Shutter Island and Avatar with people opting for good movies over new ones. The third opener this week is Diary of Wimpy Kid, which we missed on the roundtable. It's based on an online comic series, which is going to become common in the forthcoming years I suspect. Increasingly people are becoming familiar with concepts on the internet and then Hollywood follows that trend. Wimpy Kid moved off the internet and into book form in 2007. Of all this weekend's new releases it's the only one I feel inclined to wish luck to. I hope it beats Bounty Hunter and comes in behind Alice.
Until next time…I'm Arnold Furious and you're not.
