Furious on Film 03.25.10: Oh Captain, My Captain Edition

Posted by Arnold Furious on 03.25.2010

Despite no official word there is a Captain America. Plus Will Smith, 300, Green Day, Popeye, Spy Hunter and more!

Furious on Film 171: Oh Captain, My Captain Edition

Despite no official word there is a Captain America. Plus Will Smith, 300, Green Day, Popeye, Spy Hunter and more!

After weeks of debating who will become Captain America it was announced this week that Chris Evans will play the lead role. However it must be noted that nothing official has come from Marvel itself so far. Everything on their website remains focused on Iron Man 2. According to Variety the deal is being beaten out by Evans' reps and Marvel's people. After all this isn't a simple one picture deal. It's liable to cover three films plus The Avengers movie. If it is finalised and Evans is confirmed as Captain America then what does that mean for the Cap production?

For starters it means Evans will have to deliver his biggest performance to date. As a leading man he's been less than convincing and his best performances have come in supporting roles like Danny Boyle's sci-fi flick Sunshine and as the Human Torch, Johnny Storm, in another Marvel franchise; The Fantastic Four. And Captain America is worlds apart from that particular comic book character. The only thing the two characters really share, beyond superpowers, is confidence. And Cap shows that in a totally different way. Usually the internet is a hive of negativity when it comes to casting, especially comic book movies, so what's the online vibe surrounding Marvel's choice to cast Evans as their flagship costumed crime fighter?



"Horrid casting choice for Cap." – HR Mitchell (posted on Variety's website)

"For my money I think he's a terrible choice but you never know... Marvel has a pretty good track record with these things." – Nextguyspeed (IMDB's Chris Evans board)

"Well, I am personally very interested in the casting of Captain America. Captain America is my favorite Marvel character and I honestly feel that Chris Evans would do a great job. I personally like Evans as an actor and have nothing but confidence in his ability to pull off the role." – Rwatts17 (on the same IMDB board)

Initial opinion seems split BUT most people are in the camp of not agreeing with the casting. Although, to be fair, it's rare that people are. It's only when Marvel comes along with a home run piece of casting like Downey Jr as Tony Stark that everyone agrees it's the right call. Some people didn't like the idea of Sam Jackson as Nick Fury. You just can't win sometimes.

NEWS!!

So with Captain America casting discussions drying up here's this week's major news items…

300 Prequel Possible



Comingsoon.net has an interview up with 300 director Zack Snyder who also helmed Watchmen last year. During the interview they ask him what will be next on his agenda and he named the Frank Miller penned prequel to 300 entitled Xerxes as something he was interested in. He added that he wasn't 100% committed but he expected to won over by Miller's script when he saw the finished version.

Concept album turned Broadway Musical turned Movie?



Green Day's popular concept album American Idiot was released in 2004 and sold over 14 million copies. Last September it debuted onstage at Berkeley as a play. Starring Tony Award winning actor John Gallagher Jr it had a successful run in California and next week will make its debut on Broadway. With the success so far it seemed inevitable that someone from Hollywood would come calling. That person is Tom Hanks. Along with Playtone, Hanks is interested in helping this adaptation see the light of day. Playtone scored similar success with Abba musical Mamma Mia and Hanks himself worked on That Thing You Do; a 1996 musical that he wrote and directed himself. There's no news as to whether Hanks will be quite so hands on this time around but his name alone should be enough to ensure the project gets made.

3-D Popeye on the way

Sony Pictures is working on a new version of the classic cartoon Popeye. The picture is set to be in 3-D and will be the first attempt to put Popeye on the big screen since Robert Altman's disastrous 1980 adaptation starring Robin Williams. Early indications are that Olive Oyl and Popeye's nemesis Bluto will be included in the film. Mike Jones is in negotiations to adapt according to Variety. Sony is also currently working on a Smurfs movie.

Wanted: Will Smith



Will Smith has a choice for his next big budget action adventure film. Men in Black 3 has been in the works for a number of years with everyone set and waiting for Smith to come onboard. Sony declined to comment on the planned sequel but according to Variety if Smith opts out it'll be to make The City That Sailed. Written by Andrew Nicol (Lord of War, Truman Show, Gattaca) it tells the story of a young girl living in England who is so desperate to reunite with her father, the Will Smith role, that she wishes he could be nearer to her. The wish comes true and the entire island of Manhattan floats over the Atlantic Ocean with her father onboard. Both are potential box office winners for Will Smith. But then, so is everything he makes. Even his low key drama Seven Pounds made money and prior to that everything he'd made had been a smash hit all the way back to Ali. Eight smash hit movies in a row.

Spy Hunter back on

Universal had previously given up on making Spy Hunter after two attempts didn't get off the ground. Originally it was a vehicle for Dwayne Johnson with John Woo attached to direct but the budget wasn't cost effective so it was downgraded and fell into the hands of Paul WS Anderson but that project was also a non-starter. However that's now all changed. The rights were bought by Warner Brothers back in July and they've now gotten the ball rolling on an actual filming schedule. Chad St John has been hired to write a script, even though nothing he's written so far has made it to the big screen he's popular with the Warners studio, and the studio is planning a 2012 release. No news yet at to just how much money will be spent on the project after Warners outlay for the rights stretched to a whopping $33M.

Big Time beckons for Baumbach

Noah Baumbach, director of Greenberg and the critically acclaimed Squid and the Whale, has been called into the director's chair on The Emperor's Children. A comic drama; the film was originally set to be directed by Ron Howard but he seems to be too busy (with nine other movies in development at time of writing) and is set to direct Vince Vaughan and Kevin James in a yet untitled comedy. Baumbach, who wrote the screenplay, will take over and direct Keira Knightley, Richard Gere and Eric Bana in the movie. The film is set in New York before and after 9/11 and is based on Claire Messud's novel from 2006.

Jackass 3-D?

According to Deadline New York the Jackass crew, in search of funding for their 3rd cinematic release, convinced Paramount to sign-off on the 3-D Jackass experience by showing Chris Pontius with a remote control helicopter tethered to his penis. The footage was apparently enough for Paramount to allow 3-D funding for the picture. Expect the usual assortment of gross-out humour and comedy pratfalls, in 3-D, later this year.

Damn Yankees Remake in the works



Director Todd Graff (Bandslam) is set to bring up some controversial topics in his remake of the 1958 sports comedy Damn Yankees. In the original a Washington Senators fan sells his soul to the Devil in order to become the greatest baseball player in the world so he can sign for his team and stop the Yankees from winning the pennant. The main role in the remake will be played by Jake Gyllenhaal who goes from schlub to hero overnight and because of it is suspected of abusing steroids. Gyllenhaal won't be a fan of the Senators either, mainly because they don't exist anymore, and will instead swing the bat for the Chicago Cubs. Jim Carrey is set to co-star as the Devil. Graff might not be a familiar name to fans of modern directors but as an actor he appeared in The Abyss and Strange Days. As a Mets fan he confirms that he too, in an interview with MTV News, hates the Yankees.

Dimension Films to bring back Scream and Spy Kids

The long rumoured 4th film in the Scream franchise seems certain to be made now. An April 2011 release date was confirmed by Dimension on Tuesday. The good news for fans of the series is that director Wes Craven will be returning to helm said sequel. Meanwhile Robert Rodriguez had a scoop, courtesy of Dimension, at SXSW in Austin and that will be his return to the Spy Kids series. The 4th film in the franchise is planned to be a reboot with a new cast. The original Spy Kids trilogy ran from 2001-2003 with Rodriguez helming all three. With his plan to shoot a live action version of the Jetsons now unlikely it seems as if Rodriguez is planning to return to familiar territory for his next movie.

TRAILERS!

In case you missed it here's the trailer for Predators from SXSW. It seems to hit all the right buttons but I didn't really expect the Predator home planet to look so…leafy. It looks more like the jungles of the first movie. But if that's where they're planning on going with it then fair enough.



Kick Ass has already gotten some rave reviews and is set for release very soon. Here's the red band trailer to get you more excited.



And finally here's the red band trailer for the forthcoming Russell Brand comedy Get Him to the Greek. Brand reprises his role as rock star Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. This time he's guided to a gig by low ranking record company employee Jonah Hill.



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. Here's this week's Chart Watch;

2010 Releases;



No surprises that Alice in Wonderland remains streets ahead in this category. Clash of the Titans opens soon but until it does there's not a great deal of competition for $250M+ at the box office in 2010. In fact after Shutter Island edged its way into second place on the 2010 list there's been no change in top ten even. However on the global list there's a big change with Percy Jackson really starting to catch up in other countries now and it sneaks into second spot for the year worldwide. Also Green Zone is starting to do a little business in other countries (about $20M, which is still not enough to put it in the black) and is up to #12 on the yearly list. The biggest success story remains Alice though, which has now crossed $300M overseas and has a tally of $565M overall. Alice also climbs to #7 on movies released in the last 365 days passing both The Blind Side and Star Trek. Serious money.

All Time!!

Alice climbs to #45 on the all time list this week (189 on the all time adjusted chart incidentally). The $265M domestic haul is enough to surpass Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets plus The Incredibles and the benchmark $260M that Jaws made. Obviously it's not made more money than Jaws when adjusted for inflation. As for All Time Worldwide the news is good for Alice there too. A leap of 40 places this past week up to #58 on the list and beating Armageddon and its global haul of $553M.

March



Both Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Bounty Hunter had reasonably strong opening weekends but neither will worry the all time chart for March. Alice's opening is still the only one to trouble the top 30 so far this year. The two new releases drop in at #36 and #37 respectively. If you expand the search to spring season and neither makes the top 50.

Movers and Shakers



Another strong weekend for Alice (the 6th best 3rd weekend on record) sees it de-throne Batman as Tim Burton's highest grossing movie.

1. ALICE IN WONDERLAND $265M
2. BATMAN $251M
3. CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY $206M
4. PLANET OF THE APES $180M
5. BATMAN RETURNS $162M

As far as 3rd weekends go Alice in Wonderland actually did better than Titanic although I doubt it'll be able to replicate that level of longevity. It just missed out on a top five slot by $700,000. The 5th highest 3rd weekend belongs to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which pulled down more than $35M. Alice is likely to pull down another $20M next week, which will see it storm even further up the all time chart.

COP OUT



Kevin Smith's most successful film continues to make tracks up the all time list on "action/buddy comedies". The $42M take puts it at #27 on that list. Which is still less than The Rundown and The Tuxedo. It has now surpassed classics like Running Scared and Midnight Run for overall take. The latest movie to fall behind it is 1997's Money Talks. A Brett Ratner picture starring Chris Tucker and Charlie Sheen. No, I don't remember it either. A year later he re-teamed with Tucker on Rush Hour, which as a franchise and combined with Lethal Weapon and Men in Black dominate the top ten for this genre.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

The children's book adaptation chart is a tricky one because you'll never break in to the top echelons due to the dominance of certain properties; Harry Potter, Narnia, Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl, etc. Even popular books with great adaptations like Coraline don't exactly make waves on this chart. Diary of a Wimpy Kid comes in at #47 on the children's book adaptation chart. Which puts it ahead of Neverending Story but some way off any movie that's considered a big success. It's liable to get screwed over by How to Train Your Dragon coming out next weekend as well. Poor little guy.

THE BOUNTY HUNTER

With a name like that this movie just shouldn't be a rom-com. It should be an action movie starring Mickey Rourke. It should be all sleazy and horrible and R rated. It's not. It stars Gerard Butler, who frankly I'm starting to hate for his string of shitty movies, and Jennifer Aniston. Seems viewers are divided on whether the film is any good. I think divided by gender. It opened worse than Gerard Butler's last rom-com The Ugly Truth ($27M) but soundly tranced Gamer ($9M). As for Aniston it performed better than her last picture Love Happens, which co-starred Aaron Eckhart. That came out 6 months ago and I don't remember it at all. Marley & Me was Jen's last really successful film and that opened to $36M. Chances are this film will do ok.

SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE



A surprise perhaps that this film achieves the best hold when it had rivalry in the rom-com stakes with Bounty Hunter opening. Maybe people were going to get a look at Mike Vogel to see if he looked like Captain America? I don't know. Either way the best part of $10M second weekend means it'll go into the black next week and may even prove Jay Baruchel a success story as a leading man. It's unlikely. After all Justin Long hasn't quite moved up from his supporting nerd niche and he's been around a lot longer. Although Drag Me To Hell did quite well.

MISC



Repo Men has the 46th worst opening weekend of any picture with wide release. Just marginally better than the disastrous opening of Blues Brothers 2000. Although I keep pretending that movie doesn't exist. Worryingly for execs who worked on Repo Men is that the Blues Brothers sequel did 43% of its entire run in the opening weekend. Ouch. If Repo Men sees the same story unfold with its take then it's on course for $14M total run. Green Zone had a shocking drop-off second week of 58%. Which means it's going to bomb horribly. Currently sitting on $24.7M but with an enormous $100M budget to recoup. Not going to happen. Not even with decent showings overseas. Other low chart and previous chart entries have seen such a drop-off this week that they're not in danger of challenging for all time positions that were previously discussed for them.

Avatar Watch



$736M domestic. $2.6 billion worldwide. No further upward movement on the all-time adjusted chart. It'll take some doing to smash any further into tough territory. If it keeps ticking over then it could quite easily move up a few more places though. #12 is Empire Strikes Back and at $747M is still catchable. Cameron's intentions of a summer re-release may push it even higher but the chances of making the top ten are non-existent. Although if he re-releases it as often as Disney re-released all their movies in the top ten it'd crack it for sure!

Next Week

Hot Tub Time Machine is your big comedy opening. It looks goofy and fun but ridiculously lowbrow for a Jon Cusack film. Having said that he did make War Inc. The biggy for next week however is How to Train Your Dragon. Being a big kiddies movie and DreamWorks big release it's getting a lot of merchandising tie-in's and should, if all goes according to plan, beat Alice for the #1 spot next week. I think Dragon is a safe bet for #1 next week with anything between $40-80M and Hot Tub is a long shot to overthrow Alice for #2.

Until next time…I'm Arnold Furious and you're not.