Furious on Film Movie News Report 04.08.10

Posted by Arnold Furious on 04.08.2010

Looking at Mark Millar’s sterling work, expectations for Iron Man 2, news on Thing prequel, Tron sequel and Gears of War...

Hello all.

During the course of this week I discovered that I had an enormous man-crush on Mark Millar. I've always been fond of his work, which tends to be on the violent/sweary side of comic books, but this week I read Grand Theft America; the end of his arc on The Ultimates. Wow. I love that Marvel didn't put too much control into it and subdued the essence of Millar as a writer. He really hits for the fences every issue, hell every page, of the series. The character work on Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Clint Barton is amazing. Not to mention giving me a fresh perspective on Hulk and Thor. The way he made all the heroes so damn cool was just incredible. Hawkeye is considered the weak link in the Ultimates team but he had his time to shine as well. I'm inclined to say it's the best Marvel work I've read since Kurt Busiek wrote Marvels. It feels like an adult comic in a superhero world. The commentary on American foreign policy is sharp. I just wish he could carry on with these characters forever. I could quite easily read this series as long as he wanted to carry on doing it. Even when the series eventually degenerated into a massive fight, which most series have a habit of doing unfortunately, it fared better than the same sort of deal from other luminaries. Such as Bendis' work on Secret War where it all just turns into a big mess. Jeph Loeb took over for Ultimates 3 and because of lousy reviews I've not really been interested in looking it up.



Any excuse to use that Captain America picture…

Millar could easily be criticised for basically giving comics an attitude-like makeover. Like Vince Russo & Paul Heyman changing wrestling with hardcore and metal in the 1990s. It could be argued if other writers had similar leeway then Marvel comics wouldn't be so out of touch. Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers would surely have been better if he'd been given Millar's freedom. Much as Brian Michael Bendis could have written an even better Avengers storyline had he been given that kind of freedom. But that's what makes the Ultimates such a great book. Because it's not like regular Marvel titles. It resides outside of that universe. With comics being retained into adulthood by so many readers nowadays it does makes sense for Marvel to start catering to them. The Ultimates was a fine example of this. At least until Millar left. I guess he was too busy what with Kick-Ass and Wanted becoming such successful properties. That said there are rumours that the Ultimates storyline is the one that'll be the basis for the Avengers movie when it comes around in 2011. Considering how awesome Cap, Iron Man and Hawkeye are in this I'd probably sign up to see the movie now. So here's a top five for Mark Millar books thus far…

1. WANTED.

Loosely converted into a feature film starring Angelina Jolie's ass and James McAvoy. While the movie is all kinds of fun it can't possibly capture the insanity of the book, which was described as "Watchmen for super villains". The anti-hero Wesley, in the book, is a foul-mouthed jerkoff who breaks every law the US has to offer including at one stage raping an A-list celebrity and it didn't even make the news. It's so out there that there's no chance of it ever seeing the light of day as a movie so the conversion changed certain aspects of the plot. Like the vast majority of it. If you want to read a really fucked up comic book about realistic super villains then Wanted is it.

2. THE ULTIMATES.

One of the best Marvel superhero properties in their history. Shying away from conventional methods and going OTT in an entirely different direction. Tony Stark as a womanising alcoholic is nothing new but the extremes he goes to in The Ultimates are hilarious. Instead of being ashamed of his drunkenness he's totally up front about it; often swigging cocktails in important meetings and is seen drinking champagne when dealing with invading superhumans. And Captain America, while cool in other comics especially Civil War, is done to perfection. Totally out of touch with modern times and delivering lines like "do you think this A stands for France?" before wading into enemies he's a totally different property to the Cap we're used to. The same goes for literally everyone else in the universe.

3. AMERICAN JESUS.

I've often wondered what it would be like if Christ came back. And comics are a fine area to explore this in. After all you'd need some pretty crazy graphics to show what happens. This whole series came as a bit of a shock because of how respectful it is of the Bible. It's still edgy as all Millar's work is but rather than be blasphemous and go after God like say Preacher does it tends to focus on the characters. Which is what makes it such a worthwhile read. Hell, that's what makes ANYTHING a worthwhile read/watch. The concept of Jesus' return is extremely well handled and the first collected book "Chosen" is a skilled piece of storytelling. The idea of making it into a feature film has taken a back seat because of Kick-Ass but if that movie is a hit, which it fucking should be, then the sky is the limit for Millar and American Jesus is almost certain to be made.

4. KICK-ASS.



Obviously.

5. BIG DAVE.

Mark Millar & Grant Morrison co-created this short series for 2000AD. It was the first time that Millar went to push buttons. "Big Dave" is the star of the series and "hardest man in Manchester". In the first issue he puts a stop to Saddam Hussein's plot to take over the world with the help of aliens and turn everyone into homosexuals. The series featured Princess Diana as a horny drunk (pre-death). Any series that features a team of handicapped kids taking on a German team managed by Adolf Hitler at football is ok by me. It was dubbed puerile but it showed that Millar was prepared to push the boundaries of what was acceptable in comics. He's continued to do so ever since.

NEWS!

Big things expected of Iron Man 2



No pressure or anything on Jon Favreau and the team responsible for Iron Man 2 but the LA Times is already reporting that early interest in the film is at potentially record levels. With the release a month away early tracking of interest in the film's release predicts a massive opening weekend that could put the Dark Knight's $158M in the shade. The original Iron Man captured the imagination of comic book fans and movie fan alike and opened to a sizeable $98M opening weekend itself. It looks like being one of the leading hit movies this summer and if early predictions are to be believed then Paramount has an easy winner on their hands. People are desperate to see this film and it hasn't even been hyped that much. And that's why studios make sequels people!

Prequel to The Thing underway

But it isn't a sequel, which I'm sure is good news to fans of John Carpenter's chilly sci-fi horror hit from the early 1980s. With production already underway actor and star Joel Edgerton spoke to Shocktilyoudrop.com. The plot will surround the Norwegian base that featured in Carpenter's original film. In The Thing (1982) the base is already destroyed when Kurt Russell's team finds it. It will NOT be a re-make as originally reported. The prequel will tie in directly to The Thing by showing what happened there before in order for the base to get that damaged. It's an interesting concept to try and sell as we already know what happened. But then that didn't stop the Star Wars prequels making a lot of money. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Eric Christian Olsen and Joel Edgerton. It started shooting a few weeks ago and is set for 2011 release. The screenplay comes from Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)) and Ronald D Moore (Battlestar Gallactica).

Toxic Avenger to get re-make

Anyone else love Troma movies? Back in the 1980s Troma was one of the leading lights in direct to video releases. Bringing such wonderful tacky lowbrow fare to video as Toxic Avenger, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Surf Nazis Must Die and later Alfred Packer: The Musical, which gave Trey Parker & Matt Stone a chance to make a movie. Of all the titles released by Troma, Toxie was their flagship character leading to a cartoon spin-off, comic books, four sequels and a Broadway musical. Thanks to the success of that musical the Toxic Avenger is heading back to the big screen. Charlie Corwin's Original Media has purchased the rights and Akiva Goldsman is also on board as a producer.

Tron 3 already greenlit

Despite Tron: Legacy not being released for another 7 months Disney has greenlit a sequel according to the Hollywood Reporter. Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz wrote Tron: Legacy as well as episodes of the popular TV show Lost. They've already been hired to write the 3rd film in the Tron series showing that Disney has a significant amount of belief that the Legacy movie will be a big success. Early footage and trailers have been positive and it looks like Disney might have a new franchise on its hands.

Gears of War gets a wrench thrown in it



The massive planning behind an epic, sprawling blockbuster adaptation of video game Gears of War seems to have hit a brick wall. It seems that New Line has lost confidence in the project and are set to ditch Chris Morgan's script in favour of something that will cost less and be more straightforward. Len Wiseman is highly likely to leave the project although New Line are eager to keep momentum going and not end up with a property that'll never see the light of day like Halo. The LA Times reports that the new budget is a fraction of the original $100M+ so perhaps this adaptation will be less interesting to the fans of the game now. Lacking the necessary funding to make it an event movie. It seems as if this is happening more frequently with video games these days. Studios get very excited at the prospect of converting something from the video game arena to the movies but then it either gets warped between small screen and big screen or it just fails to get off the ground at all. It seems as if the tag "video game adaptation" just drives pundits away and it's a risk that the studios aren't prepared to take.

TRAILERS!

Sidenote – fucking YouTube decided to re-design its site this week, which means you can't search by date unless you first click back to the main page, which makes this a huge pain in the ass to do. Thanks for that, assholes!

This is the latest of a string of Iron Man 2 trailers. No real plot details here if you're wanting to avoid that sort of thing. More a; look at how awesome Tony Stark is. There are a bunch of new TV spots (I count 5) on YouTube this week as well. Look out for those coming to a TV set near you.



Twelve; the latest film from Joel Schumacher is coming soon. It's about a new drug that a rich girl gets hooked on and it has Fiddy in it. Plus it is a Joel Schumacher movie so it'll probably suck.



Dinner for Schmucks. Starring Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and Zach Galifiankis. The trailer looks very strong.



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;



How to Train Your Dragon has made some serious inroads into the charts thanks to overseas gains. It's pulled down $42M in foreign markets, which puts it at #6 on the year, globally. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo may not have made big waves Stateside yet but overseas it's pulling in huge money and enters the top ten on the year with $85M outside the US.

Meanwhile Alice has pressed home an enormous advantage. $309M domestic and it's well clear globally on the 2010 chart. Clash of the Titans debuts at #8 on the domestic chart with $64M opening week. That's better than the entire run of the Wolfman, which has now officially closed. Bounty Hunter continues to creep towards the top ten but currently sits at #11. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is up 3 places to #12.

For the last 365 days Alice is now up to #3 beating Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince's total of $301M. How about that? I certainly didn't see that coming. It won't knock Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen out of #2 spot but nevertheless that puts it as one of the highest earners of the past 12 months. It's made more money than GI Joe and Angels and Demons put together.

All Time!!

Alice jumps to #28 on the all time chart moving ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It's only a million behind Attack of the Clones and is destined to finish quite high up this list. It's now outgrossed Return of the Jedi and Independence Day. It could, in time, grind out $330M+, which would put it in the top twenty grosses of all time. Amazing performance considering how ropey the reviews were and how weird the marketing has been. When adjusted for inflation, the chart serious people take very seriously and accuse various films of not making any money as a result, Alice places at #142. Your movie needs $363M just to crack the top 100 of that chart now. Avatar is the only current movie on that chart. No surprises there. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen sits at #79 if anyone was interested.

April



Incidentally March did serious numbers as a whole with a record setting $832M dropped by the US punters.

I called Clash of the Titans to break $60M last week and it dutifully chipped in with $61M. April's biggest opening weekend is last year's Fast & Furious, which clocked in with a shade over $70M. Clash of the Titans quite easily beat everything else. As was expected. If it hadn't beaten Anger Management's $42M it would have been in big trouble. The big shock, or perhaps not considering how often it happens, is that Tyler Perry's latest; Why Did I Get Married Too came in with $30M and that's the 7th best opening weekend in April history. A million dollars above Sin City. Clash's $61M is the 5th biggest spring opening of all time. Generally big movies don't open in the spring with it being a dumping ground for big budget movies that the studios aren't convinced will do well in the summer. Alice fits into this perfectly. Clash beat both Monsters Vs Aliens and Watchmen from last year.

Movers and Shakers

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON



Has now cracked the top 50 animated movies. Not an easy chart to make an impact on but now it has $92M banked it moves ahead of Antz. It still has another $50M before it hits anything substantial like Pocahontas or Lilo & Stitch. Being an animated children's film it does have a chance to rack up some serious dollar before anything like-minded comes into view.

TYLER PERRY



Tyler is this insane phenomenon that has sprung up in the last 5 years. He's not really translated well to anywhere outside of the United States but it must surely be only a matter of time. As it stands his movies open to anything between $11-41M. His movies average $50M at the box office thanks to the Madea series. The leading title of which, Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail made $90M. His movies have now made more than $450M at the US box office. The latest has opened strongly, again, with $30M. It's a comparable opening to Madea's Family Reunion, which went on to take $63M. He may not have a lot of fans within the business, and is not popular among critics, but his movies continue to make money. Well played, I say, Mr Perry for carving out a little niche in American film for yourself.

LAST SONG

This was an interesting tester of how popular Miley Cyrus is without her Hannah Montana persona. It took $16M opening weekend but opened early and has already taken $25M. The two Hannah Montana properties clocked in at $65M & $79M for their total runs. The Last Song is likely to do less than that. It looks to be another film that hits the target demographic of one Nicholas Sparks. Sparks, the manipulative writer, aims his books squarely at the weepy crowd. His most successful effort to date being The Notebook, which made $81M. Dear John was also one of his though and continues to pull down money at $79M. The Last Song has gotten its budget back already and should make a tasty profit. The big question marks about Miley Cyrus aren't entirely answered here as she's not stepped too far from her comfort zone.

MISC



Hot Tub Time Machine has now equalled High Fidelity on US gross. How depressing. That $27M gross is enough to take it to number 24 on the time travel movies chart. It's beaten Flight of the Navigator and Dick Donner's Timeline. Next target is Black Knight and it could crack the top twenty still. Bounty Hunter keeps on rolling and like I said last week is going to be a middling hit for director and both stars. Nothing exciting either way. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is well into the black because it was so cheap to make but won't be challenging for any major all time honours on the children's book adaptation chart. It should pass Nim's Island sometime this week though. She's Out of My League has made money but is now slowing up. It might just about level up with Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which Jay Baruchel is also in. It lost half its screens this week so won't carry on grossing much more. Also cut right back was Green Zone, which has had a horrid time at the box office recouping about a third of its budget.

Avatar Watch



No real move from last week on either domestic or overseas gross. Currently sits at $742M in America and $2.68 billion worldwide. With the DVD release scheduled for 22nd April (26th for the UK reader) this should be it for the cinematic run. A re-release at some point should see it slip by Ben Hur and Empire Strikes Back on the all time adjusted chart but for the time being I'm closing the book on this one.

Next Week

Big release for the weekend is Date Night starring comedy powerhouses Steve Carell and Tina Fey. Both have hit TV shows and have had some movie success. Fey's last movie was Baby Mama, which banked $60M. With help from Steve Carell however this should do better. Carell's last was Get Smart, which took $130M. Even the weaker Evan Almighty made $100M. Date Night should take the top spot if it cracks $30M, which it should do. Clash is likely to have a decent second weekend despite some negativity regarding the weak attempts at 3-D. Tyler Perry looks to be suffering somewhat from negativity with Why Did I Get Married Too currently rated 3/10 on IMDB.com. Critics have gotten their claws into it as well, which means it was a smart move not screening it for them. Not that bad reviews = bad box office. At 8% fresh the Bounty Hunter should be a disaster but has become a hit. There's no telling some folks.

You can follow 411 on Twitter…

TWITTER

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma


Steve Yanosey loves Caddyshack


.

Me too, me too. Just don't get me started on that damn sequel.

Shawn Lealos has your week at the movies covered with the Three R's.

And the Movies Roundtable has coverage of all this months movies including the much anticipated Kick-Ass. I participated, naturally.

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