The Big Screen Bulletin 07.05.10: Twilight Sinks Its Teeth Into the Box Office!

Posted by Steve Gustafson on 07.05.2010

The new Spider-Man is ready to swing into theaters! Is M. Night Shyamalan in trouble? Michael Bay embraces 3-D for Transformers 3! What is in store for the Mad Max reboot? Who do I think should play Dr. Strange! Plus, I speak to the man who discovered Jessica Biel, director Paul Greenberg, the box office results, and Tony Acero reviews The Dark Knight! All this and more!

Welcome to the Big Screen Bulletin! My name is Steve Gustafson and this is where we hit the big movie news from the weekend and anything else going on in the world of Hollywood!

Before we get into the mix, check out some of my other offerings. For those wanting a little celebrity insight, look no further than my Hollywood 5 & 1 each and every Saturday! From hotness battles to gossip, it's like TMZ meets Maxim!

The 5 & 1 franchise is growing! Check out The Music 5 & 1 by Adam Hill. Speaking of reporting on half naked men wrestling in a ring, no one does it better than Ryan Merholz in the The Wrestling 5 & 1. Mr. Hill filled in this last week...straight up awesome!

Also, peep my old Game section column, The Silicon Valley 10 & 1 by Justin Weinblatt! Great stuff!

Back by popular demand...

With this being the end of the Batman series, I'd like to thank ALL of you for the comments both good and bad, and for sticking through it all with me. When Steve first approached me with a chance to write within his column, I was extremely hesitant as this is a pretty large audience and my views and opinions are no greater than any reader's out there. I had nothing in me that said I was set aside to be different and allowed to speak on movies, a medium that I love. Then it hit me that I didn't really need to be any different and I could still enjoy these movies while talking to each of you readers as a peer. You see, simply because my words are on display here doesn't mean that my opinions matter any more than yours. It's become a great pleasure and joy to be able to let my opinion be known as well as being able to read the various comments about that. I only hope to bring continued entertainment and views in the upcoming series. I truly don't know where we're going after this, as there are some talks going on, but for the mean time let's get to our last Batman film until 2012, The Dark Knight.

The good, The Bad, and The Fugly….COMMENTS!

The GOOD: I too got goose bumps when Bruce flipped the card over. Then a teaser trailer came out in Summer ‘07 with nothing but the Batman symbol falling to pieces with the Joker laughing at the end. Perfection. Guest #1409

Yeah man, I definitely remember how pumped I was at that very scene. I was watching it with my girlfriend at the time and she can attest to the fact that I was giddy like a little school girl. My mind went into a whirlwind of who would play The Joker…I had no clue it would be as great as it came out though.

The BAD: It's not Zimmerman, just Zimmer. Hamatosan.

Thanks, my mistake. I knew I had misspelled it once or twice throughout writing it up, but didn't fix em all. Thanks for pointing it out. It's only in the bad because I've always disliked those that went through an entire article and all they have to say is that the writer misspelled something.

The FUGLY: They could have just said "This is Batman, except him," and we would have but they went the extra mile to give reasoning behind mostly everything and I appreciated it highly.
...................................
Do ya think you just mighta meant to write "accept" there instead of "except?" Just maybe?
Moron. Guest #6387

As I said before, it's a bit of a nuisance when the only thing someone has to say is in regards to a misspelling, but the tacked on insult makes it all the merrier, doesn't it? Let alone the hypocrisy of the post itself. Either way, thank you for reading Guest #6387. :D

Best Comment: Wait - don't you mean vegetative state?
I guess he's gonna TURNIP at Summerslam for a SQUASH match. Who do you think he'll BEET? LETTUCE hear some more detailed Undertaker news PEAS! Mitch Michaels

This was actually in the news bit regarding The Undertaker and Triple H. I found it extremely hilarious for some reason. Haha.


The Dark Knight

And now we come to the penultimate Batman of Christopher Nolan's creation-at least as far as we know. Batman Begins brought back what many thought to be dead. It brought back Batman in a light that had never really been portrayed before; a light that Tim Burton was only close to doing. The moment people left the theatre after that last scene with a Joker card in an evidence bag, everyone went in a frenzy. I personally couldn't wait for the next one. What followed was one of the best viral campaigns that caused fans to foam at the lips for Nolan's next look at Batman. With online sites created solely for the film, contests, and many riddles throughout the world wide web it was one huge marketing ploy that only helped to get an already excited fanbase riled up!

The cast of the first film come back in full force-with the exception of one Katie Holmes-and bring you right back into the fray of things without missing a beat. Set 6 months after Batman Begins, Gotham itself has mixed feelings about Batman. The mob is continually losing against him and the new District Attorney Harvey Dent is only an additional foil in their plans. With the possible downfall of the mob, they hire a sick sociopath in The Joker to hopefully take Batman out of the equation so they can commit their crimes in harmony. What they didn't expect was that The Joker is a chaotic mastermind who only wants to watch the world burn! Will Batman be able to top the Joker and his maniacal plans without turning into the very thing that he fights nightly? Well, you already know that don't you, so let's just move on.

The Good

* The Joker's Introduction: Just to be thorough, I'm speaking not of the bank scene that opens the movie which was done just as good as any heist movie I've seen, but of the mob scene where we get The Joker spelling out what the mob has to do to restore the order they had before; kill The Batman. Through the entire scene, hairs were standing on the back of my neck watching Heath Ledger turn an already beloved character into something so sinister and new! The little clicks and head turns, and the quick comments like: "You're crazy...I'm not….I'm…not" or "You think you can just steal from us and walk away?....yeah." haha I'm laughing just remembering about it. From the pencil trick to the entire dialogue, it was a great way to introduce the villain that we would end up falling in love with. After reading the script, you realize just how much ad-libbing and additions Ledger did to this character. He truly gave him a life that I'm willing to be not even Nolan knew was going to come forward.

* Harvey "Two-Face" Dent: I think with Ledger practically stealing every scene he is in, we forget the awesomeness of Aaron Eckhart who played Harvey Dent. From the very beginning you can see he fears little and is very compassionate about justice. It's only when the person he loves is in danger do we get a glimpse of what is to become of him. In wrestling, heel turns are abundant and the audience can only fully accept them if there's reasoning and the character is believable otherwise it falls flat and the wrestler gets booed out the building. In Two-Face's case, we can see exactly why he becomes who he is. Killing a man is a crime, but in his mind it is justice. You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain and Harvey Dent did just that; he became the villain.

* The Scarecrow Cameo: As I said in last weeks edition, I really didn't like how The Scarecrow simply disappeared horseback with no explanation. He was an integral part of the story and was dropped off like nothing in the end of the film. Well, they must have heard my cries as good ole Cillian Murphy came back for a brief moment in the beginning of the film. When I was watching the film and those van doors opened to show Scarecrow with mask there was a cheer from me. Although the end of his scene was still a bit underwhelming, I at least got some closure knowing that he had officially been caught and was even able to bark off one last snide comment ("Not my diagnosis.") before leaving the screen for good. It's also here, because I have an odd affection for cameos.

* CHAOS: Just as there was a common thread throughout Batman Begins, so too is there one in The Dark Knight albeit a bit more indirect. Chaos is The Joker's middle name in the film and both Nolan's and Goyer created a character that would be the engine of chaos that moved nearly everything in the movie onward. Watching the movie, you realize just how intricate the script is and how-without ever feeling forced-chaos is throughout nearly every character. Batman's inter turmoil, Two-Face's outer struggle, and The Joker being the vessel in which chaos runs through all are strong pieces of evidence that while Nolan was writing the script, he most likely had a large poster board with the word CHAOS written across it.

* Speaking of the Script: Wow! Just, wow. While watching this, I couldn't believe how well the entire film was put together, but what was most amazing was the dialogue mixed with the scenarios. As a writer, I truly enjoyed nearly everything that was transferred from paper to film. The script was tight and well thought out but it never seemed like the film was trying to be better than any one movie. It took elements of real life crime movies and made you feel that even in a fabricated such as Gotham, that this stuff was really happening. I personally felt as if only a few states away there really was a man in a bat suit fighting crime. With that being said, there's also the strong presence of internal struggle of whether Bruce is doing the right or wrong thing and the undying efforts he goes through to protect his beloved city. As a book, a screenplay and as a movie this was nothing short of amazing.

* The Silent Scream: There's a lot of movies that have a scene like this and each time, it's done to near perfection. It's one instance where silence is indeed golden. Now, I'm not sure if the industry has an actual name for this type of scene and I'm sure they do (by the way if anyone knows what it is, please let me know) but what I'm speaking of in regards to The Dark Knight is after Harvey Dent has been saved by Batman and he is in the hospital stirring. He wakes up and looks to his side only to see his father's lucky coin, charred. The sound is sucked from the scene and all you see is Harvey scream what seems like an ungodly yelp to the ceiling. These types of scene hold so much more power in them than if we were able to actually hear him. I've seen it many times, and each time you can almost feel the pain the character is going through. In The Dark Knight, this was no different.

* Eric Roberts: I'm also going to give Mr. Roberts some love for playing Salvatore Maroni to perfection. Roberts never overacted and was very subtle with his particular nuances that made Maroni a believable crime lord. Admittedly, he doesn't look like a boss at first glance but through a solid performance, he made it believable.

The Bad

* Property Destruction: Explosions and flipped cars are a given in any action movie and as a male I am to cheer and applaud these. Mostly, I do since Nolan does them so damn well but there is something that bothered me just a little bit. In The Dark Knight, nearing the end of the movie while Batman is tearing through Gotham on a hunt for The Joker it seems that he had little to no remorse in regards to public property. In one scene, there are two kids shooting fake guns at cars only to be completely surprised when one of those cars truly blows up. I am to believe that these kids (most likely waiting in traffic) are not in any harm while Batman is driving through the city, blowing cars left and right to get out of his way? It seems a little reckless, even for Batman. Now, this is not a nitpick as I truly can just throw this out the list and be ok with it, but I've got very little bad to say about the film so it stays.

* Bullet Fingerprints: This is something that I thought was an interesting and cool idea, but didn't go over too well with me. I just thought it a bit too far-fetched to go through all of these steps of shooting brick to find a similar bullet to removing fragments and recreating it all to find a fingerprint. I may be old fashioned because this all seemed too unbelievable and too hi-tech for me. For all I know, this science may exist but it doesn't in my world so it kind of bothered me.

* Bruce Wayne: Now this was hard to do and I'm not completely sure why I feel this way but I'm going to try to explain. In the film, there are three Bruce's that I see. 1) The flashy playboy who was shown at dinner with Rachel and Harvey 2) The man who is struggling with the world he is in 3) Batman. Now, Bale plays all three greatly, especially the flashy playboy but there were times where I felt Bale was a bit too…Patrick Bateman-ish. Maybe I'm blowing things out of proportion but Bruce just didn't seem like Bruce to me in certain scenes.

* Two-Face Dies: In retrospect, they probably only killed Harvey because they had assumed Joker returning in the third film and didn't need Harvey Dent. But looking at it now, it kind of sucks that he died as I felt he didn't get enough time to shine in the film as Two-Face. Two-Face has always been one of my more favorite Batman villains as the complexity of his character is something I'm really drawn to. The change in the backstory for the film didn't change that at all, and I appreciated that but I was really hoping for a bit more of him, maybe even in the third film. By all accounts, Two-Face will not be returning so that's a bit depressing, but we had a good showing here so I guess not all is lost.

* Sweet Home Chicago?: This is nearing the end where the Big Rig stunt is pulled. Joker has just left out of the truck, I believe and Batman is racing towards him on the Bat-Pod. To The Joker's left there is a brightly lit store sign that says Sweet Home Chicago. I know this was filmed in Chicago, so it makes sense but it seems like a small slip up that probably shouldn't have happened in a movie of this caliber. Although, when your movie is the best comic book movie known to man I guess you're allowed one small slip up, right?

The Fugly

* What Did He Say?: I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought that Christian Bale's Batman voice left a whole lot to be desired. I mean, what the hell was wrong with him? I tried justifying it in my mind that the voice only gets worse after an action scene in which he is very tired or that perhaps it's him trying to intimidate but admittedly, I couldn't convince myself that any of those excuses were justifiable. In a stellar movie such as this, it's almost sad that I nearly want to turn it off as Batman tries to explain to Two Face that he is the "heerrrrooo…..that…..I….COULDNEVER…be!" This was so bad that there is more than one spoof video of the interrogation scene focusing solely on that. I don't know who told Nolan and Co. that this retched voice was a good idea because fans and movie viewers alike all had the same complaint; that the voice was just bad. I know in Batman Begins, it wasn't all that great either but it was pretty well reserved to a minimal gravel and wasn't too grating to the ears. In The Dark Knight, it's a whole different story as the man just continued down a path of horribleness more and more as the movie progressed. This is something I really hope they change in the next film. Come on Bats, we want to understand you!

* Maggie Gyllenhal: I really don't know what it is about Donnie Darko's sister but I really didn't like her performance. I thought it was laughable and once again, it was an actor completely out of her league. I won't resort to name calling or insulting as it would do little to make my point, but of the entire cast she seemed so slow in comparison and truly didn't seem like someone that two powerful men like Bruce and Harvey would be fighting for. I'm very glad her character died in this movie as it was two-fold; we got a character I didn't like out of the Batman world and we gave Batman an even more tortured soul

* Heath's Untimely Death: Although this doesn't pertain to the movie altogether, it is still very unfortunate that it happened. I remember watching a movie called Monster's Ball with Halle Berry and handsome Billy Bob in the film. Most people will forever have the picture of Ms. Berry on all fours getting DAT AZZ TAPPED, and I'd have to nod my head in approval but what really stuck out for me was Heath's performance as the unloved son and the scene where he pulls a gun out and shoots himself with almost no warning left me shocked and touched all at the same time. It was this movie where I saw something in Heath as a performer and to see him turn The Joker, a character already enamored by millions, into something fresh and unique was like watching a painter create a vivid picture of heaven. It's only fitting that his last full film be something of this magnitude and it was an Oscar statue that was well deserved. RIP Heath.

The Big Picture

If there was little wrong with Batman Begins, this movie is near perfection! I struggled with finding something negative to say about this as both my biases to Batman the character and my love of filmmaking were tickled throughout the whole film. I stood in line talking for a few hours of Batman and learning the ins and outs of his lore from people much more knowledgeable than me while my girlfriend most likely contemplated breaking up with the geek she was standing next to trying to prepare myself for what was to come. But nothing, NOTHING could have prepared me for this movie. It's truly one of the greats and will continue to be called as such. There was so much I left out of The Good section and it was hard choosing the ones I chose. But I feel that any I left out you readers will most likely be pointing them out for me so get at it! Next week we'll be covering a new series with new characters and new adventures. Which series will it be? We'll have to see, won't we? Let me just say this:

"Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho."

Tony

The Good Bad and Fugly YouTube video of the week:



What? haha


Thanks, as always, to Tony!




Let's get into the weekend!

Spider-Man, Once More.
Looks like we all were duped into believing some false information. At first, the interweb was all abuzz that Josh Hutcherson would assume the mantle of Peter Parker in the new Spider-Man relaunch. Reaction was reserved.

But WAIT! Not so fast. Sony swooped in and officially announced (via press release and Twitter) that Andrew Garfield had been cast as the new Parker in the reboot. Production begins in early December and will be directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt. "Though his name may be new to many, those who know this young actor's work understand his extraordinary talents. He has a rare combination of intelligence, wit, and humanity. Mark my words, you will love [him as Peter]," says Webb. We'll see.

A word about the Spider-Man relaunch, if you will. The blatant rush to start over has never been about anything but money. And that's fine. But I think we are going to see a nice divide between fans of the Sam Raimi trilogy and this new one. While I'm a fan of Webb, I hope he steers away from making Parker too "Twilight"-like. What I liked about Raimi's first two Spidey adventures was his ability to balance the characterization and action. Hopefully Webb will be able to do the same and we aren't served a large portion of Parker doing the "Poor me..." routine.


Cage Casts a Spell on YOU!
Last Monday curious web folk got to see four minutes of footage from the upcoming The Sorcerer's Apprentice. One of the videos featured was the first meeting between Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) and a young Dave (Jake Cherry), where Balthazar confirms that young kid is destined to become a great sorcerer. Yahoo! has shared the entire scene with us!

I'll admit that I haven't really been feeling this movie. More and more I'm noticing that my taste in film is changing and I'm fully accepting that there is a growing amount of movies that are coming out not marketed at me.

BUT I will say, this clip wasn't bad. I'm not a huge fan of Cage but he's starting to grow on me. Like an itch.




Is Shyamalan Running Out of Friends?
M. Night Shyamalan is in trouble. He may have set the bar/peaked/shot his load back in 1999 with The Sixth Sense because he's never captured that spark since. I was a fan of Unbreakable, but he's been striking out more than getting hits. With The Last Airbender doing as poorly as it is, his position in Hollywood is quickly slipping.

In an article titled "M. Night Shyamalan's future is riding on the success of The Last Airbender," Philly.com is reporting that Bradley Cooper has officially dropped out of Shyamalan's next project, the director citing scheduling conflicts with The Hangover 2. As reported last week, Gwyneth Paltrow and Bruce Willis have also been linked to the project, which is being described as a thriller reminiscent of Shyamalan's earlier work.

The article doesn't explicitly state when Cooper had to drop the project from his schedule, so it's undetermined if The Last Airbender had any effect on the decision. But timing is everything and strangely the sequel to The Hangover has yet to announce a shooting schedule as director Todd Phillips is currently busy planning the secretive Project X. It's possible that Shyamalan merely assumed that it was The Hangover 2 that Cooper was doing, but since he's the "it" actor of the moment, it could be any number of projects that interfere with Shyamalan's.

Regardless, Shyamalan has to be feeling some serious pressure to deliver a solid hit. He's assembling some serious talent with Paltrow and Willis. But he's fumbled talent before (See: The Happening). I think he has more to give to Hollywood, but any good will his past hits have given him is quickly being drained.


Tron Origins.
I've been a fan of the 1982 movie Tron since I saw it…IN THE THEATER! So when this clip hit the net, I was all over it The idea was invented by director Steven Lisberger as a promo for for Lisberger Studio Inc. The first ever incarnation of Tron was actually a logo full of animated figures made of light. In particular there's a light-outlined warrior who Lisberger called "Tron", short for "electronic".




Mad Max: Badder and Madder!
The upcoming Mad Max rehashing has just been extended. Fury Road, the first in the series, will be followed immediately by Mad Max: Furiosa, according to Twitch Film.

I guess someone believes this franchise is going to be huge.

We already know that Fury Road is more of an update than a remake or sequel, taking the same character and modernizing him. But let's hope it's MORE macho modernizing and less emo. Tom Hardy recently dropped some news during an interview, mentioning that he'd be leading two Mad Max films rather than just the one. Back-to-back. Director George Miller will be returning for Furiosa, but there's no word on exactly what the story has in store for us. Fury Road plot details are still tight, but now we can be sure that they're at least not going to kill Max off until after this first movie.

Then again, he could be a ghost. Asked about if he's ready, "I'm up for it," he said. "The process hasn't started yet, properly. I have to get out to Australia and sit down with [series creator Miller], and I'll take it from there once it's the right time. I'm as ready as I think I can be...I can't really say anything," he said, glancing off-camera at the PR folks on hand for the interview. "I think what you'll find with George at the helm is that it will probably be much more close to the human story of the man as opposed to something which is going to be a shocking movie without any substance."

Hardy offered a few more clues in his chat with Collider, including confirmation that "Fury Road" is, in fact, a reboot of sorts. "An entire restructuring," he said. "That's not to say that it's not picking up or leaving off from the Mad Max you know already, but it's a nice re-take on the entire world using the same character, depositing him in the same world but bringing him up to date by 30 years."

I'm cool with this. While the original will always be straight up awesome, it's a franchise that can handle a retooling.

Hey, look at that. I made it through this whole Mad Max news without one Mel Gibson joke!


Roll Out!
Michael Bay has gone on the record over and over again on how much he doesn't like 3D, and how his shooting style is too "aggressive" and "old school" to accommodate either 3D cameras or post-production 3D.

But as powerful as Bay is, there is another force even stronger.

Money. With a Transformers in 3D, expect to see all sorts of records smashed. I've gone on record a number of times with my dislike and problems with the first two but I won't deny that the third one, especially in 3D, will break all those numbers and then some.

Back in February, Paramount was pressuring Bay to put Transformers 3 in 3D, and now according to Market Saw he's caved and agreed to actually shoot the thing in 3D, not just convert it after the fact. They're getting the news from Vince Pace, the founder of Pace 3D technologies, a.k.a. the company that makes the 3D cameras Bay previously disdained so much. Transformers 3 has already been shooting some second-unit stuff in my backyard in the D.C. area, but I can imagine Bay converting those elements and bringing in the 3D cameras for the actor moments or some of the bigger action scenes.

When it comes to the bottomline (I.E. PROFIT), even Bay must bow to the dollar sign. And you know he had to be thinking about 3D a little when he saw how Avatar was cleaning up. Everyone has an ego, and Bay's is one of the biggest. If he's going to do 3D, he'll do it right.

If you want a tidbit of set gossip. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf are cooking p chemistry both on and off the set. Just another reason not to like him.




1. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $69,000,000 ($161,000,000) Read the review!
2. The Last Airbender $40,650,000 ($57,000,000)
3. Toy Story 3 $30,174,000 ($289,000,000) Read the review!
4. Grown Ups $18,500,000 ($77,082,000)
5. Knight & Day $10,200,000 ($45,508,000) Read the review!
6. The Karate Kid $8,000,000 ($151,523,000) Read the review!
7. The A-Team $3,025,000 ($69,116,000) Read the review!
8. Get Him to the Greek $1,185,000 ($57,427,000) Read the review!
9. Shrek Forever After $799,000 ($232,182,000) Read the review!
10. Cyrus $770,000 ($1,488,000)


Is it any surprise that I'm not a Twilight fan? Of course not. But I'm not one to spew hatred at something that's not geared for me anyways. I leave that for Transformers 1 & 2. And most likely the third.

Twilight Saga: Eclipse bit into the box office this weekend, grabbing the No. 1 spot with a three-day estimate of about $68.5 million. The third installment of the book-to-film series also broke a record for the widest release in film history, airing on 4,416 screens. This breaks Iron Man 2's record of 4,380 runs. In the five days since its release, Eclipse has earned about $161 million domestically. Trailing behind was the 3D pic The Last Airbender, which earned about $41.6 million over the three-day weekend, which includes the take from 3D tickets and a midnight opening.

While $41.6 is a nice opening, it's far short of what the director needed and what was expected. This week will be interesting to see what reaction the studio has.




A few weeks back in the Hollywood 5 & 1 I featured Jessica Biel in the 5 Things… feature. One of the factoids was that her first movie appearance was in It's a Digital World. I received an email from the director of that movie, Paul Greenberg, and he was kind enough to answer a few questions about working with Biel and what he's up to today.

Steve Gustafson: Thanks again Paul for answering some questions. Looking back at It's a Digital World, it has its charm. What are your thoughts on it, looking back?

Paul Greenberg: I produced and directed it when I was 24. I had the most fun that I've ever had on any project. The scale was huge and only limited by my imagination and computer technology, which was pretty limited 16 years ago. Every actor worked for free and most of the crew worked for meals and credit. Still, we managed to get through $350,000! It was shot in 8 days at Universal Studios in the Back to the Future town square, in front of the clock tower, see if you can briefly spot it. We also had a Delorean driving past in one of the scenes! Everyone had such a great time and it felt like family. I'm still in touch with many of the cast and crew. We all really bonded in a way that I never have on any production since.

SG: Wow. Impressive! Of course it's Jessica Biel's first role, do you take credit for discovering her? Did you know she had "it" at age 12?

Paul Greenberg: I auditioned over 50 young girls for the part of the orphaned blue twin, Regretal. There were some close calls but when Jessica walked in and auditioned I knew right there and then that she had an incredible on persona. I remember speaking with my mother later that day and telling her that I had discovered an amazing talent. I knew she was going to be an international star right there and then because she has this special charisma with the camera.

I have never shown anyone, but I still have her original audition on VHS tape. She was only 12 when she auditioned, she turned 13 just before filming began, but her talent is evident. As the film was a musical I naturally had her sing for me. I was astounded to hear her put in so much feeling and maturity into her rendition of "Happy Birthday to you".

Jessica almost didn't make it in to the film. Just after I cast her, her mother called to tell me that Jessica had just been cast for a photo shoot for Gap. Unfortunately the catalogue shoot was scheduled for the same day as her primary scene. I was rather upset at having come so close to finding the perfect actress for the role and then loosing her so soon. You can imagine my surprise when her parents asked me how much would it cost our production to hold off shooting her scene till the following weekend. After a little negotiation, Jessica's father hand delivered a check to cover the rescheduling costs and we were back in business. Her parents felt that this was a great experience for Jessica as it would be her first lead role on camera.

SG: Really? That's incredible that her parents believed in the movie and her talent enough to pay to delay production. You don't hear that everyday. Do you guys stay in touch?

Paul Greenberg: I haven't spoken with Jessica in many years. We did a charity event together for Sharon Stone's charity (Planet Hope) where the characters from my film performed at a media event. I kept in touch with her parents for a while but haven't spoken directly for quite some time now.

SG: I gotcha. What are you up to now?

Paul Greenberg: I'm now married with 4 kids of my own, my eldest is approaching 12 years old, and my wife, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, is expecting our 5th child. For the past 10 years I've been producing and directing infomercials. My shows have grossed nearly $2 Billion around the world. My latest show is the Flavorwave Turbo starring Mr. T.

SG: Whoa! That's awesome! Anything else?

Paul Greenberg: I look back fondly at my experience and I look forward to working with Jessica again soon. Actually I'm developing a project with her in mind for the lead and hope to contact her soon to show her the script. There's no singing in this one but it's definitely magical. Keep your eyes open for it!

SG: Paul, all the best to you and we'll be checking in on you in the future. Thanks again!



Dr. Strange has always had a cult following. While he's never been considered an A-lister in the mighty Marvel sales halls, he's managed to hang around enough to garner a little attention in Hollywood. The latest news about the doctor was that Marvel Studios had hired screenwriters Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to handle the screenplay for Doctor Strange. For those of you not familiar; the movie will follow Stephen Strange, a brilliant but overconfident surgeon who loses the all-important steadiness in his hands through a terrible car accident. After wandering the Earth during a period of self-reflection, he comes to the Himalayas and goes through a series of trials to become the Sorcerer Supreme, the world's most powerful magic user. As Doctor Strange, he's armed with several mystical artifacts including the Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto that become instrumental in his quest to combat the bad guys.

Marvel has said they wanted to launch several "smaller" characters in their own movie. Smaller budget, smaller effects, smaller…names? Funny enough, I've been reading about everyone's dream casting when it comes to who should take the role! George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Hugh Laurie, Viggo Mortensen, Liam Neeson, Patrick Dempsey...and so on.

If they are going smaller, then you need someone in the role who can encompass several things. Someone who you can believe was once a talented surgeon and it now a part of the occult. Someone who is a name that can anchor a film but not so big that he's priced out of the picture. When you are working with a limited budget you run the risk of coming off…cheesy. So you want an actor who can help you navigate the franchise in the right direction.

My choice for Dr. Strange…



Don't deny that Laurence Fishburne would do an awesome job as Dr. Strange! He's believable in every aspect, brings a solid box office punch, and could fit in well with the rest of the Marvel Movie Universe!

But, out of curiosity, Who would YOU cast?

Other Stuff to Read...On 411mania!

*****Top 5 Worst Twists by Trevor Snyder
*****Ten Deep: The Top Ten Worst Things About Twilight by Mike Gorman
*****Furious on Film Movie News by Arnold Furious.
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*****411 Fact or Fiction Movies/TV by Ben Piper This week Porfirio Diaz and Joseph Lee debate!

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