Furious Movie News 09.09.10: The Book Burning Edition

Posted by Arnold Furious on 09.09.2010

Clint Eastwood turned down two famous roles, Martin Freeman’s Bilbo link, Joaquin Phoenix snubs own premiere, charts, trailers and more!

vNEWS!

Pastor's book burning stirs up Hollywood anger

Down in Florida organised religion is busy rearing its ugly side. Pastor Terry Jones (no, this isn't a Monty Python gag, I wish it was) plans to burn a copy of the Qur'an on Saturday as a mark of protest against fundamentalist terrorism in the United States. Book burning was popular in more radical times like just prior to WW2 when Hitler burned Jewish books or when the Spanish Inquisition burned books they found morally objectionable. Also in the past Muslim's have burned books they found to be blasphemous like Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses". What Terry Jones probably doesn't realise is that burning the Qur'an is more than likely going to lead to acts of terrorism who use the burning of a holy book as reasoning for the hatred against Christianity and the United States and the US military has warned it could endanger lives of American troops in Afghanistan. And allied troops in general, which means that by burning a book in Florida, Terry Jones could get an English solider killed on the other side of the world.



So, Hollywood has had the opportunity to comment on this as Angelina Jolie is out in Pakistan at the moment. When asked if she agreed with book burning she obviously said no and added she "hardly had words" to describe the supreme idiocy of the situation. Its like jabbing a dog with a stick because it bit you. It'll only bite you again. Jolie is visiting Pakistan to show her support for flood victims in the ravaged Western Asia country. She's doing so as part of her commitment as an ambassador for the UN.

Man, all this serious news reporting can get you down so here's something to lighten the mood somewhat.





Eastwood turned down Superman & James Bond



In a recent interview Clint Eastwood revealed he was offered two major roles during the course of his career. Apparently he and Cubby Broccoli (Bond film producer) shared a lawyer and the Bond offer came through that avenue. Eastwood was offered the part after Sean Connery had left the role and didn't feel right about stepping into someone else's shoes. He was quoted as saying "to me, well, that was somebody else's gig. That's Sean's deal. It didn't feel right for me to be doing it." Eastwood didn't provide a timeframe for when he was offered Superman but there's a chance it was prior to the 1978 movie starring Christopher Reeve. He namedrops former Warners president Frank Wells who held that position from 1973 until moving up to vice-chair in 1977. Chances are Eastwood was offered the gig before it was really coming together. Eastwood added that he preferred gritty and more realistic characters like Dirty Harry.

Martin Freeman turned down Bilbo



Latest out of the Hobbit rumour-mill is that the lead role was offered to former Office star and British actor Martin Freeman. Unfortunately for the thespian he'd already committed to a lengthy shoot on British TV show Sherlock. He plays Holmes' comrade Dr Watson. The BBC show is a contemporary re-imaging of the Arthur Conan-Doyle books.

The Hobbit remains in limbo though having been put on hold until the MGM situation is resolved. Which means that Martin Freeman should have been able to find room in his schedule to take part as there isn't a shooting schedule at present. But then you have to consider the source of this story; UK tabloid "The Sun", a notoriously inaccurate rag. A newspaper that puts in print guesswork rather than actual news 90% of the time. The Hobbit remains officially stalled. Peter Jackson remains attached to the film and the studio's #1 choice to direct but with the process dragging on and on they must consider the possibility that he just won't be available by the time they want to shoot. The film is basically planned out and they've named Lord of the Rings stars who can come back and reprise roles but there has been no new casting news since Bill Bailey revealed back in June that he'd auditioned for a role.

London Film Festival Line-up ready



Starting on October 13th is the BFI London Film Festival, which runs until October 28th. Visit BFI.org for full details. Black Swan is screened from 22nd October and Darren Aronofsky is in London to promote the film doing a Q & A on 23rd. The festival opens with Never Let Me Go starring Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley as well as future Spidey Andrew Garfield. The festival also features new films from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Takashi Miike, John Sayles and Danny Boyle. The latter being 127 Hours starring James Franco, which brings the curtain down on the festival on October 28th in Leicester Square.

Phoenix fails to show for own premiere



Joaquin Phoenix went a little crazy a few years back. I think we all know what I'm talking about here. He decided to retire from acting and become a rapper. He promptly grew a massive beard, wore sunglasses everywhere and seems to had the same suit on for 2 years now. I think he's been sleeping in it. And yet rumours persist that this is all a ruse and that Phoenix has been putting this on in order to create some form of crazy documentary. Well, with that documentary being released and his buddy Casey Affleck having directed it you'd think Joaquin would at least show up at the premiere right? Wrong! Despite being in Venice for the film festival the documentary was debuting at Phoenix was a no-show. Casey stated it was up to Phoenix how he chose to promote the film. Affleck added that it wasn't a spoof or a hoax. Potential buyers are still unsure, after having seen it, as to whether the film is a mockumentary or not given that its completely ridiculous and yet could just be the work of a skilled actor. I guess we'll see what happens next in the wacky world of Joaquin. I feel it has to be a rib but he could just be insane. Which is why we all love him.



Early reviews call the documentary "self indulgent" and "childish" while Roger Ebert, despite a positive grade, called the sound and image "bad".

Deals

Michael Caine is in negotiations to appear in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. The Rock replaced Brendan Fraser in the lead last week and Caine could become the missing grandfather of Josh Hutcherson. Filming starts next month in Hawaii.



Peter Berg's Battleship has added a star with Liam Neeson taking the role of Admiral Shane. He joins a cast that so far includes Taylor Kitsch and Brooklyn Decker. Those are Hollywood names if I ever heard ‘em! Battleship will see humanity pitted against aquatic aliens. Probably not as friendly as the ones Michael Biehn tried to nuke in The Abyss, which goes to prove he was right but a little bit early.

Ronald Reagan is set to become the latest US president to receive a multi-million dollar biopic. The script based on two Reagan biographies "The Crusader" and "God and Ronald Reagan" both by Paul Kengor. The script coming from Jonas McCord (who wrote the Nicole Kidman movie Malice) and is set to go into production. No news as yet on who'll play The Gipper.

TRAILERS!!

Amigo. The John Sayles film, which is part of the London Film Festival. He's spent years working on this one.



Hobo with a Shotgun. This is the new trailer rather than the Grindhouse one.



Due Date. Robert Downey Jr & Zach Galafianakis. Sold!




CHART WATCH

New Releases



Last week I called it and America's number one movie this weekend was The American. Seeing as it opened on Wednesday it has $16M in the bank so far and touched close to $13M over the weekend. Of course that's normally not enough for top spot but this wasn't a weekend where we had a big release so most people stayed home or did something else. Opening to about the same amount as The Men Who Stare at Goats and Leatherheads this goes to show that the Cloonmeister is pretty consistent. In fact the only time in recent years he's broken the pattern was collaborating with the Oscar winning Coen Brothers on Burn After Reading. Everything else is in the shadow of his successful Oceans Eleven series. Clooney pictures are pretty much impossible to predict as they generally make as much money as the positive word of mouth. Seeing as this has marginally more buzz than Leatherheads it should make marginally more cash. Something in the $40M ballpark. Clooney's average is $52M but that is bolstered by the Ocean's series.



Machete opened slightly better than I expected with $11M. Still that is at the low end of the scale in terms of what Fox were hoping for. I'm sure Fox thought they had a shot at winning the race this weekend and have ended up some way off the pace on a slow weekend. Machete opened about as well as Grindhouse did. Robert Rodriguez makes films on the cheap though so he should be fine. His $48M average is boosted by the Spy Kids franchise. Machete is unlikely to see a $50M return but should edge out Grindhouse's disappointing $25M take.



Finally Going the Distance opened to less than $7M, which is below even my bottom end prediction of $10M for the movie. It opened to a lower theatre average than Inception, which has been out for EIGHT WEEKS. Considering there are no other clear cut date movies out there that has to sting for Drew Barrymore. After all she's had a string of hits in the rom-com genre (50 First Dates, Ever After, Never Been Kissed, Wedding Singer). What happened here? My theory is that people just didn't buy into the notion of a relationship between Drew and Justin Long. After all he's only been on the scene for 10 years and doesn't even strike me as a grown up yet let alone a 30-something. He was still a kid 3 years ago in Die Hard 4, which judging on box office take is the last thing most of you saw him in. So I think people aren't buying this one. The actual age gap is only 3 years but Drew Barrymore has been in the public eye since ET!

Holdovers



Takers had a decent hold and a solid second week taking overall haul to $38M. That represents a hit for Sony who spent $32M on the flick. It was a surprise #1 ahead of Last Exorcism a week ago and now has held sufficiently to beat 2 of the 3 newcomers. It even had a better theatre average than The American, which perhaps only came out on top because of the wider release schedule. Seeing as we had a big ensemble cast in place for Takers with no one in particular up front and centre it seemed America was just ready for a caper picture so I expect to see more of those booked into schedules next year. Yeah, I'm just a big cynic.



Last Exorcism took a bit of a pasting after a decent opening weekend dropping back 62% and losing out to a poor array of new releases. Simple fact of the matter is once people realised what the film was going to be like they weren't interested in it. I know a lot of horror fans who hate that ‘lost footage' handheld business. However this thing was shot on a shoestring and costs totalled about $2M. It already has $32M in the bank and is a big, big hit. Coupled with the success of Paranormal Activity last year and the handheld horror is here to stay. Simple fact of the matter; they make a shitload of money and don't need much hyping up as long as they don't suck.



Good weekend again for The Expendables with $6.5M and it now has $92M in the US alone. Couple that with a healthy foreign market, which currently matches the US total and The Expendables is Stallone's biggest hit since Rocky IV. I keep thinking Demolition Man did really well but it only had $58M in its American run. Of course inflation could be taken into account here but even if you do Expendables is still doing well. New decade; new opportunities it seems. The talk of a sequel is very strong and Sly was interested in changing up the people involved to keep it exciting. I'm really interested to see where they go with it. Its been the only really solid Guy Movie hit of the summer.



$106M so far for The Other Guys and it had just a 14% drop-off this week, which would be the most ridiculous hold on the chart if the chart didn't also feature Inception. As far as Adam McKay/Will Ferrell collaborations go this one is up past Step Brothers but still has some way to go to beat the immense $148M that Ricky Bobby achieved. He pisses excellence. Its still unlikely to catch Blades of Glory but it does confirm that Will Ferrell's run as a superstar isn't over yet. People still want to see his movies and his idiot man-child characters. I do too, so its all good.

Rest of the Ten



Ludicrous 93% hold for Inception this week. People just love this movie and they keep going back to watch it again and again. $277M in the US alone and its still on the top ten after 8 weeks of release. It is benefitting from poor new releases but regardless its doing remarkably well and has now exceeded my projected total of $275M, which I thought would be about right. Well played Mr Nolan. Other top ten movies didn't do quite so well. Eat Pray Love has $69M in the bank and is into profit. As far as travelogue's go its doing ok but Julia Roberts doesn't seem to be as bankable as she was in the 1990s. It has beaten out Mona Lisa Smile and The Mexican though. Finally Nanny McPhee Returns has scored $22M in the US now, which is pretty decent considering how much money its pulled down in other markets.

Going, going…gone



The Switch is gone after just 3 weeks of release. People did NOT warm to this one at all. Jennifer Aniston's days as a leading actress are, by and large, at an end. However nothing about this movie helped her. Jason Bateman isn't right for Jen. They're not a cute couple in any way. He's too sarcastic and world weary for someone as downbeat as Jennifer. Secondly the plot is too similar to the Jennifer Lopez movie The Back Up Plan, which people also stayed away from. Thirdly the reviews were bad. Let me put it like this; do you want to see this movie? No, me either. Vampires Suck was also vanquished from the chart after 3 weeks. It opened well and then quickly faded but with $32M has already taken your money, suckers! Friedberg and Seltzer will return with something equally retarded next year. And Piranha 3D is dead in the water but might just about scrape the budget back in the next two weeks. As this may be my last chance to use it here's that picture of Kelly Brook we keep using…




Big Earners



Toy Story 3 finally has top spot on the year with $1.029 billion worldwide and has passed Alice in Wonderland. Congratulations to everyone at Pixar. Its slowed right up now but having pasted Alice it really has nowhere else to go.

Next Week

The only release this weekend is Resident Evil: Afterlife and it should have no problems hitting top spot. The last two movies both opened to $23M and that wouldn't surprise me. $23M will take top easily. I'm Still Here has a small opening and if you can find it that might be the movie of the week although not necessarily because its good.

ELSEWHERE

Check out Top 100 Guy Movies as it nears conclusion. This week its 20-11.

I covered Series 1 of the Simpsons few weeks back. I'm presently working on series 2. 16 out of 22 episodes down so far. So that should be up either next week or the week after.

One for the road. Do we need any oranges Gary Busey?



He sure loves Calvin & Hobbes.

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