The Big Screen Bulletin 11.28.11: Twilight Sparkles at the Box Office!
Posted by Steve Gustafson on 11.28.2011
News and thoughts on Christian Bale discussing his castmates in The Dark Knight Rises, set pictures from The Hobbit, Tomb Raider rebooting Lara Croft to her early years, Kenneth Branagh wanting to work with Marvel again, Jeremy Renner answering questions about The Bourne Legacy 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!
Get your celebrity and hot girl fix with the ORIGINAL The Hollywood 5 & 1! Not for the faint of heart! This week: Rhian Sugden takes on Sophie Turner while Kate Upton, Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie, and Erin Heatherton all battle in Vs, the Kardashian family starts to come apart, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher start the healing process, Jodie Gasson is your "& 1" Model of the Week and more!
Do you enjoy the 5 & 1 format? Of course you do! Check this out. First up is the NEWEST member to the 5 & 1 club...Stewart Lange with his The MMA 5 & 1! Next is The Music 5 & 1 by Jeremy Thomas. Bringing up the rear is The Wrestling 5 & 1 by Greg De Marco. Check it out!
This past week I had the pleasure of participating in Steve Cook'sWrestling Fact or Fiction! I was paired up with the talented up-and-comer Matt Steel, who is NOT related to Ring Steel, in case you were wondering. A good time was had by all!
Check out my exclusive interview with Ian Edelman, creator of the HBO hit series How to Make it in America!
Are you old enough to enjoy tequila? If so, watch this video that's making the rounds on tequila blogs worldwide. I sat down with Cindy Taylor (AKA Jesse Jane) to talk about her new line...Diosa Tequila! Goes down smooth!
QUESTION OF THE WEEK!
Earlier this year, GK Films picked up the rights to reboot the feature film adaptation of the hit video game franchise Tomb Raider. Then a couple months later it was reported Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, the duo behind screenplays for films like Iron Man, Children of Men, and Cowboys & Aliens would write the script. Now we have word from an interview Collider had with King that the script has been turned in and it sounds like the film will go back to the beginning of Lara Croft's career as an archaeologist and adventurer.
My question is: Will Tomb Raider succeed without Angelina Jolie?
VOTE BELOW!
CRAZIEST CASTING RUMOR OF THE WEEK!
If you haven't see Perfume: The Story of a Murderer then you need to grab that now. Ben Whishaw is awesome in it! Now, in some interesting casting news, THR is reporting that Whishaw will be playing a young agent Q in Sam Mendes' Bond 23, officially titled Skyfall, now shooting in England. Q is an iconic character from the original movies, played by Desmond Llewelyn and Q hasn't appeared in the new Daniel Craig reboot yet. THR simply says that Whishaw is "reported to have been assigned the role."
YOUGOTTABEKIDDINME!
Do you want to see more Kenneth Branagh directing Marvel characters? He's not ruling out a return to Marvel Studios. Talking to Variety, the director of Thor, Branagh was actually desperate to helm a movie like the Norse God and leapt at the chance when the opportunity arose. "Across 20 years of making films, I hadn't spent a significant amount of time in that community, and I wanted to do that. Of all the American comics, Thor was the only one I was really familiar with from my childhood, and it intrigued me, maybe because it was a bit more European, with those Viking helmets and its basis in Norse myth. The scale was exciting, and I did love the character and the story. It had depth and gravity in addition to being an entertaining ride."
While it was at first believed he'd been hired because of his experience with the work of Shakespeare it turns out that his approach was actually, "to bring to it a sense of fun, but also to take the process of making it as seriously as I would doing Shakespeare." Branagh describes the experience as "a joy" and only turned down the sequel due to timing. That doesn't mean he doesn't want to work with Marvel Studios again though. "I certainly wouldn't rule out a return to Marvel; we had an excellent collaboration."
Which character would you like to see Branagh work on? I could see him doing something cosmic, like Silver Surfer.
Let's get into the REAL news!
Batman, No More!
Just want you want...MORE BATMAN! I'm surprised at the amount of information that is out there about this project. Christian Bale talked to the Phillippine Daily Inquirer about his co-stars in The Dark Knight Rises.
"I'm terrible at auditions, so I'm very impressed when somebody really seems to acquire an ownership of a character without having worked on it or prepared for some amount of time. I saw that in Anne," he told the newspaper about Anne Hathaway. "In many ways, she has the hardest job. There are a number of people who feel that the Catwoman role has been defined previously. So, I always saw Anne's role as being the toughest job of any of us."
About Tom Hardy, who plays Bane, Bale added that he is "a phenomenal actor. I like working with him a great deal. He goes the whole hog. I know that Bane has been seen in movies before. But, in my eyes, Tom is essentially creating Bane for the first time so there's great freedom for him to be able to do so."
And about Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bale said that "Joseph is a very intriguing guy... He's somebody who truly seems to love acting. He's a good, smart guy. He did a very good job in the movie."
He also talked briefly about Christopher Nolan's Batman. "We always maintained from the beginning that if you wanted to break it down, there are three personas – Batman is sincere, the private Bruce Wayne is sincere. The public version of Bruce Wayne, the playboy, is a completely fabricated performance."
Also, in another interview, Bale made it clear that this would be his last time in the Batsuit.
Hobbits!
Quint for AICN has just posted his fourth set report for Peter Jackson'sThe Hobbit with some set photos and descriptions. Quint shared some key information on the pivotal scenes involving Bilbo Baggin's finding the Elf made blade, Sting. This is a knife to normal sized people, but for a hobbit it's a sword. This is the same sword that Bilbo passes on to Frodo when he begins his journey in Lord of the Rings. Sting isn't just a common blade, it glows blue to warn of nearby Orcs. But, that isn't the only weapon that the group comes across while exploring the troll cave. Thorin also comes across his sword the Orchrist, which is also nicknamed the "Biter" by the Goblins of the Misty Mountains.
The project is moving along and from the pictures, and looks to have captured the spirit of the Rings.
Bourne?
Many are wondering just how Universal's franchise spin-off The Bourne Legacy would tie-in to the original franchise starring Matt Damon. Empire recently sat down with the film's star Jeremy Renner and asked him to clear things up, and while he doesn't give away too much, he does reveal the key bit of information that should quell anyone's fears about Damon being replaced in the series. Renner says, "My character is called Aaron Cross, but he ends up having a bunch of different names"
Renner continued, "For fans of the franchise, [The Bourne Legacy] has that same ticking clock, but it's a new program and new characters. It's that same deal, it's just a new set of agents with a different leash. It's the same tempo and pace but more expansive and bigger. The differences are pretty vast but you'll know it's a Bourne movie."
In addition, there's been rumblings that the film will actually take place while the events of the Bourne franchise with Damon are happening concurrently, and there might even be a sneaky way of tying Renner's character and his actions into the plots of the original series.
Interested?
Blast Away!
Thanks to SFX magazine, we have a good look at director Andrew Stanton'sJohn Carter and the promise of a new trailer coming next week.
Opening in 3D, 2D, and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9, the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic novel tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.
Trailer Talk
New Line/Warner Bros. has released this new international trailer for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Directed by Brad Peyton, the 3D family adventure stars Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzman, and Kristen Davis.
Opening in theaters on February 10, the new journey begins when young adventurer Sean (Hutcherson) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist--a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret. Unable to stop him from going, Sean's new stepfather (Johnson) joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.
What do you think?
1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - $42.0 million ($221.3 million total)
2. The Muppets - $29.5 million ($42 million total) Read the review!
2. Happy Feet Two - $13.4 million ($43.8 million total)
4. Arthur Christmas - $12.7 million ($17 million total) Read the review!
5. Hugo - $11.4 million ($15.4 million total) Read the review!
6. Jack & Jill - $10.3 million ($57.4 million total)
7. Immortals - $8.8 million ($68.6 million total)
8. Puss in Boots - $7.5 million ($135.4 million total) Read the review!
9. Tower Heist - $7.3 million ($65.4 million total)
10. The Descendants - $7.2 million ($10.7 million total)
Box Office Survey!
Instead of me just repeating what you can see, how about we ask some questions about the weekend box office? Answer in the comments and NO CHEATING!
* Were any of you anti-Twilight but became a fan after seeing the latest one?
* Are there too many family-friendly movies at the box office currently?
* Will Hugo make back it's supposed $150 million budget at the theaters?
Before I say GOODBYE!
I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the other OUTSTANDING articles on www.411mania.com. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't peep around the site. I always get my daily habit of reading. Here's a small sample!
Posted By: Matt (Guest) on November 28, 2011 at 01:16 AM
Hugo might when you include international box office. Plus, it could get helped with serious Oscar buzz.
Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth (Guest) on November 28, 2011 at 07:03 AM
A Bourne movie without, you know, Bourne, seems pretty goddamn stupid. But Jeremy Renner is awesome, so he might make this one worthwhile. Might.
Tomb Raider reboot? Why bother? The Jolie films were sucky, but at least she was pretty cool in them. Whomever replaces her is in a no-win situation...replacing probably the biggest female movie star, and one of the few who makes a convincing female action hero.
Theres almost no chance at all this John Carter movie is gonna do well enough to make back its money. It might be a great film, and the star was so damn good on Friday Night Lights. But no way his name is drawing in an audience, and the movie is going to get completely lost in the shuffle.
Posted By: Earl (Guest) on November 28, 2011 at 07:26 AM
I've got a feeling that Hugo will be one of those odd movies that kind of seem to creep up over time... once it gets out to more theatres, and word of mouth starts to pick up, I could see it having legs throughout the holiday season.
Posted By: James (Guest) on December 01, 2011 at 04:18 PM
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