The Big Screen Bulletin 01.02.12: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol Stays in Control!

Posted by Steve Gustafson on 01.02.2012

News and thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises screen description, toys revealing spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man, J.J. Abram discussing Star Trek, Arnold Schwarzenegger's supernatural film, the Top 10 Worst Films of 2011 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!

I had to take a moment to say thank you, the reader, for your continued support and, for the most part, insightful and witty comments. Last week was a perfect example. I received a number of comments listing your Top 10 Films of 2011. They were all interesting and filled with great selections. I find more and more, you all have interesting insights and I appreciate you sharing them! Thanks again and hope you're new year is off to a grand start!

Get your celebrity and hot girl fix with the ORIGINAL The Hollywood 5 & 1! Not for the faint of heart! This week: Kelly Brook battles Monica Belucci and J-Woww takes on Sarah Shahi in Vs, Kim Kardashian makes big money hosting a New Year's Eve party, Lindsay Lohan makes her New Year's plans, a Fresh Prince of Bel Air reunion is ruined by strife between castmates, Bree Olson is our "& 1" Model of the Week and more!

Also, for the past few weeks I've been running my Road to AVN over in the Hollywood 5 & 1. I've had interviews with Bree Olson, Vivid founder Steve Hirsch, and some fun videos. Stop by and check them out!

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...Sean Garmer with his The Games 5 & 1! Following up is 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! Oh yeah, besides writing about the zany lives of famous people, I cover movie news! Yes, that's right. Each and every Monday I do the Big Screen Bulletin.


QUESTION OF THE WEEK!
Last week I covered the BEST movies that 2011 offered to me. It's only fair to take a look at the BOTTOM 10! That's right. I try my best to avoid them but sometimes circumstances force me into watching something I didn't like. Remember, these are MOVIES I SAW! I didn't watch Bucky Larson or Season of the Witch so they won't be on here.

10. Abduction
To be fair, as I was leaving one movie I snuck into watch this. I didn't stay long as I knew within 15 minutes that any search for enjoyment in this flick would be a fruitless effort.

9. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The fact it's number 9 is actually an improvement! I've been a very vocal non-fan of the movies and against my better judgement saw this. While it was a sliver better than the second, still NO FUN!

8. Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Another franchise that continues to shock me with it's continued success. I enjoyed the first and have been swimming away from it ever since.

7. Conan The Barbarian
This should have been direct to Redbox.

6. Just Go With It
I left the theater wondering if I was the only one who wondered if Adam Sandler was purposely trying to see how bad he could make a movie?

5. No Strings Attached
It hurts because I usually give Natalie Portman a pass on anything she does.

4. Zookeeper
Trying to capture the simple joy of Paul Blart gave us this mess that I swear was a script that was found under Rob Schneider's couch.

3. I Melt With You
Sheesh. Jeremy Piven, Thomas Jane, and Rob Lowe are all 3 actors who I enjoy. The letdown while watching hurt me physically.

2. Sucker Punch
What did I watch? I almost reprinted a friend's email that explained the movie to me but I fell asleep reading it halfway in. What did I watch?

1. Jack & Jill
I never thought the day would come when I would have TWO Adam Sandler flicks on my Worst Movies list. Saw this in the theater more as a joke (and for free) but it doesn't take away how utterly bad this movie is. If I was a studio exec I would blacklist Sandler from making movies. It actually takes away from watching his earlier stuff, which I'm a fan of. I shed a tear when I view Billy Madison and think, "This guy will one day make Jack & Jill."

My question to you: What are your 10 Worst Movies of 2011?

VOTE BELOW!


CRAZIEST CASTING RUMOR OF THE WEEK!
Something for the music people! Recent reports suggest that Marco Beltrami, who's work on the scores for films such as The Hurt Locker and Blade II, has signed on to compose the score for the zombie horror thriller World War Z, based on the novel of the same name. The film is about a UN Employee (played by Brad Pitt) who interviews survivors of a zombie epidemic that took place ten years before.




YOUGOTTABEKIDDINME!
J.J. Abrams likes to keep his projects pretty quiet, especially upcoming ones. So far all he has admitted about Star Trek 2 is he is directing it and there is a script. The classic villain Khan has been thrown around a lot but nothing has actually been confirmed.

The director was talking with StarTrek.com recently, and said absolutely nothing about the sequel. He did however talk about what affect his film has on the chronology of The Original Series and the universe it takes place in.

Here is some of what he said:

"The notion that when this one character, Nero, arrives in his ship, that basically the timeline is altered at that moment, so everything forward is essentially an alternative timeline. That is not to say that everything that happened in The Original Series doesn't exist. I think, as a fan of movies and shows, if someone told me the beloved thing for me was gone, I would be upset. But we didn't do that. We're not saying that what happened in that original series wasn't good, true, valid, righteous and real. Let people embrace that. We're not rejecting that. That, to me, would have been the big mistake. We're simply saying that, 'At this moment, the very first scene in the first movie, everything that people knew of Star Trek splits off into now another timeline.'"

Does this change your thoughts about the Star Trek movie?




Let's get into the REAL news!




The Lizard Revealed!
Spoilerish! Merchandise has surfaced (via Idle Hands) for The Amazing Spider-Man that gives us a first real look at The Lizard, played by Rhys Ifans. Yes, I know. The lengths we go to in order to get a peek before the movie comes out!

Take a look at the Lizard remote control below. Also below, you'll see the package design for a set of Mega Bloks titled "Oscorp Tower FX Battle." The three characters included are Spider-Man, the Lizard and "SWAT Lizard," the reveal of which seems to confirm a report from nearly a year ago by Big Fanboy that claimed the conclusion of the film would involve Dr. Connors transforming an entire SWAT team into his lizard-like minions.

Directed by Marc Webb, the action adventure stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field.






Sequel/Prequel/Remake Roundup!
Last week, The Playlist had a chance to speak to Alcon Entertainment producer Andrew Kosove and they got him to update them on a couple projects that the company is working on. The first is the follow-up to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, the other being a remake of Kathryn Bigelow's action-thriller Point Break.

Kasave told them that the Blade Runner project is a "high priority" for Scott, who is in post-production on Prometheus. He has already gone on record saying they have ideas for two more movies if it does well and Blade Runner is "moving forward aggressively in development."

"Sometime in the first two months of the new year we'll announce who the screenwriter will be and whether or not it's a prequel or sequel. And then we'll be off to the races," he added.

As far as the Point Break remake, here is what he told them about whether surfing may be replaced by "extreme sports":

"This is the thing -- surfing is a part of it, but I will tell you that we believe firmly, in terms of remaking a film like this, we've got to make it fresh," Kosove said. He then cited a recent 1980s remake of an example of what Point Break would not be. "It's not a literal remake of the original the way Footloose was -- it was identical to the original film. [Our Point Break] has got elements of the original and it's not just surfing, it's other kinds of extreme sports, but surfing is very, very prominent in the story." He says that the folks at Alcon have figured out who they want to direct, but they can't announce just yet. "We're out to a director now, so if it were to go in that direction, it'd be a big announcement. We have someone who we think is the perfect filmmaker. I'd be very surprised if we weren't in pre-production in 2012."

Thoughts on Blade Runner and Point Break?




Another Day, Another Spoiler!
If you've managed to avoid spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises up to this point, kudos. Skip this. SPOILERS! In an intro to an interview with Anne Hathaway talking about playing Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, the Los Angeles Times has posted this spoiler-filled scene description:

Gotham City is a war zone. A ruthless madman named Bane has ripped away any sense of security and the citizens, haggard and clutching suitcases with refugee anxiety, sit behind barbed wire waiting to see what will blow up next. A hooded prisoner is dragged in – it's Bruce Wayne, one of Gotham's most famous faces – but the eyes of the crowd go instead to the woman in black standing at the top of the staircase.

"Sorry to spoil things, boys, but Bane needs these guys himself," says sultry Selina Kyle, played here by actress Anne Hathaway, navigating the steps with stiletto heels that, on closer inspection, turn out to have serrated edges capable of leaving nasty claw marks in a fight. She also wears high-tech goggles that, when not in use, flip up and resemble feline ears.

I can't say enough how surprised I am about the amount of spoilers and news that has come out about this film.




Back. For Good!
In October I talked about how Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to the big screen meant new projects for the action icon all over the place. In addition to The Last Stand and The Expendables 2, Arnold had also signed on to star in Black Sands, a new action film from Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy, the duo behind the Navy SEALs flick Act of Valor. The film's original story was said to follow Schwarzenegger as a loner who wages war against a ruthless weapons manufacturer and his private army in the Southwest, however, it sounds like the project now has a bit of a supernatural twist to the plot.

Now titled Black Sunday, Schwarzenegger told TheArnoldFans that he's playing some kind of immortal hero now. The actor says, "I'm a kind of angel, but I can not currently say more about this film." Apparently the project is now being described as a cross between Commando and...Constantine!

Interested?




Trailer Talk
I just happened to see this online. I haven't heard a thing about it up to this point. Plot goes like this: Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) works as a bouncer in a seedy dive bar, where his reputation for being good with his fists runs in stark contrast with his friendly, low-key demeanour. One night, at a hockey game, Doug is caught on video saving his best friend (Jay Baruchel) from a pummelling at the hands of an irate hockey player. Needing a new goon for his team, a coach (Nicholas Campbell) enlists Doug, and soon- his numerous beatings make him a local hero. He's drafted to the NHL by a coach (Kim Coates) who needs someone to protect his star player Xavier Laflamme (Marc-Andre Grodin). He quickly becomes the most feared goon in the league, and soon, goes head-to-head with his childhood idol, Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber)- a goon who's looking for a last hurrah before retiring.

What do you think?






1. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol $31.3 million ($134.1 million total)
2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows $22.1 million ($132.1 million total) Read the review!
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked $18.3 million ($94.6 million total)
4. War Horse $16.9 million ($43.0 million total)
5. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo $16.3 million ($57.1 million total) Read the review!
6. We Bought a Zoo $14.3 million ($41.8 million total)
7. The Adventures of Tintin $12.0 million ($47.8 million total)
8. New Year's Eve $6.7 million ($46.4 million total)
9. The Darkest Hour $4.3 million ($13.2 million total)
10. The Descendants $3.7 million ($39.7 million total) Read the review!

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!

* Does the success of Mission Impossible mean Tom Cruise is back?

* Are Alvin and the Chipmunks more popular than ever?

* Are audiences confused by the marketing of War Horse?


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!

*****Top 5 Best Supporting Performances of 2011 by Trevor Snyder and Company Catch last weeks edition!
*****Ten Deep: The Top Best Superhero Castings by Mike Gorman
*****A Bloody Good Time by Joseph Lee.
*****Two Tivos to Paradise by Al Norton
*****Editor's Note: The Top 10 Pet Peeves of 2011 by Chad Webb


Playboy has been kind enough to release me on the lovely Playmates. Here's some interviews to keep you entertained!

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