Frickin' Eh Movie News 07.27.08: Fashionably Late Edition

Posted by Matthew Motiuk on 07.27.2008

The Dark Knight breaks more records, Star Wars goes 3D, Rocky Horror Picture show remake, and more!



This week's column comes a bit later than usual, thanks to the fact that my computer wouldn't connect to the site, so I couldn't put it up. Of all the things to go wrong, it seems to be my wireless router. I have absolutely no idea why that would make a difference, but bypassing it seems to work. Whatever. So here's the news, fashionably late:


Berg to Resurrect Hercules

Hancock director Peter Berg is spearheading a fresh take on Hercules for Universal, reports Variety.

Berg will produce and will develop to direct Hercules: The Thracian Wars, a co-production of Spyglass Entertainment, Berg's Film 44 and Radical Pictures. Spyglass and Universal will co-finance the film.

Ryan Condal will write the script, based on a five-issue comicbook series by Steve Moore that debuted in May through Radical Publishing.

Spyglass' Jonathan Glickman, Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber will produce with Berg and his Film 44 partner Sarah Aubrey, with Barry Levine producing for Radical. Jesse Berger will executive produce.

"What resonated for them was that this was character driven, about a character who's more man than god, with conflicts and redemption," Levine said.

This is good, considering the last and only Hercules I have ever seen is probably the Disney version. Hercules is a big character, there's plenty there to make a movie around, and driving it primarily around the character should create an interesting film. This is joining a flood of Greek mythology movies lately, and I'm not sure why we've got so many coming, but hopefully this doesn't suffer because it's just too much.


Star Wars 3D . . . Yes, It's Happening

ComingSoon.net caught up with DreamWorks Animations CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg on Tuesday and learned that George Lucas is looking to repurpose the six "Star Wars" episodes into 3D format.

Katzenberg told us that Lucas is very excited about it and that he's got the technical resources to pull it off. "He isn't going to put a product out, I think, that isn't anything other than first rate," Katzenberg said.

Stay tuned for possibly more on this soon.

I remember rumours about this a couple years ago, right after Revenge of the Sith came out. Now apparently it's finally actually happening. It is almost certainly just another way to grab the hordes of Star Wars fans' money, but George Lucas is very good at that. While this is probably a waste of time and money, who knows? I'm kind of interested to see what the final product turns out looking like.


Legendary Goes on a Lost Patrol

Legendary Pictures (The Dark Knight) is developing an elaborate 2010 cross-platform launch for The Lost Patrol, a supernatural thriller script it has acquired for Matt Cirulnick, says Variety.

Cirulnick will adapt Andrew Hinton's screenplay.

The company intends to develop the project as a transmedia property similar to "Heroes," "Star Trek" and "Lost." Filmmakers will tailor tie-ins for various digital platforms from the outset, likely including cell phone, video game and Internet.

Rick Porras and Steven Boyd are producing the project.

This cross-platform thing seems to be the newest trend in Hollywood to sell things. While Legendary Pictures definitely has experience with hype after The Dark Knight, they didn't cross-platform it nearly as much as they could have. The problem here is that with all the other names on that list, everyone knows the properties. By now everyone knows Heroes and Lost, and obviously they know Star Trek. But The Lost Patrol? I'm not saying it's going to fail, it's just going to take a bit more work.


More Dark Knight Record Breaking

Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark Knight broke another record on Tuesday becoming the fastest ever to cross the $200 million mark in five days! The previous record of eight days was held by three films - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Spider-Man 2 and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins follow-up added $20.87 million on Tuesday to push its massive total to $203.8 million. That puts it at #84 already on the all-time domestic blockbuster list after just five days.

Right now, the only number we have for international markets is $41.3 million but that will start going up significantly as the movie is opening in many countries Thursday and Friday as well as into August.

So let's recap - widest release (4,366 theaters), biggest midnight opening ($18.5M), biggest opening weekend ($158.4M), biggest July opener ($158.4M), biggest PG-13 rated opening ($158.4M), biggest single day ($67.2M), biggest opening day ($67.2M), biggest Friday ($67.2M), biggest Sunday ($43.6M), biggest IMAX opening ($6.3M) and fastest to $200M in five days ($203.8M).

That's a lot of broken records, I must say. Whoever was running The Dark Knight's marketing campaign should be promoted and given a big bag of money right about now, because they did it all right, along with the movie being great, too. Shaving three days off the previous record to get to $200 million is pretty impressive. Wow. Congrats.


Burton Finds Alice

Tim Burton and Walt Disney Pictures are in final talks with Australian actress Mia Wasikowska to star in Alice in Wonderland, Burton's take on Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy novel, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The film, based on a script by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King), will be produced by longtime Burton collaborator Richard Zanuck, former Disney chairman Joe Roth and Jennifer and Suzanne Todd. It will be shot with live-action and performance-capture footage and presented in Disney Digital 3-D.

Wasikowska got her start on the Aussie series "All Saints" and is a regular on HBO's "In Treatment." She next will appear opposite Daniel Craig in Ed Zwick's war drama Defiance and just completed filming the role of a young Amelia Earhart fan in Mira Nair's biopic Amelia starring Hilary Swank.

Principal photography starts in November.

Oh, this is going to be weird. Alice in Wonderland is weird enough without the demented mind of Tim Burton in it. Not that I think it's going to be bad, it's just going to be very, very weird. I've never seen (or heard of) this Mia Wasikowska before, but she seems to be a talented actress from Australia who is rising fast, and she should be able to do a good job.


Bustin' Out the Hairspray Again

New Line Cinema has made a deal with "Hairspray" creator John Waters to write a treatment for a sequel to summer 2007's hit musical feature, reports Variety.

Planning to return are director/choreographer Adam Shankman, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Tony-winning songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who will write new songs for the film.

No cast has been engaged yet, and none of the stars of Hairspray had sequel options. But the studio hopes to reunite the original cast in a film that will be ready for release by Warner Bros. in mid-July 2010.

The first film starred John Travolta, Christopher Walken and Nikki Blonsky as well as Zac Efron, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Marsden, Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley and Allison Janney.

Aim is to pick up the Baltimore saga of the Turnblad family after the resolution of the first film, which was set in 1962.

Oh, god . . . I'm not a musical fan, especially one that looks so ridiculously cheesy as this one, so my opinion here may be a bit skewed. Obviously this is just a money-grab off the success of the first, but they're going to have trouble doing it if they lose the original cast or whore it out and end up turning it into a shell of the first one. It's going to be careful treading, I think.


MTV Remakes Rocky Horror Picture Show

MTV is developing a remake of 1975 cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, reports Variety.

Lou Adler, executive producer of the original film, is partnering with BermanBraun and Fox Television Studios on the new rendition.

The new version will use the original screenplay by Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien but may also include music not featured in the original.

The director and casting decisions have yet to be announced. The original starred Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick and Meatloaf.

This could be possibly (but unlikely) be tolerated if a better studio was handling this, but MTV? This is going to be a disaster. Yes, they've got the original executive producer, but does that mean anything? Not really. Trust me, this will be a shameless ploy to grab money off of the cult classic, and it will destroy what fans love about it. I have no doubt of that.


Aronofosky and Self Take on Robocop

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM) has signed Darren Aronofsky to direct and David Self to write a new installment for its "RoboCop" franchise. Aronofsky, the director of The Fountain, and Self, the writer of Road to Perdition, make a formidable creative team, fast tracking the RoboCop motion picture and spotlighting it as one of the most anticipated new films for 2010.

The announcement was made today by Mary Parent, Chairman, Worldwide Motion Picture Group, MGM.

In making the announcement Parent said: "Darren is undeniably one of the most talented, original and visceral film makers, and David is one of the greatest writers in Hollywood. All of us at MGM couldn't be more excited."

Phoenix Pictures' Chairman and CEO Mike Medavoy said: "After making the first 'RoboCop' at Orion more than 20 years ago, I'm thrilled to be helping to return this character to the screen with our partners at MGM and through the eyes of Darren Aronofsky and David Self."

Phoenix co-presidents Brad Fischer and David Thwaites added: "With a filmmaker of Darren Aronofsky's vision and imagination and a writer of David Self's caliber, we are poised to bring to the screen an entertaining and provocative film, which will now be under the creative guidance of two of the best storytellers working in our industry today."

The original RoboCop, which premiered in 1987, was "part man, part machine and all cop." The film's storyline focused on the future of law enforcement as a terminally wounded cop returns to the police force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories. The original film was nominated for two Academy Awards -- Best Film Editing and Best Sound.

Really? Aronofsky? I always viewed him as more of an abstract, artistic direction (have you seen The Fountain?), not someone who would direct Robocop. It just seems like such a strange choice. As for Self, nothing in his resume shouts Robocop either. The two of them together, as long as they stay grounded, could turn out something pretty good, though. I guess we'll have to see where this one goes.


Harold & Kumar Will Be Back . . . Surprise

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and directed the latter, will return to write and direct a third installment for Mandate Pictures.

Greg Shapiro will return as producer. Variety says the storyline is being kept under wraps.

Stars John Cho and Kal Penn are expected to reprise their roles as the ganja-loving duo because Mandate has options on the actors for the third installment.

New Line, which was folded into Warner Bros. in February, distributed the first two films. Warners will likely distribute the third installment.

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. If these don't outright bomb they will keep making them indefinitely. And there are enough dope-smoking movie-goers who think this kind of movie is funny to keep them going for a long time. Nobody cares.


Rapid-Fire: Men in Black (1997, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino)

This week, let's take a look at a movie that takes secret agents and aliens and puts them together to try and milk them both for all they're worth. So I present:

You know, I have to admit, this movie has held together pretty well over the years. It's no award-winner, but it's an enjoyable experience. The story – basically, stopping aliens from taking over the world – is nothing special, but it's pretty entertaining. They also manage to slip in quite a bit of humour along the way in a good, witty way.

The acting is good. Jones is really good as the experienced Kay, and it's really fun watching him in this role. Smith plays the same character he always does (or did, back in these days), the young buck who's going to save the world, but he does it damn well, too. Fiorentino as Dr. Weaver is a bit annoying at times but is fine and has a very small role. Vincent D'Onofrio as Edgar (or the skin of Edgar) is good, and he does the nasty role of the bad guy very well. Rip Torn as Zed and Tony Shalhoub as Jeebs are two great (although small) highlights, though. They're both great humour points thrown in there.

This movie (as compared to its sequel) is more of an action movie, and that's a good thing for me. There's some good fights, shooting, and a nice showdown at the end. There aren't many real complaints about the movie besides the fact that it just doesn't stand out very much. It doesn't do anything wrong; it just doesn't do anything especially right, either.

Men in Black is a fun action/comedy with good acting and aliens, and what more can you ask for? It's nothing special, but it's a good, fun family movie that's still good, and probably will be for a long time.


Closing Time . . .

I found myself a copy of The Running Man and am looking forward to watching that again sometime soon. It's a horribly cheesy and ridiculous movie, yes, but it's fun, and it's got Richard Dawson as the bad guy. Anyway, have a good week, and until next time . . .


[All news, images, and other stuff from www.comingsoon.net, www.imdb.com, and www.youtube.com.]