Frickin' Eh Movie News 10.22.08: Unnecessary Questions Edition

Posted by Matthew Motiuk on 10.22.2008

The future of Bourne, Terrence Howard's reaction to his replacement in Iron Man 2, The Odyssey coming to the big screen, and more!



Welcome one and all to the Frickin' Eh Movie News. I've switched over to working weekends again, but unfortunately, school persists at eating up most of my time. Two midterms snuck up on me and are coming up next week, and I'm not looking forward to them, especially the second BioPsychology midterm of the year. The other problem with school taking up so much of my time is that I can't play Fable II until after midterms, which is quite depressing.

I don't really have a lot to say this week, so let's get right into the news:


The Mid-Week Box Office Time Machine

Alright, time as usual to look at the box office. Last weekend, normality was restored to the world as Max Payne debuted as number one with $17.6 million. Sadly, Beverly Hills Chihuahua hung on at the number two with $11.5 million. Third place went to The Secret Life of Bees, and fourth was W. with $10.5 million. Eagle Eye, Body of Lies, and Quarantine followed. Sex Drive debuted at number nine with only $3.6 million and Nights at Rodanthe rounded out the top ten.

Coming up this weekend, we have The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, which should contain no surprises for anyone as it's just a 3D version of the original. Pride and Glory is the police movie of the week starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell - an odd combination to say the least. High School Musical 3: Senior Year also opens and once again I feel a profound shame in the human race as a whole. Saw 5 also opens, and the blood and gore of the Halloween season opens. Three limited releases of the weekend: The Changeling, an all-star and well-directed movie; Passengers, a weird looking psychological movie that actually has me fairly intrigued; and Synecdoche, New York, a very strange-looking comedy/drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. I'm not actually sure what's going to top the charts this week, considering what's been happening the last couple of weeks; I could see Saw 5 or High School Musical 3 striking pretty high. It's a very not-interesting weekend for me, actually, and I could really care less.


Hugh Grant Not Lost for Words After All

Hugh Grant has exited Lost for Words, the Working Title-produced romantic comedy for Universal Pictures. Variety says creative differences were cited.

Grant had agreed last summer to play a British actor approached to star in a film by a Chinese director. After a flirtation with her translator, the actor falls for the director.

Ziyi Zhang is playing the director. Susanne Bier is directing the film, and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing with Jonathan Cavendish. Jamie Curtis and Dan Mazer wrote the script.

A spokeswoman for Grant said, "They were not able to get a script everyone agreed on but it's our understanding that Working Title is moving ahead with the project and Hugh wishes them well."

For a romantic comedy, the plot sounds mildly interesting and fresh. Grant's departure is far from the end of the movie, though. How big of an actor is Hugh Grant nowadays anyway? They'll find another actor, probably just as competent or maybe someone who will bring something different to the role, and the movie will turn out fine. We'll just have to see who that replacement is in the end.


Perlman Traveling to the Season of the Witch

On the red carpet of the 2008 Scream Awards that took place Saturday night, The Dark Knight producer Charles Roven revealed to us that Ron Perlman will co-star in the supernatural thriller Season of the Witch.

The "Hellboy" franchise star joins the Columbia Pictures project, which marks the reteaming of director Dominic Sena and his Gone in 60 Seconds actor Nicolas Cage.
The film tells the story of 14th-century knights transporting a girl suspected of being the witch who has spread the Black Plague.

Perlman will play the role of "Felson." Additional casting for the film includes Stephen Campbell Moore (The Bank Job) as "Debelzaq," Claire Foy (the BBC's "Little Dorrit") as "The Girl," and Robbie Sheehan (Independent Television's "Rock Rivals") as "Kaylan."

Written by Bragi Schut Jr., Season of the Witch is scheduled to start production in early November 2008 in Austria and Hungary.

Roven also told us that there is "no momentum" on the comic book adaptation The Flash at Warner Bros. Pictures.

This is quite the eclectic mix, huh? When I hear 14th-century knights, these are not the two actors that pop into my mind. However, both have considerable talent and the ability to turn their roles into success. I have the utmost confidence in Nicolas Cage, even if half of the time he can't pull off what he gets in to, but I have less background and reference on Perlman, so really his abilities to pull off the slightly ridiculous role of Hellboy are my evidence that he should be able to do this. Only time will tell. It's interesting to also hear that The Flash has stalled, which was surprising; I know it's not high on the comic book priority list, but with the recent success of comic book adaptations, I figured they'd be scooping up whatever they could get.


Terrence Howard on His Replacement in Iron Man 2

Actor Terrence Howard appeared in the NPR studio to talk about his debut album "Shine Through It" with Scott Simon for the Weekend Edition. Of course, Simon had to ask him about the recent news that Don Cheadle would be replacing him as James "Rhodey" Rhodes in the upcoming Marvel Studios sequel Iron Man 2.

That news (which has yet to be confirmed by Marvel Studios, who remains as mum as usual) took many fans of the summer's blockbuster hit by surprise since Howard played a large role in many fans' love for the movie, and just as many were excited to see Howard step into the iron suit of War Machine. After the announcement a few days ago, speculation ran rampant about why Howard wouldn't return, but on Simon's radio show, Howard said that he found out about the news the same way the rest of us did.

"It was the surprise of a lifetime," he said. "There was no explanation. [The contract] just...up and vanished. I read something in the trades implicating that it was about money or something, but apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on, sometimes. Promises aren't kept, and good faith negotiations aren't always held up."

You can hear the entire interview on NPR.org with the comments about Iron Man 2 starting at roughly 4 and a half minutes in.

(Thanks to Russ at CHUD for bringing this to our attention.)

Well, interesting. I agree, Howard did a fantastic job in Iron Man, and his replacement really makes no sense to me. Marvel sometimes does some silly recasting on their own with no foreseeable reasons, so I'm assuming that's what happened here, unless of course someone isn't telling the whole truth. It could be any of a million things, and we might never find out what the real story was. I'm betting this is going to be a hot point of controversy around Iron Man 2, and we'll see if it hurts the movie in the end.


Pitt and Miller to Bring Us The Odyssey . . . In Space?

After turning Homer's epic poem "The Iliad" into the 2004 film Troy, Warner Bros. and Brad Pitt are teaming with George Miller to adapt the Greek poet's other masterwork, "The Odyssey."

Their intention is to transfer the tale to a futuristic setting in outer space.

Variety says Warner Bros. has quietly set up The Odyssey, and the early hope is that Pitt will star and Miller will direct, with Pitt's Plan B producing.

Both Homer poems dealt with the Trojan War; "The Odyssey" focused on the exploits of Odysseus, who hatched the idea to build the Trojan Horse. "The Odyssey" deals with his long journey home after he declines to become a god.

Pitt just began shooting the Quentin Tarantino-directed Inglourious Basterds.

Aw, that's too bad they're going to go the adaptation route and change this into a space story. O Brother, Where Art Thou? was all the Odyssey adapation I needed, I want to see it as it was originally made. Personally, I liked Troy a lot and thought it was a good movie all around, and I was really hoping they might go down the same road with The Odyssey. But this could still be good, especially with Miller and Pitt working together on it. The quiet nature of this whole thing, along with how early along it is, means that it could still go any of a hundred ways, and it'll be a while before we know anything more, so hold on for more news later.


Bourne Going for Round Four

Universal is moving ahead with its fourth installment of "The Bourne Identity" franchise, setting George Nolfi to write the script, reports Variety.

Nolfi was co-writer of the third film, which was based on a story by Tony Gilroy.

Though the series is based on the Robert Ludlum novels, the new film won't be based on a Ludlum title, but rather an original story.

Director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon are attached to the new film. The film will be produced by Frank Marshall and executive produced by Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison.

This is where the series either keeps going strong and proves itself for sure, or where it all falls apart. And believe me, they're on a slippery slope for the falling apart. The co-writer stepping into the big chair, coupled with using an original story and moving away from the Ludlum plots, means that there are a lot of unknowns. I'm hoping it doesn't happen, because I like these movies and they've done extremely well for themselves, but I won't be too shocked if something does go wrong and this one doesn't live up to the expectations.


A Very Push-y Trailer

The trailer for director Paul McGuigan's new action-thriller, Push, is now online and can be watched using the player below. Opening February 6, the movie stars Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, Djimon Hounsou, Maggie Siff and Scott Michael Campbell.

Push burrows deep into the deadly world of psychic espionage where artificially enhanced paranormal operatives have the ability to move objects with their minds, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching their victims. Against this setting, a young man (Evans) and a teenage girl (Fanning) take on a clandestine agency in a race against time that will determine the future of civilization.

This looks pretty cool, actually, even though I had my reservations. The actors all seem to be good, besides Dakota Fanning, who I utterly despise. The action looks fantastic, even though it comes off as a mixture of Star Wars and X-Men in large parts. Regardless, it looks like this could really be good, and I kind of want to see it now. So check it out.


Relativity Eyeing Up Rogue

Relativity Media is in negotiations with Universal to acquire the assets of Rogue Pictures, the studio's genre label, for as much as $150 million.

The Hollywood Reporter says the proposed deal would see Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity purchase more than 25 library titles, four upcoming films and more than 30 projects in development at Rogue, which was launched in 2004 as a division of Universal's Focus Features. In 2007, Rogue became an independent specialty unit of the parent studio.

Universal would continue to market and distribute the Rogue films that Relativity is acquiring, and Relativity would also be able to turn to Universal to handle other titles. Universal would get a distribution fee.

The purchase would cover Rogue films now in postproduction, which include Fighting, starring Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard; Platinum Dunes' The Unborn, from writer/director David Goyer; Wes Craven's 25/8 and a remake of The Last House on the Left.

Relativity also would pick up the first-look deals Rogue has with Platinum Dunes and Wes Craven, while Universal would get first right of refusal, for a set period of time, for any sequels based on any of the movies released.

Rogue Pictures isn't that big of a studio, but $150 million is a pretty substantional amount still. Their acquisition won't be much of a big deal, though, besides Universal's closer ties to the company. All in all, not much news here; sorry.


Rourke, Statham, and Fiddy Join 13

Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham and 50 Cent have signed on to star opposite Sam Riley in 13, director Gela Babluani's remake of his French-language film 13 Tzameti, reports Variety.

Babluani wrote the English-language remake, which centers on a man who steals a mysterious package that promises to pay out a fortune.

13 Tzameti was the winner of the 2006 Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

The film will start shooting Nov. 17 in and around New York.

A pretty good cast for this movie, it sounds like. Statham in a movie of this genre is always good; Rourke and 50 Cent should be good with him, even though I'm always skeptical of 50 Cent's actual acting abilities. As it's a remake of a French movie, it should be fairly good, even if the translation doesn't quite hold up to the original. I guess we'll just have to see.


Rapid-Fire: A Day at the Races (1937, starring Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx)

We're returning back to the good old days of black and white and real comedy this week. I've covered the Marx Brothers before, but they make a lot of movies, and they're quite excellent, even today. This week, I present to you probably my third favourite of all the Marx Brothers movies. And so, this week I present to you:

It's amazing to me that some movies can stand the test of time so well and, seventy years later, still be as hilarious and awesome as they were when they were first released. The reason the Marx Brothers have lived on, I think, is their combination of slapstick and clever wit. For me, the wit takes the cake, as Groucho's humour is timeless and hilarious.

The plot of this one, as if it matters, is that Standish Sanitarium is about to go under financially, and to get some funding from the wealthy Mrs. Upjohn (played by Marx regular Margaret Dumont) the crew hires Dr. Hackenbush (Groucho). However, the bad guys, Whitmore and Morgan, want to force Miss Standish to give up the sanitarium so they can turn it into a casino.

The movie features the usual Marx Brothers elements: namely, a ridiculous story, a piano piece played by Chico, a harp piece played by Harpo, and a lot of hilarity. The musical component in this one also includes Allan Jones (Gil Stewart in the movie) singing and a dancing segment, along with Chico and Harpo's regular routine. Their bits also make a bit more sense with the story than usual, which is nice. Setting this one apart is a song-and-dance bit with a "black spiritual number" which carries over to At the Circus.

Acting? The three brothers are fantastic as always. Groucho is his usual witty self, Chico has the priceless Tutti Frutti ice cream bit, and Harpo is a pretty good jockey and patient. All the minor roles are well done, too; Allan Jones and Maureen O'Sullivan are great lovers at odds with each other; Leonard Ceeley and Douglas Dumbrille are good villains. Sig Ruman's small role as Dr. Steinberg is great, too. And as always, Margaret Dumont is the perfect fit for the woman hopelessly pining after the love of Groucho.

All in all, this is as good as the Marx Brothers get. The movie is silly and fun, and it's great because of it. It doesn't make a lot of sense at points and it's not really supposed to; it's just supposed to be a good time, and that's what it is. If you want some good comedy that's actually funny and not what new movies pass off as humour, then track down a copy of this and enjoy.


Closing Time . . .

Well, that's all for me this week. Only one more week before 30 Rock comes back on the air . . . I am quite excited. Alright, until next week . .


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