Tag Archives: films

HollywoodNews.com: When is a $52 million three-day opening a genuine disappointment? Well, in the world of box office, all things are relative. And when it comes to opening weekend, the quality and estimated staying power has to be taken into account. Green Lantern debuted at number one this weekend with $52.6 million. On the surface, that’s the fourth-biggest DC Comics opening ever, and the second-biggest non-sequel DC Comics film (behind Watchmen’s $55.2 million). But like Watchmen, a seemingly glorious opening (a $55 million debut for a 2.5 hour R-rated superhero drama based on a cult property) is considered troubling due to fears about its staying power and overspending. Green Lantern cost about $200 million to produce, with another $150 million going towards marketing efforts. The film had a poor 2.4x weekend multiplier and earned only a B from Cinemascore. This does not guarantee that Green Lantern will follow Watchmen’s lightning-fast downward trajectory (the film didn’t even double its opening weekend, ending with $107 million). But with mediocre word of mouth, generally poor reviews, and brutal competition coming just down the pike (Cars 2 next weekend, Transformers: Dark of the Moon a few days after that), the best that Warner can hope for domestically is an around 3x multiplier for a $155 million finish. Warner and DC Comics will have to be counting on overseas numbers to carry the day.
The core problem, as it often is, was the decision to spend ‘sequel money’ on an original film. Point being, you generally try to hedge your bets with the first film and blow your wad on the second picture. Spider-Man 2 may have cost $220 million, but that was only after the $130 million-budgeted Spider-Man grossed $400 million domestic. But with rewrites and extra money allocated for a rushed and FX-heavy shoot, Martin Campbell’s attempt to create a new superhero franchise ended up costing about what Green Lantern 2 should have cost. As for marketing costs (which is technically separate from production budgets), it was yet another case of saturation marketing that was painfully unnecessary since most of the film wasn’t complete until late in the game. The studio released a terrible teaser last November and had been playing catch up ever since. Later, more outer-space themed trailers played better with the hardcore fans, but Warner [...]

By Kim Palacios
hollywoodnews.com: The ivory pleated halter dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in the 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch” was sold for $4.2M at auction on Saturday. The garment was sold alongside a number of other pieces that were part of singer/actress Debbie Reynolds’ personal collection of movie memorabilia.
Dubbed “the subway dress”, the white frock became famous when, as part of the scene, Monroe’s nameless character (“The Girl”) lowered her hands to maintain a modicum of modesty when a rush of air blows her dress upward through a subway vent.
Also auctioned off was the red-sequined showgirl gown and a feathered hat Monroe wore in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” ($1.47M), Monroe’s costumes from “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “River of No Return” ($1.2M), said CNN. The previous record price for a Monroe dress was $1.26 million paid in 1999 for the dress the actress wore when she sang President John F. Kennedy the birthday song in 1962.
Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
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HollywoodNews.com: Zooey Deschanel isn’t like other women in Hollywood, and that probably even holds true with her take on working out.
Deschanel revealed to ‘Self’ that she doesn’t want to be someone who works out to stay skinny, states OMG!. “That’s so boring, and it seems like a depressing goal for a modern woman. I work out to be healthy and because I like it,” Deschanel admitted.
And because that is her goal, she finds herself taking a lot of different classes that help her learn new skills.
Do you like her approach?
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Image by PR Photos

By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: During his sit down on Bravo’s “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” Jim Carrey floored me with his range.
No, not the range of his facial expressions, which undoubtedly are as rubber as advertised. But the range of the projects that he chooses. Pure-bred comedies like “The Mask” and “Dumb and Dumber” are offset with deeper, human dramas like “The Truman Show” or “Man On the Moon.” The common denominator in each, whether it’s “Ace Ventura” or “Eternal Sunshine,” is Carrey … who is terrific in virtually everything.
Carrey’s latest is another for the kids. “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” casts the comedian as a corporate executive who reconnects with his estranged family with the help of six scene-stealing penguins. And while the film is getting good reviews, it was Carrey’s antics on the publicity trail that turned our heads.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9-nVxGqq_w&feature=related
For decades, Jim Carrey has been committed to entertaining us, both on screen and off. And that’s why, with “Penguins” pleasing families this Father’s Day weekend, we are very pleased to announce that Jim Carrey has been named our “Hollywood Movie Star of the Week.”

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Photo courtesy of PRPhotos.com.

By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: Good news, “Transformers” fans. You won’t have to wait quite as long to bathe in the robot chaos Michael Bay plans on unleashing later this month.
Paramount Pictures revealed that the third installment in the blockbuster franchise woul open a day earlier than planned … in truth, a few hours earlier than planned. The new opening for “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” will be Tuesday, June 28, at 9 p.m. The film will be available in virtually every format: 2D, 3D and IMAX.
“Michael Bay has created an incredibly engaging and immersive 3D experience with this latest movie, one that will undoubtedly be among the most entertaining movie going experiences of the summer,” said Paramount’s Vice Chairman Rob Moore. “Providing fans an opportunity to see it early in 3D is a great way to kick off the movie’s opening.”
I love that the July 4 opener now opens on June 28. In box office speak, “Dark of the Moon” is going to have a seven-day weekend. Big! Just as Bay likes it.

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By Kim Palacios
hollywoodnews.com: The Twilight Saga’s Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning will be seen on screen yet again at the HollyShorts film fest, where a short in which they act “Cutlass”, will be screened on opening night. The film (directed by Kate Hudson) released in 2007, quite some time before the pair worked together on “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”, the film set most commonly linked to their acquaintance. Subsequent to their work on “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”, they went on to co-star in “The Runaways” in which Stewart played Joan Jett and Fanning played real-life bandmate Cherie Currie.
With a mission of “showcasing the best and brightest short films from around the globe”, the 7th annual HollyShorts Film Festival will run from August 11th to 18th in Hollywood. Other opening night features will include shorts directed by Jennifer Aniston, Rachel Weisz, and Kristen Kiwi Smith, and acted by Robin Wright, Kris Kristofferson, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Anna Faris, among others.
“Cutlass” follows a middle-aged woman, Robin (played by Virginia Madsen) as she reminisces about her teenage years and her first car, an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. The tale is told alongside Robin’s consideration of her own daughter, Lacy, as she comes of age. Stewart plays a young Robin. Fanning plays teenager Lacy.
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HollywoodNews.com: Relativity Media announced today that it has acquired worldwide rights to market and distribute Bandito Brothers’ Act of Valor. The groundbreaking film is an intense action-thriller which showcases an elite group of active duty Navy SEALs and co-stars Roselyn Sanchez (Rush Hour 2) and Emilio Rivera (Traffic). The studio is targeting a 2012 release date.
The film is directed by ex-stuntmen and documentary filmmakers/commercial directors Mike “Mouse” McCoy (Dust to Glory) and Scott Waugh (Step Into Liquid) and written by Kurt Johnstad (300).
Act of Valor follows a Navy SEAL squad on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent, and in the process takes down a complex web of terrorist cells determined to strike America at all costs. The filmmakers had unprecedented Naval access resulting in high-octane combat sequences and never-before-seen military operation scenes which are composited from actual events in the lives of the men appearing in the film and their comrades.
McCoy and Waugh are producing for Bandito Brothers and the company’s COO Max Leitman is executive producer. Legendary Pictures Chairman and CEO Thomas Tull, who is personally an investor in Bandito, executive produced along with Jason Clark (Monster House).
Tucker Tooley, Relativity’s President of Worldwide Production said, “Act of Valor is truly one-of-a-kind—ripped from today’s headline-making heroic missions, an incredibly crafted film featuring active duty Navy SEALs, in a remarkable and fast-paced story that will give audiences an authentic inside glimpse and make them proud of America’s finest. We’re honored to add this unbelievably entertaining and gripping film to Relativity’s 2012 slate.”
“The world has always had deep admiration for these men who continually risk their lives to protect our freedom,” says Waugh.
“To witness their incredible brotherhood and to tell their actual stories was inspirational and such a privilege,” adds McCoy.
The deal with Relativity was negotiated by WME Global’s Graham Taylor and Liesl Copland.
Bandito Brothers is repped by ICM.
Looking ahead, Relativity will release David Ellis’ Shark Night 3D on September 2, 2011 and then the highly-anticipated Immortals on November 11th, 2011, starring Henry Cavill, Stephen Dorff, Isabel Lucas, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, Kellan Lutz with John Hurt and Mickey Rourke. The studio is in production on its Untitled Snow White Project (in theatres March 16, 2012), starring Lily Collins as Snow White, Oscar®-winner Julia Roberts as the evil Queen, Armie Hammer as Prince Andrew Alcott, and Nathan Lane as the hapless and bungling servant to the Queen. Relativity’s [...]

By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: Robert Downey Jr. made a surprise appearance at the Hero Complex Film Festival on Sunday to join his “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau and discuss that franchise, the “Avengers” film (which he’s currently shooting in New Mexico), and the way Marvel is handling this ever-expanding universe.
A lot of their discussion centered around Favreau’s involvement in a third “Iron Man,” which will be directed by “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” helmer Shane Black.
“I love the franchise and I’m a big fan of Shane’s as well, so hopefully I can be helpful because I want to see this thing grow and transform,” Favreau said. “And actually, when it finally landed on Shane, it was like, ‘All right, that’s gonna be something interesting.’ Especially because it’s gonna be so difficult for whoever does that one because although it’s ‘Iron Man 3,’ the whole ‘Avengers’ thing.
“I guess in comics you can say that it’s an individual storyline and you can break it off into a group,” Favreau continued. “But in movies, it’s hard not to take into consideration what just happened. What are you gonna say? ‘They all just lost their cell phones and you can’t get help?’ So it’s going to take a lot of ingenuity to make it make sense to a mainstream film audience as well as a comic book audience.”
When asked how the “Avengers” shoot was going, including the challenge of getting so many characters on the same page, Downey joked, “I usually start off the morning by refusing to do what I’ve signed on to do. Anyway, I just went, ‘How are you going to put all of us clowns together? He’s wearing a suit, he’s all jacked up, he’s so-and-so and, ahh, poor Mark Ruffalo … what’s he gonna … do to us?’ And we’re about 6 weeks in and I gotta say Joss Whedon is nailing it. He’s so smart and he’s so good and it’s going to be great. I can’t believe I just said it, I never could have believed it. It’s going to be great.”
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By Kim Palacios
hollywoodnews.com: “K-11” is the baby of Jules Mann-Stewart, writer/director of the film and mother of “Twilight” mega-star, Kristen. The film appeared to be building steam after Variety’s March announcement that the project had finally secured financing. Yet, several recent developments indicate that Stewart will not be starring in the film, as had originally been believed.
For months, IMDB Pro had “K-11” listed as a rumored project for Stewart, referencing her role as that of autistic transgender prison inmate Butterfly. Not only has IMDB Pro removed this listing from Stewart’s profile in recent weeks—it has kept listings of other rumored cast, such as Goran Visnjic and D.B. Sweeney.
Another indicator: actor-targeted computer app, Actsophia, posted a casting call announcement on its Facebook page on June 1st, announcing that “Pam Dixon is casting “K-11”” and mentioning role descriptions including this one: “BUTTERFLY 19 Redhead Tiny Beauty”.
In terms of Stewart’s production schedule, “Snow White and the Huntsman” is slated to begin shooting in September. Stewart is also listed for a role in “Backwoods”, a short that is also slated to be played by Julianne Moore. “K-11” was originally slated to begin filming in June or July, yet concrete cast details remain nonexistent.
Also casting doubt on Stewart’s intention to act in the film is the fact that her role as Butterfly was rarely (if ever) discussed by Stewart herself. It was mostly discussed by Stewart’s “Twilight” co-star Nikki Reed, who first commented in March 2009 to MTV News: “Kristen is playing a boy, and I am playing a man who is quite a few years older than she is. I am working more on my accent.” Reed since announced her departure from the project in April 2010.
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By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: J.J. Abrams’ homage to the early days of Steven Spielberg, “Super 8,” isn’t going to make Spielberg-level dollars at the box office in its opening weekend, but it will do pretty well for a film that doesn’t have major movie stars and spent most of its marketing campaign hiding the movie’s biggest secrets.
“Super 8,” about Ohio teenagers dodging the alien loose in their town, earned an estimated $12 million on Friday. Tack on the $1 million the film grabbed on an early Thursday opening and THR reports that Abrams’ film could post as much as $36 million on the weekend.
Hot on “Super 8’s” heels is last week’s box office winner “X-Men: First Class,” which took in roughly $8 million on Friday. Abrams’ film should be able to hold off Matthew Vaughn’s mutant adventure and maintain the box office lead, but we’ll have final estimates on Sunday afternoon.
In other box office news, Todd Phillips’ “Hangover” sequel crossed the $200M mark by grabbing $6 million Friday night.
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