Harrison Ford Among Those Eyed To Join Asa Butterfield In Ender's Game

Right before Asa Butterfield spent a weekend in New York doing press for Hugo, it was all but announced that he would be starring in Ender's Game, an adaptation of Orson Scott Card's landmark children's novel. But of course, Butterfield couldn't confirm anything, so he spent the weekend hedging questions about Ender while smiling in a way that suggested it was totally in the bag. Now it really is official, according to Variety and Butterfield's own Twitter feed, and it's time for a bigger name actor to join Butterfield in the cast.

Variety's report says that several high-profile actors are being eyed to play Colonel Hyrum Graff, the commander of the military unit that recruits expert child gamer Ender. Viggo Mortensen had been their goal for a while, but apparently the producers are shifting directions and looking at several options, including Harrison Ford. Given that the character's name basically sounds like the kind of "harumph" the constantly grumpy Ford might give, he's kind of perfect for the role, though it's unclear why Ford would sign on for a film that could easily land him in a franchise-- there are several Ender books by Orson Scott Card. Isn't the general assumption that Ford is quasi-retired, and only shows up when there's easy money or the chance to wear a cowboy hat? Not that he wouldn't be great in Ender's Game, but I just have a hard time seeing him taking the role.

Regardless of who winds up playing the main adult role, Gavin Hood is still directing the film, which is set for a March 15, 2013 release from Summit Entertainment.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 Breaks Five Hundred Million Dollars At The Global Box Office

There’s cause to celebrate for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. The film, which made its grand debut earlier this month, has already surpassed a half a billion dollars worldwide. That’s not a bad haul for twelve days in the theater and while things are bound to taper off at the box office, the film will probably continue to rake in even more cash as fans return for more or finally get around to seeing it.

Summit broke the news today, sharing the huge success at the global box office for the first part in the two-part adaptation of the final installment in Stephenie Meyer’s teen-vampire romance series. Summit’s release says the film has grossed more than $508 million globally since the film’s release on November 18, 2011. Just under half of that ($223 million) was earned domestically, which puts the movie among the top 12 films to reach $220 million in 10 days. That seems like a very specific milestone but I suppose it’s notable, especially to those who benefit from such a financial success.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 follows vampire Edward and his true love Bella down the aisle and off to a romantic honeymoon. A scary pregnancy and lots of drama (and blood, I hear) ensues. The franchise only has more money to make, not only from future screenings of Part 1 and the inevitable DVD/Blu-ray release, but from the second part, which is set to hit theaters next fall.

Jesse Eisenberg Sues Over Misleading Camp Hell DVD Cover

Lionsgate and Grindstone Entertainment are facing a lawsuit filed by Jesse Eisenberg over the DVD cover of the low budget horror film Camp Hell. The DVD cover art prominently features The Social Network stars name and face, which is apparently a major oversell in terms of Eisenberg’s involvement in the movie.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Eisenberg is suing Lionsgate and Grindhouse over the cover, “for allegedly turning his less-than-five-minute cameo in the horror flick Camp Hell into an above-the-title star turn. The complaint states that the actor is suing in order to warn his fans that, despite how it looks on the DVD cover, he’s not the star of the film, nor does he play a prominent role in the movie. He’s also looking for $3 million in damages. Considering that’s more than what it cost to make the movie, they may as well have hired him to star in it to begin with.

John Carter Gets A Brand New Poster

The new trailer for Disney's John Carter is scheduled to arrive online this Thursday. Last week the news brought six new stills from the film, which showed off the stunning landscapes, alien creatures, and star Taylor Kitsch. But just as I predicted, the marketing is only starting to ramp up and today we have a brand new poster

Starring Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Hayden Church, and Willem Dafoe, John Carter makes the live-action debut of Pixar director Andrew Stanton, whose previous films include A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and WALL-E. His new film, based on the novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is about a civil war veteran who is mysteriously transported to Mars. Dealing with strange creatures and discovered abilities on the red planet, he must both try to find a way home and save a princess from a life of misery.

Beginners And Tree Of Life Tie For Top Gotham Independent Film Award

The first film awards show of the season is also among the smallest, but it's always good to kick off the back-patting and celebrating with the Gotham Independent Film Awards, which celebrate the kind of small-scale indies that typically get clobbered when the Oscars roll around. The prizes were handed out last night, and for the first time in the 21-year history of the Gothams, there was a tie for Best Picture. Both Beginners, Mike Mills's autobiographical dramedy about the death of his father, and Terrence Malick's Tree of Life shared the Best Picture prize, with Beginners also taking home the Best Ensemble trophy.

Though both Beginners and Tree of Life are in the hunt for Oscars, though possibly not for Best Picture, the rest of the Gothams went to films that likely won't factor there at all. Felicity Jones, who won the Best Actress prize at the Sundance Film Festival, added another trophy for that performance, taking home Breakthrough Actor for her indie Like Crazy, and beating out bigger names like Martha Marcy May Marlene's Elizabeth Olsen and The Descendants' Shailene Woodley in the process. Pariah director Dee Rees won Breakthrough Director, and Better This World, a documentary about two young American men arrested on terrorist charges, won Best Documentary. The award for Best Film Not Playing In A Theater Near You went to Scenes of a Crime, a documentary about police interrogation that played a series of festivals this year.

What's nice about the Gothams is that you don't really need to tie them into a larger awards narrative, or try to figure out how these awards might give people heat for the rest of awards season. These are just statues that reward good work, and with such a solid slate of nominees, every winner is more than deserving. You can check out a lot of the winning performances and films on DVD or in theaters right now too, so really, everybody wins.

Tom Hanks Heading Back Into Battle For WWII-Era Drama

Tom Hanks, Oscar-winning star of Saving Private Ryan and producer behind Band of Brothers, hopes to be heading back to war for an adaptation of Erik Larson’s non-fiction best-seller In the Garden of Beasts.

Universal has optioned the rights to Larson’s story for Hanks and his producing shingle, Playtone, and will position it as a vehicle for the leading man, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Hanks would play William Dodd, America’s ambassador to Berlin in the early 1930s who gradually realized the atrocities that were being conducted around him as World War II escalated. Adding to the mix, according to the trade, is Dodd’s daughter Martha, who was romantically involved with Gestapo officials and even dated a Societ spy, no doubt complicating matters for Dodd.

The scenario appears to create a lot of gray area in which Hanks, an immensely talented actor who’s rarely tested, can explore. The actor’s an obvious student of history, and shows an overwhelming fascination in WWII. This passion can only help Beasts as it works its way to the screen.

Now we’re left to wonder if Hanks can lure his Band of Brothers collaborator Steven Spielberg back over to Universal – where he create so many masterpieces – for yet another WWII drama. If that would be the case, it might put Beasts on a temporary backburner, as Spielberg’s busy shooting Lincoln. But wouldn’t it be worth the wait? So long as Hanks doesn’t try to direct it himself, for as much as I love That Thing You Do!, I don’t think any of us can risk seeing Larry Crowne behind enemy lines.

Bret McKenzie Hints At A Possible Flight Of The Conchords Movie

While walking the red carpet for James Bobin’s The Muppets -- to which he served as music supervisor -- Bret McKenzie told The Hollywood Reporter that a feature film structured around the comedy-musical duo Flight of the Conchords is on his radar, but rabid fans might want to slow the hell down because, you know, movies take time.

“We’re gonna try and do a movie,” McKenzie told the trade. “We just need a story.”

Obviously. And when pressed on the matter a little bit further, McKenzie joked, “I’m gonna go back to New Zealand tomorrow, maybe film it next week. And then edit it the week after… I don’t know how familiar you are with movies, but there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that could take one or two weeks. Probably in about a month we’ll have a premiere.”

As if McKenzie actually had the time. He’s currently filming a part in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, where he’ll play Lindir, the Elf of Rivendell. “I’ve never seen anything so massive,” McKenzie says of Jackson’s adaptation.

As for Conchord, sure, it’s great to hear that he’s like to make a Flight movie with colleague Jemaine Clement. But is this going to become the new Arrested Development, where McKenzie’s asked about little else until a movie reaches theaters? They don’t even have a story yet. They’d like to make a movie. Of course they’d like to make a movie! Who wouldn’t? And while I like Conchords, I’d rather hear about a Wire or Sopranos feature film if we’re talking HBO adaptations … and something tells me we’re just as close to those

Vin Diesel's Chronicles of Riddick Sequel Reportedly Secures Funding

Fans who subscribe to Vin Diesel’s Facebook page (I’m not joking) already know two things. One, Vin loves you. He says it all of the time. Second, he’s passionate about making a third Chronicles of Riddick film with writer/director/collaborator David Twohy. He has shared Riddick-inspired artwork and potential costume design with fans through social media, but has kept mum on specific details. Production on a Pitch Black sequel hit a snag when money dried up, but TMZ says the wheels are turning once again as cash flows back into Riddick’s coffers.

The gossip site says that the Montreal studio where parts of the sequel are being filmed has opened its doors to cast and crew now that the production company footing the bills has paid off its debt. The site even says that disgruntled Riddick crew members who went a while without being paid can expect to see compensation “in the very near future.” As TMZ states, this is but one step back toward a Riddick sequel reaching theaters, but it’s a major step for what’s expected to be a moderately-budgeted sci-fi thriller.

And why not bankroll Diesel on this effort? You know he;s passionate about the character. The Fast and Furious films demonstrate his bankability as an action star. And yet, Universal’s last stab at a Riddick film – 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick -- tapped out at $57.7 million against a reported $105 million production budget. The keys for Diesel and crew, now that money’s available, will be to tighten the budget, squeeze every penny out of the expense report, and deliver a slam-bang Riddick film that fans of all generations will want to see.

According to TMZ, filming on this untitled Riddick sequel resumes on Dec. 28, which probably explains Diesel’s latest status update, “I have a good feeling about this winter …”

Curtis Hanson Has To Hand His Surf Drama Over To Michael Apted

Complications surrounding Curtis Hanson’s recent heart surgery will force the L.A. Confidential director to step away from his curtly-shooting picture, Of Men and Mavericks, though he’ll receive support from an equally qualified filmmaker who’ll step in a guide the production for a few days.

Michael Apted, award-winning director of the Up documentary series, will take over Hanson’s Northern California set and complete the final 15 days of principal photography on the director’s surfing drama, Deadline reports. Men, produced by Walden Media, tells the true story of surfer Jay Moriarty, who conquered a specific break off of California’s coast that became known as Mavericks. Newcomer Jonny Weston is on board playing Moriarty in the film. He’ll be joined by Gerard Butler, Abigail Spencer and Elisabeth Shue.

Apted’s no stranger to feature film work, having helmed the most recent Chronicles of Narnia film (for Walden), the James Bond thriller The World Is Not Enough, Jodie Foster’s Nell and Gorillas In the Mist.

It’s unclear just how much footage Apted will have to shoot for Hanson, or whether Hanson will be back in time to begin the editing process. As of right now, Men has scheduled an October 2012 release, which should give Hanson time to complete a final cut should he be able to overcome these unfortunate health complications that have popped up due to his surgery. Though Hanson helmed the TV movie Too Big to Fail, about our nation’s financial meltdown, his last theatrical release was 2007’s Lucky You with Drew Barrymore, and his fans were hoping he could rebound with a winning drama. We’re pulling for Hanson, for his health, and for Of Men and Mavericks.

John Lithgow Joins Ferrell And Galifianakis In Dog Fight

John Lithgow has proven to be just as adept at comedy as he is at drama. The success of the '90's sitcom 3rd Rock From the Sun is one example of that. The actor has a number of projects coming up, among which is a role in Warner Bros' comedy Dog Fight alongside Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis.

Variety posted the news, stating that the film is set to be directed by Jay Roach (Austin Powers) and follows two rival politicians (Ferrell and Galifianakis) as they run for a congressional seat in a small North Carolina District Election. Variety doesn’t specify what role Lithgow will play in the film, only that he's been cast. This is pure speculation here but perhaps he’ll be another, more serious (and possibly villainous) rivaling politician, or perhaps the father to Ferrell or Galifianakis’ character.

In recent years, Lithgow has appeared in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and CBS’ How I Met Your Mother. He also delivered and excellent, Emmy-winning performance as Arthur Mitchell (aka Trinity) in Season 4 of Showtime’s Dexter. Coming up, he’s see to appear in New Year’s Eve and further down the line, Judd Apatow’s This is 40.

Daniel Craig Is Suited Up On Set For Skyfall in Trafalgar Square

Daniel Craig was suited up and looking fittingly dapper on the set of the latest installment of the James Bond franchise Skyfall. While not much is known about the movie, beyond the title and the cast, at the very least, these photos indicate that Bond hasn’t lost his sense of fashion.

The last set photo we posted told us that Scene 45 of the much anticipated 2012 Bond film was taking place in a bathroom, and not a very nice one at that.












Just Jared posted more recent photos, which were taken in London’s Trafalgar Square last Saturday and feature Daniel Craig as Bond, dressed in a suit and long-ish jacket. Check out two of them below.


There isn’t really much to say about the above photos other than that Craig looks really good dressed up, but we already knew that. Most of the photos posted at Just Jared show people in the background. Trafalger Square’s known to be a bit touristy, but it’s also a pretty fantastic looking location. It’ll be interesting to see what’s filmed there and how much of it makes it into the movie.

Kate Beckinsale Points Her Massive Gun In Four Underworld: Awakening Images

Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is back in action and loaded for battle as Underworld: Awakening prepares to open early next year. In anticipation of the fourth Underworld film (and the first to be filmed in 3Dm using RED EPIC digital cameras), Screen Gems has released four images from the upcoming production. As you might have guessed, they feature the goth Beckinsale decked in leather and pointing a blazing hand cannon. We have them below.














Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein are directing Awakening, though the script is credited to original helmer Len Wiseman, John Hlavin, and Allison Burnett. The plot involves a war between vampires, Lycan, and humankind – who has discovered the existence of the previous two monster races, and is uniting in an effort to eradicate them from the face of the earth. Selene joins forces with her fellow creatures to fight back against humans. She’s aided in her quest by Detective Sebastian (Michael Ealy), Eve (India Eisley), Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea) and Quint (Kris Holden-Ried).

Just don’t expect to see Scott Speedman returning to the role of Michael Corvin, from the original film. The actor has said in multiple interviews that he will not be reprising his role, though true franchise fans hope he’s just throwing them off of his scent. We’ll know soon enough, as Underworld: Awakening opens in theaters on Jan. 20, 2012.

Rachel Weisz Hops Aboard The Railway Man With Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine

Adding Rachel Weisz to virtually any project instantly makes it better (Dream House being a recent exception to this hard-and-fast rule), so I’m thrilled to report that she’s joining fellow Oscar winner Colin Firth in Jonathan Teplitzky’s The Railway Man, due in theaters in 2013.

The film adapts Eric Lomax’s biography of his time spent as a WWII prisoner of war in a Japanese camp. The planned film would cover two distinct time periods in Lomax’s life: His years being tortured on the Japanese “Death Railway,” and the post-war era where an older Lomax came to terms with his suffering and sought out the man who abused him.

War Horse star Jeremy Irvine signed on to play young Lomax in the film, while Firth will wrestle with the character in his later years. The Daily Mail, which breaks Weisz’s casting, says the actress will appear alongside Firth playing Patti Wallace, Lomax’s wife who helps him heal – physically and emotionally – from his cruel, war-inflicted punishments.

It’s a bigger part than you might think, as the Mail says it was Wallace who, in an effort to help her husband get over his obstacles, reached out to the men who abused him during the war while also encouraging her spouse to stand up to his demons. The pieces are in place for a gut-wrenching drama, with a stellar cast embracing what could be difficult material. Right now, The Railway Man has a 2013 release date, but don’t be surprised in Lionsgate tries to work this into next year’s Oscar race, if the finished product lives up to its potential.

Breaking Dawn Beats The Muppets In Early Holiday Box Office Results

 

Even with a ton of great new movies opening this weekend, The Twilight Saga appears to be unstoppable over the Thanksgiving holiday. According to the earliest box office estimates at Deadline, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is poised to win the weekend with an estimated $58 million, after making $12.5 million. That is, of course, on top of the $300+ million it had already made worldwide.

The good news for fans of the week's new releases is that a lot of them are doing just fine at as well-- The Muppets made an estimated $7.3 million yesterday, putting it on track for a $50 million weekend and a firm second place. And while the delightful Arthur Christmas is behind Happy Feet Two, with just $2.8 million yesterday, it still could make $22 million for the weekend, which isn't nothing. Both The Muppets and Arthur Christmas have also earned A and A- Cinema Scores, respectively, which means moviegoers may continue coming back to them even after the mega holiday weekend is over.

As for Martin Scorsese's Hugo, it opened on far fewer screens than The Muppets and Arthur Christmas, it's having a smaller weekend as a result-- right now it's estimated for $11 million for the weekend, which is of course just a tiny fraction of its massive budget. But by opening it on fewer theaters Paramount is clearly setting it up to be more of a long-term success, so don't weep for Scorsese just yet.

We'll keep an eye on the box office throughout the weekend as more numbers come through. In the meantime, go eat some turkey!

Film Rights For Jon Robin Baitz's Stage Play Other Desert Cities Picked Up

Brothers & Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz hasn't had a feature film produced in a few years (2006's People I Know, starring Al Pacino), but he may soon be headed back to the big screen courtesy of Broadway. Deadline reports that producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald have scooped up the movie rights to Baitz's play Other Desert Cities. Baitz himself will write the script for the adaptation, as well as co-producing with Parkes and MacDonald.

Other Desert Cities tells the story of an old Hollywood couple, played on the stage by Stacy Keach and Stockard Channing, who used to be friends with Ronald and Nancy Reagan. They retire to Palm Springs, but find any plans as peaceful golden years interrupted by their two children: one a reality TV producer and the other a novelist who has written a tell-all memoir that has unleashed every closet-skeleton the family owns. It is, in other words, the stuff that indie dramas and Oscar nominations are made of.

Other Desert Cities started its run at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre before moving to Broadway this month. There's no word whether Keach and Channing (pictured above) might be considered to reprise their roles from the stage or not, but it's early yet. This won't be producers Parkes and MacDonald's first stage-to-screen project; they previously produced Tim Burton's big-screen version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman.

Gary Oldman Turns Down Akira, Ken Watanabe Offered Role Instead

We've argued from the beginning that the cast of the upcoming Akira remake should be all Asian, but, sadly, it looks like Warner Bros. doesn't feel the same way. Since the project was reinvigorated with Jaume Collet-Serra replacing Allen And Albert Hughes at the helm, the only names mentioned during casting have been white actors like Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter and Ezra Miller. But will the entire crew become whitewashed? Not if the most recent rumor actually comes to pass.

According to Twitch, Gary Oldman has officially turned down the part of The Colonel in the Akira remake and now his Batman Begins co-star Ken Watanabe has been offered the role. Even before Oldman was rumored, there was talks of Morgan Freeman playing the role, though that was under the old regime. As the site points out, there are only two American projects that Wantanabe has done that haven't been under the Warner Bros. label, making the role an good fit. In the plot, The Colonel is the director of the secret government project that is holding Tetsuo, a powerful and potential dangerous psychic, in captivity. The story will be set in a futuristic New York City instead of Neo Tokyo and it's expected that the character's names will be changed.

Watanabe makes a lot of sense to play the role, but it's terrible that the choice is obviously for the wrong reasons. Thanks to his parts in Inception, Batman Begins and The Last Samurai, the actor is probably the most recognized Japanese thespian in America, and therefore a perfect way for WB to say that the entire movie isn't being whitewashed. Politics aside, what do you think of Ken Watanabe playing The Colonel?

Tom Hardy, Chris Pine Face Off In McG's This Means War Poster

Mention “Spy vs. Spy” to anyone my age and they’ll likely think of the classic Mad magazine cartoon with the pointy-faced antagonists planting bombs near each other with a gusto usually reserved for the cat and mouse in the Itchy and Scratchy cartoons. But that could change next February, when bombastic filmmaker McG (Charlie’s Angels) unleashes his explosive love triangle comedy This Means War, which finds rival spies Tom Hardy and Chris Pine fighting over Reese Witherspoon’s affections. A poster and two still were posted online today (via ComingSoon). We have them below.








Simon Kinberg co-writes War, which explains why it has a whiff of Mr. and Mrs. Smith mixed with the sexually charged interplay of his Sherlock Holmes screenplay. Yet the stunt work in the film’s extended trailer was surprisingly effective. McG’s first Angels was giddy fun. It was the sequel that bloated like a piece of bread dropped into water. And of course, his Terminator attempt was a dour slog thorugh an unfortunate future. This could be the reboot the director has needed for some time now.

He certainly has the right cast. Hardy and Pine have the potential to be the next tier of major action stars. Witherspoon’s beautiful enough to convince me that spies would jump off of building to earn her heart. And when you’re supporting cast includes David Koechner, Chelsea Handler, Angela Bassett, and Abigail Spencer, that’s enough to win me over. This Means War opens in theaters on Feb. 17, 2012.

Aaron Sorkin Strongly Considering Penning Steve Jobs' Biopic

Since the unfortunate death of Apple genius and tech-icon Steve Jobs and the news that Sony picked up the rights to the biopic, word was that Aaron Sorkin was Sony’s top pick to write the movie and for good reason.

E! Online posted an update on the Jobs biopic, which has Sorkin confirming that Sony has asked him to write the movie and that it’s something he’s “strongly considering.”

"Right now I'm just in the thinking-about-it stages," he said. "It's a really big movie and it's going to be a great movie no matter who writes it."

I’ll agree with the first part in that it's going to be a really big movie, and politely disagree with the comment that it'll be a great movie no matter who writes it. Perhaps he’s optimistic that Jobs’ story is so interesting, anyone could write it into a great movie, or maybe he’s just being modest. Either way, the film should be put into the hands of someone who knows how to translate a true and intriguing story into a film that’s both entertaining and fair. Sorkin has proven to be capable of just that and has the Oscar to prove it for penning The Social Network.

It’s easy to look at The Social Network now and say that the movie was destined to be as successful as the site that plays such a big role in the movie, however Facebook-The-Movie could have been a dull tale of tech-talk and smart Harvard kids bickering over who invented Facebook, had it not been for the good direction, good acting and most definitely, good writing.

Having recently rewatched Pirates of Silicon Valley, I’ve gained an even bigger appreciation for Sorkin’s contributions to The Social Network. The TV movie which focuses on Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and the Mac vs. PC tech-war in its earlier years, touches on some interesting elements, but it drags a lot and never really comes together as a story, nor do we ever really get to the root of Gates or Jobs as people. Certainly not in the way we see Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and some of the other people portrayed in The Social Network. Pirates gets close in some ways, but it never hits the mark. The Jobs biopic might turn out to be great with some other writer, but the chances seem even more favorable with Sorkin involved.

Spielberg's War Horse Set Up For Early Screenings This Weekend

We Bought A Zoo isn’t the only upcoming movie set to show screenings in select theaters this weekend. DreamWorks is apparently looking to give the upcoming Steven Spielberg film War Horse the early-screening treatment this weekend as well. The film will be headed to 10 cities this Sunday (November 27th).

According to the Hollywood Reporter, DreamWorks is set to hold “special word-of-mouth screenings” of War Horse, Spielberg’s latest adventure film about a friendship between a horse and the man who tames and trains him. The movie is based on a book and set to hit theaters late next month.

There will be a screening in New York City, followed by a Q&A with Spielberg, which will be broadcast via satellite to the nine other screenings and also streamed on MSN.com. Viewers at the screenings or watching online will be able to text in questions.

War Horse isn’t the only family friendly, and coincidentally, animal-centric film set to show early screenings this weekend. The Matt Damon movie We Bought a Zoo will also be available for an early look in select theaters this weekend. Families looking for a break from binging on Turkey leftovers and scouting for holiday shopping deals might want to check out one or both films, if they happen to be near one of the participating theaters.

Amber Heard Joins Dominic Cooper In Motor City

Amber Heard is a talented young actress, but she has had a pretty rotten go of it in 2011. The calendar year saw the release of Drive Angry 3D, The Ward and The Rum Diary, but all of them bombed at the box office and received little praise from critics. On the small screen she appeared in The Playboy Club, which was cancelled before it could complete its first season. Heard will likely turn things around in the coming years and that may start with Albert Hughes' Motor City.

According to Deadline, Amber Heard has been cast as the female lead in the upcoming revenge thriller. The site says that there was heavy competition for the part, though it doesn't list any of the other actresses that were being considered. The film is set to star Dominic Cooper in the lead role as a man who is released from prison and goes after the people that framed him for a crime that he didn't commit. We learned in September that Cooper got the role because producer Joel Silver was so fascinated by the actor's performance in The Devil's Double. Heard will next be seen in Aram Rappaport's Syrup, in which she stars alongside Kellan Lutz, Brittany Snow, and Shiloh Fernandez.

As much as I like both Cooper and Heard, the plot of this film sounds exactly like Faster, the action film starring Dwayne Johnson that wasn't exactly a super-sized hit last year. Let's hope that Hughes has a few tricks up his sleeve and a solid script to work with.

Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench Trying On Kenneth Branagh's Italian Shoes

Big casting news for Kenneth Branagh’s next directorial effort, Italian Shoes. Anthony Hopkins and Dame Judi Dench reportedly are close to signing on for the lead roles, playing former lovers who work to complete a dying woman’s wish, Variety reports.

Branagh's decision to pass on the chance to helm Thor 2 took me by surprise. The filmmaker poured his heart into Asgard’s warrior, crafting a stellar origin story that I’d thought he’d want to explore further. But he admitted in subsequent interviews that he hoped to transition from large-scale superhero epics to a small-scale character drama, and his selection continues to take shape.

Adding Hopkins and Dench to this project would be ideal for Branagh, giving the director two incredible talents for his material. Italian Shoes will be adapted by screenwriter Richard Cottan from the Swedish novel by author Henning Mankell. Branagh, who is scheduled to begin shooting toward the end of 2012, says that the parts are "tailor-made" for these Oscar-winning actors, and he has been developing the material with the two in mind.

"The nuance, delicacy and flavor is so based on the perfect casting," he said, adding that their casting "takes advantage of my long relationship with the pair of them."

Obviously, Branagh directed Hopkins in Thor. But he also co-starred with Dench in My Week With Marilyn, and directed her in both Henry V and Hamlet. Even without these previous relationships, however, it sounds like the roles in Mankell’s novel are custom-built for Dench and Hopkins, and with Branagh and the helm, this drama sounds potentially wonderful.

New The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Still Has Daniel Craig Being Hounded By Journalists

In David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, a damn fine journalist who is stuck in a bad situation. At the start of the story we learn that the character had written an article about a sleazy industrialist that turned out to be based on false information.

The result was Blomkvist being sued for libel , which, in Sweden, is punishable by not only a fine, but a jail sentence. Being a journalist, he immediately becomes a target for competing writers. Hence why the new still from the film features Craig looking quite pissed off while surrounded by recorders.

While it continues to feel as though it's still a long way away, after today there's less than one month until The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo arrives in theaters. Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, the movie co-stars Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright, Goran Visnjic, Joely Richardson and Joel Kinnaman.

Elle Fanning Will Be The Bomb For Sally Potter's Cold War Drama

Elle Fanning, breakout star of J.J. Abrams’ summer hit Super 8, continues to line up interesting acting projects. Dakota’s kid sister soon will be seen in Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo, alongside Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. And Deadline now reports that Fanning has been tapped to star in Bomb, a period drama written and directed by Sally Potter (Orlando, Yes).

Fanning would play a Cold War-era teenager caught up in her own personal struggle to save the world from nuclear annihilation, though her efforts cause serious rifts within her own family unit. Potter already has cast Alessandro Nivola for the film. He’ll star as an open-minded- charming writer (read: hippie) who enrages his teenager daughter by sleeping with her best friend. Come on, girl! It’s London in the 1960s. Free love. Stop with the hate.

Potter’s the latest filmmaker to fall head over heels in love with Fanning, a Critics’ Choice Award nominee in 2010 for her performance in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere. Of Fanning, Potter tells Deadline, “Elle has a subtlety and range beyond her years. Her unaffected enthusiasm for work is a joy. She can move you to tears and then light up the room with her radiant smile, the perfect presence at the center of this volatile story.”

Bomb sounds like another experimental effort from Potter, who continued to push the visual boundaries with her little seen Rage in 2009. This appears to be a step back toward a traditional narrative, and with Fanning on board, we’re ready to heat up the Cold War timeframe for the benefit of a drama once again.

The Dark Knight Rises Is Set 8 Years After The Dark Knight

After posting the cover images from their new story about The Dark Knight Rises, Empire Online has finally revealed a few details from the story itself, including one very small but very important tidbit that might change the way we anticipate this movie entirely. According to Christopher Nolan himself, The Dark Knight Rises doesn't pick up where The Dark Knight left off, with Batman on the run and Commissioner Gordon rebuilding Gotham; it takes place eight years later. Here's what Nolan told them:

"It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state.

You've got to love how Nolan understates how important this information is, claiming it is "perhaps surprising" that the movie takes place after an eight-year jump. In all the rampant speculation about The Dark Knight Rises that started pretty much the moment the last film came to theaters, I don't think many people ever really considered that the sequel would jump ahead so far in time. The leap does help take care of a number of narrative problems, though, from the fact that Batman on the run and in hiding wouldn't have made for much of a movie to simply eliminating Heath Ledger's The Joker from the story-- he was left alive and dangling from a building in The Dark Knight, but with eight years gone by there won't really be any reason for the citizens of Gotham to wonder where the crazy painted man went.

Tom Hardy also talked a little bit about the brutality of Bane, including some pretty detailed descriptions of exactly the ways in which his character causes pain. Here's a fairly graphic little snippet:

Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action."

Ouch. You can read more at Empire, but stick around here to participate in some good old-fashioned speculation. What is this eight-year jump going to mean for the movie? How will The Bat have changed?

Arnold Schwarzenegger Tweets Pic Of Head Injury From Set Of The Last Stand

It’s not a tumor! But it is a minor head injury that Arnold Schwarzenegger sustained on the set of The Last Stand, a border-patrol thriller that stars the ex-governor as an aging lawman who must make a – you guessed it – last stand when a high-profile drug kingpin escapes from the FBI and makes a dash toward Mexico. “Got a little banged up on set today. Thanks to the medical staff who got me back in action an hour later!” Schwarzenegger tweeted on his official Twitter page. Take a closer look below:




Schwarzenegger appears to be a pretty active Tweeter from director Jee-woon Kim’s set. Earlier, he shared a cast picture of himself, Luis Guzman, Johnny Knoxville and an armed Jaimie Alexander casually posed in costume. The 64-year-old ex-politician loves Twitter, posting shots with Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis from the set of Expendables 2 at one point, as well. Someone’s going to have to slap a Twitter embargo on this guy before long.

I think we’re all slightly interested in The Last Stand to see how the director of The Good, the Bad and the Weird figures out how to use this once-great action hero who might be past his prime. At least, from the looks of the Twit pic, Ah-nold’s giving it all that he has … spilling blood for the benefit of a stunt. Unless he tripped on his cane and banged his head on his trailer door. We may never know.

Breaking Dawn Has Fifth-Biggest Opening Weekend Ever At $139.5 Million

There's another installment of The Twilight Saga in theaters this weekend, so it's time to once again talk in shocked terms about just how much money a romantic vampire movie can pull in. After setting a franchise record with $30.3 million from midnight screenings, then spinning that into a $72 million opening day, Breaking Dawn is finally wrapping up its big weekend with an estimated $139.5 million domestic gross. If you include the worldwide showings, it's made $283.5 million. In three days. And what did you do with your weekend?

If you want to rank Breaking Dawn against all the movies that came before it, it now boasts the fifth-largest opening ever domestically, and the 10th best worldwide-- a stat that allowed it to jump past New Moon, which beat it with $142 million domestically but only grossed $274.9 million worldwide. Either way it's hard to deny that the Twilight movies continue to be massively, massively successful and important for any other studio that's trying to build similar franchises (you know Lionsgate is paying plenty of attention as they prepare to release The Hunger Games next year).

So with Breaking Dawn's big weekend over, and a ton of new Thanksgiving releases ready to rush in and fill the void, now's your last chance to chime in with your hate, love or carefully calculated indifference toward Twilight. Come on, you know you want to jump in the comments and whine just one more time. Go ahead, I won't yell at you this once. But starting Monday, we are officially over Twilight mania for another year. Deal?

Luke Wilson And Kevin Connolly Join Elvis & Nixon

 
Elvis & Nixon just got a little more star power added to it. The film, which will mark Carey Elwes’ directorial debut, is already set to star Eric Bana and Danny Huston, playing the the title characters respectively, and now Luke Wilson and Kevin Connolly have joined the cast.

Elvis & Nixon tells the story of Elvis Presley’s trip to Washington DC to meet President Nixon in 1970. Eric Bana is already set to play Presley and Huston, who played Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, among other roles, will play Tricky Dick (aka President Richard M. Nixon). The Hollywood Reporter posted the news that Kevin Connolly and Luke Wilson will be joining the cast of the indie film.

Wilson (Old School, The Royal Tenenbaums), is set to play Sonny, one of Elvis’ “Memphis Mafia.” Meanwhile Connolly, known for playing Eric in HBO’s Entourage, will play a limo driver. While Connolly isn’t quite what you'd call a huge name, he’s certainly well known enough that it might be safe to assume this limo driver will have a bit more to do than just drive.


Production could begin for Elvis & Nixon in Louisiana as soon as January.

Is George Clooney Looking To Play Steve Jobs In The Biopic?

There’s a rumor circulating that George Clooney may be “battling it out” with fellow former-ER star Noah Wyle to take on the lead role in the Steve Jobs biopic by Sony, which is set to be based on Walter Isaacson’s biography about the Apple mastermind.

The source of this rumor appears to be the U.K. tabloid Now Magazine, which states that Wyle and Clooney are going “head to head” to play the late Apple boss. The caption under the photo says, “George Clooney knows the part of Steve Jobs is an amazing part.” But, the site doesn’t specify where they got this information, nor do they offer any direct quotes, so it’s entirely possible this is just a rumor.

Entertaining the idea that Clooney does have his sights set on the part, can anyone see it? There are some actors that are virtual chameleons and have proven to be able to make us forget how dreamy they are by distracting us with an outstanding performance. Clooney has had some strong performances over the course of his career, but would he be capable of delivering one that’s so good, we forget we’re looking at George Clooney and believe we’re looking at Steve Jobs? Noah Wyle, on the other hand, did that fairly well in the Pirates of Silicon Valley.

Pirates was a TV movie that told the story of the feud between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The movie itself was just ok, dragging in parts, but Noah Wyle and Anthony Michael Hall both managed to deliver strong performances as Jobs and Gates respectively. Wyle was almost unrecognizable from the Dr. John Carter ER had come to know and love over the course of the series run. Given the choice between Clooney and Wyle, Clooney seems like the better fit. But, assuming this rumor is true, what are the odds that Wyle would be brought back to play the same part?

Breaking Dawn Has Third-Biggest Opening Day Ever With $72 Million Box Office

As you might have guessed from our midnight box office report, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 is completely tearing up the box office this weekend and is only getting strong. Early results are in from Friday, and according to Deadline the movie earned $72 million on Friday, good enough to become the third-biggest domestic opening day of all time, behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and another Twilight movie, New Moon.

That Friday take puts Breaking Dawn on pace for an opening weekend in the range of $140 million, probably just behind New Moon's massive total. The movie has already grossed $138 million worldwide, so by the time this weekend is over, the penultimate Twilight movie will be well on its way toward making back its budget. None of this is a surprise, of course, and the executives at Summit are probably already salivating about the potential of making Breaking Dawn Part 2 even more successful when it opens in theaters this time next year.

The odd thing about all of this is that Breaking Dawn received a predictably high CinemaScore rating of B+ from fans, but has gotten some of the worst reviews in the franchise's history, with a 27% Rotten Tomatoes score that puts it below even New Moon. You can come up with your own reasons that the worst-reviewed movies in the Twilight franchise are also the most financially successful, but I'm still a little baffled by the bad reviews for Breaking Dawn-- sure, it's not a good movie, but maybe even more fun to sit through than the previous ones. Maybe Twilight mania has gotten so intense that even critics are ready to strike back.

Angelina Jolie Interested In Playing Gertrude Bell, The Female Lawrence Of Arabia

Recently, when we lobbied for quality biopics (in the wake of Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar), none of us went with Gertrude Bell, an explorer and archaeologist who pioneered the formation of the Middle East alongside the legendary T.E. Lawrence. Yet now that Angelina Jolie’s expressing interest in playing Bell, expect the project to rush through the pipeline and land in theaters sooner rather than later.

The Hollywood Reporter says Jolie “is taking steps” toward playing Bell in a feature being developed by Ridley Scott (with the possibility that he’d direct). As the trade mentions, Bell was known as the “Female Lawrence of Arabia,” tearing down stereotypes as she helped establish national borders in the male-dominated Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century.

Jolie sounds like the ideal choice to play this headstrong historical figure. Wouldn’t you rather see her as Bell in a Scott biopic than attempting to play Cleopatra in that rumored production?

Most of us are just curious to see how Jolie fares as a director. Her debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, recently released a trailer ahead of its Dec. 23 release. As for Scott, he’s circling a number of projects that could keep him from helming a Bell biopic, from an oft-discussed, live-action Monopoly adaptation to a Blade Runner prequel/sequel hybrid. But I’ll be honest. If the Bell story moves forward with Jolie in the lead, I’d feel much better with Scott at the helm … and maybe it would prevent him from making one of those less-interesting-sounding features.

David Fincher Reteams With Se7en Writer For 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Over the course of his 19 year career, David Fincher has never worked with the same writer twice. From Jim Uhls on Fight Club to Aaron Sorkin on The Social Network, he's created a filmmography with a great deal of variety, but also with his signature. This was going to continue with 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, as the script was written by Scott Z. BUrns, Michael Chabon, Justin Marks, Bill Marsilii and Randall Wallace, none of whom Fincher has worked with before. But now a new writer, one from very early in the director's career, is coming back to collaborate with Fincher again.

Deadline has learned that Andrew Kevin Walker, who is best known for writing the 1995 serial killer classic Se7en, has signed on to "work on" the script for David Fincher's adaptation of the classic Jules Verne novel. When I recently spoke with Scott Z. Burns, he told me that the film that is being developed will bear little resemblance to the source material. Instead, the project will focus more on the three central characters: Captain Nemo, French marine biologist Professor Pierre Aronnax, and master harpoonist Ned Land. In addition to Se7en, Walker's other credits include Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, 8MM and, most recently, 2010's The Wolfman.

Obviously it is unknown at this point how the new writers draft will differ from the script that already exists. What is interesting is that Walker typically works on darker material - will 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea continue that trend? We'll just have to wait and see.

DiCaprio, Mulligan And Maguire Together In Costume On The Great Gatsby Set

Based on the latest set photos to surface from Baz Luhrmann’s 3D take on The Great Gatsby, the 1920’s don’t look so bad on Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. Catch a glimpse of the trio in costume on the set of the film.

Just Jared posted the photos, which were taken at Centennial Park in Sydney, Australia and show Mulligan, DiCaprio, and Maguire dressed up and ready for action (or a post WWI life of Long Island luxury and drama). DiCaprio will play the title character, Jay Gatsby in Luhrmann’s 3D adaptation of Fitzgerarld’s novel, while Mulligan and Maguire will portray Daisy Buchanan and Nick Carraway respectively. Judging by the photos below, all of them look especially good in a ’20’s setting.

Then again, when don’t they look good? Between the setting and the costumes, seeing DiCaprio as Gatsby is like a look at an alternate future for Titanic’s Jack, had he lived to age and acquire a lot more money than he had when he boarded the ill-fated ship.

David O. Russell's The Silver Linings Playbook To Drop Next Thanksgiving

Earlier today, People Magazine caused quite a stir when they announced their pick for the sexiest man alive and chose The Hangover star Bradley Cooper. Since the announcement the internet has been ablaze with debate, as people have expressed either their support of Cooper or disdain, believing that someone else should have received the honor. But for those fans that are happy that Cooper got the top spot, it's now a double dose of good news for you today.

Box Office Mojo has learned that The Silver Linings Playbook, the new film from director David O. Russell and starring Bradley Cooper, has officially landed a November 21, 2012 release date aka Thanksgiving weekend. The movie also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker and Jacki Weaver. Based on the novel by Matthew Quick (and adapted by Russell), the movie has Cooper playing Pat Peoples, a former teacher who has spent the last four years of his life living in a mental institution. Upon his release, he goes back to live with his parents and tries to win his wife back, but then finds himself involved with a neighborhood girl (Lawrence) that has some issues of her own.

It's funny. The news means that we are still over a year away from seeing Russell's newest film hit theaters, yet all of the film's competition is already set up. Debuting the week after the release Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, the movie is set to go up against 47 Ronin, Rise of the Guardians, Parental Guidance and Gravity. That's already a packed house, so don't be too surprised when one of those titles escapes to a less popular date.

Breaking Dawn Includes A Bonus Scene, So Stay Through The Credits!

At this point we expect superhero movies to come with an extra scene after the credits, whether it's Nick Fury showing up to induct the next member of The Avengers or Sinestro showing up at the end of Green Lantern to tease the sequel that will probably never actually happen. And why should the Twilight movies be any different? After all, their sequels are just as highly anticipated as the next Batman movie, and especially with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 cutting off halfway through the story, there's plenty more action to tease coming down the line.

So, now we can tell you-- if you're seeing Breaking Dawn at midnight tonight, make sure to stick around through the credits. I caught the scene when I screened the movie for review this week, but of course won't spoil it; instead you can just let star Peter Facinelli give you the heads up himself, via his Twitter account:

If you're a devoted Twihard you can probably guess what to expect in the final scene-- after all, Bella and Edward's wedding and her pregnancy is only part of the action. But we won't spoil the fun for everybody else. Breaking Dawn is poised to shatter all kind of box office records when it opens this weekend, and if the previous films are any indication, there will be big crowds even for the midnight screenings tonight. I know it's a long movie, and at the end of two hours you're going to want to get to bed. But if you've made the effort to see it at midnight, for god's sake, give the credits a few extra minutes. It'll pay off.

Michael K. Williams Can't Do Django Unchained

Michael K. Williams was almost the star of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. According to an interview with the actor a couple months ago, it came down to him and Jaime Foxx, but it was Foxx who ended up with the gig. It wasn't a total loss: because the writer/director was so impressed with Williams, he decided that he was going to create a role in the movie just for him. Sadly, however, it looks like it just wasn't meant to be.

Deadline has learned from the production that Michael K. Williams is too busy working on the acclaimed HBO show Boardwalk Empire, on which he plays Chalky White, and won't be able to make space on his schedule for the new Tarantino film. But just because he won't have time for that project doesn't mean we won't be seeing him on the big screen at all. The site says that Williams has accepted a role in Snitch, a new action drama from stuntman-turned-director Ric Roman Waugh. He joins an impressive cast that includes Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Barry Pepper, and Jon Bernthal. Also joining the project, according to Variety, are Melina Kanakaredes, Rafi Gavron and Nadine Velazquez. The film is about a suburban father (Johnson) who agrees to work as an snitch (get it?) for the DEA in order to reduce his son's jail sentence for a crime he didn't commit. The plot is based on a true story.

It's a shame that Williams won't be able to appear in Django Unchained - it's always great to see amazing actors work with amazing directors - but I suppose that's just the way it goes.

Doctor Who May Not Regenerate Into A Movie Any Time Soon

There's been much turmoil in the time-space continuum since the news broke yesterday that Harry Potter director David Yates might be rebooting the Time Lord as a movie.

The story originated in Variety, which claimed that Yates was working with the BBC on the project, and that it would abandon the nearly 50 years of continuity behind the TV series. Just like the "reboot" Battlestar Galactica and Buffy the Vampire Slayer movies in the works, it would take the name and concept only, leaving behind the specifics of the shows that actually made those names popular in the first place.

Needless to say, many loyal Doctor Who fans were less than thrilled by the idea. But hold on, folks, Yates might be getting ahead of himself a bit.


As Giant Freakin' Robot points out, numerous Who-related entities, including the BBC itself, suggest that any potential Doctor Who movie is, at the very least, a long way off. Both the BBC's official Twitter feed and that of BBC executive director Edward Russell were quick to throw some water on the flames of fanboy rage. Russell explained that talk of a Who movie was nothing new, and that it might happen, "Maybe one day. But not right now!" The official BBC Twitter offered an even more official-sounding response that pointed out that the project has barely even left the starting gate:

A Doctor Who feature film remains in development w/ BBC Worldwide Productions in LA. As of yet no script, cast or production crew in place.

So yes, there's a Doctor Who movie in development, but being in development is most assuredly not the same thing as "coming soon to a theater near you." Yates is attached, sure, but directors come and go on in-development projects like commuters through a busy train terminal. They haven't even found a writer yet. Doctor Who Magazine even dismissed the news as "just the same rumours which have been going round for years."

Will we eventually get a Doctor Who movie? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it's likely a long way down the pike, and it doesn't sound like our beloved TV series is in imminent danger. It's a recognizable name, even amongst many people who've never seen an episode. Hollywood is so desperate for ideas it'll snatch up anything with name recognition, so we really shouldn't be surprised by any of this.

Bill Nighy Could Do Battle With Aaron Eckhart In I, Frankenstein

Bill Nighy is no stranger to supernatural creatures. In the first three Underworld films he played Viktor, the powerful elder vampire; in A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy he was the wonderfully-named alien Slartibartfast, and in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies he played the squid-faced Davy Jones. Because of this, I don't expect him to have any trouble playing a demon in Stuart Beattie's I, Frankenstein.



According to Variety, Nighy is now in talks to play the central antagonist in the Frankenstein tale, which is already set to star Aaron Eckhart. The films tells the story of a monster named Adam (Eckhart) who is hounded by demons who wish to know just how he was created. Also playing for the bad side will be Socratis Otto, who will play one of Nighy's henchmen. In addition to directing, Beattie is also adapting the story which is based on the graphic novel by Kevin Grevioux (who, funny enough, is one of the co-creators of the Underworld franchise). In addition to providing a voice for Arthur Christmas, which comes out next Wednesday, Nighy has a full plate of upcoming features, including Wrath of the Titans, Jack The Giant Killer, and the Total Recall remake.

The trade describes Nighy's role as a "demon prince" that has Otto's character hunt Adam down, so it sounds like the former will be spending a great deal of time in the shadows, but hopefully it all comes to an epic conclusion that features both characters squaring off. After all, what's the point of having two such great actors if you're not going to pit them directly against each other?

Bradley Cooper Interested In Family Comedy The Fight Before Christmas

Anne Fletcher should have her pick of the litter. Her 2009’s rom-com The Proposal earned $163 million domestically. Her 27 Dresses was no slouch, with $76.8 million in ticket sales. And she has the high-concept My Mother’s Curse, with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand, ready to drop in 2012.

How, then, does Fletcher plan to keep the ball rolling? Variety says she’s attached to direct a family comedy titled The Fight Before Christmas, the latest project from Due Date scribe Adam Sztykiel. According to the trade, Fletcher’s involvement will ramp up the casting process, and Bradley Cooper already has expressed interest in the male lead.

Details on the plot are scarce. Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps will produce the picture (Fletcher recently did the choreography for the director’s blockbuster Real Steel), and it’s believed that 20th Century Fox will pick up distribution rights for fight, as they host 21 Laps and have collaborated with Levy over the years on the Night at the Museum films and the Tina Fey-Steve Carell comedy Date Night.

In addition to Due Date, Sztykiel penned the Patrick Dempsey rom-com Made of Honor, so you can imagine Fight falling somewhere between the predictable fluff of Paul Weiland’s shapeless film and the sarcastic bite of Todd Phillips’ road trip. But when will we see it? Now that Fletcher has buttoned up Curse, I’m assuming she’ll begin production on this so whichever studio picks it up can get it into theaters by December 2012. But if the shoot begins soon, that’s going to take Cooper out of the running, as he’s busy filming David O. Russell’s The Silver Lining Playbook, and then moves on to Alex Proyas’ Paradise Lost.

New Underworld Awakening Poster Has Kate Beckinsale, Leather, Guns

Sooner or later, we’re going to run out of unique poses Kate Beckinsale can strike for the purpose of an Underworld poster. She dons the tight black leather, puts a gun in each hand, glares toward the lens and sells thousands of tickets. Shortly after the trailer dropped, Screen Gems reveals a teaser poster with the tagline “Vengeance Returns.”



The fourth Underworld, co-directed by Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, returns Beckinsale as Selene, the stealth warrior who emerges from imprisonment to find a world where humanity has recognized the existence of vampires and werewolves, and now must join in the fight to eradicate both monster races from the planet. Original co-star Scott Speedman’s rumored to be returning as Michael Corvin. He’ll join Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy and India Eisley in a sequel that hits theaters on Jan. 20.

That means audiences might be able to pull a Beckinsale double feature, as the actress also plays Mark Wahlberg’s wife in the action thriller Contraband, in theaters on Jan. 13. But you have to admire Beckinsale’s dedication to the Underworld series. She has appeared in three out of four of the franchise’s films since 2003. And even though her husband, Len Wiseman, has moved on from the director's chair (he still serves as a producer), she continues to prop up the series. Granted, she also appears in Wiseman’s other pictures, and will have a meaty role in his Total Recall remake next summer. But the Underworld series easily could have devolved into a direct-to-DVD series by now. Instead, it grows (Awakening will be presented in IMAX 3D) and, we hope, mature.

The Hunger Games Trailer Is Great Because It Leaves Room For Surprise

Yesterday the Internet was as on fire as Katniss's dress when the first trailer for The Hunger Games debuted online. Not only did it give us our first look at some of the key characters in the film, like Woody Harrelson as Haymitch and Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, but it looked fantastic to boot. The Hunger Games, the book by Suzanne Collins that's the first in a trilogy, isn't nearly as complicated as a Harry Potter book or overwrought as Twilight, but it poses plenty of challenges to filmmakers who want to both appeal to the book's diehard fans and make, y'know, a half decent movie out of it.

A huge part of the trailer's success had nothing to do with the movie itself, but plain old marketing. Nearly every scene in the trailer comes from the first third of the book, leading up to the dramatic moment when Katniss and the other tributes leap off their platforms into the arena where they'll fight to their deaths. This is practical for telling a story in the confined space of the trailer-- a lot of character introductions and development happen in the first half of the book-- but also dangles the fantastic promise of what will come next in the arena. If you haven't read the books, all you know is that the kids are being sent there to fight each other, right? And if you've read them, you know it's going to be so much more. Either way, you're bound to be more intrigued than you would if the trailer, like so many other these days, had given away many more of its plot points.

The challenge now, with The Hunger Games still more than four months away from its release, is to maintain that sense of mystery. That's something the Twilight films, and especially Harry Potter in its later installments, got really terrible about doing.

The Hunger Games, as something new, should want to maintain as much mystery as possible. So far they're doing an excellent job of it-- sometimes, like with the five-second trailer clip, too good a job. I'm hoping we see them continue to play their cards close to the vest, so that when The Hunger Games comes to theaters on March 23, even those of us intimately familiar with the books will have plenty of surprises awaiting us. The Gamemakers behind the Hunger Games are generally callow and awful, but they also love surprise; maybe that's one inspiration the people at Lionsgate can take from them.

Breaking Dawn Sells Out 2500 Showtimes And Premieres In L.A.

We already told you last week that tickets for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 were selling like crazy, with 1,000 showtimes already sold out more than a week before the movie was set to open. Now with the film finally bowing on Friday, those numbers have gotten even more insane. The latest stats from Fandango says that more than 2,500 showtimes are already sold out, and that Breaking Dawn tickets accounted for 93% of their sales yesterday (sorry, Happy Feet Two).

For the record, Breaking Dawn will have a lot of work to do this weekend if it wants to beat the openings for the previous Twilight films. The last one, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, shattered records by bringing in more than $30 million from midnight screenings, moving on from there to an $83 million holiday weekend opening. The film before that, New Moon, brought in a still-impressive $24 million from midnight screenings and had an out-of-control $142 million opening weekend. That makes it the fourth-biggest opening of all time. But you know, no pressure Breaking Dawn-- based on these ticket sales and all those screaming fans, you're going to be just fine too. 

Star Trek 2 Finally Rescheduled for 2013 Release Date

After doggedly hanging on to an official June 29, 2012 release date even after it was apparent to everyone, including J.J. Abrams, that it was never going to happen, Paramount has finally officially rescheduled their big Star Trek sequel. In a phone call about all of Paramount's potential franchises, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said that the second Star Trek is being developed for a a potential 2013 release, and that director/producer J.J. Abrams is "focused on developing" it, which we pretty much knew by now thanks to all the hints he's been dropping.

Other franchises mentioned in the call, according to THR, were Paranormal Activity and Transformers. Neither seem to be nearly as far along as Star Trek 2, but Dauman said they were "developing ideas" for both; in the case of Paranormal Activity that probably means figuring out how to open up the relatively limited focus of the first three movies, and for Transformers they are probably just negotiating with Michael Bay, who said emphatically last time there were rumors about him returning as a director that they weren't true. Cynics say that was just a negotiating ploy, and I for one am right there with them.

It's nice to see sprinkled in among the sequels that either seem logically impossible-- Paranormal Activity-- or just unnecessary-- Transformers of course-- that there's Star Trek 2, the sequel that so many of us fervently want and that Abrams and his crew have really spent their time developing, to the point of breezing past the studio mandated release date. "Sometime in 2013" isn't exactly an ironclad promise that it's happening, but at least Paramount seems to have come to terms with when their movie is actually coming. Now we can just hope this is finally a release date that sticks.

New Underworld Awakening Poster Has Kate Beckinsale, Leather, Guns

Sooner or later, we’re going to run out of unique poses Kate Beckinsale can strike for the purpose of an Underworld poster. She dons the tight black leather, puts a gun in each hand, glares toward the lens and sells thousands of tickets. Shortly after the trailer dropped, Screen Gems reveals a teaser poster with the tagline “Vengeance Returns.” We have it below.




The fourth Underworld, co-directed by Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, returns Beckinsale as Selene, the stealth warrior who emerges from imprisonment to find a world where humanity has recognized the existence of vampires and werewolves, and now must join in the fight to eradicate both monster races from the planet. Original co-star Scott Speedman’s rumored to be returning as Michael Corvin. He’ll join Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy and India Eisley in a sequel that hits theaters on Jan. 20.

That means audiences might be able to pull a Beckinsale double feature, as the actress also plays Mark Wahlberg’s wife in the action thriller Contraband, in theaters on Jan. 13. But you have to admire Beckinsale’s dedication to the Underworld series. She has appeared in all four of the franchise’s films since 2003. And even though her husband, Len Wiseman, has moved on, she continues to prop up the series. Granted, she also appears in Wiseman’s other pictures, and will have a meaty role in his Total Recall remake next summer. But the Underworld series easily could have devolved into a direct-to-DVD series by now. Instead, it grows (Awakening will be presented in IMAX 3D) and, we hope, mature.

Italian Thriller The Double Hour Getting American Remake

Giuseppe Capotondi’s Italian thriller The Double Hour, which played the 2009 Venice and Toronto International film festivals, starred Filippo Timi as an ex-cop who meets a beauty (Ksenia Rappoport) during a speed-dating session. But the duo encounters serious troubles when they retreat to a country cottage, and secrets from her dark past begin to surface. Samuel Goldwyn Films released the foreign film in the States, but it never made it beyond the art-house circuit, which means most reading this probably missed it.

Never fear, however, as Hollywood plans a U.S. remake (which seems to be the industry’s favorite new trend). The Hollywood Reporter says that Joshua Marston, writer/director of the indie drug drama Maria Full of Grace, will pen a treatment for a Double Hour remake, which Roy Lee and Nicola Giuliano will produce.

The trade offers very few details beyond the announcement that the project’s moving forward. Will the location remain in Italy, or will the action shift to the U.S., as is the case with the announced American remakes of such international hits as District B13 or The Secret In Their Eyes, with Denzel Washington in the lead role.

I’m less opposed to U.S. remakes of under-the-radar foreign films than I am to lazy prequels and sequels, if only because smaller theaters in cities outside of New York and Los Angeles aren’t given the chance to program edgier international hits, so American audiences have no chance of seeing some great stories on screen. And if handled properly, a U.S. remake of a foreign hit could even get into the annual Oscar race, as is the case with David Fincher’s upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo interpretation. Lets’ see which director lands the Double Hour gig, and who he or she decides to hire for the film.