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.

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.

Hunger Games Full Trailer Will World Premiere On Monday

Listen up, Hunger Games fans. Lionsgate just revealed that the world premiere of the full Games trailer will world premiere on ABC’s Good Morning America this coming Monday, Nov. 14. It’s going to be a long weekend of waiting, no?

According to a release, co-star Josh Hutcherson – who plays Peeta Mellark in Gary Ross’s anticipated adaptation - -will be on hand to introduce the full teaser during the daily television program’s 8 a.m. hour, which is the highest-rated hour of the show. In addition to airing nationwide, Lionsgate reveals that the trailer will be beamed on Good Morning America’s jumbotron in New York City’s Times Square. That’s pretty damn cool.

It’s the latest in what has been a consistent marketing campaign for what Lionsgate hopes becomes a Twilight-sized or Harry Potter-sized film franchise. In August, an extremely brief clip aired on the MTV Video Music Awards. Since then, we’ve seen posters and viral sites attempting to draw fans into the Hunger Games experience.

The GMA clip, no doubt, will give fans the longest look at footage from the anticipated action-thriller. For those who don’t know, The Hunger Games adapts Suzanne Collins’ futuristic YA novel about a resilient teen (Jennifer Lawrence) who volunteers to participate in a televised game of survival in order to spare her family members. Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Donald Sutherland co-star in Ross’s film, which is due in theaters on March 23.

Hunger Games Full Trailer Will World Premiere On Monday

Listen up, Hunger Games fans. Lionsgate just revealed that the world premiere of the full Games trailer will world premiere on ABC’s Good Morning America this coming Monday, Nov. 14. It’s going to be a long weekend of waiting, no?

According to a release, co-star Josh Hutcherson – who plays Peeta Mellark in Gary Ross’s anticipated adaptation - -will be on hand to introduce the full teaser during the daily television program’s 8 a.m. hour, which is the highest-rated hour of the show. In addition to airing nationwide, Lionsgate reveals that the trailer will be beamed on Good Morning America’s jumbotron in New York City’s Times Square. That’s pretty damn cool.

It’s the latest in what has been a consistent marketing campaign for what Lionsgate hopes becomes a Twilight-sized or Harry Potter-sized film franchise. In August, an extremely brief clip aired on the MTV Video Music Awards. Since then, we’ve seen posters and viral sites attempting to draw fans into the Hunger Games experience.

The GMA clip, no doubt, will give fans the longest look at footage from the anticipated action-thriller. For those who don’t know, The Hunger Games adapts Suzanne Collins’ futuristic YA novel about a resilient teen (Jennifer Lawrence) who volunteers to participate in a televised game of survival in order to spare her family members. Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Donald Sutherland co-star in Ross’s film, which is due in theaters on March 23.

The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Ticket Pre-Sales Are Off The Charts

Breaking news! Bill Condon’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is pre-selling tickets at a dizzying rate. In other news, water is wet, ice is freezing cold, and Brett Ratner’s a misogynistic pig.

But wait. We actually have stats to back up the furious fan response to the latest chapter of Hollywood strangest love triangle. According to a press release, Condon’s first stab at a Twilight adaptation is accounting for 72% of Fandango’s weekly ticket sales. Impressive, given the fact that Twilight doesn’t even open this week. What percentage will it hit next week, when it’s actually scheduled to reach theaters?

Fandango goes on to report that more than 1,000 showtimes already have sold out in advance of the sequel’s opening. Certain theater owners reportedly are racing the clock to add additional showtimes to meet the fan demand. To paraphrase Field of Dreams, if you screen it, they will come.

The ticket-vending site also offers up a few stats based on reader polls. Roughly 82% of the users who’ve purchased tickets to Breaking Dawn say they believe the action in the trailers looks better in Part 1 than it did in previous Twilight movies. (Strange, as Condon’s not really known as an action director.) Meanwhile, 48% plan to see the movie on opening night. And if they’re anything like my teenage nieces, they’ll see it multiple times in one day. Seriously.

The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Ticket Pre-Sales Are Off The Charts

Breaking news! Bill Condon’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is pre-selling tickets at a dizzying rate. In other news, water is wet, ice is freezing cold, and Brett Ratner’s a misogynistic pig.

But wait. We actually have stats to back up the furious fan response to the latest chapter of Hollywood strangest love triangle. According to a press release, Condon’s first stab at a Twilight adaptation is accounting for 72% of Fandango’s weekly ticket sales. Impressive, given the fact that Twilight doesn’t even open this week. What percentage will it hit next week, when it’s actually scheduled to reach theaters?

Fandango goes on to report that more than 1,000 showtimes already have sold out in advance of the sequel’s opening. Certain theater owners reportedly are racing the clock to add additional showtimes to meet the fan demand. To paraphrase Field of Dreams, if you screen it, they will come.

The ticket-vending site also offers up a few stats based on reader polls. Roughly 82% of the users who’ve purchased tickets to Breaking Dawn say they believe the action in the trailers looks better in Part 1 than it did in previous Twilight movies. (Strange, as Condon’s not really known as an action director.) Meanwhile, 48% plan to see the movie on opening night. And if they’re anything like my teenage nieces, they’ll see it multiple times in one day. Seriously.