With this episode we FINALLY release the much talked about new logo for Back Seat Producers.

We’ve got awesome black t-shirts for sale that feature the new logo in red ink on the front and ‘it’s better in the back seat’ on the back.  Send Tony and email for more info.

Don’t forget to join us on Wednesday Nights at 9:00 to 9:30 PM at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/back-seat-producers/ to listen to our live recordings.  It’s really a fun time, but you’ll likely want to make sure the kiddos aren’t around to listen, because we talk a bit differently when we aren’t recording.

Let us know what you think.

The information here doesn’t specifically lend itself to film, but it’s such an amazing and interesting interview that does have ramifications in all of fiction and creators rights.

We hope you enjoy listening to this discussion as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Geoff contributes to a blog at: http://iplitigator.huschblackwell.com

Let us know what you think, and if you think we should try to get Geoff on the show again.

Screenwriting duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been brought aboard to pen the script for First Avenger: Captain America based on the 1941 Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created comicbook superhero. Markus and McFeely both contributed to the first two Narnia films as well as the Ben Kingsley 2007 starrer You Kill Me. The news comes 9 days after director Joe Johnston was named as the film’s helmer, but there still remains no word on who is being considered for the lead role of Steve Rogers a man deemed too frail to enter the Army, but through a secret ‘Super-Soldier Serum’ he becomes a perfect specimen. Following his transformation he sets out as Captain America in a war against evil.

Fredrik Bond will direct and Mark Poirier is signed to write The Host remake for Universal Pictures. The Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski, meanwhile, will produce. This will reunite Verbinski with the Ring producing team from Vertigo Roy Lee and Doug Davison. Bond’s background, according to Variety , is rooted in commercials. He’s known for his ads for Nike, Adidas and Levi’s. Poirer recently scripted Smart People . Based on Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean film, The Host finds a family uniting to rescue one of their own from a mutated monster. “It processes a few genres together, and visually it feels close to the stuff I’ve made over the last few years in commercials, the tonality of humor and the scale,” recently told Variety.

Universal looks to move forward on a third Nutty Professor movie reports JoBlo. The studio in currently developing the film and has put out an open call to writers to pitch them a concept for a third film. They were quick to caution that Eddie Murphy is not attached to the project at all in this early stage.

Frequent collaborators, director Dale Fabrigar (a semi-finalist on Steven Spielberg’s short lived On The Lot reality series) and writer Kurt Patino, have teamed up with actress Kelly Stables (best known for playing Evil Samara in The Ring movies) and visual effects wizard Michael Morrealle to produce a new horror/fantasy web series titled Soul Fire Rising. The show, produced by King Dream Entertainment, follows demon Lilith, played by Aimee Lynn Chadwick (Las Vegas, Trade) as she wanders through Los Angeles stealing men’s souls while searching for Eve (to be played by Stables in future episodes), a now mortal demon worth one million human souls. The first two chapters, running about three minutes each, are currently available on the show’s website and MySpace.

Devin Faraci at Chud has word of a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes called Genesis: Apes that was written by Rick Jaffa (The Relic) and Amanda Silver (The Relic and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle). The film is something of an origin story centering on a baby monkey that is raised in a human household and shows signs of great intelligence and the ability to talk.

According to the trades Universal is in negotiations to remake the Korean film Die Bad, developing the drama as a potential directing vehicle for director Marc Forster, whose latest flick, Quantum of Solace, hit theaters this week. Brad Ingelsby is on board to write the script. Ingelsby is also scripting the Paramount Vantage drama Buried, with Todd Field attached to direct, Sleeper for Warner Bros and The Low Dweller, which Leonardo DiCaprio is slated to star in. Written and directed by Seung-wan Ryoo, the 2000 original consisted of four short films that told the story of the rise and fall of a gangster. The components are being combined for the English-language remake that will be set in New York. The original won the audience award at the Pusan Film Festival. The film will be produced by Forster and his Apparatus partner Brad Simpson, Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Doug Davison and Rick Schwartz of Overnight Productions.

Lake Mungo is being developed as a remake on American soil. Paramount Vantage is behind a forthcoming redo of the Australian horror film. The original, an Arclight Films production, was told as a faux documentary. The premise surrounds the story of a young girl whose apparent death sets off a series of paranormal events. Frightened by what appears to be otherworldly activity, her family discovers secrets about their daughter as well as what lurks beneath Lake Mungo. Vantage’s remake will drop the documentary style and simply be told with a straight-forward narrative. Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee and Doug Davison along with Adrian Guerra and Joel Anderson, the film’s original creator and director, brought the project to Vantage and are set to produce.

Ennio Morricone has finally accepted Tarantino’s request for collaboration. Variety reports that the composer will be writing the music for Inglorious Basterds, though he may not have time to score the entire film. “Tarantino will finish shooting the film in February and has to deliver it by the end of April in time for Cannes,” said Morricone. “That doesn’t leave me enough time to do the music. Either I start working on it before he stops shooting–after we discuss it together–or I just can’t do it.”

He’s still best known for making Turtle ‘toon TMNT in 2007, but director Kevin Munroe is planning to direct horror pic War Monkeys. While he’s about to be busy helming graphic novel-based pic Dead Of Night, he’s deep into negotiations to take on Monkeys, based on a script by Chris Nettles. “It’s kind of like if Quentin Tarantino did Gremlins, Nettles first told me. I read it and it was exactly that. The horror stuff was at a peak and the characters are really rich,” Munroe tells Shock ‘Till You Drop. The story finds two men trapped underground with military-trained simians out for blood. It’s apparently “an older, meaner brother of an Amblin production. It’s real horror with real scary elements. You’ve got real monsters here with the monkeys. But the characters are a modern day Abbott and Costello. In the same vein of Shaun of the Dead but scarier.”

Sources:
Variety
Imdb
MovieBlog.ugo
Chud
JoBlo
MovingPicture.net
Shocktillyoudrop.com

#2 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa from Dreamworks drops to #2 this weekend bringing in $36.1 million, down 42%, earning a total of $118 million. Madagascar showed in 4065 theaters, up 9. Budget was $150 million.

#3 Role Models from Universal drops to #3 this weekend bringing in $11.7 million, down 38%, earning a total of $38.1. Models showed in 2798 theaters, up 6. Role Models cost $28 million.

#4 High School Musical 3: Senior Year from Buena Vista drops to #4 bringing in $5.8 million, thats down 35%, for a total of $84.3 million. Musical showed in 3202, thats down 262 theaters over last, and cost $11 million.

#5 Changeling from Universal drops to #5 this weekend bringing in $4.2 million, down 41%, earning a total of $27.6 million. Changeling showed in 1896 theaters, up 41. Budget for Changeling is $55 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Zack and Miri Make a Porno : Weekend Gross: $3,200,000, down 49% / Theaters: 2210, down 525 / Gross:$26,519,000 / Budget $24 million

#7 Soul Men : Weekend Gross: $2,428,000, down 55% / Theaters: 2048, up 4 / Gross:$9,449,000 / Budget unknown

#8 The Secret Life Of Bees: Weekend Gross: $2,400,000, down 22% / Theaters: 1449, down 32 / Gross:$33,689,000 / Budget $11 million

#9 Saw V: Weekend Gross: $1,790,000, down 56% / Theaters: 2002, down 827 / Gross:$55,403,000 / Budget $10 million

#10 The Haunting of Molly Hartley : Weekend Gross: $1,649,000, down 50% / Theaters: 1587, down 989 / Gross: $12,695,000 / Budget unknown

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

And in a nutshell, that’s the premise of Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig’s second movie starring as James Bond. This movie is almost an extension of Casino Royale completing Bond’s opening arc and setting things up (hopefully} to come. As such, it doesn’t quite carry the same impact that Casino Royale did, though to me, it’s still a very entertaining film with some very nice action set pieces.

This one is directed by Marc Forster, who previously directed The Kite Runner which I haven’t seen. And Forster is doing some things here that’s not atypical James Bond stuff, but still fitting to what has been set up with the first movie. Where it falls a little short is doing something that’s more complete unto itself, that is if that’s what you’re expecting, but if you’re going into it looking at this as an extension of the previous film, well then you’re bound to have some fun with it.

I really like Forster’s action sequences here, some of them giving an almost over-the shoulder type of view and others intercut with some other action going on simultaneously. One in particular going on during an opera, Tosca, is really extremely nice.

Craig is solid gold as Bond, he proved in Casino Royale and he cements it with Quantum of Solace. and while this doesn’t quite ask the same things of him that the previous film did, there’s still some nice character stuff along the way. One scene in particular when Bond is giving Camille some advice about killing a person is very nice. Olga Kurlyenko plays Camille, and she was most recently seen in Max Payne and she’s OK in the part, mostly serving as window dressing more than giving anything real meaningful. Better is Mathieu Amalric, who plays Greene. Now he’s not in the same category as Le Chiffre, but as the tip of the iceberg that should be the organization of Quantum, he does a pretty decent job. The real trick will be in the third film and if the pursuit of Quantum is taken further, then that’s when the filmmakers will have to up the ante a bit. Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini and Jeffrey Wright are all back from the previous effort and all are fine, though Dench’s M seems just a bit softer than she’s been in previous efforts (including the Brosnan Bond when speaking of this). Still though, this cast is pretty well suited in the big picture.

I thought it was a lot of fun, even though it doesn’t have the same impact as Casino Royale it does have it’s moments, and it closes the emotional arc for Bond started in the previous film, while setting the stage for bigger things to come. My advice is to set those expectations just a wee bit lower than what you had for Casino Royale and look at this as an extension, and you should have a pretty decent time with it.

We discuss the differences, as we seem theme between slasher, horror, and suspense.

We also discuss some thoughts send to us on the topic by Author Elizabeth Donald.  Elizabeth knows a thing or two about the subject and gives us some great talking points and validation for the things we say.

Check out Elizabeth’s new book ABADDON.

Next Episode (in just a few days):  300 with special guest Darren.  Also, we are going to featuring our new logo on that show.

According to BollywoodHungama Aamir Khan’s Ghajini is expected to set records in India. While the promotion of the film started during the Hindu holiday Diwali, the Indian distributors, Studio 18, have decided to put 1,200 prints of the film into circulation in India alone. “Ghajini will be the biggest and widest release ever, breaking the record set by Singh Is Kinng, which was also distributed by us,” Aman Gill, Director, Domestic Theatrical Distribution, Studio 18 divulges. Adds Priti Shahani, Sr. V.P., Marketing & Distribution, Studio 18, “With Singh Is Kinng, we set a precedent in the way the films are marketed and with Ghajini we tend to go beyond that.” Ghajini is expected to be the top grossing Indian feature of all time.

Ticket sales may not have been affected by the current economic downturn but concessions are expected to take a big hit, the Hollywood Reporter says, citing quarterly reports from Carmike Cinemas and Cinemark Holdings filed on Monday. Carmike said that in its most recent quarter concession revenue was down 8.3 percent while Cinemark said that it was down 4.7 percent in its U.S. operations. Each company forecast solid fourth quarter results, however. Cinemark CEO Alan Stock observed, “As we head into the fourth quarter, the domestic industry’s box office was up approximately 17 percent for the month of October, and we feel consumers will continue to seek affordable entertainment options during these challenging economic times.”

Stephen Graham has just signed on to the Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman starrer Season of the Which from Relativity Media says MovieJungle.com. He will play a swindler and navigator in the period horror movie. Graham can be seen next in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies as Babyface Neslon. Born in Liverpool, England, Graham’s credits include the 2005 TV series Empire, 2005’s soccer flick Goal!, 2006’s The Is England, and Madonna’s Filth and Wisdom comedy drama.

Actor Will Smith’s son, Jaden, has landed his first major lead role in an upcoming remake of The Karate Kid, according to Variety.com. Jaden, 10, is Smith’s oldest son with wife Jada Pinkett Smith. He had previously acted alongside his father in 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness and in the television series All of Us, which was created by his parents. He also has a role in the upcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Keanu Reeves. Jaden will be starring in the remake as the character of Daniel, originally portrayed in 1984 by Ralph Macchio. Its script is being worked on by Chris Murphy, while the movie itself is scheduled to be shot in Beijing

XMenFilms.net has learned from 20th Century Fox that the studio is targeting The Day the Earth Stood Still for the launch of its first X-Men Origins: Wolverine teaser trailer. The Keanu Reeves-starrer opens in conventional theaters and IMAX on December 12th. We’ll have to wait and see if the studio will release the teaser earlier online that week. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, directed by Gavin Hood, stars Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Will.i.am, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, Daniel Henney and Lynn Collins, opens May 1st.

According to JoBlo.com the new trailer for the J.J. Abrams directed reboot prequel, STAR TREK, may well premiere with the upcoming James Bond adventure QUANTUM OF SOLACE but if you’d like to get a taste of it beforehand, a couple of scoopers over at AICN (aintitcool.com) recently wrote in to describe the trailer. Here’s a snippet from the more detailed description: The trailer starts by showing a mid-60’s Corvette convertible tearing across the country side. After a few seconds we see a long shot that shows a policeman in hot pursuit. Another long shot shows the Vette screaming at full speed toward a steep cliff. A slo-mo shot shows the driver leaping from the car at the last second and tumbling ass over teakettle toward the edge of the cliff itself. The driver is a young boy who looks about 13 or 14. He manages to grab a hold at the last second and hang on as a birds eye shot show the antique Vette fall away into an abyss. We see the boy get up and dust himself off and the camera cuts away to show a troopers boot come down close-up. The black leather boot is obviously the policeman’s who was chasing the car but it looks suspiciously “different.” Just different enough to let the audience know this isn’t a normal policeman. The shot then cuts to where we can see the policeman standing in front of the boy with his “bike” hovering in mid air a few feet beside him. He shouts at the boy, “Who are you?” or “What’s your name?” and the boy shouts back defiantly, “James Tiberius Kirk!”

The Resident Evil pix that’ve hit theaters the last couple years have dissapointed many fans of the original game series. The movies, staring Milla Jovovich, did not deliver what fans wanted and ultimately felt like generic sci-fi/zombie films with parts of the series tacked on. Now it looks like Capcom and Sony Home Entertainment understand what the fans want and are releasing a new entry into the Resident Evil story in the form of a new CG movie Resident Evil: Degeneration. Bringing back some beloved characters from the series — Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy — the filmakers are taking the series back to its roots. The result is a straight-to-dvd flick that plays out closer to an extended in-game cutscene rather than a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster.

Sources:
WENN
BollywoodHungama
THR
Studio Briefing
MovieJungle.com
ToxicShock
Variety
X-menFilms.net
JoBlo.com
Aintitcool.com
reelzchannel.com

#2 Role Models from Universal takes the #2 spot this weekend bringing in $19.2 million. Models showed in 2792 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#3 High School Musical 3: Senior Year from Buena Vista drops to #3 bringing in $9 million, thats down 39%, for a total of $75.7 million. Musical showed in 3464, thats down 162 theaters over last, and cost $11 million.

#4 Changeling from Universal holds at #4 this weekend bringing in $7.2 million, down 22%. Changeling showed in 1855 theaters, up 5. Budget for Changeling is $10 million.

#5 Zack and Miri Make a Porno from Weinstein drops to #5 this weekend bringing in $6.5 million, thats down 35%.Zack and Miri showed in 2735 theaters. Budget for Zack and Miri is unknown.

#6 Soul Men from MGM debuts at #6 this weekend bringing in $5.6 million. Soul Men showed in 2044 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#7 Saw V from Lions Gate drops to #7 this weekend bringing in $4.2 million, thats down 56% bringing its total to $52.3 million.Saw showed in 2829 theaters, thats down 255 and cost $10.8 million.

#8 The Haunting of Molly Hartley from Freestyle drops to #8 this weekend bringing in $3.4 million, down 35%.Haunting showed in 2576 theaters, down 76. Budget is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#9 The Secret Life Of Bees: Weekend Gross: $3,125,000, down 21% / Theaters: 1481, down 130 / Gross:$29,938,000 / Budget $11 million

#10 Eagle Eye : Weekend Gross: $2,594,000, down 25% / Theaters: 1407, down 600 / Gross:$96,401,000 / Budget $80 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

And then of course, hi-jinks ensue…

This is the premise of the latest movie from writer/director Kevin Smith, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and unfortunately, while it’s a pleasant enough piece in it’s own way, it’s also Smith’s weakest movie yet…

Here’s the deal, I don’t necessarily mind raunch in my films, and further I expect it from Kevin Smith movies, but there’s something about it in his other movies where it feels right and further where it’s delivered in such a way that it’s wildly amusing. But here, it feels like Smith is doing it just to be doing and saying “yeah, here’s what I can do” and it just feels forced amongst his cast…

… and his cast is just plain wrong for the film. Seth Rogen plays Zack, Elizabeth Banks plays Miri, and they’re backed up by Craig Robinson, Traci Lords, Justin Long, Brandon Routh and perennial Smith regulars, Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes. Now I’m on the record of just not being a Seth Rogen fan, so I certainly admit that bias, and had this not been a Kevin Smith movie, I doubt I would’ve seen it in the first place, but I don’t buy a bit of Rogen in the film for the most part (though he does have his moments), but he’s just not at all sincere to me with his performance. And I think Elizabeth Banks tries to be too sincere here, and as such, it just never gels between the two. Now you can certainly chalk this up to poor writing as well, as we’re never really told how they end up in their situation in the first place, we’re just shown a scene where their unpaid bills are overflowing, but nothing that really tells us why these too “losers” (and I use that term real loosely in Banks’ case) are the way they are- they both have jobs (though as I said above, we really don’t know what Miri does) and absolutely nothing gets paid, I guess it’s because they really don’t discover anything about personal responsibility until they decide to make a porno film, but that’s really thin, especially in comparison to what Smith has done with his characters in other movies.

Now the rest of the cast is fine, with the exception of Craig Robinson, who doesn’t really do anything to differently from what he does in The Office. In fact, I think Justin Long, Jeff Anderson, and Jason Mewes have the best moments in the film- there probably should’ve been more with these folks than there was with Zack and Miri.

This misses the mark in it’s perception of the porn business as well, but that doesn’t really bother me as much and I think that would’ve gone over better had this had wither two different and more complimentary leads or else either Rogen or either Banks and someone else to compliment them better. It’s not the worst movie that I’ve seen for the year by any means (it’s a comedy and I did laugh a few times in the film- not like Get Smart where I didn’t laugh at all), but compared to what Kevin Smith has delivered before, Zack and Miri Make a Porno falls way short…

After the upcoming drama Gran Torino in which he directs himself as a racist war veteran Clint Eastwood will be directing Remembering Mark Twain in which he also be appearing as the famous American writer himself. Described by producer Albert Ruddy as a “sweet, beautiful movie”, Remembering Mark Twain will be Eastwood’s 61st big-screen performance.

Director Michael Bay’s official website has come out with confirmation that principle photography for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has wrapped. In a posted message entitled “It’s a wrap!” on October 31, the administrator Nelson wrote simply, “As of this week, principal photography for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has ended.”

According to Bollywoodworld News Legendary filmmaker B.R. Chopra died Wednesday after a prolonged illness. The winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was 95. His son, producer-director Ravi Chopra, said he had lost not only his father but his guru.”I have lost not only my father, but my guru. The Chopra family has lost a virtual patriarch and the film industry a conscientious filmmaker,” Ravi Chopra told Ians.B.R. Chopra died at 8.15 a.m. at his residence in suburban Juhu. He had made successful films like Naya Daur, Gumrah, Humraaz, Dhundh, Insaaf ka Tarazoo and Nikah.Besides Ravi Chopra, the filmmaker is survived by his two daughters Shashi and Neena.

Warner Bros. is taking a shot at film pirates in China by making its films available for online rental at the same prices the pirates charge — about $1.00 per movie, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Some will be available for about 60 cents. “Every major American company has tried to figure out and crack the nut in China,” Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, told the Times. “We believe that we have an opportunity, through digital distribution,” to solve that problem. Distribution is being handled by Union Foole Technology, which also plans to launch an online subscription video service on Nov. 12 that will charge a flat fee for unlimited movie viewing.

The trailer for Dreamworks/Paramount’s Monsters vs. Aliens doesn’t officially release until Thursday, but it has popped up a few days early on numerous sites around the web. Many have already been taken down, but you might still catch it before it’s gone. The campy sci-fi animated flick opens with a man going through a series of biometric scans before being admitted into a high security government war room. The scan locations include both elbows and his bum. Monsters vs Aliens pays homage to the sci-fi movies of the ’50s and ’60s, from aliens and mad scientists to The Blob and Loch Ness monster. The voice cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett and Paul Rudd. It will release in late March 2009 in both 3-D IMAX and standard theaters.

British-Asian helmer Gurinder Chadha is turning her hand to a good old-fashioned scare according to BloodyDisgusting.com. Chadha is prepping It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, described by the helmer as My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Shaun of the Dead. The story follows a British-Asian mother whose obsession to marry off her daughter comically leads to serial murder. Lensing begins in the U.K. in February. “It’s a comic caper very much in the tradition of classic Ealing comedies,” Chadha told Daily Variety. “It’s a return for me to the characters and setting of ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ but in a different genre, namely horror, although I would say that the gore will be easy on the eye.”

Fox has announced a February 10th Blu-ray release for the cult classic Donnie Darko, which will come to high-def with both the theatrical and unrated versions, according to Highdefdigest.com. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and directed by Richard Kelly, Darko failed to generate big grosses during its original theatrical run, but has since go one to amass a devoted following on video. There are no tech specs or supplement details as of yet, but Fox is billing the Blu-ray as a Collector’s Edition, so we expect plenty of extras. Suggested retail price for the Blu-ray has been set at $34.95.

Vince Vaughn will take on the world of poker in Sunny and 68, a project Universal is acquiring for Gavin O’Connor to direct. According to Variety, Vaughn will play a poker superstar whose alcoholism causes him to loose $500,000 in an instant. With no money in his pocket, he decides to head home to retrieve some cash he’s been sending his mother. Upon his return to New York, however, he discovers his mom is dying of cancer. Additionally, he finds out she’s been raising a 5-year-old girl who’s actually his daughter. O’Connor, whose Pride and Glory opened last weekend, will be directing a script he wrote with Anthony Tambakis. Next Vaughn will star alongside Reese Witherspoon in Four Christmases. He’s also gearing up for Peter Billingsley’s comedy Couples Retreat. O’Connor, whose credits include Walt Disney’s ice hockey drama Miracle, is prepping Warrior, an action flick he’ll shoot next year.

ComingSoon.net reports that Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is back on Warner Bros.’ release schedule and now set for a release on Oct. 16, 2009. The pic stars Catherine Keener, Benicio Del Toro, Forest Whitaker, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O’Hara, Tom Noonan, Michael Berry and James Gandolfini. Some other recent release date shifts of note include Soul Men - the Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac comedy will hit theaters a week earlier than scheduled, now opening on November 7th. Richard Kelly’s horror film The Box, starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, was moved back up six months to March 20, 2009. The Todd Phillips comedy Hangover is now scheduled for June 12, 2009 puting it face to face with The A-Team and Eddie Murphy’s Nowhereland. Two months later, Final Destination 4 was moved back a week to Aug. 21, 2009. The summer following, the Zack Snyder-directed animated-adventure Guardians of Ga’Hoole.

Some interesting ratings news, Kelly Reichart’s Wendy and Lucy, a nudity free and virtually violence free tale of a down on her luck girl and her dog in Alaska and a favorite at Cannes will be receiving an R rating (for “Strong Language”) while Richard Kelly’s horror film The Box, containing “some violence and disturbing images” will receive a PG-13.

Sources:

Totalfilm
Aceshowbiz
Bollywoodworld News
Studio Briefing
LA Times
BloodyDisgusting.com
ComingSoon.net
Variety

#2 Zack and Miri Make a Porno from Weinstein debuts at #2 this weekend bringing in $10.6 million.Zack and Miri showed in 2735 theaters. Budget for Zack and Miri is unknown.

#3 Saw V from Lions Gate drops to #3 this weekend bringing in $10.1 million, thats down 66% bringing its total to $45.8 million.Saw showed in 3084 theaters, thats up 24 and cost $10.8 million.

#4 Changeling from Universal rises from its #20 debut last weekend to #4 this weekend bringing in $9.4 million. Changeling showed in 1850 theaters. Budget for Changeling is $10 million.

#5 The Haunting of Molly Hartley from Freestyle debuts at #5 this weekend bringing in $6 million.Haunting showed in 2652 theaters. Budget is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Beverly Hills Chihuahua: Weekend Gross: $4,747,000, down 31% / Theaters: 3004, down 186 / Gross:$84,061,000 / Budget: unknown

#7 The Secret Life Of Bees: Weekend Gross: $4,000,000, down 33% / Theaters: 1611, down 19 / Gross:$25,287,000 / Budget $11 million

#8 Max Payne: Weekend Gross: $3,700,000, down 52% / Theaters: 2564, down 817 / Gross:$35,550,000 / Budget $35 million

#9 Eagle Eye : Weekend Gross: $3,400,000, down 32% / Theaters: 2007, down 551 / Gross:$92,534,000 / Budget $80 million

#10 Pride and Glory : Weekend Gross: $3,260,000, down 47% / Theaters: 2585 / Gross:$11,616,000 / Budget $30 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

… and that brings us to Rock N Rolla the latest movie from director Guy Ritchie, and easily the best thing that he’s done since his first two movies… and thank goodness…

Yeah, I know I’m simplifying his situation with the above, but that’s how a lot of film fans saw this situation (or at least me), and while I don’t know the exact timeline of the making of this movie with his personal tribulations, at least this movie shows that his heart is still in it.

Rock N Rolla follows along the same lines as Ritchie’s prior crime films, being how seemingly disparate people with their own situations wind up causing trouble for bigger fish in the crime pool. Rock N Rolla brings together a band of small time hustlers with a land deal, a big fish gangster with a bigger deal, his self-styled rock and roller son with his own issues, even bigger fish Russians, and a very ambitious and sexy accountant out to get her own piece of the pie, and it does it all in a very entertaining and satisfying manner, that still shows that Guy Ritchie has “it,” though “it” is just a little quieter than Ritchie’s previous efforts.

And again, the above is a huge simplification of what this is about, but for me to go into further detail would just start something even longer than my initial paragraph…

But, I can tell you that I thought Rock N Rolla was very entertaining, filled with some very cool characters, who were extremely well drawn in a very tight and complex situation that all comes together in the end.

Ritchie’s working with some great talent here, Gerard Butler, Idris Elba, Tom Wilkinson, Jeremy Piven, Chris (Ludacris) Bridges, a very talented Russian character actor Karel Roden, the extremely sexy Thandie Newton, and a British guy on the rise, Mark Strong. Mark Strong plays Archie, who’s the right hand man to Lenny played by Tom Wilkinson, the major “heavy” of the film. Archie is more or viewpoint into what’s happening here, and Strong does real nice work in the part. He’s been around for awhile, and just recently he’s been getting a lot of good notices for his work, and I could easily see this guy taking the leads more and more very soon.

In the end, yeah, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but that’s hardly a criteria for my own enjoyment of a film. When it’s well made, it’s still fun, and for me Rock N Rolla was a lot of fun and it makes me look forward to what Guy Ritchie’s next project will be. Welcome back, Guy… we missed you…

This is a special episode that we’ve been planning for a while.  We’ve got a few other episodes recorded before this one, but we wanted to release this for Halloween.

This is a full commentary track for the movie The Sixth Sense.

There is a lot of dead air toward the end of the track, it’s because we got more into watching the movie than commenting on it.

Thanks for listening!

Lots, LOTS more coming very soon.

Steven Spielberg is returning to Universal Studios, where he began his career as an unpaid intern in the 1960s (after first sneaking into the studio by, as he said, “looking important,”). Under a seven-year deal, Universal will distribute movies produced by his DreamWorks company and financed by India’s Reliance entertainment conglomerate. He’ll be joined by DreamWorks’ CEO Stacey Snider, but David Geffen, who reportedly negotiated the deals with Reliance and Universal and the exit from Paramount, will be leaving the company. Spielberg acknowledged that the Walt Disney Company had also made him an attractive offer to distribute the six DreamWorks films that he has said the company will produce annually. He told today’s (Tuesday) Wall Street Journal, “It was a tough decision because I love the whole legacy of the Walt Disney Co. … But when it came down to my final decision, it was about my feeling that it was right to return to the lot that gave me my first chance to be a director.” Although Paramount has distributed DreamWorks’ movies since 2006, Spielberg kept his offices on Universal’s lot. “Even coming through the gate this morning actually felt different,” he told today’s New York Times. “I felt better. Less like a squatter.” And in an interview with USA Today, Snider added: “It was really a decision not about terms or money, but ‘where do we belong?’ Steven and I felt the most comfortable there.” Snider also has a long history at Universal, having spent nine years there as a top executive.

Robert Downey Jr. has just signed on to do two more Iron Man movies as well as the superhero flick The Avengers.

XXX: The Return of Xander Cage will likely begin filming sometime in early 2009. Of it, Collider reported that director Rob Cohen has revealed the matter through a recent interview saying, “We met the writers yesterday and we’re trying to get into production by late spring, to have it out for the summer of 2010.” On the occasion, he also made time to confirm that this new XXX project will team him up once again with action man Vin Diesel who will reprise his role as Xander Cage, a law-breaking extreme sports enthusiast-turned-government agent. “Yes, they’re doing it with me and producer Joe Roth. We made the deal recently, it’s named XXX: The Return of Xander Cage,” he exclaimed. Despite Cohen’s remark on the filming plan, details on the third installment of XXX remain under tight wraps. Still, it is known that Columbia Pictures are looking forward to develop this second sequel.

Iron Man director Jon Favreau has seen parts of James Cameron’s highly anticipated Avatar and tells Ain’t It Cool News: “…he’s really pushing the boundaries on motion capture, he’s integrating live action with motion capture and CGI. It takes a painstaking and technical approach to that. And he really wants to make it a very visceral, emotional experience and he’s … he’s a bit of a P.T. Barnum in the sense that he likes to put on a big show.”

Being the replaced man in Imagine Me & You, Matthew Goode (soon-to-be Watchmen) managed to balance the anger and loneliness of being second place while his wife found true love with their wedding florist. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he will be starring in A Single Man along with Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. This is Tom Ford’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel about a gay Englishman and professor named George (Firth). Over the course of one day, the story follows George as he tries to continue his normal life and routine after the death of his partner Jim (Goode). Moore will play one of his fellow professors.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has picked up the movie rights to the upcoming Viper Comics graphic novel Villains. Universal reportedly paid a mid-six-figure sum for the rights, which could prove profitable if the lesser-known property enjoys the same super-hero buzz that other films in the genre have yielded. Sean Bailey produces via his Idealogy banner, and Matt Jennison and Brent Strickland are set to write the screenplay. Jennison and Strickland are also working on the stalled Wonder Woman for Warner Brothers and Joel Silver. Villains, not to be confused with the current Heroes volume on NBC, is a four issue mini-series by Adam Cogan and Ryan Cody. Villains focuses on Nick Corrigan, “an aimless 20-something who discovers that his aging neighbor used to be the notorious supervillain known as ‘Hardliner,’ now retired and living in hiding for the past few decades. Rather than turn him in to the authorities, Nick decides to blackmail him in exchange for lessons in the fine art of career super-crime. But the old pro is about to teach his student some lessons he’ll never forget.”

Bill Mechanic, the former chairman of 20th Century Fox and now founder of independent production company Pandemonium, told Collider that the long planned adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ Torso is heading into production soon. “Torso is moving right towards the starting gate,” Mechanic tells the site. “We’ve got a screenplay and we’re waiting for Paramount to decide when to make it.” He also confirms what many have heard: David Fincher will direct the feature. “I’m hoping we’re shooting in March or April … [so] it should be [Fincher's next project],” says Mechanic. And while he has a ton of faith in the project, he does admit that there will be departures from the source material, much in the way that the movie Fight Club broke off from the novel. “Torso the movie, which may not be called Torso the movie at the end of the day … makes the book better reading because it doesn’t follow [the book] literally,” Mechanic says. Torso is a historical fiction limited series published by Image Comics. The story focuses on the “Torso Murderer,” an actual serial killer in the 1930’s who left behind only the torsos of his victims, making them very difficult to identify for police without DNA testing. The investigator on the case and protagonist of Torso is Eliot Ness, Cleveland Chief of police and one-time head of the Untouchables, the police task force that enforced Prohibition and went after crime lord Al Capone.

Sources:
Studio Briefing
USA Today
PopSugar
Aceshowbiz.com
Aintitcoolnews.com
Reelzchannel.com
THR

#2 Saw V from Lions Gate debuts at #2 this weekend bringing in $30.5 million. Saw showed in 3060 theaters and cost $10.8 million.

#3 Max Payne from Fox drops two spots to #3 this weekend bringing in $7.6 million bringing its total earnings to 29.6 million. Payne showed in 3381 theaters, up 5 over last. Budget is for Payne is $35 million.

#4 Beverly Hills Chihuahua from Disney drops to #4 this weekend bringing in $6.9 million, bringing its total earnings to $78 million. Chihuahua showed in 3190 theaters, down 49. Budget for Chihuahua is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#5 Pride & Glory : Weekend Gross: $6,325,000 / Theaters: 2585 / Gross:$6,325,000 / Budget $30 million

#6 The Secret Life Of Bees: Weekend Gross: $5,935,000, down 43% / Theaters: 1630, up 39 / Gross:$19,208,000 / Budget $11 million

#7 W: Weekend Gross: $5,330,000, down 26% / Theaters: 2050, up 20 / Gross:$18,749,000 / Budget $25 million

#8 Eagle Eye : Weekend Gross: $5,136,000, down 26% / Theaters: 2558, down 768 / Gross:$87,987,000 / Budget $80 million

#9 Body Of Lies : Weekend Gross: $4,065,000, down 40% / Theaters: 2150, down 564 / Gross:$30,890,000 / Budget $70 million

#10 Quarantine : Weekend Gross: $2,550,000, down 58% / Theaters: 2228, down 235 / Gross:$28,770,000 / Budget $12 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Joel Gilbert’s documentary on Bob Dylan’s sudden conversion to Christianity is an authentic, detail-oriented and thought-provoking work. It is a must see for fans and casual viewers alike. The subject-matter alone is fascinating and remains, thirty years from its occurrence, a little told story about the already mythic and mysterious artist. 

On November 9, 1979, Bob Dylan shocked San Francisco (and America at large) by performing nothing but new songs from his gospel album titled “Slow Train Coming,” and other then-unreleased gospel songs written by the rock poet. The fans, expecting his hits, classics, or the man they have created in their mind as a result of all of his previous records, is nowhere to be found.

When presumably being asked something about why he didn’t play any of his old songs at the concert or why he may have changed his music’s message, Dylan speaks in archived footage from the era “The old stuff’s not gonna save them and uh… I’m not gonna save them. Neither is anybody else gonna save them. They can boogie all night. It’s not gonna work.”

The purpose of the first-half seems to be orienting the viewer with the world Dylan was entering at the time: The Vineyard Movement, a decentralized and individualistic approach to Christianity—progressive at the time. This viewpoint, coupled with the perspective of Messianic Judaism, or, Jewish believers in Jesus as the foretold Messiah, frames the manner in which Bob Dylan, of Jewish descent, considers and then pursues his own journey to Jesus Christ.

The second-half of the film covers the most controversial music Dylan had made since he went electric in 1965.  Alienating his fan base once again, Dylan pursued this journey of personal discovery as his primary artistic expression for two and a half full-length albums and four years of touring, after which fans and critics alike remain, I would argue, mostly confused about where his belief system stands today. We are treated to samples of Dylan’s preaching at the concerts, and interviews with the band, and there is, at the heart of the film, a serious discussion of the seemingly contradictory dichotomy between religion and rock ‘n’ roll and whether Dylan was able to reconcile the two.

The film is helmed by Joel Gilbert, and released by the company Highway 61 Entertainment. Gilbert and the company seem to be offshoots of a professional Dylan tribute band called “Highway 61 Revisited.” Gilbert dresses like Dylan, and passes as a shadow of someone who might have been a version of Dylan in “I’m Not There.”  Gilbert’s appearance is a bit distracting—it makes the film seem wholly subjective from the jump. But Gilbert asks the right questions about this period of life, challenges his interview subjects from different perspectives, and is a competent and informed interviewer.  It also does an excellent job of bringing in voices of contempt for Dylan’s work during that period, most notable of which apparently was Joel Selvin, writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Selvin really gives the music industry, critics, and disenchanted fans, a voice in this film.

I would argue that the only weakness of the documentary is that the entire affect of the film, in the aggregate, seems to be sympathetic to Dylan’s conversion. But, in truth, the film spends a lot of time trying to understand what Dylan was converting to, rather than promoting or discouraging why he converted.

In the end, the film ends on a different type of note than it began, takes a somewhat surprising turn, and attempts to reveal what the film feels Dylan has always been trying to get at in his never-ending search.

As a fan of Dylan, my greatest acclaim for this film is that it covers a great deal of unchartered territory, to my knowledge, for the very first time on film and uses primary sources. It may be the most important source on Dylan’s Christian music to date, period. Only “Behind the Shades Revisited,” a book on Dylan’s life, has adequately shed some light on Dylan’s work in this period to my knowledge, besides the few interviews Dylan has given himself.  For enthusiasts and analysts of Dylan’s work, that makes this film very important.

I highly recommend this film for both people who love Dylan and casual viewers who may not have even been aware that this period of Dylan’s music existed.

No matter what conclusion one draws about what Dylan’s life or music means, your perspective is limited prior to having seen this documentary if you had not been deeply involved in Dylan’s music during this period or are not a huge fan of it. It will change the way you think about Dylan’s music, and perhaps his life. If you’re measuring Dylan’s artistry through metrics that do not include an analysis of this period, it will create a different set of rules to do so.

Saw V continues what I believe anyway is your genuine horror epic, and while this film seems a little more sedate than the previous entries, it still delivers the goods in it’s own way, and basically, I tend to think that if you’re a fan of the series, and appreciate all of what it does, then you’ll like this one as well.

But also, much like the previous entries, you can’t go into this one as a virgin to the material and hope to get it all. The creators behind the series have pretty blatantly made it so that you need to see the other chapters, and for me anyway, that’s part of the fun of the series. There’s always things left open with each previous film and each new film pulls some retroactive continuity moves and answers those questions, and they do it in a way that really works. There’s a formula to the whole thing, but yet there’s always something new added, but still working in the formula.

This time around, there’s a new director on board, David Hackl, and Hackl does a decent enough job filling the shoes of both James Wan and Darren Lynn Bousman before him, though he doesn’t quite have the same flash that Bousman has, this still fits visually with what’s come before. And more importantly, so does it’s story.

Tobin Bell returns to the series yet again, and really it wouldn’t be Saw without him in some way, also returning from the previous film are actors Costas Mandylor os Detective Mark Hoffman and Scott Patterson as FBI Agent Peter Strahm and Betsy Russell as Jill Tuck, John Kramer’s wife. New faces to the series this time includes actors like 24’s Carlo Rota, Julie Benz, and veteran character actor Mark Rolston. The entire cast does a great job here, and much like I did with Saw IV I have to give high marks to Scott Patterson again, and would just love to see this guy break out into some bigger stuff.

There’s still lots of questions, including one very big one, to answer from this film, and of course Saw VI has already been announced. As a huge fan of the series, I can’t wait to see it, and so next year at this time, I no doubt will. In the meantime though, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Saw V as long as you’re a fan of the series.

Sources:
Variety
IMDB

This episode also features a Booster Seat Producer review of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Don’t forget to join us on Wednesday nights at about 9:00 PM Central on Ustream.tv (Follow BetterintheBack or TonyMast on Twitter to be updated when we go live.)

Sorry this one is late, It’s all my fault. If we crank things up we could see 2 or three more episodes drop by the end of the week.

#2 Beverly Hills Chihuahua from Disney drops to #2 this weekend bringing in $11.2 million, bringing its total earnings to $69 million. Chihuahua showed in 3239 theaters, up 21. Budget for Chihuahua is unknown.

#3 The Secret Life Of Bees from Search light debuts at #3 this weekend bringing in $11 million. Bees showed in 1591 theaters and cost $11 million.

#4 W from Lions Gate debuts at #4 this weekend bringing in $10.5 million. W showed in 2030 theaters and cost $25 million.

#5 Eagle Eye from Paramount. drops to #5 this weekend bringing in $7.3 million, down 32% and bringing its total earnings to $81 million. Eye showed in 3326 theaters, down 288. Budget is $80 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Body Of Lies : Weekend Gross: $6,880,000, down 46% / Theaters: 2714, up 4 / Gross:$24,481,000 / Budget $70 million

#7 Quarantine : Weekend Gross: $6,300,000, down 55% / Theaters: 2463, up 2 / Gross:$24,687,000 / Budget $12 million

#8 Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist : Weekend Gross: $3,900,000, down 39% / Theaters: 2241, down 180 / Gross:$26,707,000 / Budget $10 million

#9 Sex Drive : Weekend Gross: $3,566,000 / Theaters: 2421 / Gross:$3,566,000 / Budget $19 million

#10 Nights in Rodanthe : Weekend Gross: $2,680,000, down 41% / Theaters: 2115, down 460 / Gross:$36,892,000 / Budget unknown

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Max Payne is the latest video-game to movie conversion and it comes to us from the hands of director John Moore, who was wonderful with the film Behind Enemy Lines but less so with some more recent efforts. The game itself was really quite fun, bringing with it the mechanic of “bullet-time” allowing you to slow time for some really cool effects a la John Woo movies or more recently, The Matrix.

The movie is certainly an earnest effort and above anything else, absolutely has a fantastic look to it, but what it lacks is the fun factor which comes way too little and too late into the film.

The first hour has it’s moments, but for the most part is just so dry that I just didn’t really care about anything that was happening in it. Max himself, at least in this movie, is a one-note character, just driven to the point of being the atypical “cop on the edge” character. Now that would’ve been fine had there been a little more wit about everything else going on, and that doesn’t necessarily mean having to have humor about it, but just something else to it that would’ve at least made it much more fun to get into. Unfortunately, it lacks this, and as such, it’s pretty boring until about it’s last half hour. And even though things pick up then, they don’t pick up enough, at least by what’s promised in the trailer.

Pretty much, the trailer has all of the best parts of the film in it.

Mark Wahlberg plays Max, and he’s certainly got the look and the intensity, but little else, but then as I said, if this had a little more wit about it, he wouldn’t have needed anything else. He’s backed up with actors like Mila Kunis, Amaury Nolasco, Donal Logue, Chris O’Donnell, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Kate Burton and Beau Bridges, and all do a decent enough job, but again all are hampered by a pretty pedestrian first two acts.

I’d recently watched the movie Shoot ‘Em Up again and had a pretty good time with it and actually think that what Max Payne needs is just a little of what Shoot ‘Em Up has in abundance, and that’s more of a wilder over-the-top and somewhat self-aware fun factor, primarily during it;s first hour… had it done that, this could’ve been a whole lot of fun, but as it is, it looks great but doesn’t have anything really cool or fun in it that you haven’t already seen played out over it’s trailer. Not one of the worst that I’ve seen for the year, but certainly a big disappointment.

#2 Quarantine from Screen Gems debuts at #2 this weekend bringing in $14.2 million. Quarantine showed in 2416 theaters and cost $12 million.

#3 Body Of Lies from Warner Bros. debuts at #3 this weekend bringing in $13 million. Lies showed in 2710 theaters and had a budget of$70 million.

#4 Eagle Eye from Paramount. drops to #4 this weekend bringing in $11 million, down 37% and bringing its total earnings to $70 million. Eye showed in 3614 theaters, up 98. Budget is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#5 Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist : Weekend Gross: $6,500,000, down 42% / Theaters: 2421, unchanged / Gross:$20,810,000 / Budget $10 million

#6 The Express : Weekend Gross: $4,731,000 / Theaters: 2808 / Gross:$4,731,000 / Budget $40 million

#7 Nights in Rodanthe : Weekend Gross: $4,610,000, down 37% / Theaters: 2575, down 127 / Gross:$32,366,000 / Budget unknown

#8 Appaloosa : Weekend Gross: $5,015,000, down 33% / Theaters: 1290, up 245 / Gross:$10,886,000 / Budget $20 million

#9 The Dutchess : Weekend Gross: $3,322,000, up 217% / Theaters: 1207, up 1080 / Gross:$5,620,000 / Budget unknown

#10 City Of Ember : Weekend Gross: $3,200,000 / Theaters: 2022 / Gross:$3,200,000 / Budget $38 million

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Appaloosa is the new movie from star and director Ed Harris based on the novel by Robert Parker (best known for the Spencer series) and it’s just a brilliant movie, another western that joins the likes of 3:10 To Yuma (though I have a bit of an issue with the ending of that film, I still recognize it’s extreme high quality getting there), Open Range and less recently, Unforgiven showing that there’s still life in the classic Western genre in film, if it’s handled just right.

Harris’ film is authentic as can be, shot against some really beautiful landscapes, and looking at the end credits, he’s even hired enough extras to actually be the populace of this town at the time. Everything just feels really right. But where this really excels is in the relationship between Cole and Hitch, a very deep-rooted friendship with both men as a compliment to each other making them a great team for the job they have to do.

Ed Harris plays Cole and Viggo Mortenson plays Hitch, and obviously after working together in a movie like A History of Violence, these guys obviously “get” each other and have chemistry that’s just totally natural. They’re backed up by Jeremy Irons as Bragg and a rougher than normal looking Renee Zellwegger as Allison, who both do really fine work here. Further welcome in the cast is Lance Herikson as a rival gunman to Cole and Hitch, brought in later in the film, Henrikson is just a natural for something like this.

Obviously, I had a great time with this film. It is leisurely paced, but nothing seems out of place or wrong to how everything plays out in the end. It’s easily followed and yet has it’s own complexities as well as some subtle humor. And if you do decide to see this, stay through the end credits. No there’s no extra scene at the end, but through the credits, there’s a little song sung by Ed Harris himself that’s a really nice and knowing end punctuation to the life ahead for his character, Virgil Cole. Appaloosa is just brilliant and of course, highly recommended…

That’s the premise of Quarantine which itself is a remake of a Spanish horror film called [REC], which unfortunately I’ve not seen, and it also looks to be the big break for a little known director by the name of John Erick Dowdle. And unfortunately, this looks to be a film that I can’t quite give the type of review for that I’d really like to hand out primarily because we saw it with the worst audience that I’ve seen a movie with since Hard Candy from a few years ago. The thing is, it actually seems like the kind of film that is my kind of horror film, and objectively, I can tell you that it is well made and lis quite effective with just one major complaint, and that complaint isn’t due to the film itself but rather it’s marketing.

But first, yeah, our audience was just horrendous for this- primarily mostly composed of late teenagers and know-it-all twentysomethings that were there more to entertain themselves than to see a movie and really just making this the worst movie-going experience that I’ve had in years, and it’s a shame because I do think this can be quite effective under the right circumstances, but so far those circumstances are calling for me to recommend this as something that you wait for on DVD rather than go out to the theatre to see. As I’ve said about audiences like this before, I can only hope there’s a special place in hell reserved just for them for being assholes. It really makes me yearn for the days when ushers would walk the theatre with flashlights, ready to boot out anyone making a disturbance.

Now with that out of the way, the film itself is made the same way as movies like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield all done from a handheld video camera operated by one of the cast. So if you’ve already got an aversion to these type of films, then straight up, this won’t be for you. I think this is pretty well told though, considering the circumstances I saw it under, with the camera work being a little more straightforward as the film starts and then getting extremely chaotic as things progress.

The cast is filled with lots of “those guys” who you see in other films as mostly support. It’s headed up by Jennifer Carpenter who was extremely effective in The Exorcism of Emily Rose playing this overly bubbly and annoying, but again I hope I’m being objective enough to say that my own perception could certainly be colored by the conditions I saw this under, and that whole perception might change later on. Other cast members include Steve Harris as her cameraman, Jay Hernandez and Johnathan Schaech as the firefighters she’s assigned to cover, and veteran character guys like Rade Serbedzija and Greg Germann as a couple of the residents of the apartment house. And really everyone does a fine job for this type of movie.

My biggest complaint though, other than that of the a-hole audience we saw it with, is the fact that the marketing of the film blows the final shot of the piece. That shot, and I won’t say what it is, is a key part of the trailer for the film and if you’ve seen it, then once it gets to that point, you’re just waiting for it to happen as opposed to letting it shock you the way it should. And it’s a real shame, because the climax is pretty good here, leading you to an area that I certainly didn’t consider as being the root cause of what has transpired through the film.

So here’s the deal- I certainly do recommend this, but really you just might want to wait until some time has passed and it comes out on DVD, doing that will most certainly let you see it under better conditions. Just wait for this to come home, and turn off all the lights as you watch it and hopefully the trailer won’t be too fresh in mind as everything plays out. And then… then, if you like this type of horror film as I do, then you’ll probably have a great time with this, but for now, avoid this like the plague in the theatre…

David Cronenberg is currently in talks with the MGM to direct The Matarese Circle, reports Variety, from a script penned by “3:10 to Yuma” writing duo, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. Denzel Washington is attached to star in the film. Based on a Robert Ludlum novel, Matarese Circle is set during the period of Cold War. It tells the story of two conflicting secret agents who team up to bring down an international group of killers known as the Matarese. MGM reportedly are expecting to start Production in spring ‘09

Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers are now scheduled to film at Raleigh Productions in Manhattan Beach, California reports Comicmix.com. The facility has 14 soundstages and 300,000 square feet of office and support space, making it perfect to mount the four films over the next three years given the shared personnel and even props and cast if all goes as anticipated. Louis D’Esposito, Marvel’s president of physical production, told Variety that Raleigh had been “incredibly accommodating in terms of financial structures”.

Ridley Scott recently talked to io9 about his big-screen adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Good to know he’s definitely going for it. Currently, the project is only in an early developmental stage, and a script is not quite ready yet, according to Scott. “No, no no we’re still struggling with that one. I have 40 things on the go at once. But that’s a very important one. And sometimes, some surface faster than the others. It’s partly luck of the draw,” he told io9.

Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway to Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton is directing for Disney, says The Hollywood Reporter. The movie, which stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, will use a combination of live action and performance-capture technology to tell the Lewis Carroll story. Hathaway is playing the White Queen, a benevolent monarch who is deposed and banished by her sister, the Red Queen (Carter), who has an affinity for crying out, “Off with their heads!” The White Queen needs Alice to slay a creature known as the Bandersnatch. Richard Zanuck, Joe Roth and Jennifer and Suzanne Todd are producing.

The Daily Mail in the Uk is reporting that Johnny Depp is being paid $56 million to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 4. The payout will reportedly makes him the highest paid actor in history (for an upfront fee). The same article says that Disney are likely not to ask Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom to return for the fourth outing, thus making Pirates 4 a Jack Sparrow spin-off. The first three Pirates Of The Caribbean films earned over $2.6 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

Sources:
IMDB
Variety
Comicmix.com
THR
The Daily Mail
Io9
Studio Briefing

Women are made aware of the disease and how to look for the signs from an early age.  While not all of them heed the doctor’s advice, they are at least aware of their risks.  Guys are at risk of this too.

Guys we need to be supportive of our women and we need to make sure that we are healthy too.  It’s not enough that encourage our partners to do regular exams, but we should be checking out ourselves too.

Seriously, if you get breast cancer you could die.  As in dead.  As in six feet under.  That is serious.  So what if you get embarrassed having to admit why you have to go to the doctor, or take time off work, or have the scar.  You are alive.   You are alive AND you get to wear one of the special survivor shirts and walk arm in arm with some of the coolest, toughest, most bad-ass women you’ll ever meet and be fortunate enough to call yourself equal to them.  Not a whole lot of men can do that.

We are going pink for the month of October.  For our mothers, our girlfriends, our wives, our daughters and also for ourselves.

Further information from people who really know what they are talking about can be found at the links below:

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month http://nbcam.org/

American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Resources http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PAR/Content/PAR_2_3_Breast_Cancer_Resources.asp

National Cancer Institute http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast

#2 Eagle Eye from Paramount drops to #2 this weekend bringing in $17.7 million, down 39% putting total earnings at $54.6 million. Eye showed in 3516 theaters, thats up 6 over last and cost $80 million.

#3 Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist from Sony debuts at #3 this weekend bringing in $12 million. Nick showed in 2421 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#4 Nights In Rodanthe from Warner Bros. drops to #4 this weekend bringing in $7.3 million, down 45% and bringing its total earnings to $25 million. Nights showed in 2702 theaters, down 2. Budget is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#5 Appaloosa : Weekend Gross: $5,015,000 / Theaters: 1045 / Gross:$5,015,000 / Budget $20 million

#6 Lakeview Terrace : Weekend Gross: $4,500,000, down 35% / Theaters: 2574, up 107 / Gross:$32,140,000 / Budget $20 million

#7 Burn After Reading: Weekend Gross: $4,083,000, down 34% / Theaters: 2397, down 252 / Gross:$51,641,000 / Budget $37 million

#8 Fireproof: Weekend Gross: $4,069,000, down 40% / Theaters: 852, up 13 / Gross:$12,491,000 / Budget Unknown

#9 An American Carol : Weekend Gross: $3,810,000 / Theaters: 1639 / Gross:$3,810,000 / Budget $20 million

#10 Religulous : Weekend Gross: $3,500,000 / Theaters: 502 / Gross:$3,500,000 / Budget unknown

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

And that’s the premise of Blindness the new movie from director Fernando Meirelles, who previously gave us the movies, The Constant Gardener (haven’t seen it) and City of God (I have seen this one and it’s one hell of a movie). I was sorta hoping that this movie would be what M. Night Shymalan’s The Happening wasn’t, but instead it devolves to what seems more like contrived film school third world allegory that asks you to swallow a lot in order to follow it.

Where this falls apart is in the idea of the quarantine, because basically these people are thrown into this building with literally no one to watch out for them, other than the military standing guard making certain that no one gets out. It just out and out ignores the idea that these people would be in reality under a microscope to figure out what was causing this, especially as the blindness continues to escalate. Later in the film, another character is brought into the ward who begins to explain what is happening in the outside world, and how the process of investigating the source has broken down, but unfortunately, this process feels like something tacked on later (and according to reports of some re-shoots after an exhibition in Cannes, it very well could be) as an afterthought, but not the point that the director is trying to make.

And that point is basically all it takes is one event to send people who have comfortable lives into a life of utter squalor. Now really, I don’t have a problem with this being the point of the film, it’s just that getting there is incredibly contrived. And through it all, one woman, the doctor’s wife, still has the ability to see, which she’s hiding from everyone, except her husband, and due to the script, she does things that a sighted person just wouldn’t do in this situation.

Meirelles has a good cast at work here, including Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal and Alice Braga and they certainly do what’s asked of them, but as I said above, what’s asked is horribly contrived.

This isn’t a movie for the faint-hearted as there is a lot of unpleasantness here- specifically around scenes within the ward- so consider that a warning if you’re planning to see it. The thing is, I’d almost expect that most might be more tempted to walk out halfway through it, I know I certainly was, and not due to it’s unpleasantness, but more to it’s contrived and forced quality to shove a message down my throat. I give Meirelles credit though for a well done first quarter of the film as the outbreak is happening, with some inventive and stylistic camera work, and also by it’s quality there’s really nothing out there quite like this right now. But at the same time, it just doesn’t hold up, and I tend to think that if you want to see something like this that explores some of the same themes, but played out better, maybe re-watching Children of Men is the way to go, or an even better playing out of these themes in Oliver Hershberger’s excellent film The Experiment. Right now, the only way I could even want to see this one again would be just to play Mystery Science Theatre 3000 with it. Not as bad as The Happening but damn near close and certainly outweighing it on the pretentious side…

… and it’s also the latest movie from director David Zucker, best know for being part of the team that gave us Airplane! and The Naked Gun movies and also one of the few Hollywood Conservatives who’s obviously pretty proud of it.

Now I’ll go ahead and tell you right up front that I expect that there