The Official MovieSet Blog

The Dailies: After Comic Con

Monday, July 28, 2008

Hello once again and welcome to the Monday edition of “The Dailies”, where I get the opportunity to tell you about what’s cool or big in the movie biz…or I’ve been bought because the studio has sent me swag. But since no studio has bothered to send me swag then you know that my opinion is 100% unfiltered truth! Jeez, not even a Dark Knight sticker…I must suck.

…in case you hadn’t heard, the annual San Diego International Comic Con took place last week. I remember going to my first Comic Con back in 1996 when nary a filmmaker was there. Now Comic Con has grown and attracted the attention of Hollywood, becoming the place where nearly all of the major movie studios will unveil new trailers, bring down their A-list stars and start building the hype for next year’s summer releases. Among the big events that took place last weekend were an all-star panel featuring the cast and crew of Warner Bros. Watchmen; Hugh Jackman unveiling an early sneak preview of the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine; director McG showing off a first look at his upcoming Terminator: Salvation; and Walt Disney Pictures with its debut of the trailer for Pixar’s Up and a major surprise, footage from a sequel to the 1982 cult hit Tron. According to early estimates around 125,000 fans went to the four-day con. The con organizers are at the limit for growth and unless San Diego expands their convention facilities the SDCC could wind up heading north to Los Angeles or across the desert to Las Vegas in a year or two.

…and while we’re still on the subject of comic books, The Dark Knight is still on top of the box office for a second straight week in a row. As it stands now TDK has grossed $314 million in ten days, setting a new record once again. There’s even talk that Dark Knight could have the legs to chase after the all-time box office champ, James Cameron’s Titanic, which earned $601 million back in 1997-98. Personally I can’t see Bats beating Titanic but I can see it trickle across the $500 million dollar mark around the start of the fall. One franchise that you probably won’t hear from again is The X-Files; the second film in the series, I Want to Believe, bombed big time and only grossed $10 million.

…George Lucas is threatening us with a fifth Indiana Jones movie. The Times Online broke the story which has the Star Wars creator say this about what might lay after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: “If I can come up with another idea that they like, we’ll do another. Really, with the last one, Steven wasn’t that enthusiastic. I was trying to persuade him. But now Steve is more amenable to doing another one. Yet we still have the issues about the direction we’d like to take. I’m in the future;
Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m
trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of
tension. This recent one came out of that. It’s kind of a hybrid of our own
two ideas, so we’ll see where we are able to take the next one.” Is it just me or does that sound like it’s George Lucas’ highway or no way? Spielberg is trying to “drag it back”? Wow. That sounds a little heavy-handed to me.

…and finally Ridley Scott’s Nottingham, in which the Sheriff of N. is role reveresed to become the good guy versus the evil Robin Hood, has been indefinitely delayed. The Hollywood Reporter is citing that “script concerns, location logistics and the current labor unrest” is putting the kebosh on the project, at least until next spring when the trees will be green again. So, if you’re a producer looking for a leading man to fill your hero’s role, here’s notice that Russell Crowe is now available.

See you tomorrow with more.

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The Dailies: “Lies”; trailer, Ferrell’s racist role and King Arthur wants to be a cowboy

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Here comes “The Dailies” for Thursday July 17, the day before The Dark Knight opens and everything associated with movies changes…if you believe the hype that’s flowing around this picture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to see it but if you believe all of the stuff being said about Dark Knight it can end world hunger, reform Lindsay Lohan from her mischievous ways and possibly even nominated as Barack Obama’s running mate in the fall election.

Let’s get into it.

…the trailer for director Ridley Scott’s next, Body of Lies, hits the internet. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a CIA agent out to take down an al Qaida operative in Jordan while Russell Crowe plays Leo’s handler back stateside. The picture hits cinema complexes this fall.

…Variety reports that John Woo, he of Mission: Impossible II infamy and the world’s most vocal proponent of filming doves in slo-mo, has been attached to direct Caliber, a twist on the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Instead of Arthur and his knights living in Camelot in Caliber they’re reimagined as cowboys in the old west. Arthur is given a magical pistol called — you guessed it! — Caliber by the Native Americans and charged to defend the frontier. The property is based on a to-be-published comic book by Radical Comics….

Will Ferrell is warming up to play a racist in the Sony comedy Two Face. The project would see the former SNL cast member play a bigot who, after a prank goes wrong, develops a split personality. Hancock script polisher Vince Gilligan wrote the screenplay for Two Face. According to Variety Will has been thinking about making the film for the past three years.

…and d’you want to see three new TV spots for Seth Rogen’s The Pineapple Express? Right here.

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The Dailies: two trailers, one script

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Thursday, the fourth day of the workweek. If you’re reading this in America, today is your Friday as tomorrow is the fourth of July: fireworks, Bar-B-Qs and perhaps a road trip are in order. Before you book out of work and begin thinking of what to serve up for yourself on the long weekend let’s get busy and tell you what’s happening in the latest edition of “The Dailies”.

…Sony’s Hancock made an early Tuesday night debut in theaters and immediately benefited from the advance screenings. The comedic/dramatic/superhero movie took in an estimated $6.4 million in ticket sales. While reviews have been mixed most industry analysts are predicting a $100+ million opening weekend for Hancock, perhaps even as high as $115 M. And if you want to see how different the final version of Hancock is from the original spec script that was the basis of the film (which was titled Tonight He Comes), Hollywood Elsewhere has the screenplay available in PDF format.

…the trailer for Blindness has arrived on the internet and comes recommended by the MovieSet blogging team. Julianne Moore stars as a woman who seems to be one of the only people left to not come down with sudden and seemingly irreversible blindness. As society begins to fracture and fall apart Moore’s character is sent away with her now-blind husband and a host of others. Based on the trailer the plot seems to take a Lord of the Flies turn right about there. The movie hits theater screens this coming September.

…In an interview with NDTV Music, Dark Knight composer Hans Zimmer reveals that he almost went back and rewrote the picture’s score after the death of Heath Ledger. “I, for a moment, was thinking, ‘Oh my god, I should throw out all the music I’ve written for The Joker and just start over again,’ which is just exactly the wrong thing to do. To honour his (Ledger) performance, I had to stick to my guns.” There has also been mounting talk that Ledger`s performance as Batman`s greatest nemesis could earn him an Oscar nomination. Undoubtedly some of that talk is being dereived from the untimely death of the talented actor but I’ve also heard from friends that have seen the film that his manic performance is remarkable.

…and while North American audiences haven’t as yet seen the trailer for The Day the Earth Stood Still, it`s somehow managed to find its way onto YouTube. This remake of the classic 1951 sci-fi movie stars Keanu Reeves as an alien that has come to Earth to give its nations a dire warning. Whereas the original film addressed the threat of nuclear annihilation, Reeves’ spaceman is here to deliver an environmental message to us. Blessed YouTube, thou are most great:

Meh. Could go either way. I need to see more before passing judgment on it.

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The Dailies: the showdown of the W movies, Hulk director to smash Greek gods and “Bolt” is broadcast

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Welcome to the end of the workweek and your Friday edition of “The Dailies”. The isn’t as much news breaking from the trades today as is usual due to the upcoming long weekend and the people working in showbiz taking time off to soak up the sun, BBQ some hot dogs and maybe hit the road for the start of another family road trip. But before you go off frolicing let’s get you up to speed on what is breaking in the world of movies…

….with “WALL-E” and “Wanted” opening in theaters this weekend the speculation of the day is just how much these two are going to make at the box office. None of the forecasts that I’ve come across have given “Wanted” a hope of beating Pixar’s uber-cute droid for ticket sales but then again no one is saying that Universal’s picture is going to bomb. In fact most reviews for “Wanted” have been favorable (if you like loads of action and shots of Angelina Jolie emerging from hot steam baths) but everyone is placing their bets on “WALL-E” being number one. It’s a no-brainer, right? So what’s the forecast? Most peg “WALL-E” clocking in between $60-68 million, slightly less than Pixar’s best-ever opening, “The Incredibles”, which took in $70.1 M back in ‘04. “Wanted” stands to make somewhere between $35-40 M so the suits at both studios should be happy come Monday morning.

…the word is that Warner Bros. has given a greenlight to its remake of “Clash of the Titans” because the studio just landed “Incredible Hulk” director Louis Leterrier to direct the fantasy/action event picture. “Hulk” has been a modest hit for Universal and successfully rebooted the green superhero’s film franchise after the heavy dramatic taste Ang Lee’s 2003 film left with audiences (it’s “The Ice House” bombarbed by gamma radiation!) If you’ve seen “Transporter 2″ then you’ll know Leterrier has the energy of a five-year-old hopped up on a large-sized Slurpee so his version of “Clash”, with its Greek heroes, gods and scary mythological monsters, is going to probably look fantastic. WB wants to plow ahead not just because it’s got Leterrier now but also because there’s a comepting Greek god movie in development for Relativity Media called “War of Gods” which has the Greek heroes teaming up with Zeus and his Pantheon homies to fight demons. Two big-budget Greek god fantasy epics? Sounds like double the fun.

… and Empire Movies has the exclusive first look at “Bolt”, another of Disney’s internally-created CG features. John Travolta provides the voice for the main character, a TV show dog that gets zapped and develops superpowers. Miley Cyrus plays Bolt’s teen owner who has been separated from her little pooch by fate, circumstance and the story engineers working for Disney. You can catch the trailer in front of “WALL-E” or just by clicking here.

That’s it for the Dailies this week. If you’re out hitting the roads for a vacation, have fun, but if you’re checking out any of the new releases tell us what you thought of ‘em.

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The launch of MovieSe’s “Dailies”

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

There is so much to talk about associated with the world of movies that you could spend all day focused on just a single aspect of the industry. Wanna talk gossip? How about the latest casting or project announcements? Interested in a preview of this week’s new releases, or do you want to find out what films made the weekend top ten at the box office? Yeah, there’s loads to talk about in addition to the many things happening on MovieSet — which is why I want to try a new idea out on you. What do you think of a daily morning round-up of the important movie news stories out there with the MovieSet take on things? Let’s see how it goes and you tell me if you like MovieSet’s “Dailies”, to borrow a term from the biz, plus feel free to share your own opinion on the news of the day.

…Variety reports that Spike Lee will direct and co-author the screenplay for “Time Traveller”, a drama/sci-fi pic about one of the first African-American theoretical physicists who made it his life’s mission to build a working time machine. The character in the eventual movie is based on the memoir by Ronald Mallett, PhD., and his own efforts to dream up such a device so he could revisit the time spent with his now-deceased father. It doesn’t sound like the usual fare for Lee but it does have one heck of a cool premise. don’t it?

…Slate has published a piece which alleges that someone associated with United Artists did some Photoshop magic to a photo of Claus von Stauffenberg, the real-life World War II German officer from Hitler’s reich, to make his profile look more similar to that of Ton Cruise, the guy playing Stauffenberg in Bryan Singer’s “Valkyrie” movie about the plot to assassinate der Fuhrer. Take a look at the evidence Slate presents and come to your own conclusions.

…If you’re getting yourself hyped up for the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight”, then this might be the equivalent of a can of Redbull to you. A new viral promotional website for the film went up at www.gothamcitypizzeria.com and at first glance it appears to be a website for a pizza joint in Gotham City. But if you look closely at the “ha” in the word “Gotham”, you’ll see i shake. Cursor your mouse over it and then click on the letters to see a short clip from “The Dark Knight” that provides us with an incredibly creepy glimpse of the introduction for Two-Face, the scarred madman in Bats’ rogues gallery of villains.

…And my final news story to mention in my first ever daily round-up is the news that Cyd Charisse, legendary dancer and one smoking hot dame, star of such films as “Ziegfeld Follies”, “Bridadoon” and “Singin’ in the Rain”, has passed away at the age of 86. While I’m not the most knowledgeable guy when it comes to musicals, what I have seen of Charisse when she was in her prime as an actress has been amazing, like in this clip from “Singin’ in the Rain” opposite Gene Kelly:

Hit me with your thoughts on the stories featured in “The Dailies” below. Let the discussion commence!

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