Pirates made some dough

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Another weekend, another instant blockbuster.

As expected, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End crossed the $100 million mark in its debut.

The question now is whether it can avoid the curse of the "threequel."

Pirates took in $156.1 million over the Memorial Day weekend, a record for the holiday, according to estimates from Nielsen EDI. But can it maintain momentum next week? Its big-budget predecessors this month, Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third, opened huge but saw precipitous drop-offs in ticket sales, losing more than half their business the following weekend.

"Certainly, it's big to have three movies open to more than $100 million," says Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "But these don't have the word of mouth that the previous movies did. A lot of fans believe the 'threequels' are the worst of the franchise."

Pirates fell short of Spider-Man 3's record opening —Spider-Man took in $151 million in its first three days, and Pirates earned $115.1 million — but Pirates still set the Memorial Day weekend record by eclipsing last year's X-Men: The Last Stand, which opened to $122.9 million. Worldwide, Pirates has taken in $401 million.

"We have a chance at having a respectable hold" next week, says Mark Zoradi, chief of distribution and marketing for Disney, which released Pirates of the Caribbean. "Obviously, there's a significant amount of franchise films out there. But audience response has been great."
Shrek the Third, which opened to $121 million last weekend, took second place with $69.1 million over four days. Spider-Man was third with $18 million and has taken in $307.6 million. The horror film Bug was fourth with $4.2 million.

Not all films are struggling with the long haul. The Keri Russell comedy Waitress cracked the top five in its fourth week of release. The movie did $4 million in only 510 theaters over the weekend for a healthy $7,800 per-theater average. The Sundance Film Festival darling has earned $6.5 million since its release a month ago.

"With all of the big action movies, I think people want films with a little meat on them," says Sheila Deloach of Fox Searchlight, which distributed Waitress.

Dark Knight IMAX

From AICN, So, we've seen the scarred Joker pic at the viral website a week or more back, now here's a couple production stills released along with the news that Chris Nolan is filming four of the big action sequences in THE DARK KNIGHT with the Imax 70mm cameras, including the introduction of the Joker. Check out the pics below and click it to visit USA Today (thanks to KevinInChains for the heads up), where the news and pic broke!

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-05-28-dark-knight-firstlook_N.htm

Clone Wars poster revealed

May 25, 1977

Happy 30th Star Wars!!!

Christ I'm old.

I love faith (stupidity)

When retired policeman Andy Key went on a trip to Rome, he was struck by the beauty of sunlight streaming through a window in the Vatican. As the Pope made an address nearby, he decided to capture the stunning image on his camera. But it was only when Mr Key, 48, and his wife Susan, 44, returned home and and downloaded their photographs that they noticed a strange apparition in the picture. They were amazed to see what looked like the image of a guardian angel above the heads of other visitors to St Peter's Basilica.
I've seen a lot of angels in my time, and that's definitely an angel. Or light. Or maybe a reflection.

Whatever it is there's only one thing we know for sure: I'm handsome.

300?

This video was taken while on safari and shows a battle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and two crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Throw in Voltron and you've got yourselves a war.

Video after the jump.

Continue Reading "Battle At Kruger"

Indiana Jones, er, I mean National Treasure sequel trailer

From cinemablend, National Treasure is the franchise the Da Vinci Code wishes it could be. It tackles the mysteries of history in a smart, entertaining way and it doesn’t need trumped up controversy to get people to show up and pay for seats. So get ready to be excited about the return of nerdy Benjamin Franklin Gates and his team of American History treasure hunters.

The trailer for their sequel, National Treasure: The Book of Secrets, is online. In National Treasure 2, Nic Cage’s Gates character tackles a conspiracy surrounding the assassination of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. The mystery begins with 18 pages missing from the diary of Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth. This first trailer is just a teaser really, but I dig the opening narration from Cage, and it’s exactly what I needed to get my head interested in thinking about National Treasure again. Watch the first National Treasure: The Book of Secrets trailer right here.

Groundhog Day for kids

From iwatchstuff, Variety is reporting that Disney has acquired the pitch, that's right, I said 'pitch', not 'script', for Monday Monday, which it describes as follows:

[The] "Groundhog Day"-like script by first-time feature writer Flint Wainess will follow a neurotic teen who has to relive his disastrous first day at a new high school until he gets it right.

Groundhog Day, IN HIGH SCHOOL. It's such a brilliant, out-there idea. I can see why the mere premise alone would be enough to spark a bidding frenzy. It's not every day a supernova of creativity like this rockets out your cornhole.

The project will be produced by Jennifer Gibgot and Adam Shankman, whose directing resume includes, but is not limited to: Hairspray (the upcoming remake), Cheaper by the Dozen 2, The Pacifier, Bringing Down the House, A Walk to Remember, and The Wedding Planner.
I'm tempted to say something snotty, but judging by his last name, his ancestors stabbed people in prison. Which is not to say I'm scared, it's just that we may be related.

HI-YO BRUCKHEIMER!

From CHUD, Citing a "trusted source", Frosty at Collider is reporting that producer Jerry Bruckheimer has targeted The Lone Ranger for blockbuster reinvention; Frosty's also insinuating that the Pirates of the Caribbean team - director Gore Verbinski and writers Ted Elliott & Terry "The Incinerator" Rossio - have been enlisted to give the vintage serial a hip, modern, sexy, dark, tumescent spin. This is news to me, but it's backed up by Peter Gilstrap's May 18th Variety profile of Elliott & Rossio, which plainly states,

"Beyond another Pirates project, word has it that the scribes might be doing a take on the Lone Ranger saga for Bruckheimer."

Though I've come to hate their mechanical screenwriting, this is terra firma for Elliott and Rossio, who worked a minor miracle in 1998 by revitalizing another antiquated hero with The Mask of Zorro.

And lest you think this is a wacky idea, this is actually the second time in the last three years that Hollywood has tried to revamp The Lone Ranger (producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher hired David and Janet Peoples to spruce up the masked cowboy back in 2004).

As for why these folks think The Lone Ranger is poised for a comeback, well, it's the name brand, stupid: boomers grew up watching the serials on television, their kids grew up listening to them prattle on about watching the serials on television (which didn't help the box office of 1981's awful The Legend of the Lone Ranger), and the boomers' kids' kids are growing up listening to their parents bitch about listening to their parents prattle on about watching the serials on television. Yes, The Lone Ranger... enthralling one generation while aggravating the piss out of two others. And, yet, what's outmoded now can be made to look glossy and edgy and less racist with a little studio processing, and that's where Elliott & Rossio come in. The first item of business will be the Ranger's faithful sidekick, Tonto, a childhood friend who, in the most popular version of the story, helped the hero (a Texas Ranger known as Reid) fake his death after nearly being killed in an Indian ambush (obligatory Native American casino joke: the Rangers were winning big at Blackjack all night and never once tipped their dealer). Expect Elliott & Rossio to clean this up a bit - i.e. Tonto will be the survivor of a slaughter, with The Lone Ranger helping him track down the men responsible for his parents or wife's or longtime companion's death(s). Also, expect them to write in huge CG set pieces involving trains, stagecoaches, stampedes, Pecos Bill and zombified cattle - all at once.I really could care less. All that matters is that they incorporate "The Lone Ranger Creed" to the very letter!

Damon done with Bourne

From CHUD, Why is Matt Damon one of my favorite working actors? It has a lot to do with the choices he makes, and not just which films he should be in but also which he should skip. Like a fourth Bourne movie.

While in Cannes promoting Ocean’s Thirteen (consensus from Cannes seems to be “It was OK”), Damon said that The Bourne Ultimatum is his finale with the series. Variety reports this (typically delightful) exchange at the O13 press conference:

"We have ridden that horse as far as we can." He admitted to feeling like "a bit of a prostitute for putting out two number threes in one year."

"That's better than three number twos," added [George*] Clooney.

I like that he’s not hedging his bets as so many other blockbuster actors and directors have been doing lately. The Oh Don Piano dance of ‘I’d love to come back if the script is great!’ thing makes me sick already, and it’s a symptom of an industry that just can’t leave well enough alone. Damon’s made three excellent (well, I’m assuming Ultimatum is excellent, as it reunites everyone from the last movie) Bourne films, and he understands that it’s best to go out on top.

There’s integrity there, which is more than I can say about Johnny Depp’s apparently unending willingness to shuck and jive as the same character forever for Pirates money.

* Did I really need to clarify this?

Possible Indy IV spoilers (somewhat edited by JPX)

From CHUD, Earlier this week I brought you big news about Indiana Jones IV (still titled Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods, but that could change at a moment’s notice). I got more info than I shared with you, but I held it back for the simple fact that I don’t know what’s a spoiler and what’s not at this point. I only ran stuff that I felt would be revealed in trailers and basic synopses, such as the general plotline and characters.

When looking to back up what I ran earlier this week, IESB uncovered a piece of info that I sat on, and they reported it, so now I’m reporting it as well – Cate Blanchett is the baddie in the film, and she’s been seen in the last week running around in a Soviet military uniform (that’s some pre-production stuff, I believe, not actually shooting anything).

I’m glad that IESB backed up what I ran (nice ‘typo’ on their sourcing, by the way. I laughed!), but I am going to go on record saying that I am not 100% sure that the Area 51 scene is the opening. I’ve based that on some assumptions and Darabont’s draft.

Also, and this is probably a major spoiler: [deleted by JPX] – is the driving background of this story.

IESB promises to get some more info in the coming weeks. I think we’re on the verge of having this movie spoiled to shit already, so I’d like to plead to these guys to consider dialing it back a little, although it’s quite possible that they won’t run anything too major (and it’s possible that what I ran in the invisotext above was more spoilery than I intended. So beware of that info).