Dreamworks Bitchslaps Eagle Eye to September?
Eagle Eye was a hot property from day one, originating as an idea/story from legendary director Steven Spielberg. Directed by D.J. Caruso, re-teaming with Disturbia star Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), and set for a much coveted early August release date. But something has happened…
Maybe the film is running behind schedule. Or quite possibly, maybe they are afraid of the Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy Pineapple Express? I’m sure the studio might explain that this is just a last minute addition to the major schedule reshuffle announced last week. Whatever the reason, Dreamworks has moved the film from its prime August real estate to late September. And while this move might seem like normal business to most casual movie fans, I believe something major is behind this decision.
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but the facts show that a move from August to September is a major loss. It just doesn’t make sense. The average big Hollywood movie in August opens twice as big as a big Hollywood release in September. This could mean the difference between a $35-40 million to a $20-$25 million opening weekend. Are there technical problems or has the studio suddenly lost faith in the film’s earning potential?
Eagle Eye will now open on September 26th 2008, up against The Coen Brother’s Burn After Reading starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and the Paul W.S. Anderson remake of Death Race starring Jason Statham.
Update: Someone working on the film claims that production is behind schedule and they have 2-3 weeks of shooting left.
SPEC: Lucas and Spielberg Planning a New Indy Trilogy after Crystal Skull?
Sure, every fan has probably considered it. But it’s extremely rare when an entertainment journalist issues a long editorial admitting that he may not have dug deep enough for a giant scoop, and Vanity Fair contributing editor Jim Windolf has done just that. Regarding his Feb. ’08 cover story on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Windolf goes so far as to offer an apology to fans for not pressing director Steven Spielberg and producer Frank Marshall on their plans for a new post-Crystal Skull Indiana Jones trilogy. Windolf sounds so convinced that the franchise will continue with Shia LaBeouf’s still-unnamed character dropping his greaser ‘do and silly switchblade to pick up Jones’ fedora and five o’clock shadow that I wonder if he’s received fresh intelligence about the production, on top of his rumbling gut intuition.
When I asked [Spielberg] why he hadn’t gone forward with the Indy IV script written by writer-director Frank Darabont, he said, “In this case George [Lucas] was passionate that this was not the story he wanted to tell at this point in the Indiana Jones saga …” Noting that he had used the magic phrase “at this point,” I followed up by asking him, “Is that leaving room open for another one?” To which Spielberg replied, “Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t even thought about that. I’m still in the cutting room. I can’t even think beyond the next cut.”
After the increasingly strong box office and clear hunger for the National Treasure adventure franchise—which Lucas seems to allude to as not on Indy’s level in the original VF feature—and Spielberg’s growing stock in LaBeouf (whose prior three films and this summer’s Eagle Eye gleam with Spielberg’s fingerprints), I’d say the arrows start pointing in the “hell yeah” direction once the first trailer hits, when the excitement of fanboys’ reaches boiler room intensity.
New Indiana Jones 4 Video Diary: Reuniting The Family
IndianaJones.com has been updated with a new video diary “Reuniting The Family”. Director Steven Spielberg, Producers George Lucas, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, and star Harrison Ford talk about coming back for a fourth film. It seems like most of the interviews were done before production. The package is cut to clips from the first three films. So there is nothing really new to be found in this one, but it may be worth a watch. Check it out now at IndianaJones.com.
Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks May Leave Paramount
It isn’t exactly news: Dreamworks and Paramount are not the big happy family that everyone imagined 15 months ago.
Despite the insistence of Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, director Steven Spielberg is said to be so unhappy with the current situation that he may be planning to defect from the company with David Geffin. The duo own rights to the DreamWorks name, but don’t hold ownership of their past catalog and current development deals. It is also likely that the team would lose most, if not all, of their staff.
Redstone went public with the firing of star and producer Tom Cruise last year, we resulted in the rebirth of United Artists. It seems to me that Redstone may be the cause of his own undoing. In a business where nobody knows anything, Redstone thinks he knows everything. He’s starting to make all the wrong decisions (buying Dreamworks excluded, which is evident by Paramount’s 2007 Box Office take) and pissing the wrong people off.