Nick Cage’s KNOWING Trailer
I’m not a huge fan of Nicolas Cage. I mean, he’s had a couple good movies, but it’s hard to imagine him in movies like Ghost Rider (awful!) and Next (haven’t seen it, but it LOOKED awful!).
Knowing actually looks pretty good, though. He’s playing a smart guy, which is the kind of guy we expect him to play. The fact that he has a piece of paper that predicts major disasters, and possibly the end of the world, is actually kind of intriguing. He doesn’t have any super powers, hasn’t made any pacts with the Devil, he just uses his brain to figure something out and that’s all we really need from him.
Check out the trailer below!
Casting Couch: Cage Sees a Ghost; Olyphant Doing Damages; Cross Gets a Peck
Nicolas Cage is going from Ghost Rider to The Ghost.
The actor has come aboard to star opposite fellow Oscar winner Tilda Swinton and Pierce Brosnan in Roman Polanski’s feature version of Robert Harris’ political thriller.
The story revolves around a ghostwriter (Cage) hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Brosnan) after the first scribe on the job winds up dead. While conducting research for the project, the ghostwriter stumbles upon a dangerous conspiracy that threatens his life.
Swinton will play the politico’s wife, who ends up falling for Cage’s character.
Polanski and Harris adapted the script, and shooting is slated to get under way in September in Europe.
In other casting news from the trades:
- Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant has signed on for the second season of FX’s Damages, playing a guy who gets involved with Rose Byrne’s legal eagle, Ellen Parsons. He joins William Hurt as the other recent new hire. Returning this season are series’ stars Glenn Close, Tate Donovan and Byrne.
- Hart Bochner (Die Hard) joins USA Network’s The Starter Wife as the new love interest of Debra Messing’s character, a teacher in Molly’s writing class. The cable net will launch a 10-episode regular series in October. Judy Davis and Chris Diamantopoulos are returning as regulars, while new castmembers include Ronny Cox (The Agency), David Alan Basche (Lipstick Jungle), Krista Allen (Unscripted) and Brielle Barbusca as Molly’s daughter, Jaden.
- Desperate Housewives’ Marcia Cross is set to headline the indie comedy Peck opposite Adam Arkin and Camryn Manheim. The film centers on a teen whose bossy parents force him to compete in a science fair, where he strikes up a friendship with the most popular girl in his school.
- Aidan Quinn and Rutger Hauer are teaming up to topline ABC’s ensemble drama pilot Prince of Motor City. Touted as a gothic family soap opera taking its cues from Hamlet, the story revolves around Billy Hamilton (Warren Christie), a young Harvard philosophy professor who returns to Detroit to assume control of the family’s auto company after his father’s death. Quinn will essay the part of Billy’s uncle Charlie while Hauer will play Billy’s late dad, who turns up in his estranged son’s life as a ghost.
- Dukes of Hazzard alum John Schneider is starring in and executive producing twentysixmiles, a six-episode ensemble drama series that is being independently financed and does not yet have a distributor. He plays a high-powered Los Angeles executive who takes up residence on the island of Catalina just off the California coast to be closer to his kids following a divorce. Popping up in bit parts on the show are George Segal, Jeffrey Tambor and James Denton.
- Former Star Trek: Voyager captain Kate Mulgrew is piloting her way to Broadway, costarring with Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths in the revival of Equus. The actress will play a sympathetic magistrate who champions the case of a disturbed young man who blinds six horses. Previews begin Sept. 5.
Eva Mendes Ready to Go Bad?
Eva Mendes is ready to be a Bad girl.
The actress is in talks to reunite with her Ghost Rider partner Nicolas Cage for Werner Herzog’s update of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 pulp classic, The Bad Lieutenant, Variety reports.
Little is known about the 34-year-old beauty’s role, but it should be a far cry from her and Cage’s family-friendly comic-book collaboration. If this Lieutenant is anything like its predecessor, expect plenty of skin, not to mention a heaping helping of profanity.
The original Bad Lieutenant starred Harvey Keitel as a corrupt New York detective with a penchant for gambling, drugs and sex, who decides to seek out redemption while investigating a nun’s rape.
Mendes next hits theaters in September, costarring with Meg Ryan and Annette Bening in a remake of George Cuckor’s The Women. That will be followed by another comic-based flick, Frank Miller’s The Spirit, due out at the end of the year.
Shooting on The Bad Lieutenant kicks off in late summer.
Incredible Hulk Smashes Past
Judged against Spider-Man, Hulk came up short. Judged against Hulk, The Incredible Hulk came up big. The franchise restart, starring Edward Norton, topped the weekend box office with $54.5 million, according to Exhibitor Relations estimates today. While that’s about $8 million less than what Ang Lee’s Hulk opened with in 2003, the gross is considered a victory for Universal Pictures, which had to overcome, well, Ang Lee’s Hulk.
“There were a lot of naysayers out there when we said we were doing this,” Nikki Rocco, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, said today. “The Hulk smashed those naysayers.”
M. Night Shyamalan also won at the expectations game. While his latest horror-thriller, The Happening, settled for the bronze with its third-place debut, its $30.5 million opening represented substantial improvement over the filmmaker’s 2006 disappointment, Lady in the Water.
Kung Fu Panda, meanwhile, stayed strong in its second weekend, hauling in another $34.3 million and finishing second.
It was, however, The Incredible Hulk that dominated, accounting for nearly one-third of all ticket sales for the weekend’s top movies.
The debut was bigger than recent superhero movies such as Batman Begins ($48.7 million), Superman Returns ($52.5 million) and Ghost Rider ($45.4 million), even though it was far smaller than that of the latest superhero hit, Iron Man, which scored $98.6 million over three days in May.
The most important stat of the weekend for The Incredible Hulk, however, may be the strong A-minus it received from weekend moviegoers, per Cinema Score polling. By comparison, Lee’s Hulk rated a less-enthusiastic B-minus.
The next most important stat will come with next weekend’s grosses.
In 2003, it wasn’t just that Hulk didn’t score a $100 million debut, à la Spider-Man the year before, it was that business dropped a stunning 70 percent in its second weekend.
Can The Incredible Hulk avoid a similar week-two plunge?
“Who knows? I’m confident,” Rocco said. “Because this movie delivers.”
Drilling down through the box-office standings:
- When Iron Man (seventh place, $5.1 million; $297.4 million overall) crosses $300 millionand it will shortlyit’ll join the three Spider-Man movies as the only superhero films to bash that barrier.
- Kung Fu Panda’s second weekend was one of the best in recent memory, retaining nearly 60 percent of its first weekend business. The CGI comedy has already grossed a total of $118 million.
- Sex and the City (sixth place, $10.2 million) continues to prove it was no short-lived phenomenon. Since its $57 million, bigger-than-The Incredible Hulk opening, the romantic comedy has tacked on $62 million over the last two weekends, bringing its cumulative total to $119.9 million.
- In its second weekend, Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With the Zohan suffered the usual 50 percent dip, plus a little extra, falling to fourth place and a $16.4 million take ($68.8 million overall).
- In limited release, Mongol ($113,000 at five theaters; $135,326 overall) had another strong weekend, while the new indie horror-comedy Baghead did okay with $8,925 at two theaters.
- After a couple of big weekends, the movie business has nearly caught up to 2007, with overall ticket sales now off less than 1 percent from last year. Attendance lags nearly 4 percent.
Here’s a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. The Incredible Hulk, $54.5 million2. Kung Fu Panda, $34.3 million3. The Happening, $30.5 million4. You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, $16.4 million5. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $13.5 million6. Sex and the City, $10.2 million7. Iron Man, $5.1 million8. The Strangers, $4.1 million9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, $3 million 10. What Happens in Vegas, $1.7 million