Vanity Fair Rides the Wave
The folks over at Vanity Fair have compiled, yet again, a list of the young stars predicted to rule the entertainment universe in the next few years. No pressure, of course.
Among those caught in the glare of the (hopefully not temporary) spotlight this time around are the following lovely ladies who appear on the cover of the August issue:
Gossip Girl star Blake Lively; Amanda Seyfried and Kristen Stewart, who appear in the upcoming films Mamma Mia! and What Just Happened?, respectively; and Emma Roberts, who toplined the recent Nancy Drew flick but is probably best known for having a certain aunt named Julia.
While the fresh-faced foursome are deserving, we couldn’t help but wonder who you would have liked to have seen on the cover. Let us know!
Warner Bros says “No More Female Lead Characters”?!
Update: Warner Bros Denies Comments
Warner Bros president of production Jeff Robinov has made a new rule that “We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead”, according to DeadlineHollywood. Apparently, Robinov won’t even look at a script with a female lead.
And why has Robinov come around to this new way (Neanderthal, so rather old way) of thinking? Because it is the recent Hollywood trend: Both Jodie Foster’s The Brave One, Emma Robert’s Nancy Drew, Hilary Swank’s The Reaping, and Nicole Kidman’s The Invasion fared poorly at the box office.
So 1 1 must equal 3, because The Invasion probably didn’t fail because of the highly documented re-scripts, re-shoots, and two different directors. Aside from those factors, Kidman has never been a bankable name, so why did they even hire her in the first place? And Foster is coming off two recent hits with Flightplan and Panic Room, and now all of a sudden can’t get people to buy tickets to a movie, how strange. It probably has nothing to do with her core audience (mainly women) not wanting to watch a vigilante/revenge film? Because that might make entirely too much sense. And people in Hollywood executives don’t live in the realm of the real world.
Now first off, I’m not a politically correct obsessed person. If none of the films with female lead characters had made money in the past 10 years, and had Warner then made this decision, I would say that it was unfortunate that society can’t get behind a woman-led story, but I would agree that it was a smart business decision. But the fact of the matter is that a female-driven film can make money, so in this case I’m pulling out the “sexist” card (alongside the “dumbass” and “moron” cards).
So I wonder if this means the end of a Wonder Woman movie? With Justice League being fast tracked into production, who needs a single franchise film anyway. I mean, one comic book movie with many superheros is likely to make a lot more than 6 self contained superhero films combined, right? Oh wait, the math is wrong there too. Not that I want to see a Wonder Woman movie, I’m just saying.
How about this: Why not review each screenplay based on it’s potential as a cinematic story, and not based on an archaic set of self imposed rules. Because the best film I’ve seen so far this year is Jason Retiman’s Juno, and that not only features a female lead (with oscar potential), but was also written by a female screenwriter. And now that I think of it, more than a few of my favorite films this year also have female leads: Waitress, Once, Eagle vs. Shark, and The Orphanage.
Gloria Allred is already calling for a boycott of Warner Bros productions. One thing is for sure, people must be vocal now - the louder, the better. Or maybe someday female characters will all be reduced to nothingness. Remember Sue Storm in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer? Jessica Alba’s sole purpose and driving point was to be to wed to Reed Richards. Talk about one dimensional.
Update: Warner Bros Denies Comments
Josh Flitter is Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Last Summer we warned you that Morgan Creek was developing a third Ace Ventura: Pet Detective film. And now moviehole has gotten word on Jim Carrey’s replacement. Drumroll please. The new Ace Ventura is…. Josh Flitter! Wait, who? That was my response. Josh has been a side character in a bunch of recent movies. He was Robin William’s young minister helper in License to Wed. He was Nancy Drew’s young friend Corky. He was also in The Greatest Game Ever Played and Big Momma’s House 2. Not a very good track record. You would probably remember him as the short kinda chubby loudmouth kid.
So you’re probably asking yourself “how could this fat kid replace Jim Carrey?” Well, the new movie is tentatively titled Ace Ventura Jr., and will center on the “eccentric detective’s son, who steps into his father’s shoes to take over the family business.” Sounds like a bad idea to me. David Mickey Evans (The Sandlot, The Final Season) is directing. We’ll try to forget this ever happened.
Least Searched Summer Movies: Ratatouille and Knocked Up
Yahoo has released its list of the 20 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2007. While there is much to consider when looking at said list (July and August movies might be further down the list due to marketing), it does provide a few shockers: Spider-Man 3 aside, Transformers is the most searched film for the upcoming summer.
1. “Spider-Man 3″ (May 4)
2. “Transformers” (July 4)
3. “Shrek The Third” (May 18)
4. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (May 25)
5. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (July 13)
6. “The Bourne Ultimatum” (August 3)
7. “28 Weeks Later” (May 11)
8. “Rush Hour 3″ (August 10)
9. “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” (June 15)
10. “DOA: Dead or Alive” (June 22)
11. “Hairspray” (July 20)
12. “Nancy Drew” (June 15)
13. “The Simpsons Movie” (July 27)
14. “Evan Almighty” (June 22)
15. “Ocean’s Thirteen” (June 8 )
16. “Live Free or Die Hard” (June 27)
17. “Underdog” (August 3)
18. “Hostel: Part II” (June 8 )
19. “Ratatouille” (June 29)
20. “Knocked Up” (June 1)
The biggest shocker is Disney’s Ratatouille (June 22nd), which is placed near the very bottom of the list at #19. Pixar’s next film is set to be released mid-summer. The marketing and hype have already begun, yet low buzz movies like Underdog and Nancy Drew are receiving more search love. Could this be the first Pixar bomb?
There are a lot of factors against this film. Paris as a location is a turn off to a lot of people. Disney pressured the studio early on to make the rats less rat-like and more like-able. Early child reaction to the character design has not been what Pixar hoped. And of course you have the film’s title, which most children can’t pronounce, never-mind understand and relate to. May-be people don’t even know how to spell it, never-mind google/yahoo it.
Online buzz doesn’t always translate into box office success (Grindhouse, Snakes on a Plane) but it’s worth noting. And it’s also worth noting that Pixar has had a steady decline at the Box Office since 2003’s Finding Nemo.
The other surprising film on the list is Knocked Up, which opens on June 1st. The critical buzz for Judd Apatow’s follow-up to The 40-Year-Old-Virgin has been incredible. I have not heard anyone say one bad thing about this flick. I’ve heard the film has tested off the charts at some screenings, yet the movie is the least searched film of the Summer. How can this be? May-be it’s because the film has no bankable stars (Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd). Let’s hope this film performs better at the box office than it does in the early search buzz.
Disclaimer: This story’s title is a little bit deceiving. Obviously there are more than 20 films due out this summer, so Ratatouille and Knocked Up are not the least searched of this season (I would assume some ultra-low budget indie would serve as the real loser). Yahoo’s list only provides a look at the top 20. But looking back at history, only the top 10-15 movies will have mega-summer numbers.
To give you some perspective, Poseidon was considered the failure of Summer 2006 and placed #20 at that Summer’s box office. And a very modest hit (and we use hit loosely) like Barnyard: The Original Party Animals was the 15th highest grossing film of Summer 2006. A $100 million movie would need to be in the top 10 to be considered profitable (at least compared to last Summer’s numbers).