Collin Chou out of Ninja Assassin
Collider is reporting that Collin Chou, one of the two reported leads of The Wachowski Brothers-produced, James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) directed Ninja Assassin, has dropped out of the project for unknown reasons. The film was scheduled to start production in just a few weeks in Berlin. I wonder if that time table might have been pushed back as it sounds like the cast is not completely finalized. All we know about the movie is that it’s an original martial arts movie with a revenge storyline. The Wachowski Brothers, the guy who made V For Vendetta and a martial arts revenge story? Count me in.
Hugo Weaving Joins The Wolf Man
Actor Hugo Weaving (V For Vendetta, The Matrix) is set to star as Detective Aberline for director Joe Johnston in The Wolf Man. Weaving will join a cast that includes Anthony Hopkins (as the Wolf Man’s father), Benicio del Toro (as the Wolf Man) and Emily Blunt (as the love interest). This is the first bit of casting news for the big budget remake of the 1941 horror film since the original director, Mark Romanek, abruptly left at the end of January over budget issues. Romanek had spent a few years working to bring the film to the screen with del Toro, and now Variety reports that Johnston has had David Self (Road to Perdition, The Haunting) do a rewrite of the script by Andrew Scott Walker. A little curious.
Weaving is the guy to go to for classier event films like this and he definitely boosts the movie’s chances of being a creative success. But Johnston, who previously directed Hidalgo, Jumanji and Jurassic Park III, inspires nothing. He has a surprising number of defenders online, but to me, this is the equivalent of hypothetically never seeing Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are. Would this lavish project have happened with Johnston on board originally? No. And such a thought will be in the back of my head for sometime, perhaps even while watching the film in February ‘09, if applicable. Romanek hasn’t updated the news page on his official website in years; you have to wonder if he’ll ever open up about what happened.
Alan Moore is NOT Watching the Watchman
Watchmen has surprised even the harshest of critics so far. Even original artist Dave Gibbons has praised the film’s production for it’s accuracy and amazing detail that Zack Snyder is putting into the big screen adaptation.
So what about creator Alan Moore, who has been extremely vocal in the past against the adaptations of his comics? Has he drunk the Kool Aid as well? Nope. Moore spoke with Wizard about the upcoming film, and here is what he said:
“I spoke to Dave [Gibbons] the other day. I got a piece of paper—they must’ve learned something from the V for Vendetta debacle. I got a piece of paper a couple of months ago saying, “I, the undersigned, hereby give you permission to take my name off of the film and to send my money to Dave Gibbons.” So I sent that back to them all signed and sealed, which means that now I don’t have to rant and spew about the film. I’m just simply not interested in it. Dave phoned me up, and it’s always nice to talk to Dave, but he understands that I’m not really interested in “Watchmen.” So when he phoned, he asked me if I was interested in being kept up to date on it, and I was saying, “Well, it’s always nice to talk to you, but not really.” I don’t really know much about it. I believe that it’s going ahead. I won’t be watching it, obviously. I can at least remain neutral to it as long as they’re taking my name off of it and not playing these silly, ultimately futile games like they were doing last time, which worked out so well for them. No, I’m keeping well away from all of that.
Director Snyder told fans at Comic Con 2007 that the best he can hope for is that Alan Moore will someday watch the DVD and say, “You know, they didn’t fuck it up that bad.”
“We all want to please Alan, and I think that’s a noble thing to want to do. There’s nothing wrong to get the guy who frickin’ created the thing to not hate it, I don’t think that’s an outrageous thing to want,” said Snyder. “I think the approach is to assume that the movie is better, and that’s a mistake. I would never make any assumptions.”
via: Collider
Saturday Box Office: SuperBad Dips, but Still Headed for $31M
The Judd Apatow-produced SUPERBAD (Sony), written by KNOCKED UP star Seth Rogan and directed by Greg Mottola (THE DAYTRIPPERS), couldn’t hold up the furious box office pace it set on Friday, but, even with its estimated 12% Friday-to-Saturday drop, the raucous teen comedy still delivered a very solid $10.64M. With an anticipated $8.5M on Sunday, SUPERBAD will wrap up the weekend with a phenomenal $31.24M.
RUSH HOUR 3 (New Line) added a stronger than expected $8.7M on Saturday, and the Tucker/Chan/Ratner action-comedy has a revised 3-day estimate of $20.81M. That’s a 58% drop as opposed to the expected 60% drop that was
expected. It’s likely that a fair number of teens bought tickets to see RH3, then crossed over to see the R-rated SUPERBAD. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (Universal), also PG13-rated, may have also been boosted by kids crossing over to see Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and friends. The Damon/Greengrass thriller grabbed approximately $7.93M on Saturday, and BOURNE’s 3rd weekend will likely be $18.7M or so, just a 43% dip.
Joel Silver’s mess THE INVASION (Warner Bros) only managed $2.14M on its 2nd day of release. The $75M body snatcher tale, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, is headed for a miserable $5.5M weekend. The film, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (DOWNFALL), was supposed to be released last year, but Warner Bros and Silver didn’t like the original cut. So, Silver called in the Wachowski brothers (The MATRIX Trilogy) and James McTeigue (V FOR VENDETTA), who added some action sequences. In the end, nobody could salvage this misfire.
MGM/Weinstein’s THE LAST LEGION continued to sputter through its opening weekend with an estimated $957,000 Saturday. With a cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Colin Firth and Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai, the film may sell tickets abroad, but it will finish the weekend with just $2.49M.
There was more good news for the well-reviewed MGM comedy DEATH AT A FUNERAL, directed by Frank Oz (IN & OUT, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS). The US Comedy Arts Festival winner on 260 screens picked up another $530,000 or so. The dark comedy will have banked $1.23M by Monday morning.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s THE 11TH HOUR (Warner Independent) suffered a 37% Friday-to-Saturday drop at its 4 locations, but it will still finish the weekend with an estimated $62,000. Its $15,531 PTA is the best of the weekend, edging gritty Brazilian doc MANDA BALA: SEND A BULLET (Slowhand Releasing) with $12,185 on its single screen and SUPERBAD with a PTA of $10,483.
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