Yes, yes. Highest grossing movie of 2008. Second highest of all time. A billion dollars in box office when all is said and done. And yet– it could have made even more money, if only they’d worked with the studio with the best batting average in the business…
We all know it’s about the toys anyway, right?
Hat tip: Mark Waid.
AP News reports that Pat Hingle, the actor whose career included a recurring role as Commissioner Gordon in four Batmanfilms from 1989 to 1997, died at his home in Carolina Beach shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday after battling blood cancer. He was 84.
His career in movies and television spanned six decades, and he was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1958. Hingle’s last movie was "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which was released in 2006.
I was lucky enough to see him perform on Braodway a decade ago, playing Ben Franklin in 1776 opposite Brent Spiner as John Adams. And much to my surprise, he was the original choice to play Elmer Gantry in the movie, before an accident knocked him out of the role and handed it to Burt Lancaster.
He will be missed.
Eagle Eye director D.J. Caruso, promoting the film’s DVD release, said of his next project, Y the Last Man, “I think it’s one of those that the source material is fantastic stuff, it’s great, but it’s a tough one to lick into getting into a screenplay. I’ve tried to feel like it’s a trilogy of movies and I think everyone sort of agrees, but at the same time, just getting the first movie right and getting the right beats and knowing what to put in, it’s been really tough. You have great minds like David Goyer and you’ve got Carl Ellsworth and you’ve got Brian K. Vaughn, and I’m working with them to just kind of crack it and get it down. And we’re almost there. I know it’s a slow process, but I think eventually we’ll get it. We’re going to get it and we’ll get it right, but we had a pretty good breakthrough a couple weeks ago in the final act, and hopefully we’ll get there.”
On the concept that the ten volume series, which concluded earlier this year from Vertigo, being turned into a trilogy, he told Coming Soon, “I don’t think the movie so much will be left open-ended, it’s just a matter of, if you’re familiar with the source material, there’s so much great stuff and he meets so many great characters but it’s over the course of a long period of time. When you’re telling the story—yes, the fanboys and all the people who love it will go and see it—but if you’re just seeing the movie from a filmgoers’ perspective and you’re not familiar with the source material, you have to make sure you make the movie that they understand and they love, too. Like I said, it’s been more difficult than I thought but we’re getting close."
While he hopes to make this his next project, Caruso floated the notion that he may film something else if the screenplay gets delayed.
McG showed off some footage from May’s Terminator Salvation to a gaggle of reporters then discussed the project.
“The easy thing for us is that our movie happens after the bombs go off, so it’s a totally new beginning,’ he said of the film’s relationship to the timeline of the first three in the franchise. “Every other picture has been before Judgment Day. We’re largely treating it as though the bombs have gone off, but I’m not going to share exactly what year they went off. The movie itself is set in 2018, and we try our best to honor the timeline that has already been put in place.
“If we do our job properly, this movie will be regarded as a statement of the time and the place and the where and the when and the why and the how (of the entire franchise). Some things are set in stone though – the T-800 only comes around in 2029, and we’re building towards that place.”
Having said that, he noted that his film and the weekly Sarah Connor Chronicles series on Fox will have no relationship to one another.
Calling Josh Friedman, showrunner for the series, a friend, McG added, “I had a meeting with Josh, and I told him I wanted to honor it at all times but this is this and that is that. I know about episodic television, and what it takes to generate stories hour in and hour out every week…. We just can’t keeping chasing their story threads.” In other words, the alternate timeline of the TV series will remain on its own path.
Director JJ Abrams posted a brief note on the Star Trek movie’s Facebook page, thanking the fans.
“We’re just making final tweaks to the movie — we should be totally locked next week. Then we’re going to flash-freeze it so it’s totally fresh for you in May. I can’t wait for you to see the movie. The cast is awesome. The action and effects pushed the stunt team and ILM beyond their limits. I’m so grateful to this cast and crew — and to all of you for your interest and patience. We’ll continue to update this page with new info and exclusives, so check back when you think of it. In the meantime, have a happy, healthy, fun holiday!”
Paul W.S. Anderson updated IGN on the status of Resident Evil IV. "I’m writing a script right now. The script side is happening," Anderson confirmed. He wrote and directed the initial film in the cycle, plus scripted the two sequels.
“Everyone at [game developer] Capcom has had their input into the idea and they’re all very excited. I don’t want to tell you what it is but it’s very exciting,” he added. "Once again we’re doing it completely with the blessing of the videogame company. We got a lot of flack [on the sequels] for, ‘Why isn’t the movie set in the mansion just exactly like the very first videogame?’ That’s just not progression for me. As the Resident Evil videogames themselves have developed in leaps and bounds — it’s like when we did the last movie people were like, ‘Resident Evil doesn’t take place in the desert. What the (expletive) is this?’ Well, where does Resident Evil take place? Does it take place in Raccoon City exclusively? Well, I don’t think so because the game has been in Antarctica, in Raccoon City, now it’s in Africa."
Anderson wrote and directed the first installment and wrote and produced its two sequels. He also directed this summer’s remake of Death Race for Universal.
Dave Gibbons mentioned to Digital Spy that another of his comic properties is being eyed for the big screen. "There’s been nothing picked up,” he admitted. “There was a series I did with Frank Miller called Martha Washington, which in fact is longer than Watchmen, it’s about 500 pages. Frank’s enjoying a certain amount of success in Hollywood and I wouldn’t be surprised if something happens with that. I think that would make a great movie. People misunderstand Frank, they think he’s very grim and right-wing, but he’s got his tongue very firmly in his cheek. Martha Washington is a war story but it’s quite satirical and I think has a strange resonance with what’s happening in the world today."
Miller also seems interested in the project, telling Splash Page, “It’s just a matter of finding the right venue, because Martha Washington isn’t a movie, it’s a series. It would have to be like 12 episodes to fit the whole story in. I would not let it be truncated.”
First published in 1990 as Give me Liberty, Martha has appeared in subsequent tales by the duo, all published by Dark Horse Comics. They announced a Martha Washington Omnibus, collecting every page, but it remains off their schedule.
Depending on which report you read, Stephen Chow is Kato but will not direct The Green Hornet. Maybe the Shaolin Soccer star will direct but not act in the Sony film, starring Seth Rogen. He may exit altogether, leaving the June 25, 2010 release without a director or co-star with production set to begin in the spring.
Moviehole was among the first to report that Chow is considering not playing Kato. “He’s blaming it on scheduling (saying he wants to film some Jack Black-Superhero film) – but that sounds like a tug,” they note.
An Associated Press story confirms that report, quoting Chow as saying, "If I direct The Green Hornet, the superhero comedy will have to be delayed for two years. The timing might not be right for a superhero comedy in two years. And I want to make a movie based on an original idea."
Stay tuned for post-holiday developments
Every director these days is either enamored with shooting films in 3-D or for IMAX or both. DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg has become the 3-D Preacher, going around the country extolling its virtue.
The New York Times, this morning, noted that there’s just one problem: not every theater is equipped to show 3-D movies and its’ awfully expensive to gear up. “Like all studios experimenting with 3-D, Lionsgate is struggling with a shortage of theaters equipped to project the work. By the release date for My Bloody Valentine 3D, Lionsgate will have only 900 3-D screens available, so it will show a 2-D version of the movie on about 1,600 screens,” the Times reported.
The remake of My Bloody Valentine is the first horror film in the current revival of 3-D as a gimmick to make movie going once more a unique experience. “Advances in digital technology and more comfortable glasses — not to mention a young adult audience that doesn’t remember the 3-D horror movies of the past — have studios jumping back on the 3-D bandwagon. Family entertainment is leading the charge, with DreamWorks Animation and the Walt Disney Company set to unleash a blizzard of 3-D pictures over the next year. But the broader market is following fast,” they wrote.
The article noted horror films need something to keep the genre alive given the lackluster box office for the “torture” sub-genre exemplified by Saw and Hostel.
Joe Drake, the co-chief operating officer of Lionsgate and the president of the studio’s motion picture group, said,. “We see 3-D horror as financially lucrative and creatively exciting,” he said. “We want to break some new ground here in R-rated fare.”
“If there was ever a moment when horror needed to be reinvented, this is it,” said Jeanine Basinger, chairwoman of film studies at Wesleyan University. “You can only work one side of the horror street for so long before you have to cross to the other side and explore something new.”
The other option is to remake familiar films with new actors and directors with January 16’s release of Bloody Valentine as the tip of an iceberg. A month later comes the remake of Friday the 13th with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween 2, and a parade of zombie releases to follow.
Liev Schreiber spoke with Moviehole about next May’s X-Men Origins : Wolverine, in which he plays Sabretooth.
"I’ve seen some footage, and I think it’s going to be really very good. I’m really looking forward to people seeing it," he said.
Playing the feral mutant opponent to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was a new kind of acting challenge. ”I found it to be really intense. The character I play is incredibly brutal and feral, has blood lust unlike any other character I’ve ever played, much, much more than Zus. Zus is basically a lover. This guy is a real killer.
”I love Hugh. I mean, Hugh is the reason I did it. We’d been friends for a long time and it’s just so much fun to work with him. To do fight scenes with Hugh was really terrific, because as a dancer, he has that kind of discipline and choreography. And I always studied to be a fight choreographer, and always wanted to be a dancer too, but didn’t quite have the feet for it. But we had some remarkable fight scenes together, and I’m looking forward to people seeing those.”
Schreiber admitted to having grown up a comic book fan and being in a movie based on his hobby was too good to pass up. ”I was a fan of the comic books. I just loved the character of Wolverine,” he admitted. “I always have. That sort of deeply ironic and very urban sensibility in a super-hero was something that I thought was really groundbreaking. And the style of writing was – particularly the very sort of editorial style. I just always loved it. And I think that we were able to capture some of that darkness in this movie, so I’m very proud of it.
”I hope I’m not blowing anyone’s cover here, but I don’t think men really mature intellectually and emotionally beyond 22. Your bodies evolve, but nothing else, really. And so why should I stop wanting to be in a comic book movie?”
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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