‘Trick My Truck’ Customizes Iron Man Rig
If Stark Industies made tractor trailers, they might look something like this. Country Music Television’s Trick My Truck is the country version of MTV’s Pimp My Ride
Tagged: Paramount
Box Office Report For ‘Iron Man’ Could Mean Sequel
It was an auspicious start for the Metal Marvel Hero, as Iron Man grossed an estimated $5.5 million at around 2,500 theaters during its Thursday night previews and made an estimated $32.5 million at 4,105 theaters on Friday, making it the 14th highest-grossing opening day on record. (You can read the ComicMix reviews of the film here and here.)
The Friday gross was comparable to X2: X-Men United, which debuted May 2 five years ago, bringing in $31.2.
Paramount big-wig Brad Grey went on record last week by saying that as long as the flick does "as well as expected", the studio wants to get a sequel in theaters for the same May weekend in 2010 — and with numbers like these, that could be more realistic than we imagined.
While this is actually a Marvel Studios-produced film, with Paramount distributing, it’s no surprise after these numbers that they will be rushing to get Downey Jr. back in the red-and-gold ASAP. Director Jon Favreau has already stated that he planned a loose structure for three movies, with the Mandarin presumably making an appearance somewhere down the line.
Keep your eye on ComicMix for more updates on how the first big blockbuster of the summer does in the box office!
‘Iron Man’ Premieres Thursday at 8 PM
Hooray, hooray, the first of May; outdoor– er, Iron Man begins today!
Paramount is planning to open Iron Man at 8:00 PM on Thursday, May 1, instead of one minute past midnight on May 2nd as originally planned. The studio is apparently hoping that great word-of-mouth will help boost box-office business for the weekend.
Early buzz has been strong, let’s see how big a weekend it’s going to be, shall we? Place your bets in the comment section. I’m starting with $115 million for the first four days.
Happy Birthday: Myron Waldman
Born in 1908 in Brooklyn, NY, Myron Waldman always loved to draw. He went to Pratt Institute and majored in Art, graduating in 1930.
Shortly after that, Waldman got a job with Max Fleisher Studios. He started as an inker, but by 1934 was one of Fleisher’s lead animators, working on Betty Boop, Popeye, Raggedy Ann, and even Superman. When war broke out, Waldman joined the Army, and served for three years—upon his return he went to work for Paramount’s Famous Studios, handling Casper the Friendly Ghost.
From 1958 to 1968 Waldman worked for Hal Seeger Productions, reviving the old Fleisher series Out of the Inkwell and helping to create Milton the Monster. Waldman also drew the 1940s comic strip Happy the Humbug, and wrote Eve: A Pictorial Love Story, one of the earliest American graphic novels.
In 1997, he received the Windsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in animation. Waldman passed away in 2006 but his influence is still felt by animators and cartoon artists everywhere.
Sam Raimi and Paramount Lock Up ‘Monster Zoo’
Variety is reporting today that Paramount Pictures has acquired the live-action feature film rights to the as-yet unpublished Douglas TenNapel graphic novel Monster Zoo for producer Sam Raimi and his Buckaroo Entertainment company.
At this point, Raimi is not expected to direct the project, which is also being produced by Josh Donen and Ellen Goldsmith Vein. Monster Zoo, which is set to be published by Image Comics in the spring, tells the story of an ancient artifact that is found and transported to a zoo in the United States. There, the idol’s spirit awakens and starts to mutate the zoo’s animals and turn them evil.
Once this begins, a group of teenagers must band together to try to stop the evil monsters from destroying the world.
No word yet on who will be adapting the graphic novel for the screen or directing. But when there is, we’ll bring it to you.
Paramount Snaps Up ‘Harbinger’ Comic Book Series
According to Variety, Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to the Valiant comic book series Harbinger, which will be made into a live-action feature. The feature, which is being developed as a possible vehicle for director Brett Ratner, will be produced by Alexandra Milchan, Jay Stern and Ratner and may go under the MTV Films banner.
Harbinger, created in the ’90s by Jim Shooter, was a hit when it was first released and concerns humans with extraordinary powers and abilities that can be unlocked by so-called "Omega" harbingers. One of these humans, teenager Pete Stancheck (aka "Sting"), is able to realize this potential under the instructiion of his mentor, Toyo Harada.
But once Harada starts down an evil path and Pete learns it was his mentor who was responsible for a friend’s death, Pete is determined to bring his former teacher to justice. So, with the help of friends Kris, Zephyr, Flamingo and Torque, Pete begins his quest to take down Harada and the evil Harbinger Foundation.
According to the article, after directing X-Men: The Last Stand, Ratner was looking for a superhero franchise to start from scratch and found it with Harbinger. Producer Milchan was also very pleased to find Harbinger and be able to bring it to Ratner:
"The movie is in the vein of a young ‘Blade Runner,’ as this 17-year- old gifted kid helps other kids tap into these parts of their brains," Milchan said.
No word yet on potential casting for the film or a start date. But when there is, we’ll bring it to you.
Paramount Announces New ‘Indiana Jones’ DVDs
Even though Paramount already released a superb DVD box set of the Indiana Jones Trilogy back in 2003, they’re doing it again. This time around, the new DVD releases of the classic trilogy will be available individually instead of as an exclusive box-set like before and will be released on May 13th — just in time to whet your appetite for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull‘s opening on May 25th.
These "Special Edition" DVDs, as they are being called, boast new features and exclusives not found in the earlier box-set releases. According to Paramount, some of these features and exclusives include interviews, discussions and new documentaries about the making of the three films that give audiences a new insight and appreciation for these classic films.
Examples include:
Indiana Jones: An Appreciation– The cast and crew of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pay tribute to the original trilogy
The Melting Face–A recreation of the amazing physical effect of the villain’s melting face in Raiders of the Lost Ark, including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas commenting on the evolution of visual effects and CGI
Locations–Travel across the world to discover where the films take place and where they were shot
Friends and Enemies–Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Indiana Jones writers discuss how they created the most iconic characters in film history, including a look at new faces in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Women: The American Film Institute Tribute–The three Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody) reunite for a discussion
Interesting note: There’s been no word yet on whether these new Indiana Jones DVDs will get the Blu-Ray treatment. They’ve already been shown in HD on the HDNet Movies network, so why not release them in Blu-Ray now that the "format war" is over?
For a complete list of all the special features and other details about each of the three new DVDs, check out the official Indiana Jones site.
New ‘Iron Man’ Poster Debuts
Sure, all those fancy suits on the previous Iron Man posters were cool, but what’s a poster without the handsome face of Tony Stark himself? Paramount has released the newest poster for the upcoming Iron Man film, which features profile shots of the film’s principle cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Of course, the fancy armor is also in the poster, but who cares about that? People care about Terrence Howard looking pensive and Tony Stark’s immaculate facial hair.
Directed by Jon Favreau (Elf, Made), Iron Man hits theaters on May 2. Until then, you’ll just have to stare at this poster in the lobby of your local theater and anticipate all the angry message board posts you’ll write after it comes out.
(via Superhero Hype)
Paramount Drops HD-DVD
Well, that didn’t take as long as I thought it would. I figured it might be at least a few days before Paramount made the decidion to drop HD-DVD. But I guess they hated being last to the party with a date nobody wanted.
So today, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount also dumped HD-DVD and will now be releasing content exclusively on Blu-Ray.
According to the Paramount press release quoted in the article:
"We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer. As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly."
Again, no mention about content currently in the pipeline that’s already HD-DVD. Maybe they’ll go back and redo all of them and then release on Blu-Ray? That would seem unlikely and pretty costly. But with the odd things Hollywood studios sometimes do, I guess anything is possible.
Universal Goes Blu-Ray
As we reported previously, Toshiba decided to end HD-DVD so the format conflict between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is over with Blu-Ray coming out on top. Now, with HD-DVD not an option, Universal has decided to throw its hat completely into the Blu-Ray ring and release all of its High-Def content exclusively in the format.
This announcement leaves Paramount and Dreamworks as the only major players still releasing content on HD-DVD. On switching completely to Blu-Ray, Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Home Entertainment and Universal Digital, had this to say about the company’s decision:
"While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray. The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear. Universal will continue its aggressive efforts to broaden awareness for high-def’s unparalleled offerings in interactivity and connectivity, at an increasingly affordable price. The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate."
So, what does this mean for current and soon-to-be-released Universal titles already in the HD-DVD format? Who knows. Still, after this announcement, how soon will it be before Paramount drops HD-DVD as well? Nobody in Hollywood likes to hang out with a "loser" so I’ll bet its just a matter of days, not weeks, before we get the announcement. Of course, if we do, we’ll bring you all the details right here at ComicMix.
