Archive: February 2010 (21-30 of 77)

Feb 21 2010 01:00 PM ET

'Shutter Island' wins weekend box office with $40.2 million

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Categories: Box Office, Film, Movie Biz

With no other wide releases to challenge it, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island dominated the box office this weekend with a $40.2 million take. That’s a career best for both the director and star Leonardo DiCaprio, neither of whom had scored a sizable hit since their last outing together on The Departed, which opened to $26.9 million in 2006. The victory is especially sweet for studio Paramount, which had to contend with suspicion about the movie’s quality and commercial potential after nixing a slated Oct. 2009 release date last year. (The studio officially blamed the move on marketing expenses.) But the switch also generated curiosity about the project among fans of DiCaprio, Scorsese, and horror pics — all of whom packed theaters this weekend.

Coming in a distant second, Valentine’s Day managed to woo another $17.2 million despite losing plenty of love from audiences, who let the movie drop a steep 69.5 percent from its holiday debut last week. Still, the star-packed rom-com’s lack of legs (figurative, not physical) likely won’t have any effect on Warner Bro’s plans to roll out more holiday-themed extravaganzas in the near future. The weekend’s two other sophomore pics also suffered substantial drops: Percy Jackson (number four, $15.3 million) dipped 51 percent, while Universal’s The Wolfman (number five, $9.8 million) lost 68.7 percent of its audience. Meanwhile, Avatar managed another record-breaking performance in its 10th weekend, dipping just 31.8 percent for a third-place finish with $16.1 million.

The weekend’s only other new release, Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, banked a decent $179k from four theaters thanks to media attention surrounding the director’s continuing legal troubles.

More box office news:
‘Shutter Island’ tops Friday box office with $14 million
Box office preview: Long-awaited ‘Shutter Island’ likely to win the weekend
Box office: ‘Valentine’s Day’ dominates record-breaking weekend

Image Credit: Andrew Cooper

Feb 21 2010 01:14 AM ET

'Modern Family' writer on WGA win: TV is 'so screwed up and mismanaged'

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Categories: Awards Shows, Film, Television

The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air were the night’s big winners on the film side while Mad Men, 30 Rock and Modern Family took home the winged trophy for achievements on the small screen at the annual Writers Guild Awards, held Saturday in Los Angeles. While accepting one of two awards for Modern Family, creator/executive producer Steve Levitan told the crowd that because TV was “so screwed up and mismanaged,” many of his writing peers have been rooting for the single-camera comedy’s success on ABC. “Thanks for that, Jeff Zucker,” Levitan said — a reference to the NBC Universal Chairman’s failed attempt to launch Jay Leno’s show in prime time, which put many writers out of work this season.

Zucker, in fact, got name-checked twice during the night. Chris Rock, who was there to present the prizes for best variety show, used his time at the mike to criticize NBC’s recent treatment of Conan O’Brien. “Zucker is like the Elgin Baylor of TV,” said Rock, referencing the ex-vice president of the woeful L.A. Clippers NBA franchise. Rock also had a few side-splitting comments about Tiger Woods (unfortunately, they’re too dirty to repeat here).

Host Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) opened the night with a clever redux of The Music Man song “Trouble” that skewered the networks’ shameless reliance on writer-free, reality show programming. “Trouble…with a capital T and that rhymes with C and that stands for crap!” he sang. And Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm), had a special message for Paddy Chayefsky, the acclaimed writer who inspired the Laurel Award that’s given annually to scribes who’ve made outstanding contributions. “I am very, very sorry,” said David, this year’s recipient.

Here were the night’s winners:

Original screenplay:  The Hurt Locker, written by Mark Boal

Adapted screenplay: Up in the Air, screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Documentary screenplay:  The Cove, written by Mark Monroe

Drama series: Mad Men

Comedy series: 30 Rock

New series: Modern Family

Episodic drama: “Broken, Part 1 and Part 2,”  House, written by Russel Friend, Garrett Lerner, David Foster and David Shore

Episodic comedy: “Apollo, Apollo,” 30 Rock, written by Robert Carlock, and the pilot of Modern Family, written by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd

Animation, any length (all nominations in category were for The Simpsons): “Take My life, Please,” The Simpsons, written by Don Payne

Longform, original: Georgia O’Keeffe, written by Michael Cristofer

Longform, adaptation: Taking Chance, teleplay by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl, USMC (Ret.) and Ross Katz, Based on the short story by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl, USMC (Ret.).

Comedy/variety: Saturday Night Live &  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Daytime serial:  The Young and the Restless

Children’s episodic: “Welcome to the Jungle,” The Troop, written by Max Burnett

Children’s script, longform: Another Cinderella Story, ABC Family, written by Erik Patterson, Jessica Scott

Feb 20 2010 11:56 PM ET

'Hurt Locker,' 'Up in the Air' win Writers Guild Awards

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Categories: Pre-Oscar Prizes

To the surprise of absolutely no one, The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air won the Writers Guild of America Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively, tonight in Los Angeles. Since Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds script was ineligible for the original-screenplay prize, Mark Boal’s work on The Hurt Locker had a clear path to victory. Meanwhile, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s Up in the Air screenplay has been the clear favorite in the adapted race all season long. My west coast colleague Lynette Rice was at the ceremony; click over to see her Writers Guild Awards on-the-scene report.

Feb 20 2010 02:32 PM ET

'Shutter Island' tops Friday box office with $14 million

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Categories: Box Office, Film, Movie Biz

Shutter Island, the fourth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, all but shut out the competition at the box office on Friday, taking in an estimated $14 million. That puts the psychological thriller on track to top The Departed — which had a $26.9 million opening weekend in 2006 — as the pair’s biggest hit. It also gives Paramount the last laugh after skeptics criticized the studio’s decision to push Shutter Island out of its original Oct. 2009 release date to save marketing coin.

In second place, Valentine’s Day still got some love from audiences in its second weekend, earning a $5.6 million Friday gross. The rest of the top five was rounded out by Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Avatar, and The Wolfman, which suffered a harsh 70 percent drop from last week as fright fans turned their attention to Shutter Island. Be sure to check back tomorrow for a full weekend recap.

Feb 19 2010 05:08 PM ET

With news of a Kurt Cobain movie heating up, here's the rock biopic I'd really like to see

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Categories:

Rock biopics are the “Next year in Jerusalem” of movie genres. They get talked about forever and, too often, never come to pass. This week, though, there was genuine news on the Kurt Cobain front: It was announced that Oren Moverman, the gifted screenwriter-turned-director who is suddenly hot after his homefront Iraq-war drama The Messenger got three Oscar nominations, has now attached himself to the Cobain project that has been kicking around Hollywood since 2006. Moverman would be an inspired choice to bring the life of the tormented, sensitive, suicidally disaffected shaggy-slack grunge rocker to the big screen. The filmmaker has rock & roll in his blood (he co-wrote Todd Haynes’ marvelous Dylan fantasia I’m Not There), and as The Messenger proved, he has the talent to stage scenes that are present tense and alive — an essential skill when you’re trying to rediscover a subject as layered in James-Dean-in-flannel generational mythology as Kurt Cobain.

The moment I read the news, I flashed onto the handful of rock biopics that have been kicking around forever, and also the ones that I personally always dream about seeing get made. Remember when Renée Zellweger was going to play Janis Joplin? I never thought that was a very good idea (they’re both from Texas — and that’s about where the similarity ends), but with the right star a Joplin film could be electrifying; Pink was once chattered about to play her, and she could probably bring it off. Then again, it seems as if a lot of these quintessential ’60s boomer-rock-star ideas may finally be reaching their expiration date. At this point, do we really want to see some up-and-coming young actor mime the apocalyptic slither of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar mastery? A part of me would like to — and another part of me cringes at the thought. In truth, I’d much rather see a biopic of Queen’s Freddie Mercury, with his snaggle-toothed glam bravura — another movie that’s been talked about in recent years, though there are thorny music-rights issues involved. (With rock biopics, it’s always something.)

That said, maybe it’s time that we got past dreaming of film biographies of rock stars who are already so iconic that there’s no way an actor could fully compete with the real thing. READ FULL STORY »

Feb 19 2010 11:56 AM ET

BAFTA Awards: Who will win?

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Categories: Pre-Oscar Prizes

I’ve always been a firm believer in the power of the BAFTA Awards to give us an idea of how the overall awards-season winds may be shifting. After all, The Hurt Locker tied Avatar with the most nominations at the BAFTAs before it managed the same feat on Oscar nomination day. But then there’s the BAFTA wild card, An Education, which also scored eight nods. The awards ceremony takes place this Sunday in London; here are my predictions for the major categories.

Best Film
Avatar
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Precious
Up In The Air

Ahhh, isn’t it nice to see just five nominees listed? An Education probably has a better chance to take home the Outstanding British Film prize, leaving Avatar and The Hurt Locker to battle it out for Best Film. Even though The Hurt Locker remains the front-runner on this side of the pond, I’m thinking Avatar will win this one.

Director
James Cameron, Avatar
Neill Blomkamp, District 9
Lone Scherfig, An Education
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Clearly this is a race between Cameron and Bigelow. I’m wondering if The Hurt Locker might be too American-indie feeling to sway the British voters, but I still think Bigelow will take it.

Leading Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up In The Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Andy Serkis, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Firth certainly has a home-field advantage, but Bridges’ performance is likely too seminal to ignore.

Leading Actress
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Audrey Tautou, Coco Before Chanel

With Sandra Bullock ineligible (The Blind Side didn’t open there in time), this one’s between Streep and Mulligan. All the love for An Education should push Mulligan over the top.

Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin, It’s Complicated
Christian McKay, Me And Orson Welles
Alfred Molina, An Education
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

I don’t see any way Waltz loses here.

Supporting Actress
Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
Vera Farmiga, Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick, Up In The Air
Mo’Nique, Precious
Kristin Scott Thomas, Nowhere Boy

It’s Mo’Nique in a landslide, and probably Precious‘ only victory.

Original Screenplay
The Hangover (Jon Lucas, Scott Moore)
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
A Serious Man (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
Up (Bob Peterson, Pete Docter)

Basterds just missed the cut for Best Picture, but my hunch is that it could still top The Hurt Locker in this race.

Adapted Screenplay
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
In The Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
Up In The Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)

Hornby will put up a great fight, but Up in the Air needs to win something, and this will probably be the one.

Image credit: Kerry Brown

Feb 18 2010 06:58 PM ET

Rihanna in 'The Last Dragon'? Maybe...

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Categories: Industry News, Movie Biz

Online rumors that pop star Rihanna will play a “super sexy dominatrix” in a remake of The Last Dragon seem premature at best. Sony Pictures is working on a reboot of the 1983 cult classic with Samuel L. Jackson, but the studio has yet to secure a director and isn’t yet ready to cast the role originally played by Prince’s protégé Vanity. A source involved with the production says Rihanna is definitely one of the names on their short list of African-American pop artists. But, the source insists, there have been overtures from many different people interested in starring opposite Jackson in the project. If the producers can hire a director in the next month, the film could start shooting as early as summer.

Feb 18 2010 06:33 PM ET

Box office preview: Long-awaited 'Shutter Island' likely to win the weekend

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Categories: Box Office, Industry News, Movie Biz

This weekend we learn whether Paramount’s gamble will pay off. The studio decided last year to push its Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio thriller Shutter Island out of the crowded award season and into the new year where it could breathe a bit. Will the strategy work? Tracking results are suggesting yes, with the R-rated thriller likely to bow in the high 20s, a similar number to 2006′s Departed, which opened to $26.9 million. And with no other new wide releases opening this weekend, the well-reviewed film will have the weekend all to itself. Plus, with President’s Day generating such huge numbers last weekend, those releases are likely to fall off significantly in their second weekend in theaters. Read on for my predictions.

1. Shutter Island: $29 million

Opening in over 2,500 theaters, Shutter Island marks the first true prestige pic of 2010. And with films like Valentine’s Day and Wolfman generating impressive grosses despite terrible reviews, this well-liked movie should be rewarded for its quality. Shutter stars DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, and Michelle Williams, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane.

2. Valentine’s Day: $22 million

Warner Bros. overestimated its Monday holiday gross by $3 million, suggesting that the film that drew in over $63 million its first weekend in theaters was already starting to fall off by the end of the weekend. Expect at least a 60 percent drop this frame, especially considering  how Valentine’s Day, the holiday, is already long gone from people’s minds.

3. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: $19 million

There is very little in the marketplace for kids right now, which is good news for this Chris Columbus-directed film. The movie has already earned over $40 million and a 40% drop could mean Fox develops an appetite for a follow-up to this fantasy adventure based on the Rick Riordan novels.

4. Avatar: $17 million

A 30 percent drop is likely for this juggernaut, which has never fallen more than 27 percent since it bowed 10 weekends ago.

5. The Wolfman: $13

Yes, The Wolfman earned $35.6 million last weekend, but still, nobody really liked the movie. Critics panned it and moviegoers gave this reboot of the classic horror film a C+ in exit polls. Expect a steep drop this frame, especially considering it’s now up against the higher-caliber thriller Shutter Island.

Also: Summit Entertainment will open Roman Polanski’s Ghost Writer in four theaters; two in NY and two in LA.

Image credit: Andrew Cooper

Feb 18 2010 03:38 PM ET

An 'Inglourious' victory? The real reason Quentin Tarantino's film is getting its Oscar hype moment

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Categories: Avatar, Harvey Weinstein, Inglourious Basterds, Oscars, Quentin Tarantino, The Hurt Locker

Take a look at the image on the right. That’s Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind — but it might just as well be yours truly trying to figure out the new Academy Awards balloting system, which makes a little less sense to me each time I hear it explained. Okay, I sort of get it: The voters will rank the 10 nominated films in order of preference, which means that to secure a victory, a movie will need to garner a sizable number of second and third place votes on the ballots that didn’t pick it as number one. To me, that would seem to favor The Hurt Locker, a movie that, while “small,” is almost universally admired. The Hurt Locker doesn’t appear to have many detractors; it hasn’t been divisive. Yet according to the Oscar buzz of the week, the new preferential voting system may actually favor…Inglourious Basterds.

That scenario has now been floated, if not flogged, by a healthy handful of entertainment journalists, most relentlessly by Tom O’Neil, who has been pushing his prediction of an Inglourious Basterds triumph for well over a month. (He actually called me out on my “goof” of not including Inglourious on a roster of possible Best Picture winners.) Well, time will tell if O’Neil’s prediction was ahead of the curve, or just bent. What has brought the Inglourious buzz machine to life this week is Harvey Weinstein, who basically decided to go public with the fact that he’s been funneling the movie through one of his legendary if-it-feels-good-it’s-not-overkill Academy Award campaigns. Only a fool would write off a Harvey Weinstein Oscar blitzkrieg. Back in 1998/1999, when he snatched a Shakespeare in Love victory from the jaws of a Saving Private Ryan defeat, it was clear that he’d honed the politics of all this to a new level of Jedi mind-trick effectiveness. READ FULL STORY »

Feb 18 2010 12:01 AM ET

OscarWatch TV: The screenplay races

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Categories: OscarWatch TV

It’s week three of my OscarWatch TV series with the indomitable Missy Schwartz, and since the Writers Guild Awards are this weekend, we’re taking a look at the two screenplay categories. One of them contains one of the tightest races of the year, while the other is a cakewalk. Check out our predictions in the videos below…and see what caused Missy to unleash a profanity-filled tirade all up in my grille.


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