Archive: June 2010 (21-30 of 51)

Jun 21 2010 08:04 PM ET

Adam McKay in talks to direct 'The Boys'

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Categories: Deals, Movie Biz, Movies

Attention fanboys: Director Adam McKay may, in fact, be the guy for the adaptation of Garth Ennis’s comic book series The Boys. Sources tell EW.com that McKay, who is set to release his latest Will Ferrell-starrer The Other Guys in August, is in talks to direct the extremely violent superhero flick for Sony Pictures. Collider.com first reported this news yesterday, and sources close to the project are confirming it today. Sony hasn’t returned calls seeking comment.

The Boys would mark a departure for McKay, who has also worked with Ferrell on the features Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers and collaborated with him on FunnyorDie.com. It would be great to see Sony give him a chance on a series that can’t be easy to adapt due to its super-violent and highly sexualized content. Ennis, who also wrote the comic series Preacher, centers The Boys on a contemporary world where a bunch of people have superpowers. ‘The Boys’ is the informal name for a super-powered CIA squad whose primary job is to keep watch on the superheroes, and, if necessary, intimidate or kill them.

Jun 21 2010 02:58 PM ET

Message to men: Yes, it's okay to cry at 'Toy Story 3'

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Categories: Movies That Make You Cry, Toy Story 3

toy-story-3-videoImage Credit: Disney/PixarToday’s EW poll about Toy Story 3 (“Did you cry?”) prompts me to make a little confession of my own. At the screening of the movie I attended, I was seated directly between a couple of EW colleagues who are both good friends — a pleasant situation that, by the end, turned just a little bit uncomfortable when I realized how hard I was working to conceal my tears. Now don’t get me wrong: I’ve cried at a lot of movies in my time, it’s not really that big a deal — and in this case, besides, I knew I had my trusty 3-D mega-glasses to hide behind. But what you have to understand is that when it comes to my reaction to Toy Story 3, I’m not just talking about shedding a tear or two, or having that Brian’s Song lump in the throat. I’m talking about that soppy, awkward thing where you make sounds. Even in our huggy-sensitive post-New Age it’s-okay-for-men-to-cry culture, I was, quite frankly, a little bit embarrassed. So now, with the hope and cause of transcending my shame, I would like to own up to my inner sap and ask my fellow weepie male moviegoers to join me in saying: I cried at Toy Story 3, and it’s okay!

There, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now have a cookie.

I think I know why Toy Story 3 gets to me — and, from all evidence, a lot of other men — on that primal sniffle level. I can’t talk about it, though, without plunging right into the end of the movie. So please, if you haven’t already seen it, stop reading. I have no desire to spoil your pleasure. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 20 2010 12:40 PM ET

Box office report: 'Toy Story' breaks records; 'Jonah Hex' lands in eighth place

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Categories: Box Office

toy-story-3-buzzImage Credit: Disney/PixarIt may not have reached infinity and beyond, but Toy Story 3 has broken records with its Father’s Day weekend debut. The G-rated movie starring everyone’s favorite Pixar characters Buzz Lightyear and Cowboy Woody grossed an estimated $109 million, earning the status of Pixar’s highest-grossing opening weekend ever. It helped that Toy Story 3 bowed in more than 2,000 3-D locations, a number that accounted more than 50 percent of its gross. Its IMAX numbers were also solid: The film earned 8 percent of its total from the 180 large-screen theaters. The movie generated a 99 percent positive rating from review collector site Rotten Tomatoes and an A from exit pollster CinemaScore. The animated flick also helped boost the box office more than 30 percent over this weekend last year, when The Proposal debuted to $33 million.

The story is far different for the only other new wide release, Jonah Hex. In fact, the PG-13 western actioner starring Josh Brolin was wholeheartedly rejected by audiences, grossing a paltry $5 million for an eighth place finish at the box office. It will likely go down as the biggest disappointment of the summer, one that’s surely not going to help the careers of either Brolin or costar Megan Fox. Audiences gave it a C+ as indicated by CinemaScore.

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 19 2010 12:06 PM ET

Box office update: 'Toy Story 3' on fire; 'Jonah Hex' bombs

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Categories: Box Office, Movies

toy-story-3-lotsoImage Credit: Disney/PixarHere’s a lesson for the movie studios: You can make a sequel 11 years after its predecessor as long as the story is great and the characters are so beloved that earlier generations are still attached to them. That’s what Disney-based Pixar did with the third chapter in the Toy Story franchise.  Toy Story 3 grossed an estimated $41 million Friday night, suggesting that many of those 20-somethings who watched Toy Story 2 when they were in elementary school came back to the franchise to see its latest chapter. Now Buzz Lightyear and Cowboy Woody are destined for Pixar’s record books, with the highest-opening ever for a Pixar movie. Based on the Friday numbers, Toy Story 3 could earn as much as $120 million for the three-day frame. (The studio’s previous opening-weekend record was $70 million for Finding Nemo in 2003.)

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Warner Bros.’ action Western Jonah Hex is a giant misfire. The Josh Brolin-starrer grossed approximately $2 million for a weekend that’s likely to wind up with only $6 million and a probable sixth place in the box office rankings. That is really bad. And it doesn’t bode well for the studio that released Splice earlier this month to paltry numbers too.

The rest of the top five will be dominated by holdovers, with The Karate Kid holding in fairly well considering its competition from Toy Story 3. The Jackie Chan-Jaden Smith starrer grossed an estimated $8 million on Friday for a weekend that should total $30 million, representing a 46 percent drop-off and a total cume that’s likely to reach over $100 million. The A-Team is in for a steeper fall, earning less than $4 million on Friday for a likely weekend total of $13 million. That represents close to a 60 percent drop for a movie that bowed last weekend to number’s beneath industry expectations. Shrek Forever After is likely to take fourth place with a bit over $2 million on Friday and a weekend total that should add up to over $8 million. Fifth spot goes to Get Him to the Greek which earned a bit under $2 million Friday night for a weekend that should reach $6 million for the frame.

Check back tomorrow for official results.

Jun 18 2010 04:58 PM ET

Why the hatred for Jaden Smith? It's the ugly underside of fan worship.

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Categories: Jaden Smith, The Karate Kid, Will Smith

the-kung-fu-kidImage Credit: Jasin BolandWhat is Jaden Smith’s crime? Last weekend, the up-and-coming young actor, who will turn 12 this July 8, starred in a remake of The Karate Kid that audiences flocked to beyond expectation and, from all available evidence, loved. Given that Smith is front and center in more or less every frame of the two-hour-and-20-minute movie (and given that his performance, as a kid who hides his sadness behind a mask of surliness, is — to this critic, at least — a magnetic and affecting piece of acting), I hope we can all agree that Jaden Smith’s presence on screen had a little something to do with the movie’s success. Yet Smith’s rise has been greeted, in far too many quarters (including a number of comment boards on EW.com, like the one on my review), with bitter, gnashing resentment. This 11-year-old really has the haters foaming.

Excuse me, but what the heck is going on? Let’s start with the indisputable fact that Smith got to be in the position he’s in because his father is the biggest movie star on the planet. So where, exactly, should that piece of information lead us? Should we hate Jaden Smith? Should we hate Will Smith? Should we hate every young actor or musician who ever got placed on the map of fame because of his or her parents? (Take that, Miley Cyrus, Michael Douglas, and Jamie Lee Curtis.) Oh, but, of course, the rap on Jaden Smith is that he’s all nepotism and nothing else, that he’s a kind of grouchy preteen Tori Spelling in cornrows. He’s been excoriated as a bad actor (even though, just a few years ago, most viewers had nothing but praise for the appealingly feisty and precocious performance he gave right next to his dad in The Pursuit of Happyness). He’s been called a brat, a spoiled no-talent, an ungrateful beneficiary of his lineage of stardom. He’s been ripped up and down as “insufferable” for his appearance last week on The Late Show With David Letterman. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 17 2010 09:49 PM ET

'X-Men: First Class': Michael Fassbender in talks to play young Magneto

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Categories: Casting, Movie Biz

Michael-Fassbender_240.jpg Image Credit: Barry King/FilmMagic.com James McAvoy has found his nemesis. Twentieth Century Fox is in negotiations with German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender for the role of Erik Lensherr, the man who becomes Magneto in the X-Men origin story X-Men: First Class. Fassbender, who most recently appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, has been a hot commodity of late: Rumor has it he was considered for the villain role in the reboot of Columbia Picture’s Spider-Man. Fassbender appeared in Spielberg’s Band of Brothers and garnered a lot of attention for his role in last year’s indie Fish Tank as well as his role as Lt. Archie Hicox in Basterds. He’ll show up this weekend in the Warner Bros. flick Jonah Hex.

First Class will be helmed by director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass). The film will depict the early years of the relationship between Charles Xavier and Lensherr, two young mutants who are first discovering their powers. The two are the closest of friends at first, working together to stop a huge global threat. They later become enemies, leading to an eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

Production is set to begin this summer in London. X-Men: First Class is scheduled for release on June 3, 2011.

Jun 17 2010 05:09 PM ET

Box office preview: 'Toy Story' on tap to be biggest movie of the summer

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Categories: Box Office, Movie Biz

toy-story-3-gangImage Credit: Disney/PixarWhat can’t Pixar do? The Emeryville, Calif.-based movie studio that has transformed movie animation has done it again with Toy Story 3, the sequel that’s destined to be Pixar’s 11th straight hit. The movie, a reunion of the characters that began the now-legendary studio 15 years ago, may actually break some records and become the company’s highest-grossing movie ever. It would have to exceed Finding Nemo — which in summer 2003 earned $340 million — but with the higher ticket prices for the 3-D flick, that outcome is surely possible. The movie will open in 2,463 digital 3-D locations of its 4,028 overall locations and could bow to triple digits this weekend. It doesn’t have anything to compete with. Unfortunately for Warner Bros., the Josh Brolin-Megan Fox-starrer Jonah Hex is looking like a huge disappointment. It’s one of the few movies I’m told that has lost traction with audiences over the past few weeks. Read on for my predictions. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 17 2010 09:00 AM ET

Exclusive: Jon Stewart to interview George Lucas at 'Star Wars' Celebration V

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Categories: Movies, Sci-Fi

jon-stewart-george-lucasStar Wars junkie Jon Stewart will be spending some quality time with franchise creator George Lucas this August, EW.com has learned exclusively. The Daily Show host will interview Lucas live in a one-hour conversation at Star Wars Celebration V, an annual fan convention, in Orlando, Florida, Aug. 12-15. In their conversation, dubbed The Main Event, Stewart and Lucas will discuss the history of the Star Wars saga and delve into the arcana of the multi-billion-dollar series. Stewart is a huge Star Wars fan — Lucas appeared on Stewart’s show back in January when the filmmaker was promoting his book, George Lucas’s Blockbusting, and the two had great banter with each other — but fans who may be worried that Stewart won’t ask their hottest burning questions can submit their own at www.starwarscelebration.com. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 16 2010 03:08 PM ET

'Psycho' turns 50 today, but it's the most eternal of all thrillers -- the one that changed movies, and the world

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Categories: Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho

psycho-screamImage Credit: Everett CollectionEyes. Drains. Stuffed birds. Windshield wipers. $40,000. Marion Crane. The Bates Motel. Norman Bates. Mrs. Bates. “She isn’t quite herself today.” A toilet. A study. A stutter. A private trap. A peephole. A kitchen knife. Skree skree skree skree! “Mother, oh God — blood, Mother, blood!” A car. A swamp. The Bates house. A detective. A crane shot. A creased bed. A sister. A boyfriend. A detective. An attic. A cellar. A rocking chair. A lightbulb. A wig. Skree skree skree skree! A psychiatrist. An asylum. A fly. A smile of the damned…. Half a century ago today, on June 16, 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho had its world premiere in New York City, and in the 50 years since it has become the rare movie in which every image and detail and motif is now, more or less, iconic. Every moment in the movie is a piece of mythological Americana.

In a way that I couldn’t quite say about any other film, I feel as if I’ve spent most of my movie life thinking — and writing — about Psycho. Here’s the essay about it that I did last year as part of EW University; it sums up my essential thoughts and feelings about the movie. Part of the wonder of Psycho, though, is that no matter how many times you’ve seen it (or, as I’ve discovered, written about it), it keeps coming back to provoke and tantalize and haunt you. Its power of revelation never wears thin or gets old. It’s one of the only films in Hollywood history — the others, I would say, are The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Star Wars — that is so alive, with a presence so vivid and immediate and larger-than-life, that it effectively transcends time.

With that in mind, I thought I’d celebrate the 50th birthday of Psycho with some free-floating thoughts and memories of what this movie has meant to me and why. And I thought I’d invite you, down below, to do the same. In its maliciously playful macabre way, Psycho is really the ultimate movie party, a ghoulishly profound gothic trapdoor funhouse that you almost literally feel like you enter each time you watch it. Let’s all go into the funhouse and take another look around. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 16 2010 01:48 PM ET

'Karate Kid' sequel: 'We've been talking about it for weeks.'

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Categories: Movie Biz, Movies

When your $40 million movie bows to $56 million, of course you’re going to start thinking about how to make a sequel. And Sony Pictures is indeed putting things into place. The studio confirmed yesterday that plans to reunite Jaden Smith with his star-making role as Dre Parker have been in the works for weeks. No writers have yet been hired, but the studio’s production president Doug Belgrad said, “We’ve been talking about it for weeks already. We didn’t want to jinx anything but we knew we had a playable movie and we were pretty excited about it. So we’re already kicking ideas around.”

Director Harald Zwart added, “I would absolutely love to do a sequel. I think working with those guys was the best part of my career. So yeah, if they want me, I would love to do it again.”

No word on ideas yet for the sequel, or even if the Smith clan would return to China for number two. But it’s clear we have not seen the last of Dre Parker. —Reporting by Chris Nashawaty

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