The Warner Bros. executive shuffle is official. The studio’s long-term president and COO Alan Horn will step down in April and become a consultant while Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer will extend his contract for the next two years. Jeff Robinov, president, Warner Bros. Pictures; Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group; and Bruce Rosenblum, president, Warner Bros. Television Group will share the office of the President, beginning April 1, 2011.
Archive: September 2010 (21-30 of 47)
Sep 22
2010
05:09 PM ET
Warner Bros. management shake-up: Triumverate to form new office of the president
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Sep 21
2010
03:31 PM ET
Leslie Mann to star in 'The Change-Up'
Universal announced via press release that Leslie Mann has been tapped to star opposite Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman in The Change-Up, which is expected in theaters in August 2011. The film — which follows a family man (Bateman) who swaps bodies with his slacker best friend, who is played by Reynolds — is being directed by David Dobkin, with Neal Moritz producing. The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore served as the film’s writers.
Mann, the wife of über-director Judd Apatow, last starred in Funny People.
Sep 20
2010
03:29 PM ET
Annette Bening and Julianne Moore both to be campaigned as Best Actress
Image credit: Suzanne Tenner
Move over, Thelma and Louise: Now there’s Nic and Jules. From Focus Features comes official word that the distributor will be campaigning both of its stars of The Kids Are All Right—Annette Bening and Julianne Moore—as Best Actress. When I mentioned this as a possibility last month it was met with disbelief from several of you, who thought Focus would go the Dreamgirls or Chicago route and demote one of them (likely Moore) to the supporting category. But I think this is the right decision. Both actresses have juicy roles and complete character arcs that merit inclusion in the lead category. Sure, Moore would have a better shot at her first Oscar win in supporting, but it would seem disingenuous to campaign her as such. As for Bening, despite her tough competition this year (notably Black Swan‘s Natalie Portman and Blue Valentine‘s Michelle Williams), I’d say she has a decent shot at a victory this time around.
For the record, should Bening and Moore both score nods, it would be the sixth time a movie featured two Best Actress nominees. Here are the others:
Thelma and Louise (1991): Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon
Terms of Endearment (1983): Shirley Maclaine (winner) and Debra Winger
The Turning Point (1977): Anne Bancroft and Shirley Maclaine
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959): Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor
All About Eve (1950): Anne Baxter and Bette Davis
Not bad company to be in, right? Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter (@davekarger) for more Oscar updates.
Sep 19
2010
12:58 PM ET
'The Town' easily steals the weekend from 'Easy A' and 'Devil'
Image Credit: Claire FolgerBen Affleck’s back in the top spot with his second directorial effort The Town, a Boston-set crime drama which he also stars in and co-wrote. The Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures co-production earned an estimated $23.8 million for its first three days in release, far out-performing the film’s expectations. The film drew in a predominantly male audience, who filled seats to see the film’s heist premise and its lead actor. The fact that the film also scored a B+ from exit pollster CinemaScore suggests it will have a solid life after this weekend.
Second place went to the teen-appealing Easy A, which drew in $18.2 million for the frame. Made for only $8 million, the Emma Stone-starrer is destined to propel the young actress into a high demand position in Hollywood. She’s already lined up to star in Dreamworks’ period drama The Help, and is often on the short list when it comes to young actresses. From director Will Gluck, the film generated an A- from audiences, and the studio hopes it will expand out beyond its core audiences in the weeks to come. Easy A also marks one of five films Sony has in the top ten, quite a feat for the studio that’s already had a solid summer at the theaters.
Horror flick Devil landed in a distant third place, grossing an estimated $12.5 million. From producer M. Night Shyamalan, the scare-fest set in an elevator garnered a weak C+ score from audiences, a score that suggests the film from Universal Pictures will drop like a stone next weekend. And Devil did little to sway moviegoers from coming to see Milla Jovovich in her iconic role of Alice in the Resident Evil series. For Resident Evil: Afterlife fell off its usual 60 percent to gross an addition $10.1 million for a total cume of $44 million. Internationally, the film has already grossed upwards of $100 million for a worldwide cume of more than $147 million. READ FULL STORY »
Sep 18
2010
11:05 AM ET
Box office update: 'The Town' overperforms Friday; on track to top 'Easy A' and 'Devil'
Image Credit: Claire FolgerWell, it’s clear the adult movie-going audience has not been served for some time now, for that starving crowd came out in droves Friday night to see Ben Affleck’s The Town. The film, which also stars Jeremy Renner and Jon Hamm, nabbed over $8 million, a number that could translate into a $24 million weekend — and the No. 1 spot on the charts. That’s quite a feat for Affleck, whose directorial debut, 2007′s Gone Baby Gone, grossed a total of $20 million in its entire run.
The Emma Stone-starrer Easy A also performed well on Friday, snarking up close to $7 million for a weekend that could reach between $17-$18 million. Both films far out-performed Devil, which earned less than $5 million on Friday night. The horror film produced by M. Night Shyamalan is now on track to gross somewhere in the $13 million range for the frame.
Spot four went to last weekend’s winner Resident Evil: Afterlife. The Milla Jovovich-starrer grossed around $3 million on Friday, a steep drop-off from last weekend’s opener. As such, the film will likely fall north of 60 percent for a weekend that will wind up just under $10 million. The fifth spot went to the fourth new wide release of the weekend, the kid-centric Alpha and Omega. Grossing just over $2 million on Friday, the PG-rated flick, which actually represents Dennis Hopper’s last work before his death (he voices one of the characters), will likely earn less than $9 million for the frame.
Come back tomorrow for a full box office report.
Sep 17
2010
07:11 PM ET
Exclusive: Sandra Bullock offered 'Never Forget' at Screen Gems
Sandra Bullock has received an offer for the film Never Forget at Screen Gems. The film, according to sources familiar with the project, say it is loosely based on the documentary On Moral Grounds, directed by Robby Kushner, which depicts one woman’s quest to reimburse Holocaust survivors who were swindled out of their heir’s insurance policies by a European insurance company. The studio has been very hush-hush on this project but has confirmed exclusively to EW.com that she’s been offered the role.
The film is one of several movies recently offered Bullock, but she has passed on most of them. Bullock has already said no to starring in New Line’s Our Wild Life, aka Elephant Orphanage, which centers on the life of Dame Daphne Sheldrick, an animal conservationist in Kenya who devoted her life to preventing the extinction of elephants. Julia Roberts had been rumored for the role, too. New Line is now regrouping before reaching out to a new leading lady.
Bullock has also turned down an offer to star in Disney’s The Odd Life of Timothy Green, a film from Peter Hedges (Dan in Real Life) that centers on a family whose lives are touched by an unexpected child.
It’s understandable why the 45-year-old actress may have turned down both Wild Life and Timothy Green. Both parts have inklings of her Oscar-winning role in The Blind Side in them. Wild Life requires her to portray another real-life person, just as she did playing Leigh Anne Tuohy, and Timothy Green centers around a child who changes a family’s life, a la Michael Oher.
Bullock is currently negotiating to co-star opposite Tom Hanks in the adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 9/11 novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which Stephen Daldry is planning to direct for Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures. The post 9/11 drama centers on a young boy who finds a key that belonged to his late father who died in the World Trade Center attacks. Sources believe it will be the actress’s next project.
Sep 16
2010
07:58 PM ET
Joaquin Phoenix and the 'I'm Still Here' hoax: So maybe he really is as great an actor as Brando
Image Credit: WireImage.com; Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesOkay, I got fooled. I’m not going to sugarcoat my mea culpa. By the time I saw I’m Still Here, Casey Affleck’s is-it-really-truly-actually-a-documentary? about his brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix’s scuzzy descent into drugs and narcissism and startlingly awful hip-hop lyrics, the rumors that the whole thing was a hoax had been swirling around — and, in fact, gaining traction — for more than a year, ever since Phoenix’s infamous appearance on Late Show With David Letterman. I was more than ready to jump on the hoax bandwagon myself, except that the movie I saw looked and felt real to me, which is why I said so in my review.
Now Affleck, in an interview granted to Michael Cieply of The New York Times, has revealed that, yes, the whole thing really was a great big hoax. My first reaction is: Wow, that really was a great performance. Ten times better than his inspired work in Walk the Line. Yet even as I wipe the critical egg off my face, I want to seize the opportunity to say why I thought the hoax rumor was, in fact, the real concoction.
Where did the rumor originally come from? A member of Phoenix’s entourage whose name couldn’t be revealed. That mystery whistle-blower first spilled the beans to Christine Spines of EW, who is interviewed in the film. But just as millions of people re-ran the Phoenix/Letterman clip on YouTube and thought that they smelled a rat, the hoax rumor, to me, had the distinct ring of a story planted by a publicist for the purposes of damage control. And, in a funny way, it still does — even as Casey Affleck comes clean. In fact, the hoax confirmation now takes on the aspect of an entertainment-industrial-complex conspiracy theory, all built around the fact that I’m Still Here was a shocking bomb at the box office last weekend, grossing a per-screen average of barely over $5,000 on just 20 screens. Could damage control + intriguing redefinition of the movie = megahype?
You decide. But as a critic who can admit (as any critic should) when he’s wrong, I want to conclude my mea culpa in the playful what’s real? spirit of I’m Still Here by officially launching a rumor of my own: I don’t think that the hoax has ended. Because I think that Casey Affleck’s it-was-all-a-hoax interview with The New York Times is the real hoax. I really, truly believe that. Unless, of course, I’m just making it up.
So do Casey Affleck’s recent statements increase your desire to see I’m Still Here? Or neutralize it down to zero?
Sep 16
2010
05:22 PM ET
Box office preview: 'The Town' battles 'Easy A' and 'Devil' for top spot
The fall movie-going season is about to begin, and Hollywood is already piling on the goods. Four movies will battle it out for the top spot this weekend, and any one of them would be lucky to hit $20 million. The one that’s received the most attention from the media and the talk show circuit is Ben Affleck’s The Town. Not only is the film getting good reviews (EW’s own Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film an A-), but everybody loves a comeback story — and Ben Affleck 2.0′s is certainly a riveting one. In contrast, Easy A has young girls wrapped around its finger. Starring Emma Stone, this modern-day take on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter — fashioned with dialogue reminiscent of Juno and Mean Girls — could be a break-out hit if those tweens show up. Devil and the animated flick Alpha and Omega have a more difficult battle to fight. Devil, from producer M. Night Shyamalan, features no big-name stars and a horror conceit that could easily be unraveled. Alpha and Omega, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have nearly enough marketing needed to turn on families during this busy back-to-school season. See below for me predictions.
1. Easy A: $18 million
Teen girls haven’t had something to sink their teeth into since Twilight. And while I’m not even considering comparing Easy A to the vampire juggernaut, I do think this PG-13-rated teen flick does have the ability to spark with its intended demographic. How high it gets is going to be predicated based on how many teenage girls are available for movie-going this weekend. If they love it, which I predict they will, then word-of-mouth could give the Screen Gems flick a hefty opening frame. It would also mean the Sony subsidiary scores its third No. 1 film in three weeks, after Resident Evil and Takers. READ FULL STORY »
Sep 16
2010
04:51 PM ET
'Rabbit Hole': Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart enter the Oscar race
Image credit: JoJo Whilden
Today brings news that Lionsgate, the distributor that released Precious last year, has bought the Nicole Kidman drama Rabbit Hole at Toronto and will release it for Oscar consideration this fall. This is great news for those of us that feel like serious adult dramas aren’t being made anymore. I saw the film, directed by John Cameron Mitchell, at its Toronto premiere on Monday night and was impressed with it. Kidman and Eckhart play a married couple struggling to deal with the recent death of their 4-year-old son. (It’s based on the play by David Lindsay-Abaire; Cynthia Nixon and John Slattery starred in the New York production.)
So can Kidman, a past Best Actress winner for The Hours, snag another nomination this year? Some of my fellow Oscar prognosticators think she’s a slam dunk. I’m not as bullish. She gives a fine performance but with the exception of one fireworks scene, it’s a fairly subdued turn. And thanks to movies like The Kids Are All Right, Blue Valentine, Black Swan, and Another Year, the Best Actress race is looking quite crowded. Kidman is certainly a contender for a nomination, just not a sure thing.
The performance in Rabbit Hole that stands out to me is Eckhart’s. He shines in the film’s comedic and dramatic moments, showing range I’ve never seen before. And he gets to rant and rave a bit more than Kidman does, which doesn’t hurt with the Academy. He’s delivered sturdy work for years (In the Company of Men, Nurse Betty, Thank You for Smoking), and I’d love to see him score his first career nomination. And fortunately, the supporting actor field isn’t nearly as dense.
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