Usually by the time a third trailer for a big movie has been released, all relevant material has already seen the light of day and been thoroughly prodded, poked, and turned over by a nation of breathless fanatics. But you can rest assured that this new, third trailer for The Dark Knight Rises will unleash a whole new slew of deep-dive speculation.
As Vulture points out, James Cameron's latest highly ambitious non-movie project is here. Along with a group of investors that include Google's CEO Larry Page and its Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Jimmy is backing a company called Planetary Resources Inc. which is looking to mine asteroids for precious minerals. That's right: James Cameron's going into space.
Jack White has never been one to stand still, but his post–White Stripes era has elevated his all-purpose restlessness to bold new heights: There have been appearances on American Pickers, collaborations with Insane Clown Posse, even an actual solo album. And now, his latest endeavor, as reported by Variety: The score for The Lone Ranger, the Jerry Bruckheimer–produced adaptation of the '50s TV show starring Armie Hammer as the title character and Johnny Depp as his sidekick, Tonto.
Well, this is remarkable: Deadline is reporting that former-movie-star/current-crazy-person Mel Gibson has been offered a role in Machete Kills, Robert Rodriguez's sequel to the 2010 Danny Trejo vehicle Machete. What's so remarkable about that, you ask? Who cares if Gibson gets a glorified cameo in a schlocky B-movie satire that originated in a fake trailer, you wonder? Didn't Rodriguez put Lindsay Lohan in the first one, you point out? Yeah, cool, sure, good points, buddy. What's remarkable is that once again Mel Gibson has landed work in the aftermath of having done something insane.
For the first time since it hit theaters a month back, The Hunger Games has not won the weekend box office. In a surprising development, the honor has gone instead to Sony Pictures' ensemble romantic comedy Think Like a Man, an adaptation of Steve Harvey's best-selling self-help book. The flick finished in the vicinity of $33 million, doubling its own studio's predictions for how it would do. How did Think pull off the upset?
The Pride of Dorchester is going to learn a thing or two about blush: According to Deadline, Mark Wahlberg is set to star in the comedy Avon Man, as an unemployed dude who turns to pushing makeup to survive.
With Gary Ross out, Lionsgate is making moves to find a director for the Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire. And, as could have reasonably been expected, they have no shortage of fancy names to choose from. Deadline's Mike Fleming reports: "Lionsgate met with The Orphanage helmer Juan Antonio Bayona, and ... also discussed Attack the Block director Joe Cornish. But Bayona appears to be busy — though he’s not completely out of it — and Cornish didn’t get to the point of a meeting. If I had to guess, I would think the likely candidate to be [Moneyball's Bennett] Miller ... The sticking point: he wanted to push until spring so he could make Foxcatcher for Fox. Lionsgate wants to start by August and doesn’t want to wait. That could put [I Am Legend director Francis] Lawrence in the driver’s seat. We should know the answer in a matter of days."
Back in the fall, Grantland alerted you to the existence of Channing Tatum's Magic Mike — the unlikely male-stripper saga directed by Steven Soderbergh and based on Tatum's own experience in the disrobing game — by asking the good folks at Chippendales to break down the cast's prospects as real-life nude dance entertainers.
The Master, the in-production new movie from Paul Thomas Anderson, would be massively anticipated even if it were about, say, the behind-the-scenes story of the taping of a particularly contentious episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos. (Anderson’s last movie came out five long years ago, and it was instant classic There Will Be Blood, and also, come on, PTA doesn’t miss.) But seeing as The Master is a shrouded-in-secrecy Scientology project starring Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Joaquin Phoenix, in his first major role since his fake meltdown — well, you can expect fever pitch.
And here’s the most pressing question right now: Is PTA ready and willing to face off against the (allegedly! allegedly!) shadowy, powerful, manipulative, well-funded, and vindictive Church of Scientology? Did he have the stones, or the desire, to make The Master directly about the Church? Anderson himself isn’t talking, so the New York Times went around him, took a look at the information already available on the movie, and delivered a verdict:
Surprise! Reviews for The Three Stooges – the long-gestating production from the Farrelly Brothers, in theaters today – are in, and they are not all full of angry puns. Considering its tortured production history, and the latter day cinematic sins of the Farrelly Brothers, and the fact that it’s, you know, a Three Stooges movie, you’d have been safe assuming the flick was destined for Razzie glory.
Because [hella dramatic cannon noise] Gary Ross is out. After guiding the first flick in the franchise to just ungodly sums of money (like, at this point, Lionsgate could probably breed, birth, and train an army of bloodthirsty murder-unicorns and still have enough left over for a Cinnabon), Ross has announced he will not be returning to the franchise for the sequel, Catching Fire. The news didn’t come completely out of the blue, as reports had already been circulating that Ross and Lionsgate were butting heads over his salary demands. But, at least according to the statements from Gary and the studio, the final decision to bounce on the franchise had nothing to do with money.
Despite a certain lack of imagination, of spark, of wit, The Hangover II managed to pull in over half a billion at the box office (and birth a third installment). And it felt there, for a little bit, at least for people overly emotionally invested in box office tallies, that there was no justice in the universe. But, perhaps as some implicit karmic righting-of-the-balance, since its release The Hangover II has been the recipient of something other than oodles of money: a comical amount of legal trouble!
Everybody wants to take shots at the throne. And, with its box office haul rounding to $400 million (it might just get there by the time you finish this sentence!), The Hunger Games is most definitely king. It’s not surprising, then, that rumbles about the franchise’s crumbling have already begun.
According to TMZ, Nicolas Cage just dropped off $6,257,005 with the federal government, putting him almost halfway home to clearing the $13 million in debt he accrued in back taxes from 2002 to 2007. Which means that maybe he can, one day soon, stop making horrible, awful, just terrible decisions as to the projects he stars in?
In 1996, director Roland Emmerich destroyed the White House, via aliens, in Independence Day. In 1998, he destroyed New York, via mythical dinosaur, in Godzilla. In 2004, he destroyed North America, via global warming, in The Day After Tomorrow. In 2009, he destroyed the world, via ancient Mayan prophecy, in 2012. And now Roland Emmerich will — well, he’s sort of destroying the White House again. Roland's in talks for a project called White House Down, which follows a paramilitary takeover of the highest office in the land.
