quick list: five really relevant filmmakers working now
With a look at balancing brains and appeal and impact, here are the filmmakers who are driving what we watch, how we talk about it, and what’s to come.
Avatar
question of the day: Why is ‘Inception’ appealing to younger audiences?
An interesting tidbit from the estimated weekend box office numbers: Though Inception had an excellent opening weekend — earning around $60.4 million (the actual numbers will be in this afternoon) — it earned that from a smallish slice of the potential audience, according to the Los Angeles Times: The highest-ever opening for a film not … more…
question of the day: Eight extra minutes for James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’: will you watch and do you care?
Mark the date. Or not. On August 27 of this very year, you will have the distinct honor of being able — or not — of paying your 20 bucks/15 quid or so and being graced with eight whole extra minutes of Avatar. In 3D only! Because that’s how you rack up the most box … more…
question of the day: Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is a billion-dollar movie: why?
Today, Tim Burton’s baroque and pointless adaptation of Alice in Wonderland will cross the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office receipts, as The Hollywood Reporter noted the other day. It’s notable, too, as the first of the billionaire movies to have opened not in the summer season or at Christmastime but in spring. (The … more…
the ‘Robin Hood’ that almost wasn’t…
We should have been so lucky. The U.K. box numbers are out, and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood fared much better on its nominal home ground (for all the Brit involvement, it’s still an American-funded production keyed to a Hollywood mindset). It earned £5.8 million this past weekend, the third best opening weekend for a film … more…
Roger Ebert hates 3D; is Sacha Baron Cohen worth $20 million?; Brits playing American; and more: leftover links
Every week my browser gets cluttered up with tabs for stuff that I stumble across and figure I might be able to use as a Question of the Day or a WTF Thought for the Day or grist for some other post. And inevitably, I end the week with most of that material unused. But … more…
question of the day: What extra scenes would you *really* like to see in the extended version of ‘Avatar’?
James Cameron is not through sucking the money right out of your bank account. You’ve already made Avatar the moneymakingest movie ever at the box office (unadjusted for inflation, of course, because no one wants to say that Scarlett O’Hara kicks Na’vi ass). You’ve already made the DVD and blu-ray the biggest selling release ever. … more…
Mickey Rourke as Genghis Khan, Ridley Scott returns to ‘Alien,’ deliver us from Breck Eisner, more: leftover links
Every week my browser gets cluttered up with tabs for stuff that I stumble across and figure I might be able to use as a Question of the Day or a WTF Thought for the Day or grist for some other post. And inevitably, I end the week with most of that material unused. But … more…
trailer break: ‘The Losers’
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… I’m pretty sure I had never seen Jeffrey Dean Morgan in anything before Watchmen, but now I want him to be in everything. And Zoe Saldana is clearly on her way to being in everything — Avatar, Star Trek, the new Death at a Funeral — and … more…
my week at the movies: ‘Babies,’ ‘Survival of the Dead,’ ‘Princess Kaiulani,’ ‘The Losers,’ ‘The Back-up Plan,’ ‘Ondine’
Awww. It’s a year in the lives of four babies from around the world. How the hell cute is Babies (opens in the U.S. and Canada on May 7; no U.K. release date has been announced) gonna be, anyway? George A. Romero has yet another zombie movie in the offing for us: Survival of the … more…
