Fox Set to Welcome My 30s with Style

In 2014, I will have reached my third decade of existence. Such commemoration brings feelings of feebleness and inadequacy when one reflects on their time in years' past. Thankfully Tom Rothman, remembering yours truly doesn't consider him Satan's spawn and has said so on many a platform, remembered this* and decided today 20th Century Fox would announce their big 2014 tentpoles for my amusement:

• A 3D reissue of Independence Day for July 3, 2013. I couldn't sit through this when Ed Hocken picked it for Movie Moan. If I couldn't do that on home video for $5, you think I'm going to shell out $15 just so Brent Spiner's corpse can jump out at me?
• Steven Spielberg's Robopocalypse moves from July 3, 2013 to April 25th 2014. That sound you hear is God smiling down on Guillermo del Toro, whose similar-themed Pacific Rim opened the following week. Now he's been spared the wrath of Spielberg and possibly the breakthrough commercial smash long deserved. And hey, Robopocalypse gets the big day-and-date The Avengers slot.
• When there's no more room in Hell, the Apes will walk the Earth. Sorry, couldn't help it. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will unleash Caesar & Co for Memorial Day weekend (May 23). How long till the inevitable announcement James Franco and Freida Pinto are no shows?
• The X-Men: First Class sequel, the one I still don't want frankly, has no title. But it has everything else, including a release date - July 18. Two summers in a row, Fox takes the coveted late July slot from Warner Brothers. Is this a pattern?
• There's also release date shifts for some (the Percy Jackson sequel moves from March to August 2013) and other first-time commitments (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Ben Stiller for Christmas 2013). But it's big genre fare you care about.

*Thanks, Tom!

The Bourne Legacy Trailer

If this fails, Tony Gilroy can't blame Paul Greengrass, can he? The full trailer to The Bourne Legacy is here. Take a gander.

Too soon to tell if Universal's decision to commence without Matt Damon, interestingly his mug is onscreen which means Damon gave clearance which (to break it down further) suggests he's not entirely against returning without his pal helmer Greengrass, will pay off.

I like the timeline splicing for Legacy to take place during the events of The Bourne Ultimatum (a move Greengrass played in Ultimatum using the ending of The Bourne Supremacy). The action looks good, wisely more Doug Liman, less Greengrass. Jeremy Renner seems to be a capable lead (He's a two-time Oscar nominee after all!)

But it still leaves a problem they can't overcome. Renner is not Matt Damon. By showing Damon's face and referring to Jason Bourne during the two minutes of action/plot exposition, you're not making it any easier for audiences to stop asking, "Where’s Matt Damon?"

Iron Patriot Armor Confirmed For Iron Man 3

Hot off the heels of the huge success of The Avengers, shooting on the third Iron Man movie is under way in Wilmington North Carolina and today actor James Badge Dale was seen on set in the Iron Patriot armor.

In the comics the Iron Patriot armor was worn by Norman Osborn as an attempt to appear a hero by presenting a combined image of Iron Man and Captain America, clearly Shane Black has done some reimagining.

thesuperficial.com

It's All Channing Tatum's Fault G.I. Joe 2 Got Delayed

Not a spoiler at this point to reveal Channing Tatum's character Duke (the only non-mask-wearing, kung-fu fighting holdover from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) was supposed to kick the bucket in the opening minutes of G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Don't look at me with those vengeful "Spoiler Alert!" eyes. They gave it away in the trailer!

It might look like a boneheaded call now. But Jon Chu's follow-up was in development before Tatum's career took an upswing with the recent batch of 2012 hits The Vow and 21 Jump Street. We shouldn't forget Dear John from 2010 (First film to unseat Avatar!) or Tatum's good critical notices from Haywire either. Seemed like a good idea on paper to eliminate the perceived weak elements from Rise of Cobra. In this case, everything that wasn't Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow.

Well, two new reports, one from THR, the other "TOLDJA," piggy-back on what AICN's The Kidd reported last week. In the event you were paying attention, amid the craziness of Paramount's call to yank Retaliation from theaters a month till release.

Test audiences got peeved by the lack of Tatum. So those big, 3D-enchaned scenes Dwayne Johnson was referring to last week? Expect more of the Channing One's presence. Too early to tell how far the reshoots (which we hear are already underway) will change what we've come to expect from the barrage of trailers, TV spots, production stills, Hell even poster art for the original June 29th release.

One thing is for certain. Duke will have a pulse at the end.

First Les Miserables Trailer

Oh, thank you Les Miz, for making me incredibly late for work this morning...

The first official teaser trailer (official, not that bootleg of a bootleg from CinemaCon that was floating around the interwebs a few weeks ago) for Les Miserables is now online, and it looks great.  As reported, the actors will be singng live on camera for the big-screen movie musical, and after hearing a beautifully gut-wrenching rendition of Anne Hathaway singing "I Dreamed a Dream" over this first official footage, it sounds like the live singing is going to be amazing:

This is looks sooooo worth the 23 years I've been waiting for this movie to finally happen.  You can also check out USA Today's slideshow for some new photos from the film.  

Les Miserables opens in theaters on December 14.

E.T. Is Coming to Blu-Ray This Fall

If you're a Steven Spielberg fan, this is a really good year to own a blu-ray player.  In August we're getting a blu-ray release of Jaws, and that Indiana Jones box set will hitting store shelves in October.  Hell, we're even getting Empire of the Sun on blu-ray next month. 

But with this being the 30th Anniversary of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial - a milestone I'm still not entirely coping with, since I'm old enough to have seen it in the theater three times when it was first released in 1982 - this is probably the release that fans should be happy to see is indeed coming this year. 

Details on the blu-ray are vague so far:  no specific release date yet, and no word on what the bonus features will be.  But there is a trailer, courtesy of Universal's YouTube channel, and if you watch closely, you can see that the gun-toting federal agents are back, which should confirm that we will definitely be getting the original 1982 version of E.T., instead of the 2002 walkie-talkie edition.  Yay!

Now hopefully Universal will do what they did for the Back to the Future blu-ray release two years ago and bring E.T. back to theaters for a few nights.  There's nothing quite like watching that goodbye scene as watching it in a theater full of sobbing people...and enjoying every moment of it anyway.

Simon Pegg Playing the Khan Denial Game Too

Those Khan rumors never let up.

If it was as simple as set picture leaks, as the case where pictures appeared of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana between takes on Star Trek 2, then J.J. Abrams can react by building his own Berlin Wall blocking the Paparazzi. But with the ever-pressing rumors of Khan Noonien Singh causing trouble for the U.S.S. Enterprise again, it's all about the denial game.

But who's going to believe Mr. Mystery Box Abrams? Why not, in STEALTH-like mode, send out a good will ambassador to geekdom who happens to be a co-star in your movie to also "debunk" those pesky Khan murmurs (because "he would never lie to us")?

In an otherwise nice profile from the UK's Telegraph on his career, Simon Pegg (AKA Scotty) has done just that:

"'It's not Khan,' replies Pegg, annoyed. 'That's a myth. Everyone's saying it is, but it's not.'"

Much as it pains to say this, and I really want to believe him, I'm not buying the denial. He has to say this. Walking the same line, following the same narrative as everyone else as production on the as-yet-titled sequel wraps

Holiday Weekend Box Office: May 25-28

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Men in Black 3 - $70 million

2.  The Avengers - $46.8 million

3.  Battleship - $13.7 million

4.  The Dictator - $11.7 million

5.  Dark Shadows - $9.4 million

6.  Chernobyl Diaries- $9.3 million

7.  What to Expect When You're Expecting - $8.8 million

8.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - $8.2 million

9.  The Hunger Games - $2.8 million

10.  Think Like a Man - $1.8 million

Memorial Day Weekend wraps up with Men in Black 3 taking over first place from The Avengers at the box office, earning an estimated $70 million since opening on Friday.  That's a decent start for a franchise whose last sequel opened nearly 10 years ago, but with a reported budget of $230 million, it's definitely not the start that Sony was hoping for, and it's lagging behind the openings of the previous Men in Black films.  The threequel is doing much better overseas, where it has earned $133 million.

Despite dropping to second place, The Avengers achieved another milestone this weekend when on Saturday the film passed the $500 million mark.  It's now on its way to pass The Dark Knight as the third-highest grossing film domestically, although these records should get scrambled around some more when The Dark Knight Rises opens this summer.

All of this continued to be bad news for Battleship, which earned a paltry $13.8 million over the holiday weekend.  Yikes.  This is just not a good year for Taylor Kitsch.  The second weekend for The Dictator did all right with $11.7 million, but audiences definitely seem to over Sacha Baron Cohen at this point.

This weekend's other new wide release, Oren Peli's nuclear horror film Chernobyl Diaries, landed with a thud with only $9.3 million.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel did very well in its expanded release, earning an impressive $8.2 million.  In limited release, Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom earned $523,000 - in just four theaters.  Expect this one to open wider soon. 

Next weekend will see our second big-screen version of Snow White, as Snow White and the Huntsman opens in theaters.  This one has Thor in it, so maybe it will do better than the last movie did.

3rd "The Dark Knight Rises" TV Spot "

The Dark Knight Rises is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar winner Christian Bale again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake. Returning to the main cast, Oscar winner Michael Caine plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman reprises the role of Lucius Fox. The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer.

A Large Amount Of "The Dark Knight Rises" Promo Art

It seems you can't even take a sip of ice coffee or a cold beer without noticing a new instance of marketing for the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. There were so many of them this time around I had to really consolidate. Click on the pictures below to head to the SuperHeroHypeForums for a shot at seeing the images in a much larger manner.