"Twilight" Asks Us to Still Take Them Seriously With pre-"Hunger Games" Teaser Clip

Yeah, yeah...the Twilight finale will undoubtedly make its gazillions when Breaking Dawn Part 2 opens in theaters in November.  And it only makes sense that a teaser for the final Twilight film make its debut in front of The Hunger Games this weekend. 

But since this week is all about the based-on-a-far-superior-book series The Hunger Games...seriously, Twilight?  I've never understood the "teaser for a trailer" phenomenon, but even this quick clip (courtesy of Twilight's official YouTube channel) makes the Twilight series look even more useless than it already is:

Whatever.  At least it's almost over.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 opens in theaters on November 16.  You can catch the full trailer in front of The Hunger Games, which opens this weekend. 

Dark Shadows Character Posters

Empire has gotten hold of 9 character posters from Tim Burton's latest Johnny Depp starring weirdfest 'Dark Shadows'. I've posted three below, the rest are at the link.

Josh Trank (Finally) Attached to a Comic-Book Property Worth His Time

Josh Trank shouldn't be wasting his time on the Fantastic Fours or Venoms of the world.

The counter-point argument, I'm sure, would be to say his talent could inject the kind of creative spark we saw when Christopher Nolan, a virgin to the sensibilities to blockbuster filmmaking, took on Batman Begins or J.J. Abrams, still associated as a "TV guy" and licking the commercial wounds from Mission: Impossible III's under-performance rebooted Star Trek. That is a fair point. But sometimes properties leave such a stench its best not to have a young filmmaker, still new to the game and right off the bat with success, getting his hands dirty.

As per "TOLDJA," he's linked to yet another comic-related project The Red Star to direct.

The story, based on the comic-books by Christian Gossett, is set in an alternative world chronicling a post-WWII Soviet Union where futuristic technology and sorcery at commonplace. Cool enough sounding concept, and easily the best thing he's been attached to post-Chronicle. That's more like it.

Snow White & The Huntsman - 5 Minute Preview

The awesome trailer that was released yesterday just escalated the all round hype for this ambitious project, with it's Lord of the Rings style take on the classic fairytale.

Now online is a special preview of some scenes from the movie, this is what was shown at Wondercon this past weekend, and gives a better look at scenes we've seen glimpses of in the trailers.

Seth Rogen Starring in the "Original" Buddy-Cop Comedy

Merely a hunch on my part, but I sense the headlining days of Seth Rogen slowly coming to an end, and we'll see him take the leap behind the camera full time a la Knocked Up co-star Harold Ramis. For as good as his comedies have been overall (Save for the occasional Green Hornet before a 50/50), his presence unfortunately is viewed increasingly as a hindrance as the box-office receipts for his fare get lower. So when we do hear of a starring vehicle for the comedy star, enjoy it while you can.

THR has the details on the latest, an untitled action/comedy telling the first interracial cop pairing, in essence the "father" to the buddy-cop sub-genre with Roth and Kevin Hart attached to star:

"The action comedy aims to be the 'original' buddy cop comedy by having Rogen and Hart be the first white and black cop duo in a story set post-World War II, in the late 1940s. The pair go undercover in the jazz scene to bust up a ring involving marijuana (no surprise there, since Rogen is involved.)"

The pitch was bought by Paramount with Rodney Rothman (a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman and Undeclared, incidentally co-starring Rogen) writing.  

New Images From Looper

io9.com has gotten hold of two new images from Brick director Rian Johnson's sci fi actioner 'Looper' with promise of a trailer due soon after one was shown this past weekend at Wondercon.

Johnson is a talented director, the way he subverted the noir sub-genre is Brick was impressive and I can't wait to see how this sci fi tale of time travelling assassins turns out, the Terminator influence is obvious and I believe Johnson mentioned this when the project was first announced, but as I always say, if you are going to be influenced make it by the best.

The film stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Emily Blunt. Levitt is playing the younger version of Bruce Willis sent to kill himself, hence the prosthetic make-up he's wearing. Word from those who saw the trailer at Wondercon say JGL's interpretation of Willis as a younger man i uncanny.

Snow White & the Huntsman - New Trailer, Still Looks Awesome

New Snow White & the Huntsman trailer answers one question on my mind. Does Kristen Stewart (Long rivaled online for Twilight, to the point of people mislabeling her a bad actor by association) sport a British accent? She was conspicuously all-show, no-talk in the teaser.

It sounds British to me though I'll have to get Phil to authenticate and Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth still get more screen-time and lines here. And a first-look at the eight dwarves (The Mouse owns copyright on seven dwarves – No fooling!) all played by digitally downsized character-actors; yes, that's Bob Hoskins.

Looks great, love the creature work, production design, etc. Though the more I look, the more this seems better suited for Christmas 2012 as originally planned than June.

Prometheus Trailer Is Phenomenal

Going back to the world of Alien never sounded like the best idea, and playing with that red-headed step-cousin of sub-genre known as the prequel didn't elicit enthusiasm on face-value either. But you know what? Consider me a convert to the faith after the teaser trailer released during the Holiday 2011 season.

Now Ridley Scott ("Sir Ridley" to his mates) is out and about pimping Prometheus. He finally came out and admitted it is prequel at WonderCon this weekend, perhaps due to his tiring to beat around the bush, the sudden acceptance of Fox-produced prequels in the wake of Rise of the Apes and X-Men: First Class or maybe he just didn't give a damn. I vote the latter.

Well he's dropped the new trailer on the world. The title to this post says it all, baby. Enjoy.

Weekend Box Office: March 16 - 18

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  21 Jump Street - $35 million

2.  The Lorax - $22.8 million

3.  John Carter - $13.5 million

4.  Project X - $4 million

5.  A Thousand Words - $3.7 million

6.  Act of Valor - $3.6 million

7.  Safe House - $2.8 million

8.  Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - $2.4 million

9.  Case de mi Padre - $2.2 million

10.  This Means War - $2.1 million

Comedy ruled this weekend as 21 Jump Street, the big-screen version of the Johnny Depp-launching 80s TV classic took first place this weekend with an impressive $35 million.  With surprisingly strong reviews, the film is now second only to Jackass 3D as the highest opening weekend for an R-rated comedy not released during the summer. 

Universal's The Lorax continues to do very well, earning another $22.8 million and bringing its domestic total up to $158 million, making it the highest grossing film of 2012 so far.  And to no one's surprise...a big screen animated version of Dr. Suess' The Cat in the Hat is now on the way.

As far as John Carter...well, anyone left hoping that a second-weekend surge would boost its domestic numbers are bound to be disappointed, as the Mars adventure film sputtered in third place with just $13.5 million, a 55% drop from an already lackluster opening weekend.  At $53 million, the film is unlikely to pass the $100 million mark domestically, and its overseas total of $126 million isn't that great either, at least not for a movie as expensive to make as this one was.

The weekend's other new release, the subtitled Will Ferrell comedy Casa de mi Padre, debuted all the way down in ninth place (and behind Journey 2, which finished in 10th place last week)...however, that film opened in just 382 theaters, so that's actually not bad.  Not great, but not bad.  Jeff, Who Lives at Home, this weekend's other limited new release, underwhelmed with just $840,000 in 254 theaters.

Next week should see some box office craziness as the long-awaited adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel The Hunger Games takes over theaters.

Our Prayers Answered: Leprechaun Remake In Development

Of all the crap Jennifer Aniston has starred in (AKA: her latest excuse to whine about Brad Pitt to celebrity gossip leaches), funny to think Leprechaun is the one she hates to talk about. For all I know maybe it was a terrible experience, or maybe she's the snobby type and looks down on the early work that kept the lights to her house on. I don't know. At least they supplied Warwick Davis a steady paycheck for a decade.

That's all in the past as Variety reports a remake of Leprechaun is in the works. No other details were available (filmmakers, casting, etc.) beside it being a co-production between Lionsgate and WWE Studios. Yes, the wrestling studio.

How long do you give it till the Internet starts fan-casting Peter Dinklage?