Tue, January 4, 2011 
I saw Spidey kissing Gwen Stacy, a couple weeks following Christmas eve...
So my parody of 'Mommy Kissing Santa' is horrendous but that shouldn't scare you away from the sweet kiss waiting to happen in the picture above. Looks like Peter is trying to get fresh with Gwen during school hours. I wonder if that blue book bag is carrying the web slinger's outfit?
Head over to Superherohype for a few more photos from the set.
Tue, January 4, 2011 
Right before we all left to get shit-faced on eggnog with our families and remind ourselves why we only see these people once, maybe twice, a year, Heat Vision said it was down between Breck Eisner and McG to direct Ouija for Universal.
Now we're back from the holidays and a few days in 2011, and it's over. McG has been declared victorious in his battle for directorial supremacy, as per "TOLDJA" with negotiations soon to be hammered out.
The film written by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis of Tron: Legacy infamy has a November 12, 2012 release and being eyed by Universal as a four-quadrant event film. Production is expected to start this summer.
Tue, January 4, 2011 
X-Men: First Class is well underway. Little information has leaked out at this point about the film besides cast members and images of the 'Blackbird' jet crash site.
Thanks to the Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex we get some insight from January Jones on what it's been like to portray the diamond studded mutant, Emma Watson.
“Emma was a bespectacled, mousy child who had this power when she was young that she couldn’t quite harness, the telepathy, the mind-twisting stuff,” Jones said. “She had a falling out with her father and went her own direction.”
It wasn’t just learning Emma’s back-story that was important to Jones, but being able to reach hard-core fans. “Fans of the X-Men comics have a very set idea of these characters in their heads,” Jones said. “I wanted to know as much as I could about her so I wasn’t disappointing anyone. I’m sure I will still disappoint someone.”
If her attire under that large white coat resembles anything of what her comic counterpart wears, I don't think fans will be disappointed in the least.
January also discusses how her character on AMC's Mad Men differs from the White Queen, despite the time periods being very similar.
You can read the entire article here.
Tue, January 4, 2011 
Ever hear of a film project more than 50 years in the making? Read on and I'll explain. TOLDJA! is reporting Universal Pictures has purchased the film rights to Laura Hillenbrand's new bestselling book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Hillenbrand is the author of Seabiscuit, which Universal adapted into a major motion picture back in 2003, and well, you're well aware of the critical and commercial success that followed. Sounds like they're gunning for the same scenario here. They've got Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, the upcoming Water for Elephants) attached to direct and are hoping to get Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) to write the script.
Unbroken centers on the true story of Louis Zamperini, a one time Olympic track prodigy who endured tremendous hardship as a POW during WWII. His story [via TOLDAJA!]:
Hillenbrand's Random House book, currently number 2 on The New York Times bestseller list, fleshes out Zamperini's survival story in remarkable detail. As a youth, Zamperini transformed from a Depression Era troublemaker into the “Torrance tornado,” a world class runner who became the youngest American to compete on the U.S. team. He ran in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and though he didn’t medal, Zamperini ran a final lap so fast that Adolph Hitler asked to meet him. Expected to mature into gold medal form--and a threat to break the 4-minute mile--by the 1940 games set for Tokyo, Zamperini 's dreams were dashed by WWII. By the time he crossed the Pacific en route to Japan, Zamperini was an Air Force bombardier. After emerging unscathed after several dangerous bombing runs, Zamperini crashed in the Pacific while on a rescue mission. Most of their crew-mates dead, Zamperini and two others floated in a raft for 47 days. After surviving hunger, thirst and incessant shark attacks in a raft that drifted 2000 miles, Zamperini was caught by the Japanese Navy and then the hardship really began. First dispatched to a hellhole called Execution Island (named because Japanese guards routinely beheaded prisoners), Zamperini's Olympic feats got him transferred to another POW camp where he could have lived in relative comfort. But when he refused to read anti-American propaganda statements over the radio, Zamperini was sent to serve hard time. Starved, subjected to medical experiments, slave labor, and brutal beatings by guards, Zamperini was specifically targeted by a sadistic overseer named Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Called “The Bird" by the POWs, Watanabe made it his mission to break Zamperini’s spirit with brutal beatings and mental and physical torture. Zamperini would not break, but the guard kept trying right up until the war ended and the war criminal slipped away and eluded manhunts. The Bird lived on in Zamperini’s nightmares, though. After once waking to discover he was choking his terrified wife, Zamperini was convinced his freedom depended on returning to Japan to kill his tormenter. On the verge of divorce, alcoholism and a total breakdown, Zamperini discovered another way. Dragged by his wife to a tent where Billy Graham preached, Zamperini embraced his message and decided to forgive all of his captors. The nightmares ceased. Zamperini even traveled to Japan and met most of the guards to forgive them in person. When The Bird finally resurfaced, Zamperini returned to Japan and prepared to meet and forgive him, too. Watanabe refused, but Zamperini outlived The Bird, who died in 2003.
Universal originally bought the writes to Zamperini's life back in 1957, however, efforts to get the film made remained idle until 1998. That year, during a segment broadcast on CBS for the Nagano Winter Olympics, Zamperini carried the Olympic torch, striking interest in his story yet again. Nicolas Cage was in talks to star along with Anoine Fuqua to direct, but the project yet again fell through.
Now, Universal once again has the film on the fast track, with a seven-figure deal to get the movie made under the guidance of Hillenbrand's bestseller. We'll see if they finally succeed in bringing this amazing man's story to life.
Tue, January 4, 2011 
Only four days into 2011, and we at TMT were nerdy enough to think up some predictions. We're putting everything on the line here (which, of course, is nothing) and make our big bold assessments of what will go down in moviedom. Right or wrong (Knowing us, the latter), here are some of the never-so-humble correspondents (three Movie Moaners – Phil, Queen Kristina & Jamie) with their stupid ass predictions.
Phil: Cars 2 becomes the first Pixar film I give a 3 out of 5 rating. I promise I will be honest when the film comes out but this one just does not look substantial in any way. There appears to be no message here, no theme, no real story. It's a spy movie. With cars. I'm sure it will be fun but no more than a solid DreamWorks movie. And let's be honest, if the last trailer were for a film by any other studio than Pixar, we would be pissing all over it. Cars 2 will be passable. Quote me on this people.
Kristina: Inception won't win Best Picture, but it will win more Academy Awards than any other film come Oscar night. It's shaping up to be a "Share the Wealth" Oscar night, since there isn't a Return of the King behemoth this go around. The acting awards are going to get split up between films like Black Swan and The King's Speech, which leaves everything else open for Inception to take. Original Screenplay and Score are pretty much a foregone conclusion unless some major shenanigans occur, and it should clean up in the technical awards. Wally Pfister, Inception's cinematographer, is a favorite of the Academy, having been nominated three times the past for and could possibly win. I'm looking for a minimum of four wins.
Jamie: This guy will be a finalist for Zack Snyder's Superman.
Kristina: Sucker Punch will tank. Hard. Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim, here we come again, baby. I see no possibly of this crossing over into the mainstream. Geeks will adore it. General audiences will ignore it. Much fanboy weeping will be heard online as Jamie and I cackle in the corner at the continuing disconnect between us nerds and everyone else.
Phil: The "Best Comic Book Movie of the Summer" award will go to Captain America. Bear in mind that my opinion has changed on this several times. I used to think Thor was clearly going to be the superior film. Until I saw the footage. I used to think Green Lantern was in a great place because I love Martin Campbell as a director. Until I saw the footage. I refuse to believe X-Men: First Class will be worth a damn because I've been burned by 20th Century Fox before. The reason I'm starting to get really excited about Captain America is because we've not seen very much. The costume looks great. The director is solid. The Red Skull is Hugo friggin Weaving and the idea of a Marvel movie set entirely in WWII has me salivating - praying that it isn't just a two hour prequel to The Avengers. I just sense a confidence in this production that I don't see with the others. It just looks far more fun and has a better story. Cap is the last comic book movie event of the summer out of the gate and he will be the best. Quote me on this people.
Jamie: Ghostbusters 3. It's gonna happen. This time it won't be Dan Aykroyd or Harold Ramis talking to thin air for the trillionth time. No, Sony will finally greenlight it, and by this fall, if not the very end of 2011, cameras will roll twenty-two years after we last saw Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston. And we'll all sigh inside. I'm sorry, but I just can't muster up much enthusiasm. The best time to revisit this property would have been back around the end of the 1990s. But 80s nostalgia is still hot with sequels or reboots of our childhood favorites being churned out, and Ghostbusters is the last of the big ones untouched. Until now.
Tue, January 4, 2011 courtesy of Cinema Blend we have the new and surprisingly hilarious red band trailer for one of the two "fuck friends/ friends with benefits" movies coming out next year. The other being Friends With Benefits starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake being released July 22, which had their equally hilarious red band trailer back in November. But No Strings Attached will beat them to the punch at the box office anyways with a January 21st release date.
As much of a turd as we all know Ashton Kutcher is, he "might" have delivered an actual comedic performance free of his regular half ass douche bag attempt at acting. Then there's Natalie Portman which regardless of what she's in or what she's doing I know could easily stand to stare at her for the better part of two hours any time. That and what we see of her in the trailer looked hysterical. “You look like a pumpkin, bitch.”
Here's the official synopsis:
In this comedy, Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep their relationship strictly “no strings attached.” “No strings” means no jealousy, no expectations, no fighting, no flowers, no baby voices. It means they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever public place they want, as long as they don’t fall in love. The questions become – Can you have sex without love getting in the way? And can their friendship survive?
Tue, January 4, 2011 IGN has released an all new red band trailer for Jason Statham's new action thriller The Mechanic. Although the plot looks extremely predictable and un-original like almost everything Statham stars in, it also looks down right awesome and bad ass as fuck like most of his work tends to be as well.
The official synopsis is as follows:
Mon, January 3, 2011 
Is there anything this guy can't do? Not only is James Franco currently busy preparing to win an Oscar for 127 Hours (Sorry Colin Firth, but I refuse to give any kudos to another critically acclaimed, yet boring British film i.e. The Queen, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and the list goes on) while readying to host the awards show on February 27th, but he's also lining up two feature directorial efforts.
Showbiz 411 is reporting that Franco is in negotiations to direct an adaptation of the William Faulkner 's literary classic, As I Lay Dying, a film which Franco wrote the screenplay for. Along with this, Franco is also working to adapt the Cormac McCarthy novel, Blood Meridian, a project he would both write and direct as well. The article also makes note that Franco is doing all this while taking classes at Yale University and Rhode Island School of Design.
James, it's a shame more people in Hollywood aren't as ambitious as you *cough* Will Smith *cough*.
Below is a synopsis for both novels [via Amazon]:
One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying was originally published in 1930, and remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, it vividly brings to life Faulkner’s imaginary South, one of the great invented landscapes in all of literature, and is replete with the poignant, impoverished, violent, and hypnotically fascinating characters that were his trademark.
An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America’s westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the “wild west.” Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennessean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.
Mon, January 3, 2011 
Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1. Little Fockers - $26.3 million
2. True Grit - $24.5 million
3. Tron Legacy - $18.3 million
4. Yogi Bear - $13 million
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader - $10.5 million
6. Tangled - $10 million
7. The Fighter - $10 million
8. Gulliver's Travels - $9.1 million
9. Black Swan - $8.4 million
10. The King's Speech - $7.6 million
The box office race was looking tight over the first weekend of 2011, and while the Fockers' reign of terror was allowed to continue with a first-place finish, it was True Grit that came out looking great.
Little Fockers dropped a mere 14% from its first-place opening and did cross the $100 million mark this weekend, which is certainly good...if you ignore that the previous film in the series did it four days faster and had already grossed $162 million at this same point in its box office run in 2004. The film is certainly a hit, but it's clear that the audience interest is starting to wane on this popular dysfunctional family comedy.
The remake of True Grit had a terrific weekend, grossing $24.5 million for a total (so far) of $86.8 million, making it not only the Coen Brothers biggest hit, but the most successful Western since Tombstone in 1993. With Oscar season in full swing, expect this to continue to play well for the next few weeks.
Speaking of Oscar season, a few more of the awards hopefuls took respectable places on the list, with The King's Speech making its top ten debut with $7.6 million. Budgeted at reported $15 million, the film has already grossed $22 million in just 700 theaters nationwide. Black Swan and The Fighter continued their own successful runs with $8.4 and $10 million respectively.
It was a holiday week, so lots of family movies in the top 10 as well, although most of them not very good, and with the exception of Disney's Tangled, not very successful either. Yogi Bear and Gulliver's Travels are officially duds, while the latest Narnia film held surprisingly steady with $10.5 million, although it still lags behind the franchise's biggest hit, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Tron Legacy got a lot of help from 3D/IMAX ticket sales this weekend, earning $18.3 million. Better enjoy that now - two more weeks and The Green Hornet is taking over those screens.
Next week sees the official start of the January doldrums, with the much-delayed Season of the Witch and Gwyneth Paltrow-goes-country Country Strong opening in theaters.
Mon, January 3, 2011 
When you walk away with dignity intact from a crap like Tron: Legacy, you must be OK. And it isn't just because she has a pretty face. No, Olivia Wilde was the only actor to muster up a good performance in the awfully-unnecessary (key words: awful and unnecessary) Tron sequel. Bridges was...Bridges, and Hedlund was "Eh" although not an acting vacuum like some argued.
2011 should open the doors further out for the House, M.D. alum. Everyone knows she's got Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens (It's going to be a surprise hit, I tells ya) and The Change-Up. But the big one for me is Andrew Niccol's Now, one of the few 2011 flicks I'm anticipating.
Risky Business says she's been added to the roster for Alex Kurtzman's directorial debut, Welcome to People. The films centers on a guy (Chris Pine) who has to deliver $150,000 from his dead father's estate to an older sister (Elizabeth Banks) and nephew he never knew existed. Wilde will play Pine's girlfriend.
Filming is expected to start up later this month in Los Angeles.
