Weekend Box Office: August 6-8

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Other Guys - $35.6 million

2.  Inception - $18.6 million

3.  Step Up 3D - $15.5 million

4.  Salt - $11.1 million

5.  Dinner for Schmucks - $10.5 million

6.  Despicable Me - $9.4 million

7.  Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore - $6.9 million

8.  Charlie St. Cloud - $4.7 million

9.  Toy Story 3 - $3 million

10.  The Kids Are All Right - $2.6 million

HBO's Entourage Coming To a Close

As someone who's been a fan of Entourage from the start I have to admit even I've been disappointed in this season and the one before. But I'm not sure I expected the announcement of the end so soon. I obviously knew it was coming sooner or later, but now it's finally official, as of next summer the show will have concluded come the end of the eighth season.

One thing we may still be able to keep our hopes up for though is the possibility of an Entourage movie. Executive Producer Mark Wahlberg has previously hinted to a film in interviews. Apparently the shows creator Doug Ellin has the same plan, and it may be sooner then you thought.

"[Creator Doug Ellin] is appropriately reserving -- he wants to write a film, but wants to do it when the story will make sense. He's pitched other shows to us. I will expect that within the next couple of years [he'll have another show on HBO]. But 'Entourage' next summer will definitely be the final season."

I'm definitely down for movie to end the series, but are there enough fans left at this point let alone two years from now when the film would likely start production. If they don't end this season better off then it started and really bring it come next season, we more then likely won't see a theatrical release or we'll get something similar to Sex and the City 2, as in the core fans of the franchise hated it.

Tony SCOTT TAKES ON MILLARS NEMESIS

It had to happen sooner or later, one of the Scott brothers gets on the comic book movie bandwagon. Interestingly Tony Scott is rumoured to be in the running to direct the Wolverine sequel, whether this puts pay to that possibility is unknown. TOLDJA! got the lowdown.

20^th Century Fox has acquired screen rights to the Mark Millar/Steven McNiven  graphic novel Nemesis. Tony Scott is attached to direct and Scott Free will produce.

The graphic novel was written by Millar, whose Wanted and Kick-Ass creations were turned into films, and whose Marvel Comics titles include the revamped X-Men, the Avengers series The Ultimates, and Civil War, the latter of which is DC Comics Superman: Red Son. Nemesis was published in March by Marvel’s Icon Comics imprint. McNiven is the artist behind Civil War and other collaborations with Millar.

Nemesis focuses on Matt Anderson, a billionaire genius who’s the world’s greatest fighter. bent on avenging the death of his beloved parents. The twist is, they were villains and he is also a bad guy, a costumed vigilante who travels the world, picking off top cops. He returns to D.C. to launch a campaign of terror against Blake Morrow, the police chief who captured the caped vigilante’s parents.

Scott Free will set a writer and work on the adaptation. Deal comes as Scott preps the release of the Denzel Washington-Chris Pine drama Unstoppable. He is deciding on his next project, between Potzdamer Platz, Hell’s Angels and The Associate. Mickey Rourke is attached to both Potzdamer Platz and Hell’s Angels, while Shia LaBeouf is attached to The Associate and is the choice to join Rourke in Hell’s Angels. The property was repped by CAA and  Harris Miller.

Basically the premise is "What if Batman was evil" and it sounds/looks awesome in my view, however I have mixed feelings over Millars mature work, I found "Wanted" a soulless and repugnant book but enjoyed the movie, and while I never read "Kick Ass" I thought the movie was excellent.

I am a fan of Tony Scott and the project seems right up his alley, however looking at the synopsis I think it will be important that the Blake Morrow character is equally as strong as the Nemesis. My interest is certainly piqued and I'll be following the progress of this and picking up the Nemesis trade in September.

New Trailer " I Spit On Your Grave"

The first official trailer for Anchor Bay films horror remake of the controversial 1979 cult classic I Spit On Your Grave is now online via Yahoo!Movies.

The film stars Sarah Butler, Rodney Eastman, Jeff Branson, Daniel Franzese, Chad Lindberg, and Andrew Howard, and it opens in theaters everywhere October 8, 2010.

Writer Jennifer Hills takes a retreat from the city to a charming cabin in the woods to start on her next book. But Jennifer’s presence in the small town attracts the attention of a few morally deprived locals who set out one night to teach this city girl a lesson. They break into her cabin to scare her. However, what starts out as terrifying acts of humiliation and intimidation, quickly and uncontrollably escalates into a night of physical abuse and torturous assault. But before they can kill her, Jennifer sacrifices her broken and beaten body to a raging river that washes her away. As time passes, the men slowly stop searching for her body and try to go back to life as usual. But that isn’t about to happen. Against all odds, Jennifer Hills survived her ordeal. Now, with hell bent vengeance, Jennifer’s sole purpose is to turn the tables on these animals and to inflict upon them every horrifying and torturous moment they carried out on her… only much, much worse. 

I can honestly say that I'm finally jumping on the bandwagon with those of you who are sick of remakes, particularly in the horror genre. Not that this looks awful, but did it really warrant a remake? I'm willing to give it a shot, but at the same time it doesn't look any different from any other horror film as of recently, remakes included.

Hide Your Hamsters!

Now this is some awesome news for V fans.  Zap2it is reporting that Jane Badler will be joining the cast of V for its second season.  As most of us who grew up spending a good chunk of the 1980s terrified of her recall, Badler played Diana, the evil rodent-snacking leader of the Visitors in the original miniseries.

Rumors had swirled following Comic-Con last month after V executive producer Scott Rosenbaum let slip that Anna's mother "Diana" would be joining the show next season that Badler would again reprise the role.

This new incarnation of Diana will appear in a recurring role as the mother of the show's current Visitor-bitch-in-charge, Anna, played with wonderful evilness by Morena Baccarin.  Badler will make her debut in the season premiere, according to TV Guide, when we learn that Anna has been keeping her mother prisoner in a section of the mothership that's been designed as a replica of the Visitors' home planet.

I think this could be a really good boost for V.  I was a huge fan of the original series and thought the early episodes of the reboot showed a lot of promise to be even better.  Unfortunately during the second half of the season it seemed be turning ino just a generic action show.  Plus it had way too much of whiny Tyler, the teenage son of Elizabeth Mitchell's character.

However, the season finale ended with a quite a few interesting twists for the main characters and an enraged Anna unleashing what looked like a full-scale Visitor invasion after her nest of Visitor babies were blown up by the resistance.  That was cool.  Plus Morena Baccarin is one of the best parts of the show, and seeing her get to play off the original most-evil Visitor has the potential to be amazing.

The only thing missing now is a Marc Singer cameo.

Spider-Man Versus the Jew-Hunter?

Can’t be the best feeling in the world to know your tombstone will read "The Jew-Hunter." Granted, that was a one-in-a-lifetime kind of role and the film itself was quite stupendous in its own right. It’s miles above the alternative "Villain from Green Hornet" written instead too.

So how could Christoph Waltz possibly top Inglorious Basterds? He can't. But if he did being the heavy in a Spider-Man movie could come plenty damn close.

Production Weekly (via The Playlist) says Sony has their watchful eye on the German actor for Marc Webb's 3D reboot. He has a pre-established working relationship with the studio (in the afore-mentioned Green Hornet) and, the Oscar-winner has probably been offered every villain role in town. Whether this amounts to more than just interest on their part remains to be seen – I myself seriously doubt it.

Tron: The Social Network

If you remember or if you happened to miss it the other day I posted a hilarious mock up trailer for Harold and Kumar with the score for Inception, it was epic. Now courtesy of our pal Ross we have another one of his awesome trailer re-makes. This time around it's the Tron Trailer mixed with the Social Network score and dialogue. Although it's not as hilariously funny, it still quite entertaining and fun to see how dead on it works. At any rate I'm that much more excited for both films now.

Tron Legacy opens December 17, 2010 and The Social Network Opens October 1, 2010.

Ving Rhames Returns for Mission: Impossible 4

Ving Rhames appeared on Lopez Tonight (as per Coming Soon) to pimp Piranha 3D. When the subject of Mission: Impossible 4 arose, he confirmed he'll be back for this fourth Brad Bird-directed, J.J. Abrams-produced installment.

This revelation was something all of us were expecting. It's certainly news-worthy to bring up, but then again we knew it was coming. Rhames is the only adherence to continuity tying the M:I flicks together besides Tom Cruise. Simon Pegg is expected to return as well.

Rhames not showing up would be like a Bond movie without M.

Marvel & Jon Favreau Won't Be Exchanging Christmas Cards

This is serious, people! They've blocked each other from Twitter and stopped being Facebook friends!

In a very good post over at Cinema Blend, they paint a grim picture of the working relationship between Marvel and director Jon Favreau (whose Iron Man single-handedly started the studio's boom). The results of which involve the two never working together again.

Favs seemed like the most logical choice to bring Earth's Mightiest Heroes together and by all accounts very much wanted the job. But after those intense negotiations to helm the fast-tracked Shellhead sequel, Marvel threw up their hands and metaphorically said, "If this dude thinks he’s doing The Avengers after this shit, fuck him!" Hence the drastically-cheaper (yet 100% Grade-A Fanboy-approved) Joss Whedon was hired instead.

The House of Ideas is also said to be responsible for the "subtle" Avengers references in Iron Man 2. You know like stopping the movie cold just to slap Captain America's shield onscreen. I know this sounds more blame-gamey, but I can't imagine anyone thinking Favs and his stock-company cooked up those ideas. Even Shellhead himself Robert Downey Jr. appears to be exiting the Marvel branch after this contractual commitments are made with The Avengers and a third solo Iron Man.

Funny how the tides turn like the snap of a finger. Fanboys were nerdgasming at the prospects of Marvel developing one big cinematic universe ever since that Nick Fury cameo at the end of Iron Man. Those same fans are getting increasingly iffy given the final product in Iron Man 2 and God knows how Thor and Captain America will turn out.

Tom Cruise Takes Paycut for M:I 4 - A Nation Mourns

I thought people were done this "Tom Cruise is over!" crap? Yes, Knight & Day under-performed on our shores. Those who are continuously harping on that need to get their heads outta their asses and aim their guns at Fox's shitty marketing on the spy action/comedy and less on Cruise. Look at its overseas numbers – they’re good as everyone expected them to be. Oy vey.

Adding diesel to that never-ending fire is a new report from Vulture.

According to their spies, Paramount (already counting their eggs) is hedging their bets on Cruise's bankability for Mission: Impossible 4. As a means for the studio to tighten their belts, Cruise will receive substantially fewer bucks upfront (the original reporting said he’s being paid scale versus his reps who say it’s not that low) with "a nice back-end after cash break-even."

What does this mean for you and me? Dick. The best us regular schmoes will get is another kick-ass Impossible installment (produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Brad Bird for a December 16, 2011 release) and Cruise will still be a rich-guy laughing it up eating his caviar out of his wife's ass while sailing in one of his dozen or so yachts.