Now You See Me... Now How About a Sequel?

One of the unsung success stories of this summer was Now You See Me, the magician-caper from director Louis Leterrier and featuring the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Marc Ruffalo among others. Opening to a surprisingly strong near-$30 million, it did the unthinkable among Event-Status films during this time of year. It sustained strong legs stateside and its over-performance against low expectations are benefiting overseas where it's making a killing.

And because the mantra of showbiz is "Give me one of those," even Lionsgate, the studio behind the popular hit, aren't above sequelizing what was intended to be a one-and-done.

CEO Jon Feltheimer announced plans for a sequel are underway with a "penciled in" start-date sometime next year. No word on if a screenwriter has been commissioned or the return status of its star-cast (Guessing they didn't sign multi-picture deals) and director Leterrier.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Behind-the-Scenes Videos Taken on the Transformers 4 Set

"HEY MARK!"

Knowing the stories I've heard at some point after that (admittedly not well shot) video was taken, Mark Wahlberg probably went over to those folks wanting to catch a glimpse at the Transformers 4 action, signed autographs and struck up some conversations. That's the kind of guy he is.

Below are a couple of different videos taken on the Detroit set, courtesy of Coming Soon.

New The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Image

Via Entertainment Weekly is this good look at Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug shooting the shit over a mountain.

I bet my mad-libbing what they're saying is more interesting than the actual dialogue. Probably talking about how not-awesome Smaug looked in the last trailer.

No, Really They're Making a Chicken Soup for the Soul Film

Alcon Entertainment is making a feature-length theatrical production of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Yes, based on those books they keep pilling up at your local book-store. The studio has assigned Brandon Camp (Love Happens) to write the screenplay, said to be based on several of the books.

Not much to add here. Well, it will probably be done in a style similar to What to Expect When You're Expecting (not coincidentally also produced by Alcon), your mom can't wait to see it and it still makes more business sense for Alcon than doing a sequel to Blade Runner.

Paramount Pressing Their Luck - Releasing Two Paranormal Activity Films in 2014

It is supposed to be a joke. But it happens to be true. If you put any Black or Latino family in a Haunted House movie, it would be the shortest horror film ever made. Ten minutes tops. Family moves in, spooky shit starts happening, family leaves. The End.

Why do you think it's always us white families in these movies? We're too stupid to see the obvious; something the filmmakers behind The Conjuring happened to get around, to their credit. Paramount figures its time to show that all races can be as stupid as white people in horror movies.

The studio will release the Latino-themed spinoff Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones for January 3, 2014. In laments terms, they're throwing out something cheap that will break big bank (mostly on opening day) because we'll be sick of seeing Anchorman 2 and Saving Mr. Banks for the fourth time and want something new. That's what January has turned into in recent years. It will be followed by Paranormal Activity 5 October 24, 2014.

Really pressing your luck there, Paramount, and we all remember how that last film wasn't well received.

Tarsem Singh Directing Sci-Fi Thriller The Panopticon

If there is one thing guaranteed about Tarsem Singh, his films, at the very least, will look great. The quality of the finish product has certainly been back-and-forth (Gotta be honest, mostly crap) but the man will keep us coming back to see just what he has cooked up in that head of his, and the blood, sweat and tears he puts into it to make it happen.

The Wrap reports Singh has already settled on his next feature, as he's in pre-production on another (The Ryan Reynolds-headlining Selfless). He'll bring his visual gravitas to The Panopticon, based on a script by Craig Rosenberg. The story concerns a man receiving a mysterious package that includes a pre-recorded message from himself, warning of the apocalypse and how he must stop it.

Hugh Grant Joins The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Yes, That's Still Happening; Stop Asking!

Hugh Grant will stammer between words in his typical charmingly British way in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., for director Guy Ritchie and stars Henry Cavill, taking a breather from the red-and-blue suit, and Armie Hammer. He'll play the the head of British Naval Intelligence.

I would say this is a terrible idea and complete waste of your currency, Warner Brothers. Retro-themed properties geared at our parents worked so well for Dark Shadows and The Lone Ranger (and this film version of the 60s era television show is actually set in the 60s - Oh brother...) But hey, it isn't my money. Piss it away however you want...

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Ang Lee to Direct 3D 60s-70s Era Boxing Epic

It seems that it's all about the challenge for Ang Lee. That's what drives him. You can see it in the work.

Make a movie about an angry green monster but do it as a deep, intimate story of fathers and sons but keep the "comic-book" elements with lots of panels? Hey, there’s a first time for everything, right? Tell a love-story between two sheep-herders in the 1960s, oh and they both happen to be guys? Why not? Take a long-perceived "unfilmable" children's book where the lead character spends most of the time in a boat in the middle of the ocean with a tiger as his only companion? And while we’re at it, let's shoot it be 3D for kicks. I'm already there, bro.

So how about a 3D boxing movie?

That's the plan, reports "TOLDJA." The three-time Oscar-winner (fresh off his most recent awards-victory for the gorgeous Life of Pi) will once again push himself with 3D technology chronicling the boxing world during the 60s and 70s, including Thrilla In Manila, the iconic showdown between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Ideas like this and people like Lee are why we get excited about the cinema.

Trailer for George Clooney's The Monuments Men

"Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action-thriller focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners.  It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed?  But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements."

Disney/Bruckheimer Marriage Tipping Closer to Divorce

"The nature of the film business is that success is a rarity. Failure is the norm. And if you want to be in the movie business, you have to be able to overcome the occasional flop."

That was the late producer David Brown in the terrific documentary Final Cut: The Making & Unmaking of Heaven's Gate (You can watch it here). Thirty-three years on, the after-effects of Michael Cimino's western are still felt. In the face of an overwhelming financial disaster, the studio executives responsible for their own flop-in-the-making no doubt think to themselves, "Oh God, this can't be another Heaven's Gate." Translation: a flop so big it brings down their company along with their jobs and, worst of all, their reputations.

Disney is going through similar woes right now. While the results are nowhere in the stratosphere as United Artists (Their pockets are too deep and their asses are covered thanks to their ownership of Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm), a major casualty is coming from the commercial catastrophe of The Lone Ranger. The Wrap reports the studio is reassessing their current-standing deal (and working relationship as a whole) with producer Jerry Bruckheimer for Pirates of the Caribbean 5.

How severe? Enough for Disney to relinquish final cut authority from their longtime hit-maker and trimming the budget on the Pirates sequel (set for release July 2015) from a reported $250 million closer to $200 million. A task they tried to avoid a few years upon initially pulling the plug on The Lone Ranger. A problem they thought they avoided upon agreeing to a tighter budget under the supervision of Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski. Only to see it all go up in smoke once production got underway.

Disney took a bath here to the tune of nearly $200 million as revealed yesterday, and someone has to pay. It won't be Johnny Depp (Too deep with the studio with not just Pirates 5 but Alice in Wonderland 2 and Into the Woods) and director Verbinski is already damaged. Bruckheimer is taking the hit here. And while nobody is saying it, the writing is on the wall. If Disney is making their one-time biggest asset hand over final cut, it's the beginning of the end. They're going to split up.