R.I.P. Tony Scott

In this day and age of Internet death hoaxes (a few instantly spring to mind), I speak for most when I confess my hope of this being another example of someone's tasteless joke. Sadly not the case here.

Tony Scott, director of such classic action films as Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop 2, The Last Boy Scout, Man on Fire and True Romance to name a few, has passed away. The British helmer climbed the Vincent Thomas Bridge in California and jumped "without hesitation," reports The Wrap. Authorities found a suicide note inside Scott's vehicle parked not-too-far from the scene.

In the coming days if not hours, more details surrounding Scott (Possibly related to health issues?) will come forth. For now, our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

"Paranormal Activity 4" Clip Maybe Borrows a Bit From "The Ring"?

Remember in 2002's The Ring, how, in the week in between watching the freaky videotape and being killed by a little ghost girl who climbs through their TV screen, that one of the things that happened to the victims was that all of their pictures turned out creepy, like their faces had been (and most likely were) squashed by someone using Photoshop?

This new clip from Paranormal Activity 4 seems to borrow a page from that, although I hope that's not a big thing in the new film, since that's obviously been done before.  But it does look like we're seeing a bit more of little Hunter, who went missing at the end of Paranormal Activity 2:

Babysitting that kid must be no fun at all.  Paranormal Activity 4 opens in theaters this October.

Weekend Box Office: August 17-19

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Expendables 2 - $28.7 million

2.  The Bourne Legacy - $17 million

3.  ParaNorman - $14 million

4.  The Campaign - $13.3 million

5.  Sparkle - $12 million

6.  The Dark Knight Rises - $11.1 million

7.  The Odd Life of Timothy Green - $10.9 million

8.  Hope Springs - $9.1 million

9.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - $3.8 million

10.  Total Recall - $3.5 million

I'll refrain from an Ah-nuld style "I'm back!" here, since, although The Expendables 2 opened in first place with an estimated $28.7 million, that a not-so-good 21% drop from the $34.8 million the first film opened with in 2010.  There are a few factors figuring into this lower-than-expected opening:  a movie theater chain was hit by a couple of bomb scares this weekend, and while those turned out be false alarms, it was not encouraging news for audiences who are reportedly still leery about returning to the multiplex after the tragedy in Aurora. 

Or it could just be that they weren't as interested in seeing another Expendables movie, with is the most likely culprit here.  Time will tell if we'll get to see an Expendables 3.

The Bourne Legacy has finally caught up to the opening weekend of the last Bourne film, with its $17 million weekend bringing its domestic total up to $69 million, a 55% drop from last weekend. 

The animated ParaNorman opened with an ok $14 million, as the creepy kid's film likely scared off the youngest audience - when I saw Brave earlier this summer, the ParaNorman trailer seemed to terrify half of the little ones in the theater. 

Another release, a remake of Sparkle, starring American Idol's Jordin Sparks, and of course, the late Whitney Houston didn't bring too many fans, earning just $12 million.

The biggest disappointment of the weekend was The Odd Life of Timothy Green, which has only earned $15.1 million since opening last Wednesday.

Finally, the milestone of the weekend goes to The Dark Knight Rises, which passed the $400 million mark domestically this weekend, pushing it past The Hunger Games to become the second-highest grossing film of the year.  Worldwide, the movie has earned $897 million.

Next weekend sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an embattled bike messenger in Premium Rush, as well as the road-trip comedy Hit & Run, and one of those dumped-at-the-end of the summer horror films, The Apparition.

L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - First Look

Making an independent grass roots films is never easy, especially when you are tackling material from the sci fi or fantasy genre, but writer Sean Gates and director Clayton Spinney have done just that with great results.

Below you can get a first look at their adaption of the L. Frank Baum classic with two clips that show how well they've captured the different tones of Dorothy's adventure in OZ.

Check out more on the movie at the official website - http://www.independentstoriesinc.com/WonderfulWizard.htm

Batman Maybe - Another "Call Me Maybe" Parody

There have been so many parodies of Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe that I completely l lost count. This isn't even the first Batman related pardoy of the mega hit song, but it is indeed the funniest. I think the original version of the song is damn catchy but this Batman version might take the cake.

Hey, when I met you, you were crazy. You drove a Tumbler, through Gotham City...I know you're Batman, so stop being lazy...

Heat Vision

The Avengers 2 Assembling May 1, 2015

Last week Disney/Marvel announced Joss Whedon was returning for The Avengers 2.

My pal Rob Keyes and I bantered back and forth on Twitter (where else?) about the release date. May 2015 made sense. Then the studio powerhouses made their intentions clearer. They were staying in the Whedon business signing the writer/producer/director exclusively where he would supervise a live-action Marvel television series on ABC and run his pen through Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy if need be. All the while, he preps that Avengers sequel. A deal that would ultimately expire June 2015.

This afternoon, the official release date for The Avengers 2 was announced. May 1, 2015. Score one for Occam's razor.

The Last Stand Trailer Makes Good Use of Aged Arnold Schwarzenegger

It is a run-of-the-mill actioner, right down to Johnny Knoxville as the comic relief. But The Last Stand was always going to make or break on the ability of Arnold Schwarzenegger to acknowledge he isn't as fast and as strong as he used to be. Something clearly void from The Expendables catalogue.

There are some truly unflattering shots, including one shameless posted above. Can imagine online memes from freeze frames will make their way shortly. Seeing Arnold, in his mid-60s, still at it and not pretending to be The Terminator or Commando anymore, is refreshing.

New "Paranormal Activity 4" Clip

The marketing machine for the next Paranormal Activity movie is in full gear, and their official Facebook page has just dropped one of their usual WTF clips from the upcoming fourth film.  Titled "It Has Begun", the clip is a quick one, but from what we can see, it appears little Hunter has clearly been up to no good since leaving town with his possessed Aunt Katie at the end of Parnormal Activity 2:

As folks who remember the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 all too well, there's no telling if anything we're seeing here will actually show up in the final film.  Regardless, it's looking good so far.

Paranormal Activity 4 opens in theaters in October.

"Raiders" in IMAX? Yes, Please!

Well, doesn't that liven up the IMAX offerings for September?  The New York Times is reporting that Raiders of the Lost Ark, will be receiving a one-week release at IMAX theaters nationwide, starting on September 7. 

This special IMAX release of 1981's original (and arguably the best) Indiana Jones adventure is, of course, to promote Indiana Jones: The Complete Aventures, the blu-ray box set of all four Indy moves that arrives in stores on September 18.  Honestly, Raiders is still such a great movie that it hardly needs an excuse to come back to theaters any time it wants to.  And that truck chase scene in IMAX?  That's gonna be great.

Fans worried about any changes being made to the original film can rest easy.  Raiders director Steven Spielberg, who oversaw the IMAX conversion along with sound designer Ben Burtt, promises that no 'Greedo-shoots-first'-type changes have been made to the original film, although certain sound effects have been fine tuned so things like that giant boulder nearly rolling over Indy will sound much more awesome with surround sound.  That I can deal with.

Now, there are no plans to bring any of the other Indiana Jones movies to the IMAX, which is fine, especially with a fancy new blu-ray set just around the corner.  But with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial prepping for its own blu-ray release in October, wouldn't it be great to get an IMAX version of that too?  Just sayin'.

UPDATE!  We now have a trailer:

International Trailer for Looper

In Looper, time travel will be invented, but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a "looper", a hired gun, like Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self (Willis) for assassination.

Opening in theaters on September 28, the film stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo and Jeff Daniels. Directed by Rian Johnson.