Of Course Jane Goldman Is Writing X-Men: Second Class

When Matthew Vaughn signs on to direct anything, it's a given his writing partner-in-crime/BFF Jane Goldman is tagging along. Those two are practically joined at the hip. It's cute really.

So when Vaughn agreed to return for the X-Men: First Class sequel, you knew we'd hear of Goldman returning. Only a matter of time before him, Goldman herself or some press release (When Fox was ready to present their game strategy) confirmed the inevitable. In this case, straight from Goldman speaking to Hey U Guys:

Guess that means Simon Kinberg completed his contractual duties and it's in the hands of Vaughn, Goldman and Bryan Singer?

No idea when to expect Second Class. Word was Fox was eying to get it ready for 2013. Then they turned around and set the Wolverine sequel for next July. Filming is supposed to start this fall but mum's been the word on how things are going along and we're almost into the summer. In the event that hits another snap (Altogether possible; not definite) wouldn't be the most unusual thing to see Fox fast-track this to fill an empty slot.

Men in Black 3 Theme Song Has Distinct Non-Will Smith Rap Sound

During his early days dominating the known-world, Will Smith sang in a theme song to whatever 4^th of July blockbuster loaded with ILM effects and one-liners opening that particular year. Take the title of the movie and its director helm the music video, and they were pretty catchy-tunes. So Big Willie would not only eat up the box-office charts but the Billboard Hot 100 too. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Smith continues to be the biggest star in cinemas.

But he's waned off that since Men in Black 2 and ten years on as Men in Black 3 ramps up for Memorial Day comes the surprising news he won’t return to the recording booth. He's too busy getting his kids to take his place when he ascends into the Heavens. Here's the theme song called "Back in Time" from Pitbull, courtesy of Soundcloud:

Oh and FYI, MIB 3 tested last week and surprisingly it killed. Guess we should never underestimate the power of Will Smith and summer tentpoles.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part II Teaser Is Just That; A Tease

Don't know how the rest of you $155 million shelling The Hunger Games attendees reacted to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part II teaser. General indifference on my end. Not due to any hatred for the books, film adaptations or Stephenie Meyer. Didn't care for the hook – Vampire Bella, red eyes, pale skin and all, hunting a deer in the woods.

It's brief and shorter than expected (Merely 48 seconds). But that's the whole point of a teaser trailer after all.

Weekend Box Office: March 23 - 25

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Hunger Games - $155 million

2.  21 Jump Street - $21.3 million

3.  The Lorax - $13.1 million

4.  John Carter - $5 million

5.  Act of Valor - $2 million

6.  Project X - $1.95 million

7.  A Thousand Words - $1.92 million

8.  October Baby - $1.7 million

9.  Safe House - $1.4 million

10.  Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - $1.3 million

So, let's just recap how many records that The Hunger Games broke with its estimated $155 million opening this weekend:

• Third-highest opening weekend of all time being Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II and The Dark Knight, and it's the highest-ever for a non-sequel
• Highest-ever opening weekend for a non-summer release, beating Alice in Wonderland's $116 million
• Its $19.7 million in midnight screenings ranks just ahead of The Dark Knight's $18.5 million for seventh-best midnight opening ever.
• It's opening day total of $68 million is the best ever for a non-sequel, and the fifth-highest opening day of all time.

So wow, it made a lot of money.  Bring on Catching Fire!

As far as the other films clamoring for attention this weekend, 21 Jump Street held up well with $21.3 million.  The Lorax continued to be the family destination as that earned a still-strong $13.1 million, although The Hunger Games will race past it as 2012's highest-grosser this week.  Poor John Carter was barely noticed this weekend, earning just $5 million.  It's $62.3 million domestic total is less than what The Hunger Games made in just one day.  Ouch. 

Next weekend, Hunger Games will relinquish its IMAX screens to Wrath of the Titans.  It will also face competition from the first of this year's two Snow White movies, Mirror Mirror.  Also opening in theater is the should-not-be-R-rated Bully.  That one definitely sounds worth checking out.

These Guys Want to go 'Back to the Future'

Another year, another talk about a potential resurrection of the Back to the Future franchise.

This story comes from Moviehole on the heels of Deadline's report that writer/director duo Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have inked a two-year production deal over at Universal.

For those of you unfamilar with their work, they're the guys that brought those Academy Award winning Harold & Kumar movies to life while also bringing back the beloved American Pie cast for next month's American Reunion.

In a recent interview regarding their new contract, the two "average at best" writers/directors spoke about their hopes to bring back another beloved, though "slightly" more important Universal franchise:

“We want Back to the Future, just come out and say it”, Hurwitz nudges Scholssberg into admitting. “That’s our favourite trilogy. We’re always having this conversation…”

Before getting all bent out of shape about this story, the two are quick to point out that any trip down a Back to the Future lane likely won't be in the cards for a while:

“I wouldn’t want to do it now because people would be like, “Oh, there’s no way it will be as good as the original.” But 30 years from now when Spielberg’s like 90 and those guys are kind of on their way out, and those movies just look really old because we’re watching movies that are old, literally in two dimensions or something, it would be great to have all these classics that you’re able to remake.”

While they do state they'd prefer to go the route of sequel (like that's so much better for an iconic franchise), they admit it'll likely be remade for the simple reason of well...time.

“I personally would far rather a sequel, unless it’s something that is so old that the general movie going public hasn’t really seen the movie, and then you could consider it a reboot”, says Schlossberg.

“The problem is [the sequel is set in] 2015, that’s why I feel it is inevitably going to be remade because it is dependent on time periods that people won’t connect with. It’s the perfect movie to remake, but it’s so loved by a generation that is still with it and going to be with it.”

There's a great line in the new 21 Jump Street remake (go figure) where the police captain basically goes tongue in cheek when he talks about the resurrection of an old 80s police program:

"Due to a chronic lack of originality — the powers that be simply revive old crap from the ‘80s and hope no one notices."

Couldn't be any more true.

The Lizard (Still) Looks Terrible

This answers the "Bullshit or not?" query posed a few months back. New image, intended as wall-paper, from Trends International confirms that's how the Lizard looks in The Amazing Spider-Man.

The go-to scripted reaction is to say we need proper context within the narrative of the film to understand. But no it still looks bad. This is supposed to be the Lizard and not a humanoid, reptilian creature. FYI anyone complaining about his not wearing a lab-coat and pants is an idiot. Ignore those people, and the updated Spidey suit looks fine.

WB Plays Musical Chairs with Summer 2013 Slate

It's that special time of year, boys and girls. A few months before summer kicks off, and in traditional fashion, studios are playing chess with their release schedules for the following year. Up to the batter's plate first is Warner Brothers.

The studio has effectively called for a four-quad battle royale next Memorial Day weekend. Rare these days since studios tend to scratch each other's backs. The Hangover Part III will wake up in a daze from another booze, drug and transgendered fueled rumpus on May 24, 2013 against The Fast & The Furious 6. Fellas, there may be a lot of Wolfpack love but you're just asking for Vin Diesel and Paul Walker to metaphorically run your asses over in their newest, slick car if you plan to stick to that date. You'll do fine. But it's your funeral.

300: The Battle of Artemisia or whatever it's going to be called (The press release merely called it "the 300 sequel") storms theaters on August 2, 2013. We can make fun of 300 all we want but WB continues to make oodles from the Zack Snyder film, and clearly there's a taste for more given the "300 clone" marketing made Immortals a surprise hit last November.

But here is the shocker. Pacific Rim, originally announced for July 12 then moved up to May 10, has now gone right back to its initial July 12 post. Why is that surprising? The similar-themed Steven Spielberg-directed Robopocalypse is set for release on July 3. Clearly WB/Legendary wanted to beat them to the punch going so far up into early summer. Going right back to your original date says to me the Spielberg film might be delayed and/or the studio is just that confident. Or dumb.

Colleague/buddy put it best. "After riding the success of Potter and Nolan this past decade, they're due for a bad year."

Film Review: The Trouble With Bliss

Essentially, this is another middle-aged-guy-in-a-rut story, but it's not bad. Based on the novel East 5th Bliss by Douglas Light, Michael C. Hall stars as Morris Bliss, a 35-year-old still living in his childhood bedroom in his father's apartment on New York's Lower East Side. The centerpiece of his bedroom is a map covered with pushpins of all the cities of the world he wants to visit but will likely never travel to. He has no job, he's entirely dependent on his father (Peter Fonda) - who he still refers to as "Daddy" - and doesn't seem of have a single aspiration to be anything but the loser he appears to be. Even the 18-year-old high schooler he's dating (Brie Larson) wasn't by his own doing - she was the one who picked him up.

However, it's the midlife crisises of everyone around him: the best friend (Chris Messina) who's always inventing stories about being involved with international drug cartels, the sexually frustrated neighbor (Lucy Liu), the loser high school buddy (Brad William Henke) wanting to re-live their adolescent troublemaking glory who also happens to be the father of Morris' teenage girlfriend, that ultimately teach him how to break out of his perpetual rut and finally grow up.

I'm not sure how much you're supposed to like the other characters. The girlfriend was a brat (and, well, a teenager), the neighbor was clearly using him, the high school buddies were losers. There's also a strange subplot about a woman moonlighting as a homeless squatter that didn't quite feel like it belonged with the rest of the story. The combination of all of them left Morris surrounded by people who were more lost than he was and he was just finally realizing it.

Directed by Michael Knowles, The Trouble With Bliss doesn't really tread new ground storywise, but the performances were decent enough, particularly Hall's, especially as he starts becoming a participant in the world he's living in. His reaction just to seeing a local supermarket he'd never been to before was hilarious. Larson's teenage girlfriend has a few good moments as well, although the movie seems to go out of it's way to remind the audience that she is 18 and that their relationship isn't as creepy as it sounds.

At its heart, the film is simply about a guy trying to get his act together, and it mostly works, even if it's a story we've heard before. Again, it's really worth it for Michael C. Hall's performance.

The Trouble With Bliss opens in New York and On Demand on March 23, and additional cities nationwide starting March 30.

Cosmopolis Teaser

Sex and violence with the dude from Twlight taking on a Patrick Bateman type role. Directed by David Cronenberg so don't expect a happy ending but do expect some uncomfortable imagery and weirdness.

Jean Valjean or the Unabomber? First "Les Miserables" Set Photos Surface

Musicals generally have this reputation as being light and cheery entertainment (at least if you're into musicals), but anyone who's seen Les Miserables on stage - and more than 60 million people have - can tell you Les Miz was never one of those kind of shows.  It was always quite the tearjerker.  Yet, it was amazing enough that I've seen the stage version nine times and would see it again in a heartbeat.

The movie version of Les Miserables is finally underway, and judging from this rather frightening set photo of Hugh Jackman in full Jean Valjean costume, it looks like they're starting it at the beginning of the story, which opens with Valjean being released on parole after spending 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread:

Yikes.  But that would be what 19 years on a chain gang will do to a person.

And this photo, also courtesy of In Case You Didn't Know, may just look like a yawning old guy to those unfamiliar to the musical, but Les Miz fans would recognize him away as Colm Wilkinson, who played Jean Valjean in the original London and Broadway stage productions (just listen to this if you're still confused).  Wilkinson will be appearing in the film as the Bishop of Digne.

So cool.  I still can't believe they're finally making this into a movie.  Hopefully we'll get some pictures of Russell Crowe as Javert soon too.

Les Miserables is set to open in theaters in December.