Another "X-Men: First Class" International Poster

X-Men: First Class charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

Weekend Box Office: May 6-8

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Thor - $66 milion

2.  Fast Five - $32.5 million

3.  Jumping the Broom - $13.7 million

4.  Something Borrowed - $13.1 million

5.  Rio - $8.2 million

6.  Water For Elephants - $5.6 million

7.  Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family - $3.9 million

8.  Prom - $2.4 million

9.  Soul Surfer - $2.1 mllion

10.  Hoodwinked Too!  Hood vs. Evil: $1.8 million

So I guess this bodes well for The Avengers next summer, as long as the movies stay as good as this one was.  Thor kicked off the summer movie season with $66 million - not exactly record-breaking, hell, not even close to Fast Five's $86 million last weekend, but for a lesser-known comic book character from the Marvel universe, it's still pretty damn good.  With virtually no competition next weekend (Priest?  I don't think so), it should continue to play well until Pirates 4 and Hangover 2 invade theaters later this month.

Fast Five's fanbase appeared to get it all out of their system last weekend, with the film hitting the brakes and dropping 62% to finish the weekend with $32.5.  Granted, it did lose its IMAX theaters to Thor, but that's still a steep drop.  Doesn't matter though, the movie has already grossed $324 million worldwide and a sixth entry in the franchise is already in the works.

As with 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this weekend also demonstrated once again that if you open a superhero movie starring a hot Australian actor, women really won't care too much about the obligatory counter-programming romantic comedies opening the same weekend.  Both films proved no match for Chris Hemsworth's abs this weekend, with Jumping the Broom's $13.7 million edging out Something Borrowed's $13.1 million.  Water for Elephants also continues to stick around with another $5.6 million this weekend.  Next weekend brings us Bridesmaids...and the less said about that one, probably the better.

Well, that officially opens the summer movie race.  I really enjoyed Thor (even with the crappy 3D), so I'm even more psyched about the rest of this summer's movies now.  Let's hope this promises some even better weekends to come.

New "The Art Of Getting By" Poster

I believe this flick was actually filmed before "Scream 4", Emma Roberts of course starring in both movies. Emma is kind of at a crossroads in her career right now. She is trying to stay away from the safe roles and breakout of being typecast as the one step away from the "Oh look it's Nancy Drew" auroa she has surrounding her. Poster and synopsis below.

THE ART OF GETTING BY stars Freddie Highmore as George, a lonely and fatalistic teen who's made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, who is befriended by Sally, a beautiful and complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit.

Check out the movie June 17th 2011. Also starring Michael Angarano, Sam Robards, and with Blair Underwood & Rita Wilson. Written and Directed by Gavin Wiesen. Presented by Fox Searchlight.

Magnolia Pictures Acquires World Rights to "Jack & Diane"

The Wagner/Cuban Company's Magnolia Pictures announced today that it has acquired world rights to JACK AND DIANE, a beautifully dark and twisted tale of young love starring Juno Temple (Atonement), Riley Keough (The Runaways), pop icon Kylie Minogue, and Cara Seymour (An Education). The film, which is currently in post-production, was written, directed and produced by Bradley Rust Gray (The Exploding Girl). It was also produced by Jen Gatien, So Yong Kim and Karin Chien, and is expected to be completed this fall.
 
Magnolia International is launching sales at this year’s Cannes market. International sales will be handled by Laird Adamson.
 
Jack and Diane are two teenage girls who meet in New York City and spend the night kissing ferociously, quickly striking up a passionate love affair. But when Jack discovers that Diane is leaving the country in a week, she tries to push her away. Diane struggles to keep their love alive while hiding the secret that her newly awakened sexual desire is giving her monster-like visions.  JACK AND DIANE also stars Dane DeHaan (“True Blood”), Michael Chernus (Love and Other Drugs) and Lou Taylor Pucci (Carriers). The film features animation from the Brothers Quay, and creature effects by Gabe Bartalos (Cremaster 2 and 4).
 
“Bradley Rust Gray has brought together a stellar cast to tell this wildly original love story that blew us away,” said Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn. “He has a wholly unique vision and we can’t wait to see this exciting project brought to fruition.”
 
“JACK AND DIANE has been a long labor of love, sweat, blood and tears, and I couldn't be more thrilled to find a home with Magnolia,” said director Bradley Rust Gray. “I'm a huge fan of the kind of bold, risk-taking cinema that Magnolia releases, and I'm excited to work with them to reach the largest audience possible.
 
The film was brought in to Magnolia by Director of Acquisitions Peter Van Steemburg, and the deal was negotiated by Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn with Jen Gatien. 

"HappyThankYouMorePlease" DVD & Blu-Ray June 21st

Can anyone ever find the right balance of romance, happiness and clarity? On June 21, Anchor Bay Films answers the question with happythankyoumoreplease on Blu-ray™ and DVD – a sharp comedy about a group of 20-something New Yorkers struggling to figure out themselves, their lives and their loves. Written, directed and starring Josh Radnor (CBS’s Emmy-nominated® “How I Met Your Mother”), the film charmed critics and will be available on Blu-ray™ for an SRP of $39.99 and DVD for an SRP of $29.98, with special features
 
On his way to meeting his publisher, aspiring novelist Sam Wexler (Josh Radnor) meets Rasheen, a young boy separated from his family on the subway. When Rasheen refuses to be left alone with social services, Sam learns the boy has already been in six previous homes and impulsively agrees to let the boy stay with him for a couple days. Dropped into Sam’s chaotic, bachelor lifestyle, Rasheen is introduced to Sam’s circle of friends: Annie (Malin Akerman, The Proposal) who has a habit of dating the wrong men, but finds a promising new suitor (Toney Hale, “Arrested Development”), Mary-Catherine (Zoe Kazan, Revolutionary Road) and Charlie (Pablo Schreiber, “The Wire”) whose potential move to Los Angeles threatens their relationship, and Mississippi (Kate Mara, 127 Hours), an ambitious singer/waitress who tests Sam’s fear of commitment. As Sam’s friendship with Rasheen develops, he realizes that adulthood is not about waiting for the right answers, but simply stumbling ahead and figuring them out in the process.
 
With a brilliant young cast and a soundtrack featuring one of the brightest indie musicians on the scene today, Jaymay, happythankyoumoreplease deftly captures the uncertainty and angst of what it is to be young, vulnerable, and desperate to find out who you are - or perhaps more importantly, who you want to be.
 
The happythankyoumoreplease Blu-ray™ and DVD include the following special features:
•      Audio Commentary with Producer/Writer/Director/Actor Josh Radnor and Producer Jesse Hara
•      happythankyoumoremusicplease – featuring singer-songwriter Jaymay
•      Deleted Scenes
•      Theatrical Trailer

Spielberg's Lincoln Casting Up – Both in Quantity & Quality

And to think I was worried Steven Spielberg's Lincoln was cresting.

THR says the Beard is arranging quite the gun-show of characters-actors for this period piece epic with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role and Sally Field as his wife.

The newbies to the cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln, the only child of the President's to make it into adulthood and Tommy Lee Jones as Republican congressman Thaddeus Stevens who helped considerably in the legislation for the Civil War. Those two are only ones with specified roles, at the moment. The others are *deep breath* Joseph Cross (Milk), John Hawkes (recent Oscar nominee for Winter's Bone), Hal Holbrook (most recently Into the Wild and just showed up in Water for Elephants), Bruce McGill (D-Day in Animal House among many other roles over the years), Tim Blake Nelson (you kids know known him best for his "Sequel set-up" role in The Incredible Hulk) and James Spader (from Boston Legal with William Shatner, duh!)

Beyond how great this cast is coming together, things are looking especially up for Levitt - explains why he's not showing up for G.I. Joe 2: Cobra Strikes.

Dark Tower Ain’t Looking So Hot

If making three Lord of the Rings movies with a massive budget, done entirely in New Zealand with an acclaimed filmmaker known for no-budget cult fare at the helm and a cast filled with character-actors and unknowns is understandably considered a risk (and that was a widely-known and beloved book trilogy), then Universal and Ron Howard's intentions for The Dark Tower could be deemed down-right suicidal.

Doing a film trilogy and two limited-run television series from the Stephen King books was always too ambitious of a plan for my money, and the studio is starting to get cold feet reports Variety.

Word is executives are expected to meet in the next couple of days to make a call: either stay the course and continue on their original plans, keep the property there but make drastic calls like possibly killing the television component or just making one movie or throw it into turnaround (aka kill it, and let the filmmakers/production company, this in case Howard and partner Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment, take it elsewhere to other hopeful buyers).

Let's put it this way, when a "safe bet" for Universal is making a Jason Bourne movie with the character's name flashed all over the title but he’s not actually in it, then you know where something like Dark Tower stands there. My guess is they let it go, and in the event of a rival studio grabs it ASAP, their game plan gets changed big time.

Colombiana Trailer Blasts It's Way Online!

Luc Besson does love producing mid-budget action flicks, here he takes the sultry and attitude laden Zoe Saldana and plugs her into a reworking of the tried and tested assassin revenge flick, which is fair enough since he is one of it's pioneers with the classic 'Leon'.

Saldana looks a little lightweight to be a world class muderlizer but she shows plenty of edge in this trailer. It's formulaic stuff and none of the action in here really jumps out as jaw dropping (although I do like the look of the jail cell assassination), however hot girl + big guns will no doubt put some cheeks in seats when this hits in September.

Anyone In the Mood For a Twins Sequel?

In addition to Three Men & a Linda Hunt, I'd also like to see a reboot of Twins where the mother literally gives birth to Danny De Vito and Arnold Schwarzenegger as they physically are right now. Tracy Morgan would play the doctor delivering them and he’d say something like, "Damn! That va-jay-jay is torn. UP!"

So, Arnold is serious about getting back into movies. I say, "Rock on!" but per cautiously as a fan. The notion of a "Getting the old gang back together" angle for Terminator 5 is genius when you think about it (and no, I don't believe its director Justin Lin has "debunked" anything – news flash, filmmakers, actors, etc. lie when info leaks!) and I like that he's taking on Cry Macho as Vulture says for his first post-Gubernatorial starring role.

But as my opening, tasteless joke suggests, there appears to be interest in also having all the guys back in one movie for a Twins sequel as What's Playing reports:

"A Twins sequel. Knowing Arnold, Danny De Vito and Ivan Reitman are all still in touch and want to work together again, Universal came to them about it. It’s a germ of an idea that could spread fast."

This feels like some consolation prize for Reitman since Ghostbusters 3 will likely never happen. Thank God.

X-Men: First Class "Character Trailers" Showcases Banshee, Havok & Clark Kent

When Bryan Singer said a couple of weeks back he'd cast "someone like Nicholas Hoult" as a young Superman/Clark Kent were he to make a Superman movie today (and having never hypothetically made the underrated Superman Returns), it's crystal clear why he made such a statement.

MTV has three brand-new "Character Trailers" for X-Men: First Class which are more like TV spots focused on three freshman recruits Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), Havok (Lucas Till) and the afore-mentioned Hoult as young Hank McCoy.

They're all quite good. I especially liked the one with Havok. But boy, can't you just sense the uneasiness with the marketing with all these damn trailers, one-sheets, banners, etc. I don't remember anyway near the level of these when X-Men: The Last Stand or Wolverine were about to open.