Mon, January 11, 2010 
Weekend Actuals Jan 8th - Jan 10th
1 Avatar $50,306,217
2 Sherlock Holmes $16,585,327
3 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel $16,566,489
4 Daybreakers $15,146,692
5 It's Complicated $11,007,875
6 Leap Year $9,202,815
7 The Blind Side $7,531,467
8 Up in the Air $7,159,294
9 Youth in Revolt $6,888,334
10 The Princess and the Frog $4,651,156
Sun, January 10, 2010 I want to start by thanking all our readers. We couldn't have gotten this far without you. I know this sounds like a goodbye but it isn't, it's more like, "I'll see you later." Jamie Williams and myself have been asked to join another website as contributors and have jumped at the chance. You can now read our articles over at IESB. Jamie and I will continue to aggravate fanboys and irritate studios with our ranting and raving on the latest news the movie and television world has to offer.
What does this mean for TMT? It is staying right where it is. Rob Hunter, who you are all familiar with will continue to run the site. We have hired a new writer named Matt Fry who will act as Rob's right hand man. Pretty soon there will be additional writers and when Rob and Matt get together on how they want to proceed going forward you'll experience a new and fresh TMT. Phil Gee will to continue write his weekly Memo To the Executives articles but will join Jamie on Movie Moan which is also moving to IESB. Don't worry, Ed and Lou will also continue their appearances on Movie Moan, but a new podcast will be up and running on TMT shortly
Jamie and I still own and operate TMT, so business will continue as usual on the site. Change is good and many times it is for the better. We hope that our loyal readers will continue to come to TMT and also check in on how Jamie and I are doing over at IESB.
Thanks again for your support.
Sun, January 10, 2010 
As you can defer from the title, there was plenty of sequel news. So the guys from Movie Moan (Phil, Ed, Lou and Jamie) have enough to fill an hour’s worth of podcasting with. But more important than anything came the A-Team trailer being leaked. If you listened to the last podcast, Phil predicted he would nerdgasm over said trailer once it was released. So, did he? Listen to this week’s show to find out.
Sam Mendes is announced to direct the next James Bond movie (or merely consulting depending on whom you heard it from). Cut to another nerdgasm from Phil. Shit it’s been one Helluva week of that for our favorite British gentleman agent, huh? Spider-Man 4 is officially delayed, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides frustrations (read: no James Woods!) and Blake Lively joining Green Lantern are also discussed.
Plus the latest updates on Star Trek 2, Wolverine 2, G.I. Joe 2 and the Sherlock Holmes sequel. All of that as well as the gang bitches about Clint Eastwood – well mostly Jamie.
Sun, January 10, 2010 
On the heels of the news that "Green Lantern" has finally received the greenlight from The Brothers Warner comes the first casting announcement since Ryan Reynolds. According to Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision director Martin Campbell and the studio has decided on their leading lady, Carol Ferris. Taking on the role will be the young and sultry Blake Lively of "Gossip Girl" and "Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants" fame.
Give credit to the boys over at Latino Review for first mentioning Lively's name among a list of 5 candidates. According to Latino Review the 4 other candidates were; Evan Green, Kerri Russell, Diane Kruger, and Jennifer Garner. My first choice would have been Kerri Russell, she has the looks and the acting chops. You may remember she was in line to play Lois Lane before Kevin Spacey threw around some influence with Bryan Singer to cast Kate Bosworth.
Warner Bros seems to be leaning towards hiring younger actresses in their superhero flicks most likely gearing towards these movies becoming a flull fledged franchise. They hired a young Katie Holmes to take on the roll of or Rachel Dawes in "Batman Begins". This move didn't pan out well as she was replaced in "The Dark Knight" with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Then there was Kate Bosworth cast as Lois Lane for "Superman Returns". Many thought she came off as too young and well, where is the sequel?
Let's hope that Blake Lively works out better than the above actresses. It all comes down to chemistry with the lead and maybe she had the best chemistry with Reynolds. Don't forget the director factor, the studios aren't the only ones casting these roles of course. There is a lot riding on "Green Lantern" for Warner Bros and DC Comics, it is their first venture outside Batman and Superman, and for the future of their major characters they need to nail it.
Sat, January 9, 2010 
Leave it to the slick and ever so suave Hugh Jackman to reveal the shooting schedule to "Wolverine 2" while backstage at the 2010 People's Choice Awards. According to Jackman, he'll be shooting Shawn Levy's"Real Steel" this Summer and then next on the schedule will be "Wolverine 2"
"Wolverine's going to be back. He's going to Japan. We shoot that probably in a year, year-and-a-half, something like that."
With a shooting schedule set for 2011 it is pretty safe to say that we'll be attending theaters to see "Wolverine 2" Summer of 2012. I actually liked the first and am looking forward to a follow up. The movie was a popcorn film plain and simple and I hope for more of the same in the 2nd one.
It is amazing that Jackman is now approaching his 5th appearance as the character of Wolverine officially passing Christopher Reeve who made 4 appearances as Superman on film. What is even more amazing is the man has not been typecast as the character. That is most likely due to the fact that he is multi-talented. Singing, dancing, acting, the whole bit.
Fri, January 8, 2010 
Captain's Log: Stardate 01082010.
News has reached our base (via Coming Soon) on just when we can expect the Star Trek sequel. The highly anticipated follow-up to last summer's J.J. Abrams-helmed reboot will beam onto the silver screens June 29, 2012.
Details for the most part remain under lock and key. The only other thing we definitively know is the return of screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Also the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise including the new Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and the rest will seek out new life and new civilizations once again. Thank you very much multiple-picture contracts.
Some might be surprised by this latest development. Before Trek was even released, Paramount went ahead and penciled in a summer 2011 release. But as the year rolled on and all we kept hearing from Kurtzman and Orci was them still throwing around ideas, it became crystal clear that the next installment would instead hit cinemas for summer 2012. If you'll remember, we at TMT previously speculated about this development back in October. So we can honestly say we're not surprised by this news-item. At all.
Nonetheless, it's great to see that things are slowly but surely moving forward on the Star Trek sequel.
Fri, January 8, 2010 
Because they love you people, our heroes at Movie Moan (Phil, Ed, Lou and Jamie) went ahead and recorded a bonus podcast. Long story short, there was plenty more topics to discuss. But being the genius he is (in his own mind), Jamie decided to do a separate edition right then and there. So here we are.
It's a special look-back at 2009 - the news-items that made the year. Everyone would agree (probaby) that Disney buying Marvel was the story of 2009. There was the infamous Wolverine work-print leak and the Academy Award hosting duties on star Hugh Jackman. The Terminator franchise was put down to sleep concurrently with the re-birth of Star Trek with the J.J. Abrams-helmed reboot. Not to mention, there was the great surprise of District 9 and the situations with Spider-Man 4 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Note: This was recorded before the updates on both tentpoles earlier this week).
All of that and our heroes make their bold (i.e. stupid and will 99.999999% not happen) predictions for 2010. Jamie pegs Inglorious Basterds to win "Best Picture" and "Best Director" at the Oscars. Lou thinks Avatar and James Cameron won't be nominated in either category. Meanwhile, everyone's favorite British gentleman agent decrees Prince of Persia will be this year's G.I. Joe.
Fri, January 8, 2010 
The trailer for the "The A-Team" is now online courtesy of Film Stage. Enjoy it below.
A-Team Trailer - TheFilmStage.com from Clive Owen on Vimeo.
Not to be outdone, Yahoo Movies has debuted the trailer for the much anticipated "Kick-Ass".
Fri, January 8, 2010 
AAARRRRRRRRRRR!
That was my initial reaction after seeing all three ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films. The only difference is that I walked out of the first movie with an ‘arrr’ of pirate glee and the ‘arrr’ for the other two was a cry of agony.
We can hypothesize all we want about why Pirates 2 & 3 sucked (and there were many reasons) but the bottom line is that a franchise based on a flipping theme park ride lost all sense of fun, burying itself in its unbelievably convoluted plotting. My investment, such as it is, in a forth (and positively final) instalment is purely based on a love of the pirate world and the desire to see the series end on a, if not high, then at the very least redeeming note after the debacle of the third film.
The good thing about launching into a fourth is that the groundwork has been laid and the basic story has been set up. There is a magic treasure to find and you just need to have Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbossa and a really cool new villain all opposing each other and sailing round the world looking for it. The film needs to be a tight, lightning paced film under two hours in length, to make up for the obscene running times of the first three. There needs to be a lot of action and the set pieces need to take themselves away from the farcical tone of ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ and the computer generated overload of ‘At World’s End’ (actually there was barely any action in that film). To be honest, I wasn’t even crazy about the action in the first film. I’ve seen great swordfights and great pirate ship battles, both of which I go crazy for, and POTC has been severely lacking in both.
I will never forget how ripped off I felt as the third act of Pirates 3 unfolded. I saw the shots in the trailer of the two huge armadas of ships ready to face off against each other. I expected, nay demanded, the ‘Return of the Jedi’ of pirate ship battles. After all, the trilogy had pilfered so much else from the Star Wars movies by that point it just seemed logical. If Pirates 3 were able to use its $300 million dollars to show us the largest, most awesome sea battle ever seen on the screen I could easily forgive its shortcomings (I gladly admit to ‘Cutthroat Island’ being a guilty pleasure of mine because the big pirate ship battle is so great). But that didn’t happen. With the entire pirate brotherhood and the British colonial forces ready to face off, the fate of the Caribbean rests on two ships having a piddling sword fight in a bit of bad weather, and when that’s over the British just retreat and the pirates cheer. The fearsome pirate lords from the four corners of the Earth who our heroes spent the last two fucking hours bringing together to stand their ground and fight their oppressors, stand on the sidelines and do absolutely nothing. What a fucking waste.
Another criminal waste in Pirates 3 was Chow Yun Fat. They actually created a really cool, loathsome, irredeemably evil pirate villain and then just threw him away. The whole crux of that film is the pirate legions amassing together for a final no-hold barred battle and the one cast member who we actually want to see kick some ass gets killed an hour beforehand, and not even by a physical opponent but by cannon fire and a sharp piece of wood. Not only did we lose the opportunity to see Chow Yun Fat fighting in the finale but if they’d let him survive right to the end he could have easily been the main antagonist in Pirates 4. Imagine Sparrow vs. Barbossa vs. Chow Yun Fat and a crew of ninja pirates?
So since we can’t have that, we need something as cool. We need James Woods.
Yes you heard me right. You can’t just have any actor facing off against Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush. You need someone who has expert training in being awesomely villainous. An actor who can hit his marks. An actor who has never sucked, even in bad films. The Sylvester Stallone action film ‘The Specialist’ is a terrible movie but worth watching just for Woods giving every ounce of his energy to the part of the villain. So many actors who end up playing bad guy roles in blockbusters base their performance on the Alan Rickman/Hans Gruber school of villainy, trying to portray an antagonist so charismatic that you almost want to root for them to win. The problem is that most of them end up being so charming that they lose any shred of menace. Geoffrey Rush’s portrayal of Barbossa very cleverly dances back and forth across that line but never goes off the edge. Meanwhile, James Woods is smart enough to take the opposite route and just play the biggest asshole in the world. That’s the Pirates 4 villain that you need; someone you’ll love to hate.
I know what you’re thinking but the only reason you can’t visualise Woods as a pirate is because he’s never played a role this abnormal before (in live action I mean, I know he played Hades in animated form) but if you give him a great costume and make-up, plus a beard perhaps, then it’s going to be glorious. It is true also that the new villains will need some kind of gimmick. We’ve had skeleton pirates and anemone pirates so we’re running out of angles. Honestly, I think Woods’ crew should just be a batch of filthy pirates. I mean pirates by their very nature are filthy but these guys should be the most disgustingly dirty and ugly bunch of guys ever seen on the screen, literally repulsive to look at. They should make Mackenzie Crook’s character look like toothpaste. They should be regular human beings but just so thoroughly unclean that they transcend any hobo or comic book dealer you have ever met in real life.
But enough about the new villains; what are they chasing? The end of Pirates 3 suggests that the treasure to be chased is none other than the fountain of youth though only Jack Sparrow has the map which will lead to it. I think that’s as good a MacGuffin as any. The plot of Pirates 4 needs to be simple as hell so they can concentrate on the fun and action. That is not to say that it shouldn’t be about something. If I could sift through the heaps of bullshit in Pirates 3, it was essentially about the remaining pirate dynasty fighting a desperate battle to preserve their way of life against the changing tide of progress threatening to crush them. It is a theme worth continuing. Though the pirates have temporarily postponed their extinction, their time will not last. Jack Sparrow in particular is a character whose defining attribute in all three films has been his attempt to cheat the reaper; to escape his own mortality.
What might make that interesting is rather than the film taking place right after Pirates 3, it actually fast forwards a good ten to twenty years later. This would accomplish several things. Firstly, it’s unexpected. Secondly, it purposely gives the film a different look from the identikit trilogy. Thirdly, it provides a potency to the characters quest for the fountain of youth being that they are all old guys now, their best days are behind them and practically all of their brethren have passed on. The film would start with exactly the same scene that Pirates 3 ends on; with Jack Sparrow alone in his tiny little boat but old and haggard and twenty years on, still searching for the key to eternal life, completely obsessed.
Of course that poses the question which everyone is asking right now; is Johnny Depp coming back? As we know, the recent departure of Dick Cook from Disney (the man who persuaded the actor to play a pirate in the first place) seems to be giving Depp serious pause for thought. I cannot answer the question whether he will return but I can tell you something. Johnny Depp is replaceable. He is, no doubt, the one measure of comfort which will allow Disney to spend another $200 million dollars on this franchise, safe in the knowledge that they will get it back and some change. You could even argue that, though the words were on the page, he literally created the character of Jack Sparrow. But that doesn’t mean he is the one and only actor who can play it. James Bond is a bit of a blank sheet until the actor comes along and infuses his own personality into it. Sometimes it works and, you may argue sometimes it doesn’t but Bond is still here. People weren’t protesting outside cinemas because Sean Connery stopped playing him. It is only hard to visualise another actor playing Sparrow because they haven’t. Is it so hard to imagine another talented and versatile actor, not only taking the role, but infusing it with their own style and making it their own?
Is it too hard to imagine James Marsden with a beard, dreadlocks and a pirate hat?
Disney had better seriously consider it. The fact that Pirates 4 just pounced on the May 20th 2011 release date vacated by ‘The Mighty Thor’ this week seems to indicate that the project is very much moving forward. I really do hope this isn’t going to be another film rushed to completion by a pre-imposed release date; a film that starts filming without a finished script and makes stuff up as they go along. A film that needs to pay platinum overtime to the visual effects artists just to get it finished on schedule. That’s exactly what you did last time Disney. It made a billion dollars but it was a horrific mess. If you’re going to make Pirates 4 you need to prove you still have brain cells. You have a talented director. You need a finished script, a solid cast, location scouting and Depp needs to make his mind up if he’s on board or not, and all this needs to be done.............NOW.
....Although I think I’ve proven over the last few paragraphs that they shouldn’t hire me as a casting director. See you next time.
Fri, January 8, 2010 
Not necessarily breaking news to anybody with a brain stem, but James Cameron and the studio wants to work on an "Avatar" sequel. Why wouldn't you want to get a sequel out to a film that has made over a billion dollars world wide in less than a month? Call me crazy but that sounds like good business. It's even more full proof of a venture than greenlighting a Batman 3. I'm sure Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov are waiting in a room with a giant replica of Big Ben right now just waiting for their bat phone replica to ring, "Alan, Jeff, this is Chris Nolan...I'm ready."
James Cameron and a couple of his whiz special effects artists took part in a Q&A at the Arclight Theater in Hollywood last night. A loyal Aint It Cool News reader sent in the following scoop to the powers that be at the website.
Don't know if this is newsworthy, but I just saw a Variety Screening Series showing of Avatar at the Arclight theater in Hollywood tonight, followed with a Q&A with James Cameron and two of his visual effects artists. One of the artists mentioned that they'll never again do this for the first time, meaning that everything they did in the making of Avatar was just a lot of instinctive grasping in the dark. Cameron agreed with him. He also told him to expect the studio to want another one, as they'd passed the billion $ mark. A second film will be easier, as the technology now exists, thanks to the movie. The moderator asked if there *would* be an Avatar sequel. To which Cameron answered that the plan had always been to make a trilogy of films. Finally, Cameron actually said it: "Yes, there'll be another."
So there you have it, the big wigs at the studio and Cameron are thinking sequel. Natural progression. The question is will it really happen? Sometimes things get in the way, other projects, money, actors availability. Thoughts?