The cast is starting to come together for the first Star Wars Anthology film, Rogue One. The Oscar winner will join the previously announced Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler), Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games), and Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises).
Rogue One will be a Star Wars-style heist film detailing the heist of the plans to the original Death Star that leads into Episode IV. It will be dorected by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla)
Jurassic World surprised everyone this weekend. Not by leading the box office, which was a given, but by how dominantly it did so. The fourth entry in the franchise raked in $204.6 million in North America over the weekend, making it the second biggest opening of all time behind The Avengers. But its per theater average of $47.8k is just slightly better than The Avengers opening average.
Jurassic World also took in $307.2 million at the international box office easily giving it the biggest global opening of all time at $511.8 million, making it the first movie to ever open with over $500 million worldwide. If there were any doubts that Guardians of the Galaxy may have been a fluke for Chris Pratt, this will confirm that he’s a star.
See how the also-rans made out this weekend at Box Office Mojo.
$205 million opening weekend? Wow. Good for Chris Pratt and Colin Trevorrow! If you’re a fan, you’re now sure to see more sequels.
No, this won’t be a rant about how sacrilege it is to dare to remake Point Break (really?), or any other mediocre film that didn’t make much money at the box office but gained a (smaller than you want to believe) following from the DVD bargain bin or a million showings a month on cable. Nor is it a rant meant to whine about the seemingly large amount of remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, spinoffs, or whatever other buzzword we’ve thrown at these franchise films lately. If anything, it’s a rant about the whining that goes on in the comments section of any and every story about remakes that makes the rounds on sites just like this one.
The constant response of “Hollywood is out of ideas!” irritates me to no end. It could be that Hollywood is simply out of options on what they will throw money at to produce and market in the hopes it will break even. Hollywood’s writers are not out of ideas. But just having an idea is not enough on its own for a studio to sink millions into developing, producing, and marketing a product that may be a complete failure and lose their business (don’t forget it’s a business) a whole lotta cash and may cause some people to lose their jobs for thinking that bomb was a good idea to spend that cash on.
My problem with the message board whining is that it implies the ONLY thing coming from major studios, as well as all the smaller indie houses, are these remakes and sequels. So many movies are made every year, that it’s virtually impossible to even ballpark how many there are. How many movies did you see last year? How many movies did you buy on disc or digitally? How many did you pay to stream or rent? Chances are if you combined all of those purchases you made on movies in a year, and multiplied that number by 100, you might have spent a few dollars on 1% of the movies that were made in that time span.
As an example, Disney released 12 movies last year, including all direct to video and theatrical releases as well as productions that premiered on the Disney Channel. Some of them were costly, some of them were not. Let’s say they averaged a $20 million dollar budget JUST for production (ignoring development and marketing costs). That’s a quarter of a billion dollars to produce their dozen features. Sounds like a lot of money to risk on the hope you might break even at the box office and maybe turn a profit on video/streaming. Except it’s a very conservative number I used. The combined reported production budgets of Big Hero Six, Into the Woods, Maleficent, and Muppets: Most Wanted was actually $445 million dollars. Remember also that to get people like Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, and Angelina Jolie to be in these movies, they usually have to pass a percentage of any profits to them for years to come. Sounds like a very dicey proposition for someone responsible for the profits of their company and the jobs of people in that company.
So why the remakes? Because people go to see what they feel they will like. Characters and properties they already know they like is often an easy choice to make. It costs me $50 to take my family to the movies with 2 adults and 2 children. That’s a lot to ask of a working family to take a chance on something like John Carter. When you see a remake of a horror film, how often is it that you’ve ever even heard of any of the actors in that movie? Not very often, and never if you’re only a casual fan. Take the aforementioned Point Break remake. The only names I know in that cast are Ray Winstone and Delroy Lindo, and I only know them because I’m a huge character-actor geek. Unknown actors, and a small budget hoping to cash in on the brand recognition helps fuel profits. When they do hit the jackpot with The Avengers, that money is often the reason a dozen smaller, riskier, and ORIGINAL ideas get produced.
The hipster whining about the remake of Point Break, or Lori Petty’s whining for that matter, is missing the upside. Instead of pretending that Point Break is somehow untouchable (again, really?), just skip it and see something original. While you’re doing that, hope that Point Break makes money so that the profits can be used to fund something original and amazing.
Without the profits on remakes and big-time tent-pole flicks, we might not get to see things like Birdman, Whiplash, The Artist, Her, Gravity, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Django Unchained, The King’s Speech, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Bone, The Kids are Alright, or any number of excellent films that weren’t remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, spinoffs, ripoffs, etc.
Whining on Entertainment Weekly’s message board does nothing but irritate. Spend some money on those original ideas, if not at a theater, then elsewhere. Anywhere that will help those who funded it see that it was worth the cost. The original ideas are out there, you just need to look beyond what gets advertised on your TV Thursday nights ahead of a Friday release. Just make sure you don’t dismiss the excitement over big franchises. It is possible to enjoy both! I know do.
Rumors are swirling that the coveted role of Peter Parker’s introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is down to 2 actors.
Tom Holland, who starred as one of Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts’ sons in The Impossible (a must see movie if you haven’t yet), and Charlie Rowe, who starred in Never Let Me Go, are thought to be the final 2 candidates for the role. At one time it looked as if Ender’s Game star Asa Butterfield was the leading candidate but lost out due to loose lips in the press about his Marvel audition.
I would lean towards Holland, based on his excellent performance in The Impossible (again SEE IT if you haven’t). Either way, I’m glad they seem to be leaning towards someone younger after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
Spiderman will finally be part of Marvel again, and will make an appearance in Captain America: Civil War before headlining his own film and presumably joining the Avengers: Infinity War films in 2018 and 2019.
A dinosaur sized opening for Jurassic World, as it grossed an estimated $83 million on Friday setting a new record for a first day in June. It could take on several other records as well, and might hit the rarefied air of a $200 million opening weekend.
Jon Bernthal and Richard Armitage quest through medieval Ireland in the upcoming film Pilgrimage.
The Hollywood Reporter exclusively debuts the first images from the feature, which has just wrapped production in Europe following seven weeks of shooting in Belgium and Ireland.
Click here for the story and pics from The Hollywood Reporter.
This looks like a great film. If the pairing of Murray & Levinson isn’t convincing enough, the eclectic supporting cast should seal the deal. Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Danny McBride, Scott Caan, and Bruce Willis.
Rock the Kasbah tells the story of Richie Lanz, a rock manager with a golden ear and a taste for talent, who has seen better times. When he takes his last remaining client on a USO tour of Afghanistan, she gets cold feet, and leaves him penniless and without his passport in Kabul. While trying to find his way home, Richie befriends a band of misfits and discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice.
Arnold returns as the Guardian in Terminator: Genisys, a sort of retelling of The Terminator where Reese is sent back in time to once again protect Sarah Conner, but finds a different past existing in a fractured timeline. A nice trick to “sort of” remake the original film. But I think this could go in an interesting direction with Thor: The Dark World’s Alan Taylor behind the camera. We’ll find out on July 1, when the first film of a planned trilogy hits theaters. One thing I’m really looking forward to is seeing the amazing JK Simmons thrown into this franchise.
thegeekflux 