The Dark Knight’s repeat business
A Fandango poll has a whopping 64 percent of ticket buyers saying they’ll see The Dark Knight a second time, Nikke Finke reports. I doubt the poll was scientific, but it certainly goes to show that The Dark Knight is bigger than the seasoned pundits expected. Imagine what happens to that $158 million opening weekend when you start to add on the repeats along with first timers. I’ve already seen the movie twice and can’t wait to see it again. With all the other available media and the short window between theatrical release and DVD date (I imagine The Dark Knight will be under many a Christmas tree), it takes quite a film to get audiences to give up another two and a half hours of their lives. Yes, The Dark Knight is that good. Today at work, I actually felt bad...
Read MoreScream 4? Say it ain’t so.
The Weinstein Company’s Dimension Films is moving ahead with the long-rumored Scream 4, at least enough to mention it in a major press announcement. You hear that noise. It’s my heart breaking. This one is personal for me. While I wasn’t old enough to see Scream in the theaters when it was released in 1996, but I did watch it over 100 times (that is no exaggeration) when it came out on video and pay-per-view. Scream, for me, put everything I knew about movies at the age of 14 into a smartly-written thriller. Horror introduced me to movies. Scream introduced me to film. That’s odd to say, but the characters’ conversations discussing narrative conventions of the horror genre fascinated me. It turned me onto Silence of the Lambs, a movie I remember seeing advertised but wasn’t allowed to see. (I was 8 when it...
Read MoreTheWB expands, but what about Hulu?
Just got an email from TheWB.com, Warner’s ad-supported streaming video website. Looks like the paltry selection of TV shows on the potential Hulu.com (News Corp and NBCUni‘s site) competitor is adding some fan favorites to the mix. The titles that will be added starting on Aug. 27 include: -Everwood (!) -Veronica Mars -Roswell -Angel -In Living Color (clips) -MadTV -Firefly -The Loop At first, I was just excited to see Everwood on the list, but then I noticed something. Angel, MadTV, Firefly and The Loop are already offered on Hulu. Does that mean Warner is pulling the plug on the Hulu distribution of its shows? TheWB.com already launched with Warner’s mega-hit Friends, which was televised on the NBC Network. If that’s the case, bad news for Hulu. TheWB has its fingers in some big TV shows, including ER (not currently streaming) and Nip/Tuck (on Hulu). And what about ABC’s Pushing Daisies and CBS’s Cold Case, also Warner shows? Granted there...
Read MoreWho is the Superman mystery director?
A comic book writer who called making movies in Hollywood “a fun hobby”, but wrote the masterful Supes reimagining Superman: Red Son told the UK’s Daily Record that he’s got a plan for relaunching Superman. Mark Millar, whose graphic novel Wanted was just turned into a film, is so far into the game that he says he has a director and producer lined up for a 2011 release. He says we’ll just have to wait until Christmas to find out who they are. At any other time, I’d call bullshit, but with DC Comics being pried from the cold (dead?) hands of Dan DiDio, my guess is Warner is going to push hard on finally getting some DC superhero films made and rebooting what needs rebooted. Kris Tapley over at InContention.com pondered who that director might be based on Millar’s statement that “he (the director) has huge pull at...
Read MoreHow good is WALL•E? Well, get that Oscar ready.
So my four-star review of WALL•E didn’t convince you that Pixar’s latest and possibly greatest effort is worth your hard earned money. The 93 on Metacritic and the 97 percent ripe on the Tomatometer didn’t do it either. How about this? The little robot that could, which had second biggest June opening weekend of all-time, has an even bigger claim to fame. It jumped to #9 on the IMDB.com Top 250 today. That is huge. It’s The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon huge. Looks like WALL•E is going to be sticking around longer than just through the summer. With reviews, box office and popular appeal like this, it’s time to start asking ourselves if we don’t have an Oscar contender on our hands. The Academy is still licking its wounds after February’s art house extravaganza, which...
Read MoreM. Night Shyamalan thinks you’ll like him eventually
Well, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening made $30 million at the box office this weekend despite reviews usually saved for a Uwe Boll movie (Rotten Tomatoes: 20 percent). Critics hate him. They really hate him. Still, Shyamalan isn’t concerned because people just don’t get him. Not yet: So if The Happening makes a billion dollars, we will be happy for the producers but I am not going to be loved any more or any less. When Unbreakable or The Village came out, the same thing happened. My movies don’t get acclaim the day they come. I have to wait longer. That’s what he told Time Out London. Other than the obvious observation that most people still hate The Village, we’ve learned that Shyamalan has same out look on his legacy as does a certain president. History will be the...
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