'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa' to rule box-office kingdom?

By Sarah Sluis

Filled with the familiar voices of adult A-list stars, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (4,056 screens) opens
to a saturation release this Friday, exceeding Wall-E's 3,992-screen release slightly with the hopes of earning $50-$60 million at the box office this weekend.  The film has inspired qualified, see-sawing reviews, with FJI critic Frank Lovece calling the film "no Lion King but a perfectly funny diversion that improves on the original," and the New York Times musing that the film's good moments in turn "make]its distracting star turns, storybook clichs and stereotypes harder to take."

Young men will surely turn out for Role Models (2,791 screens), the comedy that excels within the confines of the R-rated humor category without transcending it: there is no Apatow here, no extra spark to make the film stand out and generate acclaim beyond the normal fans of the genre.  Seattle Times critic Moira MacDonald summed up the film by saying "[t]here's something to be said for low expectations...," and what "looked exactly like the latest faded entry in the constant parade of men-behaving-like-boys comedies at the multiplexes lately...kind of works."

Soul Men (2,044 screens) also opens this week, the second-to-last film of late comedian Bernie Mac.  Teaming him with Samuel L. Jackson, the script (or willingness to deviate from it and just follow the

characters with the camera) plays to Mac's strengths, "[allowing] him room to explore the nuances and inflections of profanity."  The opening weekend carries above-average importance, as the presumptive majority audience, African-Americans, tends to show up the first week the film opens--a marketing fact explored in this LA Times article about The Secret Life of Bees and its multi-demographic success.

On the specialty side, maudlin but fulfilling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (17 screens) opens.  The film has been doing incredibly well at the European box office, but was the subject of a scathing (and spoiler) review by the NY Times.  Potential cult/camp hit  Repo! The Genetic Opera (8 screens) also opens.  The rock-horror picture has an incredible trailer but reviews suggest that the film does not live up to expectations, even the eclectic ones of a cult hit: FJI's review states that "Midnight-movie fans going into this horror musical hoping to see the next Rocky Horror Picture Show will emerge sorely disappointed."

'Gulliver's Travels' update, 'Odyssey' in outer space

By Sarah Sluis

Jack Black has signed on to star in Gulliver's Travels, a modern-day update of the 1726 Jonathan Swift
tale.  Because the material is part of the public domain, the studio has kept much of the storyline secret.  Black will play a travel writer stranded on the island of Lilliput--home to the tiny people who capture him and tie him up.  Gulliver went on four voyages, so it is unknown whether the adaptation will focus on his first voyage or incorporate some of the latter, less frequently adapted episodes.  Can they do an accompanying short of A Modest Proposal, with Black starring as a baby roaster?

While the original Gulliver's Travels satirized England's political and religious situation, I doubt the Black version will include much political or social commentary--but I would love it if they could take a few softball swipes.  Far from being uncharted waters, Black's project marks the second adaptation of a famous adventure tale announced in recent weeks. 

Last week, Brad Pitt announced that he plans to star and produce a futuristic version of The Odyssey, to be helmed by George Miller (Mad Max).  While the Black-Gulliver's Travels project will have to perfectly pitch the comedy in order to convince viewers of the plausibility of an undiscovered island populated by Lilliputians, outer space is a perfect backdrop for an update of The Odyssey.  I see the mysterious extraterrestrial territory--with strange planets replacing remote islands, and a black hole standing in for a trip to the underworld-- as a logical place for the Cyclops, Lotus Eaters, and Calypso to reside.  Two thousand years later, the minimally explored outer reaches of space are our version of uncharted Greek Islands.

Amateur filmmaker arrested for murder he wrote in screenplay

By Sarah Sluis

For all the borrowing that goes on between real life and fiction, occasionally people step over the line.  Severely.  After writing a screenplay called House of Cards about a man who posed as a woman online and then lured his dates to their death by arranging to meet them in person, the man, Mark Andrew Twitchell, allegedly went out and committed the crime.  Police seized the screenplay, which had already been the subject of a dubious "work now, maybe get paid later" Facebook casting call, and possibly was in the midst of shooting:

"I'm casting all of these roles personally so just contact me through facebook to start the process. We're short on time so the sooner the better.

Roles are non paid for House of Cards but we are working on a $3M feature right after this with major A-list talent and I remember things like work ethic and true acting chops when considering roles for that too."

As he wrote in the screenplay, Twitchell reportedly hacked into the e-mail account of the victim and sent a message saying he had left town to go on a tropical vacation.  More details involving the method of the killing and disposal of the body also match up to the screenplay.

The screenplay itself was inspired by the television show "Dexter," about a vigilante serial killer.  Adding another twist to the sordid tale, the man who was killed was apparently his second target.  A first man, attacked while wearing a mask, escaped and did not report the incident--perhaps out of embarrassment for his involvement in online dating?  The "Dexter"-inspired screenplay was not the first of Twitchell's rip-offs: he helmed an unauthorized, 60k "fan film" featuring Star Wars characters a few years ago.

The odd things is, I could imagine the Twitchell story itself being turned into a movie: a film about a
man who makes a film about murder, then commits it.  With this idea in mind, I was reminded of the 1960 Michael Powell film Peeping Tom, a creepy and self-implicating movie about a man (a member of a film crew) who films the murders of his victims.  He gets a voyeuristic thrill out of watching and re-watching his victims' deaths.  The problem is, you're watching his secret films too, and enjoying (or tolerating) them, putting you in the same camp as the twisted serial killer.  If you hate the killer, you must address your own love for the suspense and thrill of his actions.  Twitchell has already been brought into custody, but the bizarre events put a shivering reverse on the oft-heard "based on a true story."

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How will Barack rock Hollywood?

By Sarah Sluis

So America has voted, electing Barack Obama as its next president.  What kind of changes can Hollywood expect?

The Risky Business blog looked at the past seven elections and noted that two out of two times a Democrat
was elected, the box office rose, whereas the box office rose three out of five times a Republican was elected, and to a lesser degree.  The evidence looks a little shaky, but the optimism is real: "Dem administrations historically tend to be more favorable to creative expression, which creates a more robust filmmaking and moviegoing climate."  However, let's not forget that a Republican administration let W. be released without a peep, and was a good sport about the Tina Fey/Sarah Palin impressions.

Along with the election, the recession also bodes well for Hollywood.  Martin Grove uses his column to address those who see a single bad weekend as part of a trend.  He notes that fluctuations from week to week and year over year do not signal a downwardly spiralling box office but changes in the quality of films.  A bad week at the box office could simply indicate a lack of films worth seeing.  It makes sense that the weekend with High School Musical 3 would outperform the same weekend from the year before , whose top draw was Saw IV.  Grove feels that audiences will go out and see a movie as long as there is one to see--preferably with an escapist plot (Hello, Beverly Hills Chihuahua). 

One item I haven't seem much journalism or speculation about is substitution: in the face of a lingering recession, will families that normally frequent the cinema opt to rent, and will renters cancel their Netflix subscriptions, or take a recent guest on Oprah's advice and rent DVDs from the library?  People still want to be entertained, so I am curious to see if a drop in the box office will lead to a growth in less expensive forms of movie-watching.  So far, the box office is down .3% from last year, although the Holiday season will change that number.  Conversely, aren't movies inexpensive forms of entertainment themselves, compared to seeing a play or taking the family on other types of excursions?

'Monsters vs. Aliens' trailer parades pop-culture references

By Sarah Sluis

Via NYMag's Vulture blog, here's the trailer for DreamWorks' Monsters vs. Aliens.  The kitschy title, which brings to mind 1950s and 1980s action/creature films, is just one of the movie's many borrowings from popular films and culture.  Like DreamWorks' fractured fairy tale Shrek, a lot of the pleasure should come from identifying the cultural references and enjoying the new spin given to them.

Just a few film/cultural references I noted from the trailer:
-A war room, clearly inspired by Dr. Strangelove
-A bipartisan alien that (my opinion) looks like a cross between President Bush and Senator Obama
-Missile inscribed with an E.T. tagline (Dr. Strangelove AND E.T. reference)
-Blob (1958's The Blob)
-Fighter jets attacking a mysteriously shielded mothership (Independence Day)
-Legs of moving warship look like the vehicle from Empire Strikes Back
-The other four monsters are a mad scientist cockroach, an ancient fish, an insectosaurus, and a fifty-foot woman: all clever spins on monsters we have seen before.  I especially like the insectosaurus, a combination that actually seems to cancel out the "threat level" instead of making the creature more intimidating.

The film will release in  InTru3D, as well as RealD and IMAX, which will add to the box-office gross and make the movie an "event" film not to be saved for its DVD release.

Readers - any references you'd like to add?

 

Farrelly Brothers to helm 'Three Stooges,' 'Farting Dog'

By Sarah Sluis

I haven't heard exciting news from the Farrelly brothers for some time.  Each project after Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary was less inspired, and their one-line premises discouraged me
from going: multiple personalities! dating your sister! dating a fat person! conjoined twins!  rigging the Special Olympics!  Their last project, The Heartbreak Kid, did fairly well at the box office, but that was in 2007.  Recently, the brothers have announced two projects.

Today, they revealed a timeline for their long-planned adaptation of The Three Stooges for MGM.  They plan to do four twenty-minute vignettes, true to the original style of the Stooges shorts.  Their screenplay focuses on the "origins" of Larry, Curly, and Moe, with the first vignette featuring seven-year-old versions of the stooges.  The studio has already set a release date of November 20, 2009, which falls right before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Casting could prove difficult; previous talks point to "stunt" casting non-comedians such as Russell Crowe or Mel Gibson--not the typical funny men pictured in the role.

Last week, the Farrelly brothers also announced plans to helm Walter the Farting Dog, an adaptation of a
children's book series.  The rather vulgar title (which many parents of the target audience would forbid their children to repeat) refers to an adopted dog with a gas problem who is brought into a home with four children, played by the Jonas brothers (three currently star in the hit Disney show, the youngest is the "bonus" Jonas).  The film will focus on the bonus Jonas, Frankie, whose sinus problem has impaired his sense of smell and made him the only one in his family able to tolerate the stink bomb dog.  The boy's adventures with his dog will be interspersed with songs by the three older brothers.  I appreciate that this project will give the youngest brother an opportunity to shine.  With three older brothers in the spotlight, this film will not only be an ideal launching point for the "bonus Jonas's" own career, but a chance to join in on his brothers' stardom.  For the Farrelly brothers, this will mark their second foray into children's films after live action/animation mix Osmosis Jones in 2001.

Friday Halloween scares off moviegoers

By Sarah Sluis

Halloween decimated the box office this weekend.  Returning films showed huge drops on Friday, and
new releases opened to disappointing numbers that they were unable to recoup on Saturday and Sunday.  #1 release High School Musical 3, for example, dropped 90% on Friday, earning around $1 million, but then dropped only around 40% from last week for both Saturday and Sunday, earning $14 million for those two days to bring its weekend total to $15 million.  With a Halloween-free weekend, the film would have been on track to make over $20 million.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno opened at #2 with a less-than-stellar take of $10.6 million.  As with other teen-oriented flicks that receive advance buzz for their lewdness (i.e. American Pie), web comments suggest that exhibitors took extra steps to prevent underage patrons from viewing the film, including checking IDs at point of entry, that might have affected the film's gross.  Zack and Miri will have competition next week with R-rated, less objectionably titled Role Models, which might cut into the film's ability to rebound next week.

Horror picture The Haunting of Molly Hartley earned $6 million at #5 (coming in below Saw V's $10 million take at #3).  Both films did comparatively well on Halloween, earning more than #1 release HSM3, but even the scare pictures earned less on Halloween than they did on Saturday and Sunday.

Changeling pulled in $9.4 million, earning $5k per theatre; however, in terms of a Clint Eastwood or Angelina Jolie vehicle, the results are underwhelming.  The film still has room to grow, both from
increasing the scale of its release and by rebounding from the Halloween weekend.  THR's Risky Business blog, however, attributes the film's relatively weak opening to the tepid critical response of the film, noting a correlation between the RottenTomatoes scores of Eastwood's films and their box-office revenues.

Other films in the top ten included Beverly Hills Chihuahua (#6, $4.7 million), now only $8 million under Eagle Eye's total of $94 million and inching towards $100 million.  The Secret Life of Bees dropped only 33% to finish at #7 with $4 million.  Action/crime pictures Max Payne (#8, $3.7 million),  Eagle Eye (#9, $3.4 million), and Pride & Glory (#10, $3.2 million) rounded out the bottom five.  Unlike the films in the top five, these films had below-average box-office drops, averaging 30-40% less than the previous week.

This week Madagascar 2 will release, competing for the G-rated audience, along with R-rated Role Models, specialty picture and European sensation The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Soul Men, and Repo: The Genetic Opera.  Check back on Friday for a further rundown of the week's releases.

Full box office results viewable here.