'Arrested' in Development; Stewart goes to 'Adventureland'

By Sarah Sluis

"Arrested Development," the three-season television show a little too smart for its own good, might have a film version in the works.  Its high-concept humor, which star Jason Bateman once described as "The
Royal Tenenbaums shot like "Cops,"" makes the film a tougher sell, but producer Ron Howard and series creator Mitch Hurwitz have reportedly been in talks with Fox Searchlight to create a $17 million film (in co-production with Howard's Imagine Entertainment), sure to turn a profit, especially in the DVD market. 

Members of the cast have also mentioned the possibility of a movie during their promotional tours (perhaps purposefully, to create an upswell in interest among fans).  Validating viewers in awe of the talented ensemble, the cast has done well for itself since the show's cancellation, often appearing in one another's projects.  Michael Cera, for example, who played George-Michael Bluth, has become a teen superstar, appearing in films like Superbad, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and Juno. Jason Bateman played opposite Charlize Theron (who had a role in "Arrested Development") in this summer's Hancock, and supported along with Cera in Juno.

Taking advantage of Kristen Stewart's star turn in Twilight, Miramax released the trailer for Adventureland.  Stewart plays the love interest of Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) in the romance set in 1987.  Both play jaded employees of a summer theme park who learn real-world lessons of slackerdom and avoidance while on the job.  Directed by Greg Mottola, who finessed the Apatow-produced success Superbad, the film could fall flat or replicate Superbad's success: your guess from the trailer.

Lionsgate picked up More than a Game, a documentary about LeBron James, the basketball player drafted into the NBA right out of college.  Featuring archival footage from the player's high school days,
as well as film-specific interviews, the movie has sparked interest due to its aggressive pursuit of in-kind marketing deals to support its release.  Nike, for example, launches a LeBron James-centered shoe each September.  Next year, the shoe's marketing campaign will feature a tie-in to the documentary, which is slated for a fall 2009 release.  The documentary, repped by Endeavor, has racked up tens of millions of dollars in marketing contacts to support the film, also bringing on State Farm, Coca-Cola, and the NBA in addition to the Nike deal.  A worthy effort in cross-promotion, the volume and value of the tie-ins would make Jerry Maguire proud.

'Twilight' draws teens, adults to a $70 million opening weekend

By Sarah Sluis

Surpassing both industry ($50-$60 million) and Summit Entertainment's ($40 million) expectations, Twilight earned $70.5 million this weekend.  The astounding figure makes my estimate of $100 million
in three weeks virtually guaranteed, even with this Wednesday's release of PG-13 spectacle Australia and comedy Four Christmases.  Twilight, which made $35.8 million on Friday alone (including midnight screenings from the evening before), dropped minimally on Saturday.  A cult film without crossover appeal usually dies on Saturday, but, like its undead hero, Twilight stayed alive.  The flurry of media around Twilight created a zero-to-sixty in awareness level among those unfamiliar with the source material, drawing out scores of curious viewers, especially mothers.  The film's Mormon connection siphoned away viewers from Disney's Bolt, which finished third at $27 million.  Utah, with its Mormon-heavy, family-oriented population, normally does above-average business with Disney films, but it appears those audiences chose Twilight over Bolt.  Disney expects audiences will turn out for Bolt in weeks to come, but Twilight's passionate fan base undoubtedly swayed groups of filmgoers towards the vampire romance.  Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film also turns out to be the biggest opening ever for a female-directed film.  More depressing than inspiring, only 6% of directors are female.  Betcha more than 6% of wannabe directors are female.

Beating out Bolt, Quantum of Solace finished at #2 with $27.4 million.  The best option for moviegoers not entranced by teen vampires or superstar dogs, the Bond film swiftly crossed the $100 million mark and brought its two-week total to $109.4 million.

Below the top three, kid-oriented pictures Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (#4, $16 million) and High School Musical 3 (#7, $2 million) experienced the biggest drops in business due to competition from Twilight and Bolt.  Each fell over 50% from last week, with HSM falling 64.5%.

Role Models ($7.2 million) and Changeling ($2.6 million) each dropped around 30% to finish at #5 and #6.  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which expanded in its third week, made $1.6 million and grabbed the #9 spot.  Finishing just outside of the top ten, despite being exhibited in only 32 theatres, Slumdog Millionaire made $994,000, $31,000 per theatre.  Since its release, the film has received an uptick in Oscar buzz.  Unlike Changeling, which lost  Oscar momentum after people went out and saw the film, Slumdog Millionaire has played the underdog card successfully, making those who have seen the film feel as though they have discovered a gem.  If only a fraction of the viewers are like me--I've encouraged a number of friends and family to see the film--Slumdog will be a millionaire many times over.

Full box office results available here.

'Bolt' and 'Twilight' to satisfy the young (at heart)

By Sarah Sluis

Twilight (3,419 screens) debuted with sold-out midnight screenings last night, and finished at #5 among all-time pre-sold tickets (per Movietickets.com), right below The Dark Knight.  With the help of "Twilight Moms," the most obvious expansion of the teen girl demographic turning out for the film, the
vampire romance will continue to sell out screenings throughout the weekend.  Among non-Twilight-reading and Twilight-reading critics, the film has inspired polarized opinions.  A decent portion have acknowledged the film's ability to pull heartstrings despite some corny moments, but for others, like our critic Ethan Alter, those moments, combined with some trite camera setups and technical sloppiness, make the film unbearable.  A friend who accompanied the press screening called Twilight "teen fantasy reduced to its most basic form.   There is something so pure about a film that doesn't try to trick you into thinking it's clever, or appealing to anyone outside its demographic.  It's exactly the film for exactly its audience.  That's rare."

Bolt (3,651 screens) opens after a non buzz-generating sneak preview last weekend.  With a large portion of the screens exhibiting in 3D, the film will receive a boost in revenue from higher ticket prices
at those venues.  A solid film, our executive editor Kevin Lally called Bolt "an unpretentious, consistently entertaining romp...with plenty of heart".  As Lally notes, the breakout press story is that of Disney animator Mark Walton.  A hyperactive fanboy who naturally possesses hamster-like qualities, his scratch recording of the hamster Rhino was so good, it made it into the final film.  Coupled with the celebrity voices of Miley Cyrus, John Travola, and "Curb Your Enthusiasm"'s Susie Essman, the film should please adults and kids alike.

On the specialty side, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas expands to 406 screens, Muslim-lesbian romantic drama I Can't Think Straight opens on 3 screens, drug-induced superhero hallucination picture Special debuts on 1 screen, and Laotian immigrant documentary The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) opens at New York City's IFC Theatre.

'Twilight' a romance of meaningful glances

By Sarah Sluis

Like a teenage daydream ignited by the examination of each possible meaning of that look your lab
partner gave you in biology, Twilight imbues meaningful glances with more smoldering romance than one would think possible in this millennium.  Caught in a romance that transcends time, Edward and Bella just have to search each other's pale, slender-chinned, slow-motion, extreme close-up faces, and make eye contact.  The audience shrieks, sighs, and they know, we know, that it doesn't matter that Edward is a vampire and Bella is a human.  They will be together, forever.  Repeat this moment every couple scenes (in a tree, in a house, in a parking lot, in biology class!) like a fugue, and you have the thrill and electricity of Twilight.

Overwrought emotion is frequently dismissed as melodrama, but with Twilight the sustained palpablity of emotion is a compliment.  Some moments of dialogue may inspire a too-good-to-be-true laughter among more jaded audience members, but that doesn't mean they're not enjoying it.  What kind of person would throw away a love note just because it's too earnest in some points?  For fangirls in the throes of a relationship with Edward and Bella (Stephenie Meyer's series now numbers four) there are private jokes.  A scene in which Edward calls himself a lion and Bella a lamb inspired gasping shrieks among the fangirls seated below me, melting over the enunciation of the pet name they had only ever read.

Like arty vampire picture Let the Right One In, Twilight
takes time to show us the "rules" and the

day-to-day life of vampires.  We get to visit Edward's house, the residence of several vampires.  The modern space has a large, framed, modern color block painting.  Upon closer examination, we see dozens of graduation caps acquired by the perpetually high school-age Cullen family.  "Yeah, it's kind of a family joke," notes Edward wryly.  Bella remarks on the lack of a bed in Edward's room (he doesn't sleep), in an exchange remarkably devoid of innuendo.  We learn the powerful vampires love to play baseball, but only in a
thunderstorm, when the cracks of their bats blend in with the thunder.  The rendering of the game is no Quidditch, and I bet producer Summit Entertainment wished they had spent a little more on special effects, which could have been more robust and drawn out.  But because we are so emotionally invested in Edward and Bella, the thrilling escape scene in a Jeep that follows surpasses, for a brief moment, the emotional impact of Quantum of Solace.  Ouch.

Twilight will undoubtedly do well at the box office, so the question everyone is asking now is HOW well.  Over 2,000 screenings are sold out, more than many of the previous Harry Potter movies.  The word-of mouth among the series' devotees is effusive:  as soon as the girls at the advance screening could rip their embargoed cell phones out of the manila envelopes (I screened the film on Tuesday, and Summit required we relinquish all cell phones during the film, even wanding audience members to check), their fingers started sending gushing texts.  Forget word-of-mouth, Twlight will succeed based on Facebook statuses and Twitters. 

As far as numbers, I'll enter my "superstar" prediction here: $100 million in four weeks.  This summer's Sex and the City, with its older, but still devoted, fan base, passed the $100 million mark in its third week (it made $99 million through its second week).  Most of this year's animated pictures have passed $100 million in two weeks.  The cautionary comparison is live-action HSM3: Senior Year, an aging franchise, but still one with a devoted legion of Zac Efron fans.  That film has earned $84 million through its fourth week--I see that as Twilight's worst-case scenario, which would still vastly exceed the film's sub-$40 million production budget.  Summit Entertainment still claims they  only expect $40 million in returns, but the numbers $50 and $60 million have also been floated around.  If Twilight can earn $50 million in its first week, and drop less than 50% each subsequent week (exponential decay, the subject of Twilight girls' math homework!), it will make $100 million in four weeks.  However, as much as I would like to see this film succeed, vaulting the stars, the series, and Summit into a big deal, I don't see girls successfully dragging their relatives to Twilight over next week's Thanksgiving weekend.  Time will tell.

Disney and IMAX sign deal; 3D popping up everywhere

By Sarah Sluis

Appending to yesterday's post about the 3D version of Monsters vs. Aliens, here's a recap of even more 3D news.

Disney signed a deal with IMAX to release five pictures in 3D on their screens on the same day of the film's general release.  Mimicking the five-picture deal that IMAX has with Warner Brothers, the deal will debut with next winter's A Christmas Carol, which features Jim Carrey in a number of roles.  2004's A Polar Express did extremely well in IMAX 3D, so Disney undoubtedly hopes that the format will make A Christmas Carol an event film, on par with a family's holiday trip to The Nutcracker, The Rockettes or the play version of A Christmas Carol.

Besides generating new 3D content, Disney/Pixar plans to reupholster its classics Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Toy Story (1995) with a 3D treatment.  Beauty and the Beast will release in 2009-2010.  Thanks to archived digital files, the process can be done with all the archived components, but will still take ten months to complete.  Toy Story, already in the midst of a 3D update, will release on October 2, 2009, and will not be part of the
IMAX deal.  Conveniently, Toy Story 3 will release a year later.  Just as the restored Star Wars films reintroduced young audiences to the classic films, the 3D update of Toy Story will introduce new children to Buzz and Woody.

Currently, most 3D films have fallen into the family/children category, with animation and kiddie concert subgenres leading the way (performance capture Beowulf and concert film U2: 3D are two adult-oriented exceptions).  Now that digital projectors number in the thousands (3D projection requires just a simple attachment onto a digital projector), demographics and genres underserved by the 3D experience will soon get the 3D treatment.  Disney's 2010 slate includes Touchstone release Step Up 3, a live action, teen-oriented dance picture.  Lionsgate plans to release horror picture My Bloody Valentine in 3D.  Along with these more niche 3D offerings, all-ages directors James Cameron (Avatar, 12/18/09) and  Tim Burton (Alice in Wonderland 3/5/2010) have films just a couple years away, giving 3D a turn in the spotlight.

CGI 'Monsters vs. Aliens' first entry in DreamWorks' all-3D plan

By Sarah Sluis

Last week I saw a preview of scenes from Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D.  The film, which will release on March 27, 2009, also recently unveiled its trailer online.

Unlike home-runner Pixar, DreamWorks' animated pictures have been much more uneven, critically and commercially.  Monsters vs. Aliens comes eight years after Pixar's Monsters, Inc., and employs a similar monsters-are-our-friends take on the freakish creatures.  Although I wish the two studios could stop their critter competition (rats in Ratatouille and Flushed Away; fish in Finding Nemo and Shark's Tale; insects in A Bug's Life and Antz), the latest offering looks like a worthy match to Pixar's offering.

Conceptualized and animated entirely in 3D, the film forgoes using the popping effect to shock (a la my previous benchmark, Universal Studios' theme park ride Terminator in 3D) but often makes something as simple as an over-the-shoulder shot pop out, bringing the 3D effect to the most quotidian of film compositions.  The first set-piece, in which the United States president (Stephen Colbert) attempts to make contact with the alien spaceship, makes the most cinematic use of 3D--staircases jut out from the center of the screen, helicopters swoop in, and missiles (including one emblazoned with "E.T. Go Home") fire to impressive 3D effect.  The new wave of 3D glasses are clear and not meant to cause headaches, but it took me the greater part of one sequence for my eyes to adjust and the whisper of a headache to subside.  The polarized glasses also have some unintended effects: the red EXIT sign multiplied by seven and cast itself into my left eyeline.  Not the biggest deal, but if you're paying the premium price ($15.00 for an adult 3D ticket in Manhattan, a $3.00, 25% markup), you want the image to look perfect.

From a storytelling perspective, there is much to commend: little details, like a series of preemptive comedic shrieks, temper the scare factor for youngsters.  For adults, the voice casting plays on the star personas (roly-poly Seth Rogen plays a blob, "House, M.D."'s Hugh Laurie plays a mad scientist cockroach, Stephen Colbert as the President...).  Along with a smattering of Shrek-like allusions to classic monster and alien films, the snappy dialogue, visual gags, and mild gross-out humor will please adults and kids alike.  Watching the film, I knew exactly which moments would prompt eager kids to whisper to their parents with glee ("Daddy! That man just scanned his butt!").  The film also avoids one of my biggest pet peeves: when a marketing campaign gives away too many plot points, forcing the audience to spend half the film waiting to get to the moment you saw or predicted from a thirty-second commercial.  Based on the introduction of the clips, it appears the monsters' defeat of the aliens marks the turning point, not the climax, earning the film major points according to my rubric.  Perhaps DreamWorks is taking a lesson from Pixar and its tantalizing teaser trailers.  With most animation moving into 3D, and DreamWorks committed to making all of their films in 3D from this point onward, the relative success of Disney competitor Bolt 3D stands to foreshadow Monsters vs. Aliens' success this March.

Why 'Bride Wars' misjudges the female audience

By Sarah Sluis

The MTV Movie Blog, perhaps because of their preview/commercial show "Spoiler," frequently posts
"EXCLUSIVE" clips from upcoming films.  They recently posted clips from Bride Wars and Bedtime Stories.  Despite my lifelong residence in the "young female" quadrant, the Bride Wars clip drove me nuts (trailer here), to the point that I found the pet hamster "young male" humor of Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories vastly more entertaining and less offensive than Bride Wars, which seems to view the crazed female stereotype as one grounded in reality.

I love romantic comedies, but I now have very, very low expectations for Bride Wars.  For a female-oriented film, they are entirely off base: by making the psycho brides (bridezillas) initially plausible types, they insult their female audience.  Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson play seemingly normal best friends who come undone when a scheduling error leaves only one open spot for their weddings.  The women are petty and conniving without any good reason other than those "bridal hormones" floating around.  Ever the optimist, I'm willing to say that perhaps my impression comes from a discrepancy between the marketing and the film itself.  Maybe the movie will present Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson as over-the-top, unrealistic stock characters (see Elle Woods reference below), who have no other option than to use the appalling backstabbing techniques played for laughs, but I'm not getting my hopes up.  Both actresses generally play genuine, fresh-faced characters (not stock villains or mean girls), and I just can't imagine why these sensible, normal women couldn't just resolve matters through a double wedding or another corny compromise in the first place.

Compare this treatment of women-gone-wrong to some other comedies that poke fun at female stereotypes without condescending to them: Legally Blonde (2001) for example, trots out every
poofy-blonde stereotype imaginable, but because Reese Witherspoon's performance is such a clear caricature, her behavior is entertaining, not offensive.  Entirely oblivious to how her pink wardrobe (a.k.a. her heightened femininity) precludes her from full participation in the professional world, WItherspoon's Elle Woods ends up trouncing all those who underestimate her
for the way she looks.  A few waves of feminism later, Elle's Barbie-inspired wardrobe seems a modern permutation of Katharine Hepburn's androgynous, for the time, clothing: both present women who dress and act in counterpoint to convention, but end up succeeding anyway.

As for Bride Wars, if I want to watch two women fight with each other, I'll watch some reality television instead--at least that genre knows to present its characters as exaggerated, unbelievable stereotypes,
self-contradicting and petty, and (despite the misleading name) totally unreal.  The fresh-faced, good girl personas of Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson just don't work in this situation.

With Bride Wars off my must-see list (except out of fascination to see if the film can redeem itself from
the marketing campaign), I have a couple other options.  Ridiculous shopping addict Isla Fisher takes a cue from Reese Witherspoon in her caricature performance in Confessions of a Shopaholic (the novel an engaging few hours) and, of course, I might pay to see the hamster jokes (side benefit: better comedic timing and editing) in Bedtime Stories.