'Wolverine,' meet 'Star Trek'

By Sarah Sluis

Everyone seems to like Star Trek. Many people will see it this weekend. But how will it all add up at the box office? Currently running a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, the time-traveling origin story juxtaposes car chases in vintage roadsters in Iowa with galactic attempts to wrench ships out of black holes ("More warp!" There is no more warp! More warp!!!"). It's great fun, and includes J.J. Abrams' signature time-bending, a space vocabulary that heavily references Star Wars (When will they put up safety rails next to deep abysses in spaceships?), and a plotline accessible to those who have never even heard of the Enterprise fan club. In other words, Trek has all the makings of a summer popcorn movie.

Currently, the film's tracking way up, as the marketing blitz continues to raise awareness of the film. There are conflicting reports about whether Star Trek or Wolverine has better female support, which surprised me, given that for me it was pretty clear-cut. My interest in Wolverine hovered around zero, while I was enticed from day one by the Star Trek trailer that included the aforementioned Iowa car chase scene and promised me there wouldn't be hard-to-decipher techno-conversations on the flight deck.

Last week, headlines for Wolverine gave the film a range of $60-$100 million, and it came in at $75 million. This week, estimates for Trek seem to be in the $65-$100 million range, but the studio's low-balling, saying they would be happy with $50 million. In Trek's favor are 7pm screenings tonight which should jump-start its grosses, as well as data from Movietickets.com that shows that sellouts have already exceeded those of Wolverine. The space actioner will also be showing up on bigger IMAX screens, which carry a ticket premium and could push grosses higher.

Internationally, the film will open everywhere but Japan and Mexico, where the swine flu has made public gatherings impossible. Based on previous performances in the franchises, X-Men's Wolverine claws are supposed to read better than the Spock/Kirk interactions of Star Trek, but since the reboot is all about drawing in new, younger viewers, there's a chance the film can create new audiences. The fact that Trek avoids using its plot as a Cold War parable will undoubtedly make the film more universally appealing.

Among, say, your typical young male fan who missed Wolverine last week because of a soccer game, there will definitely be competition for the box-office dollar, and last week's $75 million open still leaves many viewers choosing between the two films, or opting to take a week off from moviegoing. From my standpoint, that hard-to-quantify buzz has always been higher for Star Trek, but, then again, I'm not hanging out in middle and high school hallways.

May & June releases to watch: the ones that already have sequels

By Sarah Sluis

A comedy to watch for this summer will be The Hangover. Apparently it's funny enough that Warner Bros. asked the director to write the sequel before the first film even comes out. The trailer brought down

the house at ShoWest, and reports are, the movie's been testing off the charts. It has a bit of a Dude, Where's My Car? premise: men on a bachelor party in Vegas wake up with no memory of the night before, mayhem around them, and a missing groom. They go around reconstructing the night's events, which, from the trailer alone, seem to involve hospitals, weddings, Siegfried & Roy tigers, police officer impersonation, a baby, and a run-in with Mike Tyson. What seems fresh about the movie's snowball of implausible events is that the characters approach them from the standpoint of the past. They've already done all these things and suffered the immediate consequences. The movie seems as though it will focus on the men trying (and failing) to put things back together, and periodically marveling at how they got into the mess. Todd Phillips wrote/directed/produced the first film, but only participated in the re-write stage. For the sequel, he'll be scripting from the beginning. Stars Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Bradley Cooper have also committed to return, with production starting this fall. The first movie had an incredibly quick start-to-finish, with production starting just weeks after the news hit the press (SAG uncertainties cited as a reason for the scheduling), so it seems that Phillips, who has helmed Starsky & Hutch, Old School, and Road Trip, may be the studio comedy craftsman to beat in terms of efficiency and speed.

Another upcoming release that's already been green-lit is a second Star Trek. The trailer for the first (which comes out May 8) wowed me by featuring a dusty, desert car chase, enough of a change from the

space station set to catch my non-Trekkie attention. As a fan of "Lost," a television show with one of the most complicated story universes I've ever encountered, I expect that director (and "Lost" creator) J.J. Abrams nailed the ensemble cast and extensive backstory needed to make the movie appealing to Trek fans as well as those just interested in a good space story. Abrams has committed to produce, but not necessarily direct, the sequel. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are returning to write along with Damon Lindelof, who produced the first film.

The last remake worth mentioning (since according to this THR article, remakes or films based on existing properties are particularly in vogue right now) is A Nightmare on Elm Street. Jackie Earle Haley will star as Freddy Krueger, the killer who stalks and kills teenagers in their sleep. The actor

earned raves for his performance as Rorschach in Watchmen. With his face covered in an ink blot sack most of the movie, his performance was primarily vocal (always good for a horror film), and the few minutes he spent unmasked were considered the high points of an otherwise lackluster film. Haley will also appear in Martin Scorsese's October 2 release Shutter Island, a thriller about a criminally insane escaped woman who is hiding out on an island, and set in 1954. Michael Bay-led Platinum Dunes productions has revived franchises including Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and remade The Amityville Horror and The Hitcher, with plans to revive many more--including Hitchcock's The Birds. As the article notes, even the 1990s will soon be fair game for remakes, as teen horror fans may not be familiar with the originals, so get ready as Hollywood works through the 1980s and 1990s.