Teens turn out for Efron's #1 finish, '17 Again'

By Sarah Sluis

Catching the last wave of students on Spring Break, 17 Again won the weekend with $24 million. While the teen comedy opened lower than last week's tween topper Hannah Montana: The Movie, which brought in $32 million in its opening weekend, both Disney-bred stars were able to open a film in the #1 spot, something the Jonas Brothers failed to do this February.

Because Miley Cyrus fans make it a priority to see the film opening weekend, her film dropped 61% from last week, finishing at #4 with $12.6 million. Her next project, The Last Song, penned by Nicholas Sparks, will have almost the same set-up (she will play an out-of-line teen sent to live with her estranged father, instead of her grandparents), so hopefully her fans won't be weary of the premise.

Right below 17 Again, State of Play came in at #2 with $14 million. The journo-political thriller was expected to suffer the same fate as Crowe's fall film Body of Lies, which opened at $12 million, but tacked on another $2 million to the earlier film's non-intriguing open.

Sequel Crank: High Voltage opened at #6 with $6.5 million, a slightly disappointing performance. The first film, which opened on Labor Day weekend of 2006, brought in $12.8 million. Still, its performance might be enough to greenlight a Crank 3.

Among returning films, Monsters vs. Aliens dropped 40% to earn $12.9 million at #3. Fast & Furious brought in $12.2 million, and Observe and Report slid 60% to $4 million. The controversial comedy's #7 finish will probably be its last in the top ten. The oldest film to make the list, I Love You, Man, brought in $3.3 million in its fifth week in release.

Among specialty films, Every Little Step had the highest per-screen average, earning roughly $9,000 per screen. Second-runner-up Is Anybody There?, which stars Michael Caine and posted a $7,000 per-screen average.

This Friday, no film will release above 2,400 screens, which is on the small side for a wide release. In honor of Earth Day, Disney releases Earth this Wednesday. On Friday, it will be joined by romance-thriller Obsessed, director Joe Wright's The Soloist, and Rogue Pictures' Fighting.

Kids rule at the major studios

By Sarah Sluis

Alice in Wonderland adds Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway has played a princess before, but for her next project she's graduated to queen, signing
on to play the White Queen in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.  Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, two of his recurring casting choices, are already in place as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, respectively.  Eighteen-year-old Mia Wasikowska, who has a role in this winter's Defiance, will play the part of Alice--no doubt her girlish look combined with her over-eighteen status informed the decision, since she won't be restricted by the laws limiting the hours of child actors.  Using a combination of live action and performance capture, Burton's film will likely work off the dark but family-friendly style of his film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I am curious about how Burton will integrate the performance capture.  Will he use it for animal characters like the Cheshire Cat, or will the film have a Roger Rabbit look?

Tom Thumb film in works
Continuing in the vein of children's folk stories, Warner Brothers plans to adapt Tom Thumb, and has attached Enchanted and Tarzan director Kevin Lima to the project.  Under development through the Red Wagon label, the producers hope to spin the story by focusing on the beginnings of Tom Thumb.  They're enlisting Robert Rodat to write the screenplay.  While best known for his screenplay Saving Private Ryan and war follow-up The Patriot, he got his start writing family pictures Fly Away Home and Tall Tale, and will serve as a good choice if the producers want to emphasize the battles and adventures of the thimble-sized hero.  The producers are also undecided about representation of the little man, with live action and CGI both being thrown around as options.

Studios' production slate rich in kid and teen pictures
While Tom Thumb is still in the development phase, Alice in Wonderland will join other a large number of projects going into production now that some of the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of the SAG contracts has blown over.  Variety compiled a list of over forty projects going into production.  A substantial amount target child and teen audiences:

• Ramona, the classic children's book by Beverly Cleary



• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows



• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a Harry Potter knockoff based on a book series about a boy who realizes he is the descendant of a Greek god (directed by Harry Potter alum Chris Columbus)



• Tooth Fairy, which looks to be an Elf-like comedic riff on the coins-for-teeth fairy (if you replace Will Ferrell with stone-faced Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson)



• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, an adaptation of a series of cartoon books



• Mars Needs Moms, another illustrated storybook adaptation



• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a live action adaptation of the anime-styled comic book



• Footloose remake, starring Zac Efron and sure to draw in tweens and teens



• Fame remake, another song-and-dance high school film

One trend in this slate of films is the popularity of graphic or comic novels as a literary source.  With adaptations of action and superhero comics doing so well in the box office, there has been an increased demand to develop books that mine the comic book format, using panels or incorporating illustrations and letters into their stories.  Spielberg, for example, is directing animated Tin Tin, based on the French comic.  The richness and depth of plot in these stories, however, can be as much help as hindrance, as writers must sift through and delete material over the course of the adaptation.  Of all these projects, however, I am most enthusiastic about Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which will be much more about the actors' interpretations of the characters rather than the plot of the original (and rarely read by children anymore) Alice Adventure's in Wonderland.