This week:
The Help stays at the top of the box office while The Debt owes nothing to Apollo 18 and Shark Night; Maria Maggenti has the time of her life writing Dirty Dancing; Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire are driving The Great Gatsby to big screen success; Berenger, Boothe and Winningham join Costner and Paxton in Hatfields and McCoys and Anna Kendrick is Pitch Perfect for her new role.
Box Office
Sleeper hit The Help retained the top spot during another subdued weekend at the box office. The drama should score $18 million over the four day weekend ($14 million for the three days). The film’s total now stands at $122 million.
Sam Worthington’s The Debt (read our review) was at number two with a long weekend gross in the region of $12 million($9.6 million for the three days). The John Madden directed thriller has grossed $14 million since its launch.
The poorly reviewed Apollo 18 (read ours here) should see the Labor Day weekend out with $11 million ($8.7 million for the three days). After that, the moon-based thriller should drop like a gravity assisted stone. Shark Night 3D (read our review) did comparative business to Apollo 18, but should out-gross it when all is said and done.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes will score another $10 million (about $8 million for the three days) and see its gross swell to $162 million, while Colombiana should also shoot up $10 million (an estimated $7.5 three day haul) for a cumulative gross of $24 million.
Our Idiot Brother continues to go unloved. The comedy banked an additional $6.5 million (or $5.1 from Friday to Sunday) for a $16.5 million gross, while Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark saw its grosses dim to $6 million (just under $5 million for the three day weekend), for a $17.5 million cume.
Spy Kids 4 has now grossed $30 million after scoring a smidgen over $6 million ($4.5 million for the three days) and The Smurfs brought their total haul to over $133 million, after audiences handed over another $5 million worth of green (that would be about $4 million for the three days).
Movie News
1. It looks like Maria Maggenti will be putting Baby in the corner.
The writer has been hired by LionsGate to write the script for the Dirty Dancing remake, which is set to be helmed by Kenny Ortega.
The 1987 film with Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze grossed almost $214 million from a $6 million budget – a final gross that I doubt the remake will hit. It was sequelized in 2004 with the little seen Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, but who needs sequels when you can remake it from scratch for the Tween generation.
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2. Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby is currently in production in Austrailia, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire spotted in Sydney – check them out below.
Go here for more pics.
Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Joel Edgerton join the pair in the latest adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel.
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3. 80s screen favorites Tom Berenger, Powers Boothe and Mare Winningham will saddle up to join Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton in Kevin Reynold’s Hatfields and McCoys.
Accoring to Deadline:
“The mini (series) centers on “Devil” Anse Hatfield (Costner) and Randall McCoy (Paxton). Close friends and comrades during the Civil War, they returned to their neighboring homes — Hatfield in West Virginia, McCoy just across the Tug River border in Kentucky — to increasing tensions, misunderstandings and resentments that soon exploded into all-out warfare between the families. Berenger will play Jim Vance, Anse Hatfield’s “Uncle Jim”, who was the firebrand warlord of the Hatfield family; Boothe will play Wall Hatfield, Anse’s level-headed, fair-minded older brother who was the local (West Virginia) justice of the peace and judge; and Winningham will play Sally McCoy, wife of Randall McCoy and matriarch of the Kentucky-side family, who loses four sons, a daughter, and her own sanity in the feud.”
The cast for this just gets better and better. Boothe was a memorable bad guy in the Wyatt Earp tale Tombstone opposite Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, while Berenger is also no stranger to the old west. The Inception actor has starred in a few westerns including Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.
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4. Twilight’s Anna Kendrick is in negotiations to star in Pitch Perfect – a romantic comedy “set in the world of collegiate a cappella groups”!
According to THR:
“The film revolves around a goth-like and rebellious student (Kendrick), unhappy to be at a school at which her father is a professor, who discovers her voice and becomes the secret weapon for the school’s female a cappella group.”
Bridesmaids star Rebel Wilson joins the 26 year-old Up in the Air actress in the Jason Moore directed film, which is based on the non-fiction book written by Mickey Rapkin.
Sounds like a Glee and Twilight lovers dream come true.
That’s it for now. See you at the movies.
