Box Office Guru Wrapup: Transformers and Ice Age Tie for Top Spot

by Gitesh Pandya on Sunday, Jul. 05 2009, 07:27 PM 11 Comments

The Independence Day holiday frame saw a rare tie for first place as Paramount and Fox both reported a $42.5M estimate for the Friday-to-Sunday span for their summer sequels Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, respectively. Final grosses to be reported on Monday will determine the true box office champ. Universal's gangster drama Public Enemies opened in third with strong results as studios provided many different moviegoing options which ticket buyers were excited to see. The robots of Transformers dropped a steep 61% in the second weekend giving Paramount an eye-popping $293.5M total after just 12 days. That puts Michael Bay's tentpole pic at number 30 on the all-time domestic blockbusters list tied with 1999's The Sixth Sense. Ticket prices, of course, were much lower a decade ago when Haley Joel Osment was seeing dead people. Fallen also leaped past Pixar's Up to become this year's largest grosser and will top the $300M mark on Monday or Tuesday.

Sam Jackson Talks Iron Man 2

on Friday, Jul. 03 2009, 04:46 AM 39 Comments

Ready to see Nick Fury establish himself as a big-screen action hero? According to Samuel L. Jackson, you'll have to wait a bit longer -- in "Iron Man 2," his character is "still just kind of a talker."

M. Night Shyamalan Talks The Last Airbender

on Friday, Jul. 03 2009, 04:42 AM 28 Comments

Curious about M. Night Shyamalan's plans for his "The Last Airbender" trilogy? You'll want to read up on the latest comments from the writer/director, as well as producer Frank Marshall.

Ready for a View-Master Movie?

on Friday, Jul. 03 2009, 04:36 AM 16 Comments

According to comments recently made by Brad Caleb Kane ("Fringe"), we can add the View-Master to the list of toys soon to receive the film adaptation treatment.

Box Office Guru Preview: Dinosaurs and Gangsters Spark Fireworks

by Gitesh Pandya on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 02:42 PM 23 Comments

Hollywood is hoping to score two $40M+ grossers over the Independence Day holiday frame for the first time ever. With Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen still raking in large numbers, two new releases opened on Wednesday to get a head start on the long weekend led by the animated sequel Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur which will give the robots a challenge for the number one spot. Looking to debut firmly in the number three spot is the period gangster flick Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale which will give mature adults something to rally behind.

Total Recall: Johnny Depp's Best Movies

by Jeff Giles on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 11:47 AM 84 Comments

He once seemed destined for nothing better or worse than simple teen idolhood, but since escaping from 21 Jump Street in 1990, Johnny Depp has proven himself to be a brave (and mostly pretty astute) chooser of scripts, building an impressive filmography that encompasses everything from black-and-white arthouse fare (Dead Man) to blockbuster Disney trilogies (Pirates of the Caribbean). This weekend, he'll gun his way into theaters as John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies, so we thought now would be a fine time to devote an installment of Total Recall to counting down the 10 best-reviewed releases of Depp's 25-year film career. As always, we let the Tomatometer do the heavy lifting, arranging our list according to the reviews written by the film critics we all know and love. With a lifetime Tomatometer rating of 63 percent -- not to mention a tendency to throw himself into some pretty far-flung roles -- there are bound to be some hotly contested omissions, but that's just part of what makes these things interesting, right?

Nimrod Antal Confirmed for Predators

on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 09:39 AM 21 Comments

Confirming an earlier scoop by Latino Review, Ain't It Cool News is reporting that Nimrod Antal will direct the new "Predator" project.

More Resident Evil Scheduled for 2010

on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 09:34 AM 29 Comments

Ready for another "Resident Evil" movie? Shock Till You Drop has obtained confirmation that a fourth installment in the series will be arriving in late 2010.

Uni Plots Asteroids Film Adaptation

on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 09:31 AM 10 Comments

Which do you find harder to believe: that a movie based on the "Asteroids" arcade game is in development, or that Universal won a four-studio bidding war to land the rights to the property?

RoboGeisha: 2009's Most Insane Trailer?

by Luke Goodsell on Wednesday, Jul. 01 2009, 06:58 PM 79 Comments

It's lucky the Academy Awards have expanded their Best Picture Nominee category to 10 because here comes next year's first entry. RoboGeisha, Noboru Iguchi's delicate meditation on feminism in Japan, is your typical awards-baiting costume melodrama: Geisha assassins who kill adversaries with deadly swords and chainsaws sprouting from their mouths, transform into tanks, have machine-gun busts, katana-sword hips and... use shrimp tempura daggers to take out the eyes of villains. And that's just the half of it -- we can't quite describe certain other elements here, so be warned: this isn't PG-13 material. On a side note, who is this gravelly genius doing the voice-over -- and can he be the new Don LaFontaine?

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Transformers and Ice Age Tie for Top Spot

by Gitesh Pandya on Sunday, Jul. 05 2009, 07:27 PM 11 Comments

The Independence Day holiday frame saw a rare tie for first place as Paramount and Fox both reported a $42.5M estimate for the Friday-to-Sunday span for their summer sequels Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, respectively. Final grosses to be reported on Monday will determine the true box office champ. Universal's gangster drama Public Enemies opened in third with strong results as studios provided many different moviegoing options which ticket buyers were excited to see. The robots of Transformers dropped a steep 61% in the second weekend giving Paramount an eye-popping $293.5M total after just 12 days. That puts Michael Bay's tentpole pic at number 30 on the all-time domestic blockbusters list tied with 1999's The Sixth Sense. Ticket prices, of course, were much lower a decade ago when Haley Joel Osment was seeing dead people. Fallen also leaped past Pixar's Up to become this year's largest grosser and will top the $300M mark on Monday or Tuesday.

Blood: The Last Vampire -- Exclusive Concept Art and Artist Profile

by Jen Yamato on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 03:32 PM 11 Comments

We've been fans of up-and-coming artist Alexandre Tuis for a while, so we jumped at the chance to speak with him about his work and share exclusive concept art from his latest project, the live-action manga adaptation Blood: The Last Vampire, which is out already in the UK and debuts stateside July 10. Tuis also graciously shared additional original art from his personal collection of pop culture-based work (including his rendering of Doug Jones as Frankenstein, created in honor of Guillermo del Toro's potential film adaptation) and concept art from films such as Dragonball: Evolution and Xavier Gens' horror film, Frontiere(s). We spoke with Tuis via email about his art, his influences, and his career aspirations. Read more inside.

The Friday Harvest: Ice Age 3, Gamer, Daybreakers, and more!

by Alex Vo on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 12:37 PM 1 Comment

RoboGeisha: 2009's Most Insane Trailer?

by Luke Goodsell on Wednesday, Jul. 01 2009, 06:58 PM 79 Comments

It's lucky the Academy Awards have expanded their Best Picture Nominee category to 10 because here comes next year's first entry. RoboGeisha, Noboru Iguchi's delicate meditation on feminism in Japan, is your typical awards-baiting costume melodrama: Geisha assassins who kill adversaries with deadly swords and chainsaws sprouting from their mouths, transform into tanks, have machine-gun busts, katana-sword hips and... use shrimp tempura daggers to take out the eyes of villains. And that's just the half of it -- we can't quite describe certain other elements here, so be warned: this isn't PG-13 material. On a side note, who is this gravelly genius doing the voice-over -- and can he be the new Don LaFontaine?

Celebrate the Fourth of July with 50 Movies For 50 States!

by RT Staff on Wednesday, Jul. 01 2009, 09:10 AM Comment

Happy Fourth of July! For our nation's birthday, we at RT thought that we'd take a look at how the good old U.S. of A. has been portrayed on the silver screen. To capture the vast and diverse peoples and places across the whole country, we've decided to choose films that we feel really showcase each state in the Union. Every one of the 50 films we've selected features something special about the geography, history, culture, or people of a particular state. So click on the map below to see which ones we've picked! And be sure to let us know your opinion.

Academy Invites Tyler Perry, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen to Join Oscar Ranks

by Jen Yamato on Tuesday, Jun. 30 2009, 11:51 AM 28 Comments

Among the 134 actors, directors, producers, technicians, and executives invited to join the ranks of Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Art & Sciences today were actors Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Emile Hirsch, Michelle Williams, and Casey Affleck, directors Rod Lurie and Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, and Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black -- filmmakers known largely for their dramatic contributions who had earned awards season kudos, nominations, or Oscar wins last year. So is it surprising that the Academy extended invites to comedy performers like Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Michael Cera, and Madea Goes to Jail actor/director Tyler Perry?

Five Favorite Films with Fred Durst

by Tim Ryan on Monday, Jun. 29 2009, 09:33 AM 87 Comments

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said there are no second acts in American lives. Obviously, he never met Fred Durst. Best known as the lead singer for rap/rockers Limp Bizkit, Durst has always had a passion for movies. His debut, The Education of Charlie Banks (out this week on DVD), tells the tale of an uneasy friendship between Charlie (Jesse Eisenberg) and Mick (Jason Ritter), a tough kid from his old neighborhood. When Charlie goes to an elite college, Mick follows him there, and for a while it appears he's smoothed out his rough edges, before old tensions come back to the surface. (Charlie Banks was shot before, but released after, The Longshots, Durst's second film, which starred Ice Cube). Durst (who spoke to RT from Poland while on tour with his band) reflected on five of his favorite films, as well as the differences between making music and making movies, and why he chose The Education of Charlie Banks to be his first film.

Edinburgh 2009: RT's 10 Must-See Movies

by Rotten Tomatoes on Sunday, Jun. 28 2009, 02:16 PM 10 Comments

The Edinburgh Film Festival has come to a close and Rotten Tomatoes thought we'd make a traditional look back over all of the films playing at this year's fest and present to you - in strictly alphabetical order - our 10 must-sees. As a public-facing festival, Edinburgh's selection attempts to combine the accessible with the artistic, and delivers a collection of movies both diverse and outstanding. From spoof comedies to harsh drama, from in-depth documentaries to cutting-edge animation, Edinburgh dares to be different and programmes a festival that's at turns youthful and experienced, offering movies for just about any cinemagoer imaginable. And for us, it's two weeks of life in dark rooms -- just how we like it.

Five Favourite Films with Diego Luna

by Joe Utichi on Sunday, Jun. 28 2009, 10:36 AM 8 Comments

Diego Luna is bristling at RT's suggestion he pick just five favourite films. "It's really unfair to have to say only five films," he complains as he picks his final choice. "This barely covers my life; I'm up to about the age of 16 by the end of the list!" The 29-year-old has been acting since before 16 in his home country of Mexico, but burst onto the international stage aged 22 as part of the trio of leads in Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien. That film marked his first collaboration with Gael Garcia Bernal, a partnership that continues - this time with Cuaron's brother Carlos at the helm - with Rudo and Cursi, out now in UK cinemas.

Weekly Ketchup: Adam Sandler joins The Zookeeper, David Fincher joins Facebook

by Greg Dean Schmitz on Friday, Jun. 26 2009, 02:42 PM 36 Comments

Most of the entertainment media's attention is focused on the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, but there were still interesting film development news this week, including two new video game based projects, a surprising new movie for director David Fincher (Fight Club), an even more surprising remake of a Coen brothers classic, and new movies for Daniel Craig, Adam Sandler and Kevin Spacey. And oh yeah, the Academy is totally changing the way the Oscars works. #1 THE ACADEMY AWARDS DOUBLES THE BEST PICTURE FIELD AND HALVES THEIR IMPORTANCE. In a surprising move, this week the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that they are doubling the number of movies that will be nominated for Best Picture (from five to ten) reverting to the way the awards were nominated back in the 1930s and early 1940s, up until 1943.

Brandon Routh Talks Superman's Future

on Friday, Jul. 03 2009, 04:44 AM 87 Comments

Whatever happens next for the "Superman" franchise, it appears that Brandon Routh won't be wearing that big "S" and cape -- in a new interview, he says his contract with Warner Bros. has expired.

Michael Lehmann Says No Heathers Sequel Planned

on Friday, Jul. 03 2009, 04:39 AM 3 Comments

Despite what you may have heard from Winona Ryder, director Michael Lehmann wants you to know there is no "Heathers" sequel in the pipeline.

Will The Game Play The A-Team's B.A. Baracus?

on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 09:41 AM 29 Comments

We've read Ice Cube and Common's names being floated in connection with the role of B.A. Baracus in the upcoming "The A-Team" adaptation -- now, courtesy of Blackfilm, comes word that The Game is being "heavily considered" for the part.

Harrison Ford More Than Doubles Angelina Jolie's 2008 Earnings

on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 09:36 AM 20 Comments

Is Hollywood sexist? That's up for debate -- but those who say it is have some new ammo, thanks to the news that last year's top-earning actor, Harrison Ford, earned more than two and a half times the top-earning actress, Angelina Jolie.

The Runaways Set Photos Posted

on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 09:32 AM 2 Comments

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning are filming "The Runaways," and the first totally '80s set photos from the biopic have been posted courtesy of Just Jared.

The Green Hornet Bumped Two Weeks

on Thursday, Jul. 02 2009, 09:29 AM 6 Comments

In a move attributed to a need to make room for another of the studio's releases, Columbia has bumped "The Green Hornet" back two weeks, to June 25, 2010.

Sony's Amy Pascal Explains Moneyball Balk

on Wednesday, Jul. 01 2009, 06:35 AM 3 Comments

Responding to last week's reports that her studio pulled the plug on Steven Soderbergh's "Moneyball," Sony's Amy Pascal has spoken with the Los Angeles Times about her reasons for walking away from the project.

Trailer Bulletin: The Informant

on Wednesday, Jul. 01 2009, 06:30 AM 5 Comments

Warner Bros. has released a trailer for Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant," starring Matt Damon as a whistleblower who agrees to wear a wire for the FBI.

The Princess and the Frog Featurettes Spark Controversy

on Wednesday, Jul. 01 2009, 06:26 AM 17 Comments

First "Transformers 2," now this: A series of introductory behind-the-scenes featurettes for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" has come under fire for perceived racist stereotypes.

Bening, Moore, Ruffalo Know The Kids Are All Right

on Wednesday, Jul. 01 2009, 06:17 AM 1 Comment

Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska have joined the cast of "The Kids Are All Right," the latest from "High Art" director Lisa Cholodenko.