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Tuesday, November 24
While 2008 was a high-profile year for movies adapted from comic books (Iron Man, The Dark Knight), 2009 had its own army of super properties arrayed on the big screen — nine notables all tallied, including the highly anticipated Watchmen.
So, how did this year's movies stack up? We take a look back, identifying the 2009 Comic Book Movies: Winners and Losers. And here's a bonus tip for studios that just can't be repeated enough: Don't turn an anime property into a live-action movie.
Posted 11/24/2009 by reelz
Related: X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Whiteout | Push | G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra | Dragonball Evolution | Watchmen | Astro Boy | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Surrogates
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Thursday, October 8
Director Michael Bay is currently Paramount Pictures' golden boy, thanks to the incredible success of his Transformers movies. However, the filmmaker known for his over-the-top productions also runs Platinum Dunes, a production company responsible for reinventing and repackaging a number of classic horror movies where the key words are "low budget" — and Paramount wants in on the action.
Variety reports that Bay's Platinum Dunes has signed a first-look production deal with Paramount Pictures' president, Adam Goodman. Platinum Dunes is responsible for the recent return of several big-name horror franchises to the box office, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, The Amityville Horror, and the upcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street, all of which were made on comparatively modest budgets. Surprising no one, Goldman said that he's a fan of the company because they make money:
What makes us so excited to have Platinum Dunes here at Paramount is how ... they have consistently created excitingly commercial movies that have proven to be a formidable force at the box office.
Bay said that he is looking forward to taking a break from Transformers to work on some smaller-scale pictures:
I found myself tossing and turning, and realized there was a reason I originally wanted to push [Transformers 3] until 2012, and do a small movie in between. This is hard, and I'm getting too old for this pressure.
What that means for Bay, though, who can guess? Something tells us his "small movie" will still get a budget north of $100 million.
Posted 10/8/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Michael Bay | Transformers | Friday the 13th | Adam Goodman | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Transformers 3 | A Nightmare on Elm Street
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Wednesday, October 7
There will be no Transformers in the future for Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the the writing team behind both Transformers films. The news was dropped on producer Don Murphy's website yesterday when a forum poster asked Orci if it was true that the writing duo would not return for another round of Transformers. Orci responded simply, "It's true."
Orci said that writer Ehren Kruger, who assisted with the script for Revenge of the Fallen, would be handling writing duties on the sequel. When asked if Kruger knew enough about Transformers to handle the writing duties alone, Orci commented:
He does. He really did his homework. He's awesome.
Orci also addressed the humor in Revenge of the Fallen. A forum poster commented that some parents didn't even want to take their kids to see the film because of the humor and Orci responded:
I can’t blame them.
Director Michael Bay recently confirmed thatplans were in motion for a third Transformers movie and that he and actress Megan Fox would be returning.
Next Showing: Transformers 3 is scheduled for release July 1, 2011
Posted 10/7/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Ehren Kruger | Roberto Orci | Alex Kurtzman | Transformers | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Transformers 3
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Thursday, October 1
After the hugely successful Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen hit theaters this summer, director Michael Bay said he wanted to work on a "small movie" before launching into Transformers 3. Bay was eyeing either the bodybuilding comedy Pain & Gain or an adaptation of the teen action/sci-fi novel I Am Number Four, a commitment that opened the door for a possible Bay-less sequel.
Consider that door closed. Bay used his own website to announce that he is working on Transformers 3 next, and that it will appear earlier than anticipated.
Well it's official: We have a great Transformers 3 story. The release date is now July 1st 2011. Not 2012.
July 1 was the original release date Paramount gave Transformers 3, but it was Bay that said the movie was more likely to arrive in 2012. Bay says he will work on Pain & Gain after Transformers 3 is finished, but is already hard at work on "Trans 3."
Today is Day One. This morning started with an ILM meeting for fivehours in San Francisco. Currently I'm flying with writer Ehren Kruger to Rhode Island to talk to Hasbro about new characters.
While Bay did not mention Shia LeBeouf by name, it is likely he will return for the sequel, and despite the antagonism between Bay and Fox that was chronicled by the press, Bay says Fox is returning.
P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.
Posted 10/1/2009 by Ryan
Related: Megan Fox | Michael Bay | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Transformers 3
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Monday, July 27
Actress Megan Fox scoffed when reporters asked her about the possibility of playing a superhero in a live-action Wonder Woman movie, but apparently playing a zombie wasn't beneath her consideration. Perhaps that's because she found the role to be so unlike the decidedly un-sexy zombies to appear on screen in previous movies.
In the still-in-production comedy-horror movie Jennifer's Body, Fox plays a cheerleader who returns from the dead as a zombie to feast on her former classmates. In a recent interview, Fox said that zombies can be "sexy" and that there was a lot of eroticism in the movie:
Fox was criticized for being so critical of Transformers, the franchise that made her famous. She contrasts her new movie with Transformers, saying that she has more opportunities to act in Jennifer's Body:
There are no robots to distract you from whatever performance I give, so if it's terrible you will know. But the character was so much fun. I felt I was being able to make fun of my own image.
Jennifer's Body is currently in production, with Karyn Kusama (Æon Flux) directing from a script by Diablo Cody (Juno). If a zombie revenge movie seems a strange thing for the indie darling to write after the heartfelt tale of Juno MacGuff, think again. Cody told Entertainment Weekly:
I was involved in a typical adolescent love triangle, and I found myself having incredibly violent thoughts about this other girl.
Posted 7/27/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Megan Fox | Karyn Kusama | Aeon Flux | Transformers | Juno | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Jennifer's Body | Diablo Cody
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Friday, July 24
With the massive success of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a sequel was certain to follow. Director Michael Bay, who worked on the Transformers movies back-to-back, has already said he wants to do a different movie before he does another tour in the robotic world. But would a Transformers 3 get made without Bay? Transformers producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura explained to IGN that a Bay-less sequel is possible:
As the producer I'd certainly love to see him back. I can't imagine Transformers without him. I guess the studio will see it sometime as such a big asset that they are forced to do it, but Michael has never intimated anything like that — the timing is the big question for him, not whether he is going to do it or not.
So it's less about Bay wanting to do another Transformers and more about whether Paramount wants to wait for him to be ready. Speaking of Transformers 3, isn't it time to bring out Unicron, the planet-morphing robot from the animated Transformers: The Movie?
Unicron worries me because it's so big that it dwarves emotion. It's so hard, because when you're working to that scale, it sort of becomes outside any kind of human reality you have. It's obviously a great character, and one that we're definitely going to talk about, but for me personally — and I'm not the only vote here — that one scares me. Because of its size, it becomes sort of impersonal when it gets to that scale.
I remember seeing the second Fantastic Four and Galactcus, and suddenly I was in another world and it took it away from the human characters. One of the tricky parts about Transformers is you've got these five-to-six foot things called humans, then you've got the 32-foot Transformers, then you come to Devastator and you've got 125-feet. You become increasingly small on a physical level, and I think that's true on a story level. I think if you go to Unicron, you're going to end up sacrificing your human characters. And for me that worries me because I like the human characters.
But isn't a giant robot planet perfect for the IMAX experience?:
Well, Devastator covered it from foot to top so I don't know what the hell else you'd do to tell you the truth. Don't get me wrong — Unicron is an obvious and great character, I just worry about it from the experience of the movie.
No matter if Unicron makes into Transformers 3, his voice won't, since alas, Orson Welles won't be available. So what would Di Bonaventura like to explore in the sequel?
I love the Mini-Cons actually — I think they're very cool.
Mini-Cons? The human-sized Transformers? Hmm, Transformers 3: Attack of the Mini-Cons lacks a little punch, but their history in the cartoon series Transformers: Armada is tied to Unicron, so maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.
Posted 7/24/2009 by Ryan
Related: Transformers: The Movie | Lorenzo di Bonaventura | Michael Bay | Transformers | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Transformers 3
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Monday, July 20
The above headline is true ... in China.
China Film spokesman Weng Li recently announced that director Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the new all-time Chinese box-office champion, soundly defeating James Cameron's Titanic. The first Transformers movie didn't come close to Titanic's $52.7 million record, with ticket sales of only $37 million. But its sequel earned $58.5 million, making it the new leader by a wide margin.
To protect locally produced films, China has a quota system in place that limits the number of foreign-film releases to approximately 20 per year. Despite this, Hollywood films have already had a successful run in China, with Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Terminator Salvation already topping the $15 million mark this year — the Chinese equivalent of "blockbuster" status. China currently has approximately 4,100 screens, and Transformers: ROTF received a wide release because of the absence of any major motion picture competition.
According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has earned $364 million domestically, with an additional $383 million earned internationally. This pales in comparison to the overall ticket sales for Titanic, which earned $600 million domestically and $1.2 billion internationally.
Posted 7/20/2009 by BrentJS
Related: James Cameron | Titanic | Michael Bay | Transformers | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
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Wednesday, July 15
According to Variety, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set an all-time record for its midnight opening, which took in an estimated $22.2 million. The movie screened a combined 3,003 times in theaters across the country, which means each screening took in almost $7,400.
This figure puts the sixth Potter movie well ahead of The Dark Knight and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which earned $18 million and $17 million, respectively with their midnight debuts. It also eclipses the $16 million made by last month's midnight screenings of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
In addition, ABC News10 in Sacramento is reporting that Half-Blood Prince has overtaken The Dark Knight as the #2 entry on Fandango's list of Top 10 all-time advance ticket sellers. That puts it ahead of movies like Twilight, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and Spiderman 3. It now trails only Revenge of the Sith.
For some fun accounts of last night's midnight mayhem, check out this article in The New York Daily News and this one from The San Diego News Network.
Also worth a look is this video from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which involves mock protesters marching against the presence of muggles:
Posted 7/15/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | The Dark Knight | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
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Friday, July 10
Despite saying in a recent article that he wanted to slow down the pace somewhat and do a more actor-driven movie after Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, director Michael Bay may have already signed up for another round of science fiction/action.
DreamWorks is apparently finalizing a deal to acquire the screen rights to I Am Number Four, the first in a proposed series of six science fiction books by James Frey, the best-selling author who admitted on Ophrah that he had embellished parts of his addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces. The publishing rights to the series, about a group of alien teenagers who find refuge on earth after their own planet is destroyed, was supposedly involved in a bidding war, with Bay taking the series to DreamWorks for consideration.
Though nothing's been finalized at this point, Bay added the article to his own blog page, so it seems likely that he will be on board — at least in some capacity.
Posted 7/10/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Michael Bay | Transformers | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
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Wednesday, July 8
It's no secret by now that despite the massive financial success of Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the movie has been almost universally torn to shreds by critics. Among the detractors was Roger Ebert, who gave the movie only one star and was ruthless in last week's review.
The public then struck back. Ebert received several angry responses from fans, many accusing him of being out of touch and, well, critic-y. Here's one example, which Ebert printed on his website:
Roger Ebert is a moron! Transformers 2 is the best action movie ever. Don't listem to that moron! He is only into slow boring romantic movies. That is his type of movies. Michael Bay did a great good.
And like a good critic, Ebert duly responded with a full-length article entitled "I'm a Proud Brainiac." In the article, he not only defends the idea that knowing a lot about movies is okay, but also talks about how critics should operate with respect to viewers. It's a very nice, thought-provoking piece that is well worth reading. Here's a little taste:
So let's focus on those who seriously believe Transformers is one of the year's best films. Are these people wrong? Yes. They are wrong. I am fond of the story I tell about Gene Siskel. When a so-called film critic defended a questionable review by saying, "after all, it's opinion," Gene told him: "There is a point when a personal opinion shades off into an error of fact. When you say The Valachi Papers is a better film than The Godfather, you are wrong." Quite true. We should respect differing opinions up to certain point, and then it's time for the wise to blow the whistle ...
... Those who think Transformers is a great or even a good film are, may I tactfully suggest, not sufficiently evolved. Film by film, I hope they climb a personal ladder into the realm of better films, until their standards improve. Those people contain multitudes. They deserve films that refresh the parts others do not reach. They don't need to spend a lifetime with the water only up to their toes.
Touché, Roger!
Posted 7/8/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Michael Bay | Roger Ebert | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Gene Siskel