Lionsgate has optioned the rights to remake the late 1980′s hit film Dirty Dancing.

Haven’t I done this story before?  Oh yeah, I did.

It seems that the rights to the last one had its options lapse, so another company has swooped in to remake a film that has absolutely no need to be remade.  Jennifer Grey has apparently given her seal of approval to the concept of a remake, which, as the infamous “Baby” in the original means … absolutely nothing.

Oh, Hollywood … I hate you.  For whatever reason you’ve decided you need to remake every film ever made, and now that you are down to this horrid piece of drek (argue all you want, the original is a horrible story riddle with horrible acting, I don’t care how romantic you say it was, it was garbage), you need to get so excited about it that you’re already talking casting and how exciting it’ll be.

I have six words for you:

Nobody puts Baby in the corner!

This line is one of the worst lines ever written or delivered in the history of film, but you know that they’ll have to include the line to make everyone in the theater squeal with happiness.

I think my brain is bleeding eve thinking about this project.

One man is shot and killed by the police; a man suspected of drug and gang crimes, and with evidence pointing to him having fired at the police. While outrage is fine, and speaking out against it is more than acceptable.  Four days of rioting?  Now you’re just spitting on the man’s grave.

Before I go much further, let me say that I am speaking solely to the rioters.  I have had many friends from England over he years, and I know that I am not speaking to 99.99% of the population of the country.  I am speaking directly to the cretins that have seen fit to take the death of Mark Duggan and turn it into an excuse for looting, destroying and acting generally as asses.

You are a proud nation, a nation that was a glowing example of strength and will in the face of a great enemy as Germany pounded you nightly during the Blitz.  You are a nation that has once been able to say that the sun never set on your empire … and now you are burning down a Sony warehouse after you’ve ransacked it for some electronics?  Well done.  Makes total sense that you should loot businesses of people completely unrelated to what happened to Duggan.

What about the 150-year-old family business you destroyed?  Did they shoot Duggan?  No, they didn’t.

With every moment of footage and report I read, I feel a gut wrenching sadness for England, it’s proud history and the innocent people caught up in this that have never done anything to harm anyone.  Those of you participating in the riots, you are nothing but hooligans, thugs and scum.  You want to know what’s wrong with your life?  Look in a mirror and leave those around you alone as they have done nothing to you, and all you are doing in the end is hurting yourself.  You are hurting friends, family, loved ones and taking jobs away from your area by destroying businesses.

Are you proud of yourselves?  No, you aren’t.  And as more and more of you upload pictures and video to social networks, and you slip up showing your faces here and there, we’ll see how proud you are as you get hauled off to prison.

To those of you who have stood strong, keep calm and carry on.

Despite it being ten years since there was anything for the Planet of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes took the top spot at the box office this weekend.

The original Planet of the Apes series ended in 1973, and the remake was released in 2001, so my feelings were that a prequel of sorts to a series most of today’s movie audience wasn’t that familiar with wouldn’t do well, but yet Rise of the Planet of the Apes brought in a healthy $54 million this weekend. Where this fits into the overall Apes mythos is odd in that is envisioned to be an origin story of sorts to the original 1968 film, it contradicts the fourth film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, that told of the rise of Ceaser. Seeing how the film did this weekend, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a whole new series launch out of this film. (Here ends my nerdy knowledge of the Planet of the Apes series.)

Coming in second was The Smurfs with a respectable 41% fall off in business from its opening to weekend to land with $21 million. Seeing as an average second weekend fall is 50%, this film is performing surprisingly well.

Not performing as well was last weeks top spot holder, Cowboys & Aliens which fell 56.8% to $15.7 million. The concept was unique for sure, but it appears that film goers were not all that interested in this concept.

The Change-Up opened up in fourth place with $15.7 million. Perhaps it is time for Hollywood to realize that people are bored with body swap stories, but it’s doubtful that will stop them from going back to this forumla time and time again.

Wrapping up the top five was Captain America: The First Avenger with $13 million in its third weekend.

Next week is a busy one with The Help opening on Wednesday and 30 Minutes or Less, Final Destination 5 and Glee The 3D Concert Movie hitting on the weekend.

Green Lantern?  Out of the theaters completely.  No more train wreck for us.

Despite the fact that Man of Steel, the Superman reboot film, has been pushed back to a 2013 release date, that hasn’t started the publicity machine from already firing up.

Released last week, but somewhat lost in The Dark Knight Rises photos leaking out, was the first publicity image of Henry Cavill in the Superman costume you see below.  (click it for a much, much larger version)

The film only recently begun production, and the release date was quickly pushed back from 2012, but judging by this first image … what the what?  Still images don’t usually do these types of costumes much justice, but has there ever been anything more rubbery looking?  Yes, I understand he’s an alien, and the concept of whether or not it was made of Kryptonian materials changes from time to time, so you could write it off as an “alien look,” but it still just looks odd.

We’ll just have to see what Zack Snyder has in mind, but as first images ago, this one just makes me nervous.  As for Cavill himself … eh?

A total of 39 this week.

FunJug.com

• Bashful Machine Gun
• Vin Diesel on Helium
• Japanese TV Show Sweaty Fire Rescue
• Madison Bray- Girl Swag
• My Drunk Kitchen Ep. 7: Tacos
• Saturday Shorts: Are You Ready For Marriage?

RememberingChristmas.com

• U.S. Post Office Debuts 2011 Christmas Stamps

SeanPAune.com

• Georgia Teacher Charged with Multiple Sexual Assault Charges
• Cowboys & Aliens Ties for Top Spot with The Smurfs (UPDATED)
• Harry Potter Joins the Billion Dollar Club
• Transformers Joins the Billion Dollar Club
• 25 Years of Living With the Same Poster
• Scattercast Episode #156: Count the Tickets!
• First Picture of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman
• Amazing Spider-Man 2 Sets a Release Date

TechnoBuffalo.com

• Rumored iPhone 5 Case Compared to the iPhone 4
• New Android Malware Will Record Your Phone Calls
• Ask The Buffalo: Live from VidCon 2011
• BlackBerry Bold 9900 Coming to Rogers on Aug 9th
• A Droid Bionic Release Date Finally Gets Hinted At
• Verizon Introduces First LTE Netbook
• AT&T Anounces BlackBerry Torch 9810 and Two Others
• BlackBerry Bold 9930 & BlackBerry Torch 9850 Coming to Sprint
• Ask the Buffalo: August 3rd Edition
• Huawei Vision Coming at You in 3D
• Leaked Verizon Roadmap Spills the Dates of New Phones
• New iPhone 5 Image Surfaces Claiming to be the Real Deal (Updated)
• Hulu Teams Up with Morgan Spurlock for Original Series
• Jon Rettinger on Good Day L.A. on Friday, Aug. 5th
• Starbucks Cutting Power Outlets for Laptops?
• HBO Go Heading to Your TV and Gaming Consoles
• What’s The Apps: Textie
• Samsung Conquer 4G Coming to Sprint
• Droid Bionic to Ship with Two Batteries?
• Netflix Signs a Deal with Lionsgate UK; European Launch Coming?
• Samsung Hercules Coming to Telus?
• Jon Rettinger Talks Top Phones With Fox News LA
• Rumor Round Up: Hulu Considers Ad-Free Service, the Latest iPhone Rumors and More!
• Safari Continues to Gain Ground in the Browser Wars

Amazing Spider-Man 2 will hit theaters on May 2, 2014.

I’m sorry, but, what?

The confusion here comes from the fact the first film, Amazing Spider-Man, doesn’t come out until July 3, 2012, so we now have a release date for a sequel to a film that hasn’t even been released yet.  ”I think it speaks volumes about our confidence in what we are seeing on the new film and our desire to move quickly on the next installment,” a Sony executive told Deadline.

What it tells me is you’re racing to get a lock on a weekend and make it extremely clear to Marvel that you’re never going to let these rights revert back to them.  (So long as Sony keeps production on a Spider-Man film churning every few years, the rights will never return to the comics company, or its parent company Disney.)  Do you even have a script ready?  Have you locked crew yet?  I’m sure you locked Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone (pictured to the right) for multiple films, but do you have a director ready to go?

The first film is still in post-production, and now these same folks have to get pre-production ready on the next one?  True, it’s a little under three years away, but you are definitely overlapping productions here, and that can go horribly wrong if not managed correctly.  True, the Harry Potter series kept a similar schedule up, so it is possible, but it definitely makes me nervous about what sort of quality we can expect.

The first picture of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises has been released.

Probably the most anticipated moment of the production of the third Chris Nolan Batman film has been the reveal of Anne Hathaway in her Catwoman costume.  The below image was released via the official site for the film this morning, more than likely as a reaction to the numerous images that have been leaking out of the Pittsburgh, PA set where the film is currently shooting.  Oddly enough, while the image is exciting, it raises almost as many questions as it answers.

• What in the world is she doing on the Batpod? (still the silliest name ever)  Catwoman is a thief, so did she steal it, or has she teamed up with Batman as she does sometimes in the comics?
• Kudos to Warner Brothers, they’ve shown us the outfit … without actually showing us the outfit.  We still can’t see the majority of it.
• No head gear?  Catwoman has always worn some sort of hood, usually with at least a slight cat ear motif to it.
• The official site is still only referring to her as “Selina Kyle,” Catwoman’s secret identity.

Well … for all I care, it really doesn’t matter how publicity stills for this film look, there is absolutely nothing that will keep me out of the theater come July 2012.  I had numerous misgivings prior to The Dark Knight, and by the time I walked out of the theater I was ready to walk right back in and see it again.  Chris Nolan has made me such a believer in his concept for these films and characters that, for once, I have actual faith in trust in a filmmaker.  He has not entered these films without a vision, and even the aspects I haven’t liked (The name “Batpod” still drives me up the wall), they have only been mild dislike.

No head gear on Catwoman?  Eh.  Not calling her Catwoman?  Eh.  Casting Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle?  Good job.  Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle on the Batpod?  AWESOME!

It’s episode #155 and Scattercast is getting old.

A minor update on Dolly Madison.

Hollywood has a very mixed July depending on if you want to look at the money or attendance as a way to study their success.

A lot of talk about movies in general.

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On Aug. 4th, 1986 I opened Splash Page Comics, my comic book store. Despite the fact that in 1991 we moved to a larger set of digs, and in 2001 we closed the retail operation and became AnimeUSA full time, one thing has remained the same: The Thor poster.

Before we opened the store we set out to get some decorations, and we found a comic shop in souther Missouri that has a super fancy laminating machine and they would run comic book posters through it.  They looked fantastic, and we bought four different one to decorate the store with.  I don’t remember what all four were, but the Thor poster by well-known comic artist Joe Jusko went on the wall behind where I sat at the counter.  I wasn’t ever a really big fan of Thor, but I liked the art, and it livened the place up.

Over time the other three posters feel off their push pins or found other ways to get damaged.  As time went by, the store had two break-ins, a minor flood, a minor fire and who knows how many other issues, but one thing you could always count on was the Thor poster would still be hanging on the wall.  It became a running joke that it was actually what kept the building standing.

When we moved to a larger part of the building in 1991 the poster got moved to the bathroom door, but it was still where it was visible to all of the customers.  One day I walked in and found it missing.  I immediately turned to the guy working as my manager at that time and asked in a frantic voice where the Thor poster was.  He had put some form of promotion poster up in its place and said it was just too god of a spot to keep a poster up we weren’t even trying to sell.  I immediately told him to swap it back.  He tried arguing with me, but even my mother who was present at the time asked if he really wanted to risk his job over my attachment to the Thor poster.

The Thor poster went back up.

When we moved our business to our current warehouse in 2003, the Thor poster came with us, although it now hangs in frame as its top corners have begun to fray.  For 25 years Thor and his Asgardians have greeted me each morning as I arrive at work, and I plan to keep it that way no matter what happens in my life.

I am well aware that the poster has no connection to my business staying open, it’s just more of my security blanket at this point.  I doubt that there are many people that can say they have looked at the same poster every day for 25 years, but I definitely have, and I look forward to may more years with it.

(You can click the image of a larger view … which the picture was taken only a few days before this post.)

For the first time in history, three films in the same film season have cross the billion dollar mark for global revenue. Yes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon has now entered the not-so-exclusive-anymore billion dollar movie club.

It was just yesterday that I noted that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 had crossed the billion dollar mark, and while we knew the third film in the Transformers series was going to do it, we just didn’t know the exact day it was going to happen.  Well, it appears that while pundits were pontificating yesterday on the ninth film to reach that milestone, the tenth was also crossing the line.

Transformers 3 actually landed itself in ninth place on the all time list, pushing The Dark Knight down to the tenth position.  Seeing as three of the films in the top 10 are still in release at this time amazingly enough, it is certain that things will continue to fluctuate.  The only film that seems safe at this point is Avatar which sits comfortably in first place with $2.7 billion.  Actually, second place is also fairly secure with Titanic at $1.8 billion, but spots 3 thru 10 are still moving around.

What I’ve been saying recently about total box office dollar amounts no longer being the proper way to track a film’s success seems to be proven more and more every time I turn around.  For three films to all break into this once illustrious club at nearly the same time is just insanity, but when you are charging extra for 3D and Imax, you can make it there without much difficulty.  Now, show me how many actual bodies walked into each showing, and then we have a metric I can get behind.  Sadly that will never happen, and films that have no business being considered for these upper echelons of film history will continue to get there because they’re just pretty, pretty eye candy.

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 has joined the ranks of the films to break the $1 billion dollar box office mark for global ticket sales, marking only the ninth film to do so. While impressive, it also shows that the measurement of a successful movie based on dollar amounts is hopelessly broken.

Over the past weekend the eighth and final film in the Harry Potter series became the first film of its kin to break the magical billion dollar mark, and while it leads the series in dollars, it does not lead in attendance records.  And that is why this “billion dollar club” has become a joke.

Four of the nine films to enter this pantheon were released in 2009 and 2010, and include extra income from 3D premium tickets, IMAX and ever increasing ticket prices.  The only film not released in this decade to be in top 10 is Titanic, and doesn’t any one else find that odd?

You look at the all time adjusted domestic box office chart which multiplies the attendance by current ticket prices, you see that Gone with the Wind is still the top grossing film and followed by others like Star Wars, The Sound of Music and other older films.  Why aren’t we tracking the success of movies by how many people it gets into the theater, and not what they pay for it?  What I pay in my little town right now compared to large cities is so vastly different, than even as an in the moment measurement system box office dollars simply don’t work.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third film in that series, looks set to break the $1 billion in worldwide dollars by probably tomorrow, meaning that the top 10 films will all be in the billion dollar club, and the list will look like this.

Notice the disturbing trend? Thanks higher 3D ticket prices for totally throwing this out of whack!

Congrats to these films for making it to these dollar marks, now if it only somehow reflected how many people actually saw them.

In what is sure to turn in to a day long battle of pennies, two films tied for the top box office spot this weekend: Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs.

One thing to remember with these top box office reports each week is they are based off of estimates until much later in the day on Monday.  The projections are usually fairly accurate, but when you have two films tie for the top spot, you end up with a day long battle of furious accounting to figure out which one actually came out on top.

Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs are both initially reporting box office receipts of $36.2 million.  No matter what, the former was expecting a bigger weekend more in the range of $45 million, but the latter actually came in a bit ahead.

Captain America: The First Avenger took a 62 percent hit, falling to $24.9 million.  This keeps it ahead of Thor, but not by much.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 came in fourth, falling another 54 percent to $21.9 million. It became the top grossing film in the series on Friday, and has also passed $1 billion globally, but it is running behind based on attendance. This has got to become the leading metric someday for the business side of things over the finances.

Coming in in firth place was the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love which brought in $19.3 million.

Green Lantern? 26th place with $166,000 for a new domestic total of $114.3 million. For a fun comparison, Thor came out more than a month earlier and was in 23rd place with $203,000.

Next week sees the release of The Change-Up and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I know next to nothing about the first one, but I really have no clue how the prequel to the Planet of the Apes will do. It seems like a really odd pull at this point.

UPDATE: Cowboys & Aliens brought in $36.4 million to The Smurfs $35.6.  

Adding to Green Lantern’s shame, Rio – an animated move released in April and coming out on DVD tomorrow – played in more theaters and brought in $560 more.