It’s episode #176 and Scattercast is … back for a bit.
A return of Scattercast with a whole lot of ramblings about Hollywood and the MPAA rating system.
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Yes, I’m still working on this silly embedding issue.
Are you ready for Triplets?
Word is that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito may be teaming up for a sequel to the 1988 comedy, Twins. The catch? The plot may revolve around there being a third sibling they didn’t know about. Who would play this character? Why Eddie Murphy of course!
… if I hand you a hammer, could you do me the favor of just bashing my brains out now?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ivan Reitman – who directed the original – would return in the role of a producer for the sequel that Universal and Montecito Picture Co. are trying to put together. No other names are yet attached, and writers are currently being sought to flesh out the story.
Jon Rettinger, my boss at TechnoBuffalo, brought this project to my attention earlier today, and I’m not sure I should thank him for that or not. As projects go, this one is just a trainwreck waiting to happen. The original wasn’t that funny, but it had a production budget of $15 million and went on to gross $216.6 million worldwide. Of course, that was 1988 and at the height of Schwarzenegger’s film popularity. Now he is a former governor who apparently got his maid pregnant and he’s trying to get his movie career going again at the tender age of 64. Shouldn’t he just be retiring from the world at this point?
Hollywood, I’m sorry to tell you, but now you’re just insulting us. There are thousands of writers out there trying to break into the industry, each with at least one good idea, and yet you keep going back to properties that just never need to be touched again. Whether it be “reboots” or sequels that we just don’t need, you just keep doing it to us. For every one good idea (Prometheus) there are 50 bad ones. I’ll let you all guess which category this one falls into.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
After years of false starts, it looks like Paramount has finally given the green light to Anchorman 2.
Will Ferrell and Paramount have had endless talks since the original Anchorman came out in 2004 about the possibility of a sequel. The first film had a $26 million budget and grossed $85 million at the box office. The movie became a big cult hit on home video and went on to top sales and rental charts. A sequel always seemed a bit of a no-brainer to fans of the film, but for some reason Paramount kept putting it off and making it sound like there was no hope of it happening.
For whatever reason the studio has now relented and Will Ferrell appeared on Conan on Wednesday night in his Ron Burgundy costume, and regaling us with some Jazz flute, announced that the sequel has finally been given the go ahead.
It’s long been believed the majority of the original cast will return, and lets hope that stays true as it wasn’t just Ferrell that carried the movie.
Oh, Michael Bay … can’t you just stop talking about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie before you just make it too much to bear?
Michael Bay has decided to throw more fuel on the fire that is the upcoming disaster that is the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. Previously he was addressing the fact that the characters will now be aliens as opposed to mutated turtles. Well, if you change that part, you have to change the title, right? Yep. And once again, he took to his own forums to explain it.
Paramount marketing changed the name. They made the title simple. The characters you all remember are exactly the same, and yes they still act like teenagers. Everything you remember, why you liked the characters, is in the movie. This script is being developed by two very smart writers, with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles. They care VERY MUCH about making this film for the fans. Everyone on this team cares about the fans. Just give them a chance. Jonathan the director, is a major fan of the whole franchise. HE’S NOT GOING TO LET YOU DOWN.
MICHAEL
Sure, Bay, blame it on the studio. How are we supposed to chill out about this when every other day it seems like you have to come along and reassure the fans that you aren’t going to mess this up? You know how you do that? Stop doing things that make us think you’re going to mess it up.
I know, crazy aren’t I? I’m wild that way.
It’s already like this is watching a train wreck happen and they haven’t even started filming yet.
The BBC has released a new trailer for the new Doctor Who episodes coming this fall, the rebooted show’s seventh season.
Despite next year being the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, the series is only its seventh season of the revitalized version currently being led by showrunner Steven Moffat. The current plan calls for five episodes to air this fall followed by the 2012 Christmas Special. The remaining eight episodes of season seven will run during 2013.
For those of you keeping track, we know that Amy Pond (Karen Gillian) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) are scheduled to leave this season, but when exactly that would happen has been up in the air. Seeing as it was just announced that Jenna-Louise Coleman would make her debut as the new companion in the Christmas Special, that pretty much tells us when we’ll see the current companions leave the TARDIS.
A sad day indeed as Amy has grown to be one of my personal favorite companions, but I’ll give Ms. Coleman a fair shake. Check out the trailer below and the new episodes begin this fall.
The only thing shocking about this weekend at the box office was that the early estimates were low.
To no one’s surprise, The Hunger Games took the top spot at the box office. After it’s success on Friday we all know it was coming, it was just a question of what the final number would be. It came in with $155 million for the weekend, making it the third largest opening weekend ever, and just $3 million shy of second place holder, The Dark Knight. It was the biggest opening weekend ever for a non-sequel, and that is saying a lot actually. Internationally the film brought in $59.25 million in only one day of screenings making the worldwide gross for the first three days $214.25 million. Expect to see just about every young adult novel ever turned into a movie soon.
Coming in second was the surprisingly successful 21 Jump Street which slid a very respectable 41.3% from last weekend to bring in $21.3 million. It’s domestic gross is now over $71 million, with an additional $16 million from foreign markets.
The Lorax landed in third place with another $13.1 million. This film is holding on surprisingly well considering early reviews weren’t the best.
Languishing in fourth place was Disney’s newest disaster, John Carter. The first of a proposed series of films slipped another dismal 63.1% this weekend to bring in an anemic $5 million. Domestic gross now stands at $62.3 million off of a $250 million budget. The only saving grace for this movie is the foreign markets seem to like it more with $172.1 million coming in from overseas thus far. When you factor in the higher expenses of overseas distribution, however, things are still not good.
Act of Valor made its way back into the top five this week, but with only $2 million in revenue.
Next weeks big releases are Mirror, Mirror and Wrath of the Titans. While I think Wrath will open strong, I’m going to call it right now that The Hunger Games will win its second weekend with ease. It’s going to take a 50 to 55% hit from this weekend for sure, but a $70 to $75 million weekend is going to be hard to compete with. We’ll just have to see what happens.
Fromt he realm of, “Seriously? Here of all places?” comes the story that Boston is cracking down on mosh pits.
According to the Boston Herald, The House of Blues located in Boston was recently cited for its security not intervening in a most pit that took place on February 21 during a Flogging Molly show. According to the story, the police report detailed that 60 concertgoers were engaged in an “aggressive mosh pit dance,” that had people running and “colliding into each other.” The citation also stated this led to some people who were “knocked to the ground.” Apparently no injuries were reported after show.
The House of Blues has said that is working with the authorities “to address concerns about moshing and other forms of expressive dance.” Nicole Grant, a spokeswoman for the Boston Police, said, “Dancing is a First Amendment right, but the behavior itself is a violation, especially when it becomes dangerous and a public safety hazard.”
The club has since had to put up illuminated signs indicating that moshing is no longer allowed at the club.
You know what I have to say to this? ”You’re Boston. Have you ever looked at your musical history?”
From Punk-core in the 80′s to now, Boston’s music scene has been known to be one of the hardest in the country. Ska, a music with its roots in Jamaica in the 1960′s, is known for its laid back attitudes. In the late 1980′s Boston gave rise to what is known as the “third-wave of Ska,” and which others refer to as “Ska-core.” The music took on a distinctly harsher edge thanks to the likes of bands such as The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The Dropkick Murphys, a band in a similar vain to Flogging Molly, is known for its aggressive style of music was born out of Boston’s South Side area.
You are a city that has not only tolerated this type of behavior for decades, but played an active role in its wide adoption. To suddenly decide in 2012 that moshing is “dangerous and a public safety hazard” is akin to warning people around Three Mile Island that there might be some radiation in the area.
Over my years I have been in my fair share of mosh pits, I didn’t enjoy them and I stopped going into them. Do I have a problem with other people doing it? Nope, to each their own so long as I stay out of it. And believe me, they aren’t that difficult to avoid. To suddenly decide that this is some sort of public safety issue after years and years just screams to me of the issues we have in this country with every single thing seeming to be regulated in our lives. Is this really that large of an issue that the police need to spend time on it and Boston’s licensing board needs to hold hearings over it? Are mosh pits overtaking the entire city and suddenly breaking out in parks? Have old women been mugged by roving mosh pits?
Seriously Boston, I loved you when I visited back in 2009, but this has really ruined my buzz for you.
[via Boston Herald, thanks to Rizzn for the tip]
Apparently if you write a young adult book these days, you’re pretty much setting yourself up for some insane success.
Following in the footsteps of Twilight, Lionsgate released The Hunger Games this weekend and it absolutely destroyed the competition. Filmed on a $78 million budget, the first film in the trilogy brought in $68.2 million on Friday alone. I don’t normally write up the box office reports during the weekend, but the numbers and records this film is posting are just staggering.
Current estimates have it brining in $140 million total this weekend, but with the Friday numbers being higher than expected there are some rumblings of $150+ million by the time the weekend closes out.
Where analysts are saying it succeeded was that unlike Twilight, this is not a female-only property. It’s appealing to teen girls, women, males of all ages and those who wish to just know what the heck it’s about leading to it being called a “four-quadrant” film.
The good news is that it is also getting pretty much universally rave reviews.
Catching Fire, the second book in the series, has already had a release date scheduled for its sequel film of November 22, 2013. With the success we’re seeing from this film, don’t be too surprised if the third book, Mockingjay, gets split it into two movies ala what happened with Twilight and Harry Potter.
The final total numbers for the 2011 box office finally hit today, and they tell a rather interesting tale.
The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) finally released all the numbers for the 2011 box office, and while the U.S. barely broke the $10 billion mark again, overseas is where the real action was.
U.S. ticket sales brought in $10.2 billion, a drop of 3.8% from 2010. Admissions – the number of people buying tickets – fell even further by 4.5% to 1.2 billion, the lowest number since at least 1996, which was 1.33 billion. 3D movies lost $400 million to land at $1.8 billion, but the MPAA was quick to point out that Avatar’s numbers were in the 2010 numbers. The average ticket price jumped 1% to $7.93, and that represents a 37% jump since 2002.
Overseas ticket sales however accounted for a staggering 68.7% of the $32.6 billion total for all tickets sold.
Other bad news, the number of people classified as “frequent moviegoers” – those who buy at least one movie ticket a month – fell 2.2% to 35 million.
The MPAA has spent its day trying to spin all this data as not being as negative as it looks, with a lot of them blame being laid on Avatar doing so spectacularly well the year before. I’m sorry to tell you, but when you’re losing your most frequent customers, something is definitely wrong no matter how you spin it.
[via Deadline]
It’s that time of year where all of the broadcast network shows start wrapping up everything for another season.
CBS is the first to let us know when our favorite shows will be saying so long for their summer breaks.
CBS is wasting no time this year with keeping everyone in the loop and has also announced 18 shows already that are coming back for the 2012-2013 season. Not quite sure why the eyeball network is so on top of things this year, but more power to them.
It’s amazing how the naming of a new companion for Doctor Who has become a major media event.
It had been announced some time ago that Karen Gillian was leaving the role of Amy Pond sometime in the upcoming season of the hit British TV show, leaving the Doctor without one of his ever present companions. It was announced in London this morning that there was nothing to fear, and a new companion was on their way in the 2012 Christmas special. The new companion, who has yet to receive a name, will be played by 25-year-old Jenna-Louise Coleman.
Ms. Coleman is best known in England for her portrayal of Jasmine Thomas on the soap opera Emmerdale. She has taken several roles since leaving that series in 2009, including a brief appearance in Captain America: The First Avenger.
Absolutely no details were given about her character beyond when she will first appear, and we have no clue how long she has signed to appear in the series. Matt Smith, the current actor portraying the Doctor, has already announced he has no plans to leave the series in the near future, so look forward to seeing these two travelling through time together in 2013.
Michael Bay is setting out to once again mess up a beloved franchise.
Whether you’re a fan of the original comic book or even the late 1980′s cartoon, everyone knows the origin of the Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles. Heck, it’s in their name. They are mutants. At no time has it ever been suggested that they are aliens.
Oh no, leave it to Michael Bay to do that.
Speaking at a recent Nickeloden event, Michael Bay had this to say about the upcoming Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles movie he is producing:
When you see this movie, kids are going to believe, one day, that these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie. These turtles are from an alien race and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely lovable.
That sounds awesome, and … wait a minute. They’re “from an alien race?”
This little tidbit immediately sparked outrage over the weekend, leading to Bay finally addressing the issue on his site:
Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world.
The Turtles already have a “complex back story.” They already have a rich world. Why is it Michael Bay can’t touch anything without adding his own mark to it? The Transformers for instance had a huge back story, and he chucked almost every bit of it to make his own version which pretty much completely ignores everything.
He says he’s working with one of the original creators, but fails to name which one it is. Well, I can tell you with 99.9% certainty its Kevin Eastman and not Peter Laird as the latter has pretty much disappeared off the face of the planet since the time of the cartoon. And as much as I like Eastman as a person – I have met him on multiple occasions – he isn’t all that protective of the property. Which is fine, but in general, the story has always remained the same: They are mutated turtles. No aliens.
Why can’t fans “take a breath and chill,” Mr. Bay? Because we know your track record. We know how you mutilate things we love. We know that you don’t have an ounce of talent in your body. You blow things up. That’s pretty much your only skill. Oh, and over using slow motion for no apparent reason.
Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles hits theaters December 25, 2013 … be afraid, be very afraid.
