The first design images for Mockingbird Lane, the remake of The Munsters, have been released, and it is definitely a whole new direction.

Bryan Fuller, the creator behind Pushing Daisies, is moving ahead with his modern day re-do of the camp classic, The Munsters.  The new series will film its pilot in June, and should it go to series it will be a darker series than the original with a modern take on what it would be like if monsters truly lived amongst us.

As you can see in the image above from Entertainment Weekly (click for a larger view), the characters are taking on a much different look than their 1960′s counterparts.

I’m intrigued by what I’m seeing, but I think this is another instance of, “why not just go with an original idea?” Why did they have use The Munsters? Why not just tale the idea of monsters in the real world, slap some original names on them, change their relationships a bit (Instead of having Eddie Izzard play grandpa, have him be “The father from the old country,” and give him a name that somehow relates to “Vlad?” See? Was that so hard to make it new?) and not worry about the old license?  If this series was maintaining The Munsters name as opposed to using their address, I could see it was you could write it off as capturing old fans, but instead most people won’t ever even realize what they are seeing.

I will say this artwork gives me a bit more interest in the new show, but I just can’t grasp why it had to be a remake.

[via Coming Soon]

With each clip from The Avengers that comes out, this movie just looks more and more awesome.

We got our first full clip last week, but this new one is thrilling because: 1) Robert Downey Jr. is, as always, awesome, and 2) it’s cool to hear “Avengers” said as the team name as well as hearing “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

If anyone had told me when I was a kid I’d someday see a film like this, I wouldn’t have believed them.  Even now it still doesn’t seem quite real, but I can’t wait to sit down and see it for myself come next month.

I have never seen Titanic, nor do I have any intention of ever watching it.

That being said, should James Cameron ever go back and make the version shown in this video, I just might watch it.  I always knew it was really a sea monster that sunk the ship.

Despite facing some stiff competitors this weekend, The Hunger Games remained in the top spot.

With another $33.5 million, The Hunger Games won its third consecutive weekend at the box office and it saw it surpass $300 million in domestic box office.  With its international take, the film now has a worldwide gross of $459.9 million.

Coming in second was American Reunion, the latest entry in the American Pie series.  It opened with $21.5 million, one of the weakest openings yet in the series.  I personally got tired of the franchise after the second film, so not sure why they’ve kept going with it.

Third place went to the 3D re-release of Titanic, which many thought would take the top spot.  It brought in $17.35 million, and in total has so far taken in $25 million.  The 3D conversion is said to have cost $18 million, so we’ll see if the project ended up being a good idea or not.

Wrath of the Titans slid 55.1% to $15 million and is looking to pretty much go down in the books as a flop as it had a $150 million budget.  With only $59 million in domestic box office after two weekends, things are definitely not going well.

Coming in fifth was Mirror, Mirror with a 39% decline to $11 million.  While it’s still not a success, that’s a healthy hold for a second weekend.

Surprisingly 21 Jump Street was in sixth with $10 million.  This really is looking like it’s turning into a surprise success.  What’s not a surprise success?  John Carter landed in ninth place with $820,000.

Next weekend is looking good for The Hunger Games again as the big releases are Lockout, The Cabin in the Woods and The Three Stooges. None of these three films look set for successful launches.

Sometimes there are roadsigns that you simply won’t find in many places around the country.

During a rare leisure trip this weekend, I finally decided to take a picture of a sign I see quite often around here that I doubt you’ll find in all that many locations.

In case you’re wondering, that’s an Amish buggy. And within a few miles of this sign I passed three Amish families out in their buggies.

The sequel to the successful X-Men: First Class film is set to begin filming in January, but it’s not just because it’s finally ready.

20th Century Fox has been anxious to get the sequel to X-Men: First Class rolling, but it ran into a small problem when Jennifer Lawrence, who played Mystique, went on to sign for The Hunger Games film series.  She is now locked into at least three films, but she also agreed to three X-Men films.  What’s a young actress to do?

Well, it appears an agreement has been reached between the two studios that will see Lawrence film Catching Fire, the second book in the series, this summer and then go directly to filming her second go in the blue make-up.  The issue that arose was Lionsgate wanted to hold all the actors for seven months in case of reshoots, which would have made all of them unavailable for any other work.  While a nice dream to have, the contract for the X-Men films takes precedence as it is older.

No word yet on how many cast members of the first film will return, but I think it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing Mystique.

[via Dark Horizons]

No folks, I’m not kidding, there is actual talk of Raging Bull II.

Apparently the story of Raging Bull II will deal with both the teen and post-boxing years of Jake LaMotta, and the production has already signed William Forsythe – an actor I actually like – signing on for the role. Martin Guigui, a director I have never heard of, has been chosen to helm up the production.

Normally this is where I would go on at some length about how this doesn’t even need to be discussed.  I could go on about how the original Raging Bull is one of the closest things I have ever seen to a perfect film and how a sequel is just a complete abomination.

Instead, I thought, you know, I work on the Internet, so why not follow a popular trend of using short YouTube clips doing the talking for me?

For the record, Steven … I still hate you for even bring this to my attention.

Marvel has released the first promotional scene from The Avengers, and, huh, they decided to focus on Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow. I’m so … not shocked.

I could be wrong, though, perhaps they wanted show off Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson.  Yeah, that seems more likely.

Obviously the full promotional push is on now for the film when we’re getting clips and tons of artwork as well.

These 1920 x 1280 wallpapers give you some good looks at the main characters. If you head over to Hotels Assemble, and sign up, you can find them in 1280 x 1048, iPhone and Android devices. They’re worth a look, especially the Android ones as they show you more of the costumes … in case you want to geek out like that.

The more I see on this, the more I want to see it.

It’s quite an accomplishment when one movie sweeps an entire awards ceremony, but it’s happened.

Congratulations to Adam Sandler and his film Jack & Jill!

Back in February the Razzie nominations were announced, and while it was impressive Jack & Jill and it’s star, Adam Sandler appeared in every category, but who could have guessed it would win them all!  Even the Razzie committee said this was a first in the 32 year history of the awards.  What an honor.

Here’s a reminder of all the nominations, and I’ve bolded the “winners” in case you’re confused.

How do these train wrecks keep getting made?

Worst Picture:

• Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
• Jack & Jill
• New Year’s Eve
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Worst Actor:

• Russell Brand, Arthur
• Nicolas Cage, Drive Angry 3-D, Season Of The Witch, and Trespass
• Taylor Lautner, Abduction and Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I
• Adam Sandler, Jack & Jill and Just Go With It
• Nick Swardson, Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star

Worst Actress:

• Martin Lawrence (As ‘Momma’), Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
• Sarah Palin (As ‘Herself’), Sarah Palin: The Undefeated
• Sarah Jessica Parker, I Don’t Know How She Does It and New Year’s Eve
• Adam Sandler (As ‘Jill’), Jack & Jill
• Kristen Stewart, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I

Worst Supporting Actress:

• Katie Holmes, Jack & Jill
• Brandon T. Jackson (As “Charmaine”), Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
• Nicole Kidman, Just Go With It
• David Spade (As “Monica”), Jack & Jill
• The Underwear Model (Aka Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

Worst Supporting Actor:

• Patrick Dempsey, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
• James Franco, Your Highness
• Ken Jeong, Big Momma’s #3, Hangover Part 2, Transformers #3 and Zookeeper
• Al Pacino (As ‘Al Pacino’), Jack & Jill
• Nick Swardson, Jack & Jill and Just Go With It

Worst Screen Ensemble:

• The Entire Cast of Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star
• The Entire Cast of Jack & Jill
• The Entire Cast of New Year’s Eve
• The Entire Cast of Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
• The Entire Cast of Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I

Worst Director:

• Michael Bay, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
• Tom Brady, Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star
• Bill Condon, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I
• Dennis Dugan, Jack & Jill and Just Go With It
• Garry Marshall, New Year’s Eve

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel

• Arthur
• Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star (Rip-Off of Boogie Nights and A Star Is Born)
• The Hangover Part 2 (Both a sequel and a remake!)
• Jack & Jill (Remake/Rip-Off of Ed Woods’ Glen or Glenda)
• Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I

Worst Screen Couple:

• Nicolas Cage & Anyone Sharing the Screen with Him in Any of His Three 2011 Movie
• Shia Lebeouf & The Underwear Model (Aka Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), Transformers #3
• Adam Sandler & EITHER Jennifer Aniston OR Brooklyn Decker, Just Go With It
• Adam Sandler & EITHER Katies Holmes, Al Pacino OR Adam Sandler, Jack & Jill
• Kristen Stewart & EITHER Taylor Lautner OR Robert Pattinson, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I

Worst Screenplay:

• Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star, Written by Adam Sandler, Allen Covert and Nick Swardson
• Jack & Jill, Screenplay by Steve Koren & Adam Sandler, Story by Ben Zook
• New Year’s Eve, Written by Katherine Fugate
• Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, Written by Ehren Kruger
• Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I, Screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, from the novel by Stephenie Meyer

And Hollywood keeps on making sequels that absolutely no one needs to see.

The other day we had news on Triplets, and now it’s the return of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels for Dumb and Dumber 2.

According to ComingSoon, Peter Farrelly – half of the Farrelly brothers team – is talking on The Three Stooges press junket about the fact they plan to start filming the sequel to their hit 1994 comedy this October.  Apparently both Carrey and Daniels have already agreed to return.  He also addressed the prequel that did not fare well at the box office.

We did not do ‘Dumb and Dumberer.’ That was a studio thing. So we’ve always wanted to do a sequel and finally Jim called up. Jeff always wanted to do it. We always wanted to do it. Jim was busy, but he called and said, ‘We’ve got to do this thing again.’ He had just watched ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and he said, ‘This is the perfect sequel. Let’s do it.’

So, let me see if I have this right: Carrey, whose career is pretty much gone, wants to team up with Daniels, who has barely had a career, so they can do a sequel to a nearly 20-year-old film they made with a pair of brothers whose careers have faltered more and more.

Nah, this doesn’t have desperation written all over it in the least …

Please, Hollywood, please stop hurting us.

[via ComingSoon]

Raise your hand if you’re shocked that The Hunger Games won its second weekend at the box office. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Despite slipping 59.9% from its opening weekend, The Hunger Games still took in a large haul at the box office with $61.1 million.  This ranks as the seventh best second weekend for a film ever and brings its domestic gross up to $251 million. Including its overseas numbers, the first film in the series has now brought in $364,933,000 worldwide.

Far more lackluster this weekend was Wrath of the Titans.  The sequel to the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans brought in $34.2 million in its opening weekend compared to the previous film doing $63.8 million in the same time span.  And this one cost $150 million to make compared to $125 million last time around.  Not good.

Opening in third place was the Snow White comedy Mirror, Mirror, which didn’t light the place up with a ho-hum $19 million.

Holding on in fourth place is 21 Jump Street which is doing better than pretty much anyone expected.  It fell 26.7% this weekend to bring in another $15 million.  It has now passed $93 million domestic and should pass $100 million by next weekend at the latest.  For a $45 million gamble, it looks to be paying off.

The Lorax came in fifth with $8 million, still hanging in there despite some fairly harsh reviews.

And where was John Carter?  With $2 million it was able to land in sixth place.  It’s now done $66.2 million domestic, but $188.3 million internationally for a worldwide total of $254,510,000. With a $250 million dollar budget, an estimated $100 million in marketing and then splitting revenues with exhibiters and such, Disney has announced they will put a $200 million dollar loss on paper for this film.

The only big release next week is the 3D version of Titanic. It’ll be interesting to see how it does this time around and if it’ll be able to knock The Hunger Games out of the number one spot.

Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky, but can someone explain to me how this April Fools joke from WestJet is funny?

I’ve seen a lot of April Fools jokes today, some of them a bit more successful than others, but the one WestJet – a Canadian airline – came up with just struck me as being in poor taste. KargoKids is supposed to be a new way to transport children on flights by putting them in the cargo hold of the plane, making for a child-free cabin.

I’m sure we’ve all had that feeling of dread when we see a family boarding a plane with a baby, but seriously? The idea, even in jest, of putting children in cargo like they are a burden on everyone, including the parents? I’m all for a good joke, but this one just struck me as callous and in extremely poor taste.  Maybe I’m all just a bit too literal at times because all I was thinking was, “You know, the cargo hold gets extremely cold.”

Sorry, WestJet, while you tied this into a discount coupon code for travel, I’m just not finding myself laughing.