One, The Bucket List could, in one sense, be the latest entry in the “romantic buddy comedy” genre that Justin Shubow identified a few months ago; I quoted bits of his article here and here. Shubow was primarily concerned with films featuring actors in their 20s and 30s, whereas The Bucket List stars two men who turned 70 during or after their work on the film; but it is striking nonetheless to see how the story goes through some of... Read more
Jake Coyle of the Associated Press has written an open letter to Hollywood directors, producers and screenwriters, begging them to “spare the puppy dogs.” I can’t say I agree with him; if anything, I have been enjoying the various canine deaths that have graced the big screen in the past few months. I have nothing against dogs in real life. Dogs are part of my extended family and, once my children are old enough to know what to do with... Read more
My post last night about spotting Keanu Reeves in a local theatre got picked up by a bunch of Keanu fansites — one of which also had a link to this article at Bild.de, which covers a press conference that Will Smith gave while promoting I Am Legend in Germany. What’s the connection? In the press conference, Smith revealed that one of his sons is making a movie with Keanu Reeves — and after a bit of snooping, I discovered... Read more
Johnny Cash was a Christian, and many of his fans are Christian, so when Walk the Line (2005) came out two years ago, the studio made a point of promoting the film to Christians — but a lot of Christians who saw the film, such as Terry Mattingly and the various critics he linked to at GetReligion.org, were disappointed to find that the film gave only the briefest of nods to the role that religion played in helping Cash get... Read more
Variety reports that Olivia Wilde is joining the cast of Year One, Judd Apatow and Harold Ramis’s so-called “biblical comedy”, to play “Princess Inanna, the love interest of Black’s character.” Interestingly, June Raphael was hired last month to play a woman named Maya who also becomes involved with the Jack Black character — but Variety says Princess Inanna will be the “female lead”. Incidentally, according to Wikipedia, “Inanna” was the name of “the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and... Read more
At the rate things are going, it looks like Juno — which was #2 last weekend and #1 every day since! — will gross over $100 million during its entire theatrical run, while National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Alvin and the Chipmunks will gross over $200 million domestically. If that does, indeed, turn out to be the case, then … … 28 films released in 2007 will have crossed the $100 million line. This is better than almost every... Read more
Not that it means anything, but I happened to see Keanu Reeves in the lobby of the Scotiabank Theatre in downtown Vancouver tonight, before and after he took in a screening of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Keanu has been in town for the past month or so playing Klaatu in Scott Derrickson‘s remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951; my comments), and for some reason the first thing I paid attention to was his... Read more
Time for a few more quick news links. 1. Guillermo Del Toro once said that he had declined the opportunity to direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) because, as a lapsed Catholic, he did not want to make a movie in which Aslan died and came back to life. But now, he tells the MTV Movies Blog he would like to direct the film version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows …... Read more
It looks like Fox Faith Movies, the theatrical distribution arm of Fox Faith, has come to an end. If you enter the URL for their website at FoxFaithMovies.com, you are automatically redirected to FoxFaith.com, which is the website for their DVD distribution. And there, you will see that The Final Inquiry — the remake of the early-church drama The Inquiry (1986) that was originally going to come out last April, and was then said to be tentatively scheduled for a... Read more
Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. The Golden Compass — CDN $9,730,000 — N.AM $65,521,000 — 14.9%P.S. I Love You — CDN $4,050,000 — N.AM $39,378,000 — 10.3%Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street — CDN $3,440,000 — N.AM $38,472,000 — 8.9%The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep — CDN $2,680,000 — N.AM $30,893,000 —... Read more
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