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. Away from Her — CDN $400,019 — N.AM $1,326,458 — 30.2%Hot Fuzz — CDN $2,720,000 — N.AM $21,125,512 — 12.9%Fracture — CDN $4,400,000 — N.AM $34,530,840 — 12.7%Georgia Rule — CDN $1,620,000 — N.AM $12,867,455 — 12.6%Spider-Man 3 — CDN $27,830,000 — N.AM $282,379,655 — 9.9%28 Weeks Later — CDN... Read more

Cinematical and Canada.com report that Eric Idle is furious at the makers of Shrek the Third because they “stole” the coconut- clapping gag from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). But, um, wasn’t Monty Python just referencing the fact that that was how Foley artists had been making hoofbeat sounds for years? And does not the relevant scene in Shrek the Third show people using other bits of old-fashioned Hollywood craft — such as the moving scenery backdrop? Please... Read more

Variety and the Hollywood Reporter have posted their reviews of Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light, which played at the Cannes film festival and concerns a love triangle among Mexican Mennonites. MAY 29 UPDATE: Here’s the trailer (hat tip to The ScreenGrab):Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly. Read more

BridgeToTheStars.net has posted a report on the press conference for The Golden Compass at Cannes. Among their blurbs: Speaking of the book’s philosophy, Chris Weitz said roughly that it isn’t against religion, it’s against any form of forced dogma; it deals with human spirit, justice, free choice. He called the book’s version of the Magisterium “a version of the Catholic Church gone astray” and finished by saying that he feels they’ve really done service to Philip Pullman and that those... Read more

Jim Carrey and Owen Wilson gave it a pass. Now it is Mike Myers’ turn to develop a remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). Keep in mind that Myers hasn’t made a live-action film in four years, and he has quite a few projects on his plate already. Read more

Keisha Castle-Hughes has a thing for angels. After starring in The Nativity Story — where she was visited by the Archangel Gabriel — Variety says she will now star in an adaptation of Elizabeth Knox’s The Vintner’s Luck. To quote the Publishers Weekly review: This imaginative story of the lifelong love between a man and an angel is the first of Knox’s five books to appear outside her native New Zealand. In Burgundy one midsummer night in 1808, Sobran Jodeau,... Read more

The new trailer for The Golden Compass doesn’t waste any time letting you know that this film is produced by the same studio that made The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003). I was thinking of posting a few comments about this, but family duties intervened, and I see that Jeffrey Overstreet has now written everything I was thinking of saying, and then some. So check it out. One thing I will add, though: Why do so many people say the... Read more

Hannibal Rising was a flop, but that evidently hasn’t stopped the producers of the similarly-titled and similarly-unnecessary prequel The Untouchables: Capone Rising from going ahead with their own project. A week or two ago it was revealed that the 43-year-old Nicolas Cage would play “the young Al Capone” — which, as Jeffrey Wells noted, was an odd bit of casting, given that the real Capone was sent to jail at the age of 32 and he was played in the... Read more

Just a quick update: Comments at the blogs for Barbara Hall and her sister Karen Hall indicate that CBS did not pick up Demons, the TV pilot that Barbara produced with Joe Roth. That’s the series which was initially going to be based on “the real-life experiences of Bob Larson”, until the main character was turned into an ex-Jesuit psychologist. (Hat tip to Jeffrey Overstreet.) Read more

… I am looking forward to this film, which has played a couple of festivals but, according to the IMDb, won’t get a regular theatrical release in North America until some time next year: SON OF RAMBOW is the name of the home movie made by two little boys with a big video camera and even bigger ambitions. Set on a long English summer in the early 80’s, SON OF RAMBOW is a comedy about friendship, faith and the tough... Read more