In Contention

Tag: Angels & Demons

  • Art Directors Guild nominees

    Johnny Depp in Public EnemiesI’ve had my eye on these because I’ve always felt that, if “Avatar” could slide in here, it might be able to get over any weird bias against the way it was designed (largely in computer, etc.). But after sitting down with Robert Stromberg yesterday, and with these nominations in mind, I feel better about its prospects for Oscar in the category now.

    I’m happy to see “The Lovely Bones” recognized, though I’m consistently baffled as to where the distinction is between “contemporary” and “period” with this film.  And can I also say, looking out over the slate of nominees, this is a damn fine year for art direction?  The 10 in period and fantasy could easily find their way to nominations.

    The obvious snub here is kind of a big one, I’d say: “Nine.” Despite the quality of the film, the below-the-line elements were exemplary.  I guess it wasn’t enough to overcome the film’s overall critical reception.  Oh, and big ups to Jess Gonchor, who I’ve said since day one was a threat for his and set decorator Nancy Haigh’s meticulous work on “A Serious Man.” Stay tuned next week for a Tech Support interview with the principals from that film

    Nominees after the jump.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Terminator’ frustration

    Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithsonianHollywood tried something it rarely does this Memorial Day weekend: it opened two huge sequels at the same time. The last time anything remotely similar happened was the same holiday weekend in 2005 with “The Longest Yard” and “Madagascar.” They were really just fighting for second place, though, as the second weekend of “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” was a safe bet for number one.

    This year’s Memorial Day champ is Ben Stiller with “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” The family comedy earned $53.5 million for the weekend and will have another solid day of business during the holiday tomorrow. That’s better than the $33.4 million debut of the original but that film opened during Christmas and had outstanding legs through early 2007. Its total gross of $266 million is completely out of the question for the sequel now.

    The debut is pretty much exactly the same as the second place debut of “Madagascar” from the aforementioned 2005 time frame and that film wasn’t even a sequel. With no other family films in the market, this has to be considered a little soft for Fox.

    Second place goes to “Terminator Salvation” with $43 million for the weekend and $56.4 million since opening on Thursday. Again, Warner Bros. has to see this as a little soft as after four days in 2003, “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” was already at $70.4 million. Terrible reviews, as well as competition from “Star Trek,” helped seal McG’s fate and I can’t see word of mouth getting this anywhere higher than $135 million. International grosses will decide whether his planned trilogy comes to fruition or not.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Antichrist’ and action

    Willem Dafoe in Antichrist• Scandalising media and polarising critics, Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” emerged as the undisputed talking-point of the Cannes Film Festival.

    • That firestorm even managed to overshadow the Cannes debut of Quentin Tarantino’s divisive “Inglourious Basterds.”

    • In other news from the Croisette, “A Prophet” impressed critics, while “Taking Woodstock” took a hit.

    • We celebrated the start of summer (and provoked some argument) with a list of the all-time Top 10 action sequences.

    • Unfortunately, our review deems “Terminator Salvation” unlikely to earn a place on any such future lists.

    • In the wake of that disappointment, “Up” happily lived up to expectations.

    • In box office news, “Angels and Demons” turned out to be a pale shadow of its predecessor.

    • This week’s edition of Page to Screen reviewed the literary source for Jason Reitman’s upcoming comedy “Up in the Air.”

    • John delved further through his personal cinematic treasure trove, returning to the 1990s, and reappraising last year’s “Revolutionary Road.”

  • 5/19 Web Round-up

    Jim Carrey in A Christmas Carol• Anthony Breznicaan reports on the big “Christmas Carol” to do at Cannes. [USA Today]

    • John Hiscock talks to Ron Howard about getting around the Vatican’s disapproval of “Angels & Demons” while filming on location. [Daily Telegraph]

    • David Cox, meanwhile, believes the film will indeed hurt the Catholic Church with its depiction of an organization out of touch with modernity. [The Guardian]

    • And Noah Forrest just wants to know what happened to the Tom Hanks he knew and loved. [Movie City News]

    • Richard Woodward reports on the Jacques Tati retrospective going down at the Cinemathèque Française in Paris [Wall Street Journal]

    • A bit out of the blue, a list of the 10 best suspense films of all time. [The Independent]

    • Erica Abeel talks to Steven Soderbergh about his latest, “The Girlfriend Experience.” [indieWIRE]

    • Nikki Finke reports that yet another actor you could care less about has been cast in Marvel’s “Thor.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Well that’s thinking outside the media coverage box for you: a look at…ahem…the “slash” fan fiction of the “Star Trek” dedicated. [Newsweek]

    • Sam Raimi wants to go back in time and do everything on the “Spider-Man” franchise differently.  You and me both, Sam. [Hero Complex]

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Holy hit

    Angels & DemonsGod is so 2006. “Angels & Demons” was the number one movie at the box office this weekend but the $48 million it raked in is barely more than half of the $84.5 million registered by “The Da Vinci Code” in its opening frame. What happened? Three things.

    First, the free publicity generated by the media and the “controversy” surrounding the first film’s opening was nowhere to be found this time. Second, the source material was much less popular. And third, the first film was generally considered pretty dull by critics and audiences. Add all that up and you have a lackluster debut when compared to the original, but on its own terms, you gotta be pretty happy with close to $50 million for an adult-leaning summer thriller. Especially when the film racked up $100 million in overseas territories this weekend as well.

    “Star Trek” showed “Wolverine” and Mr. Hanks what happens when audiences love your product by dropping a solid 43% for a $43 million weekend. It even out-grossed “Angels & Demons” on Saturday and Sunday, so expect the weekday grosses to be neck and neck.  It will pass “Wolverine”’s gross on Monday or Tuesday. J.J. Abrams clearly got it right with moviegoers and this one could see as much as $250 million before it’s done. Don’t think that doesn’t affect the Oscars because it does, and nominations in the sound and visual effects categories, and perhaps other technical fields, are a safer bet than they were a few weeks ago.

    Since “Wolverine” is pretty much already a box office non-factor, there’s not much else to report in the top 10, except that “Monsters vs. Aliens” dropped only 8% due to the fact that families have no other options out there. Expect that to bode well for “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” as parents clearly want something to take their kids to and Ben Stiller is ready to deliver.

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  • 5/18 Web Round-up

    Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian• “Star Trek” looks to be a hit off-world. [The Carpetbagger]

    • It looks like Kenneth Branagh and Marvel have found their Thor: Chris Hemsworth from “Star Trek.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Jeff Sneider takes a long, hard look at the MTV Movie Awards. [Examiner.com]

    • Tom O’Neil poses the obvious question: Will “Angels & Demons” bring another Razzie bid for director Ron Howard? [Gold Derby]

    • Speaking of which, someone finally calls out the two worst writers in the business as responsible for the clunky film. [Peter Bart]

    • Dan Jolin wonders if the latest 3D craze is a bunch of hogwash. [Empire]

    • Laughing stock Roger Friedman gets a new gig as “senior correspondent.” [Hollywood Reporter]

    “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” premieres in D.C. [Washington Post]

    • On the stamina of fan-movie filmmakers. [The Independent]

    • Sad to see a once-great magazine reduced to nothing but constant top 10 lists, but here’s another one: top 10 “safe for work” movie strip scenes.  Oy. [Premiere]

    • Tom Shone talks to Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, writer/directors of the brilliant “Sugar.” [The Guardian]

  • 5/14 Web Round-up

    (from left) Adrian Brody and Mark Ruffalo in The Brothers Bloom• A little news from my homeland: Michael Cieply reports on Durham, North Carolina finally getting its Hollywood day in the sun. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Revisiting Stephen Frears’s “The Queen” on the basis of entertainment and history. [The Guardian]

    • Rachel Abramowitz profiles new “Angels & Demons” starlet Ayelet Zurer. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Director Frank Darabont’s 223 favorite movies. [Empire]

    • Kim Voynar wonders where the muscle-bound estrogen is at the multiplexes this summer. [Movie City News]

    • Brooks Barnes reports on “Kung Fu Panda”‘s transition from animated film to Nickelodeon TV series. [New York Times]

    • Maria Puente on the many visions of Salvador Dali on film. [USA Today]

    • The home of “Slumdog Millionaire” star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail has been demolished. [Wall Street Journal]

    • In honor of the “unbearable start” of “The Brothers Bloom,” Christopher Campbell writes up a list of 10 films ruined by voice-over narration. [Spout Blog]

  • SUNDAY CENTS: A ‘Star’ is reborn

    Star TrekParamount broke the summer sophomore weekend slump with the impressive launch of “Star Trek” this weekend, earning $72.5 million for the three days and an extra $4 million from Thursday evening showtimes. On the same weekend that supposed summer blockbusters “Speed Racer,” “Poseidon” and “Battlefield Earth” all imploded out of the gate, J.J. Abrams and company successfully rebooted yet another franchise and you can expect Paramount to start production on a sequel as soon as humanly possible.

    No “Star Trek” film had ever previously opened with more than $50 million, as the series has always catered to a pretty specific niche audience. Abrams and Paramount did all they could to destroy that perception and convince people that this version was hipper, sexier and more action-packed. The buzz worked and the film should continue to perform well in the coming weeks, easily out-earning “Wolverine” in the long run and probably becoming only the third “Trek” film to pass $200 million after the 1979 original and 1986’s “The Voyage Home.”

    Summit Entertainment had the only other new release in “Next Day Air,” and they limited it to only 1,138 screens across the country. The resulting $4.0 million finish is a mediocre amount for that kind of release and didn’t really work as counter-programming like the studio probably hoped. Who would have thought that nearly 15 years after “Clueless,” Paul Rudd and Donald Faison would still have careers and Alicia Silverstone would not?

    “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” dropped a disastrous, but not unexpected, 68% to $27 million and $129.6 million total. Brett Ratner’s entry in the franchise passed $100 million in three days while Gavin Hood’s took a full week. $200 million ain’t happening and foreign grosses will have to put the gloss on this film for Fox.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Loving ‘Trek,’ reading ‘Chéri,’ awaiting ‘Basterds’

    Anton Yelchin in Star Trek• In a bumper season for the sci-fi genre, Kris was thoroughly impressed by both “Star Trek” and the lower-profile “Moon.”

    • Meanwhile, we kicked off this year’s Page to Screen series with a look at the literary origins of “Chéri’.”

    • In a sad week for the business, we bade farewell to both actor Dom DeLuise and filmmaker Marc Rocco.

    • Quentin Tarantino declared “Inglourious Basterds” a masterpiece. (And Eli Roth a bastard.)

    • Following “Angels and Demons,” could cinema be the wrong medium for Dan Brown’s storytelling?

    • Continuing our new Sunday Cents feature with a breakdown of “Wolverine’s” box office performance.

    • Speaking of which, the “X-Men” franchise continues to grow new limbs. This time, a Deadpool spinoff.

    • We got a taste of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro” with both a trailer and the opening minutes of the film.

    • Yours truly admitted to some reservations about Christian Bale’s recent work, and lost further cool points by fessing up to his Jennifer Garner weakness.

    • Finally, our contentious quest for the most influential films of all time continues apace.

  • Realization: Dan Brown is tailor made for TV

    Angels & DemonsI’m not going to review “Angels & Demons.”  Sometimes the idea of tearing a film apart just doesn’t quite appeal to me, believe it or not.  But watching the expected unfold on the Sony lot last night, it suddenly occurred to me that Dan Brown’s bloated if intriguingly researched fiction has no place on the big screen.  It might, in fact, be better suited to television.

    Think about it.  A show like “24” (which is compelling this season for the first time in three years) milks every close call for what it’s worth.  Each tick of the final episode clock mixes with the soaring brass of the score, all but announcing: “Tune in next week, same Bauer time, same Bauer channel.”  And that’s what a Brown adaptation feels like.  Except the effect is exhausting in a two-hour span of time.  The conduit of cinema simply doesn’t support it.

    One could go back and forth on the issue of quality all day long.  Those championing the thrill ride experience would be equally justified in their assessment as those who find their foreheads red from constant smacking at the amount of regurgitated exposition (which seems to be an unfortunate necessity in these films).  But the breadth of the episodic could make a story like “The Da Vinci Code” or “Angels & Demons” sing.  Brown, a masterful storyteller in that can’t-put-it-down kind of way, could make every carefully plotted (some would say contrived) set piece or dramatic beat count within the consistent ups and downs of a television series or mini-series.  And theatrical audiences worldwide would be spared the headache of trying to keep up for too brief a time in a darkened room.

    I’m certainly no studio or network head, so what do I know?  “The Da Vinci Code” pulled in bucketloads of money across the globe and made Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and the lot much richer people.  Though I don’t expect “Angels & Demons” to have the same success (not as immediately recognizable from a pop culture standpoint, regardless of the sequel factor), I also don’t expect “Digital Fortress” and “Deception Point” to go unfilmed forever.  Ditto the upcoming “The Lost Symbol” (which will probably finds its way to screens first, completing the Robert Langdon trilogy).  But I think there’s an alternative to cinema worth exploring with Brown’s work.

    It might rescue the material from being panned outright, if nothing else.

  • 5/5 Web Round-up

    Robert Duvall• VIDEO: “Star Trek” writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on how to be a sci-fi screenwriter. [Time]

    • Robert E. Lee descendant (and, of course, Academy Award winner) Robert Duvall squares off against Wall-Mart in Virginia. [Associated Press]

    • Noah Forrest calls Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience” the year’s best film so far. [Movie City News]

    • Nathaniel Rogers posts a test screening reaction to Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” [The Film Experience]

    • Jeffrey Wells expresses some trepidation over the upcoming “Angels & Demons.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Christopher Campbell cranks out a list of 10 mutants who need an “X-Men Origins” movie. [Spout Blog]

    • Hugh Jackman, meanwhile, is full-speed-ahead developing a “Wolverine” sequel. [Variety]

  • Bruno vs. Dan Brown in 2009?

    I just came across this story, which may or may not be old news, indicating the US release of Sacha Baron Cohen’s upcoming “Bruno” as May 15, 2009.  As the end of the article notes, that will put the film in direct competition with the new Dan Brown adaptation, “Angels & Demons,” with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard back on board.  Interesting.