TFC Journal at TheFilmChair.com

Top Story: When you title your movie Unstoppable, you’re asking for an ironic turn of events. It looks like director Tony Scott and Denzel Washington’s once fast-tracked runaway train picture has been forced to hit it breaks. Fox is concerned over the budget and Washington’s high price tag, along with an action-heavy screenplay, has the studio ready to put the movie on hold. The lousy box office results for the most recent Scott-Washington picture, The Taking of Pehlham 123, could also be a factor. (THR)

In Other News: Amy Adams is in negotiations to join Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in the David O. Russell-directed boxing flick The Fighter. (Variety)

Michelle Trachtenberg and Kevin Smith’s buddy Jason Lee have joined Smith’s upcoming action comedy A Couple of Dicks.  The film stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. (Variety)

And in remakes that will piss people off news, Dimension Films has snagged the rights to John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London, setting the cult classic up for a remake. (THR)

Fin.

Top Story: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen brought in $201 million to score the second highest 5-day opening of all time. The critic-proof blockbuster came within $2 million of toppling The Dark Knight’s $203 million 5-day record.  Worldwide, the film debuted with $387 million. (erc BoxOffice)

In Other News: The Academy Awards ceremony is undergoing quite a makeover.  After last week’s news that there would be 10 Best Picture nominees, the AMPAS announced that it is tweaking the Best Original Song category so that there could possibly be no nominees at all. The Academy will also move the honorary Oscar presentations from the live broadcast to a black-tie gala in November. Stay tuned for more news on the Academy’s self-destructive pandering. (Variety)

Fin.

Top Story: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen scored the biggest non-opening Thursday of all-time yesterday. The big Baygasm took in $27 million, putting it well ahead of Spider-Man 2’s $23 million gross.  Only Star Wars: Episode III, The Matrix Reloaded, and Star Wars: Episode II had bigger Thursdays, but on the day of their actual release. (Variety)

In Other News: The already massive Valentine’s Day cast just got a little bigger. Topher Grace, Emma Roberts and Hector Elizond have joined Garry Marshall’s rom-com. Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper, Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher had previously joined the cast. (THR)

Universal has kicked Richard Curtis’ latest film, The Boat that Rocked, over to Focus Features after a disappointing run overseas. The film will now be released in November under the specialty banner instead of on Aug. 28 as originally planned. (Variety)

Opening Today:
My Sister’s Keeper
Away We Go (wider)

Fin.

Time reports that Iranian television is airing a 9-hour marathon of The Lord of the Rings in order to keep protesters off the streets.

From Time:

In normal times, Iranian television usually treats its viewers to one or two Hollywood or European movie nights a week. But these are not normal times, so it’s been two or three such movies a day. It’s part of the push to keep people at home and off the streets, to keep us busy, to get us out of the regime’s hair. The message is “Don’t worry, be happy.” Channel Two is putting on a Lord of the Rings marathon as part of the government’s efforts to restore peace.

This is definitely a positive. Americans and Iranians have more in common than most people would like to believe. I’m just glad our elections aren’t decided by some panel of partisan jurists.

There’s A Place In
Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could
Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You’ll Find There’s No Need
To Cry
In This Place You’ll Feel
There’s No Hurt Or Sorrow

Top Story: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took in $55 million on the first day of its US release to become the biggest Wednesday opener of all time. Despite some of the worst reviews of any summer blockbuster in recent memory, the Michael Bay picture beat the previous Wednesday debut record holder, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by nearly $11 million dollars.  (Variety)

In Other News: If you didn’t waste your money on Transformers 2 and live in New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis or Dallas, you now have another option for throwing that cash away. Warner Bros. will have a limited theatrical roll-out of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen: The Director’s Cut. This version will include another 25 minutes of footage. (THR)

Following his success in The Proposal, Ryan Reynolds has joined a project that is neither a romance or a comedy. He’ll star in Buried, a film about a civilian contractor who is trapped in a coffin somewhere in the Iraqi desert. (Variety)

Fin.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that there will be 10 nominees vying for Best Picture at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony. Not since 1944, when Casablanca was named the Best Picture of 1943, has the Academy nominated 10 films for its top prize.

From the release:

“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said (AMPAS President Sid) Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same – one Best Picture winner – but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”

I just feel bad for the guys who have to build the stage for the press conference. Ten TV screens instead of five is totally going to screw up the flow.

Read the rest of this entry »

“The implications for weight loss are enormous. And while elective brain surgery doesn’t test that great, it still tests better than dieting and exercise.”
–Ted on Veridian’s experimental brain implant that makes everything taste sweet.

Top Story: Fight Club and Benjamin Button director David Fincher is in advanced talks to direct the Aaron Sorkin-scripted The Social Network. The film follows the story behind the making of Facebook. Sorkin’s words and Fincher’s direction don’t necessarily seem like they need each other, but one thing is certain: this Facebook movie just got a little more interesting. (Variety)

In Other News: Katherine Heigl is set to star in Greg Berlanti’s Life As We Know It for Warner Bros. The film, written by Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson, centers on two adults who are given guardianship of a young girl after her parents, the adults’ best friends, die in a car accident. (THR)

Zac Efron has signed on to star in an upcoming, but yet-to-be-titled thriller for Mandate Pictures. (Variety)

Opening Today:
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Fin.

Top Story: Academy Award winner Cher will return to film for the contemporary musical Burlesque. Christina Aquilera is already set to star as a small-town girl with LA dreams. Steven Antin directs with production scheduled to being in November. Cannot wait for this diva-off. (Variety)

In Other News: John Grisham’s 1999 novel The Testament will finally get the big screen treatment.  (Variety)

Move over Hamlet. Mackers is getting a new film too. Pete Travis will direct Smuggler Films’ Come Like Shadows, a modern day retelling of the Shakespeare’s Macbeth. (THR)

Fin.