Weekend Movies: Holiday Cheer Starts Early
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Looking past the hype, "The Matrix Revolutions" is not the only film in theaters nationwide on Friday as Hollywood's studios pull two holiday tales out of this season's gift bag, comedies "Elf" and "Love Actually."
"Elf," with former "Saturday Night Live" star Will Ferrell as a human who believes he is one of Santa's elves, offers a family film to counter the battle-filled "Revolutions."
"Love Actually," with a cast including Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson, brings the sort of British humor found in films "Notting Hill" to a tale of Christmas romance in merrie olde London.
Despite the massive news coverage of the "Revolutions" Wednesday debut, "Elf" screenwriter David Berenbaum isn't worried about box office competition given his film's fuzzy tale and PG rating for some mild rude humor and language.
"'Matrix' is rated 'R,' and we are the family film out there," he told Reuters. "'Elf' will do just fine."
Ferrell plays Buddy, a human placed for adoption when just a baby. By happenstance, Buddy crawls into Santa's toy bag on Christmas Eve and is unknowingly scooped up and carted off to the North Pole and raised by lovable Papa Elf (Bob Newhart).
Even though he is 3-feet taller than the standard elf and can't make a toy to save himself, Buddy really, truly believes he is an elf. He is that naive, that sweet and that honest.
Buddy's life is shattered, however, when Papa Elf tells him the truth. Buddy is human and his Dad is a big city businessman with little time for family -- just like old Ebenezer Scrooge.
In an attempt to reconnect with dad (James Caan), Buddy heads to New York City where he learns, much to Santa's chagrin, that almost everyone has lost the Christmas spirit. It's up to Buddy, the human elf, to save the holiday.
LOVE AND "MATRIX" WAR
"Love Actually" is another feel good film, but because the romantic comedy carries an R rating for sexuality, nudity and language, it is aimed at adults.
The story features a large ensemble cast in which Grant portrays the British Prime Minister who fancies a young woman on his staff. Thompson is his sister, whose husband, played byAlan Rickman, is infatuated with a younger woman.
Kiera Knightley is a newlywed whose marriage is challenged by her husband's best friend. Liam Neeson is a widowed father to a pre-teen son who has fallen for an American gal. Those are less than half of the intertwining stories in the movie.
In one way or another, all the characters are looking for love and companionship in the days leading up to Christmas, and each navigates a maze of human complications to find it -- and that includes two porn movie stand-ins, who have a sub-plot all their own in the film.
The movie was written and directed by Richard Curtis, who penned popular hits "Notting Hill" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and shared credit on "Bridget Jones's Diary," which should give fans a hint of the quirkiness in "Love Actually."
Finally, "The Matrix Revolutions" is the third film in the series of sci-fi tales about humans battling against machines who want to rule Earth.
In this final chapter, the humans, led by Neo, or the One (Keanu Reeves), make their final stand against the machines to defend their city of Zion built deep within Earth.
The film has been panned by critics, but fans turned out in legions to give "Revolutions" a $43 million worldwide box office in its first day in theaters.
There is no doubt "Revolutions" will be among the box office hits this holiday season. But for a little family cheer or adult romance, movie fans can easily look past it.
O'Brien in talks to bring show to T.O.
Discussions are under way to bring NBC's Late Night With Conan O'Brien to Toronto for a week in February, The Toronto Sun has learned.
The nightly talk show, which recently celebrated 10 years on the air, would tape its four shows that week from a venue yet to be determined.
Late Night executive producer Jeff Ross, reached by phone yesterday at his New York office, wouldn't say the Toronto gig was a done deal, but did say that they were "trying to figure out" a way to bring the show across the border.
"We'd like to do it," Ross said.
The show is produced by NBC Enterprises and Broadway Video, the company owned by Saturday Night Live boss and Toronto native Lorne Michaels. Ross has a Toronto connection himself, having lived here when he was executive producer of The Kids In the Hall in the 1990s.
O'Brien representatives may be in Toronto next week to scout venues.
O'Brien tapes his show in Manhattan at Rockefeller Centre in the same studio used by David Letterman for 11-plus years. The Canadian shows likely would include O'Brien's house band, the Max Weinberg Seven, plus Robert Smigel, the voice behind those phony celebrity interviews, as well as Triumph the insult comic dog.
This would be the first time a U.S. late-night talk show broadcasts from a Canadian city. David Letterman took his CBS Late Show to London in summer 1995. Both Letterman and O'Brien have taken their shows on the road to Los Angeles and other U.S. venues.
O'Brien frequently refers to the Great White North on Late Night, joking during the Iraq war that "the prime minister of Canada said he'd like to help, but he's pretty sure that last time he checked, Canada had no army."
The 40-year-old talk show host and his wife, advertising copywriter Liza Powell, had their first child in October.
More Ring In Watts' Future
Naomi Watts, star of 2002 horror flick THE RING, has confirmed that she will be reprising her role of Rachel Keller in the sequel……..THE RING 2. The first film was based on classic Japanese horror film RINGU, which has since spawned a mass of sequels. The DreamWorks sequel won’t be an adaptation of one of the Japanese sequels though; it is going to be completely different (reportedly). Filming should start sometime next year.
'Matrix Revolutions' Gets $24.3M in a Day
LOS ANGELES - Which way do you spin "The Matrix Revolutions"? The third movie in the cyberpunk trilogy earned $24.3 million at the domestic box office in its first day of release, Warner Bros. said Thursday.
That's a great one-day total for any other movie, but it comes in far below what "The Matrix Reloaded" collected in its nationwide debut last spring.
In May, "Reloaded" opened with a few late-night screenings on Wednesday evening and earned about $5 million. Then it expanded to 3,600 theaters on Thursday and earned about $37.5 million, according to Brandon Gray, proprietor of BoxOfficeMojo.com.
At the time, Warner Bros. lumped the Wednesday totals in with the Thursday figures and announced a total debut of $42.5 million for "Reloaded."
Gray said there may have been less anticipation for "Revolutions" simply because of the rapid-fire release timing.
"With the last one ('Reloaded') there was four years of pent-up demand and 'Revolutions' comes out after only six months," he said. "It's not quite the same event as the one that came out after a long drought."
Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of U.S. distribution, dismissed the notion that some viewers may be less enthusiastic about the franchise after "Reloaded," which scored poorly with critics and many fans.
"These are staggering numbers," Fellman said. "If you talk to any large theater operator they're totally out of their minds with joy."
"Revolutions" also collected $18.8 million internationally after staging the widest simultaneous release for a single film by opening in an unprecedented 18,000 screens around the world at the same hour (9 a.m. ET), according to Variety. Part of the studio's worldwide effort was to combat piracy.
"Revolutions" also ranked as the third best Wednesday debut for a movie, behind $28.5 million for 1999's "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" and $26.1 million for last year's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."
Although hampered by critics who lambasted "Revolutions" as a glorified videogame, the Keanu Reeves sci-fi adventure could still come close to topping $100 million domestically by the end of the weekend.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co., said he would wait until the weekend to judge how "Revolutions" compares to "Reloaded."
The critically acclaimed first film, "The Matrix," earned $33.7 million in its first weekend in April 1999 and went on to rake in $171.5 million.
"Reloaded" earned a total of $281.6 million and became the year's third highest-grossing movie of the year, behind "Finding Nemo" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," respectively.
Singer Bobby Hatfield of Righteous Brothers Dead
DETROIT (Reuters) - Bobby Hatfield, the tenor half of The Righteous Brothers singing duo who made "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" a worldwide hit, was found dead in a western Michigan hotel, police said on Thursday.
Hatfield, 63, was found about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday by hotel workers in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after he did not respond to a wake-up call before a show. Kalamazoo police said there were no signs of foul play and that, while an autopsy would be conducted, Hatfield apparently died of natural causes.
Hatfield and his singing partner, Bill Medley, got together in 1961 in Southern California. They were performing in a local bar as part of a five-piece group called the Paramours when a Marine shouted "That's righteous, brothers," leading to the name.
With producer Phil Spector providing his "wall of sound," The Righteous Brothers produced a string of hits in the 1960s, including "Unchained Melody" and "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration." But "Lovin' Feeling," released in 1964, was their biggest hit, and industry experts rank it as the most-played radio song of all time.
The two split for a time in the late 1960s, but reunited and had a few hits in the mid-1970s. Their star rose again in 1990, when "Unchained Melody" was used in the film "Ghost."
Medley and Hatfield had continued to tour and perform a few months a year in Las Vegas. The two were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Hatfield is survived by his wife and four children.