Summer movie preview
Welcome to summer, post-Blart. Excited? Hollywood is, primed by the momentum of an already booming box office.
As 2009’s first smash (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) showed, in times of crisis moviegoers just want to escape — and they’re not terribly discerning about where they escape to. Thus, such lunkheaded hits as Fast & Furious, Hannah Montana: The Movie, Knowing and Race to Witch Mountain.
That’s good news for studios, but bad news for discriminating film goers. Compare last year’s summer line-up — packed with such cross-demo offerings as The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Wall•E and Sex and the City — to this summer’s slate. Can
X-Men Origins: Wolverine really duplicate the dazzling heights of Iron Man? Does anyone think the new Transformers will resonate beyond clang-bang-metal mayhem?
Sure, there may be the odd surprise — J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek or Michael Mann’s Public Enemies — but by and large this is a summer made by the Blarts for the Blarts. Oh well.
So what will hit, and what will miss? Here are 10 we suspect will come up aces with audiences:
Star Trek
(May 8)
In 25 words or less: A vengeful Romulan screws with the space-time continuum so that the early adventures of Kirk and Spock aren’t exactly what fans remember.
Who’s in it: Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (McCoy), Eric Bana and some old dude named Leonard Nimoy.
Who’s directing: Geek god J.J. Abrams, who co-created Lost.
Why do we care? If Abrams can convince kids Trek is cool — thus why the Enterprise looks like an Apple store — then the franchise may well live long and prosper (at least for the already-announced sequel).
We’d pay to see ... William Shatner beam up to shoulder-flip Pine.
Angels & Demons
(May 15)
In 25 words or less: Symbologist Robert Langdon races to foil a plot against the Vatican by a secret society called the Illuminati.
Who’s in it: Tom Hanks, along with Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgaard.
Who’s directing: Ron Howard. One of these pays for a dozen Frost/Nixons.
Why do we care? The Da Vinci Code was a sanctimonious bore, so why make a sequel? Because it still grossed $700 million worldwide, people.
We’d pay to see ... the Fonz turn up as Pope.
Terminator Salvation
(May 21)
In 25 words or less: Grown-up John Connor (Christian Bale) leads resistance fighters in a post-apocalyptic landscape overrun by terminators.
Who’s in it: Aside from Bale, newcomer Sam Worthington (whose character, Marcus, offers a potential link between man and machine), Bryce Dallas Howard and Helena Bonham Carter.
Who’s directing: The reviled McG (Charlie’s Angels) looking for a little street cred.
Why do we care? Bale. The script was rewritten by Jonah Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento). And if audiences embrace a Terminator flick without creator James Cameron and star Arnold Schwarzenegger, it will mean new life for the series.
We’d pay to see ... a cameo by California’s governor. (And thanks to digital wizardry, we’ll get our wish.)
Up
(May 29)
In 25 words or less: Grumpy old man Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) ties thousands of balloons to his house and soars away, seeking adventure.
Who’s in it: The voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer and John Ratzenberger.
Who’s directing: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson.
Why do we care? Pixar hasn’t misfired yet, which makes this a can’t-miss proposition.
We’d pay to see ... whatever Pixar makes.
The Hangover
(June 5)
In 25 words or less: Three groomsmen lose the groom after a night of debauchery in Vegas.
Who’s in it: Up-and-comers Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and still-hot Heather Graham.
Who’s directing: Todd Phillips (Old School).
Why do we care? Could be the sleeper comedy of the summer — which explains why the studio is already plotting a sequel.
We’d pay to see ... Rollergirl back in her skates.
Year One
(June 19)
In 25 words or less: Two Old Testament bumblers wander through Biblical times.
Who’s in it: Jack Black and Michael Cera, basically playing themselves. Along the way, they encounter such old favourites as Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd) and Abraham and Isaac (Hank Azaria and Christopher Mintz-Plasse).
Who’s directing: Ghostbuster Harold Ramis.
Why do we care? Judd Apatow — he of the Midas touch — is the producer.
We’d pay to see ... this turn out to be more Superbad than Walk Hard.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
(June 24)
In 25 words or less: The Decepticons exact their revenge on Optimus Prime after the exhaust-pipe whipping they got in 2007.
Who’s in it: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and robots. Lots and lots of robots.
Who’s directing: Michael Bay, who never met an explosion he didn’t think was “Awesome!”
Why do we care? The original earned $700 million worldwide and imprinted the small of Fox’s back on the minds of heterosexual men and bi-curious women everywhere.
We’d pay to see ... Shia get squashed.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
(July 15)
In 25 words or less: The boy wizard faces the gathering forces of evil. And his hormones.
Who’s in it: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and the rest of Britain.
Who’s directing: David Yates (The Order of the Phoenix), who will follow this with a two-part adaptation of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Why do we care? You have to ask?
We’d pay to see ... them condense this thing to a brisk two hours.
G.I. Joe:
The Rise of Cobra
(August 7)
In 25 words or less: An elite military unit clashes with a nefarious organization known as Cobra. Based on the 1980s cartoon and toyline.
Who’s in it: Dennis Quaid (Gen. Hawk), Channing Tatum (Duke), Rachel Nichols (Scarlet), Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and the Baroness (Sienna Miller).
Who’s directing: Stephen Sommers, architect of craptaculars The Mummy and Van Helsing.
Why do we care? Aside from Nichols and Miller in dueling skintight body-armour, we don’t. But if this rakes in nearly as much cash as Transformers, look for sequels for years to come.
We’d pay to see ... the Baroness finding ways of making us talk.
Inglourious Basterds
(August 21)
In 25 words or less: Pulp Fiction meets Valkyrie? We can hope.
Who’s in it: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak, Diane Kruger, Samuel L. Jackson and — as an Allied general — Mike Myers.
Who’s directing: Quentin Tarantino, hoping to show he’s relevant even though it’s not 1994.
Why do we care? Because it sounds bloody and outrageous. Set in the Second World War, a band of Jewish-American soldiers enter German-occupied France looking to collect Nazi scalps.
We’d pay to see ... someone teach Tarantino how to spell.
Bea Arthur dies of cancer at 86
LOS ANGELES - Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows "Maude" and "The Golden Girls" and who won a Tony Award for the musical "Mame," died Saturday. She was 86.
Arthur died peacefully at her Los Angeles home with her family at her side, family spokesman Dan Watt said. She had cancer, Watt said, declining to give further details.
"She was a brilliant and witty woman," said Watt, who was Arthur's personal assistant for six years. "Bea will always have a special place in my heart."
Arthur first appeared in the landmark comedy series "All in the Family" as Edith Bunker's loudly outspoken, liberal cousin, Maude Finley. She proved a perfect foil for blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), and their blistering exchanges were so entertaining that producer Norman Lear fashioned Arthur's own series.
In a 2008 interview with The Associated Press, Arthur said she was lucky to be discovered by TV after a long stage career, recalling with bemusement CBS executives asking about the new "girl."
"I was already 50 years old. I had done so much off-Broadway, on Broadway, but they said, 'Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series,"' Arthur said.
"Maude" scored with television viewers immediately on its CBS debut in September 1972, and Arthur won an Emmy Award for the role in 1977.
The comedy flowed from Maude's efforts to cast off the traditional restraints that women faced, but the series often had a serious base. Her TV husband Walter (Bill Macy) became an alcoholic, and she underwent an abortion, which drew a torrent of viewer protests. Maude became a standard bearer for the growing feminist movement in America.
The ratings of "Maude" in the early years approached those of its parent, "All in the Family," but by 1977 the audience started to dwindle. A major format change was planned, but in early 1978 Arthur announced she was quitting the show.
"It's been absolutely glorious; I've loved every minute of it," she said. "But it's been six years, and I think it's time to leave."
"Golden Girls" (1985-1992) was another groundbreaking comedy, finding surprising success in a television market increasingly skewed toward a younger, product-buying audience.
The series concerned three retirees - Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan - and the mother of Arthur's character, Estelle Getty, who lived together in a Miami apartment. In contrast to the violent "Miami Vice," the comedy was nicknamed "Miami Nice."
As Dorothy Zbornak, Arthur seemed as caustic and domineering as Maude. She was unconcerned about the similarity of the two roles. "Look - I'm 5-feet-9, I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line," she told an interviewer. "What can I do about it? I can't stay home waiting for something different. I think it's a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting."
The interplay among the four women and their relations with men fuelled the comedy, and the show amassed a big audience and 10 Emmys, including two as best comedy series and individual awards for each of the stars.
In 1992, Arthur announced she was leaving "Golden Girls." The three other stars returned in "The Golden Palace," but it lasted only one season.
Arthur was born Bernice Frankel in New York City in 1922. When she was 11, her family moved to Cambridge, Md., where her father opened a clothing store. At 12 she had grown to full height, and she dreamed of being a petite blond movie star like June Allyson. There was one advantage of being tall and deep-voiced: She was chosen for the male roles in school plays.
Bernice - she hated the name and adopted her mother's nickname of Bea - overcame shyness about her size by winning over her classmates with wisecracks. She was elected the wittiest girl in her class. After two years at a junior college in Virginia, she earned a degree as a medical lab technician, but she "loathed" doing lab work at a hospital.
Acting held more appeal, and she enrolled in a drama course at the New School of Social Research in New York City. To support herself, she sang in a night spot that required her to push drinks on customers.
During this time she had a brief marriage that provided her stage name of Beatrice Arthur. In 1950, she married again, to Broadway actor and future Tony-winning director Gene Saks. They divorces in 1978.
After a few years in off-Broadway and stock company plays and television dramas, Arthur's career gathered momentum with her role as Lucy Brown in the 1955 production of "The Threepenny Opera."
In 2008, when Arthur was inducted in the TV Academy Hall of Fame, she pointed to the role as the highlight of her long career. "A lot of that had to do with the fact that I felt, 'Ah, yes, I belong here,"' Arthur said.
More plays and musicals followed, and she also sang in nightclubs and played small roles in TV comedy shows.
Then, in 1964, Harold Prince cast her as Yente the Matchmaker in the original company of "Fiddler on the Roof."
Arthur's biggest Broadway triumph came in 1966 as Vera Charles, Angela Lansbury's acerbic friend in the musical "Mame," directed by Saks. Richard Watts of the New York Post called her performance "a portrait in acid of a savagely witty, cynical and serpent-tongued woman."
She won the Tony as best supporting actress and repeated the role in the unsuccessful film version that also was directed by Saks, starring Lucille Ball as Mame. Arthur would play a variation of Vera Charles in "Maude" and "The Golden Girls."
In 1983, Arthur attempted another series, "Amanda's," an Americanized version of John Cleese's hilarious "Fawlty Towers." She was cast as owner of a small seaside hotel with a staff of eccentrics. It lasted a mere nine episodes.
Between series, Arthur remained active in films and theatre. Among the movies: "That Kind of Woman" (1959), "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1970), Mel Brooks' "The History of the World: Part I" (1981), "For Better or Worse" (1995).
The plays included Woody Allen's "The Floating Light Bulb" and "The Bermuda Avenue Triangle," written by and co-starring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. During 2001 and 2002 she toured the U.S. in a one-woman show of songs and stories, "... And Then There's Bea."
In 1999, Arthur told an interviewer of the three influences in her career: "Sid Caesar taught me the outrageous; (method acting guru) Lee Strasberg taught me what I call reality; and ("Threepenny Opera" star) Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy."
In recent years, Arthur made guest appearances on shows including "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Malcolm in the Middle." She was chairwoman of the Art Attack Foundation, a non-profit performing arts scholarship organization.
Fans fixate on Beyonce as 'Obsessed' takes in $28M
LOS ANGELES – Audiences were in the mood for some fatal attraction action at the box office. Beyonce Knowles and Idris Elba's "Obsessed" debuted as the top weekend movie with $28.5 million in ticket sales. The Sony Screen Gems thriller stars Knowles and Elba as a couple whose ideal marriage lands on the rocks after a psychotic temp played by Ali Larter begins stalking the husband.
The strong opening for "Obsessed" helped maintain Hollywood's hot streak, with overall revenues at about $112 million, up 23.5 percent from the same weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
The busy summer season starts Friday with 20th Century Fox's spinoff "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," starring Hugh Jackman in the title role he played in three "X-Men" blockbusters.
Studios head into summer on a box-office tear, with receipts running at a record pace. Revenues for the year are at $3.06 billion, up 17.4 percent over last year. Factoring in higher ticket prices, movie attendance is up 15.7 percent.
"We have never been in this strong a position heading into the summer season, ever," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.
Zac Efron's "17 Again" and Channing Tatum's "Fighting" were neck-and-neck for the No. 2 spot. With Sunday estimates of $11.7 million, the Warner Bros. comedy "17 Again" had the edge. After debuting in first-place a week earlier, "17 Again" raised its 10-day total to $40 million.
Rogue Pictures' "Fighting," starring Tatum and Terrence Howard in the story of a rising star in New York City's underground bare-knuckle fight circuit, debuted with $11.4 million.
The two movies were close enough that rankings could change when final numbers come out Monday.
Paramount's drama "The Soloist" opened at No. 4 with $9.7 million. It stars Jamie Foxx as a schizophrenic music prodigy living on the streets of Los Angeles and Robert Downey Jr. as a reporter who befriends him.
Disney's nature documentary "Earth" premiered in fifth place with $8.6 million, bringing its total to $14.2 million since opening Wednesday.
"Obsessed" was not screened in advance for critics, and those who reviewed it generally trashed the movie as a lame retread of 1987's "Fatal Attraction," which starred Glenn Close as a demented woman pursuing a married man, played by Michael Douglas.
But "Obsessed" had the lure of singer Knowles stepping out from her pop star image and duking it out with the crazy lady threatening her home and marriage.
"There's something about wanting to see Beyonce kick butt. She's taking on one wacked chick, played very well by Ali Larter," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "Let's face it, everyone loves Beyonce, and to see her in this role is a treat."
Documentaries rarely open in nationwide release or break into the top 10, but Disney aimed for a wide audience with "Earth," which traces families of polar bears, elephants and humpback whales over the course of a year.
Disney pledged to plant a tree for every viewer who sees the movie in the first week, with the number climbing to more than 2 million after five days. The film was tied to Earth Day and was the first release of the studio's Disneynature label.
"We just felt like if we make an event out of this, tied it to this whole plant-a-tree effort, tied it to Earth Day, maybe we could break the mold and come up with the kind of opening that you'd be satisfied with on a regular film," said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion-picture group.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Obsessed," $28.5 million.
2. "17 Again," $11.7 million.
3. "Fighting," $11.4 million.
4. "The Soloist," $9.7 million.
5. "Earth," $8.6 million.
6. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $8.5 million.
7. "State of Play," $6.9 million.
8. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $6.4 million.
9. "Fast & Furious," $6.1 million.
10. "Crank: High Voltage," $2.4 million.