Foo Fighters Ready Two New Songs For 'Greatest Hits'
Foo Fighters will commemorate the group's 15th anniversary with the Nov. 3 release of "Foo Fighters Greatest Hits" on Roswell/RCA. The group recorded two new songs for the set -- "Word Forward" and "Wheels," which the quartet debuted at a July 4 barbecue honoring military heroes at the White House -- with producer Butch Vig at the Foos' own 606 studio. They'll join Grammy Award-winning songs such as "The Pretender," "All My Life" and "Learn To Fly," along with "Best Of You," "Times Like These," "My Hero, "Everlong" and others.
The release of "Greatest Hits" will come at a time the individual Foos are dispersed to other projects. Founder and leader Dave Grohl is working with Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Josh Home of Queens of the Stone Age in Them Crooked Vultures, whose debut album is due out in October. And bassist Nate Mendel is touring with the reunited Sunny Day Real Estate, which is also releasing remastered versions of 1994's "Diary" and 1995's "LP2," each with two bonus tracks.
Mendel tells Billboard.com that the Foos' hiatus is "kind of open-ended. We were pretty much planning to take this year off and start writing. This fall or winter we'll probably start writing new Foo Fighters stuff."
Mendel, meanwhile, is spending his time gearing up for the Sunny Day Real Estate tour, which kicks off Sept. 17 in Vancouver. "It's fun to do something different. You need some variety," Mendel says. "I've always loved those two Sunny Day records that I played on...and I like the other musicians in the band, so I wanted to just get together and re-live the whole experience."
But Mendel and his Sunny Day are "on egg shells" about whether the reunion will lead to new music from the group. "Any old wounds from the past, no one wants to bring them up," he explains. "We just want to focus on positive things, and you start writing new songs and that opens up a whole new can of worms. And those of us that are still playing in bands are pretty busy, too.
"One thing I didn't know before we start this and I know now is we [i]could[/i] make another record. We get along. We still have a connection that would allow us to make music. So if the will and time is there, it's a possibility at least."
As for Grohl's endeavor, Mendel says he started hearing about the group earlier this year and has had a chance to see Them Crooked Vultures in the studio. "They're great," Mendel says, adding with a laugh that "it's a different dynamic, though. It's interesting to see (Grohl) not being in charge."
'Final Destination' arrives at No. 1 with $28.3M
LOS ANGELES – Movie fans have made fear their top destination at the weekend box office.
The horror tale "The Final Destination" debuted as the No. 1 movie with $28.3 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Warner Bros. sequel is the latest installment in the franchise about people stalked by death after a premonition saves them from their destined demise.
"Final Destination" took over the top spot from Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt's World War II saga "Inglourious Basterds," which slipped to second place with $20 million. The Weinstein Co. release raised its total to $73.8 million after 10 days in theaters.
Weinstein also had the No. 3 slot with the horror flick "Halloween II," which opened with $17.4 million. The movie is Rob Zombie's sequel to his update of the slasher franchise about crazed killer Michael Myers.
It's unusual for two horror movies to open over the same weekend. While "Final Destination" and "Halloween II" competed for the same audience, both managed solid receipts.
"They got their $17 million, we got our $28 million. That's a lot of business all around," said Jeff Goldstein, general sales manager for Warner Bros.
"Final Destination" continued Hollywood's streak of 3-D successes. The 3-D component accounted for 70 percent of the movie's revenues, even though only 54 percent of the 3,121 theaters where it played offered the movie in 3D.
The Weinstein Co. plans to release "Halloween 3" in 3-D next summer, said Bob Weinstein, who co-founded the company with brother Harvey. While Zombie will not be back to direct, the next sequel will pick up from his story and give a new twist on slasher Myers, Weinstein said.
"Halloween II" did far less business than Zombie's "Halloween," which opened at No. 1 with $30.6 million two years ago. But Weinstein noted that the sequel took in more than its $15 million production budget over opening weekend.
"It's like hitting a single or a double," Weinstein said. "There are going to be bigger ones like 'Inglourious Basterds,' but for the Weinstein Co., we don't mind having two or three of these a year."
The weekend's other new wide release, Focus Features' music romp "Taking Woodstock," opened a weak No. 9 with $3.7 million. Directed by Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Brokeback Mountain"), "Taking Woodstock" is a nostalgic look behind the scenes at the mammoth 1969 rock concert.
Though Hollywood's summer season historically does not end until Labor Day, the holiday comes late this year, adding an extra week to the movie schedule and skewing comparisons to past summers.
Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian is using this Monday to mark the end of the season, since this weekend corresponded to Labor Day weekend last year. Dergarabedian estimated that through Monday, Hollywood will have taken in $4.26 billion, 1.5 percent ahead of the revenue record the industry set in summer 2008.
While receipts ran at an all-time high, attendance was off 2.2 percent compared with last summer factoring in this year's higher ticket prices, he said.
Revenues had lagged compared to last year's because of a midsummer skid, but Hollywood finished with an unusually strong lineup in August, typically a quiet time at the box office.
"August gave us the record," Dergarabedian said. "Virtually every summer crosses the finish line with a whimper. This year, we crossed with a bang."
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Final Destination," $28.3 million.
2. "Inglourious Basterds," $20 million.
3. "Halloween II," $17.4 million.
4. "District 9," $10.7 million.
5. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," $8 million.
6. "Julie & Julia," $7.4 million.
7. "The Time Traveler's Wife," $6.7 million.
8. "Shorts," $4.9 million.
9. "Taking Woodstock," $3.7 million.
10. "G-Force," $2.8 million.