We saw 10 seconds of the teaser yesterday, and now Summit Entertainment has released the full teaser trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Watch below:

In The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

UGO received the final poster for Prince of Perisa: The Sands of Time which features Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan, Gemma Arterton as Tamina, and Ben Kingsley as Nizam. I’m sure the marketing guys at Disney could have come up with something a bit more creative, but it does it’s job.

Set in medieval Persia, the story of an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. Which is why after the prince was tricked by a dying Vizier to unleash the Sands of Time that turns out to destroy a kingdom and transforms its populace into ferocious demons. In his effort to save his own kingdom and redeem his fatal mistake, it’s up to the prince and the princess to return the sands to the hourglass by using the Dagger of Time, which also gives him a limited control over the flow of time.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will be released on May 28th.

Universal has released another trailer for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, and it’s probably the best one so far. We start by seeing Robin Hood as a kid who witnesses his father being murdered by the powers that be, and from this an outlaw is born. One with a dodgy Yorkshire accent. Anyhow, there’s lots of action, arrows being fired in all directions, and a great big epic battle on a beach. It looks like Gladiator 2.0 will be rather good.

Oscar winner Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure known by generations as “Robin Hood,” whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. And whether thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.

Robin Hood stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong and will be released on May 14th. Mark said date in the nearest tree stump.

Admittedly, we’ve heard about these before, but now a big company’s involved.

It’s probably only been a few seconds since everyone made loads of cash over the colorful, 3D CGI explosion that is Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Naturally, Warner Bros. are now looking to revisit The Wizard of Oz, with an eye for probable franchising, considering that Harry Potter only has two films left.

The LA Times states that WB are looking at two existing projects, aiming to help develop one of them:

Oz - a film based on a script by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After), being produced by Temple Hill…the guys behind Twilight.

Wizard of Oz (untitled as of yet – I think) – based on a screenplay by Josh Olson (A History of Violence), this take involves Dorothy’s granddaughter returning to Oz to “fight evil,” and would potentially involve creative input from Todd McFarlane, who is a producer on the project.

While I have Technicolorful feelings towards the avalanche of remakes burying everything else, I’d actually be interested in the latter project, provided it took a more violent approach that separated it from the other films, and didn’t stick to the confines of marketable teen fantasy (see: Twilight, Percy Jackson, The Seeker - Harry Potter often manages to strike a balance between darkness and lower age ratings). Suffice to say, I don’t really want to see a Wizard of Oz franchise from the producers behind Twilight.

I’m honestly not sure which option WB is more likely to go with – I would say the Twilight one, but I’m not sure if the presence of Olson and McFarlane means that their Wizard of Oz project is as dark as it sounds. But please Warner Bros. – choose their one anyway!

P.S. I doubt any future Oz project will keep the songs. Or have songs. At all.

Hero Complex got the chance to do two things movie fans everywhere would pay good money to do. First they were invited to the editing suite of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, getting a peak this summer’s most mysterious and intriguing movie. While there they also got the chance to talk to Nolan about a few other projects he’s working on. Nothing big. Just Batman 3 and a Superman reboot.

For those who haven’t keen keeping up on Nolan’s Superman/Batman situation (shame on you!) here’s what’s happening in one sentence: David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan are co-writing the script for Batman 3, which Nolan will direct, and they will also be co-writing the script for a Superman reboot, which Nolan will produce. Exciting stuff.

Here’s what Nolan had to say about The Dark Knight co-writer David Goyer coming up with a Superman concept:

“He basically told me, ‘I have this thought about how you would approach Superman. I immediately got it, loved it and thought: That is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way.

“A lot of people have approached Superman in a lot of different ways. I only know the way that has worked for us that’s what I know how to do.”

On Batman 3:

“My brother is writing a script for me and we’ll wait to see how it turns out…he’s struggling to put it together into the epic story that you want it to be.”

“Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story, and in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story. We have a great ensemble, that’s one of the attractions of doing another film, since we’ve been having a great time for years.”

It looks like Nolan is preparing the third Batman film to be the last, well for him and the world/story he has created at least. I’m sure we’ll be getting more Batman movies after Batman 3, just like we had other Batman movies before Batman Begins.

Nolan also said that the Superman reboot will be in a different universe to his Batman world, so we shouldn’t be expecting any Marvel-like crossovers or a Batman vs. Superman movie.

We live in a world where we get teasers for teaser trailers, although Twilight fans aren’t complaining. Below is a 10 second clip from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse teaser trailer which will debut online in full tomorrow (oh yeah I forgot to mention, you may wish to leave the internet tomorrow. I’ll let you know when/if it’s safe to return).

The clip contains just about everything you’d expect from a Twilight trailer: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart acting all serious about love, aerial shots of Canadian woodland, and Taylor Lautner with no upper body clothing.

Directed by David Slade, Eclipse will be released in June and as well as the main trio the film stars Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Dakota Fanning and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Producer Frank Marshall tweeted that the next trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender will be attached to Iron Man 2 which is due for release on May 7th in the US. The trailer will also be making it’s way online around that date too.

Click here to watch the second official trailer that was released a month ago, and here to watch a very cool TV spot that debuted during the Winter Olympics.

The Last Airbender will be released on July 2nd 2010.

According to Box Office Mojo the official release date for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in North America is December 23rd 2011, which also happens to be my birthday. I guess I now know what i’ll be doing for it next year! Tintin will be released in countries such as Sweden, Netherlands and Germany in October 2011 as Tintin is rather popular in that part of the world. To date the graphic novel series has sold over 200 million copies worldwide and most of those sales were in Europe, so the studios (Sony/Paramount) have the right strategy even if the US has to wait an extra 2 months for it.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn stars Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and will be using the same performance-capture technology James Cameron used for Avatar, so expect a visual treat.

I love days like this. This morning, we posted a story about “The Office” star John Krasinski being the frontrunner for Marvel’s upcoming Captain America adaptation. Only a few hours later, it looks like that report (initially from Fox 411) has been disproven and some new information has come to light.

Deadline has the exclusive report.

Marvel has slightly expanded its search — adding actors that I’m told include Chris Evans, who already logged Marvel Comics superhero time as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in two Fantastic Four films. Of the original contenders, two are still in serious contention: Mike Vogel (Cloverfield) and Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy). Hedlund was on Marvel’s original wish list but didn’t test at first.

They also mention “it’s not going to work out for the other actors” who screen tested for the role of Steve Rogers, and count Krasinski as one of the unfortunate few. What a difference a few hours can make.

Given this new spin on Joe Johnston’s film, I must say I’m pleased with the remaining choices. Chris Evans (as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch) was the best part of the Fantastic Four series, and I’ve been quietly pulling for Hedlund all along. After the incredibly strong debut of the Tron: Legacy trailer yesterday, perhaps Marvel is looking at the actor through fresh eyes. What do you all think about this development? Are you happy that Krasinski is out, and if so, who would you like to see suit up in the red, white, and blue?

Buried in an article by the L.A Times about what projects this years Oscar winners have lined up next is this nugget of info regarding directing gigs offered to Best Director winner Kathryn Bigelow:

Kathryn Bigelow, the veteran filmmaker who won Oscars on Sunday for best picture and best director, has also been cautious about signing on to a new film. The “Hurt Locker” director-producer has turned down a host of jobs on big-budget movies, including an offer to direct the relaunch of the “Spider-Man” franchise — the job wound up going to “(500) Days of Summer’s” Marc Webb.

Things like this always interest me. After directors and actors receive Oscar nominations there is a period of a few weeks between the announcement and the ceremony where they receive a ton of offers. Sony will have no doubt looked at a number of different directors after they decided they were rebooting the Spider-Man franchise, and I’m sure they had a glance at this year’s Best Director nominees for potential directors.

I can understand why Bigelow declined, although if she were to consider taking on a superhero movie I think she would be well suited to one in particular.

Wonder Woman.

With $469 million at the worldwide box office, Robert Downey Jr. pulling out of Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens and Guy Ritchie deciding not to direct Lobo , we began to wonder whether a sequel to Sherlock Holmes may go into production at some point this year. While on the rounds promoting Repo Men Jude Law spoke about Sherlock Holmes 2, and hinted that he may be keeping his scedule free for a late summer start.

From CinemaBlend:

“We started throwing out ideas of where it could go and what should happen next. Mine of course involved Sherlock Holmes being locked in a box and Dr. Watson…” He then pumped up his arms into a heroic stance and got a big laugh from the assembled press.

The closest he came to admitting there was a sequel was saying, “I don’t know for sure, but I think we are probably doing another one. I think it’s sometime this year.” When discussing other projects, he said he was considering doing a play in London either this summer or early next year, and also mentioned shooting for 10 days on Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion at the end of this year.

I’d imagine Warner Bros. will be aiming for another December release for the sequel, so if they want to have the film complete by December 2011 they’ll need to begin filming around August/September/October time, considering Sherlock Holmes began filming in October 2008 for a December 2009 release.

If Holmes made nearly $470 million while competing with the highest grossing film of all time then it’s clear there are quite a few people out there wanting more of Downey and his accent. Is there anything you’d like to see in Sherlock Holmes 2?

Latino Review got a scoop last week that said Stephen Lang, the guy who casually drank coffee while destroying Hometree, had joined the cast of Conan. They said he would play the main villian, Khalar Singh, who is described as “commanding in size and manner, a warlord and formidable warrior, brilliant, cruel, weathered and tanned by the many campaigns he has waged and won. He is driven in his quest to find the Queen of Acheron and has been building an empire to do so.”

In a recent interview with MTV Lang confirmed he had been cast in Conan, and spoke briefly about the cutting off Mickey Rourke’s genitals.

“I’ve accepted the role of Khalar Singh,” he said. “I have no idea how I’m going to do it. First I’m going to find out how I’m going to sound. I’m going to get back on a Mongolian pony and ride like the wind. I’m going to flash my scimitar. I’m going to cut the nuts off Conan and his father.”

In other Conan news Latino Review also got word that Rachel Nichols (G.I Joe) will be playing the female love interest in the film. Her character is called Tamara and she is a “master of martial arts” and “has been trained to be the Queen’s servant, bodyguard and best friend”. She teams up with Conan to track down Khalar Singh after he captures the Queen of Acheron.

Conan begins filming this month in Bulgaria under the direction of Marcus Nispel (Pathfinder) and will be released by Lionsgate sometime in 2011.

Eight years after Men in Black 2, the folks at Sony Pictures have decided to revisit their successful franchise and plans have been set in motion for Men in Black 3. Will Smith is reportedly interested in reprising his role as Agent J, but there’s been no word of Tommy Lee Jones’ potential involvement.

Now Bloody Disgusting reports that Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Bruno) and Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”) are in talks for a lead role in the sequel – a character named “Yaz.” With Josh Brolin also rumored to join the cast, the talent surrounding this project is slowly building up as it inches closer to production.

Written by Tropic Thunder screenwriter Etan Cohen, the story supposedly features Agent J going back in time to meet the young version of Agent K. Josh Brolin is reportedly suiting up as the younger incarnation of Tommy Lee Jones’ straight-faced agent. No actors have officially signed on to the project yet (and no director has been hired, either), so it’ll be quite some time before we see this film up on the big screen. No word yet on the return of the wise-cracking alien pug Frank.

A synopsis for Marvel’s Thor has been making it’s way around the net. The film is current filming, and has been since January, so it will probably be a while before we get an image or trailer, therefore a synopsis will have to do for now!

From Marvel Movies! Fanpage

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, “Thor,” which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), has a profound effect on Thor, as she ultimately becomes his first love. It’s while here on Earth that Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

In the original Thor comics Jane Foster was a nurse who later becomes a doctor, so it looks like they may have changed her occupation slightly.

Thor is currently being directed by Kenneth Branagh and stars Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Stellen Skarsgard and Kat Dennings.

Tron fans have been following a viral campaign started by Disney a few weeks ago, and the end result was a brand new trailer for Tron Legacy. I wasn’t around when the original Tron movie was released back in 1982 so my anticipation isn’t as high as other movie fans, but after watching this trailer my interest definitely lifted. Hell, I’d see this movie just to listen to Daft Punk’s score.

Sean Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is the 20-something son of Tron protagonist Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), whose curiosity about his father’s disappearance leads him to the now-abandoned site of Kevin’s old arcade. Inside the old building, Sean is transported into the Computer World and embarks on an adventure in which he learns what has happened to his father, and of the shocking new threat to the Computer World.

Tron Legacy will be released in 3D in December and stars this year’s Best Actor Oscar winner Jeff Bridges along with Michael Sheen, Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund. I have a feeling another blue movie will be dominating the box office this year.

As expected a new trailer for Iron Man 2 was revealed by Robert Downey Jr. on Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Academy Awards yesterday and it also made its way online soon after. In this trailer we see a lot more of Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow, along with more footage of Whiplash attacking Tony Stark at the Monaco Grand Prix. We also get a glimpse of a new portable Iron Man suit.

With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances — and confront powerful enemies.

Iron Man 2 will be released on April 30th in the UK and May 7th in the US.

BEST PICTURE
Winner: The Hurt Locker
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

BEST ACTOR
Winner: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)

BEST ACTRESS
Winner: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Helen Mirren (The Last Station)
Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Matt Damon (Invictus)
Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Mo’Nique (Precious)
Penelope Cruz (Nine)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)
Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: El Secreto de Sus Ojos – The Secret of Their Eyes (Argentina)
Ajami (Israel)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophete – A Prophet (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman (The Messenger)
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (A Serious Man)
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy (Up)

BEST ANIMATION
Winner: Up
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (District 9)
Nick Hornby (An Education)
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (In the Loop)
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)

BEST ART DIRECTION
Winner: Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

BEST SOUND MIXING
Winner: The Hurt Locker
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

BEST SOUND EDITING
Winner: The Hurt Locker
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Winner: The Weary Kind (theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett
Almost There from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas
Take It All from Nine by Maury Yeston

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: Up (Michael Giacchino)
Avatar (James Horner)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)
Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

BEST COSTUMES
Winner: The Young Victoria
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Winner: The Cove
Burma VJ
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Winner: Music by Prudence
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Rabbit a la Berlin

BEST FILM EDITING
Winner: The Hurt Locker
Avatar
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

BEST MAKE-UP
Winner: Star Trek
Il Divo
The Young Victoria

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Winner: Logorama
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
A Matter of Loaf and Death

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Winner: The New Tenants
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner: Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

….and there we have it. The 2010 Oscars belonged to The Hurt Locker which picked up 6 Oscars, including an historic win for Kathryn Bigelow who is the first female to win the best director Oscar.

What did you think of the results? Should Avatar have picked up more technical awards? Should Sandra Bullock have won the Best Actress award? Sound off in the comments section below!

How It Should Have Ended

Disney is in discussions with the Jim Henson company to develop a biopic about the creative wizard himself, entitled The Muppet Man. Vulture states that the executives at both companies are interested in Michael Gracey to direct the film – Gracey is a music video and commercial director, having previously directed that Evian ad with the rollerskating / dancing babies (personally I found that commercial just weird and rather random…but Disney must’ve liked it).

Christopher Weekes (who has previously written one produced screenplay – Bitter & Twisted) reportedly wrote the script without the rights to Henson or any of his characters, but it still managed to top 2009’s industry Black List, “the industry’s unofficial rundown of the best unproduced screenplays.” Vulture also writes that:

The Henson Company controls the life rights to Henson and his surviving ex-wife, Jane, while Disney bought the rights to the Muppets in 2004. Finally, the two sides seem to have stopped arguing over who should pull the strings and are collaborating on getting it made.

Which is great news, of course. I’m a huge fan of the colorful cast of characters Henson created, and I’m sure the man’s life would be a really interesting thing to see portrayed on-screen. Rather than being a straight-up biopic, The Muppet Man will seemingly incorporate elements of Henson’s creations in an imaginative way; apparently Weekes’s screenplay contains:

flights of fancy in which crucial moments in Henson’s life are played out by Muppets.

This sounds really intriguing – I have high hopes for both this and The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made.

We haven’t heard anything from Marc Webb on the Spider-Man reboot since the press release that announced he would be directing. Since then we’ve learned that Webb has been talking to Avatar director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau about shooting the web-slinger in 3D, and we’ve also had a few casting rumours ranging from Percy Jackson’s Logan Lerman to (500) Days of Summer’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Webb recently spoke to MTV about the reboot and he commented on casting his Peter Parker, Sam Raimi, and mentioned that more information on the reboot will be revealed in the upcoming weeks.

“We’re casting a wide net,” Webb told MTV News. “That’s really all I can say at this moment.”

He did say the mythology behind the character fascinates him and that his interest in Spider-Man goes way back. “I think that there’s something about Peter Parker that’s just — he’s a legend, and that mythology is appealing to me, and it has been for a long time,” the director explained. “It’s really just a dream come true.”

“I’ve talked to Jon [Landau] a little bit,” he said. “I’d like to talk to those guys more. They’re fantastic representatives for 3-D, and we’ll be talking more about that, but right now, I’m doing a pilot, so my mind has been sort of consumed by that a little bit.”

As for Sam Raimi, the director he will inherit Spider-Man from, Webb offered nothing but praise, noting that he still sees untapped potential. “[Raimi] did something fantastic, but I do think the mythology of Spider-Man is wide and vast,” he said. “I think there’s more opportunity to explore that cinematically. Sam is not only a great guy, but a fantastic director, and it’s a humbling prospect, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Filmonic wasn’t around during the production of the previous trilogy, so it’ll be interesting for me to follow this new Spider-Man saga over the next two years. Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have been a good choice a few years ago but he’s nearly 30 and might not suit the teen/high school approach Sony may be going for.

Production will begin later this year for a July 2012 release.

Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton’s latest film starring Johnny Deep is on its way to becoming not only the popular director’s biggest opening ever, but also by far the biggest opening in March or the January-April period for that matter.

According to Nikki Finke at Deadly Hollywood, Alice opened with a monstrous $45 million on Friday. Now this are still just estimates, the final number might be even bigger, or lower (but not by much). It seems the first big genuine blockbuster of 2010 did not disappoint one bit.

Being the first 3D movie after almost 3 months of Avatar seems to have come with perks for Alice in Wonderland, lots and lots of perks. Now you see, Avatar while not the first digital 3D movie, opened this new medium to a much wider audience and it looks like Alice benefited immensely. Being basted on one of the most popular stories ever told didn’t hurt either.

Speaking of Avatar, as expected, the blue Sci-Fi monster (at the box office) finally came down hard when most of its 3D screens were taken away. It did an estimated $1.3 million on Friday and will probably finish the weekend with a 55%-60% drop that will lead to $5.5-$6 million.

Now the big question in how will Alice hold up? A good indication of that will be the Saturday numbers and how much it drops (if it drops) that day. Either way we will find out in the next couple of weeks. Now two things are certain, it will finish North of $200 million in North America and might even go North of $300 million. And the second certain thing is that I can’t wait to see how Clash of the Titans will do now thanks to 3D. Might we see another $100+ million opening weekend? It sure looks like it.

I will update as new numbers come in.

Earlier this week we heard that the producers of this years Oscar ceremony had pulled the plug on a skit by Sasha Baron Cohen so as not to offend James Cameron. In the skit Cohen planned to appear onstage as a female Na’vi, with Ben Stiller translating “her” interplanetary speech. As the skit went on Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.

Well E! Online spoke to Cameron about the now scrapped plans, and he said he wouldn’t have had a problem with it.

Cameron said he wasn’t aware that a proposed Avatar sketch involving Ben Stiller and Sacha Baron Cohen had been cut from the show, presumably to avoid upsetting the director.

“I don’t know anything about that…I don’t produce the Oscars. If they want to poke fun at Avatar Sunday, that’s OK by me,” said Cameron, “I’m sure we’ll laugh.”

As far as he’s concerned, he told me, jokes are just another element of Hollywood’s big night. And he’s fine with it.

“The Oscars are a celebration of movies…even the gaffes and out-of-bounds stuff are all part of the fun.”

Maybe the producers have time to put it back in? Although as Cameron and most of the internet know what will happen it probably won’t be as funny. Damn the producers for being too sensitive!

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday March 7th, 2010

Yahoo! got their hands on a new poster for Toy Story 3 which contains just about every toy you could want on a poster. It features the regulars such as Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Hamm along with newbies Trixie the dinosaur, Mr. Pricklepants the headgehog and Peas-in-a-Pod.

In the film Andy is now a young adult who is heading off to college, which means his toys are sent to storage, apart from Woody who he wants to keep. However, Buzz and the gang are accidentally thrown away and end up at local day-care center where they are abused by the youngsters. It’s left to Woody to save them and help them escape.

Toy Story 3 will be released next June in the US, and July in the UK.

The first teaser trailer for Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians (recently renamed from Guardians of Ga’Hoole – a sensible move, probably) was released today. You can watch it below.

HD versions are available from Yahoo here.

The Ga’Hoole series, written by Kathryn Lasky, is about a barn owl and his friends who flee “St. Aggie’s,” a training / brainwashing facility for turning owls into soldiers (yes). The young escapees arrive at the island of Ga’Hoole, and go on to fight St. Aggie’s army alongside the island’s inhabitants.

Legend of the Guardians is a CGI adaptation, based on the first three books – and judging from the trailer…it doesn’t look that exciting. The imagery’s good and all, but as with most of these types of films, I can just imagine it having a horribly generic plot. I’m not familiar with the books, but that’s the “vibe” this initial trailer is giving off. A young boy becoming a hero, uninspired stereotypical villains, the kinda thing where you know what’s going to happen before it actually does. Although obviously, I’d like it if the movie turned out not doing that.

Unsurprisingly for any animated film nowadays, the cast features some famous names – including Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving, Geoffrey Rush, Helen Mirren, and Lost’s Emilie de Ravin. They might add some character to…the characters. I’m not quite sure why Zack Snyder is such a celebrated director – he did some great visuals for 300 and Watchmen, but both those films seemed pretty empty outside of the aesthetics. Maybe he’ll do a better job here? I’m much more interested to see Sucker Punch, which he should be getting to work on after taking time to do this family film.

Sasha Baron Cohen, the guy behind Bruno and Borat, was due to present an award at next week’s Oscar ceremony, however his name has now be removed from the list. Why is this, you ask? Apparently the producers didn’t want Cohen to annoy Avatar director James Cameron.

An insider familiar with the Oscar telecast tells Vulture that an Avatar sketch planned by Baron Cohen and Ben Stiller was nixed yesterday by show producer Bill Mechanic, who worried that Cameron would be so offended by it that he might even walk out of the Oscar broadcast on live TV.

Our insider informs us that Baron Cohen planned to appear onstage as a blue-skinned, female Na’vi, with Stiller translating “her” interplanetary speech. As the skit went on, though, it would become clear that Stiller wasn’t translating properly, because Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.

I would have loved to have seen this. I can’t say I know Cameron, but I’m sure he’s a guy who can take a joke. I guess the producers just didn’t want to risk a potential best director winner walking out of the ceremony, even though it would have been one of those ‘Oscar moments’ people would remember for years to come.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday March 7th, 2010

According to Showbiz411 writer Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects) has finished work on the script for Wolverine 2, and filming may begin in January.

No director has been signed. And the script is a little different than originally thought.

Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. “It’s a beautiful story,” says a source, “and will be very different than the first film.”

This news means that we should expect a director to be hired in the upcoming months. I don’t think Fox will want Gavin Hood to return following the negative reviews (even thought it wasn’t all his fault). As the film will be set in Japan they may be looking for a director who has experience with that type of setting. Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai) would be a good choice.

X-Men: Origins: Wolverine began filming in January 2008 for a May 2009 release, so it looks like 20th Century Fox may be trying to make the Wolverine sequel the first summer blockbuster out of the block again. It worked last year as the film made $370 million worldwide despite strong competition from Star Trek, a bootleg all over the internet, and negative buzz. At the moment The Avengers is the only big May 2012 release, and Fox would be wise to avoid competing with it. Wolverine can’t take on Thor, Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man at the same time.

It’s about time we got a new one! According to Futon Critic Robert Downey Jr. will be appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Academy Awards on Sunday, and he’ll be introducing the second trailer for Iron Man 2.

Host Jimmy Kimmel welcomes two-time Academy Award(R)-nominated Robert Downey Jr. and a musical performance by Grammy Award(R) winner Keith Urban to the fifth consecutive “Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Academy Awards”, SUNDAY, MARCH 7, immediately following the late local news (12:05-1:05 a.m., ET, approx). Downey will introduce the world premiere of the new “Iron Man 2? trailer only moments before Urban performs his new hit single, “Til Summer Comes Around,” from his 2009 album, “Defying Gravity.”

The trailer will no doubt make its way online at some point over the weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

You can watch the first Iron Man 2 trailer below:

Barrowman explains, “I first sang this version of the song at a concert in Wales for, amongst others, David Tennant and Russell T Davies, and they loved it … We’ve given it new lyrics to make the song relevant to Captain Jack and his relationship with the Doctor. It’s quirky, it’s funny and it’s really good. I’m terribly proud of it.”

The Doctor & I – 1′30” by lucidonline

fourfour

It’s about time we got a new one! According to Futon Critic Robert Downey Jr. will be appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Academy Awards on Sunday, and he’ll be introducing the second trailer for Iron Man 2.

Host Jimmy Kimmel welcomes two-time Academy Award(R)-nominated Robert Downey Jr. and a musical performance by Grammy Award(R) winner Keith Urban to the fifth consecutive “Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Academy Awards”, SUNDAY, MARCH 7, immediately following the late local news (12:05-1:05 a.m., ET, approx). Downey will introduce the world premiere of the new “Iron Man 2″ trailer only moments before Urban performs his new hit single, “Til Summer Comes Around,” from his 2009 album, “Defying Gravity.”

The trailer will no doubt make its way online at some point over the weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

You can watch the first Iron Man 2 trailer below:

Sasha Baron Cohen, the guy behind Bruno and Borat, was due to present an award at next week’s Oscar ceremony, however his name has now be removed from the list. Why is this, you ask? Apparently the producers didn’t want Cohen to annoy Avatar director James Cameron.

An insider familiar with the Oscar telecast tells Vulture that an Avatar sketch planned by Baron Cohen and Ben Stiller was nixed yesterday by show producer Bill Mechanic, who worried that Cameron would be so offended by it that he might even walk out of the Oscar broadcast on live TV.

Our insider informs us that Baron Cohen planned to appear onstage as a blue-skinned, female Na’vi, with Stiller translating “her” interplanetary speech. As the skit went on, though, it would become clear that Stiller wasn’t translating properly, because Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.

I would have loved to have seen this. I can’t say I know Cameron, but I’m sure he’s a guy who can take a joke. I guess the producers just didn’t want to risk a potential best director winner walking out of the ceremony, even though it would have been one of those ‘Oscar moments’ people would remember for years to come.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday March 7th, 2010

According to Showbiz411 writer Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects) has finished work on the script for Wolverine 2, and filming may begin in January.

No director has been signed. And the script is a little different than originally thought.

Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. “It’s a beautiful story,” says a source, “and will be very different than the first film.”

This news means that we should expect a director to be hired in the upcoming months. I don’t think Fox will want Gavin Hood to return following the negative reviews (even thought it wasn’t all his fault). As the film will be set in Japan they may be looking for a director who has experience with that type of setting. Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai) would be a good choice.

X-Men: Origins: Wolverine began filming in January 2008 for a May 2009 release, so it looks like 20th Century Fox may be trying to make the Wolverine sequel the first summer blockbuster out of the block again. It worked last year as the film made $370 million worldwide despite strong competition from Star Trek, a bootleg all over the internet, and negative buzz. At the moment The Avengers is the only big May 2012 release, and Fox would be wise to avoid competing with it. Wolverine can’t take on Thor, Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man at the same time.

There’s still over 2 years before Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and The Hulk unite for The Avengers, but as Marvel are the masters of planning ahead they already have a draft of the script, and they’ve been sending it around to a few people. One of which includes Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, who tweeted his excitement yesterday.

Definition of “goose bumps.” Pressing enter and watching a screenplay entitled “AVENGERS” come out of my printer.

It’s official, I have the greatest job in the world.

We can assume this is one of the many drafts that will be flying through Marvel printers over the next year and a half. Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand, Elektra) is the man Marvel gave scriptwriting duties to, although I’m sure the guy who ends up directing will want to do a few re-writes himself.

Here’s a reminder of the timeline:

Iron Man 2 – May 2010 (post-production)
Thor – May 2011 (currently filming)
The First Avenger: Captain America – July 2011 (pre-production, expected June shoot)
The Avengers – May 2012 (scripting)

Back in November 2008 Gossip Girl and The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz was hired by 20th Century Fox to write the script for X-Men: First Class. As the film would focus on the X-Men as teenagers it seemed Schwartz was the right guy for the job, as he’s written and produced a few different teen-orientated TV shows.

However a few months ago it was announced that Bryan Singer would be returning to the franchise to direct the film, and as a result Schwartz’s script was pushed aside and Singer hired Jamie Moss to write the screenplay for his vision. We haven’t heard anything from Schwartz on the matter for a while, but MTV managed to ask him about it recently.

“I finished my draft,” Schwartz told MTV News. “Bryan Singer came onboard the movie, who’s the best possible guy to direct the ‘X-Men’ movies, and he wanted to make a very different kind of movie.”

“He’s Bryan Singer. If he wants to make an X-Men movie, they make his X-Men movie,” said Schwartz. “But it was a great experience and it was an honor to work on it.”

Pressed for more information about the “First Class” script that almost made it to the screen, Schwartz said he’d be endangering his life if he let any details slip. “I cannot. It’s on lockdown,” he said. “Sworn to secrecy. I swear to god, there’s a sniper with a gun pointed at me from that building.”

I guess there will forever be a ‘what if’ now with First Class, adding to the ‘what if’ Singer directed X-Men 3.

From the small bits of info we’ve received over the past year or so it seemed Schwartz was heading in an interesting direction. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner said they “want it to be like the recent, darker Potters. It should not be a kiddie movie – we’re in the X-Men world so you can’t suddenly change the tone.” She also mentioned Schwartz reviewed his script following the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so the actors who played Cyclops and Emma Frost could have appeared in First Class also.

Singer’s version will focus more attention on the relationship between Xavier and Magneto (who probably wasn’t in Schwartz’ script) which I’m looking forward too. We will also see the formation of the X-Men, so they will probably be looking for some young kids/teens to play Cyclops, Storm and Jean. Beast will be slightly older if his appearance in The Last Stand is anything to go by.

It looks like Singer will be directing Jack the Giant Killer for New Line sometime this year, so X-Men: First Class will likely go into production in 2011, depending on Singer’s schedule.

The worldwide market has become increasingly more important for studios over the years and 2009 has been the best year yet with markets that were considered average a few year ago, truly exploding last year. This can be seen in the fact that for the first time ever we have had 7 movies gross more then $700 million worldwide.

10. The Hangover (WarnerBros) $467.3M

The rare R-rated comedy that managed to break out and pull in a big audience all over the world but also one of the best comedies of the year if not the best (at least the Foreign Press thinks so). A sequel is already in the works.

9. Sherlock Holmes (WarnerBros) $468.8M

British director Guy Ritchie waited for 10 years to finally get his chance with a big studio movie and unlike others before him, he did not disappoint. But then again, this is the guy that brought us Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and RockNRolla, but then again, he also did Swept Away. Sherlock Holmes might not be his best movie but it was a hell of a lot of fun and showed great promise for a future franchise that is already being pushed forward by Warner Bros.

8. Angels & Demons (Sony) $485.9M

The adventures of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) continue in this Dan Brown adaptation of the book with the same title that was written as a sequel to the author’s best seller and worldwide phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, also adapted into a movie by the same team. That one made a bit more money with $758.2 million worldwide so it seems people are starting to get tired of Robert Langdon.

7. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Summit) $706.6M

Sequel to 2008’s Twilight and based on the series of extremely popular books by author Stephenie  Meyer. New Moon managed to almost double the $384 million that the first one made showing that there’s a very big audience still out there for this series. This summer Breaking Dawn, the 3rd chapter in the Twilight Saga comes out and regardless of what me or anybody else thinks of this series, it will continue to make a lot of money for Summit Entertainment and we will see it again in the top 10 of 2010.

6. Up (BuenaVista) $723M

Pixar scored their second biggest hit ever with this strange tale about the journey of an old man, a young boy and a dog named Dug that can speak. A year ago if someone asked me what I think of the potential box office of this movie, I would have replied that this was going to be one of the lowest grossing flicks in Pixar’s catalog. Fortunately I was wrong and Up turned into a success and it deserves every last penny it made. A nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars this weekend is a testament to that.

5. 2012 (Sony) $769.7M

What can I say, people love to see this world blown to pieces on the big screen and that’s exactly what 2012 promised, nothing more, nothing less. Did it deliver on that promise, first 90 minutes, hell yes, after that, not so much. Regardless, this has become Sony’s biggest hit worldwide outside of the now defunct Spider-Man franchise. Roland Emmerich said this was going to be his last disaster movie so he went all out on 2012 and it shows. Just watch any trailer and you’ll see what this movie is all about and why it has made so much money.

4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount/DreamWorks) $835.3M

Director Michael Bay comes back with this sequel to the 2007 hit Transformers (also directed by him) and he does everything he can to make this the biggest most epic thing he’s ever done, so that means a lot of stuff is going on and even more stuff is blowing up. Giant robots are everywhere helping with the blowing stuff up and basically everything is one huge mambo-jambo. Still, for me it was an enjoyable romp, just pure fun and between you and me, I liked it better then the first one. Anyway, the third one is coming out next year so what can I say, hate them or not, giant robots are here to stay.

3. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Fox) $884.5M

Now here’s a bit of a surprise, Ice Age is huge! This has been a monster outside of the US and now worldwide it is only second to Sherk 2 with $919.8M. But if we look closely at the way this animated series has evolved, everything starts to make sense, Ice Age made $383.2 million while Ice Age 2 did $655.3 million. It is very uncommon that a series continues to increase its gross with each new sequel but it seems the animation studio Blue Sky have nailed the perfect recipe for continued success with Ice Age.

2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (WarnerBros) $934M

Yet another series that continues to keep the flag up with each new chapter. What more can I say about Harry Potter that hasn’t been said already, we all know the books, some even read them, some just like to watch the movies. Two more (made from a single book) and the most successful series ever (unadjusted for inflation) will finally come to an end. So, has Warner Bros found a replacement yet?

1. Avatar (Fox) $2,546.8M

Words can’t describe the gigantic surprise that this movie was in terms of actual box office. Just like with Titanic there were people on either side, the ones that said it will bomb and the ones that knew it will become a hit. But here’s the thing, no one, not even the most crazy fan could have predicted just how much money this was going to make. 7 consecutive weekends in first place in NA, 11 consecutive weekends in first place Internationally, this has turned into a global phenomenon unlike anything we’ve seen since, well, Titanic. And to top this, both movies were directed by James Cameron. Love it or hate it, Avatar changed the way people look at 3D movies and now more then ever this format looks like it’s here to stay.

And there you go, 365 days and billions of dollars later, 2009 is over.

But I won’t stop here, I will go on with a top 10 that this time leaves out every single dollar made in the US, a non-US top 10 if you will:

1. Avatar (Fox) $1,839M
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Fox) $687.9M
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (WarnerBros) $632M
4. 2012 (Sony) $603.5M
5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount/DreamWorks) $433.2M
6. Up (BuenaVista) $430M
7. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Summit) $410.6M
8. Angels & Demons (Sony) $352.6M
9. Sherlock Holmes (WarnerBros) $262.4M
10. Terminator Salvation (WarnerBros/Sony) $246.7M

For even more information and stats on international box office go to here.

Word from The Hollywood Reporter is that Angelina Jolie and director Darren Aronofsky are entering talks to adapt the 2008 novel Serena, by Ron Rash. Christoper Kyle (Alexander, K-19: The Widowmaker) has written a screenplay for the project, and it would be produced by Nick Wechsler (The Road, previous Aronofsky films Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain).

Anything new from Aronofsky is worth keeping an eye on in my book, particularly after watching The Fountain, carried by amazing visuals and one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever (I got to see parts of it performed by Clint Mansell himself last year), and my favourite 2009 film based on UK release dates – The Wrestler. However, I hadn’t really seen Angelina Jolie as anything more than a sex symbol – that is, until her great performance in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, which convinced me that getting her to star in a film is worth it. So a collaboration between these two could work out very well. Basically because they’re both…good at what they do.

Serena is set in 1929, and plotwise, may remind some of There Will Be Blood. George and his wife Serena start the beginnings of a timber empire in the mountains of North Carolina, and as business starts to improve, Serena becomes more and more powerful – the couple begin to kill anyone who gets in their way. She reaches the point where she sets out to kill her husband’s illegitimate child. It sounds pretty intense.

Aronofsky’s just wrapped up work on Black Swan, so the question is – will Jolie go with this next? Apparently she has passed on Gravity which will be directed by Alfonso Cuarón, and she is currently filming The Tourist with Johnny Depp.

Disney has released a second trailer for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The first trailer has been keeping me entertained for the past few months, so it’s good to have another epic trailer to stick on repeat. This new one explains more of the story and showcases a bunch of special effects heavy scenes, which are probably completed by now seeing as though the film was originally going to be released last summer.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina and will be released on May 28th.

You can check out Filmonic’s Prince of Persia gallery here!

2009 is long gone by now since we’re already in March but we still had a few old releases lurking around (I’m looking at you Sherlock, Alvin, Avatar and The Blind Side), making a lot of money and changing the order of things. So I said to myself, I won’t do this top 10 in January like everyone else, I’ll do it in March when everything will be said and done and all movies in there will stop swapping spots between each other.

The top 10 of 2009 in NA basically looks like this:

1. Avatar (Fox) $706.5M (Still in Theaters)
2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount/Dreamworks) $402.1M
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (WarnerBros) $301.9M
4. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Summit) $296M (SiT)
5. Up (BuenaVista) $293M
6. The Hangover (WarnerBros) $277.3M
7. Star Trek (Paramount) $257.7M
8. The Blind Side (WarnerBros) $248.7M (SiT)
9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Fox) $216.5M (SiT)
10. Sherlock Holmes (WarnerBros) $206.4M (SiT)

Half of the movies on that list are still running in theaters but at this point their spots are set in stone.

By now you probably figured out that 2009 was a very good year at the box office, but here’s the thing, I’m not going to bother ranting about how this movie did that or this other movie become a huge surprise, nope, I’ll just let the facts and numbers speak for themself.

General:

• the average ticket price was $7.5 from $7.18 the year before;
• over 1.412 billion tickets were sold (5.3% up from 2008);
• over 10.595 billion were grossed (+10% from 2008), the biggest year ever for Hollywood unadjusted for inflation;
• 518 movies came out in 2009 compared to 605 in 2008;
• The Twilight Saga: New Moon had the biggest opening of the year with $142.8 million;
• The Twilight Saga: New Moon had the biggest single day of the year with $72.7 million on November 20th;
• no movie managed to stay in first place for more then 2 weekends during 2009, Avatar managed 7 weekends but 5 of those were in 2010;
• 4 of the top 10 movies are direct sequels, 2 others come from established franchises and the remaining 4 are original properties;
• the weakest weekend of the year was September 11-13 with $76.2 million;
• the strongest weekend of the year was December 25-27 with $259.9 million (record);
• 44 were first at least a weekend, two of those came from 2008;
• 8 movies were first for 2 weekends;
• 32 movies made more then $100 million (record), 18 more then $150 million (record), 10 more then $200 million (2007 had 11), 7 more then $250 million (record), 3 more then $300 million, 2 more then $400 million (record) and 1 over $700 million (record);
• 16 3D movies were released or re-released in 2009, another record;
• 7 3D movies made more then $100 million and the top 5 biggest 3D hits ever all came out last year;
• Paranormal Activity opened in 12 theaters with $77,873 and went on to make $107.9 million in 2712 theaters (widest weekend) on a budget of $15,000;
• the widest release was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 4455 theaters on July 24-26, the biggest ever(The Dark Knight had 4366);

Studios:

• Warner Bros has 4 of the top 10 movies of the year, 5 of the top 25 and 9 in the top 50;
• 12 out of 52 weekends a Warner Bros movie was first;
• 6 WB movies made more then $100 million, 4 more then $200 million and 1 more then $300 million;
• Fox has 2 movies in the top 10 and 6 in the top 25;
• 6 out of 52 weekends a Fox movie was first;
• 6 Fox films have made more then $100 million, 2 more then $200 million and 1 more then $700 million;
• Paramount/DreamWorks has 2 movies in the top 10, 4 in the top 25 and 8 in the top 50;
• 6 out of 52 weekends a Paramount/DreamWorks movie was first;
• 5 Par/DW movies made more then $100 million, 2 more then $200 million and 1 more then $400 million
• Buena Vista (Walt Disney Pictures) has 1 movie in the top 10, 3 in the top 25 and 7 in the top 50;
• 7 weekends a Buena Vista movie was first;
• 5 BV movies made more then $100 million and 1 more then 200 million;
• Sony has no movies in the top 10 for the first time since 2005;
• what it does have is 4 movies in the top 25 and 10 in the top 50;
• 10 weekends a Sony movie was first;
• 5 Sony movies made more then $100 million;
• Summit Entertainment has 1 movie in the top 10 and 2 movies in the top 50;
• one Summit movie made more then $100 million in 2009 (guess that movie);
• Summit had 3 weekends in first place last year;
• Weinstein Company has 1 movie in the top 25, 1 weekend in first place and 1 movie that made more then $100 million;
• Lionsgate, Focus Feature and Overture each have one movie in the top 50;
• Lionsgate also has 3 weekends in first place thanks exclusively to Tyler Perry;

A sequel to the highest grossing film of all time has yet to get an official green light from 20th Century Fox (although one is expected), but that hasn’t stopped Avatar director James Cameron dropping hints of what we can expect at all these award ceremonies he’s been attending recently.

Sci-Fi Wire questioned Cameron after he received the Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award and he joked (possibly) about what he might call the sequel, along with mentioning the film will show us more of the spiritual side of the Na’vi.

“Certainly I don’t want to call it Avatar 2,” Cameron said at the Visual Effects Society Awards ceremony in Century City, Calif., on Sunday, where he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. “He’s not an avatar anymore, is he? Maybe we’ll call it Na’vi.”

As for the story, a second Avatar film would emphasize the spiritual aspect of the Na’vi even further than the original, he said. Avatar was primarily an action/adventure with the spiritual nature of the Na’vi at its heart. Now that audiences have embraced the Na’vi culture, Cameron can give it more weight in the sequels.

“I think we can see that there’s a greater receptivity to it on the part of the audience than certainly the studio originally imagined,” Cameron said. “We pared back on it a fair bit in the first film, and I think we can go farther in that direction and not alienate people.”

Earlier, Cameron had said he hadn’t completed a deal yet to direct the sequel. But he made clear on Sunday that he wouldn’t let anyone else direct the follow-up.

“I wouldn’t do that for the second film,” Cameron said. “It’d be premature to turn it over to somebody else right now. I think I’d have to use a film to train somebody to be able to take the reins, honestly. That’s how I see it.”

I’m all up for more spiritual stuff. One of the coolest scenes from the film, I think, was when the Na’vi performed their cross-legged prayer dance, lighting the ground up like a nightclub. I’d like to see what the Na’vi get up too at weekends. Do they even have weekends? Either way, seeing more of the Na’vi in their natural habitat would be a nice change (preferably without it being blown up).

Cameron should complete the trilogy in my opinion, and should film both 2 and 3 back-to-back so that we don’t have to wait another decade to see the third film and to cut down on cost (not that Fox need to worry about that now anyway). I’m sure another director will get their hands on Pandora in 20+ years when Fox want to reboot/prequel it, but until then I hope Cameron sees it to the end.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of in Na’vi 2: Revenge of the Fallen Tree stump?

As expected Shutter Island had no trouble in staying first for a second consecutive weekend according to BoxOfficeMojo.

The Martin Scorsese directed and Leonardo DiCaprio starring flick dropped only 44.8% for $22.6 million and a grand total of $75.5 million so far in NA. With a reported budget of $80 million this is a hit for Paramount Pictures and now I see that changing the release date from October last year to February this year actually helped this movie at the box office. This will probably not finish above The Departed on Scorsese’s biggest hits list but it should still be good for about $120 million by the end of its run in theaters.

Cop Out managed $18.2 million and has become the biggest opener in the career of director Kevin Smith. With a budget of $30 million this should also become a modest hit for Warner Bros.

The Crazies took in a very solid $16 million and I think that in the long run this will pass Cop Out and should finish close to $40-$45 million. It seems this could become Overture’s second biggest hit (Law Abiding Citizen with $73.3 million last year is their biggest hit to date).

Avatar comes down to 4th place once again and is now in its 11th weekend with $13.6 million and yet again the smallest drop in the top 10. The 3D gigantic hit has made $706.5 million in NA (passed $700 million on Saturday) and $2.54 billion worldwide. It also scored another first place internationally for the 11th time.

Percy Jackson is in 5th with $9.5 million while Valentine’s Day in 6th with $9 million.

Dear John and The Wolfman come in at $4.8 million and $4.2 million while Tooth Fairy just doesn’t want to fall out of the top 10 yet, this weekend with $3.4 million.

Finally and probably for the last time in the top 10, we have Crazy Heart. This R-rated drama that is bound to get Jeff Bridges an Oscar at the end of the week made $2.4 million and has now pasted $25 million in ticket sales, all of this on a budget of just $7 million.

March is upon us and next weekend Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland will strike the box office like a thunder and we’ll finally get the first genuine blockbuster of 2010, or so I think. More of that later this week (along with other big hitters of March-April).

Yahoo! has posted a second behind the scenes featurette for Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans. The focus on this one seems to be on how much of a cool action epic the film will be, with comments on the special effects, stunts and action from Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Sam Worthington and Gemma Arterton. We also see a few shots of filming, along with the usual footage we’ve seen from the trailers.

Clash of the Titans stars Sam Worthington as Perseus, a man born of a god and raised as a man who is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth.

Titans will be unleashed on April 2nd.

Milla Jovovich recently updated her Twitter account telling the world that the first trailer for Resident Evil: Afterlife will be shown alongside A Nightmare on Elm Street, which will be released on April 30th.

The fourth Resident Evil outing reunites Jovovich with director Paul W.S. Anderson who directed the first film (he continued to produce and write the sequels). Resident Evil: Afterlife will also star Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller, and will be 3D.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead leads them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

Last week we got the news that Angelina Jolie had decided not reprise her role of Fox in Wanted 2, and that Universal had pulled the plug on the sequel as a result. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter Wanted 2 is still alive, and creator Mark Millar recently told STV that the film “will be certainly going ahead”.

“What I heard was that there’s filming this year for a release at the end of next year, so the plot that they had will have some modifications now. Her character will have to be written out completely. We’ll see what happens, I don’t know, it changes every day. Again, things get so out of your hands with film because 300 people are involved, whereas with comics it’s just you and your artist.”

The following quote from Millar contains Wanted spoilers…

“What was funny was originally ‘Wanted’ was just going to be one movie, and Angelina [Jolie] dies at the end,” related Millar. “The idea was that it was going to be self-contained, but the movie cost $75 million to make and it made $314 million back just theatrically. At the premiere the tracking was really good and everything, and the producer came up and said ‘What are we going to do for ‘Wanted 2?’’ and I was like ‘I don’t have any ideas!’”

“So they put something together, and it was bringing Angelina back from the dead and everything,” continued Millar. “I don’t know, I think that probably just didn’t sit easily with her, because it has to be a really good reason why somebody comes back from the dead.”

“I think it’s actually more authentic if they keep her dead,” added Millar. “She was the star of the movie really, but how cool is it to have the star dead and bring in another cool character for the next one?

Wanted 2 can still be successful without Jolie, but they’ll need to get a few more names onboard as I don’t think James McAvoy can carry the film by himself, especially overseas where the first film made most of its money. I guess they’ll now be busy rewriting the script, so we should hear some stuff on the sequel in the upcoming months if they intend to release it in 2011.

Despite saying filming in 3D is “a pain in the neck to shoot” it seems Paramount has persuaded Transformers director Michael Bay into considering the idea. Filming on Transformers 3 is expected to begin in June, and Bay recently told MTV that we may see some three dimensional robot action next year, depending on how well the tests go.

“It’s a process we’re testing with some ‘Transformers’ scenes,” he said. “How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I’ve seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage.”

He also said they would be “adding a lot of new elements” along with “new characters” and “a lot of twists”, which should be interesting. At least twists may encourage the audience to think a little, instead of them just sat covering their ears.

In other Transformers 3 news Michael Bay’s blog was updated yesterday saying there will be big action sequences shot in Chicago and Moscow later this year. This could mean that Russia will be getting invaded by robot aliens this time round, or it could simply be a good place to shoot. The opening sequence of Revenge of the Fallen was set in Shanghai, but it was actually filmed in Pennsylvania.

I guess we will be hearing more news about the film in the upcoming months, and I expect to hear about the casting of a sexually attractive 20 year old female actress in the near future too. Bay will find a way to get some in there, as always.

Over the past few months Twilight actor Taylor Lautner has been signing onto movies at a rate of 1 per week, two of which were based on toys. However it appears after his team were finished counting up their potential earnings they realised that leading two toy movie franchises wasn’t viable, so one had to go.

According to The Vulture blog Lautner has dropped out of Paramount’s Max Steel in favour of Universal’s Stretch Armstrong. Reason being that Armstrong is developing faster than Steel, and Universal has already been in talks with Monsters vs. Aliens director Rob Letterman to helm.

Stretch Armstrong will be based on the Hasbro toy of the same name, and as there isn’t any back story set up they can do just about whatever they want. All we know is that Taylor Lautner will be stretching all over the place, it will be in 3D, and will be released in 2012.

I’m going to assume that as Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all time just about everyone has seen it; therefore I am able to talk about spoilers freely. If you haven’t seen Avatar yet then look elsewhere, as spoilers will be written below.

Sigourney Weaver, who plays Dr. Grace Augustine, recently appeared on French TV show “Le Grand Journal” and was asked whether she would be appearing in Avatar 2. Those who saw the film will remember she was shot by Quaritch and attempts to transfer her mind into her Avatar failed. This lead to the wailing spirit lady Na’vi to pronounce her dead at the scene, or in Na’vi terms, “she is with Eywa now”.

In the interview (which you can watch in heavily dubbed French below) Weaver says that her character still exists “in the tree” and director James Cameron has thought of some ideas on how to keep “the family together” (i.e. the main cast). Considering Cameron created Pandora and everything in it he can do just about anything he wants, so bringing Grace Augustine shouldn’t be a problem, especially as her spirit is still hanging with Eywa.

Weaving talks about Avatar 2 around the 3 minute 30 second mark:

A Bruce Willis buddy comedy directed by Kevin Smith versus a George Romero horror remake? Yes, this are the new contenders at the box office this weekend. Unfortunately for both of them I expect Shutter Island to take the first place once again, here’s why.

Cop Out is an R-rated buddy comedy opening in a hefty 3150 theaters in North America starring Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan and Stiffler (his mom is not in this). Kevin Smith (Jersey Girl, Zack and Miri make a Porno) is given here a pretty high profile studio movie but unfortunately (at least based on the RT 20% fresh reviews) this doesn’t seem to be his best work (probably also because he did not write the screenplay, unlike previous projects). This being a comedy might help its cause at the box office but with the bad ratings, bad box office reputation of Kevin Smith and average at best previews, I don’t see a bright future for this one, not even a dim one. $15-$20 million opening weekend and $30-$40 million total.

The Crazies on the other hand looks much better and has a RT of 70% fresh with the consensus being: “Tence, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent, The Crazies is the rare horror remake that works”, big words for a horror remake. Unfortunately history has thought us that well reviewed horror movies don’t become box office success stories simply because they were well received (Drag me to Hell). This was directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara) and opens in 2476 theaters  staring Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell. An R-rating is usually a plus for this kind of flicks. While I’d like to see this movie do better, I don’t expect more then $10-$15 million opening weekend and around $30-$35 million at the end of its run.

The top 5 should look something like this:

1. Shutter Island (Paramont) $21M ($73.8M)
2. Cop Out (Warner Bros) $18M (NEW)
3. The Crazies (Overture) $14M (NEW)
4. Avatar (Fox) $11M ($703.9M)
5. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Fox) $9M ($70.4M)