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Frankly My Dear...

    Frankly My Dear...

    Another box office photo finish –’Dolphin Tale,’ ‘Courageous’ ‘Moneyball,’ ‘Dream House’

    Posted: 01 Oct 2011 04:31 AM PDT

    It’s impossible to call this weekend’s too-tight box office race based on Friday’s numbers. “Moneyball” won the day, but by such a narrow margin that “Dolphin Tale,” which is holding on to a larger percentage of its audience from last weekend, could win this weekend.
    “Courageous” is doing a healthy $9 million, but “Dream House” may better it among the new releases — an $11 million projection, now. With its pre-release ticket sales, “Courageous” could pass “Dream House,” and a huge Sunday could even give it the weekend (my speculation there).

    “Lion King 3D” is still in theaters, still threatening to do another $12 million before it goes to BluRay.

    “What’s Your Number?” appears to be riding poor reviews to a poor showing at the BO. Under $8 million.

    Movie Preview: ‘Cassadega’

    Posted: 30 Sep 2011 11:28 AM PDT

    It was filmed here in central Florida late last year, a low-budget horror picture with Louise Fletcher and a little state incentive money.

    “Cassadega” has a LOT of local names in the cast and crew. Here’s the first trailer.

    Cassadaga HD Trailer from PoileyWood Entertainment on Vimeo.

    Movie Preview: ‘Joyful Noise’

    Posted: 30 Sep 2011 10:10 AM PDT

    Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton, Courtney B. Vance, Keke Palmer, “Raise your voice and dream big!”

    A church choir singing Michael Jackson. Dolly kicking it new school? Seems about 20 years too late to cash in on Dolly mania. But she makes jokes at her own expense — plastic surgery gags. And the material seems to suit those two, and actor-turned-director Todd Graff (“Bandlam,” “Camp”).

    “Joyful Noise” opens in January.

    EXCLUSIVE: Craig ‘Hustle & Flow’ Brewer talks ‘Tarzan’

    Posted: 30 Sep 2011 08:23 AM PDT

    The director of “Hustle & Flow,” Craig Brewer, has done his “rap movie,” (“Hustle & Flow”), his blues movie (“Black Snake Moan”) and, he figures, thanks to an adorable line-dancing scene in his remake of “Footloose,” his “country music movie.”

    But what he REALLY wants to do is show the world his take on “Tarzan.”

    “I just finished a draft on ‘Tarzan,’” he says. “So far, everybody I’ve shown it to is digging it. I have other scripts out there –’Mother Trucker,’ is one I was going to do until ‘Footloose’ came along. So we’ll see.

    “But I don’t put ‘Tarzan’ in the remake category. I’ve gone back to the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, which most of the earlier movies haven’t stuck to. I think it’s about time for me to show I can do something that isn’t connected with music. ‘Footloose’ was a special situation (He calls it a “life-changing movie for me, when I was 13.”). I don’t see myself doing a lot more music movies or any other remakes. ‘Footloose’ I did because I wanted to protect it. I wanted it to be Southern, wanted it to have an authentic Southern racial mix, the sort of thing you see in a healthy Southern town.”

    “I’d like to do some smaller, indie things. But ‘Tarzan’ is a passion of mine. I hope I’m able to do it.”

    But it’s not a particularly Southern story, I protest. Every time I talk with Brewer (in the hat, on the set of ‘Footloose’), a Memphis expat who brings a lot of South to his movies, we talk Southern Cinema, where things stand and how they’ve changed since the last time we talked. Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, Tyler Perry, a LOT of Southerners are putting their Southern foot forward on film these days.

    “Isn’t it funny? A couple of us made up this real small niche, and now the niche is growing. Tyler’s got all these different projects on film and on TV. David’s got shows on TV and is NOT having a hard time getting work in Hollywood, getting his movies made.

    “It’s a good time to be a Southern filmmaker. But I get a lot of resistance when I try to tell Southern stories, or put Southern content in my films. The worst place for resistance is when you try to get something Southern and especially Southern and African American onto the screen, the studios will tell you, ‘There’s no FOREIGN [box office potential] in it. Nobody overseas is going to have a connection to a Southern story, or a Southern African-American story. Unfortunately, a lot of studios just have that mindset.

    “And they’re the studios that missed ‘The Help.’ They missed ‘The Blind Side.’  They forget about us. Southern filmmakers have a fight on their hands to show the South.”

    Another wide open box office race–’Number’ over ‘Lion King,’ or will it be ‘Dolphin Tale’?

    Posted: 30 Sep 2011 07:18 AM PDT

    Box Office Mojo’s Brandon Gray figures that Anna Faris and Chris Evans will add up to a winning weekend at the box office, with the potential to pull down some $14 million in ticket sales.

    Others are predicting that one of the holdover pictures — the slow-to-fall off “Lion King in 3D” or “Dolphin Tale,” could snatch the top prize. Both of those family pictures have done well, hanging onto audience, also in the just-under-$15 million range. “Lion King” has been winning weekdays ever since opening but hasn’t everybody seen it who wants to see it? I have been saying that since it opened, so what do I know?

    Will “Moneyball” hold onto audience share and earn $13 million plus?

    “50/50,” most folks agree, has a shot at $10 million, “Dream House” at as much as $11 million. I think the cancer comedy could surprise, but it’s up against Anna Faris, so no betting this weekend.

    “Courageous,” its producers have said and Fandango.com has helped back up, has been selling lots of pre-opening tickets. Some $2 million, at last count. That won’t be all it does over the weekend, but that will be a big chunk of it, with predictions ranging from $5 million to $8 million.