This week had its ups and downs and the Movie News Cheat Sheet is back to bring you a sampling of this erratic smorgasbord. On the bright side, we’ve got a slew of new material from Scream 4, hopeful news about another Chronicles of Narnia movie in the works and news of life after The Social Network for Armie Hammer.
On the other hand, Sucker Punch stomped into theaters this weekend and insults just about everyone in its path. However the upheaval over Zack Snyder’s CGI and fetish exhibition gone wrong is dwarfed by the passing of someone who’s had an overwhelming impact on this industry, Elizabeth Taylor. Returning to the bright side, while we have lost someone we loved, she does leave an expansive body of work behind that we can continue to enjoy and remember her fondly through.
Ready all about those stories and more in this week’s Movie News Cheat Sheet.
1. Three Scream 4 Clips: Can’t wait until April 15th for the latest installment of the Scream franchise? Would three clips from the film help hold you over? We’ve got one clip of Gale Weathers joining forces with Rory Culkin and Erik Knudsen’s movie geek characters, another of the new leading ladies confiding in Sidney Prescott and the Woodsboro Police after getting some creepy phone calls and finally, one of Emma Roberts chatting it up with her on-screen boyfriend Nico Tortorella. Head on over to Shock Till You Drop to check them all out.
2. The Last Scene Shot of Harry Potter: It’s sad enough just to know this eight-film franchise is coming to an end after so many years; how about rubbing it in a little more by watching the cast and crew wrap their final shot? In the midst of ABC Family’s Harry Potter week, the channel aired some behind-the-scenes footage narrated by producer David Barron of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson diving onto a pad in a green screen shot, the final shot they’ll ever shoot within this franchise. The trio looks as though they were able to hold it together, so I’m sure you can, too. Take a look at the footage for yourselves right here.
3. RIP Elizabeth Taylor: After having been hospitalized for congestive heart failure in February, on March 23rd, the condition took the life of the iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor at 79-years-old. Taylor’s publicist said that all four of her children were by her side. Taylor made her very first on-screen appearance back in 1944 in National Velvet at the age of 12. From there she added film after film to her resume, most famously Cleopatra and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? amongst many others. Over the years she’s been nominated five times for Best Actress at the Academy Awards two of which she won. Whether you look back fondly on Taylor’s performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, her White Diamonds perfume commercial, humanitarian efforts or maybe even hearing her utter Maggie’s first word on an episode of The Simpsons, she certainly has a career and a life worth remembering and celebrating.
4. The Chronicles of Narnia 4: The latest Chronicles of Narnia film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader may not have gotten much love from critics or the domestic box office, but overseas it was a different story. The film pulled in $104 million stateside, but a whopping $300.5 million abroad and that might be enough to warrant a fourth film. While nothing’s official, Fox and Walden Media are tossing around the idea of bringing The Magician’s Nephew, the sixth book in the series, to life rather than the fourth book, The Silver Chair. The outlook is promising, but don’t get ahead of yourselves because according to Walden co-founder and president Michael Flaherty, “it could still be a couple of years.” (via EW.com)
5. Armie Hammer is Snow White’s Prince: Tarsem Singh is loading up the cast of his big screen version of the Brothers Grimm’s Snow White. He’s got Julia Roberts as his Queen and now he’s nabbed The Social Network’s Armie Hammer to play Prince Andrew Alcott. Singh plans to spice up the tale not only by modernizing it, but by tossing in some comedic and adventurous flavor, too. Having only seen Hammer in a very realistic setting, it should be interesting to see what he can do in a big budget spectacle. There’s no denying that mug of his has “price” written all over it, so now the question is, who’s the lucky lady that’ll play his Snow White? With the film’s May start date fast approaching, we’ll likely find out quite soon. (via Coming Soon)
6. Tom Hooper to Direct Les Miserables: The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper is putting his newfound prowess to use. Hooper is reportedly in talks to direct Universal Pictures’ film version of Les Miserables. You might remember another film adaptation of the musical starring Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush and Uma Thurman from back in 1998. Well, that one only pulled in a mere $14.1 million, so there’s certainly room for improvement and hiring a Best Director Oscar winner could be the perfect start. (via Variety)
7. The Sucker Punch Effect: For months Zack Snyder has been getting us hyped for his latest silver screen spectacle, Sucker Punch. Well, the big weekend finally arrived and well, it was lackluster to say the least. Not only was the film universally panned, but it lost the top spot to Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules and is feeling the wrath of angry critics and moviegoers fuming over the film’s exploitation of women despite the fact that Snyder hoped that “by the end the girls are empowered by their sexuality and not exploited.” There are quite a few fascinating write-ups floating around out there, but if you read just one, head over to /Film to check out Angie Han’s take on the topic.
8. Hunger Games Casting Update: Now that Lionsgate has its Katniss, Jennifer Lawrence, it’s The Hunger Games‘ next two pivotal roles that are under the microscope, that of Katniss’ love interests, Peeta and Gale. While the first of Suzanne Collins’ three-book series, the one upon which this film will be based, puts much more emphasis on Peeta than Gale, should subsequent films arise, and surely they will, the casting of Gale will be just as pivotal. At the moment, Liam Hemsworth, David Henrie, Robbie Amell and Drew Roy amongst others are all candidates for that role. As for Peeta, the short list consists of Josh Hutcherson, Lucas Till, Hunter Parrish, Evan Peters and Alexander Ludwig, all of whom tested for the role just the other day. (via THR)
9. Trailer: Captain America: The First Avenger: Now here’s a big one. After an extremely drawn out casting process, we’ve finally arrived at the point where footage and images from Captain America are rolling in. Well, this week, we got some of the juiciest material yet, the film’s very first full theatrical trailer. Much of the piece features a super skinny Chris Evans giving us a taste of the hero’s origin story. Teeny tiny Evan isn’t quite convincing, but the look of the film certainly is. The footage appears to have somewhat of a grayish tinge, something quite necessary in turning the typically brightly colored superior flick into something grittier and all-around more convincing. (via Yahoo! Movies)
10. Box Office: As mentioned earlier, we’ve got a major upset to report. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules trumped the $82 million-budgeted Sucker Punch. With a mere $21 million budget, Wimpy Kid is already in the green having earned $24.4 million its first weekend out. As for Sucker Punch, with just $19 million in its pot, it’s got a ways to go until it makes Zack Snyder a profit. Limitless held on quite well, losing a mere 19.5% of its week one earnings, pulling in another $15.2 million. The same goes for The Lincoln Lawyer, which dropped even less, 16.7%, adding another $11 million to its haul. Also seeing a modest drop is Rango, falling 35% in its fourth week, taking in another $9.8 million, putting it just about $30 million shy of making back its $135 million budget on its stateside earnings alone. (via Box Office Mojo)
By Perri Nemiroff
The 1998 version of Les Miserables with Liam Neeson was NOT the musical. It was a straight adaptation of the story. The musical has never been put on screen before. Just an FYI!