Film News (30/05/09)

We have had slow news weeks before but this one really takes the biscuit. And although it looks like Stephen Daldry's The Hellfire Club and the Mad Max 4 movie are one step closer to being made on IMBD, they shall be ignored as there has been no press release or anything.

Wichita



After months of speculation from Tom Cruise and James Mangold about what their collective next films would be it seems they have decided to work with each other on the spy romance, Wichita. Also starring Cameron Diaz, Cruise will play an international spy who keps bumping into Diaz (presumably on his weekends off).

Whether this means we won't be seeing Juliet, The Materese Circle or Mangold's life assurance drama remains to be seen, although it would be shame if all these projects were shelved, or postponed indefinitely.





And really that was all the news I had.

Box Office News

Release Date News

Frozen River - Minor change in the release date for Melissa Leo's oscar nommed role smuggling illegal immigrants into the US. Back a week to 17 July 2009 when it will open opposite

Crossing Over - which is another tale about illegal immigration, although this time it's more in the Crash/Traffic mode of multi storylines which all converge. Ray Liotta and Harrison Ford will be sleazy and stoic respectively on 17 July.

The Soloist - it's had a middling review and box office success Stateside, so they've shifted Joe Wright's true life story of schizophrenic cellist (Jami Foxx). Now out on 25 September 2009.

Where the Wild Things Are - Last month I was really excited because the release date for this children's classic adaptation had moved forward, so naturally it's bounced back to the original date of 11 December 2009.

Dear John - Are you fed up of watching films that might be good? Well worry no more. Lasse Hallstrom directs, from a novel by Nicolas Sparks, and starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum. Expect some serious attempts to pull your heartstrings on 5 February 2010.

Alice in Wonderland - Tim Burton's all star retelling of Lewis Carroll's nonsense novel shifts a week, just to confuse us. I'm surprise it won't be opening on a Tuesday and only playing backwards. See it on 12 March 2010.

Finally I won't be reporting a release date for the fascinating typtrich Tokyo!, even though it's done reasonably well in the US ($341k so far) and been massive in France ($513k), as it opened directly to DVD this week. If I get a chance to see it I'll let you all know what I think.

Box Office Report

The UK box office continues to be as predictable as ever (on animation, one Zac Efron, a Rom-Com and 2 big effects/testosterone heavy hits - although no puppies in April were good enough), including the fact that I correctly identified the top film for April, although perhaps even more predicatable I haven't actually seen any of the films in the top 5. By the way, Wolverine is a tough one to put in, as it opened on the Wednesday 29 April or the weekend starting of 1 May. I have included it here as I'd rather it ame second than potentially beating Star Trek during next months face off (sneaky, eh?).

1. Monsters vs. Aliens
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
3. Fast & Furious
4. 17 Again
5. The Boat that Rocked