Answering the prayers of literally hundreds of internet nerds, Ryan Reynolds has been chosen to star in Warner’s Green Lantern movie. Production is expected to start in January with Martin Campbell directing and a budget of around $200 million. On Friday it was reported that Warner had narrowed their potential Green Lanterns to Reynolds, Justin Timberlake, and Brad Cooper. Reynolds already played Deadpool in Wolverine (which Fox still wants to spinoff into its own movie) and for a while was in talks to play The Flash. So probably he seemed like the least creative option, and that’s what committees of businessmen usually go for. Not that there’s anything wrong with Ryan Reynolds. He seems perfectly capable of wearing tights and a power ring, and as far as anyone can tell, he’s nothing like Cam Gigandet. Also, and this is neither here nor there, but I think Justin Limbersnake would be a really good porn name.
[via Variety]
Here’s a sad story: Watchmen, which may not have been perfect but was still a fine attempt at the rare, ballsy superhero movie, looks like it’s going to be outgrossed by 1997’s Batman & Robin - pretty much the gold standard in horrible horrible filmmaking (see video evidence below).
Seven weeks after its release, Watchmen’s legs have all but buckled. For the weekend just gone, the film brought home $199,114. That makes for a total take of $106,848,750 in America. It’s the 358th most successful film of all time in the US, and in 357th is Batman & Robin.
Overseas, things haven’t been as bright as hoped for either. The current international take for the film currently sits at $74,207,581, for a total worldwide gross of $181,103,123. For the sake of comparison, Batman & Robin drew over $130m overseas, for a total of $238m. We estimated, and we thought conservatively, that Watchmen would get to around $150m in the US, but it seems fairly clear now that it won’t even make it to $110m.
Out of Watchmen’s receipts has to come the exhibitors’ revenues, marketing costs, distribution expenses and such like. And then there’s the film’s budget, with the most conservative suggesting that it cost $120m to bring the film to the screen in the first place.
Off the back of box office returns such as Watchmen’s, it’s perhaps unsurprising that we’re not going to be seeing a mass market R-rated comic book movie for a long time to come. [DenofGeek via fark]
Sad. But maybe the execs will be circumspect, and realize it wasn’t the tone or the rating that was to blame, maybe it was just unrealistic to think a cult graphic novel would compete with a movie about comic-book superheroes that have been around for 50 years. Ha, just kidding. Of course they won’t. They’ll just think “See? I told you we should’ve cast a Black-Eyed Pea.”
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It’s officially time to scrape the bottom of the comic-book barrel. WB has announced that The Green Lantern will shoot in Australia with Casino Royale director Martin Campbell and a $150 million budget. Besides a favorable exchange rate, the government of New South Wales also provides a 15% “location rebate.” The lead hasn’t been named yet, but rumors thus far have included Emile Hirsch, Anton Yelchin, Sam Worthington, and Ryan Gosling.
To put the budget in perspective (and these are all estimated numbers…), Fantastic Four was $100M, Iron Man was $140M, Watchmen was $150M, The Dark Knight was $185M, X-Men: The Last Stand was $210M and Spider-Man 3 topped $258M. [/Film]
Keep in mind, The Green Lantern gets his superpowers from a magic ring. No, really. An alien named Abin-Sur crash lands on Earth, meets a young man, and likes him so much he puts a ring on him. And the ring inspires the him to put on a full-body spandex suit and knee-high green F-me boots. What that has to do with lanterns, I have no idea. Maybe when he’s not fighting crime, he’s really into shabby chic.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have sounded so positive about the trailer for Todd Phillips’ The Hangover, because it must have been based on that that WB has greenlit a sequel, since the actual movie doesn’t come out until June 5th. Paramount recently did the same thing with JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. Fast and Furious and Dragonball are also rumored to have sequels ready to go. In related news, there is no Santa Claus and maggots eat your eyeballs when you die.
While studios often wait to see box office results before committing to a sequel, “The Hangover” has tested strongly, and a trailer brought down the house at ShoWest. Phillips will be back to direct and produce “The Hangover” sequel through his Green Hat Films banner. WB also has made deals to reunite Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, who star in the original. [Variety]
Recession? What recession. Lunch is for faggots. Why wait? Everyone loved it: unemployed construction workers, theater owners, the association for albino hemophiliac movie bloggers - we’ve never heard such enthusiastic flipper clapping. You gotta strike while the iron is hot, you pussies. Like my Cambodian maid when she pressed this suit. It’s made of Italian baby rhino leather. That’s why I’m the boss.
Smith, in happier times
Kevin Smith’s next directing project starring Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis apparently won’t be called A Couple of Dicks as originally reported, but rather the extraordinarily banal A Couple of Cops.
The scripting team of Robb and Marc Cullen penned the screenplay, centered on a pair of cops who track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money. [Variety via /Film]
WB had originally acquired the script not realizing “dick” was a double entendre. Once they found out, they took immediate action, first experimenting with more literal titles such as A Couple of Dicks - Not Penises, This Isn’t That Kind of Movie At All. For his part, Kevin Smith is said to be unhappy with the change. “It’s like there’s a hole in my heart where some dicks used to be,” he reportedly told friends.
