Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the shrewd writer/director team behind Hollywood spoof films Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Vampires Suck, are about to embark on their most ambitious project yet: a 3D parody of James Cameron's Avatar.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of shrug? Despite massive worldwide grosses, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opened with "just" $90 million at the box office in North America over the weekend. Though while that pales in comparison to the previous Pirates films, it accounts for the largest opening weekend of 2011 thus far. Translation: you saw it, so let's talk On Stranger Tides.
Remember all those stories about Zach Galifianakis leading the anti-Mel Gibson charge on the set of The Hangover Part II, like some modern-day William Wallace? Not true, says the star. "People don't know the whole truth and they just assume all of these things. I've always said that the internet was invented for shy people to be assholes. It's amazing, human nature, the way people want to rip." [Shortlist]
Also in this Monday edition of The Broadsheet: Emma Roberts and Ari Graynor join Celeste and Jesse Forever... The Dark Knight Rises adds three more cast members... the first review of X-Men: First Class is strong... and more ahead.
The Land of the Rising Sun does not mess around. Joining his wife, boobsy chanteuse Katy Perry, on the Japanese leg of her world tour, Brand was taken into custody by local authorities and forcibly deported from Japan. So why the strong arm? Perry tweeted that "it was for priors from over 10 years ago," but didn't go into more detail than that. To be fair, Brand has been arrested more than 11 times in the past, so I'm sure Japan had quite the rich buffet to chose from. At least now Paul McCartney isn't alone with his Japanese Outlaw status. [Us Weekly]
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides plundered a hair over $90 million this weekend, but thanks to Hollywood expectations and arithmetic, it's a bit of disappointing haul for Depp and his crew. Previous Pirates installments were able to pull in higher debuts, and that was without the benefit of higher ticket prices and 3-D screenings. But Bridesmaids retained the second spot, barely depreciating at all from last week. Sisters are doing it for themselves! And by it, I mean pooping on themselves. Your weekend receipts are here.
Darren Aronofsky, your latest cinematic offering garnered wild acclaim and countless accolades and just recently passed the $300 million finish line. Plus you managed to extricate yourself from a potentially mojo-killing sequel. So what you gonna do next? From reports, it seems like either something with an evil witch or an Old Testament prophet. Ooh, range!
Pirates of the Caribbean 4, the most unnecessary sequel until next weekend, sailed into the box office harbor last night but was only able to make off with a rather disappointing $35 million. And while most people would love to be disappointed by $35 million, this latest money-grab adventure from Jack Sparrow is on track to earn significantly less than the $115 opening weekend that the third Pirates iteration enjoyed. But hey! Bridesmaid is doing swell! Your Friday box office is here.
"That was really nice!" exclaimed 13-year-old Elle Fanning at Friday night's Young Hollywood Awards, where the actress picked up Actress of the Year honors. Presented the award by film legend Francis Ford Coppola (he cast her in his next film, Twixt Now and Sunrise, after seeing her in daughter Sofia's Somewhere), Fanning brought the house down at L.A. Live by doing what more seasoned actors might have held back. She cried.
You know what the biggest drag is about the world supposedly ending tomorrow? We'll never know who won at Cannes. Well, there's that part about an eternity of earthly damnation, I suppose, but it can't be that different than some of what we saw befall culture in the last seven days. Let's revisit the good, bad and the ugly in Movieline's Week in Review, and drop in Saturday and (hopefully) Sunday for the soothing weekend strains of weekend editor Dixon Gaines. Have a good one!
As Oprah's reign as chatfest czarina comes to a close this coming week, it's time to lament some "favorite things" that Ms. Winfrey will never give us: screamed welcomes of hard-to-pronounce celebrity names. I'm sorry, but "JOHN TRUH-VOLE-TUH!" and "mee dear perznal freend JULIAR RAHRBERRRRZ" are downright easy to bellow. Why didn't Oprah ever challenge herself? Join us as we list a bunch of difficult, movie-related names that Oprah never got to introduce with a loving caterwaul and disturbing hand gestures. We also provide Oprah-fied phonetic spellings of each!
You follow @Movieline on Twitter, right? Because you're smart? Click there in a bit because we'll be covering tonight's Young Hollywood Awards starting at 5 p.m. PST from Club Nokia in downtown L.A. Watch us drool as Armie Hammer and Garrett Hedlund enter the room, grin as Elle Fanning makes several references to Truffaut, and whirl up a lasso when Hailee Steinfeld arrives. While you're reading along, follow Movieline's inteprid YHA reporters @JenYamato, @JulieWMiller, and @LouisVirtel. You've earned it/us.
Last week, an alternate six-minute scene that was rumored to be the original ending to Alexander Payne's dark comedy Election surfaced on the Internet. In a new interview though, Matthew Broderick clears up all of the confusion about the mystery clip.
Director Jon M. Chu is one of the few working filmmakers with an intuitive grasp on filming in 3-D, as evidenced by his dynamic visuals in Step Up 3D and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, so the idea of a G.I. Joe sequel released in 3-D actually sounded promising. But Chu always said he'd rather go 2-D than rush a post-conversion on the action sequel, and a report today suggests that's just what will happen.
The marketing machine for Transformers: Dark of the Moon is really ramping up now that early-bird journalists got their first look at the kinetic 3-D action stylings of Michael Bay -- a portion of which footage is now online for your perusal/approval -- and Paramount decided to move up their release date to June 29. After the jump, watch the 3-D trailer (in 2-D here, obviously) filled with wanton destruction, a tease of Dark of the Moon's conspiracy theory premise, and more glorious destruction as Decepticons tear through downtown Chicago.
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