When the news broke last week that next summer would mark the end of Entourage, not many tears were shed. As one Movieline commenter put it: "[It] looks like the free ride is over for these losers." But a funny thing about that: While everyone has been busy writing Entourage off as crap, the show as risen like a phoenix from the ashes and become... well, pretty good! Shocking, right? Ahead, four reasons why you should think about re-adding the show to your DVR list.
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Looks like the agents for Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, Carl Weathers and Steven Seagal should wait by their phones: The Expendables exploded the box office this weekend, meaning Ari Lerner's dream of a sequel remains quite alive. In other box office news: Julia Roberts will have to hope for Julie & Julia-like legs and Scott Pilgrim ran out of quarters. Click ahead for the weekend receipts.
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James Cameron is many things -- director, writer, technological trailblazer, Oscar-winner, King of the World -- but did you know he was also a talent consultant? Apparently! Cameron found time in his very busy schedule to offer Guillermo del Toro a bit of advice on directing The Hobbit: Don't do it.
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If your DVD copies of Star Wars just don't look that good on your Playstation 3, some happy news: George Lucas has announced that all six Star Wars films will be released on Blu-ray sometime in 2011. Though if you were hoping to see Han Solo shoot first, you're not going to be that happy.
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And neither will Ellen Page, Emma Watson or Carey Mulligan. Page Six reports that director David Fincher is dead-set on hiring an unknown to play Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That means it's down to the same list of usual suspects that it was in July (Rooney Mara, Léa Seydoux, Sophie Lowe and Sarah Snook). The only bit of actual news here: Fincher will likely have to make a decision on casting before Labor Day. Hold your breath! [Page Six via Vulture]
Sorry ladies: this weekend at the box office is all about the men. The Expendables -- Sylvester Stallone's paean to the power of protein shakes -- crashed to the top of the charts on Friday night, besting newcomers Eat, Pray, Love and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World with ease. Of the latter film: Yikes. Universal will have to find a cheat code to keep Edgar Wright's whizbang graphic novel adaptation out of fifth place. Click ahead for the top-five.
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Tempers flared wherever you looked this week -- just another indication that we've hit the doggiest of the dog days of summer. But don't go to bed angry with culture! Make nice after the jump with Movieline's Week in Review, and have a great weekend!
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· Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World may have been a faithful adaptation of the comic series, but one of the storylines to hit the cutting room floor was how Scott met and fell for his band's drummer Kim Pine. Luckily, Adult Swim's here with an animated sequence (featuring the vocal talents of Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, and Allison Pill) that lets us see that moment realized in all its cartoon glory. [Cinema Blend]
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"Mel Gibson is unbelievable in [The Beaver]," his costar Jennifer Lawrence excitedly told W in June, before the actor's life underwent a bit of upheaval. "At the first table read of the script, I thought, He's going to win an Oscar." The magazine checked back with her post-Oksana, when the speechless Lawrence kept shaking her head in disbelief. "It's tragic," she said. "No one will be able to see his performance in The Beaver clearly now. Even if Mel Gibson is great in the movie, I'm afraid no one will go." [W]
· Here's your first look at Matt Damon (opposite Bryce Dallas Howard) as a psychic in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter. We spilled the under-wraps plot to you a year ago, if you want to refresh your memory. Click through for more Buzz Break.
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Philippe Petit, the tightrope walker whose 1974 escapades between the World Trade Center towers were chronicled in the Academy Award-winning documentary Man on Wire, this week taught his first-ever class of students in New York City. For the low, low price of $1,200, pupils received two days of instruction on balance, poise, and, finally, traversing a seven-foot-high wire in security harnesses. Alas, learning to Oscar-balance on one's chin is an even more prohibitively expensive lesson reserved for the advanced class. [NYT]
Sure, both Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Twilight Saga are page-to-screen adaptations with ardent fanbases, but the boys in Scott Pilgrim's corner wouldn't be caught dead seeing a Twilight movie of their own volition. The irony? Underneath Scott Pilgrim's geeky exterior and Twilight's swoony romance novel trappings, they may actually be the same movie.
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Far be it from me to argue with the business acumen of George Lucas -- after all, the filmmaker and current scourge of the geek universe was smart enough to include merchandising rights in his original deal for Star Wars -- but did he really ruin what would have been a killer ending to Return of the Jedi because of toy sales?
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"Love Miles Fisher," Bret Easton Ellis drawled to Movieline in May, and we'd have to agree. Finally, others are catching on; the masterful Christian Bale impersonator (and Peggy Olson pot-smoking enabler) has landed his first high-profile movie lead in Final Destination 5, says Deadline. Wait wait wait. Are they not calling it 5nal Destination anymore? One step forward, two steps back, movie execs. [Deadline]
Your non-update update on the fate of the next James Bond for Friday Aug. 13 comes courtesy of star Daniel Craig: "Unless MGM can sort themselves out, we can't make a movie. It's hard to talk about things that aren't happening. There will be more to say when things are happening. I'm really keen to get going, it's as simple as that. And I'm hoping that, in a while, we will." Good talk. It is hard to talk about things that aren't happening, isn't it? [LAT/Hero Complex]
