With the summer of 2010 littered with critical and financial disappointments, Knight and Day doesn't feel like a complete disaster -- at least it's not Jonah Hex, y'know? But that hasn't stopped Tony Sella from falling on his sword. "Blame me, don't blame Tom Cruise," the Twentieth Century Fox co-president of marketing told the Los Angeles Times. "We did lots of focus groups for this film, and no one ever said there was a star problem. Never. Tom Cruise was not the issue. I take full responsibility." Naturally this has been met with the kind of disbelief that is reserved for all things Cruise -- spin to avert your gaze away from the fact that perhaps the A-List icon isn't that big of a star anymore. But does Sella have a point? Perhaps he is to blame for Knight and Day. After the jump, Movieline investigates.
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In the long run-up to The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. marketing went all out to build buzz ahead of time in very unconventional ways (like teaser websites, Comic-Con flash mobs, and the premature death of star Heath Ledger). Still, for the only recently announced sequel, they may have topped themselves.
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Hey, Tobey Maguire! Listen up, Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, and the rest of you would-be action heroes! Take heed of Sylvester Stallone, who has but a few words to explain the demise of his beloved genre since its zenith in the '80s -- and indirectly or not, you are implicated.
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Corey Allen, who became the last surviving principal cast member of Rebel Without a Cause after Dennis Hopper's death a month ago, died Sunday of natural causes. Allen played Buzz Gunderson in the 1955 classic, winding up on the losing end of that chicken race against James Dean's Jim Stark. Allen later went on to direct TV, winning an Emmy in 1983 for an episode of Hill Street Blues. He was 75 years old -- and would have turned 76 today. RIP. [PopEater]
So there's this movie called Despicable Me coming out. There are some commercials making the rounds on TV, and a few posters have popped up here and there. It appears to be animated and in 3D, and Steve Carell's involvement is noted. I think Universal is the studio, but I can't be sure. In fact, beyond the aforementioned citations, I can't be sure of anything with this one. Am I the only one completely in the dark about this movie? If so, why? And if not, can you please explain it, starting with the title?
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That's what 17,000 voters at American Cinematographer -- the house journal of the American Society of Cinematographers -- have expressed in a new poll, the results of which were slipped over Movieline's transom this morning. The dates considered are actually 1998-2008, which I guess means Avatar will have to wait for its peer-anointed glory. But back to the original question: Amélie? Really? Read on for the rest of the Top 10, a bucketful of runners-up, and to contribute your own choice.
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· Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are in "final negotiations" to take on Lego: The Movie -- or whatever it's being called these days. The duo won over both the Danish toymaker and its studio partners at Warner Bros. with their pitch, a proposal leaning heavily on their success last year with Cloudy. Once confirmed, they'll take it on after completing work on developing 21 Jump Street. [THR]
Miramax dumps Katie Holmes in the January cold, a '60s TV series may get a revival, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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Now that the new Harry Potter trailer is out of the way, let's talk about Emma Watson's newest artform: music video cameos. She works up Hogwarts-certified charms in a video for her boyfriend George Craig's band One Night Only, playing a lovestruck tease. Emma flashes coy glances and at one point yells, "Accio My '80s-Throwback Boyfriend's Balls!" Not true, but who cares? Helena Christensen, you are no longer music videos' most wickedly gaming vixen. [YouTube]
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He thrilled you as 30 Rock's street robot-turned-TGS cast member, but Cheyenne Jackson has even looser screws to deal with in his new venture: Curb Your Enthusiasm. The Broadway star confirmed to Paper that he'll be joining Larry David for Curb's eighth season. Hopefully he'll do well enough on Curb to be invited back for another pitchy TGS Christmas duet with Jenna Maroney. [Papermag]
There's good news and there's bad news about Full Sail University's Summer Heat Sweepstakes at Movieline. The bad news first, I guess: You can't see Airplane! with one of the $500 in Fandango Bucks we're offering one lucky winner. The good news: You can see pretty much every other movie opening this summer and maybe even into the fall. So really, there is no downside -- you've just got to register by Wednesday. Read on and find out how.
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Verge alumna Alice Eve was at one point up for the female lead in Captain America, but now she's getting some actual superpowers to play with, as Movieline's sister site Deadline reports that the London native is negotiating to play the telepathic Emma Frost in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. Between the overseas names cast (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender) and those at one time rumored (Aaron Johnson, Rosamund Pike), I'm starting to wonder if Vaughn should change the titular X to a U.K. [Deadline]
Nearly six months after her ping-pong debut on the Tonight Show, Susan Sarandon is making her new hobby the subject of a docuseries. The Oscar-winning actress told People about her plans to film the young players who frequent SPiN, a New York City ping-pong club she helped fund earlier this year: "We're just in the early filming stages now. [...] We want the tone of it to be funny and quite different than anything else that anybody's seen before." I guess this makes Gwyneth Paltrow's taco-making tutorial almost seem relevant. [People]
Hey, remember that planned Lost DVD epilogue which would show what happened on the Island after Hurley and Ben took over? Well, its title has been released and -- drum roll, please -- it's "The New Man in Charge." Catchy! Simple! And probably a whole lot more unsatisfying than you were hoping. The fresh material will reportedly run for 11 minutes -- 11 minutes of which you'll spend waiting to find out what happened to Walt. [/Film]
It's official. After hinting that he would be leaving The Office at the end of its next season, Steve Carell has confirmed the news to EW: "I think [season] 7 will be my last year. I want to fulfill my contract. I think it's a good time to move on." It's also the perfect time to re-examine Carell's possible replacements. Call your agent, Mullally! [EW]
· You are looking at a $45,000 X-ray of Marilyn Monroe's chest. You may now continue with your day. (Click to enlarge.)
· Spike Lee has lined up his next movie: the terrorism thriller Nagasaki Deadline.
· The return of Futurama earned Comedy Central its highest ratings this year.
· Angelina Jolie tried to get a Mr. and Mrs. Smith sequel off the ground, "but there wasn't anything original," she tells Vanity Fair. "It was just, Well, they're going to get married, or they've got kids, or they get separated. Never great."
· Dancing with the Stars would like to recruit soccer star Landon Donovan. Start spray-tanning and chest-waxing, Lando!
