With just $7.5 million on Friday, Kick-Ass is a certified bust. Was it the marketing? Roger Ebert? The c-word? Spurred by these questions, senior editor S.T. VanAirsdale and I got into a feverish IM conversation about Kick-Ass. Basically: What happened?
Remember when Brad Pitt was supposed to play Dean Moriarty in a never-happening adaptation of Jack Kerouac's seminal classic? What a difference reality makes! Production Weekly reports that Garrett Hedlund -- he of Friday Night Lights and the upcoming Tron: Legacy -- has been cast as Dean Moriarty in Walter Salles' big screen version of On the Road. Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together... [Production Weekly via Twitter]
Add another head shot to the illustrious wall of fame set to appear in Tom Hanks upcoming writing-directing-acting effort Larry Crowne: Pam Grier tweeted today that Hanks recruited her for the role of Julia Roberts's BFF in the mid-life crisis drama. And judging by the salty but effusive Internet shorthand that followed, I'd say she's fairly excited about it.
Danny Trejo fans, rejoice! All seventeen of you. The long-awaited Machete will finally reach theaters on September 3. For those of you who don't remember, Machete was Robert Rodriguez's fake trailer for Grindhouse that the director made into a real movie with real stars (Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan and Movieline favorite, Steven Segal, all appear alongside Trejo). Anyway, since Hollywood is clearly out of ideas -- cough, Mighty Mouse -- it seemed like a perfect time to go find some other fake trailers that could be turned into real movies. After the jump, the five that would have the best chance at box office success.
And you thought Watchmen was a box office disappointment. Expected to take in upwards of $30 million, the much (much) publicized Kick-Ass could only muster $7.5 million on Friday night, meaning it might not even crack $20 million. Maybe the geeks haven't inherited the earth. Death at a Funeral didn't fare much better: the comedy pulled in an estimated $6 million on Friday and could wind up behind Date Night before the weekend is through. The very underwhelming top-five ahead.
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The fun never stops at Movieline, where... actually, yeah, it does stop on occasion. Relive the good times in our handy Week in Review, and tune in tomorrow as your captain Christopher Rosen steers you through the weekend. Have a good one!
· Want to go on a tour of iconic Lost shooting locations led by the show's man of the week, Jorge Garcia? The LAT followed Garcia around with a camera as he took them to the Dharma barracks, the island golf course, the graveyard and more, all the while showing off his good memory for Lost arcana. That's fine and dandy, but I would have preferred an Emile de Ravin-led video of the locations where she screamed, "My baby!" [LAT]
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George Lopez plays like he digs the prospect of a "LO-CO" comedy block on TBS, but facts are facts: Conan O'Brien is forcing Lopez's talk show back an hour. Unfortunately for the funnyman, this week's Commenters of the Week also get to peeve Lopez -- on the pedestrian level!
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As we prepare to finish up another Movieline week (well, before our weekend editor Chris Rosen takes over), why not show a little appreciation to our advertisers? The Blu-ray and DVD release of Crazy Heart (out April 20) and the HBO telefilm You Don't Know Jack (premiering April 24) kept the site adorned with pretty, pretty Flash ads over the last five days. Click through to learn more about 'em.
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Pop singer Ke$ha is the guest-performer on Saturday Night Live this week with host Ryan Phillippe, and after last week's satisfactory comic performance from Justin Bieber, Ke$ha has formulated some sketch ideas of her own. "One idea was someone recently told me I smell like shrimp in a diaper," Ke$ha told MTV. "So I thought I could do a perfume skit about me with my eau de perfume being a shrimp in a diaper. It's very sensual." We have the next &ucille B@ll on our hands. [MTV]
Ding! goes the elevator at Movieline HQ, which can only mean one thing on a Friday afternoon: The Say Whaaaa? Singers have arrived with all their double-barreled disbelief at the week's most baffling, outlandish, disturbing and/or ridiculous cultural events. And I do mean "events," as even the Cannes Film Festival got in on the WTF act in recent days. Let's have a look at the top five:
· In this new still from The American, George Clooney is on the run from...priests? Well, who can blame him.
· Amanda Seyfried needs some hot wings, guys. "I'm not going to deny that I don't think about [my weight] every day, it's always on my mind," Seyfried told AOL Stylelist. "I have to stay in shape because I'm an actress. It's f**ked up and it's twisted, but I wouldn't get the roles otherwise."
· Nick Thune, Michael McMillian, and John Forest are all angling for the role vacated by Patton Oswalt in NBC's Beach Lane.
· Wizards of Waverly Place star David Henrie was popped by cops for trying to start a fight at Universal CityWalk. How embarrassing! No one wants to be known for going to Universal CityWalk.
· What's it like to play Scattergories with Michael Jackson? Just ask B.J. Novak.
Can you imagine an American Idol season even weaker than the current one? You would have had just that, if it weren't for your guardian angel Ryan Seacrest. TMZ reports that dreadlocked Idol frontrunner Crystal Bowersox was thisclose to quitting the competition two weeks ago, until Seacrest convinced her to stick in it so that she could buy her mother a house someday. Meanwhile, a blithe Simon Cowell was like, "Eh, do what you want." [TMZ]
When Steven Seagal was sued earlier this week for sexual assault and trafficking women for sex, CBS News dug up an excerpt from a 1998 interview with Movieline where actress Jenny McCarthy appeared to confirm Seagal's tendency for inappropriate behavior. We reached into our back issues to provide you with the entire anecdote.
Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Dinklage in Death at a Funeral. Toss in a positive review, and suddenly this is a must-see. [IMDB]
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