By Jeff Rosz | May 22nd, 2013 If you want more Media Market Journal content, be sure to visit my new site Screen Fury (screenfury.com.) For the time being, MMJ has been put in a proverbial stasis as I figure out what to do with it; however, most people will find no difference aside from aesthetics when visiting the new location. Coverage is still of television and movie content with talk show interviews, trailers, and clips with about 10-20 posts per weekday.
Thanks for visiting,
Jeff Rosz
By Jeff Rosz | May 20th, 2013  A new season of Boardwalk Empire means new characters to replace those who have passed away the previous season. This fall brings Jeffrey Wright of Casino Royale and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire fame on board. As such, he has a pretty prominent role in the year’s first footage-filled teaser opposite Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 20th, 2013  It is hard to believe, but only two more episodes remain of the third season of Game of Thrones. What’s going to happen in the penultimate episode. Here is a clue from the teaser promo that ran on top of the credits this weekend. The episode will air June 2 after a week off. What will air over Memorial Day Weekend in its place? The Matt Damon-Michael Douglas Liberace movie Behind the Candelabra. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 19th, 2013  The studio estimates have come out for the weekend’s box office, and they are a little bit off from the expectations going into the three-day. Star Trek Into Darkness is the culprit of that as Paramount only found about 80% of what they were looking for. The studio was banking on early tracking of $100+ million through four days. Instead they got $84 million and change. This is $2 million south of what the previous film in the franchise did in its four-day debut without the benefit of 3D or IMAX hype.
What we may be seeing is that money does not necessarily make this franchise a bigger draw. Its character development and ongoing themes really helped narrate J.J. Abrams Trek, and now that seems to have taken a back seat to the more intense sci-fi action sequences. That is not to say it is gone, but any hope of capturing a healthy female audience certainly is, leading me to believe Paramount will push for more of Zoe Saldana’s Uhura in round three.
Yes, there will be a round three, but it would seem like $190 million backing the production was a little beyond what this franchise could reasonably support. How many times have we heard that said? Fans should expect a contraction back to $150 million although there is pretty much zero probability of Paramount boxing the series as they continue to look for tentpole programming.
Here is the field:
- STAR TREK 2 – $70.6 M / $84.1 M
- IRON MAN 3 – $35.2 M / $337.1 M
- THE GREAT GATSBY – $23.4 M / $90.2 M
- PAIN & GAIN – $3.1 M / $46.6 M
- THE CROODS – $2.8 M / $176.8 M
- 42 – $2.7 M / $88.7 M
- OBLIVION – $2.2 M / $85.5 M
- PEEPLES – $2.2 M / $7.9 M
- THE BIG WEDDING – $1.1 M / $20.2 M
- OZ – $0.8 M / $231.2 M
By Jeff Rosz | May 19th, 2013  Just ‘wow.’ It is seldom the case that three films are announced all at once, but this is exactly what we are seeing with the Transporter series over at EuropaCorp. Luc Besson’s production arm has just signed a deal with Fundamental Films that constitutes a portion of their current output deal. As part of the agreement, the two will co-finance, produce and distribute parts 4, 5, and 6 of the Jason Statham-led saga which is expected to stay low-budget. There is no confirmation on Statham’s return, but this appears to be at least more potent than the Cinemax television off-shoot series. The current hope is a capable director is given the gig for round four which sounds imminent.
By Jeff Rosz | May 19th, 2013  There was no five-timers club, but it was a pretty good episode of Saturday Night Live nonetheless. Some great, non-cookie cutter sketches padded the gaps between Kanye West and a Stefon farewell which is all we could really ask for. Here are those bits starting with the monologue which poked some fun as Ben Affleck’s Oscar speech in February. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 19th, 2013  Last night’s Ben Affleck-hosted Saturday Night Live meant it was the farewell show for Fred Armisen and Bill Hader. Both have been on the program for many years, and each have a very important place in the sketch variety show’s history. Perhaps the bigger deal though might have been this meant the recurring character of Stefon at the Weekend Update desk would be lost for who knows how long. That said, it was worth the over the top sendoff they did for the character with Seth Meyers last night, and we have the footage here today. Was this better than the Kristen Wiig goodbye last year? Maybe, but that is only because the patrons from all of New York’s hottest clubs showed up. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 18th, 2013  Get set for a very biblical 2014. Not only is the year playing home to Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan follow-up Noah (a Noah’s ark tale starring Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly,) but it is also home to Exodus–Ridley Scott’s Moses pic that has been in the works for quite some time. Interestingly enough, we first heard of this pic last year at a time when it became known Steven Spielberg wanted his own Moses feature. That one eventually came off the map as Scott kept on track for with his next production, now dated for December 12 of next year.
Do not worry too much about oversaturation though as the Noah movie will land in March. There will be a pretty sizable gap and therefore plenty to talk about in regards to whether the ‘bible belt’ still bites into large scale features of the sort. They certainly gobbled up History’s mini-series The Bible, but this is different. There is always a concern of redundancy and Hollywood money grubbing at play here that might lead to widespread rejection. This is not exactly a reboot of a superhero movie. It is a reboot of a classic narrative retold for thousands of years.
For Exodus, expect casting on the pic soon. Christian Bale is assumed to be leading the project although that is yet to be confirmed. Schindler’s List and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo scribe Steven Zaillian wrote the script.
By Jeff Rosz | May 18th, 2013  Nintendo: A core brand in video gaming that played a key role in its migration to the home entertain format. No one will ever forget their contributions as that is now part of history. Having said that, they are now a dead in the water company flailing in the water as the Wii U continues to flop in its first half-year of release. Even the once prominent handheld market is having a bit of a hiccup for them, and that is cause for concern. Yes, they are making a slight profit, but that is due to shrewd business practices and not a continued wave of support.
Naturally, the heads of the company are searching for any way possible to make up for lost revenue and the sort as a way of padding the balance sheet by time the next quarterly statement comes around. We see this a lot in the corporate world (particularly when a company’s leadership wants to maximize earnings before resigning–why else do you think the CEO of EA released SimCity before it was ready?) thus introducing a bit of a problem. The tactic is typically short-term in spirit which is exemplified in the Kyoto-based group’s most recent move. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 18th, 2013  Well, they sure showed us. When we first heard Ubisoft had attached Michael Fassbender for Assassin’s Creed: The Movie (my title, not theirs,) it seemed like this was yet another promising film project that would inevitably fail to see the light of day or, even worse, come out half-baked. After trouble with the major studios, the video game company eventually decided to go it their own and develop this one internally with New Regency producing which was another red flag although now we see a release date has been set up.
Ubisoft is partnering with Fox to distribute the pic which has been dated for May 22, 2015. That’s right, two years from now. There are no real details to go off at this time and a director is yet to be chosen, but the scheduling of Assassin’s Creed’s theatrical rollout shows they do believe this thing will inevitably get made. Prince of Denmark scribe Michael Lesslie wrote the first draft and Fassbender is producing, so yes, he does have a reason to remain attached although we are yet to hear the X-Men actor speak on the topic.
For those keeping score at home, this makes four video game to movie converts currently slated for actual release. Aside from Assassin’s Creed, it is expected that Need for Speed, Resident Evil 6, and Ratchet & Clank will arrive in theaters in March 2014, September 2014, and 2015 respectively. Projects merely in the development phase (meaning they could easily disappear) include Warcraft, Mass Effect, Splinter Cell, Shadow of Colossus, Drake’s Fortune, God of War, Spy Hunter, Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid, Gears of War, and Tomb Raider.
By Jeff Rosz | May 18th, 2013  Paramount was looking at fireworks and a $100 million debut going into release for Star Trek Into Darkness. Unfortunately, the numbers do not add up and what we are really looking at is a moderately successful sequel launch plain and simple. The $190 million production is staring at a $75 million 4-day debut (when including IMAX Wednesday) which is on pace with the film’s predecessor. This news comes after a $22 million Friday dramatically changed the forward estimates for the film. Foreign numbers have been up, but they may not be enough to carry runaway box office success. For that reason, it would appear the Memorial Day Weekend will be more important for the new Star Trek movie.
By Jeff Rosz | May 18th, 2013  Zoe Saldana who plays Uhura in the new Star Trek Into Darkness movie took to Jimmy Fallon last night to play some Spaceballs. She also spoke about her new movie among other things. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 18th, 2013  Maroon 5 frontman and The Voice panelist Adam Levine was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to promote The Voice. Ratings are pretty okay for the talent competition series, so he will be back on the show’s next two cycles. That does come up in regards to his colleagues, but the highlights of the conversation came when Levine talked about his friendship with Jonah Hill and doing drugs at a Denny’s. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 18th, 2013  Alice Eve was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. The actress is the new addition to the Enterprise crew this go around for Star Trek Into Darkness, but she is not really ‘known’ to the masses just yet. Her credits include Men in Black III and She’s Out of My League. Take a look at her talk show appearance in which she chats mostly about Trek. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 17th, 2013  You know a studio is coming into their own when they start to think sequel months before a film’s release. Summit (a member of the rapidly growing Lionsgate group) is doing just that in regards to the Bruce Willis-led Red franchise which has him pairing with other retired CIA types. The first film has proven to show that the action-comic blend really works quite well, making this an episodic series people would undoubtedly like to revisit. As for why this is in our crosshairs today, the studio has apparently rehired Jon and Erich Hoeber to draft the script for round three.
Expect a release as early as February 2015 as production is being set up for winter. No director or cast members have signed on just yet. Red 2 hits theaters on July 19 although that could change as it shares a date with another action-comedy, R.I.P.D. which was coincidentally directed by the same guy who helmed the first Red movie.
|
|
