Box Office Battle: What does “Jupiter Ascending’s” delay mean?

Surprising news emerged yesterday as Warner Brothers announced that “Jupiter Ascending”, due out in less than two months in July, would be delayed until February 6, 2015. It’s rare for movies to be delayed within six months of release. But less than two months? Should fans be worried? Let’s find out.

The reason: Officially, WB said it’s because they need more time to finish special effects. Frankly, I find that hard to believe. You’d think the studio would know a lot sooner the film wouldn’t finish in time. The bigger issue may come in the form of a new release hitting theaters this weekend.

“Edge of Tomorrow”, starring Tom Cruise, is being released in the U.S. on Friday. It’s getting great reviews (currently at 91 percent at Rotten Tomatoes), but it’s underperforming greatly overseas and there’s a sense that the movie will be a misfire domestically. Coupled with a lack of overall buzz for “Jupiter Ascending”, and the more likely scenario is WB is getting cold feet and doesn’t want to have two big budget sci-fi bombs in the same summer.

Why you should be worried: It’s almost never a good sign to see movies be delayed, especially to a time of year when most studios dump films that aren’t very good at. And a delay like this harkens back to films like “47 Ronin” where, despite all the damage control that studio tried to do, the film just suffered from issues on set and wasn’t very good.

Why you should be optimistic: There are a number of reasons to have faith. First, it’s opening the same weekend “The Lego Movie” came out, which is still this year’s highest grossing film (though not for long). “World War Z”, starring Brad Pitt, had its share of production problems, yet was successful both commercially and critically. And “Jupiter Ascending” stars two bright, young stars in Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.

I thought the trailers have all looked very good so far. In short, there’s a lot of potential here and perhaps WB is just setting up “Jupiter Ascending” as the first blockbuster of 2015.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Keanu Reeves returning to science fiction

Keanu Reeves has largely stayed out of the spotlight aside from making the excellent documentary “Side By Side”. That could be changing. He’ starring in the troubled, upcoming film “47 Ronin”. And now he’s set to star in a new sci fi film from director Brian Kirk (“Game of Thrones”, “Boardwalk Empire”). Jon Spaihts, one of the writers on “Prometheus” is writing the script which is said to center around “a spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet that has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger (Reeves) is awakened 90 years before anyone else… He eventually decides to wake up a second passenger, marking the beginning of what becomes a unique love story (From Deadline)”.

Sounds a little bit like “The Lake House”, which he co-starred with Sandra Bullock in that it’s a love story with a sci-fi twist. I realize a lot of people didn’t care for “The Lake House”, but I think that film is underrated. And I have hopes that this one could lead to some interesting moments.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Maybe “47 Ronin” isn’t so screwed after all…

Last week, reports swirled that director Carl Rinsch had been taken off the editing team for “47 Ronin”. The troubled production starring Keanu Reeves saw Rinsch apparently unable to handle the pressure of a big budget Hollywood film. Deadline is reporting that all is well, however and Rinsch is working with Universal on editing the film.

Sounds a bit like damage control to me. But, at least this is a positive sign unlike say, “World War Z” starring Brad Pitt.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Box office battle: Is new release date for “The Great Gatsby” good or bad?

WB has announced the new date for director Baz Luhrmann’s (“Australia”, “Moulin Rouge”) adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” is May 10. It seems odd at first, given it was going to get a Christmas day release. And, at first glance, pushing a film back to the following summer seems to take it right out of serious awards contention. Or does it?

The second weekend in May is a weird one. In fact, WB has had pretty bad luck that weekend in recent years. “House of Wax”, “Speed Racer”, “Poseidon” and even Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows” were all WB films that flopped badly that weekend. So, it would seem to be a bad omen for this film. But, let’s not forget films like “Gladiator” and “Crash” both came out in early May and even “Moulin Rouges” had a limited release then. So, awards season contention isn’t out of the question.

With its cast, which includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton and Carey Mulligan, the film has enough star power to be a big draw at the box office. And that could actually build more momentum for its Oscar campaign. So, while delaying a film by that much can be bad (I’m talking to you Universal and “47 Ronin”), in this case, I think it might actually help the film.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Box office battle: Can “World War Z” or “47 Ronin” be saved?

Two of the biggest Hollywood productions coming up were ones I had high hopes for. Keanu Reeves is starring in a samurai epic “47 Ronin” while Brad Pitt stars in “World War Z”. Now, it seems both projects are doomed.

News from “47 Ronin” is that director Carl Rinsch has been locked out of the editing room and that Universal is taking over the production. Rinsch just finished reshoots, which included completely reshooting the FINAL BATTLE to put more of a focus on Reeves’ character. And, not to mention, Universal has cut staff and is only moving forward with visual effects on scenes they know for sure are making the final cut. Sounds like an utter disaster right? I mean, reshooting or adding in key scenes to try and put more of a focus on Reeves? Changing the final battle? Doesn’t sound promising.

“World War Z” has had its fair share of public problems, from completely changing the ending MULTIPLE TIMES during production to feuds with Pitt and director Marc Forster. The question is which can be saved?

The simple answer is no. These both sound like utter disasters. But, if I had to choose one, I’d say “47 Ronin” because maybe it can still be a mildly enjoying, visually beautiful film.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

 

Box office battle: Which major film doing extensive reshoots should we be most worried about?

This is a troubling trend lately. From Keanu Reeves Samurai epic “47 Ronin” to “World War Z”, some big budget films have delayed their releases significantly to do a lot of reshoots. Which project should we be worried about the most?

I’m looking at just a few big projects announcing major delays for reshoots: “47 Ronin”, “World War Z”, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “Hansel and Gretel”.

Of these projects, I’m least worried about “Hansel and Gretel” starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton. That may only be because we haven’t seen any footage, but it’s hard for me to say the movie’s screwed before anything from the film even comes out. Still, the fact that it did get delayed and we still haven’t seen any real footage is a little worrisome.

Next on the list is “G.I. Joe: Retaliation”. It was delayed for two reasons: to post convert it into 3D and to *SPOILER* add more scenes with Channing Tatum who was to be killed off in the original cut really early. Here’s my problem. By giving Tatum more scenes, aren’t you sort of changing the dynamic of the rest of the film? I mean, they’d have to do a lot of reshoots because Dwayne Johnson and the rest of the new crew obviously went about their business without Tatum in the original cut. What do you do know if you extend his screen time or even let him live throughout the film as well? That being said, I don’t think anyone’s expectations were very high to begin with and the trailer did make the film look fun. So, perhaps it can still be enjoyable mindless entertainment.

Now we get into the worrisome projects. I’m a huge Keanu Reeves fan. I loved “The Matrix” trilogy. I loved “Constantine”. I loved “Speed”. Heck, I even enjoyed “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. But,  “47 Ronin” looks doomed. First-time director Carl Rinsh apparently failed to film the climatic battle scenes up to the studio’s standards, so they’re reshooting them with him under supervision. Not a good sign. Also, they are reshooting scenes so Reeve’s romance in the film is played up. Sounds like a wildly uneven film that will be a mess rather than an epic film.

But, that pales in comparison to “World War Z”. On paper, this sounded good. Great book adapted into a film starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster. Of course, now, there are problems between Pitt and Forster and the studio is bringing in writers to rewrite the WHOLE THIRD ACT. This is after you already fundamentally changed the plot. So…basically…this film looks more dead than the zombies in it.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.