Here’s the first trailer for “The Prisoners”. The film looks very intense, check it out below.
The film stars Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo and Paul Dano.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
Here’s the first trailer for “Ender’s Game” based on the novel by Orson Scott Card.
The film stars Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, with Abigail Breslin and Harrison Ford.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
Presidents Day weekend is here. John Mclane is back. How big will “A Good Day to Die Hard” open?
I got to be honest. I was skeptical of this film. And, if you come back and read my review later this weekend, you’ll find out if I had good reason. Anyways it’s been half a decade since “Live Free or Die Hard” came out. That one earned more than $130 million so it seemed like a no brainer that Bruce Willis would come back. This time he’s paired with his son Jack (Jai Courtney). But things have changed.
We’ve had three bona fide flops in “The Last Stand”, “Parker” and “Bullet to the Head”. This one should avoid the same fate because of its brand, but this won’t open nearly as big or finish with nearly the amount of money the last Die Hard made. It’ll finish on top easily, but don’t expect this one to be a huge hit. It’ll be more in line with “DareDevil”.
Holiday weekend: $40-45 million
Next up is “Save Haven” starring Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, David Lyons and Cobie Smulders. All I have to say is it’s based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. Won’t be as big as say “The Vow”, but it’ll have a solid opening, especially cause of Valentines Day coming so close.
Holiday weekend: $20-25 million
Finally is “Beautiful Creatures” starring Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann and Emma Thompson. It’s hoping to become the next “Twilight” but doesn’t have the same appeal or buzz.
Holiday weekend: $10-15 million
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
First it was Hugh Jackman signing on for the film “Prisoners”. Then, Melissa Leo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Paul Dano followed suit. Now Terrance Howard is joining them as well. Director Denis Villeneuve is helming the project. From FirstShowing.net, the story:
“follows a small town carpenter (Jackman) who takes the law into his own hands when the local police can’t find his kidnapped daughter and her best friend. Jackman’s character runs into a problem when a hot shot cop (Gyllenhaal) is sent in to take on the case, and he doesn’t appreciate his investigation being interfered with. Since the last time we’ve updated you on this project, Maria Bello has joined the film as Jackman’s wife and Oscar nominee Viola Davis signed on as well.”
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
September closes as two Sony pictures vie for the top spot along with a teacher’s drama.
This week will come down to three very different films. “Hotel Transylvania” will likely take the top spot. The only recent offering for families this month has been “Finding Nemo 3D”, so this is the first new family film in a while. This film has an all-star voice cast with singers Selena Gomez and Cee Lo Green, comedians Andy Samberg, Kevin James, David Spade, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon and Adam Sandler. But, with Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” coming out next week, one has to wonder if families will simply wait for that one.
Opening weekend: $24-26 million
Total box office gross: $80-85 million
The film’s main competition will come from the sci fi film “Looper” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. The film has been getting solid reviews and has two pretty big actors. So, it would seem like a slam dunk right? Except, JGL’s last film, “Premium Rush” tanked and Willis’ last sci fi film was…”Surrogates”. This will draw the young male crowd, but I doubt it will be able to expand its audience much past that. It too may have trouble holding up next week as “Taken 2” will hit theaters.
Opening weekend: $17-19 million
Total box office gross: $50-55 million
The final new film getting a wide release is “Won’t Back Down” starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis. The film will resonate with some, especially with the Chicago teacher’s strike recently ending. But, this film will struggle to find an audience. The lack of advance showings to try and build up buzz is worrisome. And, “Freedom Writers”, a similar film tanked way back in 2007.
Opening weekend: $7-9 million
Total box office gross: $20-25 million
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
Jeremy Irons (The Lion King, Eragon) has joined the cast of “Beautiful Creatures” an adaption of the novel of the same name. It’s the first in a popular series and is a supernatural love story.
The cast includes Viola Davis (Amma), Emma Thompson (Mrs. Lincoln/Sarafine), Emmy Rossum (Ridley), Thomas Mann (Link), Jack O’Connell (Ethan) and Alice Englert (Lena).
I’m not sure exactly how popular these books are since I’ve actually never heard anyone talk about them, recommend them, or even read them. But, the cast is strong and the director, Richard LaGravenese, made “P.S. I Love You” which women seemed to like. So, I suppose for what I’m guessing is a similar in tone story, you could do a lot worse.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
Here we go. Like it or not, the Academy Awards will be given out once again this Sunday. Here are my predictions. Just a note, I’m not going to predict some of the more technical categories, like make up, costumes, etc. or some of the categories like Documentary, animated short, etc. because, frankly, I haven’t seen enough (or in some cases any) of the nominees. I’m going to stick to the major categories here.
But, here we go.
Animated feature: For the first time since the 2007 Oscars, Pixar will not be taking this prize home. “Rango” seems to have all the backing here. And, it’s considered more “grown up” than its competitors in this category. I actually enjoyed “Puss in Boots” more but I’m probably in the minority so “Rango” is the safe bet.
Special Effects: This comes down, in my mind, to a two film race. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. I think this is going to come down to does the Academy feel the need to give the final Potter film any Oscars (which would be the first in the series). An argument can be made that Apes is more deserving, however and I think it will be tough for Potter to overcome that.
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners). I’ve yet to see “Beginners” but Plummer has been pretty much sweeping all the major awards so far. Max von Sydow has gotten some great press from his role in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”, but unfortunately for him, it doesn’t look like he stands a real chance.
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (The Help). As with Plummer, Spencer has been sweeping the big awards so far. I do have somewhat of a hope that the two nominees from “The Help” cancel each other out and that Melissa McCarthy wins for her role in “Bridesmaids” but that’s not going to happen.
Best Original Screenplay: A pretty interesting race here. “The Artist” has a lot of buzz in this category, despite it being mostly a silent film. It’s biggest competition will be Woody Allen’s “Midnight In Paris” (which, for the record, I feel is overrated). Again, I’d love to see “Bridesmaids” take this category, it was hilarious, but let’s talk about what really will happen. Take your pick between “The Artist” and “Midnight in Paris”. Frankly, I think if “The Artist” wins this category, it’ll win Best Picture for sure, but I think “Midnight in Paris” gets the nod here.
Best Adapted screenplay: “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” was a good film, but just lacks the buzz here. “Moneyball” was a solid film, just nothing special. I’d say that “The Ides of March” didn’t deliver to its full potential. That leaves this as a race between “The Descendants” and “Hugo”. I loved both films, but I’m going to go with “Hugo” because I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to get largely shut out in the big categories.
Best Actress: This has seemingly come down to Viola Davis (The Help) and Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady). Which is a shame because both Glenn Close and Michelle Williams gave fine performances. But, I’m going to go with Davis here because, well, I don’t know too many people that liked “The Iron Lady” as a whole film. But, if Streep wins, don’t be surprised.
Best Actor: Again, it appears to be a two person race. George Clooney (The Descendants) and Jean Dujardin (The Artist). If either actor wins it won’t be a shock. I guess it comes down to does the Academy want to give Clooney a leading role Oscar to go along with his supporting actor or reward the relatively unknown (at least before “The Artist” came out). I’ll go with Clooney.
Best Director: Talk about a difficult race here. Alexander Payne directed “The Descendants” also directed “Sideways”. Terrance Malick (The Tree of Life) also directed “The Thin Red Line”. Woody Allen and Martin Scorcese, well, their careers speak for themselves and Michel Hazanavicius is a relative newcomer to Hollywood. This, I think is one of the most up in the air categories. The only one I’d be truly shocked to see win is Malick. That being said, I don’t think Allen is going to win. And, as much as I want Scorcese to win for “Hugo” I don’t think he will either. I think Hazanivicus for “The Artist” will win.
Best Picture: I really like “Hugo”. For my money, out of the nominees, it was my favorite film of the year by far. However, I feel like “The Artist” is going to win this one too.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
Lukas Eggen 