John Carter Reviews, Interviews & More
Apparently more people want to see Oz The Great And Powerful than some of us imagined. We only realized this once the midnight box office numbers came in, showing that the new Disney prequel has two million bucks in it's pocket.
It's a tricky business trying to put together a movie that sells. When you're part of a studio putting millions upon millions of dollars into one picture, it's really scary to think about. Even if you advertise the hell out of it, there's always that slight chance that audiences in some way or another may not fall in love with the film like you thought they were. Next thing you know a good...
Finding Nemo—Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, and Pixar’s second highest grossing film (Number one? Toy Story 3)—is one of Pixar’s crowning achievements. It’s even getting a 3D makeover and rerelease in September. And now, after nine years, it looks like it’s finally getting the sequel treatment, as well.
Proving that Hollywood has not exactly learned its lesson about not pumping more and more mega-millions into already bloated budgets and out of control productions (cough, John Carter, cough cough World War Z), it was leaked today that Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger has gone massively over budget (a budget which itself was slashed months ago). Now, the Lone...
This week’s got piles of new and classic releases to choose from, which is good news for film fans, and bad news for pocketbooks. One of the year’s most notorious flops is hitting DVD and Blu-ray a scant three months after its theatrical run, and there are some modestly good Clint Eastwood films as well. Check out the list.
Between the abysmal Mirror, Mirror and the upcoming Bella and Thor Battle Aileen Wuornos (you make know it as Snow White and the Huntsman) it seems remixing and revising the classic Snow White premise is the hot new trend in Hollywood—as long as it’s relatively cheap that is, as a post-John Carter Disney has announced they’ve halted...
Studio chairman Rich Ross was let go today from Disney, after a tumultuous two and a half year run as the head of the studio. He came into to replace Dick Cook, who ran it for eight years. Heads of studios tend to fall into two categories: those who hope be like the old school heads and stay in the position until they're virtually dead, or fresh blood that...
Let's give this opening weekend for The Hunger Games some context. It made $155 Million, which is the highest opening for a non-sequel ever, it had the biggest day of a non-sequel ever, and is the third highest opening weekend of all time. It's three million and change away from The Dark Knight, which was one of the most hyped openings ever....
Though most of its competition was slightly older, 21 Jump Street outperformed expectations this weekend and opened to $35 Million. For those hoping for good news when it comes to John Carter, alas, that ship has sailed. It was a big weekend for Channing Tatum, but also the quiet before The Hunger...
It's the week of release, so it's only fair that you've seen a lot of 21 Jump Street coverage here. Would you like to read my interviews with screenwriter Michael Bacall, stars Rob Riggle, and Brie Larson or the directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord? You can. Or not, up to you. But it's the only new movie this week, and with John Carter's weak...
Though it's definitely the box office story of the week, John Carter flopping isn't that big a deal - unless it leads to massive firings. This train was coming into the station slowly, and from the first trailer and poster there were questions if the studio ever figured out how to sell the picture. The answer is that they didn't. Alas. And so The...
For some people there is glee when a movie fails, but I'm reminded of something Justin Bartha said to me about Gigli. People work just as hard on movies that bomb as movies that succeed, and almost everyone is just doing their jobs. And no one ever sets out to make a bad movie. The makers of John Carter went in with good faith, and thought...
It's hard to parse Andrew Stanton's John Carter without acknowledging that the film has become a curiosity, as it's a very expensive movie that never figured out how to sell itself. But that has nothing to do with the quality of the film itself, which suffers from a number of very familiar problems to the science fiction and blockbuster genres. Though the spectacle is...
Can Nicolas Cage keep the Ghost Rider going? When the first film hit, it opened to $45 Million around the same weekend in 2007. But the film was not all that well received. And then there's last weekend's big winner The Vow. The Valentine's day is over, but the film is a monster hit. One wonders if they can find a way to make a sequel. And...
Are you ready for (some ads during) Football? If you love movies, but aren't so crazy about sports, the Super Bowl has become a time where some of the biggest films of the year drop $3.5 Million dollars for thirty seconds of your attention. Summer blockbusters looking to build buzz and get people excited about the year in film. So much so that there are now teasers for these ads. Trailers for...
Andrew Stanton's John Carter has gone through a paradigm shift in its marketing. Earlier it was selling moody shoots that didn't really tell the story of Taylor Kitsch's titular Carter, who is missing from Earth and thought dead. It gave a hint of his role as savior for Martians, with one played by Willem Dafoe. Now, (as they made obvious recently ) it's an action...
With John Carter's release date fast approaching, Disney is gearing up for the March 9 release of one of their most expensive films of 2012. And so far... they haven't gotten much traction with their teasers and posters. The film is based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, and stars Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins. Yeah, they need to sell something to get...
One of the most interesting films of next year is John Carter, the Andrew Stanton-directed film starring Taylor Kitsch and Willem Dafoe. The long-in-gestation project (which has had Harry Knowles, Kerry Conran and Jon Favreau attached at different points) is hoped to be the first in a franchise. Stanton talked to the New Yorker about the film, and told them the film...
Though The Odd Life of Timothy Green and the nature film Chimpanzee had trailers shown (and Jennifer Garner talked briefly about Green), the majority of attention for Disney's live Actions films at D23 went to The Muppets and John Carter....
At this year's San Diego Comic Con, the large ballrooms, typically reserved for panels discussing TV programs, have been outrageously overcrowded, with lines leading people almost a mile away from the convention center itself. Meanwhile, the cavernous Hall H, used to draw in big crowds for large studio announcements, has been surprisingly accessible, and sometimes even sparsely attended....
