Warner Bros. Drops 'Dumber and Dumber' Sequel; Farrelly Bros. To Shop Project Elsewhere

"So you're saying there's a chance!"

For whatever reason (I'm betting Jim Carrey's long hold-up to be paid which has taken years away from the project), Warner Bros. has declined to move forward on the sequel to 1994's Dumb and Dumber.

The film - which has been in the works for years at New Line Cinema (now owned by WB) - is being given the opportunity to be shopped to other studios who might what to distribute and finance the sequel to one of the biggest comedies of the 1990s.

Both original stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are attached to the project with Bobby and Peter Farrelly back in the directors' chairs to helm the sequel, appropriately titled, Dumb and Dumber To.

The follow-up would see Harry and Lloyd hit the road once again to find Harry's illegitimate daughter for a kidney transplant (sounds stupid, by didn't two guys heading to Aspen to return a briefcase sound pretty lame too?).

Apparently, Warners' lost interest in the project recently and see limited upside to the flick, which would cost around $30 million, the same as their recent flop, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, co-starring Carrey.

Not for nothing, but I think WB is out of their minds for letting this go.  Do they not realize how many people love Dumb and Dumber, and how many fans it's made over the past 20 years?  People will line up to see this film, an almost guaranteed box office smash.  With a budget of $30 million - on top of probably another $20 million in marketing - this thing will do huge business, probably making up that figure in its opening weekend alone.

Regardless of that, expect news fairly soon on which studio is going to pick this thing up because I doubt it will be on the market for long.

By the way, remember when 20th Century Fox decided not to make Ted?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter 

Raiders of the Lost Atari Game

As an eight-year-old who received a brand-new Atari video game system as a Christmas present in 1982, I remember being thrilled to find the E.T. The Extra Terrestrial game amongst the collection of new games also delivered to our house by Santa that year.  After all, it was the biggest movie of the year (or ever, at the time), which I'd seen three times over the summer.  How cool was it to have a video game version?

It's not like it wasn't heavily hyped as the perfect Christmas present that year.

That commercial would have been perfect if E.T. wound up having to blow on the cartridge before putting it in the Atari console. (That's an 80s thing, kids.  Ask your parents.)

Anyway, the E.T. game turned out to not be a very good game.  Actually, it was historically bad.  It was so terrible that my aunt, who gave us the game for Christmas that year, has yet to be forgiven by mother for bringing that game into our house in the first place.  Even today, at the mere mention of the E.T. game, she'll break into the neverending tap-tap-tap-tap footstep noise that E.T. made as he marched endlessly from blocky, badly-animdated-screen-to-blocky, badly-animated-screen looking for the pieces of his lost communicator that would send his spaceship to take him home.  Sometimes E.T. would fall down a well and just get stuck there.  Other times, the E.T. theme music would get stuck on a single note that would just go on and on...which is why my mom made my sister and me play it with the sound off.

But E.T. wasn't just a crappy game that left us kids bored, and drove our mom up a wall.  It was such a catastrophic bomb that it's been held to blame for the fall of the Atari game system, as the company was essentially bankrupted after being left with millions of unsold copies. 

Those unsold game cartridges have long-believed to have been given the same treatment worthy of a snitch on The Sopranos, after the New York Times reported that the cartridges were dumped in a New Mexico landfill and buried in concrete in 1983, although Atari has long-denied the story.

However, it looks like the mystery of the lost games may be solved.  According to ABC News, a Canadian film company called Fuel Industries has gotten permission to dig up that fabled landfill and see what may or may not be down there in hopes of making a documentary.

Why?  We have no idea.  The game cartridges were likely crushed before they were dumped, so even if they do strike 2600-level gold, none of them will be playable.  I can attest that the E.T. game was unplayable even before it was crushed and smothered in concrete.  But it's also long been rumored that other Atari goodies may have buried along with the E.T. cartridges, so it will be interesting to see what they do end up finding...even if hopes of finding a working 80s-era underground arcade are slim (but would be awesome).

At the very least, Snopes will be able to confirm if the 'buried Atari games' legend is true or not. 

For Some Reason There's a 4 MINUTE White House Down Trailer

Turning the White House to rumble in spectacular fashion made Roland Emmerich's career. Easy to see why he went back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for White House Down.

It looks like an absolute blast. But why oh why did they feel the need for a new four-minute, no you didn't misread that, long trailer? As if two minutes of CG mayhem, Channing Tatum charmingly ad-libbing and kicking ass next to Jamie Foxx wasn't enough to guarantee that sold ticket.

What kills me the most? Still little idea of who the villain is (Official listings say Jason Clarke, on a roll starting with Zero Black Thirty, continuing to this summer's surprise hit The Great Gatsby) or what his evil plan is.

Weekend Box Office: June 7-9

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Purge - $36.3 million

2.  Fast & Furious 6 - $19.7 million

3.  Now You See Me - $19.5 million

4.  The Internship - $18.1 million

5.  Epic - $12.1 million

6.  Star Trek Into Darkness - $11.7 million

7.  After Earth - $11.2 million

8.  The Hangover Part III - $7.3 million

9.  Iron Man 3 - $5.7 million

10.  The Great Gatsby - $4.2 million

This weekend was expected to be a quiet one at the box office, with Man of Steel still a week away and no major summer tentpoles set for release, but thanks in part to a rain-soaked East Coast, this turned out to be a very busy weekend at the movies. 

First up is the 'crime-is-legal' thriller The Purge, which shocked the hell out everyone with a staggering $36.3 million.   The movie only cost about $3 million to make (and whaddya know, it was produced by Jason Blum, who also produces those no-budgeted Paranormal Activity movies), so it's going to make a massive profit and probably spawn some sequels...even with poor word-of-mouth drop of 38% from Friday to Saturday.  It's a good weekend to be Ethan Hawke - his sequel Before Midnight also did some fine business, earning an estimated $585,000 in just 50 theaters nationwide.

The weekend's other new release, The Internship, which reunites Wedding Crashers duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, did all right with just $18.1 million, although it still finished the weekend in fourth place behind Fast & Furious 6, which continues to race along, earning another $19.7 million, and surprise hit Now You See Me, which wound up with $19.5 million. 

Fast & Furious 6, in the meantime, passed the $200 million mark this weekend, and will soon pass Fast 5's $209 million domestic haul.  Also passing $200 million this weekend was Star Trek Into Darkness, although at this point that sequel has little-to-no chance of passing the 2009 Star Trek's $260 million domestic total (and booooo!! I loved the new Star Trek).

Rounding out the top five was the animated Epic, which has earned a respectable $84 million in the quiet before Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 arrive to snag those family audiences.

Next weekend sees the long-awaited release of the apocalypse comedy, This Is The End.  Bwahahaha...just kidding. 

Man of Steel.  It arrives.  Next weekend.

Hey Nerds: THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG Has a Poster; Trailer Coming Tuesday

 

The One Ring.net showed off this impressive new poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with new details on the world premier of the film's trailer.

 

Plus now we know for certain, the teaser trailer will debut on Tuesday, June 11th, at 10am PDT (1pm EDT)! (Editor’s note: it does say PST in the original post, but I am going to assume that is a typo.)

Well, there you have it. Mark your calendars, squeeze into your cloak, put on your wizard hat, and sharpen your replica sword you ordered off Museum Replicas.com, it's time for more Middle Earth! 

The second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.

Mel Gibson to Play the Villain in 'Expendables 3'?

After a while, people in Hollywood need to start giving Mel Gibson a break.

Yes, we all know Hollywood is run by Jewish individuals and Mel Gibson in more recent times has been - and probably is - portrayed as an Anti-Semitic.  That in itself, pisses off big wigs all around Tinseltown.

What they seem to forget though is that the guy throughout the 80s, 90s, and even the early 2000s, was one of the biggest movie stars in the world.  There are absolutely people out there who would still pay to see his films as the guy is a great actor and even better director.

With that said, it looks like Sylvester Stallone is going to be one the guys who brings Mel Gibson back to the silver screen.

Earlier this year, Stallone had tweeted about how Gibson could possibly direct The Expendables 3, only for the job to eventually go to Red Hill director, Patrick Hughes.

Well it looks like Gibson will be involved in the project after all, with word coming that he will play the villain in the 3rd entry of the action-star franchise.  Martin Riggs himself will be joined by fellow-newcomers Nicolas Cage, Wesley Snipes, Jackie Chan, and Milla Jovovich, along with returning members from the previous films (well, those who still haven't been killed off).

I think this can be great for Gibson's career in going head-to-head with Stallone and other action legends as well as getting him back into the good graces of moviegoers.  

Now if he can only get Lethal Weapon 5 made too, I'd say the man is back.

Source: Showbiz 411 

Vintage 90s Poster for Stallone/Schwarzenegger Actioner 'Escape Plan'

We finally have our first look at the long-awaited team up film for Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Escape Plan (formely titled, The Tomb).

In the flick due out October 18th, Stallone plays Ray Breslin, the world's foremost authority on structural security, whose framed and incarcerated in a prison of his own master design.  Needing to break out, he joins forces with Schwarzenegger's character, Emil Rottmayer (WTF?), a fellow inmate who helps devise a plan to escape the most secure prison in the world.

What's great about this poster is it's almost something that could have come out in the early 90s when action films were all about 'ordinary guy, extraordinary circumstances.'  Smart move maybe to evoke that good old 80-90s nostalgia when audiences yearned to see the world's two biggest action stars together on screen.  I mean common, isn't there just something awesome about the names STALLONE & SCHWARZENEGGER side-by-side on a movie poster?

The film also stars Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, and Sam Neill.

Take a look at the poster below: 

New "Only God Forgives" Poster Featuring Kristin Scott Thomas

The story follows Julian (Gosling), a former kickboxer and gangster living in Bangkok. When his brother is murdered by a ruthless Thai police lieutenant, Julian is forced to seek vengeance or risk his own death.

MOVIEFONE

Cast Of "Man of Steel" Talk Superman On ABC's Nightline

US News | Weird News | More ABC News Videos

Henry Cavill

On putting on the Superman suit:

"That felt incredible, there is nothing quite like it. It's not just a suit. It's like when someone cooks you a wonderful meal and you can taste that there's love put in the food. It's the same thing with the suit."

On relating to Clark Kent:

"I think we've all been there at one stage of our life, or presently, and I channeled that [loneliness]."

On receiving the phone call that he was cast:

"I thought, 'Oh my goodness. I'm Superman. I didn't do anything for about five minutes, just going, 'I don't quite know what to do with myself. Did that really happen?' And so, I called round and no one picked up their phones."

On the audition:

"I wasn't physically ready for the suit. It's basically a Spandex outfit and I just thought, 'There's no way I'm getting this role.' I mean, you can act as hard as you want, but you can't act not fat."

On giving up acting:

"I was getting very close to a lot of jobs, and then not getting them, and I mean, not the big stuff which we hear about. But I started to think, maybe I'm not the guy? Maybe I should leave and join the forces."

"It's incredibly surreal. It might even take me months to process, years to process, but it's just great to be here."

ABC NEWS - NIGHTLINE

TRANSFORMERS 4 Adds Another Car to It's Extensive Cast

 

With such stars as Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlberg, Kelsey Grammar, and Nicola Peltz starring in Michael Bay's Transformers 4 it's hard to over-look the REAL cast, which added the 2013 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe to it's diverse list of future posters on the room of your douchey 13-year old cousin.

Michael Bay.com  updated it's page earlier this morning.

Unveiling yet another surprise . . . the extraordinary and exhilarating 2013 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe. High resolution photo: http://bayhem.com/16OKk8T

"I'm ecstatic," The Lamborghini said on being cast, "my last 'big' film was The Dark Knight, and I'm honored to be working with someone on Christopher Nolan's level."

Transformers 4 comes out June 27, 2014 and stars the  2013 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe, A race-inspired 2014 C7 Corvette Stingray, a Medium Tactical Vehicles from Oshkosh Defense, a vintage 1967 Camaro, the Bugatti Grand Sport Vitesse, and a Big Semi.