Mon, May 11, 2009 
Weekend Actuals (May 8th - May 10th)
1 Star Trek $75,204,289
2 X-Men Origins: Wolverine $26,408,288
3 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past 10,258,141
4 Obsessed $6,560,266
5 17 Again $4,232,422
6 Next Day Air $4,111,043
7 The Soloist $3,949,430
8 Monsters Vs. Aliens $3,260,440
9 Earth (2009) $2,666,219
10 Hannah Montana The Movie $2,193,043
Mon, May 11, 2009 
As per his sources and using his keen sense of detection (i.e. reading between the lines), Drew "Moriarty" McWeeny reports that Christian Bale is a candidate to play the title role in John Carter of Mars. A film adaptation of the book-series has been in development for years under various directors (including a pre-Iron Man Jon Favreau and Robert Rodriguez) and currently set up at Pixar with Wall-E director Andrew Stanton at the helm.
Now let's be fair here. He flat-out asked Bale during his Terminator: Salvation junket about the possibly with the answer: "I don't know what that is."
The thing is though McWeeny knows his shit. His track-record speaks for itself. So let's just assume for the sake of argument that this is true and Bale does in fact headline John Carter of Mars.
Doesn't he honestly have enough frachises on his plate already? To headline one franchise spawning three films would be enough for one actor. But Bale's currently doing press for Terminator: Salvation. And if that does as well as many are expecting, we'll certainly get two more installments.
Not to mention, he'll done the cape and cowl at least one more time for Batman III (eventually) - whether or not Christopher Nolan directs him for a third time remains to be seen.
Mon, May 11, 2009 
Now, I've not read the books, and really had no interest to, until the film started to get underway. For those not familiar with the DC Vertigo series, here is a brief synopsis from Wiki.
The Losers' reimagining was set against events surrounding and including the War on Terror. Originally a Special Forces team seconded to the Central Intelligence Agency. in the 90s, the Losers were betrayed by their handler, Max, and left for dead following the conclusion of their operation. Eager for revenge and the opportunity to remove their names from a secret CIA death list, the Losers regroup and conduct covert operations against the CIA and its interests, uncovering startling operations spearheaded by the enigmatic Max, whose influence within the CIA and U.S. government is unparalleled.[1]
The film will star Jeffrey Deam Morgan (The Comedian) as Clay, Idris Elba as Roque, Zoe Saldana as Aisha, and Columbus Short as Pooch, the Losers. Now comes word from aicn that the villainous mastermind who has been toying with The Losers will be played by none other than Jason Patric!
I must say this cast is shaping up to be a phenomenal one IMO, and should bode well for director Sylvain White. My interest is piqued for sure, and I'll certainly be getting the books and eagerly anticipate the 2011 release of this film.
Sun, May 10, 2009 
On this week's edition of Movie Moan, Phil and Jamie are joined by their good friend and long-time supporter Lou Sytsma as they discuss Star Trek. Spoiler: They all fucking loved it!
Watch in shock and awe as three grown men are reduced to overly-excited nerds as they gush over J.J. Abrams' Trek "requel" - now a box-office smash, mind you.
In addition to talking about their favorite parts, minor pet-peeves and exactly how did William Shatner expect to fit himself into the newly rebooted film-series, a new feature is introduced. "Memo to the Executives" where our three heroes plead with the studio (in this case Paramount) about what they do and don't want to see in the forthcoming Trek sequel - which is currently aiming for a Summer 2011 release. Hint: No Khan and the more of Karl Urban's awesome Bones, the better!
Sun, May 10, 2009 
It's always a bit disconcerting when you watch a Woody Allen movie in which he isn't the lead, but the lead is clearly an avatar of his personality, so the lead actor semi-impersonates Woody.
However, if there is an actor today capable of doing that and making it work, it just might be Larry David. The actor, best known for "Curb Your Enthusiasm," already plays a variation of Woody Allen on the show (and somewhat in real life).
As the newly-released trailer for Woody Allen's upcoming movie, "Whatever Works," shows, it's a nice fit.
Opening with limited enagements June 19, "Whatever Works" is looking preetty, preetty, preetty good.
Fri, May 8, 2009 
While the status of another Superman movie is on hold, the actor who plays him, Brandon Routh, is having quite the week.
Earlier in the week, pictures and information from his forthcoming starring role, "Dead of Night," were released following the set visits of several web bloggers.
And now, pictures have come out for another movie he is involved in called "Life Is Hot In Cracktown."
Based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Buddy Giovinazzo, "Life Is Hot In Cracktown" tells various stories of how crack cocaine has infiltrated the inner-city streets.
In the movie, Routh will play Sizemore, who is struggling with a drug epidemic. He is joined in the cast by, amongst others, Kerry Washington, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Lara Flynn Boyle, Desmond Harrington, RZA, Shannyn Sossamon, Illeana Douglas, Carly Pope, Richard Portnow and Vondie Curtis-Hall.
The movie is scheduled to hit theaters June 26, 2009.
Sean Gerski
The trailer for "Life Is Hot in Cracktown" was released today:
Fri, May 8, 2009 Jon Favreau has been steadily releasing photos from the set of "Iron Man 2," and that's a good thing.
So here is another, courtesy of People Magazine, that shows Robert Downey Jr. in his Iron Man gear:
According to On Location News, Iron Man is taking a doughnut break in the hole of a giant doughnut shop sign in L.A. Nick Fury asks Iron Man if he would like some coffee with his doughnuts.
Anyway, there are more pics like this, and a few of Nick Fury, collected here, but they all have "ON LOCATION NEWS" written all over them.
My only real thought, though, is been there, seen that. I am looking forward to pics of Mickey Rourke or Scarlett Johansson in costume much more.
But, on the upside, it is good to see that the movie is actually being made. We can't say that of all of the comic book movies being bandied about and endlessly postponed.
Fri, May 8, 2009 
Hey folks, it's Phil here with your promised Trek episode of MovieMoan arriving at warp speed. Hopefully I have caught you either gearing up for a night at the movies seeing the rebirth of 'Star Trek' on the big screen or you've just come back from it and are hungry for more. In either case, this is for you:-
Apologies for the iffy sound quality at some points but we had some major technical problems the week we recorded this particular live show.
Fri, May 8, 2009 We are not far off now, McG's Terminator future war is almost upon us and Warner Brothers has just upped the ante with an epic 4 minute trailer.
Now the question is should you watch it ? how much does it give away ? Well I'd say definitely watch it if you are a skeptic as it really gives off the epic and weighty feel of the movie more so than any previous footage available to the general audience. If you are already on board though you maybe could give it a miss, I mean there is quite a bit of new footage in here and some scenes glimpsed in the trailers are more fleshed out, but I don't think it will spoil anything for you if you choose to give in to temptation as I did.
Personally this is my most anticipated movie of the summer and with every bit of footage I see I become more impressed. In this 4 minutes we get a feel for the drama and the presence of both Connor and Marcus, as well as some truly spectacular looking action and stunning cinematography.
'Terminator Salvation' opens on May 21st and you can check out the 4 minute trailer below.
Fri, May 8, 2009 Yahoo Movies has the first teaser poster for the Peter Jackson produced, Neil Blomkamp directed 'District 9'. I think it's a fairly effective, even slightly humourous poster that will catch people's interest.
District 9 opens August 14th.
