First Image from "Real Steel"

It just started filming this week, but USA Today already has the first promotional photo from Dreamworks Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Night at the Museum's Shawn Levy. 

The film takes place in the year 2020, when human boxing has been outlawed and fighters have been replaced by robots.  Jackman plays a former boxer-turned-promoter who, bonds with his estranged 11-year-old son (Dakota Goyo) while rescuing a junkyard robot called Atom who just may be the next great robot-boxing champion.

While motion-capture animation for the robots will be used for the fight scenes, 19 animatronic robots have been built for the film.  Levy says the mix of CG and live-action robots was encouraged by executive producer Steven Spielberg.  "There are some things only visual effects can pull off," Levy told USA Today. "But when you give an actor a real thing, in this case a real 8-foot-tall machine, to interact with and do dialogue opposite, you get a more grounded reality to the performance."

Jackman was impressed by his robot co-stars.  "The moment of walking in and seeing these robots, my jaw was on the floor," he said.  "That's because the robot in this image is a real device, not a digital visual effect."

Wow, so a robot movie not relying on CG to tell a story?  Has someone mentioned this to Michael Bay yet?  The movie sounds a bit like Rocky meets The Champ (hopefully with a happier ending), and I'm always up for anything starring Hugh Jackman.  Sounds promising so far. 

Real Steel is scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 18, 2011.  However, that is now also the same weekend part one of Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn begins its reign of terror in multiplexes, so maybe it will need to find a better weekend?  Stay tuned.

Harry Potter Finishes Filming

And all was well.

The nearly ten-year journey of the Harry Potter film franchise reached an end this weekend, as principal photography on the final film in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, officially finished on Saturday. 

It's not known whether the final scene filmed was from Part 1 or Part 2 of the finale, but the final day was marked by actor Warwick Davis, who played both Professor Flitwick and the goblin Griphook in the series, who reported via Twitter:

"The end of an Era - today is officially the last day of principal photography on 'Harry Potter' - ever. I feel honoured to be here as the director shouts cut for the very last time. Farewell Harry & Hogwarts, it's been magic!"

Daniel Radcliffe, who presented at last night's Tony Awards ceremony in New York (he's set to star in a Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying next year) told the Associated Press that it was an emotional last day, "Everyone was really devastated.  It was really, really sad," he said.  "We were crying quite a lot.

According to Harry Potter fansite MuggleNet.com, Rupert Grint lightened up the mood a bit by bringing his ice cream truck to the set on the last day and serving ice cream to the cast and crew. 

There's still lots to look forward to for us Harry Potter fans - not the least of which of course are these two films which still have lots of post-production work left before we finally get to see them this November and July 2011. 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is ready to open at Universal Studios Orlando on Friday June 18th.  The park has been having soft openings for the past week or so and early reviews are terrific.  Scheduled to appear for the grand opening so far include Radcliffe, Grint, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, James and Oliver Phelps, who will reportedly arrive via the Knight Bus.

A little closer to home is the upcoming release of the Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 video game, which will arrive in stores June 29th.  Very excited for this game, since I love the Lego games.

So while it's sad to hear the series is nearly finished, there's still plenty to enjoy before it gets here.

Weekend Box Office: June 11-13

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Karate Kid - $56 million

2.  The A-Team - $26 million

3.  Shrek Forever After - $15.8 million

4.  Get Him to the Greek - $10.1 million

5.  Killers - $8.1 million

6.  Prince of Persia:  The Sands of Time - $6.6 million

7.  Marmaduke - $6 million

8.  Sex and the City 2 - $5.5 million

9.  Iron Man 2 - $4.5 million

10.  Splice - $2.8 million 

The 80s returned with a vengeance this weekend, and The Karate Kid remake came out on top with an amazing $56 million, well above expectations and more than twice the opening weekend box office of The A-Team, which had to settle for second place with $26 million. 

Budgeted at around $40 million and starring Will Smith's 11-year-old son, Jaden, The Karate Kid has provided the box office punch that Hollywood has sorely needed since Iron Man 2's big opening last month.   Exit polls were strong, even with the film's 2 hour and 20 minute run time, so it should hold up well for a good part of the summer, even next weekend when Toy Story 3 opens.

The A-Team finished the weekend with a solid, but below-expecations total of $26 million.  With a budget of about $110 million, it's going to have to hope the movie's B+ Cinemascore rating generates enough good word-of-mouth to earn that back.  And for the record, I thought it was awesome, so go see it.

Shrek Forever After fell to third place, earning another $15 million.  It's doing well, but it's still far behind its predecessors at this point in its release. 

Get Him to the Greek and Killers held on decently in their second weekend, both dropping less than 50%.  Prince of Persia remains nowhere near crossing the $100 million marking, falling to 6th place with $6.5 million and bringing its total to $72.3 million.  However, it's done far better overseas, where it has grossed $190 million.

Marmaduke continues to make money for some reason, coming in at 7th place with another $6 million to bring its total to $22 million.  This latest entry into the talking-animals genre does not appear to be catching on with audiences.

Sex and the City 2 fell to 8th place, grossing $5.5 million for a total of $84 million.  At this point it's unlikely to catch up to the first film's $152 million total.

Inching even closer to the $300 million mark (which it will most likely do by the end of the week), Iron Man 2 came in ninth place with $4.5 million.  Its worldwide total now stands at $589 million.  While it's no longer in the top 10, Robin Hood is also less than $1 million away from the $100 mark. 

The horror film Splice rounded out the top 10, dropping more than 60% with just $2.8 million.  Despite good reviews, the film just doesn't seem to be attracting audiences. 

Things should get interesting next week when Toy Story 3 opens.  Check back this week when Mitch updates with the actuals for the weekend.

Toy Story 3 TV Spots

We're almost one week away from the release of Toy Story 3, and I can't wait to see it.  Disney-Pixar has released this video of five different TV spots for the sequel, including some hilarious footage of Michael Keaton as Ken:

Toy Story 3 arrives in theaters everywhere (and in every possible format) on June 18th.

It's Time to Play The Music...

 

Today's Muppet News Flash:  the Walt Disney Studios has set an official release date of December 25, 2011 for the as-yet untitled (and still not officially greenlit) new Muppet movie, according to a report at Film School Rejects. 

The new film, which will mark first big-screen appearance of the Muppets since 1999's Muppets From Space, is being written by Forgetting Sarah Marshall writers Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, and will be directed by Flight of the Conchords' James Bobin.  No official word yet on a title, but rumored titles have included The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made and The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made (which was originally the title of an unproduced film idea by Jim Henson that involved Gonzo blowing the entire film's budget on the opening credits). 

Segel will reportedly also star in the movie, playing "a human named Gary, whose best friend is the puppet bear Walter.  Together they go on a journey with Gary's girlfriend Mary to defeat the evil Tex Richman, a man who doesn't find the Muppets funny and think he can smell oil beneath their studio."

Sounds a bit like the plot from the original Muppet Movie, minus the creepy frog-legs restaurant part.  Segel is said to be a huge fan of the Muppets, and is planning for the new movie to be in the spirit of the original three films, which includes the usual parade of celebrity cameos (including Sean Penn, according to /Film).   No word yet if any new songs will be part of the film, although I hope so.

I'm a big fan of the Muppets as well, and it sounds like the new film is in good hands.  Let's hope it's as good as the original films, which are still just as hilarious as they were when they were new. 

"Deathly Hallows" Trailer & Wizarding World Preview

For anyone who missed it during the MTV Twilight Awards....oops, I mean the MTV Movie Awards last night, Warner Bros has released some new footage from what looks like Parts 1 & 2 of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.  It's less than a minute of new footage, so I'm not sure if qualifies as a trailer (the full trailer is rumored to be in front of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse later this month), but there's definitely some good stuff to see for now:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I will open in theaters on November 19, with Part II scheduled to arrive on July 15, 2011. 

And that wasn't the only Potter-related awesomeness revealed on TV last night:  with Universal Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter set to open on June 18th, NBC showed this early preview footage of the new theme park, which you can watch at this link.  It looks amazing.

Weekend Box Office: June 4-6

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. Shrek Forever After - $25.3 million

2. Get Him to the Greek - $17.4 million

3. Killers - $16.1 million

4. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - $13.9 million

5. Sex and the City 2 - $12.6 million

6. Marmaduke - $11.3 million

7. Iron Man 2 - $7.7 million

8. Splice - $7.4 million

9. Robin Hood - $5.1 million

10. Letters to Juliet - $3 million

So how many new releases does it take to topple an ogre at the box office?  Well, we know the answer isn't four - at least not the four new movies it had to compete with this weekend.

Shrek Forever After retained its box office crown in its third week of release, easily beating out newcomers from seemingly every possible genre with $25.3 million.  Despite having a domestic total of $183 million (and another $68 million overseas), attendance for Shrek's final adventure is lagging behind its previous sequels. 

In second place was the Jonah Hill-Russell Brand comedy Get Him to the Greek, which opened well with $17.4 million, even if it wasn't the box office smash that The Hangover was on this same weekend last year, but stayed in line with the opening weekend for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which is where Hill and Brand's Greek characters originated.

Despite not being screened early for critics (and earning a painful 15% Rotten Tomatoes score when it was), Killers managed to finish in a not-bad third place with $16.1 million.   Apparently there is still an audience for movies starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher out there. 

Both new releases from last weekend, Prince of Persia and Sex and the City 2, dealt with big drops this weekend, with Persia dropping 54% and Sex and the City dropping 59%, which doesn't bode well for long runs on either film. 

Still, they at least did better than this weekend's other new releases:  the barely-advertised (and probably for good reason) Marmaduke came in with a meager $11.3 million and the horror film Splice, which was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival and got decent reviews, didn't do much at the box office, ending the weekend with just $7.4 million.

Iron Man 2 earned another $7.7 million this weekend, putting its total domestic gross about a weekend away from a $300 million total.  Ridley Scott's Robin Hood appears to be sinking out of the top ten, earning $5.1 million, but still not at $100 million total yet.  Letters to Juliet rounds out the top 10 with $3 million.

In all, another unimpressive weekend at the box office.  Let's hope things get better next week with the release of The A-Team (I can't wait for this movie) and the remake of The Karate Kid - not to mention the return of Buzz and Woody the week after that.

Make sure to check back for Mitch's update when the actuals come in. 

Jeremy Renner to Join "The Avengers"?

Rumors swirled last year that The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner was being considered for the role of Hawkeye in the big-screen adaptation of The Avengers.  Those rumors were squashed by Renner himself, who at the time was considering a role in a big-screen adaptation of Battleship instead.  (yeah, the game)

Now Heat Vision is reporting that Renner is currently in "final negotiations" to play the Avengers superhero after all, although this information has not been confirmed by Marvel Studios.

Clint "Hawkeye" Barton is an expert archer and marksman who originally started out a misguided villian in the Marvel universe before ultimately joining up with Iron Man and Captain America as part of the Avengers lineup of superheroes...or, as Robert Downey Jr. referred to them in Iron Man 2, a "super-secret boy band."

According to the Heat Vision report, Renner is still interested in playing a role in Battleship (because doesn't every actor want to go right from an Oscar nomination to a movie based on a board game?).  But that film is currently mired in delays and financing issues, so he still may be able to do that once his Avengers work is completed, provided those issues have been resolved by then.

So if this works out, it looks like our big-screen Avengers team is coming together nicely.  I'm already loving the Captain America designs posted by Mitch yesterday.

The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, is scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 4, 2012. 

Take a Hike, Superman!

It looks like the tradition of getting your picture taken with a guy in a dirty Spiderman costume during your vacation to Hollywood might be coming to an end.   KTLA is reporting that the famous costumed (and definitely unlicensed) characters along the Hollywood Walk of Fame have been told to get lost, although that has not yet been confirmed by the LAPD.  

These characters, who were the subject of the 2007 documentary Confessions of a Superhero, often include Batman, Superman, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Zorro, as well as many other assorted action heroes and cartoon stars.  They can usually be found in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, where they are available for photo ops, but since they obviously can't be paid for their work, they relied solely on tips.

Unfortunately this led to some characters getting aggressive with tourists who didn't tip. That led to complaints from tourists, and that led to the police enforcing a code regarding tips for service and operating without a business permit that got everyone booted off the street.

I've never been to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but I did once see a Dora the Explorer costume in Times Square that looked like Dora was seven days past watching that video from The Ring.  I don't know if the costumes in LA were as scary as that, but it would be a shame if it was just a few bad costumed characters that ruined it for everyone else. 

You can see the KTLA news report (including an interview with an upset Zorro) from an quiet Grauman's Chinese Theater entrance.  Although it looks like MacGruber is playing there, so that might explain the silence too:

Deathly Hallows PS3 Game Preview

IGN has premiered this awesome preview for the upcoming video game adaptation of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 1, which is scheduled for release in the fall. 

More Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Info

Are the wands supposed to sound like machine guns?

If I actually had a PS3, I'd totally get that.  Unfortunately, the last time I played a Harry Potter game, it took me 15 minutes to catch the Snitch during a Quidditch level, only to find out that was just a practice level.  I kinda gave up after that, although I'm quite excited for the Lego Harry Potter game set to be released later this month.