Movie Trailer - 'Anna Nicole' Bio-Pic Looks as Bad as You'd Think

It's the most anticipated motion picture of the year, about a small town girl who dared to make her dreams come true.

At least that's what the trailer for Anna Nicole wants us to believe. But I've got to tell you, after watching this, all I'm ready to believe is that Willa Ford is an atrocious actress. And frankly, I'm shocked.


This is one of those movies that so bad you almost have to watch it. Almost.

'Sopranos' Movie in the Works? Yes, Says Strip Club Manager

Answering the not-so-silent wish of millions of Sopranos fans, Nick D'Urso, manager of Satin Dolls (the strip club known as Bada Bing in the show), says that renovations to his club were put on hold after Satin Dolls received a call about shooting scenes for a feature film in the establishment.

D'Urso told 1010 WINS in New York that he received "an inside tip that they?re going to do a movie, so I don?t want to make any major changes,? adding, ?I?m not going to reveal my sources, but we got a call from somebody [working] on the script.?

?If we remodeled it, they could always spend the money to recreate it the way they want to, but why bother?? D?Urso said. ?Even if it?s all for naught, I?d rather wait.?

The club has made some changes since the HBO series wrapped however; two stripper poles were sold on eBay last summer. No joke.

I guess everyone suspects there will someday be another venture for The Sopranos. Almost everything in pop culture exists twice, anyway. But if not this movie and not right now, Nick D'Urso says he's received several calls from reality shows interested in using the club as a location.

?If the right show comes along our way, we might be interested.?

That's when you know your strip club cares. He could sell out to anybody, but D'Urso is clearly a principled man looking for more than the easy buck. Unless it's time for the dollar dance.

Fearless Forecast - '10,000' in the 30,000,000 Range

I've said in the past couple of months that I expect 10,000 B.C. to be a flop. I don't know how well prehistoric plays these days, although I suspect the filmmakers would like to steal some of the fire that helped 300 become a massive hit around this time last year.

I also have a feeling this movie will attract bad reviews like dead billionaires attract long lost relatives, and while there will always be a debate about the negative impact of a slew of bad reviews, I think everyone can agree there really is no positive impact.

So will it be number one this weekend? Oh yes. Easily. Will it, as some projections hail, put up $40 million plus in its debut? I doubt it. Even though its biggest competition is College Road Trip, which should do well, and I believe The Bank Job, a movie opening in half the number of theaters as 10,000 B.C., will do very strong business.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that people will flock to things already in theaters, whether it's Vantage Point, which has done well, The Other Boleyn Girl, or they'll give Jumper and Spiderwick Chronicles a look.

Call it a hunch.

1 - 10,000 B.C. ($29 million)
2 - College Road Trip ($18 million)
3 - Semi-Pro ($7.5 million)
4 - The Bank Job ($7 million)
5 - Vantage Point ($6 million)

Wanted: New Trailer for 'Wanted'

The most exciting thing about the prospect of Wanted is not that it's Angelina Jolie in another action-fueled flick. It's that Angelina, who is about as convincing as female heroines get these days, is in an action-fueled flick directed by Timur Bekmambatov, director of the Night Watch trilogy.

Angelina plays an assassin opposite Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy, which begs the question, "Where do I sign up?"

Here's the latest trailer for Wanted:


Wanted blows up in theaters on June 27th.

Draggin' 'Dragonball' Into 2009

Citing a thick schedule of releases late this summer that could affect its box office, 20th Century Fox will delay the opening date of Dragonball until April of next year.

Among the films due to be released later this year that could eclipse the anime adaptation are The International, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Tropic Thunder, and Wild Child. That's a lot to take in, it's true, and I think Dragonball is the movie out of all of those that needs a big opening weekend to survive.

Because it's not a terribly mainstream adaptation (not compared to Star Wars or Ben Stiller comedies, anyway), Dragonball would get lost if it loses steam as soon as it's released. So this might be a very wise move.

But Cinematical asks the question - and I think it's a good one - why not just release it later this year? Cinematical also wonders if the audience will stick out the wait, but I believe anime fans will show up in droves no matter what. Of course, that's never done a whole lot for a film's total box office, so that might not be Fox's concern.

And I think Fox is handling this foray into a new arena with kid gloves. The studio hardly has a lot of bankability in the cast - James Marsters, Chow Yun-Fat, Emmy Rossum, Ernie Hudson - so they're probably seeing how much momentum this can generate on its own, and if it does well, Fox knows to compete with more anime in the future.

If it doesn't do well, it's not like that's really going to alter the career path of Emmy Rossum all that much. So if they're not confident it can be a big deal out of the gate, I kind of understand Fox's reticence to put it out in the summer.

Will another nine months help? Hard to say. The conventional wisdom is that it never does (unless you're Titanic). Plus, again, anime does not equal box office dominance. That's not saying it won't or that this isn't the film to do it, but when you move a film once, it makes it that much easier to move it again. That's the real danger.