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The Big Picture Interview with Emma Stone

2008-08-21T22:31:35Z

She grew up just down the road from The Big Picture here in Phoenix, and now Emma Stone has two movies in theaters this weekend, with The House Bunny and The Rocker with Rainn Wilson. She's just 19, but Stone has already carved out a little niche for herself with her new flicks and her turn last summer in Superbad. Stone recently returned home for a couple of days, where we had a chance to catch up with her and talk shop.

Is Amelia in The Rocker a lot like Emma?

No, and that's what I liked about it. She felt different than me. She's not a smiler and she looks at the dark side of things more often than the light side of things. I'm a little more silver lining in my life. That's what drew me to her, especially in a comedy, finding a character like that that is so sardonic and so completely stiff-faced, and the challenge of not smiling and not cracking jokes.

Speaking of cracking jokes, Jason Sudeikis has some of the most memorable dialogue in The Rocker. Did he just come in and improv all of that or was his character of the douchebag record executive already written? And did everybody else get to improv, too?

The majority of Jason's stuff was improv. He definitely went...the distance with his improv. There were hysterical things that were not in the movie.

But I've been lucky to have more free reign in movies, like House Bunny and Superbad. This one we knocked out pretty quick, so there were two lines I wrote in this movie, but that was the extent of my free reign.

You learned bass for the movie and you guys rehearsed as a band, right?

Yeah, we did, to get that feel. We had to have that camaraderie as a band and "get each other" enough, so for about two weeks before we started shooting, we rehearsed everyday in a big empty warehouse in Toronto.

'Quantum of Solace' Changes Release Date to November 14th

2008-08-21T21:46:56Z

Ugh. Enough already.

With Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince bolting from its November 21st opening date for potentially greener pastures next summer, the entire fall landscape has been altered. First there was the very wise decision to move the young adult-friendly Twilight to Potter's old opening date - so now instead of a mid-December opening, it's on the 21st of November - and now Quantum of Solace has moved back a week, too.

Columbia and MGM announced today that the next 007 movie will open on November 14th instead of November 7th. Acknowledging that the move was made in part because of the decision by Warner Bros. to move Potter to 2009, Columbia distribution ace Jeff Blake says that moving the film gives Bond a better chance to make more money.

"We believe November 14^th is a great date that allows us to play straight through Thanksgiving and right into Christmas," said Blake. The Bond films have a long history of entertaining audiences in this holiday corridor going back to Goldeneye in 1995. The studio enjoyed tremendous success opening Casino Royale in North America on November 17, 2006, and we believe this decision will give the public a wider opportunity to see the film over the holiday.”

Favreau Confirms He's Working on 'Iron Man 2,' But Who's the Bad Guy?

2008-08-21T20:19:35Z

The Los Angeles Times caught up with Jon Favreau recently, ostensibly to talk about his new political charge, but the subject naturally turned to Iron Man.

On the political front, the director and Arnold Schwarzenegger are spearheading a move to create tax breaks for film and TV production to keep more of that money in California. According to the article, there are 40% fewer days of production in Los Angeles since 1997, and a lot of people point to tax incentives in New Mexico, Arizona, and even New York for some of the exodus.

Regarding Iron Man, Geoff Boucher got Favreau to provide a brief update. "We're working on [Iron Man 2] now," said Favreau, "which hasn't been officially announced. It will be released in 2010."

Oh, we know when it will be released, all right. I would imagine that a lot of this work was already taken care of ahead of time. Marvel clearly had a plan for Iron Man all along, and it wasn't a one-and-done scenario. Hopefully in round two, we can explore some more of Tony Stark's dark passage into alcoholism - it's really one of the great storylines for any comic book character - which should allow for an even better performance by Robert Downey Jr.

Deciding on the villain is the major thing at this point, and you've got to think Marvel wants to use Mandarin or Crimson Dynamo, right? I think Mandarin is the most often seen villain in the comic, and about 18 months ago, there were reports that Favreau wanted to use him for the first movie.

Each villain offers a stereotypically good foundation: Mandarin is obviously Chinese, so that could be pretty wicked in a Marvel movie, and Crimson Dynamo is Russian, and movies just wouldn't be movies without the occasional Russian bad guy.

I'll make the same plea I always do for comic book movies: One villain per hero per film, please. It's much easier on everyone that way.

Even More Ridiculously Good Imagery from 'Australia'

2008-08-21T17:03:48Z

It was kind of a hush-hush thing, but I was privileged to see a two-and-a-half-minute Australia featurette last night. It was kind of an alternate trailer, really, but Fox hasn't released it publicly yet. Hopefully, we'll get that for you pretty soon. I also saw close to 150 production photos for Baz Luhrmann's upcoming epic, and it just looks more and more magnificent with each new picture. Even without the proper context, the photos are staggering, colorful, and full of life. Couple their impact with the short compilation I saw, and its position as a prohibitive Oscar hopeful is pretty much secured, at least in my eyes.

There was one other fascinating nugget I learned last night: Every stitch of Australia has to earn Luhrmann's approval. That means every shot in every trailer, every publicity photo, and every poster gets his seal of approval before it's released to the public. Simply put: This movie is all about Baz Luhrmann's vision, and since he's one of the most visionary directors in the world at the moment, that's probably a good thing.

I wish I could share with you everything I saw last night, but I do have a few a trio of new pictures as well as mammoth high quality versions of the first three teaser posters (they're much better than the versions we had a few days ago).

(Download the enormo-sized version of this poster)

We'll definitely keep you posted on this one between now and November 14th. Until the next update, enjoy the pics.

Fearless Forecast - A 'Death Race' For the Top Spot

2008-08-21T16:37:42Z

This is, for all practical purposes, the last summer movie weekend. I know there's Babylon A.D. and Disaster Movie on the horizon for Labor Day weekend, but this is the last weekend where any significant money will be made. And even at that, "significant" is a very relative term.

You might think that Death Race would cruise to victory this weekend, but I'm not entirely sure. Jason Statham has only had a number one movie (though never a $20 million debut) and because this isn't opening in anywhere near 3,000 theaters, it would have a lot of work to do to take the top spot. Ditto the new comedy The House Bunny.

So if it's not a new movie at number one, I guess that means Tropic Thunder will win again, right? It could, but even under optimum conditions, it wouldn't be by a huge margin. It's still the best option in theaters, with the biggest names and the most buzz. However, the movie is still not poised to be the runaway hit I thought it would be. The only thing is, I'm troubled by the drop-off from an already less-than-stellar opening weekend. If the decline is just a little more than it should be, Death Race could slip in at number one without having a huge breakout weekend.

And what about The Dark Knight? What should even more new movies do to its chances to break $500 million? Nothing, really. Because they aren't must-see summer movies, that makes the Batman sequel an even better prospect for repeat business than it might normally be. By Monday, the second-biggest movie in history will be a week away from half a billion. The interest for me is how long Warner Bros. keeps it alive. It's currently in 3,600 theaters or so, but you can expect that number to be cut dramatically very soon. I still like the $535 million we proposed a month ago, with the possibility of more if the studio boosts the film again at Halloween.

The Top Five:

1 - Death Race ($15.5 million)

2 - Tropic Thunder ($15 million)

3 - The Dark Knight ($11 million)

4 - The House Bunny ($8.5 million)

5 - The Rocker ($6.5 million)

Movie Trailer - Ron Howard's 'Frost/Nixon'

2008-08-21T08:03:04Z

Peter Morgan's screenplay for The Queen is unquestionably good. That it shared a calendar with Morgan's adaptation of The Last King of Scotland just proves how good a writer he is and how well, in particular, he writes about power and the people who wield it.

In 1974, the most powerful person in the world was Richard Nixon, though his grip on that power was definitely slipping; by August of that year, Nixon resigned the presidency. Some three years later, Nixon appeared in a landmark television interview series with British host David Frost. Morgan's stageplay of those interviews and the events leading up to them have been turned into Frost/Nixon, a new film directed by Ron Howard, with Frank Langella starring as Nixon and Michael Sheen, brilliant in The Queen as Tony Blair, as Frost.

We've got a new trailer, in English with German subtitles, that shows a tremendous amount of promise.

Frost/Nixon opens in December, so prepare for the Oscar push for its actors and screenplay.

Jackson, Del Toro Will Write 'The Hobbit'

2008-08-21T00:04:59Z

I can't say this is terribly surprising: Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro have decided to pen the script for the Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit themselves instead of hiring outside writers for the job.

Jackson, of course, directed the record-shattering trilogy and will produce both Hobbit movies. Del Toro is slated to direct the two new film entries into Tolkien lore. The pair will get help from Fran Walsh (Mrs. Jackson) and Philippa Boyens, both of whom worked with Jackson on the LOTR screenplays.

Curiously, Jackson and Del Toro had put out feelers for the better part of a year to find new writers, even though both directors commonly write their own original scripts and adaptations. I can't possibly imagine that they both thought they'd be more comfortable working from someone else's material; in a way, I'm still a little surprised Jackson didn't want to direct The Hobbit himself, not that Del Toro is a huge step down or anything.

With that obstacle out of the way, the filmmakers will start manipulating the script in earnest with an estimated production date of late 2009. The Hobbit is scheduled to roll out in 2011, with the sequel following the next year.

Red Band Trailer - Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz Heat Up 'Elegy'

2008-08-20T21:29:59Z

In general, I don't think Philip Roth novels transfer very well to the screen. Certainly, anyone who sat through Portnoy's Complaint had complaints of his or her own, and most recently, The Human Stain was spun from a Roth book, and that didn't end very well, either.

And while it's a risky proposition to put too much weight into a trailer, Elegy looks like an entirely different situation. It's based on the novel The Dying Animal, and even though Ben Kingsley has kind of been all over the road in the past few years (he's popped up in everything from Sexy Beast and The Wackness to Suspect Zero and The Love Guru), it appears that he's giving the kind of thoughtful, intelligent, weathered performances he can be so good at.

Penelope Cruz also looks up to snuff here, and she's usually not very good when she has to speak English. That's not really a criticism, though, because in the Almodovar movies, she's perfectly fine.

I first became aware of what this movie was when I saw the posters above earlier this summer. But, knowing it was Philip Roth, I was skeptical. Today, with the unveiling of this new Red Band trailer, I'm a little relieved and excited: This looks pretty damn good.

As always, Red Band trailers are the not safe for work variety, and since they're unrated, they are intended for mature audiences.

Elegy has already been released in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. It will open in about 15 cities this Friday, with more to follow in September. Check out the official website for more release date info. And many thanks to Trailer Addict for the Red Band.

Director, Studio Head Reportedly Clash Over 'Wolverine'

2008-08-20T18:15:29Z

That's funny: We were just talking about the dark tone of superhero movies and how it fits today's moviegoing audience better than indestructible saves-the-day types (think Batman vs. Superman), and now there's a rumor that Fox brass and X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood are having some disagreements over the mood of one of next summer's big tickets.

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere is reporting that Hood and Fox CEO Tom Rothman don't share the same instincts when it comes to Wolverine. Case in point: Apparently, a huge set was constructed for the film and it was designed to be "dark, dingy, and somber" to fit the palette Hood was creating. While the director was away from the set, it was repainted with brighter colors and looked a lot more like the vision Rothman is said to have for the movie.

Uh-oh, Spaghetti-Ohs.

Wells acknowledges that the full story is probably not as cut and dry as the report, although that's certainly not the first case of a studio chief imposing his will on a pet project as he sees fit. Who knows what kind of behind-the-scenes conversations Hood and the studio have had. Perhaps the director had already agreed to brighten up the set and upon seeing that it hadn't been done, Rothman made an executive decision.

Having seen the very good teaser trailer and knowing more about Wolverine than I do almost any other comic book character, Hood's vision is more correct. I wonder why, as a studio chief, you'd hire a guy who understands that character and can give you a pretty accurate and artistic interpretation of him if what you really want is a Michael Bay movie.

'Transformers': Revenge of the Fakers

2008-08-20T16:56:40Z

Last week, we were the first to bring you the phony but exceptional Dark Knight Returns poster featuring The Riddler. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that it was fan made, but still, it's quite the poster and quite the rumor starter.

Now we have fakes for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. G4 got its hands on them yesterday. It might be a little tougher to dismiss these, since the movie is less than a year away and we've already seen a Terminator Salvation poster, but the studio confirms these aren't real. Don't love the first one. Do love the second one.

You know, we talk about marketing a lot, and when we're dealing with movies as huge as The Dark Knight and Transformers, marketing is crucial to their success. I'm not as big on viral video as everyone else, because as soon as you categorize your marketing angle as "viral," it's suddenly not viral. But I can't think of a better way to generate the sort of widespread reaction to your movie than to just let these fan-made posters (and trailers, too) do the work for you. If I were the DreamWorks, I wouldn't have said a word about these posters, just as Warner and DC haven't made any comment about The Dark Knight Returns.

And if DreamWorks can't top the second poster in this set, then shouldn't they use it for reals?