Henry Selick Lands Long-Term Disney Animation Deal

You've got to be happy for Henry Selick. He's stuck to his guns even when there were some awfully lean years for the type of material he makes, and last year, Coraline was one of the surprises of the first half of the year, later getting an Oscar nomination in the animated category.

Empire writes that Selick is finally getting the kind of recognition he's long deserved, and he has signed a long-term deal to make his movies his way at, of all places, Disney. It's interesting to note that Selick used to work at Disney about 30 years ago. He also directed his first film at Disney, the Tim Burton-produced Nightmare Before Christmas. But as computer animation became the big thing, Selick's stop-motion magic became a painstaking hassle for Disney. "I'll quote [former Disney boss] Dick Cook right after James And The Giant Peach was finished. He said, 'We don't believe this is a viable medium anymore, and we're not going to do it'," Selick remembers.

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'Up' Takes Best Feature, Director at Annie Awards

Up took top honors at the Annie Awards this weekend, although it did not win the most trophies. I don't think that will hurt its chances to win the animated Oscar.

Coraline and The Princess and the Frog both had three Annie wins to Up's two, while Fantastic Mr. Fox, in something of an upset, took the screenplay honors over Pixar's magical balloon expedition. The Annies pay tribute to the best in animation in film, TV programs and commercials, and home video, spreading the wealth among animators, directors, writers, and voice talent, so it's a longer awards show than you might imagine. Below is the list of winners, as reported by Variety.

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AFI's Top Ten (American) Films of the Year

This deserves some explanation, especially after last year, when Slumdog Millionaire was ineligible. The American Film Institute only concerns itself with American movies. To me, that's pretty silly: "We have the most advantages of any nation in the world when it comes to making films, so let's reward our hulking industry and disregard any movie from any other country, no matter how difficult it is to make films there or whatever social concerns it raises."

So, yeah, last year, there was no Slumdog, because it was principally British, in terms of funding and authorship. And if you look at the big AFI Top 100 lists, they're only American productions, as well. In essence, the AFI acknowledges geography more than it does filmmaking. At least that's my opinion. This year's list of films doesn't suffer as much as previous years do if you're interested in a well-rounded list of the "best" movies from around the world, because the perception is the number of groundbreaking, well-publicized international films is not as strong as nearly every other year this decade. There are still candidates, of course, but not as many top-of-mind foreign films as 2007 or 2008. There are lots of familiar names and plenty of surprises and notable omissions, which will be plain to see.

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Box Office - 'Into You' Wins, 'Taken' Holds Strong

Although He's Just Not That Into You claimed the top spot at the box office this weekend, I think the real story is Taken. Last week's number one film only dropped one position this weekend - despite four new movies in theaters - and kept a remarkable 82% of its audience from the previous stanza. It's typical for a film to lose 40 or 50% of its audience between the first and second weekends, so this tells us the word got out about the Liam Neeson revenge movie, which now appears headed for at least $80 million in U.S. ticket sales. Box Office Mojo reports that Into You earned $27 million this weekend, slightly more than was expected, but certainly not a number that anyone thought was outside the realm of possibility. In fact, the other new releases provided more surprises, with the animated Coraline, easily the film with the least mass appeal of the four, landing in third place with $16 million. Dakota Fanning's other film, Push, died a quick death, only managing $10 million. And The Pink Panther 2, a sore subject around these parts, also had an underwhelming debut, winding up in fourth place, barely ahead of the month-old Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The Top Five:
1 - He's Just Not That Into You ($27.5 million)
2 - Taken ($20 million)
3 - Coraline ($16 million)
4 - The Pink Panther 2 ($12 million)
5 - Paul Blart - $11 million

Box Office - $10 Million Friday for 'Not That Into You'

The conventional wisdom said that He's Just Not That Into You would win this weekend, beating back the competition from the more family-oriented Pink Panther 2. No problem so far.

Into You soared out to a $10 million Friday, according to Box Office Mojo, which could mean a $27 - $31 million weekend. Usually, we like to say that the opening weekend means about 33% of the overal business a film will do, so that projects nicely for an $85 - $100 million finish for this romantic comedy. Taken might make $20 million again, which is a little surprising. More than likely, that number will around $16 million or so, but that's still quite impressive for a second weekend, given that Liam Neeson is not exactly Will Smith at the box office.

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