Wachowski Projects Update: 'Hood' Coming Next

Since 2008's generally disappointing Speed Racer, the Wachowskis—Andy and Lana—have had some time to consider what they'll do next. Finally it sounds like they've settled on their next project, called Hood, from a script that they've written. It's "a modern, urban take on the Robin Hood myth," according to THR.

This picture is almost as busy as the Wachowskis themselves.

With the screenplay completed, the siblings are now looking for actors, and the "insider" rumor is that Will Smith is their first choice to star. Everything else about the project has thus far been kept in strict secret, which is par for the course for the Wachowskis.

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Box Office - 'Sex' Wins Friday, 'Persia' Hardly Princely

Here's where Sex and the City 2 slows down. Some will report that the $27.3 million it's accumulated in two days is a sign of something powerful, but there are two reasons why that's not really the case.

First, when you look at this film's predecessor, it made $26 million on its opening day, which was a Friday, and though you could argue that this Thursday and Friday kind of served the same purpose, all those extra opportunities on a pre-holiday Friday should have amounted to more than $13.1 million. Second, since no other day from the first Sex and the City came close to $20 million and this one can't possibly have the same word of mouth because it's so terrible, the $27 million is its big shot. It may do a little better on Saturday (although the first one certainly didn't) but then it will come back to earth pretty quickly. The news is still better for Sex than it is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the third straight bad start for a potential blockbuster. The $200 million video game movie only brought in $10 million, and I had a feeling it would start out much stronger and probably be more competitive. Since we're looking at a four-day weekend, the numbers will appear better than they really are, but its opening day is far worse than Robin Hood, which is a huge disappointment in the US.

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Box Office - 'Shrek' Loses Touch, Makes $71 Million

No doubt, $71 million is a lot of money, but when you're a movie that cost $165 million and your three predecessors made over $300 million each, that $71 million looks kind of small. So it's an uphill battle for Shrek Forever After from this point forward: Can it make three bills, or does it struggle to even make $200 million?

I always like to see what the second weekend does whenever a movie is either far beyond expectations or far below them. In this instance, Shrek doesn't really have much direct competition for three weeks, until The Karate Kid arrives, so even though this was a much weaker start than a lot of people expected, what's going to drain its business in the next few weeks? Marmaduke, sure, but if Shrek stumbled, I have a hard time buying that Marmaduke is going to be the dagger. DreamWorks can't be thrilled, though, because Shrek 3 is the all-time opening weekend champ for a cartoon, and Shrek 4, just three years later, has the widest opening ever for an animated film and all those 3-D screens. It should have gravy trained $100 million or close to it. But to come up almost 40% off that Shrek 3 figure is not what they had in mind.

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Box Office - 'Shrek' Opens With a Dull Roar

Doesn't really look like a happily ever after scenario for DreamWorks this weekend: Shrek Forever After won the Friday box office but in no way was up to the challenge set forth by its predecessors. While Shrek the Third made a whopping $38 million on its opening day, Forever After only took in $20.7 million, with over half of its 4,350 screens being 3-D. Yeah, that's about half, and probably less than that if you're only looking at tickets sold.

While the opening weekend for Iron Man 2 wasn't a disappointment, the next two weeks have followed pretty much the same course that the first Iron Man saw two years ago, when Speed Racer and Prince Caspian failed to do big business. Shrek should still make around $70 million, thanks to a family-friendly Saturday, but that's way below even the most conservative estimates, which put its debut in the mid-80s. What's the end of the road going to be for Shrek this time around? I can't believe that the most lucrative animated series ever looks so mild right now, but anything more than $200 - $225 million seems like a reach. This is coming with the widest PG opening ever, by the way, and with the 3-D and IMAX screens, so it's actually even worse than it looks.

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Fearless Forecast: 'Shrek' Could Use More Green

We probably won't have our second of several hundred-million-dollar openings for the summer thanks to Shrek Forever After. The reviews aren't all that good (I liked it more than most, I gather), but the ticket prices are. I've read that the 3-D IMAX tickets in New York are 20 bucks a pop.

Still, most of the business won't come from that revenue stream, of course, but the 3-D tickets are already substantially higher than prices for standard format houses. And since How to Train Your Dragon took in somewhere in the vicinity of 65% of its opening weekend money from 3-D, expect Shrek, even if the percentage is the same, to add 30% of revenue off lots more tickets sold. The opening weekend for Shrek the Third three years ago was a mammoth $121 million; at the time, that was the third-best ever, and is still the highest for an animated film. But I expect fewer people show up this time so the added 3-D dollars will bolster the opening weekend figure significantly. It'll win with no problem, but it shouldn't be anywhere near as high as Shrek the Third.

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