First Photos from Oliver Stone's 'Savages'

Oliver Stone used to make movies with a certain edge to them (i.e. JFK, Platoon, and Natural Born Killers) before he became enthralled with the letter W (i.e. World Trade Center, W, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) and his movies became bland.  I’m not sure how a letter can have that power, but perhaps whatever strange malaise possessed him will be exorcised when this flick come out. Savages was adapted by Shane Salerno (Shaft) and Don Winslow from Winslow's crime drama novel of the same name.

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A Little New Footage in the Latest 'Grown Ups' Trailer

Earlier today, we showed you a trailer for Knight and Day that looked really similar to the stuff we'd already seen. Now it's time for the other June 25th movie, Grown Ups, with Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and the miserable Rob Schneider. This also looks familiar, until the last 30 seconds or so.

Salma Hayek's getting some play in the latest version, playing the wife Adam Sandler could never get in real life if he weren't famous. Which is less believable, Hayek or Beckinsale? Probably Beckinsale, and I hope casting Eva Mendes as Will Ferrell's wife in The Other Guys is a good-natured dig at this sort of thing. So if you've seen these trailers before, I'm sorry only 30 seconds of it is new in any way, but the last snippet is probably going to get a few people to buy tickets. You know, because jokes about urine and feces never, ever get old.

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Johnny Depp as Pancho Villa?

In some circles the name of this new Johnny Depp project is getting trashed, but I kind of like it: Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman with Six Fingers. Variety indicates that Depp is in serious talks to star in the film, written and directed by Emir Kusturica, and he'll play the part en Espanol.

I think the title will probably be reduced to just Seven Friends of Pancho Villa because it has apparently secured the attention of The Sexiest Man Alive, who is also a major movie star. There's an opportunity to sell Depp as the revolutionary Mexican leader (and by sell, I mean tickets), so a cutesy title probably won't be allowed to stand in the way of that.

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Trailer - Sandler and Company in 'Grown Ups'

Grown Ups is the movie that Adam Sandler made so that all his good friends can buy an extra house. I guess Chris Rock and Kevin James probably don't need the help, but Rob Schneider has gone nowhere fast (or maybe not so fast), and David Spade's one trick seems to have run its course, too, unless you're a really big fan of tacky DirecTV commercials.

About a year ago, you'd think this would be a can't-miss prospect, just because of Sandler's track record and the small interest generated by re-teaming all these Saturday Night Live alumni, but he's returning about $50 million less per movie than he did with The Longest Yard back in 2005. And that's just the "Sandler movies," for which this one clearly qualifies. So can he turn it around and score a massive hit, or are the slowly eroding returns a sign of something? We'll find out next summer, but it only has about five days to itself at the end of June and then a tidal wave of new releases hits. So it better open big.

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Another So-So 'Vampire's Assistant' Poster

I loved the first look we got at the film that was then called Cirque du Freak months and months ago. There were shots of John C. Reilly and a bearded Salma Hayek, and it all looked very strange. When it resurfaced earlier this month, repositioned as Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, I hated the name and the first poster. The name made sense, presupposing a trilogy. The poster, which was just an empty hand with the title floating above it wasn't so great.

I thought, if they're pushing this thing for an October release, they need to do better than that, even if the books by Darren Shan have sold tons of copies. Eragon sold a lot of copies, and look what happened there. A trailer arrived a few days later, and it was really groovy. So I guess what I'm saying is, more trailers, fewer posters. The latest is an international one-sheet I saw at IMP Awards, and it's not a disaster, but I'm so readily reminded of the stuff from the most recent Harry Potter movie, and I was no fan of the marketing for that film. Again, I say: If this movie's coming out in less than two months, the gang over at Universal better pick up the slack on these marketing materials pronto. It's not really a mystery: Bad marketing hurts, good marketing helps.

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