Category: film

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The Avengers smashes at box office

The cumulation of Marvel’s multi-film strategy is proving to be the most successful yet: The Avengers‘ $200.3M opening weekend has soared it past Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for the biggest opening weekend of all time. (Potter still holds the record for biggest opening day.)

Word-of-mouth is playing a big part – the film only dropped 13% from Friday to Saturday, and it’s getting a rare A+ rating from CinemaScore participants. And:

“It’s not playing like just a superhero film,” says Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive vice president of distribution. “It’s playing like a huge, accessible-to-everyone, all-quadrant picture.” To prove Hollis’ point, Disney is reporting that the PG-13 superhero flick was split 50-50 between moviegoers under the age of 25 and those over 25. And while men outnumbered women, it wasn’t to an extreme extent; men made up 60 percent of the film’s audience.

Everyone loves a superhero movie! Or maybe just Joss Whedon, who will certainly have his pick of offers now.

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An Avenger’s oopsie: Women totally don’t get superhero movies, right?

Yesterday afternoon, Moviefone.com (a division of AOL) posted an article by Jessie Heyman initially entitled “Girl’s Guide To The Avengers: What You Need To Know If You Know Nothing.” After the internet community got a hold of the article (including yours truly) and the outrage began to spawn on Twitter and other sites, the title was amended to “One Girl’s Guide…” because, according to the Editor’s note that was inserted, the intent was not to make female superhero fans feel marginalized and the satirical nature of the piece didn’t come through. Female superhero fans feeling marginalized? Satire? Really? Is that what you’re going to go with?

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I Am Legend director offered Catching Fire

Lionsgate has selected Francis Lawrence to helm The Hunger Games sequel, says the The Hollywood Reporter. It’s not a sure thing quite yet – just an offer – but this is quick work for the studio, which failed to come to an agreement with Gary Ross earlier in the month.

Lawrence, no relation to star Jennifer Lawrence, is no stranger to adaptions: He directed Water for Elephants (2011,) I Am Legend (2007,) and the much-lamented Constantine (2005.) More in his favor for the world of Hunger Games may be his work the short-lived NBC drama Kings, aka the TV show that Ian McShane did not swear in.

He also directed Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance video. How strangely appropriate…

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Unsung heroes of the Rebellion: Best #StarWars and #SWEU tweets for the past week

The more I do these posts, the more it seems almost like a recap of the week in question… Holidays, Dancing Han angst, James Cameron snarking and more beneath the cut!

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Director Gary Ross out of Hunger Games sequel

Word emerged today that Gary Ross won’t be returning to direct Catching Fire, the adaption of the second book. UPDATE: Deadline Hollywood says, not so fast. UPDATE: Yup, he’s out.

The internet is eager to speculate on who should fill his shoes, and one name that’s been popping up a lot in my feeds is Kathryn Bigelow, who won the directing Oscar a few years back for The Hurt Locker. She’s no stranger to action (Point Break) or sci-fi (Strange Days) so she might be good fit. The Washington Post’s Jen Chaney has a few other suggestions, including Debra Granik, who directed Jennifer Lawrence in the film that nabbed her an Oscar nomination, Winter’s Bone.

In happier news, one potential conflict to the film has been cleared up. The sequel to X-Men: First Class will begin filming in January, freeing up Lawrence to shoot Catching Fire in the fall as scheduled – assuming a director is on board by then!

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Is Willow cartoon just a fan’s dream? Probably.

A few days ago I threw a link to some Willow cartoon art in an an EUbits. Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo expressed some skepticism, and came back with the above tweet today. My working theory is that the ‘animation’ art was fan art, or – if io9’s theory of the art’s Nelvana origin is true – some speculative art from an Ewoks or Droids animator that never made it any further than that?

“Although to be fair, I didn’t ask EVERYONE,” Pablo told me later. “Just those who would know.”

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Hunger Games has the third biggest debut of all time

The Hunger Games is more than living up to box office speculation: With $155 million, now the third-highest domestic debt of all time, and the first that’s not a sequel. (It came in behind only The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.)

The film is, not surprisingly, drawing in more men than Twilight, with women compromising 61% of the opening weekend crowd. (The audience of the last Twilight film was 80% female.) It’s also doing well across the country – a Utah theater had the weekend’s highest gross.

Have you seen it yet? What did you think? Vote in our poll beneath the cut!

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The Hunger Games movie is out today!

The adapation that it seems like everyone has been waiting for is finally in theaters today. It’s been tracking to make obscene amounts of money at the box office, and the reviews are quite positive. Will this finally be the female-lead franchise that doesn’t depend on romance for all its thrills? Here’s hoping.

Some Jaders saw it last night and here’s what they had to say:

NOW!

Janine went in costume as Katniss – check out the great Hunger Games photo-shoot she did with her family!

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Star Wars Identities exhibition unveils some spiffy new images

With the Star Wars Identities museum exhibition opening in Montreal in April, the exhibition’s ad agency, Bleublancrouge released some additional promotional images by Louis Hébert for the show: a series of six character mosaic portraits highlighting the factors that build up identity. Zoom in or check out the full set of images on geek-art.net: Darth Vader, Yoda, C-3PO, Queen Amidala, Boba Fett and a stormtrooper.

Put on by X3 Productions, Star Wars Identities opens at the Montreal Science Centre on April 19 and continues through September 16, then moves onto Edmonton’s Telus World of Science in October. The exhibition, which will showcase a large archive of original props and costumes while focusing on the science of identity, will then move onto Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim over the course of 6 years.