Drive-by movie news: Wolverine, Star Trek, Kyle Newman and more

Wolverine rules the box office. Naked Hugh Jackman and friends brought in a whooping $160M worldwide this weekend. Also interesting? 47% of the U.S. audience was female. (Hey, look: It had issues, but it was better than X3. Plus, naked Jackman.) Looks like there may be a sequel in the offing after all.

Next week’s shiny. Wolvie faces his first real competition with the release of the new Star Trek on Friday. Anticipation is high, and the reviews are almost ridiculously positive – 100% on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment. And if you must know, Geoff Boucher has the skinny on the film’s homage to ESB.

And on that note… Stephen King’s Dark Tower series may be next for J.J. Abrams.

Let’s not forget Fanboys. With the DVD out in a few weeks, Lightsabre talks to director Kyle Newman.

Only because I am obliged to post it. Pretty much nothing going on with Indy 5.

Your final comic book tidbit. The first picture from Iron Man 2.

SDCC ’08: Wolverine, Watchmen, BSG

TEASER: Wolverine

This year’s trend: Magicians

You know how Hollywood is; they love to repeat themselves. Now, (almost) everyone loves a sequel, but the worst trend is when two studios have competing versions of almost the same exact kind of movie. This year it’s magic, or rather, Victorian era stage magic that may be the real thing! Gasp! Yawn!

Your choices: Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, staring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson or The Illusionist with Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti and my ever-evil Hollywood boyfriend Rufus Sewell.

To their credit, the trailers do make the films look as different as, say, Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love turned out to be. We can hope.

The Bond Rejects

hughjackman.jpgSo no doubt you’ve learned now that Daniel Craig is going to play James Bond, right? You can’t go anywhere without seeing the horrible headlines. (Seriously, folks: Bond, James Bond? NO SHIT.)

Anyway, the rumor mill has gotten hold of a leaked “in-house memo” that gives reasons for not casting actors most people have actually heard of. Witness:

Hugh Jackman, it read, was “too fey”, Colin Farrell “too sleazy”, Eric Bana “not handsome enough” – and Ewan McGregor “too short” at 5ft10.

That’s just cold. Okay, we’ll give them Colin Farrell, ’cause the man personifies sleaze, and yeah, the Ewan excuse is lame, but is there any woman here who thinks of Hugh Jackman as “fey?” If Jackman is what Hollywood considers a sissy, we’re all doomed.