Scream 4 Begins Production, Cast Update

Scream 4 began production Monday in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you go to the film's message boards on IMDB, there are a lot of links to various pictures of the set and a few of the actors filming. I'll wait for higher resolution shots or more offical stills before posting anything here. There are pics of Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts and Marielle Jaffe and a lovely, short-haired Neve Campbell. Also, David Arquette is rocking the Dewey-stache once again. No shots yet of Courteney Cox, as I'm very anxious to see her hair. LOL.

Casting update: Lake Bell and Lauren Graham are out. The second really depresses me. Both left due to scheduling conflicts, though Graham reportedly also exited due to script changes. Bell was filming another project that ran over, and Graham no doubt has obligations to her TV show Parenthood. Marley Shelton has been announced as replacing Bell. Great choice, she was wonderful in Grindhouse. Also joining the cast are Anthony Anderson (Scary Movie 4, Law and Order) and Adam Brody (The O.C., Thank You For Smoking). Amusing is the number of actors/extras confirming via Twitter that they are in the film or have shot scenes for it. Oh, how the times have changed.

Eclipse Predix!

Eclipse

Weds: $72m
Thurs: $28m
Fri - $28m
Sat - $26m
Sun - $20m
Mon - $16m

3-day - $74m
5-day - $174m
Predicted Final Gross - $285m

I'm thinking the summer release date will make the film even more frontloaded. Almost a quarter of New Moon's gross came from its opening day, including midnights. I suspect we'll see the same thing here. Expect epic drops after the holiday weekend.

Last Airbender
3-day - $36m
4-day - $46m

That's all I'm doing for this week. :-)

Box-Office Dix: The week before everything gets Eclipsed

A lineup of stars won't be able to top the toys of Toy Story 3, which fell in line exactly as I predicted last week. Jonah Hex proved to be the bomb of the summer so far, but it seems like the type of movie no one will even remember at the end of the season. Can we officially declare Megan Fox's career dead yet? Adam Sandler and his friends spend around $100 million of a big studio's money basically throwing a three month keg party, slap on a title, and it will be released this weekend. I'm really sick of these shit films. Seriously. I don't get how Sandler's movies cost so damn much money when they look so cheap and are jam packed with product placement. Nevertheless, his audience should be out for Grown Ups considering how well the trailer has played. At least Maria Bello hopefully got a decent paycheck. Cruise and Diaz, meanwhile, are tracking poorly and Knight and Day will probably not do anywhere what I expected it to. I look forward to Monday when the blame will probably be placed entirely on Diaz, seeing that is how Hollywood works.

1. Toy Story 3 - $66m / $235m / $400m
2. Grown Ups - $36m / $36m / $100m
3. Knight and Day - $20m / $26m / $68m
4. The Karate Kid - $16.5m / $137m / $190m
5. The A-Team - $7.5m / $65m / $82m
6. Get Him to the Greek - $3.4m / $55.3m / $64m
7. Shrek Forever After - $3.3m / $229.7m / $238m
8. Prince of Persia - $3m / $86.5m / $94m
9. Killers - $2.8m / $45m / $51m
10. Jonah Hex - $2.2m / $10m / $14m

Kidman & Owen go to HBO, Scream 4 cast expands

Some exciting casting news:

+Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen will pair up for HBO's Hemingway & Gelhorn, which focuses on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gelhorn. The film, produced by James Gandolfini and directed by Philip Kaufman, is scheduled to begin production early next year. That's enough time for Kidman to drop out of the project, be announced for seven more movies she won't do, then do a random crappy remake. She was also announced to be joining Nicolas Cage in a Joel Schumacher film called Trespass. Kidman recently fired her longtime agent and switched over to the same one Angelina Jolie has. I love both Nicole and Clive Owen very much, so I'm hoping for the best for the first mentioned project, and praying the Cage-Schumacher one doesn't make it to production with my Nicole still on board.

+Lauren Graham is rumored to be boarding the cast of Scream 4. If confirmed, she'll be playing Emma Roberts' character's mother, or Sidney Prescott's aunt. Lorelai Gilmore in a Scream movie is enough to make me do a cartwheel. Or at least attempt to do one before knocking a bunch of shit over and throwing out my back. Graham joins previously announced cast member David Arquette, Lake Bell, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Rory Culkin, Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts and Nico Tortorella.

Box Office Predictions: 'Toy' Glory, 'Jonah' Hexed

The Karate Kid exploded last weekend cueing the media to proclaim that Jaden Smith is the next big thing. The movie's performance had more to do with the name brand than it did with the heir to the Smith box office dynasty. Or Jackie Chan. Nevertheless, it is nice a decently reviewed film became a hit and will no doubt trigger a remake of The Next Karate Kid that will star Abigail Broslin and Gong Li. A-Team performed slightly less than expected and will be forgotten by the end of the summer. I've stated since the beginning of the year that Toy Story 3 will be the highest grossing movie of the year, and it seems now - after the disappointing performance of Iron Man 2 - everyone else is joining my parade. As for Jonah Hex, this always felt like the bomb of the summer and that looks like it will come to fruition, as well. Score again, Megan Fox.

1. Toy Story 3 - $110m / $110m / $420m
2. The Karate Kid - $34m / $112m / $200m
3. The A-Team - $12.5m / $49m / $75m
4. Jonah Hex - $8m / $8m / $20m
5. Shrek Forever After - $7.5m / $225m / $245m
6. Get Him to the Greek - $6m / $48m / $62m
7. Killers - $4m / $38m / $47m
8. Marmaduke - $3.5m / $28.5m / $36m
9. Prince of Persia - $3m / $78.5m / $86m
10. Sex and the City 2 - $2.7m / $90.5m / $96m

Summer Box Office - Another Week of Disappointment??

The second week of June should pick up a bit with the arrival of the unnecessary remake of The Karate Kid and the unnecessary remake of The A-Team. Or do both of these seem too generic and audiences will continue their avoidance of the multiplex? Either way, my predicted biggest movie of the summer arrives next week: Toy Story 3. The following week is Knight and Day, which each passing day seems like it could do bigger and bigger. After that, something by M. Night Shyamalan and something with vampire-werewolf-human love triangles. So things look good in the coming weeks.

1. The A-Team - $32m / $32m / $95m
2. The Karate Kid - $30m / $30m / $115m
3. Shrek Forever After - $15m / $209m / $244m
4. Get Him to the Greek - $9.5m / $36m / $57m
5. Killers - $8m / $30m / $46m
6. Prince of Persia - $7m / $73m / $90m
7. Marmaduke - $7m / $23m / $38m
8. Sex and the City 2 - $6.5m / $86m / $100m
9. Iron Man 2 - $4m / $298.5m / $310m
10. Splice - $3m / $13.5m / $19.5m

Summer Box Office - Let's Splice It Up

Ah, bad puns. How I love thee!

Sex and the City 2 and Prince of Persia both had soft openings this past weekend. Despite four movies opening this weekend, don't expect the box office to ignite. To be fair, any one of the four movies could open above $20m except maybe Splice. Opening with the best of the reviews, Splice might be too weird to break out. Even if it has a high opening, I don't see long legs because even the film's strong reviews mentions just how weird the actual film is. I'm expecting a similar, albeit slightly smaller run to last summer's Dark Castle horror entry, Orphan. Get Him to the Greek will probably perform just less than Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The other two films, Killers and Marmaduke, both look like absolute shit. So I'm sure they'll do the best. Expect Shrek 4 to threepeat at #1.

3-day / Total After Weekend / Projected Final
1. Shrek Forever After - $24m / $182m / $235m
2. Killers - $17m / $17m / $45m
3. Marmaduke - $16m / $16m / $56m
4. Get Him to the Greek - $15m / $15m / $52m
5. Prince of Persia - $14m / $60.5m / $92m
6. Sex and the City 2 - $12.5m / $73.5m / $100m
7. Splice - $11m / $11m / $29m
8. Iron Man 2 - $8m / $291.5m / $314m
9. Robin Hood - $5.5m / $94.5m / $108m
10. Letters to Juliet - $3.2m / $43.5m / $50m