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Tag Archives: sequel
“Twilight: Breaking Dawn” Has Fifth Best Box Office Weekend Ever
It might have received mixed reviews, and may not be breaking box office records, exactly, but Twilight: Breaking Dawn, the penultimate chapter in the incredibly popular franchise, has posted this year’s second highest weekend total in the box office, and the fifth highest of all time.
The movie took an estimated nearly $140m from more than 4,000 locations. In comparison, the next best grossing challenging, Happy Feet 2, took just over $22m.
It seems hard to believe that it was in this week three years ago that Twilight caught many people off their guard with a box office debut which took nearly $70m. Within two months, the movie had netted well over $190m in US ticket sales.
And if you were not a teenaged girl, or perhaps didn’t pay attention to the news coming out of 2008’s Comic Con, it was easy to feel that this story of teen-vamp-love had come out of nowhere to transform the pop culture universe.
There’s still time to catch the first part of this two-part romantic fantasy, directed by Bill Condon and based on Stephenie Meyer’s novel, Breaking Dawn. Together, the two parts form the fourth and final installments of the series, with Part 2 due for release this time next year.
Wyck Godfrey and Karen Rosenfelt executive produced, and the screenplay was written by Meyer alongside Melissa Rosenberg, who penned the first three movies. All three main cast members, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, reprise their roles for this picture.
So catch it while you still can – and be bewitched!
Photo © David Wood – Fotolia.com
Tagged adaptation, book, breaking dawn, Robert Pattinson, sequel, series, Twightlight, vampires
Happy Feet 2
If you loved Happy Feet, the 2006 US-Australian computer-animated family movie about a tap-dancing penguin and his friends, you’ll be first in the line to watch sequel Happy Feet 2 dance into theaters in 3D from November 18.
In it, Mumble the penguin has a problem: His son Erik, a reluctant dancer, encounters The Mighty Svena penguin who can fly! Things get worse for Mumble when the world is shaken by powerful forces, causing him to bring together the penguin nations and those which are friendly to them put things straight.
This follow-up picture stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Matt Damon, Robin Williams, and Pink, among others. It is produced by Animal Logic Films in Santa Monica,California, and Dr. D studios in Sydney,Australia. It will be released in IMAX and digital 3D.
Elijah Wood and Robin Williams are reprising their roles for the project, with Wood playing Mumble and Williams providing the voice for Lovelace and Ramón. Elizabeth Daily, who played young Mumble in the previous film, will play Mumble’s dance-fearing son Erik and Sofía Vergara will also appear in as a new character.As with the first film, there is to be a live action scene in the movie, and Mitchell Hicks has been signed as the movie’s choreographer. Once again, George Miler is in the director’s chair.
A promotional picture of all the penguins has been released at CineMovie.tv, and a string of related merchandise, including video games, books, calendars, and puzzles, will also be available.
Photo © Alexey Bannykh – Fotolia.com
Tagged animation, Elijah Wood, Happy Feet 2, Matt Damon, Robin Williams, sequel
“Transformers” Sequels 4 And 5 To Shoot Back To Back?
There are (highly credible) reports doing the rounds that the Transformers 4 and 5 pictures could be shot back to back, although not much more than that is known at this stage.
A “source close to the planning process” has leaked that the two fresh movies could be in the pipeline after Hasbro boss Brian Goldner disclosed that his firm is “actively discussing” the project with Paramount, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay.
There are also suggestions that 44-year-old English actor Jason Statham may be cast in a leading role, although no official offer has yet been made.
Meanwhile, actor Shia LaBeouf, who previously starred in the series as teenager Sam Witwicky, caught up in the war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, seems to be free from Transformers commitments, and will instead become a 20-foot man in a movie with the working title A Giant, billed as a modern day fairy tale for adults and telling the tale of the relationship between a rebellious young woman and the mysterious young man who is her next-door neighbor.
While Spielberg produced the three previous Transformers pictures, Michael Bay was the trilogy’s director. However, there is clearly some confusion and the lines of communication may not be quite clear, as Bay is now apparently denying having spoken to Paramount about future Transformers movies.
Released this summer as the third movie in the franchise, Dark of the Moon grossed $1.19bn globally, to become the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, the second highest grossing film of this year and the highest grossing film in the Transformers series.
Photo © Anatoliy Meshkov – Fotolia.com
Tagged action, Michael Bay, sequel, series, transformers
Taken 2: Plot Revelations And US Release Date
Taken, the 2008 action thriller and Liam Neeson vehicle, was so great that it was always destined to have a sequel. Now the Schindler’s List star is reprising his role as the highly-trained and skilled retired CIA black ops agent Bryan Mills.
Don’t get too excited just yet though, you’ll have to wait around a year before this one hits theaters. Makers Fox have announced that that will be on October 5, 2012.
But the director has been confirmed as Oliver Megaton, who was behind the camera for The Transporter 3 and Colombiana, while Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen are penning the script, just as they did first time round.
And a synopsis has been released for the picture, just to whet our appetites and make us want it even more!
Last time, Mills stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from Albanian kidnappers. Now, the tables are turned. One of the hostage takers’ fathers swears revenge, and snatches Bryan and his wife on a family holiday to Turkey (did these guys not see the first picture?). It becomes Kim’s turn to help her parents to escape.
Neeson’s character will need to use the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and deal with the kidnappers one by one.
There is one other sad note for true fans, however. Besson has also announced that this picture is going to be the last in the series. So if you’re expecting a Die Hard-style franchise, prepare to be disappointed.
Photo © Phase4Photography – Fotolia.com
Tagged Liam Neeson, Luc Besson, sequel, Taken, Taken 2
The Grudge: The Next Chapter?
It’s the franchise that refuses to die or go away …Horror fans will rejoice in the news that a new picture in the Grudge franchise is in the pipeline. Ghost House Pictures have announced that, together with Mandate, it is remaking the original The Grudge film, a movie which was itself a remake of the Japanese spine tingler Ju-On. This was originally released in 2000 as two low-budget, straight-to-video Japanese movies.
Their success urged director Takashi Shimizu to make a version for theaters based on the videos, called Ju-on: The Grudge. That in itself led to a sequel, Ju-On: The Grudge 2, and then The Grudge, the US remake, containing elements of scenes from all the Ju-On pictures. (Confused? You should be!)
Although The Grudge (2004) and The Grudge 2 (2006) were both released in theaters, the third picture in the franchise went straight to video, which may have led some to believe that the series was not long for this world, at least as far as mainstream movies were concerned.
It’s not yet known whether The Grudge 4 will receive a full launch in theaters.
In the first picture, care worker Sarah Michelle Gellar was haunted by a string of ghostly babies. That scenario will probably supply the bones of the plot this time around.
The Grudge isn’t the only horror franchise in which studios have placed their faith. Final Destination 5 is currently on release, while the green light has recently been awarded to Scary Movie 5.
The latest offering will mean a total of eight films in the franchise. Another plan to produce Grudge 4 was ditched in 2009.
Photo © Igor Korionov – Fotolia.com
Tagged Grudge 4, horror, horror movies, scary, scary movies, sequel, the grudge
Harry Potter Bows Out With Box Office Smash And Rapturous Reception
After nearly 10 years of magical adventures, the boy wizard is finally bowing out with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. But Harry is clearly determined to go out with a bang!
The movie grossed $32m in advance ticket sales across North Americaahead of its July 15 opening, breaking records even before its first pubic screening. And its midnight opening was the biggest of all time, taking an incredible $43.5m. This was getting on for double Part 1’s $24m revenue and smashed The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’s $30m record. InIMAX alone it also broke a record, garnering $2m.
The midnightscreening played in 4,375 USmovie theaters, 3,000 3D theaters and 274 IMAX venues, the biggest ever release for an IMAX, 3D or Potter picture.
Opening night came four days after the US premiere in New York City on July 11, and eight days after the July 7 world premiere in London’s Trafalgar Square, at which Harry Potter author JK Rowling and star Emma Watson, who plays Harry’s friend Hermione, wept as the franchise was coming to an end.
And the reception from critics has already been rapturous. Deathly Hallows received 91/100 from professional critics at the Broadcast Films Critics Association, the largest organization of its kind in the US and Canada, their best-ever rating for a Harry Potter movie. The website Metacritic awarded the film ‘Universal Acclaim’ status with a score of 87 out of 100. Another influential site, Rotten Tomatoes, gave an overall approval rating of 97%, based on 187 reviews, all from the site’s top critics.
In fact, it’s been hard to find a bad word written about this movie. A happy ending indeed.
Photo © Icholakov – Fotolia.com
Tagged box office, Emma Watson, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, sequel