Josh Brolin has replaced Gerard Butler as the frontrunner to replace Kurt Russell as the star of a putative Escape from New York remake. How are they missing the obvious here? Brolin should clearly star in a remake of The Car, or better yet, a sequel, if only so I may finally achieve my dream of several decades of seeing flash across a theater screen the title, The Car II: Repossessed. Since the original starred Brolin’s daddy, James, this seems like a *much* better idea than the zillions of lame remakes and redoes we’ve been seeing lately.
I’m not kidding, by the way. I would totally pay to see that movie.
The guy that made the infamous Troll back in the ’80s is trying to prep a remake, and wants Lindsey Lohen’s younger sister to star in it. Sure, why not? I think Sonny Bono was in Troll or Troll II, anyway.
The Descent II is supposedly bringing back the entire cast of the first film. One can only assume this is in flashbacks, for obvious reasons. It can’t be a prequel (can it?), since, you know, you’d think the characters might have otherwise mentioned that they ran into monsters before.
Iron Man became the year’s first film to domestically hit the $300 mark, although the recent Indiana Jones film will surpass it soon, and in a quicker timeframe. The latter is already ahead internationally (a whopping $650m, here and abroad), in fact. Still, Iron Man cost a bit less than Indiana Jones ($140m vs. $185), and obviously didn’t have the history of that series, so I doubt Marvel is much disappointed.
Things aren’t so good for The Incredible Hulk, which in its first week has earned $100m domestically and internationally. It’s hardly a huge hit, but should in the end make a little money. For instance, several major foreign markets have not been heard from yet. And more people seem to look favorably towards the film, vs. the Ang Lee film five years ago, so the drop off this weekend may not be so severe as for that one. Certainly the soft reviews for Get Smart and the (sigh) generally awful reviews for Love Guru should help there…unless they don’t. The public sees what it wants to see.
That said, chances are that in the long run the DVD proceeds from the new movie are going to be far higher. Marvel’s plans are basically for six movies that that all interconnected and lead into the sixth film, The Avengers. Thus you’re going to have box sets featuring all six films, etc, and at least some of the people buying the Iron Man movie(s) will pick this up too because it’s all part of one larger whole.
Even so, this clearly isn’t a big hit. Iron Man II seems a sure money-maker, but I imagine they will start getting a bit antsy (or they should) about the Thor film, since that seems to have the weakest prospects on the face of things. Normally I’d say the Captain America movie was a gamble, too, but if they do almost what they have to, and make it a period film with Cap kicking Nazi ass all over the place, I just don’t see how that wouldn’t draw gigantic audiences.
Still, Marvel, especially since they can ill afford to step away from their much ballyhooed two year timeframe until Iron Man 2 and Thor, had better get their asses in gear. Rumors have them attempting to nickel and dime Iron Man director Jon Favreau on the sequel; if so, they are complete morons. It’s not that, at least theoretically, you couldn’t bring in another director and make a good second movie. It’s more that bringing in another director means nearly starting over from scratch, and two years isn’t much time. Indeed, even Favreau is saying he’d need three years, although that might be posturing to put pressure on Marvel. If that works, good for him. Marvel clearly can’t count on The Incredible Hulk to generate huge profits, and Captain America and (especially) Thor will be real gambles, and if two or three movies tank, things wouldn’t look that great for the capper The Avengers, one would have to think.
Here’s keeping our fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, Paramount released both Iron Man and Indiana Jones…Crystal Skulls (and Kung Fu Panda!), which more or less guarantees them to have the greatest studio market share this year. Profitwise, maybe not so much. Iron Man was made by Marvel, and Paramount just gets a small release percentage. Same thing with Indiana Jones, as the contract gives Spielberg, Lucas and Ford 85% of every dollar after it hits (internationally) $400 million, which has already come and gone. Those guys are literally looking to make hundreds of millions of dollars on this, with the studio not getting nearly that much. Still, Paramount’s aggregate annual BO tally will look impressive in the stockholder brochures this year, even if its a bit deceptive.
