Batman Movie News from RopeofSilicon.com

Do You Want Ben Affleck to Direct the 'Justice League' Movie?

Normally I think I would be aiming such a question in the headline to the fans of the material, but this time I'm more interested in fans of the man. Variety reports Warner Bros. has approached Ben Affleck to direct their Justice League feature, which, much like The Avengers franchise, would be a superhero team-up, this one involving DC Comics characters such as Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and The Flash. The studio got close to making the film with George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road, Happy Feet) but that fell apart as they tried to rush it into production before the writers strike. This new iteration would apparently not hit theaters until some time around 2015, the same year it looks like The Avengers 2 would be hitting theaters and three years after Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy ended with The Dark Knight Rises. So now we come to the question of Affleck whom has already given us Gone Baby Gone and The Town and will deliver the highly promising Argo in theaters next month. Does anyone really want Affleck to focus all his directorial attention on a superhero movie instead of something more original? As Variety notes, Affleck has been considering his next project recently, which has at times included a new adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand" (meh) and Greg Berlanti's long-gestating sci-fi drama Replay based on Ken Grimwood's 1987 bestseller following a man who dies and gets the chance to relive his life over and over again, changing partners and professions each time. Personally, neither of those sound all that appealing to me, but they sound infinitely more appealing than the thought of Affleck wasting his time on a superhero franchise. Should Affleck decide to take the reigns I'd like to assume he'd actually be a good choice. He's a solid storyteller and he can certainly deliver some intensity. Names attached to the film when Miller was involved included Adam Brody as the Flash, Common as Green Lantern, Armie Hammer as Batman and Megan Gale as Wonder Woman. I can't help but wonder how things would change this time around.

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Nolan's Done, 'The Dark Knight Rises' is Here... What's Next for Batman?

Christopher Nolan on the set of The Dark Knight Rises
Photo: Warner Bros.

NOTE: It should be obvious, but this story contains spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises. Over the weekend a conversation began to brew regarding the excitement and/or lack thereof for more superhero movies in my posting of the teaser trailers for Zack Snyder's Superman feature, Man of Steel. The statement that got it all started came from someone asking, "Will audiences EVER tire of watching the same damn thing again and again and again and again?" Another followed up by another asking, "Am I the only one tried of the superhero genre craze?! Can it just go away already?!" For them, this conversation may not be up their alley, but for me, I think Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises elevated the genre above what we traditionally think of when the word "superhero" is tossed around. Take a couple of comments from my review of The Dark Knight Rises for example. One asking me to compare the film to The Avengers, another asking about a specific portion of my review writing, "Why is it a good thing that Selina Kyle is not referred to as Catwoman? Is it really anymore weird than calling someone Batman or the Joker in the Nolan grounded universe?" As for the comparison to The Avengers... there is none. Tonally, visually, thematically... entirely different. As for the other question, YES! One thousand times, yes there is a difference! The fact Selina Kyle is never referred to as Catwoman goes to everything that makes Nolan's Batman trilogy so great, and why Warner Bros. should consider continuing where Nolan left off rather than rebooting the franchise in a few years. Why is it a good thing Selina Kyle was never referred to as Catwoman? Because she's Selina Kyle. She has a name, and we get to know her as Selina. Had she been referred to as anything else you lose that bit of reality. She loses that piece of her that was human... sort of like... I don't know, Bruce Wayne when he became Batman. Her identity as a struggling citizen of Gotham would have been lost in a story that is already focusing on a character searching for his identity and Nolan was right to keep her as a character the audience could connect with... after all, she is the film's closest representative of the 99%. As for wondering if there is any difference between calling her Catwoman and referring to Heath Ledger's character from The Dark Knight as The Joker. YES! again. Catwoman and The Joker, in fact, have nothing in common. What do we know about The Joker? Nothing. He's a psychotic madman that wants to watch the world burn. Yet, as he says in The Dark Knight, he and Batman aren't so different. To the citizens of Gotham, both are men with no name. Why do they do what they do? It's inexplicable. It's what makes The Joker that much scarier and Batman that much more confusing to the citizens. Why would someone dress as a bat, protect the city from evil and yet never reveal his identity? It goes against everything we're used to in society and it's the number one reason we so easily accept Gotham's response to the belief Batman killed Harvey Dent. We as an audience know better, but we can see how a society would easily believe a masked vigilante killed the only beacon of hope they'd seen in a human in some time. Nolan maintained this level of humanity throughout his Batman franchise, doing everything he could to keep his characters grounded in reality, with heroes and villains that embody both the light and the dark side of the soul. Not many superhero franchises have managed to do that if any. I'd argue The Avengers has done its best given what they're working with -- Tony Stark revealing himself to be Iron Man and the entire team becoming visible to the world in the Avengers finale. They lose a bit of that with the alien aspect, leaving Nolan's Batman as a unique vision in a genre where heroes and villains are infrequently presented without special powers, barring a few lackluster exceptions.

Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul, Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Heath Ledger as The Joker, Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate and Tom Hardy as Bane
Photo: Warner Bros.

Batman may have gadgets and the technology in the films is certainly accelerated, but no one can fly; Bane isn't a giant, radioactive monster; Ra's al Ghul taught deception and theatricality as opposed to magic and mysticism; Jonathan Crane developed a toxin; Talia al Ghul was someone's daughter; and The Joker... well, there is no explaining him, but he is just as much an exploration into the human mind as any of them. His power came from his faith in humanity, a faith in the ugliness of humanity, a faith that soon backfired showing humans are more than what he believed them to be. Now, Nolan has left the franchise. Where has he left us? In the eyes of Gotham, Batman is dead, but Wayne did not destroy the legacy of this hero. He left behind a savior for Gotham and a way for someone to pick up where he left off should a director be so bold and daring as to attempt to follow in his footsteps. Interestingly (perhaps only to me), Nolan left the franchise exactly where I theorized he might back in February 2011. While Joseph Gordon-Levitt didn't go by the name Dick Grayson in The Dark Knight Rises, late in the film we realize he is Robin, or at least some variation of the character and it looks as if he may be ready to pick up the Batman mantle. In DC's "Nightwing" comic series, following Bruce Wayne's apparent death, Grayson became the new Batman. I'm not a comic book reader, but a trip over to Wikipedia reveals a plethora of information featuring Grayson as the new Batman, and while the story has changed there are surely enough themes and storylines to explore and maintain that level of reality Nolan started. The question now lay with Warner Bros. Where do they want to take the character? Back in March 2011, Warner Bros. chief Jeff Robinov said, "We have [The Dark Knight Rises], but then we'll have to reinvent Batman... Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is." Nolan has since said, "We're finished with all we're doing with Batman. This is the end of our take on this character... Obviously, we consider it definitive and kind of finished. The great thing about Batman is he lives on for future generations to reinterpret, and obviously, Warners will have to decide in the future what they're going to do with him. We've had our say on the character..." This quote isn't ambiguous by any means unless Nolan is playing coy and Gordon-Levitt will indeed become Nightwing and not the new Batman, therefore leaving the door open for more Nolan-led and/or produced pictures, but I tend to believe what he is saying. However, there is one Nolan that may be perfect for just such a job... Chris' younger brother Jonathan Nolan who co-wrote The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises and has been working as writer and executive producer on the CBS procedural "Person of Interest". Jonathan even revealed in an interview earlier this year he sees directing in his future saying, "[T]he very next project for me, in addition to a couple of feature projects that are outstanding, that I'm still hoping to get across the finish line, as a writer, the very next thing I want to do, personally, is direct a feature." At one point he was even rumored to be in line for the Superman reboot Man of Steel, which eventually went to Zack Snyder, as well as the now defunct live-action Akira feature.

Whether or not Warner Bros. is ready to place the future of their Batman franchise in the hands of a first time director is another question, but considering Jonathan has watched everything his brother has done to this point from writing the short that spawned Memento, co-writing The Prestige and watching the journey that was Chris' Batman trilogy I think there is a good case to be made as to why he would be qualified. My biggest fear would be to watch the studio decide to "reinvent Batman" as Robinov said, which goes back to the quote at the beginning of this article. "Will audiences EVER tire of watching the same damn thing again and again and again and again?" I'd argue the fatigue surely showed with The Amazing Spider-Man, a film that did nothing to elevate the character or deliver anything visibly new after only a five year theatrical absence. To restart Batman would be a step in the wrong direction. They must find a way to maintain what Christopher Nolan started, maintain that focus on character and the level of humanity that has delivered three Batman films that felt like something more than "men in tights" fighting trumped up CG villains and blue beams shooting into the sky. What Nolan delivered felt like cinema rather than big budget, extended episodes in a television series. Even The Avengers had that TV feeling, despite also being wildly entertaining. There has already been talk of a spin-off for Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle. Nolan himself recently said, "She's an incredible character and [...] hopefully we'll leave people wanting more." And in a recent interview with Digital Spy she said, "I'm interested if he's interested... I think it would be lovely to see more of her but only if it's with the right people." She continued adding, "[Selina] lives in this Gotham City and so it would have to be established by the people who have made this Gotham City. For me, at least." Hathaway hits it right on the head with "this Gotham City". The film would have to be made by the people that brought this world to life, and, I'm sorry, but for me, that does not mean David Goyer. So why take a step backward? Why reinvent? Why not announce the continued development of the franchise with one of the minds behind the last two installments front and center? Then again, maybe Jonathan has something else in mind for his future. Maybe this is the definitive version of not only Batman, but of a superhero franchise in general. While I'm happy to see Christopher Nolan step away, I'd love to see his brother step in and takeover. After all, if there is as much talent in Jonathan as there is in Chris, much like Batman Begins helped Chris bring us Inception, there's no telling what Jonathan may have in store. One thing I think we can count on is that it wouldn't be the same old thing...

Bats, Fire, Ice... What's the Significance of the Opening Imagery in Nolan's Batman Trilogy?

This is going to be short, but I think it's an interesting conversation to be had. Christopher Nolan opens Batman Begins with a swarm of bats creating the symbol for what will soon become Batman. The Dark Knight begins with a burst of blue flame. The Dark Knight Rises begins with slow move in on ice as it cracks to pieces. What is the significance of all of this? I can't really say I have any definitive answers but, from my perspective, the bats at the beginning of Batman Begins are clearly a sign of things to come, not really all that deep. The fire at the beginning of The Dark Knight could be considered a metaphor of any sorts for the chaos to be leveled against Gotham by The Joker, Alfred's quote -- "Some people just want to watch the world burn" -- being the most significant. But what about that ice? It wasn't until just a few minutes ago that I finally came up with what I believe may be the answer and I think it may have actually serve as a sign of what's to come as well as a callback to Batman Begins.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Remember the lessons of Henry Ducard (aka Ra's al Ghul) played by Liam Neeson. Training on the ice, Bruce Wayne believes he's beaten Ducard when he says, "You haven't beaten me. You have sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke." He taps the ice, it breaks beneath his feet and he falls in. The less, "Always mind your surroundings." Later in the film, as Wayne manor is burning around him and he battles with Ra's al Ghul, Ra's says, "You never did learn to mind your surroundings." A burning piece of the architecture falls on Bruce, pinning him against the ground. Ra's leaves him for dead. Then, one more time, as the train is crashing and Batman pins Ra's against the floor, Batman repeats the same phrase, "You never learned to mind your surroundings!" He's learned from his mistakes, but by the time we reach the events of The Dark Knight Rises the ground beneath Wayne is cracking once again. Even Hans Zimmer's second track on the score for the film is titled "On Thin Ice" and had he minded his surroundings perhaps he would have been more wary about who Miranda Tate actually was. Late in the film there's a suggestion Batman/Bruce has learned. Crane has sent people into "exile" and their falling through the ice and yet, just as Gordon is sent he's met by Batman, standing on the ice... unafraid. But he still hasn't learned, it isn't until the very end, when another member of the al Ghul family is allowed to get close to him, presumably leaving him for dead. It's here his training comes full circle is able to, as the final track of Zimmer's score and the film's title suggests, "Rise". I'm sure there is a meaningful quote in the film I'm forgetting, but that's my interpretation... Do you have one?

'The Dark Knight' - Paused

Movie: The Dark Knight Release Year: 2008 Studio: Warner Bros. Director: Christopher Nolan Starring: Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne (aka Batman), Heath Ledger as The Joker, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent (aka Two Face), Michael Caine as Alfred, Maggie Gyllenhaals as Rachel Dawes, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon Cinematographer: Wally Pfister (Inception, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises, Moneyball)

I debated, show the capture before the blast, during or after. I went with before only because we know what's coming, but do you know which window? Mouse over the image to see if you're right.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Nolan's nod to Stanley Kubrick's The Killing
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

I love the clothes on chair.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Slaughter
Photo: Warner Bros.

The shot I couldn't believe they spoiled in the trailer
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

How great is this shot?
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

This shot and the next are probably the two most visually stunning moments in the film.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Love this moment, the charred coin symbolizes so much without a word said.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Best part of this scene is the natural lighting through the window. For as dark as this film is, Nolan has some great moments in the daylight.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

My favorite shot in the film and some version of it should have been used for the poster. I just wish it was easier for you to see The Joker in the screen capture.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

'Batman Begins' - Paused

Movie: Batman Begins Release Year: 2005 Studio: Warner Bros. Director: Christopher Nolan Starring: Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne (aka Batman), Michael Caine as Alfred, Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane (aka The Scarecrow), Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone and Ken Watanabe as Ra's Al Ghul Cinematographer: Wally Pfister (Inception, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Moneyball)

Photo: Warner Bros.

The production's decision to use that bed in the background caught my eye. The footboard, headboard and pictures on the wall are all like eyes watching him.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Made me immediately think of the poster for The Dark Knight Rises (see it here)
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Probably my favorite moment in the film and it was tough to decide which screen grab to use. I had another where the helicopter was in plain sight but it just didn't work as well.
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

I only included this to show you that the young man (Jack Gleeson) who played the Little Boy in Batman Begins grew up to play Joffrey Baratheon, King of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, in "Game of Thrones".
Photo: Warner Bros.

Photo: Warner Bros.

German 'Avengers,' Alternate Kubrick, More 'Bling,' More Chemical Bros. and a 1979 Tom Waits Joker Impression

Fast forward this 1979 interview with Tom Waits to the 2:22 mark and hear an uncanny similarity to Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight. Sofia Coppola has added several names to her upcoming feature film The Bling Ring including Leslie Mann, Taissa Farmiga, Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Claire Pfister and Georgia Rock. Mann will play a mom of two of the girls from the Bling Ring, Broussard is the male lead of the movie. The six join previously cast Emma Watson with shooting expected to begin this spring in Los Angeles. [source] Andrew Stanton's TED Talk, "The clues to a great story" from February 2012 can now be viewed online. [source] The Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard spoke about the possibility of a Cloverfield 2 after writing the first one and he said, "I'm in, I'm ready to do it...Someone call J.J. and tell him to get moving, but because [J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves] and I have been fortunate enough to be busy, it's hard syncing our schedules up. We're all very passionate about returning to that world." However, as to whether they are any closer to a story he responded, "If you asked each of us what we wanted to do, you'll get three different answers, which is how the first film was. The aesthetic of Cloverfield benefits from that. Three voices pulling it. Look, nothing would make me happier than to get the three of us in the room to get started." [source] Here's a rare UK TV spot for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining featuring different takes of several scenes from the final film. Speaking of Kubrick, 15 rare and previously unpublished photos from behind the scenes of Spartacus were published on LIFE.com today. Click the source link for the full gallery. [source] Woody Allen was last credited as an actor in a film he didn't direct in Alfonso Arau's Picking Up the Pieces, but he has now agreed to star opposite John Turturro in Fading Gigolo, which Turturro is writing and directing. Turturro and Allen will play cash-strapped best friends who decide to go into the gigolo business together and subsequently attract the suspicion of the Hasidic Jewish community in which they live. Duo take on the pseudonyms Virgil and Bongo, with Allen pimping out Turturro's character until he falls for a Jewish widow, who has not yet been cast. [source] Michael Pena is set to play 1960s and '70s labor organizer Cesar E. Chavez in the indie drama Chavez alongside America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty") as his wife, Helen Chavez, and Rosario Dawson as his right-hand aide, Dolores Huerta. Diego Luna will direct from a script by Keir Pearson that depicts Chavez organizing the largest non-violent protest in U.S. history to accomplish his ultimate goal of obtaining basic human rights for over 50,000 farm workers in California. [source] The Chemical Brothers' score is one of the big reason I love Joe Wright's Hanna and it now gives me good reason to look forward to Louis Leterrier's upcoming heist picture Now You See Me as the electronic duo will be scoring that film as well. Now You See Me is set to hit theaters January 18, 2013 and it follows FBI agents as they track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money. Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Common make up the cast. [source] You can spoil a little more of The Avengers than you probably want to by checking out some scanned pages from "The Avengers: The Movie Storybook". [source] Finally, one last bit from The Avengers as a new German trailer has arrived that apparently has a different ending than the latest domestic trailer. Whether that makes it worth watching is the kind of decision making I leave up to you.

What Does It Mean to Have "Good" 3-D?

Today Columbia Pictures went all out with The Amazing Spider-Man previewing footage from the upcoming July release across several cities as well as debuting the brand new 3D trailer. As with all things fanboy related it is receiving plenty of praise from all corners, but the one comment that has already hit me comes from The Playlist's Drew Taylor who opens his comments on the footage saying "visually the movie appears to be absolutely ravishing -- deep and immersive in ways most 3D movies lack." What does that mean? How is it more immersive? How can something that does not surround you in any way become immersive? We have been discussing 3-D on the podcast recently (particularly this episode here) and asking what does it mean to have good 3-D? I know lately everyone has been slobbering Martin Scorsese's Hugo and it's so-called incredible 3-D. I saw nothing with the 3-D in Hugo that made me think it was anything different from every other 3-D movie, which is to say it was a movie in which I had to wear glasses so as to ensure the picture wasn't blurry. Roger Ebert, the author of a "Newsweek" editorial titled "Why I Hate 3-D (And You Should Too)", however, feels differently, writing in his review of Hugo:

Scorsese uses 3-D here as it should be used, not as a gimmick but as an enhancement of the total effect. Notice in particular his re-creation of the famous little film "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat" (1897), by the Lumiere brothers. You've probably heard its legend: As a train rushes toward the camera, the audience panics and struggles to get out of its way. That is a shot which demonstrates the proper use of 3-D, which the Lumieres might have used had it been available.

Ah yes, Scorsese's celebration of "the birth of the cinema," as Ebert puts it, gets a pass because a train rushing toward the screen in 3-D... isn't a gimmick, but an "enhancement"? What? I assume his point is that the only way to get today's audiences to understand the feeling of believing the train might actually come out of the screen is to play it in 3-D, but if that's the overall takeaway aren't we splitting hairs? I saw Journey 2: The Mysterious Island this last weekend and I know one scene audiences will be going ape for. It's the moment The Rock sits down with a ukelele and sings "What a Wonderful World." And guess what... IT'S IN 3-D!!! I must say, it was so immersive I felt as if I was right there around the campfire as Michael Caine laughed like a loon. Definitely well worth the additional admission price people will be paying. But let's get back to my opening thought, asking what exactly makes a good 3-D movie? I guess I'll only know the answer when I finally see one. For example, I enjoyed Avatar a lot and even paid to see it in IMAX on its extended release. Is it a great 3-D movie or just a good movie? I'll definitely opt for the latter. In fact, the only 3-D movie I have ever seen that actually impressed me to the point I thought the 3-D enhanced what I was seeing in the way that didn't feel like a gimmick was Hubble 3-D in IMAX. The image took up the entire screen from floor to ceiling and at times looked as if the screen was an extension of the room I was in. Now that is immersive. When the screen is so large you can hardly see the edges then you are finally delivering something. However, with a widescreen image several feet in front of you, curtains on the side and the blackness on top and bottom you still have a long way to go before you arrive at immersive. More immersive than any 3-D movie I've seen (outside of Hubble) were the non-3-D, IMAX sequences from The Dark Knight and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. The opening sequence in The Dark Knight is jaw-dropping and the moment when Tom Cruise looks out from the Burj Khalifa building and director Brad Bird zooms in and expands the frame from widescreen to IMAX is something to talk about and a clear example in what kind of difference the size of IMAX makes. I wonder, how does this new Amazing Spider-Man footage stack up to those two moments? I guess I'll find out in July. As for the new 3-D trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man everyone saw today, I'll have it for you here tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7, at 3 a.m. EST / 12 a.m. PST. For now I have added a few new images from the film to my gallery right here and the official site has been updated with some wallpapers, which you can grab right here.

Why Complain that Scenes from the 'Paranormal Activity 3' Trailers Weren't in the Film?

There seems to be two camps complaining about Paranormal Activity 3 for two different reasons. The first reason is a group saying they didn't find it scary, many times saying they didn't find the first two scary either. Of course, we could delve into why they would see the third one if they didn't find the first two scary, but that's a different matter altogether. The second camp, however, is complaining because 75+% of the footage from the trailers is not in the finished film. Scenes that include the little girls playing Bloody Mary, the knocking game on the closet door, the jump from the bedroom stairs, the water being thrown, the mother being pulled into the bedroom and a psychic getting beat to hell by the ghostly spirit inhabiting the house. I'll admit, I saw one of the trailers and as I watched I was waiting for the moment when Julie (Lauren Bittner) was pulled through the bedroom doors and when the water was thrown on Toby and when those scenes never came I can't tell you how happy I was. As I noted in my review, "if you think many of the scares have been ruined by the trailers, don't worry; several of them aren't even in the film." Yes, I see this as a good thing. The studio didn't sell you on a film different than what you ended up seeing, they sold you on a film exactly like what you would be seeing only you hadn't seen it yet. I've seen people saying how much better the film would have been with these scenes in there, which is an assumption you cannot make. If the film would have been better with these scenes in there I have to assume they would have been included. The scene with the psychic doesn't appear it could have even happened given the way the story plays out (not to mention it would have been redundant of the first film) and I thought the Bloody Mary scene was still excellent without the two girls doing it alone. If you're wondering why it was done the way it was or how it came about, Bittner was interviewed by The Insider and said:

"This franchise is lucky because it can afford to shoot and edit at the same time. We filmed for quite some time and it becomes a trial-and-error environment. They see what's working and what isn't while filming is going on, so a lot of what you saw in the trailer was very good on its own, but within the context of the film, just didn't fit right."

Now I'm not saying people don't have the right to be upset because some of the scenes from the trailer weren't in the film, hell, that's what the Internet is for, to complain about how you've been wronged in the most petty of ways. However, when it comes to film marketing I will take a trailer that sells what we should expect from a film without spoiling it any day over trailers that spoil key events or even the plot itself.

There was that recent lawsuit over the trailer for Drive with one moviegoer complaining it sold itself as a Fast and the Furious kind of film rather than the slow and methodical throwback feature it is. While I could argue that point all day, my biggest problem with the trailers for Drive is that they spoiled so many memorable moments from the film, even up to the final shots. I also remember avoiding all of the trailers for The Dark Knight back in 2008 and then going back and watching them after seeing the film. Moments such as the overturning of the semi truck were actually in the trailer and I simply couldn't believe it. I never would have wanted to see that moment before seeing it on the massive IMAX screen and yet, there it was, spoiled for all the world to see. When it comes to films such as Paranormal Activity 3, Drive or The Dark Knight you are selling atmosphere and theme as much as spectacle, thrills and scares and as long as the trailers are able to stay true to what an audience is going to get when they sit down to watch a film, I would hope more films would take a cue from Paranormal Activity 3 and save the surprises for the theater rather than spoil the film before we ever purchase our tickets.

Box-Office Wrap-Up: 'Harry Potter' is the Box-Office King with a New Opening Weekend Record

Well, it didn't quite hit the $180 million mark, which would have been quite cool, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 broke the all-time domestic opening weekend record, not to mention a few other records along the way. Let's sort it all out...

Laremy predicted the #1 movie correctly 11 Weeks In A Row

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

So, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 broke the midnight opening record (previously held by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), the opening day record (previously held by The Twilight Saga: New Moon), the domestic opening weekend record (previously held by The Dark Knight), the best opening for any of the eight films in the franchise (previously held by Deathly Hallows: Part 1), a record IMAX opening and a massive $476 million global opening weekend record, besting previous record holder Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's $394 million. Plus, I'm sure a few other records will come in once all is said and done. Wow!

There really isn't much more to say other than to now wonder how much it will drop. Because at this moment it would have to drop 61% to match Thor's opening weekend in its second week. Just how much do you think Captain America: The First Avenger will make in its opening weekend? Are you banking on it becoming the highest superhero opening of the summer? If so, that means higher than Thor's $65.7 million. Will be interesting.

As far as predictions go, who would've thought Laremy's $151 million would have ended up being so low? Well, MKing for one, with a $170.5 million prediction, resulting in the closest prediction among RopeofSilicon readers. Nice work.

Result: $168.5 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #1 and his prediction of $151.242 million was $17.258m off for a percentage error of 10.24%.

2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Moving along we come to Transformers: Dark of the Moon's second weekend and a drop of 54.9%. Not bad, the film is now at $302.8 million domestically, a number Harry Potter looks as if it will blow by quite easily. I just wonder, now that Harry Potter bested The Dark Knight's $158.4 million opening, do you think it will also beat The Dark Knight's $533 million total?

Result: $21.2 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #2 with $24.398 million, which is $3.198m off for a 15.08% error.

3. Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses is already holding on quite well as R-rated comedies are all the rage this summer after Bridesmaids and Bad Teacher. Only a 37.7% dip here and the film is now over $60 million total.

Result: $17.6 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #3 with $13.585 million, which is $4.015m off for a 22.81% error.

4. Zookeeper

Zookeeper also only fell slightly with a 38.7% dip from its opening weekend. However, it's opening wasn't as impressive as Horrible Bosses as the cume here is only $42.3 million on an $80 million budget.

Result: $12.3 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #4 with $10.434 million, which is $1.866m off for a 15.17% error.

5. Cars 2

Cars 2 is up to $165 million total. Do you see another $35 million in the tank for a domestic cume of $200 million by the end of the film's run?

Result: $8.3 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #6 with $7.206 million, which is $1.094m off for a 13.18% error.

6. Winnie the Pooh

A very soft $8 million opening for Winnie and I can't imagine there are a lot of people left that will be interested in seeing what is ultimately a film for 4-6 year-olds. Only a $30 million budget here though so everything should work out just fine.

Result: $8 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #5 with $9.2 million, which is $1.2m off for a 15% error.

7. Bad Teacher

Continuing to hold on nicely, Bad Teacher dropped only 41.7% in its fourth weekend and is now over $88 million. That Bad Guidance Counselor sequel has to be just around the corner.

Result: $5.2 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #7 with $5.267 million, which is $0.067m off for a 1.29% error.

8. Larry Crowne

I have nothing to say about Larry Crowne that I haven't already said.

Result: $2.5 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #8 with $3.146 million, which is $0.646m off for a 25.84% error.

9. Super 8

Over $122 million for J.J. Abrams' Steven Spielberg homage.

Result: $1.9 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #9 with $2.216 million, which is $0.316m off for a 16.63% error.

10. Midnight in Paris

As I already said yesterday, Midnight in Paris is now Woody Allen's highest grossing film of all time in North America. Good for Wood.

Result: $1.8 million
Laremy's rank: Not Ranked

There isn't really all that much more to talk about outside of next weekend when Captain America: The First Avenger and Friends with Benefits take on the Harry Potter juggernaut. One thing that's interesting is should Bad Teacher stick around in the top ten next weekend it would mean there will be three R-rated comedies in the top ten in one weekend. That's pretty crazy don'tcha think? Not sure if that has ever happened.

Anyone care to go out on a limb and make a prediction for next weekend? I'll start by saying I think Potter wins again. I don't think Captain America can beat Thor's opening and I don't think Potter will dip more than 55%. Then again, I'm no expert.

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'Harry Potter' Crushes 'Twilight: Eclipse' Midnight Box-Office Record; Next... 'The Dark Knight'

There have got to be a lot of tired little Muggles out there as many of you were obviously up late checking out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which took in a massive, record-breaking haul of $43.5 million from 3,800 midnight showings. I know former RopeofSilicon writer David Frank caught Part 1 and Part 2 in a double feature and texted me late last night saying, "Yeah, that nailed the landing." Then he told me he got only three hours of sleep. The price we pay for entertainment eh?

The previous midnight record holder was The Twilight Saga: Eclipse with what now looks like a paltry $30 million.

The film now moves into 4,300 theaters (3,000 of them showing the film in 3D) for the weekend where it is expected to gross more than $150 million in its opening three days as it hopes to take down previous three-day record holder The Dark Knight, which earned $158.4 million back in 2008 from 4,366 theaters. BoxOfficeMojo gives us this following paragraph letting us know how well it is already doing internationally:

The movie set opening day records in Australia ($7.5 million), Italy ($4.6 million), Sweden ($2.1 million), Norway ($1.8 million), the Netherlands ($1.7 million), Denmark ($1.6 million), Belgium ($1.4 million) and Finland ($749,000). It also claimed the Wednesday opening record in France ($7.1 million), the preview record in Germany ($5.3 million), and the Warner Bros. opening day record in Russia ($4.1 million).

The previous best opening weekend for a Harry Potter film domestically was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which took in $125 million last November. That film, however, wasn't in 3D as Warner Bros. couldn't get the conversion ready in time, but Part 2 will certainly be taking advantage of the higher ticket prices.

I must admit, these are fun numbers to report.

What if Famous Movie Cars Were Added to the Pixar 'Cars' Franchise?

Created by Old Red Jalopy and posted at NextMovie the following is a hypothetical art project looking at famous movie cars such as Batman's Batmobile, the DeLorean from Back to the Future, the Stars Wars Landspeeder, the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and Bumblebee from the Transformers franchise and what they might look like if they were to exist in Pixar's Cars world.

I thought they were a fun aside so figured I'd share. You can click here to check out one more featuring Herbie the Love Bug.

'The Batman Complex' - When 'The Machinist' Dreamed of Being Batman

A fanmade trailer for a fake film titled The Batman Complex is making the rounds in which Christian Bale's character from The Machinist has been dreaming of being Batman, all from an idea planted in his head by Leonardo DiCaprio's character from Inception. The trailer uses footage from The Machinist, Batman Begins, Batman (1989), The Dark Knight, Inception, Shutter Island, Equilibrium and The Prestige. If there are other films used I missed them, but overall it's a pretty fun watch as it uses Clint Mansell's score from The Fountain to tell its story.

The "I've done it before" part is my favorite aspect of the whole thing.

Look for a Nolan Lead Batman Reboot and a Justice League Movie in the Near Future

There was talk yesterday of Warner Bros. revisiting the abandoned Justice League film for a 2013 release in a profile piece focused on Warner Bros. chief Jeff Robinov. The mention was small and there wasn't much to go on so I held back. However, today the news is confirmed as the WB is ready to put in motion the DC Comics superhero team-up to rival Paramount's The Avengers.

Word is that one year after both Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel, Warner Bros. is eying both a Justice League film as well as a "reinvented Batman".

Currently a Justice League script is being written, though no screenwriter is mentioned by name, along with scripts for films based on the DC characters Flash and Wonder Woman, both of which could see spin-off films following the as yet Untitled Justice League Movie. Even though a Wonder Woman television series is currently in production with Adrianne Palicki for NBC, Robinov says, "Wonder Woman could be a film as well, the same way that Superman Returns came out while 'Smallville' was on." Yeah, we all know how that turned out.

As for this news of a Batman reinvention, Robinov may have said the right thing. Just as everyone seems to breath a little easier knowing Christopher Nolan is involved with Snyder's Superman, Robinov says, "We have the third Batman, but then we'll have to reinvent Batman... Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is."

This is obviously a reaction to Sony's decision to abandon a Spider-Man 4 and instead go in a whole new direction with The Amazing Spider-Man, but the difference is people grew detached from the Spider-Man franchise after the third film, while excitement for Nolan's Batman only seems to grow and grow. Of course, should The Dark Knight Rises turn into a villain-filled cheese fest similar to Spider-Man 3 (not likely) perhaps there will be merit for the idea of a quick reboot. It just seems a bit hasty to me unless they decide to go Darren Aronofsky's route with Bruce Wayne as a Gotham street urchin riding in a Lincoln Towncar with Alfred is an African-American mechanic going by Big Al. Then we might have something, but that will never happen.

Then there's the whole world of the Justice League to consider. I'm curious if there is any way they can rope Christian Bale into playing Batman in the Justice League film, because you have to assume our new Superman, Henry Cavill, certainly has a Justice League appearance as the Man of Steel in his contract.

Bale was quoted by E! talking about The Dark Knight Rises saying, "The thing is that this will be, I believe, unless Chris says different, this will be the last time I'm playing Batman." Yeah, I'm sure you're looking closely at that "unless Chris says different" line as Bale doesn't entirely rule out the possibility. Like Lloyd Christmas said, "So you're saying there's a chance."

Should Bale not sign on, I wonder if they'll go back to their previous choice of Armie Hammer (The Social Network) to fill the caped crusader's boots.

I also wonder if the Wonder Woman television series will be a big enough hit to get fans petitioning for Palicki to play the role on the big screen as well. You also have Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern, which I am sure we can expect him to be crossing over. Teresa Palmer was previously eyed as Talia al Ghul and Adam Brody as The Flash in the abandoned George Miller feature.

Lots of questions, few answers, but I'm sure you'll have something to say. So speak up in the comments below.

From 'Following' to 'Inception': Ranking the Films of Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan on the set of Inception
Photo: Warner Bros.

Trying to rank Christopher Nolan's first seven films is an exercise in futility, but after watching all of his films over the last week once again with every intention of writing this article I couldn't just not do it. So, here we are.

Ranking the bottom two films was quite easy, but depending on my mood the next five could adjust on a daily basis, but one thing I noticed after watching all of Nolan's films over again is how much my appreciation for each has changed as I've gained a larger understanding for his work. His love for the anti-hero is obvious, and his desire for dark stories has been evident from the outset. He's a smart filmmaker who understands the medium and knows how to use it to the advantage of his stories. His casting is typically spot on and with each film he's shown some measure of growth, although that doesn't stop me from holding a large appreciation for his early work as you will soon see.

With all that said, let's start digging in and see where this takes us...

Doodlebug (1997)

I hadn't seen Nolan's 1997 short film Doodlebug until I started working on putting this list together and found it was available on YouTube. Shot in 16mm black-and-white it stars Jeremy Theobald (Following) as he chases a tiny intruder in his apartment. It plays around with some of the themes you'll find in some of Nolan's other work and once you get to the end you won't be surprised in the slightest that it came from the mind of Christopher Nolan. It is available on DVD along with 15 other short films from the likes of Andrea Arnold, Matthieu Kassovitz, Ridley Scott, Lars Von Trier and Martin McDonagh if you are interested, just click here for details.

Now let's take a look at the work from Nolan we're all most familiar with...

Insomnia (2002)


	I recently reviewed the new Blu-ray edition for this film released by Warner Home Video and for any of you that read that review you probably aren't too surprised to see Insomnia at the bottom of this list. I don't particularly dislike this movie as much as it just isn't a personal favorite. Something about the detective-killer relationship going on in this film just doesn't ring true for me causing the film to sort of fall flat. It has some great visuals and I certainly don't hate it, but it just isn't a film I would return to if given the choice.

Following (1998)


	I just watched this about a week ago for the first time and IFC has just released the new trailer you see directly below as they've made it available On Demand. However, it's also available on NetFlix Instant Play for those of you utilizing that service and if you click the Buy Now button below I think you can find the DVD for just over $5 on Amazon. As for the film itself it's not that bad although you can tell it was shot on a micro-budget using 16 mm black-and-white film stock. The story centers on a young writer who gets himself into some measure of trouble as he begins following strangers out of mere curiosity when he finds himself confronted by a professional burglar who ends up taking him along on his next robbery, giving him a taste for what it's like to really step into the lives of strangers and see how they live. His curiosity piqued, he acquires a taste for it as well as a love for their first victim, which ultimately proves to be the turning point in the movie. Following is the first time Nolan used the name Cobb for one of his characters, a name of which we now associate with Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Inception 12 years later, and ironically the door to the young writer's apartment has a Batman sticker from Tim Burton's 1989 film on the door. I'd hardly say it was a sign of things to come, but perhaps fate had its sights set on Nolan for some time.

Batman Begins (2005)


	I had trouble placing this one. After seeing The Dark Knight in 2008 I thought I'd rarely return to Batman Begins, but truth is in rewatching both films in preparation for this article I was surprised at just how much I still enjoy this film in comparison to its sequel. While The Dark Knight still reigns supreme in my eyes it was a much closer competition than I'd expected.

The Dark Knight (2008)


	As I said in the opening, ranking these films was not easy. The Dark Knight is probably considered the greatest superhero movie of all-time by many people and without looking too deep I'd say I am among that many. However, I did list the film in the #4 slot on my Best of 2008 list and it's a position I maintain. As great as this film is, I can't help but admit the more I watch it the longer it feels. I remember after writing my A+ review, coming back home to Seattle and watching it again and starting to second guess myself as the length of it began to weigh on me. The logic problems in the film also cause me a bit of concern, but as I said in my top ten of 2008, the fact I'm able to overlook the film's problems and still enjoy it as much as I do speaks to its greatness. The Dark Knight is sheer entertainment and I love it for that fact alone. It seems pointless to try and poke at it anymore than is absolutely necessary and on top of all else, I can't get over how great Heath Ledger was as The Joker. For as out of left field as that casting seemed when it was first announced it was obviously the right decision.

The Prestige (2006)


	Out of all seven of Nolan's films, watching The Prestige again offered probably the biggest surprise for me. I gave the film a B when I reviewed it in 2006 and my recollection of it was that it was a good film, but one that tended to drag. I hadn't watched it since reviewing the DVD in 2007 and reading back on that it sounds as if at that time I started to gain a greater appreciation for the film, and certainly watching it again three years later I have come to like it much, much more. In fact, I have to take issue with something I wrote in my original theatrical review when I said: "My other complaint has to do with the storytelling technique itself. By this I am referring to how we see how several of the tricks are done which removes a lot of the mystery, even if it wasn't the mystery at the core of the film. Borden says, "Secrets are my life," and this is something we all know about magicians. To get a magician to tell his secret would seemingly be impossible, it is their livelihood, and while on screen the secret may be revealed to only one person an entire audience of moviegoers is also in on the hidden gem. However, these secrets must be told in order to move the story along, it is a no win situation, which makes it somewhat of a bullsht complaint. Yet, it is a complaint nonetheless." The fact Nolan shows you how the tricks are done is part of the intrigue whereas I was dismissing the technique at that time, implying it took something away from the story. The story of The Prestige* isn't about magic tricks, but about the desire to be fooled and at what point the trick is no longer important when compared to the ramifications. By showing you how the tricks are done it may ruin those tricks for the audience, but the film isn't about the audience, it's about the characters. Cutter (Michael Caine) even goes so far as to tell us this saying, "Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled." It's this statement that makes the final scene so impactful. Nolan realizes an audience's interest in seeing magic and he breaks all that down and shows us what's behind the curtain, negatively reinforcing Cutter's statement, letting us know we may not like what we find. As we arrive at the end of the film we're like that little kid crying over the dead bird, we know what has happened despite what our eyes are telling us. However, what hits the audience most is the idea Borden (Christian Bale) isn't interested in Angier's (Hugh Jackman) prestige. It speaks volumes to the emotional core of the picture and to the nature of the two men we've just spent two hours with. In fact, I would say this is Nolan's most emotionally charged film to date. I hate having to point fingers at my own critical shortcomings, but it must be said. When I reviewed this film in 2006 I wasn't evaluating it properly. This film jumped several spots from where I would have likely placed it before watching it again, and in a couple of years it may likely jump a couple more.

Inception (2010)

Just yesterday I went and watched Inception for the third time in eight days. This time I watched it in IMAX and loved it all over again. However, where to place it in this ranked order was impossible, but I just wasn't willing to place it at number one. As much as I love the film, and like The Dark Knight, stand by the A+ I gave it in my review I'm just not confident it will stand the test of time at number one when I look back at Nolan's films from this bunch. The fact I enjoyed rewatching The Prestige as much as I did weighed heavily on this decision.

However, a number two placement doesn't make this film any less in my eyes. As I watched yesterday I began looking for even more clues to figure out the puzzle than those we've been discussing at length. Such as, I noticed Cobb only wears his wedding ring in the dreamworld. Unfortunately, there wasn't a good enough shot to tell if he has one on at the end or not... which basically means I need the Blu-ray to arrive sooner rather than later.

Memento (2000)


	Here is Nolan's first breakout film, and in my opinion it's still his best. Ever since seeing Memento for the first time in 2000 there hasn't been a time I've watched it and been disappointed. I love the fact the "I've Done It" tattoo has baffled people and caused some to refer to it as a plot hole. I have to wonder, after watching all of Nolan's films would those same people still call it a plot hole or realize it for what it is... just one more instance of Nolan messing with your head.

So there it is... I feel as if I've done the impossible and in doing so I am already doubting many of the placements... Should Inception be my number one? Will The Prestige be my number one in five years? How will I perceive Nolan's Batman films as a whole once Batman 3 comes out on July 20, 2012? I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

For now, write up your own list ranking Nolan's first seven films and share your thoughts on why.

RMR: Nolans Directing Superman and Justice League? Transformers in Russia? Weaver in 'Avatar 2'?

A bunch of comic book-y rumors kicked up some dust at the end of the week and I really had no idea if I was going to report on any of them, but enough hit the back-fence talking points I felt the first Rumor Mill Round-up since last September was in order.

We begin with Transformers 3 chatter, which began with a posting on Michael Bay's official site telling fans "there will be big action sequences shot in Chicago and Moscow this time around."

Giant robot talk continued at MTV where they transcribed Bay's appearance on Starz's "In the House" where he commented on the possibility of Transformers 3 hitting theaters in 3D, a process Bay has been a vocal detractor of saying, "3D? I don�t know... I might be old school. I think it might be a gimmick." He continued, "The way I shoot is too aggressive for 3D cameras. It�s a time consuming thing. Who knows... It might be a fad. I'm kinda old school. I�m old school because I like to shoot on film. I like anamorphic lenses, and that is old school."

That was in April 2009, but at the same time he added, "I don�t know, we�ll see. I�m looking forward to [James] Cameron�s picture." Well, he's seen Avatar and while it doesn't seem like he has completely turned the corner he appears more open to the possibility:

"It's a process we're testing with some Transformers scenes. How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I've seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage."

Moving on, Slash Film points us to the video you see to the right in which Sigourney Weaver indicated she may be back for Avatar 2 as here character, Dr. Grace Augustine, "is with Eywa now" and still exists "in the tree." She has apparently spoken with James Cameron about the possibility, but I can only imagine it being a very small role.

Marvel fans got a bit of a Friday disruption when rumors started circling the upcoming The First Avenger: Captain America may have been delayed due to trouble with director Joe Johnston. Rest easy, though, Marvel has squashed said rumor telling CHUD.com things are still moving forward as planned for a July 22, 2011 release.

Perhaps the rumor you are most interested in has to do with the first part of my headline as reports out of IESB now say Christopher Nolan's brother, Jonah Nolan, will be co-writing the script for The Man of Steel with David Goyer and that baby Nolan may be looking to make his directorial debut on the feature.

Jonah Nolan scripted The Dark Knight with Chris while Goyer contributed to the story elements, making for something of a continued family feel with the franchise that appears to be leaking over into the Superman story as it was earlier reported Chris Nolan was shepherding the project for Warner Bros. The rumors get even deeper when IESB also says Chris Nolan may direct Justice League: Mortal for WB, but that is one rumor that is a bit too far fetched for me to believe considering Nolan is assumed to be directing Batman 3 for what I would assume to be a 2011 release and then I would expect him to then again move on to something completely unrelated, much like The Prestige before Dark Knight and Inception coming out this July.

Finally, from comics to toys as Vulture reports Twilight star Taylor Lautner will not star in Max Steel so he can play the title role in Stretch Armstrong, which was at one time said to be a project for Ron Howard to direct. However, the Los Angeles Times now reports Monsters vs. Aliens co-director Rob Letterman is looking like the front-runner. Letterman just finished helming Gulliver's Travels for Fox starring Jack Black and hitting theaters on December 22. Stretch Armstrong will be shot and released in 3D in 2012.

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' Opens With $58.4 Million

Laremy's early Wednesday/Thursday predictions had Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opening to the tune of $60.1 million with expectation the film would earn $34.7 million on Thursday. It appears he wasn't too far off.

After earning a record-breaking $22.2 million in midnight shows the film has rolled to a $58.4 million opening day from 4,275 theaters, well ahead of the $44 million earned by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix reports Variety's Pamela McClintock.

McClintock goes on to say predictions for the five-day weekend range from $125-150 million, which will have it still falling short of the $198.2 million Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned earlier this year, second only to The Dark Knight's $203.8 million. However, this is based purely on previous installments and seeing how this is Harry Potter's first PG-rated film since Prisoner of Azkaban back in 2004 and a film that still carries an 88% rating at RottenTomatoes we may be able to expect much more.

Of course, as Steven Zeitchik points out based on Potter's past, "Over its five previous installments, the series has shown a remarkable immunity to reviews. In fact, not only do strong reviews not matter -- they're correlated to fewer dollars." The two highest grossing Harry Potter films are the first two, the two that have the lowest RottenTomatoes scores at 78% and 77% with the others ranging from the mid-to-high-80s.

Who knows how it will all turn out, but I can tell you Laremy will take a stab at it. Stay tuned, later today he will have his three-day box-office predictions... Play along and see if you can beat him. Looking back at our Wednesday/Thursday estimate article I see "athar" came closest with a $58.5m prediction while "NackAttack" and "Topy" came a close second with $58m predictions. Good on yah folks.

UPDATE: 'Half-Blood Prince' Takes Down 'The Dark Knight' and 'Star Wars' for Midnight Record

UPDATE: USA Today is reporting the midnight number for Half-Blood Prince as $22.2 million.

Well, how do you think the Wednesday/Thursday box-office results for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are going to shake out now that it is being reported the film pulled in a record $20 million in midnight showings alone to beat The Dark Knight's previous record of $18 million and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith's $17 million?

Just yesterday our Box-Office Oracle, Laremy Legel, got his predictions in just under the gun and estimated a whopping $60.1 million for Wednesday and another $34.7 million for Thursday. Such ambitious predictions have it besting the $91.1 million two-day haul of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen... Will it be so? Revenge of the Fallen is already $4 million in the hole if we go off midnight screenings alone with its $16 million earned earlier this year.

To date, the highest grossing Harry Potter film remains the first one, which took in $317 million domestically and $974 million worldwide. Can Half-Blood Prince top that? I have heard people discussing the $1 billion worldwide possibility, but I am also already seeing a lot of complaining from fans regarding changes from the book to the film. It will be interesting to see how it all fleshes out.

'The Dark Knight' Remains Five-Day Champ as Box-Office Actuals Arrive

Box-Office Mojo has updated their weekend charts with the three-day actual receipts and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen dropped from the original estimated three-day take of $112 million to finish with $108.9 million for the three-day weekend and $200 million for the five-day, which means The Dark Knight's five-day record of $203.7 million remains intact.

However, Revenge of the Fallen did still manage to break some records such as the biggest single-day IMAX gross with $3.9 million and the biggest five-day IMAX gross with $14.4 million. Of course, this does come with something of an asterisk since several of the so-called IMAX screens the film is showing on aren't the native 70mm IMAX screens as much as they are the refit IMAX Digital screens which are hardly representative of a true IMAX experience.

As for the rest of the box-office weekend, everything pretty much remained the same with Revenge of the Fallen being the only title to shift by anything more than $.2 million or so.

Critics Have Little-to-Nothing To Do With Box-Office Success

When people say a movie is "critic-proof" it really doesn't mean anything since reviews for movies have very little to do with determining whether or not the majority of people are going to go see a movie. With that said, what is published in David Germain's AP story "'Transformers': Worst-reviewed $400 million hit?" means absolutely nothing. Especially the line reading:

"Critics and mainstream crowds often disagree, but Revenge of the Fallen sets a new standard for the gulf between what reviewers and mass audiences like."

This line insinuates everyone that went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen this weekend liked it. Of course, the article backs things up saying, "According to Paramount's exit polls, 91 percent of the audience thought the sequel was as good as or better than the first Transformers, which received far better reviews." That sentence is so loaded with misconceptions it's staggering as it shows a complete lack of knowledge when it comes to movie watching.

Transformers is routinely referred to as "big dumb fun" and when it comes to "big dumb fun" there is a very short shelf life. Audience perception of a film is not generated in its opening weekend, it's created over time. Germain goes on in his article to reference previous films that reached the $400 million domestic box-office mark as that is where he sees Revenge of the Fallen headed. He begins comparing the movie to the likes of The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, Star Wars, Shrek 2 and Titanic. The matter in question here is will Revenge of the Fallen be able to sustain its dominance?

Last summer The Dark Knight remained at the top of the box-office charts for four consecutive weeks, Shrek 2 and Spider-Man only sustained two week dominance, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace lasted for three and the all-time king is Titanic with 15 weekends at the top of the box-office.

Let's not forget the first Transformers, which Germain is so quick to point out received better reviews than Revenge of the Fallen. It opened at number one as well only to fall to #2 in its second weekend to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Will Revenge of the Fallen be able to withstand this week's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Public Enemies? The last Ice Age opened to $68 million and I would think this one would do the same or better. Can Revenge of the Fallen match that?

Germain already tells us Revenge of the Fallen is getting great word of mouth saying, "Even after its whopping $60.6 million opening day, Revenge of the Fallen was packing theaters, a sign that unlike critics, who mostly hated the movie, audiences felt they were getting their money's worth and were giving the flick good word of mouth." This is in despite of the fact online ticket retailers were quoting figures almost two weeks in advance of the film's release saying showings were already sold out. Not sure how much word of mouth counts when people have already made up their mind to go see it, not to mention reviews weren't even online yet.

Perhaps the most twisted part of the whole article is the following:

Critics "forget what the goal of the movie was. The goal of the movie is to entertain and have fun," said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount, which is distributing "Transformers" for DreamWorks. "What the audience tells us is, 'We couldn't be more entertained and having more fun.' They kind of roll their eyes at the critics and say, 'You have no idea what you're talking about.'"

So you are telling me Paramount isn't talking bad about their own movie? Shocker!

Here's the deal, audiences were going to see this no matter what. Reviews only helped raise the awareness. Good or bad, it didn't matter. Kids were just getting out of school and parents needed someplace to unload them. Transformers was already a familiar franchise and something parents could take their kids to see.

Of all the films Germain mentioned in his article, I wonder if he believes general audiences will look back at Revenge of the Fallen and compare it fondly to The Dark Knight, E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, Star Wars and Titanic. If you wanted to use another public meter of determining an audience's perception of the film take a peek at IMDb and compare ratings for the first Transformers and those for Revenge of a Fallen, a film Paramount is trying to tell us audiences enjoy more than the first one (no account for short term memory considered).

The first Transformers currently sits with a 7.4 rating compared to Revenge of the Fallen's already lower 6.7 rating, and as most watchers of IMDb know these ratings typically start out high only to slowly fall and level off over time. Basically, as time wears on the general consensus for a film comes down to how it is remembered, not how much money it made one day ago. If it were the other way around Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would be considered the best film in the Indy franchise... not sure about you, but that isn't exactly how I see things.

To the point, critics have nothing to do with how a film does at the box-office. They are merely a tool for awareness and conversation starters. Critics see a movie, audiences see a movie and the film is discussed and its place in history is decided down the line. Some films will always be seen by more people; it's a fact that has nothing to do with reviews. The top spots at the box-office have always been reserved for the films that manage to appeal to the widest range of audience members. Revenge of the Fallen managed just that and just happened to not be liked by critics.

When I see people defending it the most common comment I see is something along the lines of "I think people expect too much" and "It's based on a cartoon, what did you expect?" This sounds to me like a person that got exactly as much out of the film as critics did, but were able to accept its flaws while others could not. Totally fair, but when you have to admit a film is bad in order to tell people it's good what is that really saying?

The consensus opinion at RottenTomatoes says, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a noisy, underplotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks a human touch." I don't think anyone will argue with that...

'Transformers 2' Looks to Best 'Dark Knight's Five Day Box-Office Record

It's going to be close folks as estimates now peg Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as hitting anywhere from $190-209 million for its opening five days, the latter number would mean a five-day box-office record for the feature as it added another $36.7 million to its cumulative total with Friday estimates.

Revenge of the Fallen has hit an estimated domestic total of $125.9 million in its first three days and now all eyes are focused on the five-day opening domestic box-office record of $203.8 million currently held by The Dark Knight.

Personally, this isn't surprising as I can't imagine anyone not at least being interested in seeing the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on the bigscreen as the film is currently playing in 4,234 theaters, 169 of which are IMAX. So what if critics (myself included) didn't like it? I guarantee if I wasn't reviewing this movie I would have been in theaters this weekend to see it even though I thought the first one was terrible. I don't think critical opinions matter on big dumb fun. I look at critical opinion in more of an effort to persuade rather than dissuade, and open up a line of dialogue, but that's just me.

While Revenge of the Fallen makes its way toward box-office stardom, last week's romantic-comedy The Proposal is holding onto second after Friday estimates with $6.1 million, while the Cameron Diaz weeper My Sister's Keeper opened to the tune of $5.1 million and currently sits in fourth position.

In the third slot is The Hangover with another $5.3 million and rounding out the top five is Pixar's Up with $3.9 million.

As for the limited releases this week Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is playing in only four theaters in New York and Los Angeles before expanding in July and opened with an impressive Friday tallying $44,528.

Miramax's Cheri took in $111,000 from 76 theaters and Woody Allen's Whatever Works brought in $98,000.

You can see the top ten slots from the Friday box-office just below and Laremy will be here tomorrow for a full weekend recap. Will Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen take The Dark Knight's slot in the record books? Stay tuned!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - $36.7 million
The Proposal - $6.1 million
The Hangover - $5.3 million
My Sister's Keeper - $5.0 million
Up - $3.9 million
Year One - $2.0 million
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 - $1.5 million
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - $1.2 million
Star Trek - $1.0 million
Away We Go - $510,000

The 2010 Oscar Best Picture Race... What are We In For?

As I sit down to ponder yesterday's news announcing the Oscars have increased the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten beginning with the 2010 Oscars I have Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans playing in the background. It wasn't one of the five films nominated for Best Picture at the 1993 Oscars, but with the new rules would it have been? I'm not quite sure, but I would assume The Player, Glengarry Glen Ross, Reservoir Dogs and Malcolm X would have definitely been in the mix. But would it have really mattered?

The Academy's decision to shake things up according to AMPAS President Sid Ganis is to return "to some of its earlier roots." By this he is referring to the period between 1932 and 1943 when the Best Picture category was usually made up of ten films. The exceptions in those years included the 1931/1932 ceremony with eight nominees and 1934/1935 ceremony with 12. However, is this really an attempt to go back to the old days following the 2009 Oscars, which were far from nostalgic with a rather impressive revamped ceremony?

Over at the Los Angeles Times Meg James put together a nice piece which included a quote from television analyst Larry Gerbrandt of Media Valuation Partners saying, "Hollywood is out of step with an audience that has already gone interactive with their own reviews, recommendations and Tweets. They no longer want a group of industry insiders telling them what they have already spent hard coin to validate. TV is about the mass audience, not auteurs or political correctness or even critical acclaim."

Personally I think Gerbrandt is wrong in his opinion here. People love to get the opinion of others. The problem isn't the opinion, it's the topic of conversation that upsets most people. Audiences aren't tuning out the Oscar celebration because Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture this past year or because Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader were nominated. They tuned out because films such as The Dark Knight and WALL-E weren't. Gerbrandt is right about the Academy being out of step, he's just a little fuzzy on the details.

However, does adding five more slots to accommodate these films really accomplish anything? Sure, now five more films can say they were nominated for Best Picture, but it took a rules change to do so. It's like playing a game of pick-up basketball and instead of only having five people on your team you have ten, only the final five never get a chance to play. How will this be any different?

Photo: Disney/Pixar

Over on Twitter, Pixar fansite UpcomingPixar.com posted a tweet saying, "What do you think about the decision to have 10 noms for Best Pic at the 2010 Oscars? I'm ecstatic because Up could be a serious contender!" Not only do I think Up is a serious contender, I think Up is a lock for a nomination now considering the dismissal of Ratatouille and WALL-E the past two years, but we aren't talking about being a serious contender for winning Best Picture, just merely getting a nomination. When the rules are changed to accommodate the masses is there anything to actually get excited about? It's like getting a trophy for being a runner-up. Worthless.

RATINGS

Obviously, appeasing the masses is the real key to this decision, not nostalgia. By making sure films liked by general audiences have a better chance at a nomination and will then be represented at the big show is sure to increase interest.

Ratings for this year's Oscars telecast were an improvement on the year prior by more than 4 million people. 36.3 million watched as Slumdog took the crown compared to the year prior when No Country for Old Men beat out Juno, Atonement, Michael Clayton and There Will be Blood. Just imagine how many more people would have watched had The Dark Knight and WALL-E been nominated, two films that managed to achieve artistic, critical and commercial appeal.

Can you believe the five Best Picture nominees in 2009, at the height of their widest release, only saw 9,121 theaters while The Dark Knight and WALL-E alone saw 8,358? Only a 763-theater differential and we're playing five-on-two here... Don't even get me started with critical ratings and box-office success because it will be hard for those five Best Picture candidates to compete with $757+ million at the domestic box-office and two films that scored 94% and 96% at RottenTomatoes.

ADVERTISING

So a ratings bump is an obvious reason and with higher ratings comes higher commercial appeal for a show that depends on advertising. The Academy's total revenue for 2008 was $81.7 million according to the "Los Angeles Times" and of that figure $73.7 million came as a result of the Oscars.

The "Los Angeles Times" goes on to say of that $81.7 million, the Academy spends $31.1 million to stage the Academy Awards, Oscar luncheons and the Governors Ball. The excess revenue is hugely important to the organization, helping it to sponsor an array of public events and exhibits, and pay for restoration work, film archives, financial grants to other institutions, student contests, screenwriting competitions and science and technology programs.

So, when the rate for a 30-second commercial in the Oscar telecast dropped to below $1 million for the first time since 1998 this year, according to the Nielsen Co., something needed to be done. The Academy had already changed the rules to allow studios to buy one 30-second commercial slot to show a trailer for one of their films and yesterday's move simply appears to be stage two.

WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT?

What will be the result of the change? Obviously, this is the big question. It's tough to say if it is a good move or a bad move until we actually see some results. My snap judgment is to say I don't like it because it lessens the value of a Best Picture nomination by half. I remember last year trying to actually put together a list of top ten films and having an extremely hard time doing it. I would argue most years don't actually churn out ten Best Picture caliber films... that is, unless the Academy is going to open up and embrace some foreign language pictures in the category, but who are we kidding? And for those of you wondering if movies like Star Trek or The Hangover now have a shot, you are kidding yourself. If a movie wasn't thought of as a possible contender before it won't be one now.

Had ten nominations been available last year what five additional films would have joined Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader?

Photo: Warner Bros., Disney/Pixar, Fox Searchlight, Miramax, Weinstein Co., Paramount Vantage

I believe The Dark Knight, WALL-E and Doubt would have been shoo-ins. Beyond that I see possibilities with The Wrestler and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I also think we can look at films such as Revolutionary Road, Gran Torino and Happy-Go-Lucky. But at this point what are we really talking about? We're talking about people saying things such as, "It was just an honor to be nominated."

Last year Slumdog Millionaire was going to win. Everyone knew that and the addition of five additional nominees wouldn't have changed things. But to add to that, while Slumdog appeared to have an insurmountable charge behind it, what about years where the winner isn't so clear-cut? Such as... I don't know... the way 2009 is looking so far.

So far I would say The Hurt Locker and Up are the first two Best Picture contenders of 2009. I am seeing Public Enemies tonight and it may be added to that list in less than 24 hours, but we'll have to wait and see. What are we looking at beyond those three?

Daniel Day-Lewis and Judi Dench in Nine
Photo: Weinstein Co.

Clint Eastwood's Invictus and Rob Marshall's Nine are two films I would pencil in blind. I think Mira Nair and Hilary Swank teaming for Amelia would be a good bet and with ten slots open I don't see how Matt Damon in Greengrass's Green Zone or Soderbergh's The Informant doesn't take up at least one of them. We also can't forget about the long-delayed The Road.

Then there are the smaller possibilities. Lionsgate has established a film festival charge with Precious and Jane Campion's return with Bright Star sounds promising. An Education built some early steam from the festival circuit and wouldn't it be a nice shock to see the Academy support something as off-the-wall as Lars von Trier's Antichrist (releasing on Oct. 23 by the way) sounds like it is?

The blockbusters that should gain traction begin with James Cameron's Avatar, a film that may likely be a top contender without the additional slots, we'll have to wait and see. Scorsese's Shutter Island may now stand a bigger chance, and perhaps Peter Jackson's Lovely Bones will impress.

Finally, I can't leave off the Coen brothers with A Serious Man, Jason Reitman's Up In the Air and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. Isn't guessing without a net fun?

With this news I need to finally get cracking on opening up The Contenders section of the site, but for now I will sit back and listen to what you have to say. Like it or not, things have gotten interesting and if nothing else it makes for great conversation.

BREAKING: Oscar's Best Picture Nominees Will Expand to Ten

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just announced in a small blurb the Oscars this year will be bumping their Best Picture nominees from five to ten beginning with the upcoming 2010 Oscars President Sid Ganis announced today at a press conference in Beverly Hills.

"After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year," said Ganis. "The final outcome, of course, will be the same � one Best Picture winner � but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009."

The move is an obvious response to the recent discussion concerning The Dark Knight's absence from the nominees for more art house style films such as The Reader and I would expect we can now look at Up as a serious contender for a Best Picture nominee when previous Pixar favorites Ratatouille and WALL-E were left in the cold.

"Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," commented Ganis. "I can�t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February."

Personally I am not sure what I think about the move as it obviously cheapens the category, but then again I guess it will all but eliminate the complaining. This also means my year-end predictions will now be more about predicting slots 8-10 than 1-5. Could be interesting... We'll have to wait and see. What are your thoughts on it?

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2. The Oscar ceremony honoring films for 2009 will again take place at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and#038; Highland Center in Hollywood on March 7, 2010, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.

Midnight Screenings Earn 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' $16 Million

Just because it is a hot topic I don't feel bad going with a short post on this one as Variety has revealed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned an estimated $16 million in midnight runs, second only to The Dark Knight. It's the best midnight run ever for a movie opening on a Wednesday.

Of course, the difference being The Dark Knight was opening on a Friday, but I think we can now expect big things from Transformers, as if we weren't already.

The Dark Knight went on to earn $67+ million on its opening day in 4,366 theaters. Transformers will take its estimated $16 million into 4,226 runs today after its roughly 3,000 runs last night.

Several of you have already made your predictions in our Transformers estimate article in which Laremy predicted a safe $43 million for Wednesday, a number that is now looking low as I would expect at least mid-50s. Thoughts?

Go Behind-the-Scenes of 'The Dark Knight' Viral Campaign

I am sure many of you remember the myriad of viral websites and corny crap Batman fans got involved in last year leading up to the release of The Dark Knight. From massive online generated scavenger hunts to faux websites propelling people into the world of Gotham City, marketing firm 42 Entertainment kept fans busy until the film finally hit theaters on its way to what is now a $1+ billion worldwide box-office tally.

Over the course of that time I did my best to keep on top of the many viral sites that sprouted up which resulted in a list of 35 sites, but I am sure I missed a few. Now, as pointed out by Film School Rejects, a video featurette detailing the success and scope of the viral campaing was revealed on Alternate Reality Branding and you may get a kick out of it by either laughing at the silly things people did or marveling at the idea the campaing included almost 10 million unique participants over 75 countries. Not too shabby eh? I don't think this will be the last time we see something of this nature.

Check out the vid below.

Welcome to the Dawn of Obamatainment

Can you feel it?

Don't mind the frightening wolves howling outside your door. Just be happy you have a door, even if it's just a flap on your cardboard shack. The world's imploding and we're all hobos now. Even Steven Spielberg has gone panhandling -- please Mr. Movie Studio Head-honcho spare some change for my Lincoln bio-pic. Yet, ignore it all. After all, we have hope. And during Sunday's Annual Circle Jerk Celebration of All that is Phony (A.K.A. The Academy Awards), Hollywood didn't let you forget it. It gave you Wolverine announcing the return of the worries-be-damned-it's-all-about-the-glam musical, and then capped the night by handing all the gold to you-just-gotta-have-hope Slumdog Millionaire. I was disappointed President Obama didn't present the award for Best (and Most Hopeful) Picture.

Yes, welcome to the sunny Age of Obamatainment. This year's Academy Awards was the launch party for it. Ding-dong the dark cynicism of the last 8 years is dead. It's pass�. Give up the dismal, it's time to get your hope on -- boo-yah! -- just like you did during the '80s when the country grew fatigued of Nixon-era disillusionment, threw a great communicator into the White House to handle a sputtering economy, and demanded that cinema aim more for the bubble-gum profundity of Zapped!

Slumdog Millionaire
Photo: Fox Searchlight

Hollywood got the memo then -- quick, toss some statues at Chariots of Fire, it's inspirational -- and they got it now. This year's best picture nominees all have a hopeful edge to them. Slumdog Millionaire not only retells the rags-to-riches story, but it throws the boy-gets-girl standby in the mix too. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button whimsically tells a love conquers all tale. Milk may have a downer of an ending, but it's brimming with hope for the evolution of our culture. Frost/Nixon unfolds in the tradition of the old-as-the-Bible, hope-obsessed yarn of David versus Goliath. And even The Reader has a bizarrely hopeful outlook.*

And that thread of optimism is precisely why The Dark Knight didn't garner any of the major Oscar noms (with the exception of Saint Ledger's). The film, with its Batman on the lam ending, is too much of a negative ninny to have made this year's cut. It's an artifact of the Bush era, in which pessimism ruled. Last year, the Academy Awards tapped out on the bleak vibe by naming a manifesto on nihilism as best picture. No Country for Old Men and its main competition in last year's race, There Will Be Blood, are films that slam, bolt and weld the hatch shut on optimism. They were the apocalyptic crescendo of the doom-drenched misery encompassing the Bush years.

Dubya was a sad lemon of a president, a smug golem who churned out one tragic decision after another like he had a quota to meet... I already miss him. We've lost our bogeyman of a muse. Say what you will about the string of travesties carried out by the carnival geek show that was the Bush administration, but give credit when due: Bush provoked the arts and entertainment industry to step it up over the last 8 years. If art is the expression of reaction, then just about everyone with a pen, camera, or crayon reacted to the daily horror show of the Bush era. We have George W. Bush, the villain**, to thank for nearly a decade's worth of enraged, brilliant satire, comedy, allegory and drama across the spectrum of arts.

Entertainers and artists discussed with outraged zeal the absurd, dark regions of the loathsome America character Bush represented. Whether it was Jon Stewart mocking Bush nightly or nearly every documentary filmmaker in the universe tackling the disastrous consequences of his administration's policy, dissent in the arts thrived over the last 8 years -- contrary to the myth that Bush and his cronies had quashed all protest.

Yet, such critical reflection wasn't reserved for cable TV or indie theaters. The cautious wimps of Hollywood rat-stomped Bush too. After all, everyone else was doing it. Despite low box-office returns*** major studios released several films focused squarely on the negatives of the post-9/11 environment (war, torture, you know, the daily grind for the Bush administration). Yet, even the blockbusters, the easily consumable Big Macs of Hollywood, played the whack-a-Bush game. Film reviewers had little problem digging up allegorical parallels to the current geo-political climate within films such as The Village, War of the Worlds, and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Even the freakin' Star Wars prequels took shots at the Bush administration.

Blockbusters depicting a sense of world-awareness veiled by aliens blowing sh*t up met with varying results. But you couldn't help but smile even at the failures. At the very least, Hollywood was trying to be interesting and subversive in its own mainstream way. And when films weren't intentionally drawing connections to the world according to Bush, they were capturing the national zeitgeist of despondency. Movies were unafraid to go dark. In fact, we wanted films to explore the shadows -- culminating in the success of The Dark Knight.

But ahh, how just half a year and a leader with a sanguine vision can change the national mood. We know the world still stinks. But move on. It's time to buck up. Get cheery. It may still be hailing outside, but Obama has given us an umbrella and rose-tinted binoculars. It's only a short matter of time before that attitude fully imbues itself within our arts and entertainment. This year's Oscars shot the opening salvo.

* Unfortunately it's a horribly twisted outlook that conveys an unintentional hopeful message for Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathizers. Don't play the indignant card. It's a perfectly legit criticism against this messy, incoherent film.

** And just as Jason Voorhees -- a silly relic of the '80s -- replaced the villainous phantom of Richard Nixon in '70s cinema, is it any surprise he circled back to take over for George W. Bush?

*** While Hollywood could turn out serious films related to the Bush administration's decisions (A.K.A. Iraq War movies), it couldn't market them worth a sh*t, which I think played more into their poor box-office than a cultural indifference toward them.

'The Dark Knight' is Now a Worldwide Billionaire

Photo: Warner Bros.

Over the weekend it finally happened as Box Office Mojo is reporting The Dark Knight has cracked the $1 billion mark in worldwide box-office receipts with a current total said to be $1,001,082,160 with just over $533 million of that coming from domestic box and almost $477 million from the foreign markets.

This places the Batman sequel in the #4 spot in the all-time worldwide charts behind Titanic ($1.842 billion), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.119 billion) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($1.066 billion). Based on the numbers it looks like this will be as high as it goes, but I must say reaching $1 billion no matter if you look at inflation numbers or not is an impressive feat.

Just last night The Dark Knight took home two Oscars, one for the late Heath Ledger and another for Sound Editing and there is an obvious fanbase that has a large amount of support for the film. It has certainly shaken up the landscape of film and placed itself as a film all others will strive to equal and will always be compared to.

'Slumdog,' 'Duchess' and 'Dark Knight' Take Costume Kudos

Pop quiz, hotshot. There's a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? "Uhhhhhhh.... Slumdog Millionaire?"

It is beginning to get a bit silly as there doesn't seem to be a question you can ask this award season that doesn't get answered with "Slumdog Millionaire." Last night the Costume Designers Guild Awards named Slumdog costumer Suttirat Larlarb the winner for excellence in contemporary film while awarding The Duchess (Michael O'Connor) for period film and The Dark Knight (Lindy Hemming) for fantasy film.

Of those three films guess which two can't win an Oscar... Yup, Slumdog Millionaire and The Dark Knight weren't nominated for an Oscar in the costume category with the crowd made up of The Duchess (my current pick to win) and Australia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk and Revolutionary Road.

Of course, looking at the way the Costume Designers Guild breaks out their nominees it does make a bit more sense how Slumdog won considering it was up against Iron Man (how is this contemporary but Dark Knight is fantasy?), Mamma Mia!, Sex and the City and The Wrestler while the Period Film category carried the majority of the Oscar nominees including The Duchess, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk and Revolutionary Road.

Australia was the only Oscar nominee not recognized by the CDG. You can find the complete list of nominees here.

Oscar Predictions: Best Cinematography and Art Direction

Photo: AMPAS

As I write this it is 11:33 PM PST on Tuesday, February 16. In just over 17 hours from now, at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 17 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must return their completed final Oscar ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Yup, the deadline is nigh and we continue to take a peek at the below-the-line categories leading up to the Thursday free-for-all. Today we take a look at Cinematography and Art Direction with Animated, Foreign Language and Documentary films following tomorrow and then the complete field on Thursday along with polls for you to vote for your projected winners.

You can take a look at past predictions made long the way by clicking on any of the links below.

As for this round, let's look at the nominees for ...

Achievement in art direction

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Achievement in cinematography

Changeling, Tom Stern
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight, Wally Pfister
The Reader, Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

We can start with Art Direction, which recently saw honors handed out the Art Directors Guild on Saturday with production designers for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire taking home awards. The fact only Button and Dark Knight were nominated for an Oscar means we can actually forget about Slumdog for a moment. With Button getting the nod for best production design in a period film and Knight getting love for a fantasy feature I am not sure it gives us much ground to work with. Choosing between those two I will have to go with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button since I was more impressed with how The Dark Knight was photographed than how it was designed. However, after watching Changeling this weekend I wouldn't argue if it won and the same goes for both The Duchess and Revolutionary Road. I believe this is a solid group of worthy nominees, but still believe Button is the front-runner.

Photo: Warner Bros.

In terms of Cinematography I can pretty much tell you Anthony Dod Mantle is going to win for Slumdog Millionaire right now. The BAFTA Awards and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) awarded his work as the best of 2008 and while that doesn't always mean the Oscar will follow it seems illogical to vote against Slumdog in any of the categories outside of Sound. However, just as the production design in Changeling was impressive so was the muted palette Tom Stern brought to it and the work Claudio Miranda put into The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was also impressive. And like I made reference to earlier, the shot from The Dark Knight above speaks to the fantastic visuals Wally Pfister brought to that film.

The one wild card in the bunch is The Reader, a film I absolutely loved the look of, but the beauty of it seems to be what will lose it the Oscar in this category as so many see it as a contradiction of tone. I mean, how can we have a film that even touches upon the atrocities of the Holocaust (even though it is not a Holocaust film) look this beautiful? As much as I have tried to argue against The Reader haters I must say they have a point here and it really hit me when I saw the beautiful cinematography in Vicente Amorim's Good. Andrew Dunn's work in that film was fantastic but it was even more a contradiction to tone than was found in The Reader.

So, for Cinematography I am left with Slumdog Millionaire simply based on logic and good sense, but if almost any of the other nominees in both of these categories were to win I wouldn't consider it an upset and in some cases I would say it may be a better choice.

What do you think? Do you disagree? If so, why?

Oscar Predictions: Best Makeup and Costume Design

Photo: AMPAS

And the attempt to figure out who will win what at the 2009 Oscars continues on this Thursday afternoon with Makeup and Costume Design. You can take a look at my current predictions for Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and the Supporting categories right here, Adapted and Original Screenplay right here, Original Score and Original Song here and yesterday's predictions for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing here.

Drum roll... and the nominees please...

Achievement in makeup

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Greg Cannom
The Dark Knight, John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O'Sullivan
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Achievement in costume design

Australia, Catherine Martin
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jacqueline West
The Duchess, Michael O'Connor
Milk, Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road, Albert Wolsky

We have some interesting choices this year in both categories as the Best Picture nominee The Curious Case of Benjamin Button finds itself in both categories, but I don't think it will win either in either of them. Fan favorite The Dark Knight gets a chance at Oscar gold and even Revolutionary Road is allowed to enter the discussion. But which one of the above flicks rises to the top in each category?

First for makeup and I am going to have to go with Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I think both The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight relied too heavily on computer effects to earn the nod while Guillermo del Toro's make up crew, Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz, had to do far more work, especially on Big Red alone and not to mention the Angel of Death. In Ben Button Benjamin was a lot of effects and then in The Dark Knight Nolan went for the ghastly when it came to Two Face as opposed to simple facial abrasions. Yup, Hellboy gets my vote.

As for Costumes I think there is one obvious pick even though a case could be made for the rest of the features. Milk, Revolutionary Road and Benjamin Button all did extremely well at capturing their moments in time while Australia mixed the Outback leather with upper class flair. However, ever since the marketing machine for The Duchess began there was a central focus on the costumes. It was almost as if the film had been made solely to win an Oscar for Best Costumes and at this point I don't see how it can lose.

Have an opinion? Am I wrong? Share below and stay tuned as the march toward February 22 continues.

'Slumdog' Takes Home Seven at the BAFTAs while Winslet Continues Her Streak

The 2009 BAFTA Award winners have been announced and once again Slumdog Millionaire has taken on all comers and come out ahead with seven awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

On the acting side Kate Winslet has once again taken home hardware winning Best Actress for her performance in The Reader while Mickey Rourke won on the Leading Actor side beating Sean Penn among others for his performance in The Wrestler. Heath Ledger was awarded for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight and Penelope Cruz won for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

The acting awards are a big deal for those predicting the 2009 Oscar winners as last year all four acting winners at the BAFTAs went on to take home the Oscar, which included Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton. It also means good news for Danny Boyle as the Coens went on to take the Oscar after their BAFTA win.

However, there was a discrepancy last year as No Country for Old Men took home the Oscar, but Atonement won the BAFTA award. Of course many could chalk this up to the British Academy simply awarding a British film, but it is notable nonetheless.

You can check out the complete list of winners below and click here if you want to give the nominees another glance.

2009 WINNERS

BEST FILM

Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colso

LEADING ACTOR

Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

LEADING ACTRESS

Kate Winslet for The Reader

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

DIRECTOR

Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

In Bruges, Martin McDonagh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Man on Wire, Simon Chinn / James Marsh

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

I've Loved You So Long, Yves Marmion / Philippe Claudel

ANIMATED FILM

WALL-E, Andrew Stanton

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

EDITING

Slumdog Millionaire, Chris Dickens

PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Donald Graham Burt / Victor J. Zolfo

COSTUME DESIGN

The Duchess, Michael O'Connor

MAKE UP and#038; HAIR

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jean Black / Colleen Callaghan

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba / Craig Barron / Nathan McGuinness / Edson Williams

SOUND

Slumdog Millionaire, Glenn Freemantle / Resul Pookutty / Richard Pryke / Tom Sayers / Ian Tapp

MUSIC

Slumdog Millionaire, A. R. Rahman

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film

STEVE McQUEEN Director/Writer - Hunger

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

Noel Clarke