Eagle Eye gave the September box office a late bump, raking in $29 million in its first week. Yes, America, we have to start dealing with the fact that Shia LaBeouf is a movie star. The latest weepie adapted from the soggy Nicholas Sparks oeuvre, Nights in Rodanthe, landed at number two with $13.6 million, while last week’s champ, Lakeview Terrace, dropped to number three with $7 million. Somehow a Kirk Cameron movie called Fireproof finished fourth with $6.5 million. Perhaps this is the latest sign that the Rapture is nigh.
Of all the Marvel comics adaptations heading for the big screen, Thor is…well, it’s the latest one, anyway. And who better to bring this hammer-wielding blowhard to life than Mr. Shakespeare himself, Kenneth Branagh? As Variety puts it, “Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige's choice of Branagh is surprising, as Branagh hasn't really directed an action-heavy film since his debut on Henry V, a bloody telling of the British king's conquest of France.” Thor is due in 2010, so mark your calendar or your iPhone or whatever you kids are doing these days.
My friends, I recently started work on a screenplay for the first time in a few years, and now I am reminded why I gave up screenwriting in the first place: every time I come up with a new idea, I’m beaten to the punch. The latest example is The Old College Try by Brett Gursky and Scott Herbst, who I now hate. “The time-travel comedy centers on a thirtysomething commitment-phobic man who finds himself transported back to his college days at Syracuse University, where he can alter his romantic fate in what is described as a modern Peggy Sue Got Married,” says The Hollywood Reporter. It’s not exactly my idea, but it’s close enough for me too root for this project to crash and burn. That’s just how I roll.
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