movies (718 posts)

Summit Entertainment

What else is there to say about New Moon that hasn't already been gushed? That the sequel to you-know-what starring you-know-who and -who and -who, grossed a record-setting, undead-enlivening, "absolutely freakish" $26.3 million in Friday midnight screenings?

Well, there's that.

Yes, New Moon usurped the midnight crown from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($22.2 million), which ousted The Dark Knight ($18.5 million) this past July. Nudge the person in the theater next to you, and pass it on.

How do we know you're reading this on a hand-held at a multiplex? Because chances are you are.

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Summit Entertainment

Is the pope (a) Team Edward, (b) Team Jacob or (c) none of the above?

Take a wild guess.

To the surprise of no one, it turns out the folks who hated J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown aren't into the Stephenie Meyer cinematic canon, either.

"This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern," warns the Vatican's culture council leader, Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, in a statement timed to the release of New Moon.

"This theme of vampires in Twilight combines a mixture of excesses that, as ever, is aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element," he continues.

We're guessing that's one blurb we won't be seeing in the newspaper ads.

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New Moon rises today. How pumped are you?!

BIG PICTURES/bauergriffinonline.com

Robert Downey Jr. is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly to promote his upcoming movie, Sherlock Holmes ("Holmes for the Holiday!"), and he admits he's torn between having a life and acting.

On one hand, he wants to hang out with his wife and go see movies:

"I have no set plans for my future," Downey says. "I've never had it this good—this is my day in the sun—and I certainly don’t want to look a gift horse in the molars. But Susan [Downey, his wife] and I want to begin to be in our lives as much as we are in our jobs." 

But on the other hand, he's, like, really good at acting and doesn't want to deprive the world of his greatness:

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AP Photo/Stephen Chernin

On the eve of New Moon's opening, it's only natural O.G. cinema vamp Brad Pitt would want a share of the spotlight.

And what Pitt wants, Pitt gets, this time courtesy of the news that he's set to develop—and most likely take the lead role in—a big screen adaptation of Dark Void, a forthcoming shoot-'em-up video game.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Pitt would ostensibly star as Will, a cargo pilot who finds himself in a parallel universe after crashing in the Bermuda Triangle. He and his outnumbered crew, along with their mysterious, unnamed "powers," end up fighting aliens that the previously presumed to be extinct.

The film-inspiring game is released in January.

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Check out who else is making the big screen rounds in our Casting Couch gallery.

They say a kiss is just a kiss. Unless, of course, that kiss belongs to Miley Cyrus and a certain costar. Then it immediately becomes tabloid fodder.

Such was the case a few months back when shots popped up of the 16-year-old locking lips with Liam Hemsworth on the set of their upcoming flick, The Last Song. Naturally, we speculated as to whether they could possibly be an item offscreen as well.

Which makes this new trailer all the more fun to watch. You know, trying to figure out the exact moment—Was it that first glance at the carnival? The seductive placement of seashells around her body on the beach? Him writing "Forever" on her Chuck Taylors?—that may have led to the rumored love connection.

As for the movie itself? Yeah, there's a plot.

At least we think there's one.

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The Last Song doesn't hit theaters until April 2010, but you can enjoy these Totally New Releases right now.

Summit Entertainment

Twilight was huge. New Moon will be huger.

Um, won't it?

Sure, go ahead, and call it now. You won't be disappointed. (Unless you were seriously expecting Teams Edward and Jacob to sink Titanic.)

Projections have New Moon, rising in theaters midnight Friday—following the one-night-only theatrical return of Twilight—grossing anywhere in the Forks, Wash., neighborhood of $80 million to $100 million by the close of Sunday, and maybe $200 million-plus when all is said and done and swooned over.

On either the high or "low" end, the presumed opening-weekend take would put the sequel in elite company, and leave the franchise with nothing to fear—except perhaps its own hot, media-dominating self.

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Paramount Vantage

Oscar won't be tacking a happy ending onto Capitalism: A Love Story.

Michael Moore's latest diatribe against the powers that be, this one directed at Wall Street and the government that let it run amok, did not make the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' short list of films that still have a shot at winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Instead, the eye-opening Food, Inc. is the top muckracker of the bunch, joining Facing Ali (but not Tyson) and Valentino: The Last Emperor (but not The September Issue) in the in-between stage of Oscar consideration.

Of 89 feature-length docs submitted, 15 made the list, most of them focusing on international politics and global issues, such as illegal immigration (Which Way Home) and cultural oppression in Zimbabwe (Mugabe and the White African).

Moore's Bowling for Columbine, his stab at U.S. gun-control policy, was named Best Documentary in 2003, and Sicko, about the state of health care in the U.S., scored a nomination last year. But the Academy stayed far, far away from his 2004 blockbuster, Fahrenheit 9/11, perhaps not wanting to encourage another "Shame on you, Mr. Bush" speech so soon after the first one.

Check out which 15 documentaries are in the running for Hollywood's highest honor after the jump:

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Frank Micelotta/Getty Images, Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

Jennifer Hudson is going first lady on us. Just not our first lady.

The Oscar winner is baiting the Academy once more, this time as she signs on to star as the titular Winnie in a biopic about the wife of former South Africa prez Nelson Mandela.

According to Variety, the drama, based on the Anne Marie du Preez Bezrob biography Winnie Mandela: A Life, won't shy away from the less flattering and more controversial elements of the famous spouse's life.

A mom and, of course, wife, Mandela was a loyal supporter of her husband's and was jailed herself. In later years, she was accused of horrendous human rights violations by an ex-bodyguard, who claimed she regularly ordered him to beat and kill people, including a 14-year-old boy. She was convicted of kidnapping and assault.

Not that Hudson's worried about taking on such a challenging role...

"I was compelled and moved when I read the script," Hudson told the trade mag of the part, which will be her first since the tragic deaths of her mother, brother and nephew last fall. "Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I'm honored to be the actress asked to portray her.

"This is a powerful part of history that should be told."

There's no word yet on who will play Nelson Mandela, but if producers choose to go the May-December route, Variety helpfully points out that Morgan Freeman is already playing the iconic figure opposite Matt Damon in the forthcoming Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood.

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Check out which other stars are making their way to the big screen in our Casting Couch gallery.