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Box Office: Taken Grabs $9.8M Friday, Targets $24M Super Bowl Weekend By Steve Mason/Jan. 31, 2009 12:17 am EST Liam Neeson is officially a full-fledged action star. The Irish-born actor has often played heroes, whether it was Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Schindler’s List, the wise Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace or determined sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in 2005’s biopic Kinsey, Neeson has always had a knack for playing the earnest-but-flawed good guy....

Box Office Tracking: Cloverfield #1, Spartans #2, Rambo #3 By Steve Mason/Jan. 25, 2008 2:01 am EST Film industry tracking points to a Cloverfield repeat weekend win. History points to a 50%-55% drop forThe J.J. Abrams-produced monster flick to a likely take in the $21M-$23M range. The battle will be for #2, and I’m calling for an upset. The Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer spoof movie Meet the Spartans (Fox) has an overall First Choice number of 13% compared to 11% for Rambo (Lionsgate), and the 300 send-up outscores the Stallone sequel with Under 25 Males 32% to 19%....

Cool Stuff: Darth Vader Bronze Statue By Peter Sciretta/Sept. 16, 2008 4:00 am EST Lawrence Noble has created a 4 foot tall 150 pound Darth Vader bronze statue. The statue was created for Lucasfilm’s Presidio headquarters, but a limited edition of 30 numbered statues are being made available on StarWars.com for only $18,000. Each statue was forged and assembled at a foundry close to Lucasfilm’s Presidio campus, the same foundry responsible for producing several of the other bronzes adorning the parkland property the company occupies....

Cool Stuff: R2-D2 PC Case Mod By Peter Sciretta/March 5, 2008 1:28 pm EST I’m not one to go goo goo for PC case mods. I respect the work that went into them, and appreciate the artistry, but I just don’t have the time, effort, or interest to create something myself. Plus, I find the mac form factor to be all I need. But this case mod is different. The Contaminated built a computer inside an original R2-D2 chassis specially created by Australian firm Petric Engineering....

Curtis Hanson To Direct Film About Surfer Jay Moriarity; Sean Penn May Appear By Russ Fischer/March 30, 2010 6:39 am EST In 2001, 22-year old surfing superstar Jay Moriarity drowned while free diving in the Maldive Islands. Now Moriarity’s life is set to hit the screen directed by Curtis Hanson, with Sean Penn possibly set to take a supporting role. We don’t have a lot on the picture; Production Weekly reports via Twitter that Hanson will direct and that Sean Penn is in talks to play Frosty, Moriarity’s mentor....

By Devindra Hardawar/Jan. 20, 2010 1:30 am EST And to prove that this isn’t your typical U.S. TV series remake, word is that original star John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness, may star in the U.S. version as well. Quite honestly it doesn’t seem like they’re remaking the series so much as they are continuing the story from the U.K. version. My biggest worry with this adaptation is if they try to go for a full reboot, instead of continuing off of the original series’ narrative....

Friday Box Office: Enchanted With $4.9M; Savages And Diving Bell Strong By Steve Mason/Dec. 1, 2007 2:20 am EST The weekend after Thanksgiving is traditionally a rough 3-day for the movie business, and 2007 is no exception. The Top 12 movies are on track for just over $78M, down 4% from the same weekend last year, when the top 3 movies were Happy Feet, Casino Royale and DéjàVu. Overall, this year’s post-Thanksgiving weekend haul will likely be the 6th-best in the past 10 years and slightly above the $77....

Moving McAllister Movie Trailer By Peter Sciretta/July 17, 2007 1:12 pm EST Moving McAllister is one of those road trip indie comedies that is written by its main star.The official plot synopsis reads: Rick Robinson is a ladder-climbing law intern from Miami with four days until the Bar Exam. Desperate to score points with his boss (McAllister), he commits to a favor he can’t afford. He ends up in a rundown truck headed to L....

New Kick-Ass Poster: “Shut Up. Kick Ass.” By Peter Sciretta/Jan. 17, 2010 1:00 pm EST Lionsgate has released a new Kick-Ass theatrical poster on the film’s official website (found via IMPA). The poster features all the main costumed characters: Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist, Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready aka the vulgar and deadly 11-year-old assassin Hit-Girl and Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass. Check out the full poster after the jump....

No Metal Gear Solid Movie Anytime Soon, Says Producer Mike De Luca By Devindra Hardawar/Jan. 11, 2010 1:20 am EST For years now, we’ve been reporting on the potential film adaptation of the Konami game series Metal Gear Solid. Last year, we reported that Equilibrium director Kurt Wimmer was talking with the studio about adapting the game, and there were also rumors about Paul Thomas Anderson directing as well (we think they really meant Paul W....

Super Bowl Ads: Wanted And Narnia: Prince Caspian By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 2, 2008 11:46 pm EST Check out the Super Bowl spots for Universal’s Wanted and Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian below. [flv:http://media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/trailers/narniapcsuperbowl.flv 470 188] [flv:http://media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/trailers/wantedsuperbowl.flv 470 254] The Wanted advertisement is also available in High Definition on Yahoo! Movies. Super Bowl Ads: Wanted And Narnia: Prince Caspian By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 2, 2008 11:46 pm EST Check out the Super Bowl spots for Universal’s Wanted and Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian below....

Symbol Teaser Trailer (Trippy, Claustrophobic Japanese Fantasy) By Hunter Stephenson/Sept. 24, 2009 10:10 am EST The latest trailers for Symbol (or Shinboru) hint at an odd film that mixes the claustrophobia of Cube, the asylum-like paranoia of Jim Henson’s The Cube, and the random, colorful Japanese itemization of a Turbo Grafx 16 game import. Needless to say, I’m interested, and buzz on the latest film from Hitoshi Matsumoto, the Japanese star and writer/director of cult-fave Big Man Japan, has it delivering on the promising, pristine imagery below....

Tarantino Will Make Another Film Before Kill Bill 3; Perhaps A Western Or Gangster Picture By Russ Fischer/Oct. 5, 2009 1:07 pm EST Last week we heard that Quentin Tarantino would make another installment in his Kill Bill series (which would seem to necessitate a stretch in what the title means, since Bill is dead) but that will likely be a few years down the road. Which, being this being Tarantino, could mean it won’t happen at all....

Telluride Video Blog: Day 1 - The Arrival By Peter Sciretta/Sept. 4, 2009 2:48 pm EST Two plane rides and a two and a half hour car ride later, I’m in Telluride Colorado for the 36th Telluride Film Festival. I attempted to record a video blog on the car ride, but it became too dark too fast. So I instead recorded an introductory video blog on the gondola which takes us over the mountain and into downtown Telluride....

The Dark Knight Shoots For IMAX: Is This The Future Of Cinema? By Peter Sciretta/May 29, 2007 2:01 am EST Christopher Nolan plans to film four action sequences from The Dark Knight with IMAX cameras. While it’s usual for 35mm shot films to be up-converted for an IMAX presentation, this is a first. The final product in the IMAX version will result in a better product. The aspect ration will change to the larger IMAX ratio size during the select scenes....

The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter Superbowl Commercial By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 4, 2010 1:30 pm EST Universal Studios will air the first television commercial for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the new theme park section of Universal’s Islands of Adventure which will launch in Spring 2010. The 30 second television spot is now available online, and is embedded below. But you didn’t expect it to feature any real footage of the still-in-construction park, did you?...

Tim Burton Set To Begin Stop-Motion Work On Frankenweenie 3D? By Russ Fischer/March 22, 2010 9:19 am EST Last week there was some confusion when a Deadline report suggested that Tim Burton would shortly begin work on a stop-motion animated film based on The Addams Family. That report was quickly denied by Burton’s publicist (in a way that still leaves us wondering if it is a film that will happen) but there’s another animated movie that Burton has been gearing up to make: an update of his early short Frankenweenie....

VOTD: 50 Movie Spoilers Of 2009 In 4 Minutes By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 28, 2010 10:46 pm EST The Fine Brothers love to spoil everything, In past years, we’ve featured their popular videos 100 Movie Spoilers in 4 minutes and Spoiling Every Best Picture Winner in Oscar History. After seeing all of the big movies of 2009, the brothers are back once again. Their latest video spoils 50 movies released last year (including all ten best picture nominees) in one take, in under 4 minutes....

VOTD: How Star Wars: Episode IV Should Have Ended By Peter Sciretta/Nov. 3, 2008 12:00 am EST How Star Wars: Episode IV Should Have Ended The Pitch: “The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force, but having both on your side makes you pretty unstoppable.” Thanks to /Film reader Drake R for the tip. Watch More Cool Videos Here! Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations....

VOTD: Meet The Musicians Behind Sherlock Holmes By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 26, 2010 1:16 am EST Warner Bros has released a music video to help promote the original music composed for Sherlock Holmes, timed to let the Academy members get one last look before casting their ballots. The video introduces the musicians behind the music: The musicians are Hans Zimmer, the composer nominated for his 8th Oscar for this score. The gentleman on the boat in the red pants is Lorne Balfe, (co-music producer) Alexsey Igudesman is the gentleman playing the violin on the beach and on the elephant, and the women are Ann-Marie Calhoun who is playing the violin and also in the box and Tina Guo plays the cello on the car....