Michael Giacchino Apparently Doesn't Sleep, Scoring 'Cars 2,' 'Super 8,' 'M:I4,' 'John Carter Of Mars' & 'I'm With Cancer'

For a man who was scoring video games only ten years ago, composer Michael Giacchino wasted no time in becoming one of the most in-demand composers around. Hand picked by J.J. Abrams to write the music for TV show "Alias" (he's since gone on to compose "Lost" and "Six Degrees" on TV for Abrams), he made his feature debut in spectacular fashion on Pixar's "The Incredibles," knocking out a stunning, John Barry-homaging work that launched him into the big leagues.

Since then, despite working on "Lost" consistently throughout its six year run, he's also managed to pull in some strong work -- working with Abrams on "Mission Impossible 3" and "Star Trek," and Pixar on "Ratatouille" and "Up," the latter of which is probably his best work to date, picking him up the Academy Award for best score. And even when he works on films that aren't up to scratch, like "Land of the Lost" or "Speed Racer," his music is often the best part of them.

He can currently be heard in theaters with the eerie, choir-tinged score for "Let Me In" (which is lovely, but a little intrusive -- one of the film's few flaws), and, with the day job on "Lost" wrapping up this year, he's lined up half a dozen projects that'll keep him busy through to 2012.

A Variety profile of the composer has revealed that Giacchino is reteaming with a number of directors he's worked with before; Abrams on "Super 8," Brad Bird on the fourth "Mission Impossible" and Thomas Bezucha, with whom he worked on "The Family Stone," on the Selena Gomez comedy "Monte Carlo."

But he's also making waves with new helmers, teaming with two members of the Pixar Brain Trust -- John Lasseter on "Cars 2" (replacing Randy Newman, who did the original) and Andrew Stanton on the live-action "John Carter of Mars." Finally, and probably the first to hit the screens, he's currently working on the Seth Rogen/Joseph Gordon-Levitt comedy "Live with It" (formerly known as "I'm With Cancer," which Jonathan Levine ("The Wackness") is directing.

We love Giacchino's work, on the whole, and it's good to see him busy, and on a generally promising selection of projects. We only hope that it won't see him spread too thinly, but we imagine that after knocking out two dozen episodes of "Lost" a year for the last six, this'll seem like a holiday.

Read More

Matt Reeves Says Naomi Watts No Longer Attached To His 'Invisible Woman' Passion Project

We should fully face up and admit it while we're here. Like many others, we vociferously groaned last year when we heard "Cloverfield" director Matt Reeves announced he would be filming an English-Language remake of the Swedish vampire/coming-of-age story, "Let The Right One In."

Fast forward to a year later and we were eating our words like Dracula on a bender. Reeves' "Let Me In" was not only on par with the original, it was arguably better on multiple levels. The horror wasn't cartoony (aside from maybe 1-2 shots) and actually horrific and therefore created a much more haunting dichotomy with the tenderness of the pre-pubescent friendship/love story. Plus the original didn't have the utterly amazing Richard Jenkins who emoted so much in perhaps 10 lines of dialogue or less and Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee, both of whom are going to be huge stars one day (especially Moretz, watch out).

Yet even good worth of mouth and reviews couldn't save the film and North American audiences ignored the version shot for them (oh the shame and irony). Not even a resounding thumbs up from Stephen King, who called it one of the best horror films in the last 20 years (we completely agree) doesn't seem like it's moved the needle at all. Sigh.

Well, onto what's next and/or may or may not be next (frankly Reeves would be an excellent "Wolverine 2" contender, but we don't want him to waste his time). Before "Let Me In" came into the picture, Reeves was going to follow-up "Cloverfield" with an indie project called, "The Invisible Woman" starring Naomi Watts.

While it sounded like a genre film and therefore easier to finance, Reeves said this was not the case at all and actually the picture was much more of a "Hitchcockian" thriller and character study that might have been a difficult sell. While Reeves calls it a "passion project" that he would one day like to make, the filmmaker noted that Watts is no longer attached and it doesn't sound like anything he is making soon. The director spoke to IGN:

"My first thought after finishing Cloverfield was to go back to my passion project, 'The Invisible Woman.' And it was a very difficult moment - I'd just done Cloverfield and that had been a success which should have helped me get the movie made, but [Invisible Woman] wasn't a particularly genre-based film. I guess you could say it's a Hitchcockian thriller, but it's very character-based. It was a quintessential independent film, and at just that moment, the independent film world started to implode. A lot of companies went out of business in a very short period of time."

"I'm getting a lot of interesting things to read (alluding to the various offers he's had in the last six months), but I'm very passionate to get 'Invisible Woman' made, and it comes down to finding the right cast and finding someone who would get behind it enough to take that risk. I don't even want to think how many years I've been trying to get this movie made but it's definitely a priority of mine to get that movie made."

What is next for Reeves? At the moment, that's undecided, but after our mixed feelings on the gimmicky, but entertaining "Cloverfield," we're suddenly excited to find there's another thoughtful genre helmer around who can bring pathos, intelligence and care to characters, on top of delivering action set-pieces and effects. Why didn't Reeves get "Superman" over Zack Snyder (or Duncan Jones for that matter)? That's a question we'll be asking ourselves all year. Btw, here's a deleted scene from "Let Me In" that you should check out.

Read More

Weekend Box Office: Viewers Log On, Join 'The Social Network'

Reports peg “The Social Network” costing Sony $40-$60 million, which means this number one opening should be more than solid. But then you have to consider prints and advertising - a movie about angry nerds staring at computer screens and occasionally yelling at each other with maximum verbosity doesn’t sell itself. The picture might count as “relevant” and “important” but with a likely costly Oscar campaign coming, Sony’s going to pray this has enough legs to get to $100 million and not settle for $60m. In Facebook terms, this isn’t an Eduardo Saverin opening, but it is a Mark Zuckerberg opening. Sony was probably banking on a Sean Parker-type weekend.

The numbers suggest the film did extremely well on the coasts and weak in the Midwest, South, and various flyover regions*. There could be the nugget of a possibility that “The Social Network” is something more cerebral, even esoteric. Perhaps it’s the notion that this is a story where no one is really worth rooting for, and at heart, the film explores the complexities of truly godless individuals. Or maybe it’s the very real possibility that “Network” was snobbishly pushed harder on the coasts, while the rest of the nation was left to tune out from this movie about people tapping on their keyboards to create a waste of time website that serves no real, practical purpose. Let us not forget that sometimes, being a “good” movie isn’t enough of a hook for some viewers.
Conventional wisdom says that kiddie flicks have legs, even when they aren’t heavily attended, and “Legend of the Guardians” won't buck that trend. Still, this thing has flop written all over it, whether it’s a $100 or $150 million expenditure, even if it was a Legendary Films/Warner Bros. co-production, and even if they paid the voice cast in trinkets and tchotchkes. Even though there's no relation between the projects, WB didn't gain any promotional traction by pushing this film a week after their own Ben Affleck bank robbing caper, something most studios usually know to avoid. It looked more nature-film than action picture, and those early ads, with laughably terrible guitar rock over the cuddly CGI images, probably turned off parents hoping they could take their kids to something a bit less somber-looking.

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” had a hearty fall from its perch, losing about half its audience. An expected fall for this type of film, this sequel is still projected to perform right at expectations, landing at $50-$60 million easily. You could have argued that all parties involved needed this to be bigger, but that case is dubious now - failing to become a zeitgeist grabber and, likely, an awards contender keeps Shia LeBeouf in the Brand Name sweepstakes, but not in the Real Actor department. And Oliver Stone likely buys himself some time and a chance to be director-for-hire yet again despite a serious declining Q rating based on diminished skill and reliance on hefty budgets. Of course, this sadly might be the last time we see Michael Douglas strutting his stuff on the big screen, and for a former box office lion like him, that likely carries weight for the people who have added to “Wall Street 2” tallies.

At the WB, they reward success not with fruit baskets or gift certificates but with a chance to helm “Superman.” However, all reports suggest Ben Affleck would rather have the fruit basket, free massage and chaise longue that come with the success for “The Town,” which held remarkably well in week three and looks poised to challenge $90 million domestic. A movie that makes $100 million in the September-October time period has a serious effect on your cred, but it’s oodles better if the film has legs and benefits from what appears to be word-of-mouth. “The Social Network” and “Wall Street” may have topped the box office recently, but “The Town” still carries a lot of “I’ve gotta see that” heat from the general public.

“Easy A” continues to stick around, a stellar hold getting the film over the likely $40 million domestic target, with more ground to cover. $60 million isn’t out of the question, a number that can turn a bit player into a star. Emma Stone, this is your moment: don’t work with CGI owls. Screen Gems had a rocking summer, and with this sub-$10 million film generating significant theatrical profit (providing p&a wasn’t out of control - always a possibility), all parties involved could pull in serious dough by association. More than likely, director Will Gluck has now atoned in the eyes of studios for “Fired Up,” one of last year’s biggest flops.

When a film sits on the shelf for more than a couple of years, it’s a terrible sign for everyone. But Paramount knows when God gives you lemons, you make applesauce, and was able to get Paramount Vantage's leftover “Case 39” into a couple thousand theaters years after that boutique label closed. Most studios would treat a film like this as radioactive and it would go straight-to-DVD, but Paramount rolled the dice on a likely cheap ad campaign (and no press screenings) and will get the film to a potential $15 million gross. Overture have to be smarting that “Let Me In” was taken out by the knees partly because the horror dollar was being squeezed by not only “Case 39” and “Devil” but also “Hatchet II” and “Chain Letter.” The last two were quiet indie releases though, so Paramount, who could have shat out “Case 39” on any weekend to similar results, comes out looking like a dick. Viewers, meanwhile, had to be confused by the fact that Bradley Cooper no longer looked so buff and Renee Zellweger didn’t resemble a Shoggoth.

We don’t wish to hate on this decision, but what kind of Tranya does one have to sip to think that they would make serious money by remaking “Let The Right One In”? Overture somehow saw dollar signs in remaking a “beloved” recent horror classic that made $2 million domestically on the art house circuit, imagining they got brownie points for staying close to the source material. “Let Me In” is as alienating as major releases get, a dark, snowy, somber adult film starring kids and ostensibly featuring horrific violence. “Let Me In” had no recognizable faces, a hard-R rating and ads that (appropriately?) showcased vampirism as a disease, when audiences have already declared that they prefer their vamps with guns (“Underworld”), smoking hot (“Twilight”) and generally sans real tragedy. No matter how strong Matt Reeves’ vision for this remake was (and it's an excellent effort), it was DOA as soon as it was announced, and most of us are just stunned they got it into 2000 theaters. Of course, more people will have seen “Let Me In” than “Let The Right One In” by the time the dust settles, but this material just isn’t for everyone. Which is our condescending way of saying that lots of people have terrible taste.

In indie theaters, "Catfish" and "Waiting For Superman" remained the top attractions, with "Catfish" expanding to the tune of $607k on 34 screens and the Davis Guggenheim doc pulling in $407k with the week's best per-screen average ($11k per). While "Catfish" isn't showing the kind of breakout potential people expected, "Superman" could play pretty strongly if this expansion is managed the right way, and potentially it could be a rarity, the $1 million doc. "It Might Get Loud" and "An Inconvenient Truth," Guggenheim's previous, crossed that barrier with ease (particularly the latter), but "Superman" is a noticeably tougher sell. Still, the impetus behind a film like this is, as long as one person sees it, it has made a difference. Also, the people who made "Waiting For Superman" are already millionaires.

In a crowded indie marketplace, Woody Allen's "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" averaged $8k per-screen, with $232k on 29 screens. "Get Low" continues to bring in audiences, bringing its total to $8.6 million with a strong $204k in its tenth weekend, while super-doc "Freakanomics" barely made a dent with $33k on seventeen screens. The big loser for this weekend? The horror genre. In addition to "Case 39" and "Let Me In" bellyflopping, two smaller releases had debuts on the frail end of the spectrum. "Hatchet II" pulled in only $62k on 68 screens, while "Chain Letter" was one of the year's biggest tanks at 406 venues, pulling in $143k, a meager average of $352 per-screen. Pass this on - support your local indie theaters, folks.

1. The Friendster Lounge (Sony) - $23 million
2. Legend Of The Guardians: Owly! (WB) - $10.9 million ($30 mil.)
3. Wall Street: Money Takes A Knee (Fox) - $10.1 million ($36 mil.)
4. The Town (WB) - $10 million ($64 mil.)
5. Easy A (Sony) - $7 million ($42 mil.)
6. You Again (Disney) - $5.6 million ($16 mil.)
7. Case 39 (Paramount) - $5.4 million
8. Let Me In (Overture) - $5.3 million
9. Devil (Universal) - $3.7 million ($28 mil.)
10. Alpha And Omega - $3 million ($19 mil.)

*Bear with us; Hollywood considers anything that isn’t New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago “flyover regions.”

Read More

In Theaters: 'The Social Network,' 'Let Me In,' 'Case 39'

Oscar season kicks off with a click of a mouse as David Fincher unveils his latest film "The Social Network" or as most know it "That Facebook Movie." It's a really strong film and is poised to do great business at the box office against a weak group of contenders this weekend. With reviews this strong, the picture could have a long shelf life as we rocket into awards season. Competition this week comes in the form of a couple of horror films. "Let Me In" is the English-language remake of 2008's swedish vampire movie "Let the Right One In." It should easily outdo the buzz-less Renee Zellweger-lead "Case 39" for your multiplex dollars. The art-house is a quiet spot this weekend as well, with a couple of interesting documentaries, "Freakonomics" and "Casino Jack and the United States of Money" looking like your best bets.

In Wide Release: One week after Oliver Stone's attempt to capture the zeitgeist with "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," another great filmmaker examines a different dimension of recent American history in "The Social Network." David Fincher's film is, of course, the long awaited Aaron Sorkin-scripted story of the founding of Facebook, centering around Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) who ultimately got most of the credit as well as the cash---to the tune of 6.9 billion dollars. We reviewed the film back at the New York Film Festival, finding it to be thrilling, grand entertainment and a great addition to Fincher's filmography after the relative disappointment of 2008's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." RT: Metacritic: 97% Metacritic: 98.

"Let Me In" is the American adaptation of John Lindqvist's novel "Let The Right One In." The films tells the story of an outcast young boy (played by "The Road'" actor Kodi Smit-Mchee) who starts a friendship with a female vampire ("Kick Ass" actor Chloe Moretz) living in secrecy. Director Tomas Alfredson brought the book to the screen with his acclaimed and beloved 2008 Swedish-language versions and fans worldwide were miffed by Hollywood's intent on remaking the material. We reviewed the film when we saw it at Toronto last month and were pleasantly surprised by "Cloverfield" director Matt Reeves' film, which is just as powerful and moving as the original. RT: 82% Metacritic: 78.

The generic looking horror film "Case 39" opens today. Generic-looking isn't always a bad thing when it comes to box office for fright flicks, but considering this one stars Renee Zellweger, who hasn't had a hit in ages, we're surprised this release didn't go straight to DVD. The actress plays a social worker trying to help a 10-year-old girl escape from her evil parents. This one didn't screen early for critics, so consider yourselves warned. RT: 23% Metacritic: n/a.

In Limited Release: There are a couple of interesting releases this week on the documentary front. “Freakonomics" is the omnibus documentary adaptation of the bestselling book from economist Steven D. Levitt and author Stephen J. Dubner. Divided into four mini-stories, the film is directed by Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me"), Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ("Jesus Camp"), Eugene Jarecki ("Why We Fight"), and Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side"). We reviewed the film, finding it lacking cohesion and a bit too literal of an adaptation. RT: 52% Metacritic: 54. Gibney also directed this week's "Casino Jack and the United States of Money," a look into the Jack Abramoff scandal. Gibney is suited to the material, given his fantastic film "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" a few years back. RT: 89% Metacritic: 68.

Also in limited release, the horror film "Hatchet 2," the sequel to the adequate low-budget slasher flick "Hatchet." We saw the film and didn't find much of anything to like. Especially with "Let Me In" out this week, there's no reason to go out and see this one. RT: 32% Metacritic:49. Patrick Wilson stars in the comedy "Barry Munday," the tale of a man who wakes up to find he's missing his testicles while at the same time facing a paternity suit from a woman he can't remember sleeping with. The cast is strong with supporting players Judy Greer, Cybill Shepard and Chloe Sevigny, but the word hasn't been very strong so far. RT: 25% Metacritic: 29.

Read More