The Expendables overthrow Toy Story 3 at the UK box office

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd August 2010.

With a line-up that includes Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and director Sylvester Stallone, action ensemble The Expendables proves too much for Angelina Jolie's Salt and takes first place in the chart with £3.9m (including £1.8m from previews last Saturday and Sunday) as torrential rain across the country results in a bumper weekend for the UK box office.

Salt also benefits from two days of preview screenings to claim second with £2.1m as Toy Story 3 finally vacates the top spot five weeks into its record-breaking run (with £63.8m, the Pixar animation now stands at fifth in the all-time UK rankings). Meanwhile two other new releases debut in the top five with horror remake Piranha 3D banking £1.4m and family comedy Marmaduke pulling in £1.2m to take fourth and fifth respectively.

After climbing back up the charts these past few weeks Christopher Nolan's Inception finally drops out of the top half but manages to add another £1m to push its total gross to £31.5m, while M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender and Disney's live-action fantasy The Sorcerer's Apprentice also drop five spaces to eighth and tenth. Slightly more fortunate are Knight and Day and Step Up 3D, both of which fall three places to seventh and ninth.

Number one this time last year: Inglourious Basterds

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	The Expendables	£3,910,596	1	£3,910,596
2	Salt	£2,166,715	1	£2,166,715
3	Toy Story 3	£2,095,540	5	£63,810,363
4	Pirahna 3D	£1,487,119	1	£1,487,119
5	Marmaduke	£1,243,789	1	£1,243,789
6	Inception	£1,063,679	6	£31,563,941
7	Knight and Day	£825,692	3	£7,953,038
8	The Last Airbender	£586,576	2	£3,310,105
9	Step Up 3D	£507,942	3	£6,636,616
10	The Sorcerer's Apprentice	£439,527	2	£2,370,535

Incoming...

Brit director Edgar Wright unleashes the comic-book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (cert. 12A) this coming Wednesday against competition from Diary of a Wimpy Kid (cert. PG) and will be hoping to better a disappointing fifth place opening in North America. Watch the trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and check out or review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

A number of new releases also arrive on Friday including comedy ensemble Grown Ups (cert. 12A) and Swedish thriller The Girl Who Played With Fire (cert. 15), along with Bollywood dramas Chak Jawana (cert. TBC) and Aashayein (cert. TBC). And of course, if you've been living on Pandora for the past nine months and haven't yet contributed to the global box office haul of $2.7b or dropped twenty-odd quid on the DVD or Blu-ray, there's always the 3D release of Avatar: Special Edition to look forward to, with a whole eight minutes of extra footage!

U.K. Box Office Archive

British Cinema: Centurion (2010)

Centurion, 2010.

Directed by Neil Marshall.
Starring Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko, Noel Clarke, David Morrissey and Imogen Poots.


SYNOPSIS:

When the legendary Ninth Legion of the Roman army are decimated by a tribe of Pictish warriors, a small band of survivors must fight for survival deep behind enemy lines.


The fourth feature from Geordie director Neil Marshall (The Descent), Centurion is a low-budget historical epic that has been described as "Britain's answer to Gladiator", and while it's easy to draw comparisons with Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning blockbuster, it is fairly safe to assume that the film won't be troubling the Academy members come voting time. That's not to say Centurion is a bad film by any means but story is clearly a secondary concern next to bone-crunching action and blood-soaked gore, which is a shame when you consider the array of acting talent on display. However, as fans of the director's previous work will know, bone-crunching action and blood-soaked gore is what Marshall does best and he is certainly on top of his game with this latest release.

In AD 117, the Roman Empire dominates much of the civilised world but in northern Britain the might of the military has ground to a halt in the face of a new enemy, a savage Celtic tribe known as the Picts. Under the leadership of Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen), the Picts are perfecting their guerrilla tactics and eliminating Roman outposts one at a time, much to the displeasure of Agricola (Paul Freeman), the governor of Britannia. After surviving a Pict raid on a frontier garrison, centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is rescued by General Virilus (Dominic West) and his battle-hardened Ninth Legion. Summoned by the governor, Virilus and Quintus are tasked with marching north into Caledonia to kill Gorlacon and eliminate his people.

Accompanied by a Etain (Olga Kurylenko), a mute Pict scout and ferocious warrior, the legion head deep into the harsh terrain of the Scottish Highlands only to be betrayed by their guide. Ambushed by the Picts, General Virilus is taken prisoner and all but a handful of the soldiers are brutally slain. When a failed rescue attempt results in the death of Gorlacon's young son, the Pict chief dispatches Etain and a selection of his most fierce warriors to hunt the soldiers down, with Quintus and his dwindling platoon facing a desperate battle for survival as they look to reach the sanctuary of the Roman frontier.

Running at just 97 minutes, Centurion moves at a frantic pace and there are more than enough intense battle sequences and grisly deaths to satisfy even the most hardcore of viewer. The film might be rated 15 in the UK but don’t let that fool you into thinking the violence is restrained by any stretch of the imagination. While I found the inclusion of some rather iffy CGI-blood to be a tad distracting and unnecessary at times, the majority seemed to be of the old-school practical variety and the red-stuff really does flow by the bucket-load as limbs fly and heads roll at every turn.

Another of the director's strengths is his knack for maximising his budget and delivering a Hollywood-style polish on a fraction of the cost. Made for just £10m, Centurion manages to match the stylish visual flair of its big budget counterparts and cinematographer Sam McCurdy makes excellent use of its picturesque locations, with some fantastic sweeping helicopter shots that would not look out of place in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Having realised such a polished look for a relatively small cost, it is intriguing to think of what could be achieved with the backing of a major Hollywood studio and it is surely just a matter of time before Marshall tries has hand on the other side of the Atlantic.

Marshall always brings something different to the typical high-profile output of the British film industry Centurion is no exception. For those who have enjoyed his previous work it’s a no-brainer and a fine return to form after the underwhelming Doomsday (2008), and if you’re the type of person who favours hyper-realistic gory action over historical accuracy you're bound to be entertained by the brutal mayhem on offer here.

Gary Collinson

Movie Review Archive

Short Film Showcase - Amblin' (1968)

Amblin', 1968.

Written and Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Richard Levin and Pamela McMyler.

While studying at Long Beach state in the 60s, Steven Spielberg was introduced to aspiring producer Dennis Hoffman who provided the young filmmaker with a budget of $15,000 to produce a screenplay Spielberg had written entitled Amblin'. The resulting twenty-six minute short received a theatrical release in 1969 alongside Otto Preminger's Skidoo (1968) and would prove to be his breakthrough, with Spielberg becoming the youngest director to be offered to a long-term deal with a major studio when Universal executive Sid Sheinberg signed him to a seven-year deal.

Dialogue-free for its duration and set during the hippy movement of the 1960s, Amblin' is a romance about a couple of young travellers who meet up and decide to accompany one another on a journey to the Pacific coast. Amblin' demonstrates Spielberg's emerging talents as a visual storyteller and features impressive cinematography from Allen Daviau, who would later collaborate with the director on feature projects including E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Colour Purple (1985) and Empire of the Sun (1987).

For more on Steven Spielberg, check out Trevor Hogg's in-depth career profile Encountering Spielberg and be sure to vote in our poll for your favourite Steven Spielberg movie.


Embed courtesy of GoogleVideo.

Related:

Five Essential Films of Steven Spielberg
Movies... For Free! Duel (1971)

Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing The Caped Crusader to the Screen (Part Three)

Gary Collinson traces the many screen incarnations of The Dark Knight in the third of a three-part feature... read parts one and two.

While the Batman franchise was enjoying a prolonged spell of creativity and popularity throughout the 80s and 90s, the release of the much-maligned Batman & Robin (1997) looked to have steered the series towards a disastrous conclusion. With the movie franchise in tatters, it was clear that Warner Bros. had lost sight of the character and were in need of a complete overhaul. The next few years would prove difficult for fans with constant and often unsubstantiated rumours as to what direction – if any – the series was headed, along with a number of proposed projects that ultimately failed to get off the ground.

After giving filmmaker Joel Schumacher the green light to start working on a fourth movie during the theatrical run of Batman Forever, Warner Bros. took this one step further when they began developing the next sequel while cameras were still rolling on Batman & Robin. Based on a script from newcomer Mark Protosevich (who had been brought in to replace the departing Akiva Goldsman as scriptwriter) Batman Triumphant would have featured The Scarecrow and Harley Quinn as the primary villains, along with the return of The Joker courtesy of a fear-toxin hallucination. Schumacher, George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell were all slated to return until Batman & Robin sent everything crashing back to the drawing board. Clooney and O’Donnell were out along with Protosevich’s script, while the director's own involvement was hanging by a thread. “The only way I would do another Batfilm was if we went back to the basics,” said the Schumacher of the ‘toyetic’ approach of his previous two efforts. “It would be nice to take the bigger-is-better concept out of it and just go pure.”

A year after the release of Batman & Robin, Schumacher approached Warner Bros. with the idea of adapting Frank Miller’s classic miniseries Batman: Year One, while rumours of Clint Eastwood and Michael Keaton portraying an aging Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Returns proved unfounded. However, the studio was giving consideration to an original concept from Lee Shapiro and Stephen Wise entitled Batman: DarKnight. “We pitched an idea to return the story franchise to its dark roots, which they liked,” said Shapiro on the unproduced screenplay, “but what really hooked them was our concept of including the Man-Bat as one of the antagonists.” Adopting a darker approach, DarKnight would have seen The Scarecrow unwittingly unleash the alter-ego of Dr. Kirk Langstrom on Gotham, forcing Bruce Wayne to come out of retirement and clear his name when the creature threatens the city.

While the film department of Warner Bros. were floundering over their next move their small-screen counterparts were busy developing their own take on Gotham’s favourite son. Fresh of the success of The Iron Giant in 1999, scribe Tim McCanlies pitched executives a proposal for a series entitled Bruce Wayne, which would follow the formative years of the young billionaire along with regular supporting characters including Detective James Gordon and best friend Harvey Dent. The WB Network immediately optioned the series and a pilot script and show bible were produced with Trevor Fehrman (Clerks II) and Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) hotly tipped to secure the title role. An internal struggle between Warner’s film and TV divisions soon erupted as the series continued into development and following the impressive box-office returns of X-Men in the summer of 2000, the show was shelved in favour of pushing forward with their feature ambitions. The original premise did survive and would be reworked the following year as Smallville, with the future Dark Knight replaced by the future Man of Steel.

Opting to pass on Batman: DarKnight in 2000 and with Schumacher finally out as director, the studio’s attention then turned towards adapting the popular animated series Batman Beyond, which had recently made its debut on the WB Network and was proving popular with audiences by supplying a fresh take on the character. Paul Dini and Neal Stephenson were hired to pen a screenplay along with Remember the Titans director Boaz Yakin, but the project was quickly cancelled when the decision was made to concentrate on Year One. The studio’s commitment towards repairing the damage caused by Batman & Robin was evident when they secured the services of the highly rated up-and-coming filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), who was officially handed the director’s chair in 2000 and immediately delighted fans by bringing in Frank Miller as his co-writer.

“I just think it's a great story that's been told two different ways in the last 10 years, both interesting, but not the way I would tell it,” commented Aronofsky on his vision for The Dark Knight. “It’s somewhat based on Frank Miller’s novel but it’s going to be very different from anything in Year One. Toss out everything you can imagine about Batman! Everything! We’re starting completely anew.” An early script review from Ain't It Cool News seemed to confirm that there would indeed be a number of changes - such as a black Alfred (described as a “jive talkin brotha”), the inclusion of elements of The Killing Joke and The Penguin reimagined as a heroin-smuggling mob boss - and was highly critical of the screenplay as a whole. Progress on Year One seemed to move at a snail’s pace as it sunk into development hell, with actors such as Brendan Fraser, Josh Hartnett, Ben Affleck and Christian Bale allegedly in the frame to don the cape and cowl.

With Batman no closer to a big screen return, the character did manage a handful of television appearances under the guise of Bruce Thomas (Legally Blonde), who starred alongside Michael Gough in a series of General Motors OnStar commercials in 2001 and reprised his role for the pilot and premiere of Birds of Prey the following year. Based upon the DC Comics series of the same name, Birds of Prey is set in a future Gotham where Batman has retired and a female superhero team featuring his daughter The Huntress (Ashley Scott), Barbara Gordon (Dina Meyer) and Black Canary (Rachel Skarsten) are left to continue his legacy. Premiering on the WB Network in October 2002, the live-action TV series enjoyed strong ratings but was cancelled after a run of just thirteen episodes.

Although Warner Bros. were having trouble getting the Batman franchise up and running, the lengthy process was nothing compared to that of their other major DC property Superman. Last seen back in 1987 with its own franchise-killer Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the Man of Steel had since passed through the hands of a host of writers and directors including Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, J. J. Abrams and McG. The two superheroes’ paths would collide in 2001 when Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker pitched an idea for Batman vs. Superman courtesy of director Wolfgang Petersen, with an impressed Warner Bros. then abandoning Year One as a result. Serving as a reboot to both franchises, the script for Batman vs. Superman was rewritten by Akiva Goldsman and just about every major young actor was suggested for the leads. Offers were made to Christian Bale and Josh Hartnett to portray Batman and Superman respectively, although project soon met the same fate as its predecessors when Petersen left to direct Troy (2004).

Frustrations continued in late 2002 when the studio rejected a pitch by Joss Whedon. “In my version, there was actually a new [villain], it wasn’t one of the classics,” said the Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator on his idea for a new origin story. “It was more of a 'Hannibal Lecter' type. He was somebody already in Arkham Asylum that Bruce went and sort of studied with.” While the concept failed to ignite the interest of studio executives, Whedon still has ambitions of realising it in one form or another. “I get very emotional about it, I still love the story. Maybe I’ll get to do it as a comic one day.”

Struggling to find a suitable way to reboot the main Batman franchise, Warners chose to test the water with a spin-off featuring one of the most popular villains of the Rogue’s Gallery. Based on a screenplay by Daniel Waters (Batman Returns) that had been circling since 1995, Catwoman had passed through the hands of no fewer than twenty-eight writers before moving into production in 2003. With Michelle Pfeiffer opting not to return as Selina Kyle, the decision was made to go with a completely new character and sever all ties to earlier Batman films. Despite the presence of Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry in the lead role as Patience Phillips / Catwoman, the $100m film proved to be an unmitigated disaster and was universally slated upon release in 2004, putting up a strong challenge to Batman & Robin as the worst superhero film ever made. Berry personally accepted a Razzie Award for Worst Actress – thanking the studio “for putting me in this piece of shit, God-awful movie” – while it was also 'successful' in the Worst Screenplay, Worst Director (Pitof) and Worst Picture categories.

“All I can say is that I grew up with Batman, I've been fascinated by him and I'm excited to contribute to the lore surrounding the character," said Memento director Christopher Nolan when he was officially unveiled as the man to oversee the rebirth of the Batman franchise in January 2003. Nolan had recently completed his third feature Insomnia (2002) for Warner Bros. and impressed executives with his vision for a complete overhaul of the series. He was soon joined by screenwriter David S. Goyer (Blade) and the pair set about to develop a script that would explore the origins of the character, drawing inspiration from comic-book storylines The Man Who Falls, Year One and The Long Halloween. Nolan was also clear on how he intended to differentiate the new film from previous instalments: “The world of Batman is that of grounded reality. Ours will be a recognizable, contemporary reality against which an extraordinary heroic figure arises.”

Having been under consideration for the role of The Dark Knight since Darren Aronofsky was attached to adapt Year One, British actor Christian Bale was officially announced as the next Batman in September 2003, putting an end to speculation that had linked the likes of David Boreanaz, Billy Cudrup, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Jackson and Cillian Murphy to the role. “Christopher Reeve became the defining Superman, but I don't feel that has ever happened with Batman,” said Bale, who had to undertake an intense training schedule to prepare for the physically demanding role after losing over 60lbs for his previous film The Machinist (2004). “I felt like this was an opportunity to do that in regard to the way that Bob Kane originally intended it - a dark and terrifying and intimidating character.”

With Bale secured as Batman, Nolan then went about assembling a strong supporting cast including Michael Caine (Alfred), Gary Oldman (Sgt. James Gordon), Katie Holmes (Rachel Dawes), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox) Liam Neeson (Henri Ducard / Ra’s al Ghul), Tom Wilkinson (Carmine Falcone) and Cillian Murphy (Dr. Jonathan Crane / The Scarecrow). Filming commenced in March 2004 with the majority of the shoot taking place in England's Shepperton Studios and locations such as London’s National Institute for Medical Research, University College London and Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire (Iceland’s Vatnajökull glacier was used to recreate the exterior shots of Ra’s al Ghul’s temple while the police pursuit of the Batmobile was filmed in Chicago).

After an abundance of failed projects and an eight year absence, The Caped Crusader finally returned to cinemas when the $150m-budgeted Batman Begins was released on June 15th, 2005. It took first place in North America with an opening weekend of $48.7m and went on to accumulate $372m world-wide, positioning it as the second-highest grossing installment in the franchise behind Tim Burton’s 1989 effort. The film also enjoyed critical acclaim and industry recognition, picking up an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography (Nolan regular Wally Pfister), three BAFTA nominations, three Saturn Awards (Best Fantasy Film, Best Actor and Best Writing) and an MTV Movie Award for Best Hero, although Katie Holmes’ performance came in for criticism and she was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.

At the same time as Batman Begins was gearing up for release, Warner Bros. were also looking to bring the character back to the small screen with a new Saturday morning animation that would cater to the younger viewer. Utilising character designs from Jeff Matsuda (Jackie Chan Adventures) and set in its own continuity, The Batman debuted in September 2004 and focussed on a young Batman (voiced by Rino Romano) as he fights to protect Gotham from a slew of familiar - and often reimagined - faces. As with the earlier Batman: The Animated Series, the show featured a host of notable voice actors including Mitch Peliggi (Commissioner Gordon), Robert Patrick (Hawkman), Gina Gershon (Catwoman), Ron Perlman (Bane / Killer Croc), Robert Englund (The Riddler), Louis Gossett, Jr. (Lucius Fox), Jerry O'Connell (Nightwing), Mark Hamill (Tony Zucco) and Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor). Although it came under fire from some quarters for deviating too far from the established Batman mythos, the show won six Emmy Awards and an Annie Award during its five season run, and also spawned a direct-to-video feature in 2005 entitled The Batman vs. Dracula.

Ending Batman Begins with a tease towards the introduction of The Clown Prince of Crime, Christopher Nolan took time out from the franchise to helm the Victorian-era mystery The Prestige (2006) before a follow-up was officially announced on July 31st, 2006. Budgeted at $185m, The Dark Knight was to be the first entry in the franchise not to have Batman in the title and would see The Caped Crusader teaming up with Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent to bring down his arch-nemesis The Joker. Working from a treatment by David S. Goyer that was inspired by The Long Halloween, Nolan and his younger brother and co-writer Jonathan sat down to develop a screenplay that would push the boundaries of the superhero genre. “To me, The Joker is an absolute”, said the director on his decision not to explore the origin of Batman’s most popular villain. “We wanted him to be absolutely threatening in what he represents as a force of anarchy and chaos. That’s really the reason for Harvey Dent's prominence in the film. It's his story that has to provide the emotional backbone of the film.”

With the likes of Paul Bettany, Adrian Brody and Robin Williams expressing interest in the role of The Joker, Nolan made a surprising casting choice when he turned to Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), who based his portrayal on a combination of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and A Clockwork Orange’s Alex DeLarge. Meanwhile the crucial part of district attorney Harvey Dent / Two-Face went to Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking) against competition from Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Jackman, with Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing the outgoing Katie Holmes as love interest Rachel Dawes. Rounding out the supporting cast were the likes of Eric Roberts (Sal Maroni), Anthony Michael Hall (Mike Engel) and Michael Jai White (Gambol), joining returning players Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman (along with Cillian Murphy, who would cameo once again as The Scarecrow).

Principal photography on The Dark Knight got underway in April 2007 with Nolan opting to return to Chicago for thirteen weeks of filming before moving on to England and Hong Kong, with Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister frustrated by restrictions imposed by the Chinese government and pressure from environmentalists. Meanwhile filming at London’s Battersea Power Station prompted emergency calls by local residents who feared a terrorist attack on the station. The production was also marred by tragedy when technician Conway Wickliffe was killed preparing a stunt in September 2007 and star Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose during post-production in January 2008. "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day," reflected Nolan on the challenge of completing the editing process after the actor’s untimely passing. “The truth is, the performance is so iconic. It's so not Heath Ledger; it is The Joker. He just inhabits it. It's riveting to watch this incredible performance.”

Released in North America on July 18th 2008, The Dark Knight exceeded its already lofty expectations and immediately entered the record books with a midnight opening of $18.5m before overtaking Spider-Man 3’s weekend record with a total of $158.4m. It became the second film to ever break the $500m mark in the US and only the fourth to reach the a billion dollars world-wide with a total box office gross of $1,001,921,825. Garnering near-universal praise from audiences and critics alike, The Dark Knight appeared on numerous top ten lists of the year and was nominated for eight Academy Awards in total, breaking the record of most nominations for a movie based on a comic-book or graphic novel that was previously held by Dick Tracy (1990). Acclaim was particularly high for Heath Ledger who received a slew of posthumous accolades including the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor, while the film also took home the Oscar for Best Sound Editing.

To coincide with The Dark Knight in 2008, Warner Bros. produced an animated anthology film set between the two Nolan features entitled Batman: Gotham Knight as part of their DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. Featuring six short stories (including one from Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer) and heavily influenced by the Japanese anime style, Gotham Knight was notable for the return of Batman: The Animated Series star Kevin Conroy as the voice of The Dark Knight. Conroy would go on to reprise his role in the direct-to-video features Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009) and its upcoming sequel Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010), while the character also appears in two Justice League animated features, voiced by Jeremy Sisto in Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) and William Baldwin in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010). Batman continues to be an integral part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series with Bruce Greenwood donning the cowl for Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) and an adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One slated for release in 2011.

During pre-production of The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. announced plans to bring DC Comics iconic superhero ensemble Justice League to the screen with George Miller (Mad Max) hired to direct in September 2007. Budgeted at around $220m and based on a script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney, Warner Bros. secured a cast that included Armie Hammer (Desperate Housewives) as Batman, D. J. Cotrona (Windfall) as Superman and Adam Brody (The OC) as The Flash, with plans to produce the film using motion capture technology. Justice League: Mortal was delayed due to the Writers Guild of America strike and was continously put back amid rumours that Miller had left the project. By August 2008 Warner Bros. allowed options on the cast to expire and Miller went on to develop other projects with the Justice League feature currently on hold.

Although The Batman finished its run in 2008, The Caped Crusader continues to enjoy animated adventures on the small-screen through the Cartoon Network series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Debuting in November 2008, The Brave and the Bold is inspired by the DC Comics' series of the same name and is made up of standalone episodes that see Batman teaming up with fellow superheroes such as Plastic Man, Aquaman and Green Arrow to solve crimes and combat his foes. Diedrich Bader takes over voice duties as Batman, while the show has included a number of notable guest stars from earlier incarnations of the franchise such as Clancy Brown, Mark Hamill, Julie Newmar, Ron Perlman and Adam West. At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con it was announced that The Brave and the Bold would finish its run in 2010 after three seasons with the producers planning to replace the show with a new, darker take on the character. Meanwhile Bruce Greenwood will also voice Batman as a supporting character in a new Cartoon Network series entitled Young Justice, which is set to premiere in November 2010 and centres on a team of teenage sidekicks as they look to make the transition to fully fledged superheroes.

"My brother is working on the screenplay," said Christopher Nolan in June 2010 with regards to his plans for a follow up to The Dark Knight. "We came up with a story that we are very excited about. We particularly like where we are taking the characters and what the ending is." With the third installment of his hugely successful Batman series set for release in July 2012, Warner Bros. have also signed a deal with the British filmmaker to act as 'godfather' to their Superman reboot. Nolan will serve as producer on The Man of Steel with co-writers David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan reportedly candidates for directorial duties, although the prospects of a superhero team-up seem slim while Nolan remains in control: "They're two very different characters, but there's an elemental feeling of power in the iconography of those characters. To me that's originally because they stood alone. I need to hang on to that in my imagining of them."

Since Lewis Wilson made history as the first screen incarnation of The Caped Crusader back in 1943, Batman has spawned a host of television and direct-to-video releases in addition to eight theatrical features with global box office receipts in excess of $2.6 billion. It is one of the most popular franchises of all-time and with Nolan's third Batman feature set to arrive in 2012 - along with two new animated shows and further DC Universe Animated Original Movies - there seems no end in sight for The Dark Knight and his war on the criminal element of Gotham City.

Check out Theatre of the Mind, Trevor Hogg's in-depth profile on the career of director Christopher Nolan for more on the making of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

For more on Batman, be sure to head over to TheBatmanUniverse.

Related:

Short Film Showcase - Batman: Dead End (2003)
Short Film Showcase - Batman: City of Scars (2010)

Gary Collinson

Thoughts on... Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 2010.

Directed by Thor Freudenthal.
Starring Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn and Chloë Grace Moretz.


SYNOPSIS:

Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) is about to start middle school. He doesn’t know what to expect or more importantly, how he’s going to survive it. Thankfully his mum has bought him a diary journal to write it all down in. Based on the incredibly successful book by Jeff Kinney.


Ignoring the usual suspects of Dreamworks and Disney, trying to find a children’s film for anyone of any age to enjoy is near impossible. While Disney and Co can provide us with the brilliance of Toy Story and Finding Nemo, the studios can only churn out so many each year. Children however, have a minimum of 12 weeks off school every year, and that’s not including weekly sleepovers, birthday parties, or a boring Sunday afternoon. Searching through the cinema listings trying to find a film which your 10 year old will enjoy, but equally not make you want to claw your eyes and ears out, is an absolute challenge. Diary of a Wimpy kid is not one of those films. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is utter genius.

The film follows Greg Heffley, a boy about to start the impending doom that is middle school. Just before starting school Greg’s mum buys him a diary journal to write down his thoughts and feelings about starting school. Apart from his older brother’s advice of “Don’t look/touch/talk/stand out/put your hand up/join any school activities/or go to the bathroom” and his best friend Rowley’s advice “My mum said if I just be myself people will like me”, Greg has no idea how he is going to survive at middle school. But in a scale of coolness he places himself at about number 19, so he figures he’ll be okay. His friend Rowley on the other hand he thinks is about 152, so he’d better keep a close eye on him.

Unfortunately for Greg he ignores all of his brother’s advice and joins the safety patrol, the school play, has a short-lived stint in the wrestling team, gets the cheese disease, plummets to number 202 on the cool scale, falls out with his best friend and has to befriend the kid with hairy stomach freckles so he has someone to sit with on the cafeteria floor at lunch time.

From this description it might be difficult to imagine how such a film could appeal to everyone, but even a quick glance at the director and writers credits give you an idea of how much talent has been involved with this film. The director, Thor Freudenthal, has previously worked on the Stuart Little films, Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, and Hotel for Dogs, and although the film’s based on an incredible successful book, some of the screenwriters have credits including That 70’s Show, Mad About You, Freaks and Geeks, and Life As We Know It.

The industry expression “never work with children or animals” couldn’t be less true for this film. Children’s films are often synonymous with bad acting, however the cast were incredible. Zachary Gordon (Greg Heffley) was a comic genius and had me laughing almost non-stop even from the opening sequence. The supporting roles played by Robert Capron (Rowley) as Greg’s best friend and Chloë Grace Moretz (Angie) were superb and complimented each other brilliantly. While this was Capron’s first time with this type of leading role, Moretz who is well known for her parts in Kick-Ass and Let Me In, took a back seat role in this film, appearing mainly when the young boys needed help and advice the most.

What makes this film so appealing to such a wide audience is that all the characters are relatable. I have no idea or experience of what it would be like to be a boy starting middle school in America, yet I found myself rooting for Greg to survive each disastrous experience after another, and feeling their embarrassment of having to sit on the cafeteria floor at lunch time with Fregley, the ginger kid ranked number 201.

If you have kids, they’ll drag you to see it, if you don’t have kids; drag a friend to see it. Either way, Diary of a Wimpy kid is comedy genius and guaranteed enjoyment.

Vicki Isitt

Movie Review Archive

Assembly Required: A Walter Murch Profile (Part 5)

Trevor Hogg profiles the career of three time Academy Award-winning sound designer and film editor Walter Murch in the fifth of a five part feature... read parts one, two, three and four.

On the matter of returning to the director’s chair, American filmmaker Walter Murch remarked, “I've thought about it and I tried for a number of years to get projects off the ground and just ran out of luck and went back to what I love, which is film editing.” Describing the criteria he uses to determine what will be his next assignment, Murch stated, “When I am considering a project, I read the script, take notes, type them up, and give them to the director. I would include both what I think is good about the script – what attracted me to it – and where I think there may be room for improvement.”

For Jarhead (2005), which is based on the 2003 Gulf War memoir by U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford, Walter Murch served as a film editor and re-recording mixer for British moviemaker Sam Mendes (American Beauty). “This was such a very different film from any Sam had shot before,” observed Murch. “He was shooting handheld multiple-camera stuff. If you’ve seen his other films, they’re much more classically composed, whereas in this, there are scenes where he just let things happen. He had an overall sense that he’d gotten the coverage he wanted, but seeing it cut together gave him the confidence to continue and to be even more adventuresome in that direction.” Walter Murch is keenly aware of the major advantages that cinema affords storytellers. “Film is really a kind of theater of thought. “You’re watching people think in movies, which is the fascinating and completely unique experience of film versus other kinds of theater where the thoughts have to be expressed in words. In film, of course you have words, but mostly you have thought and attitude, and that attitude is mostly expressed in the eyes of the characters.” The New York native added, “How much detail I see around the eyes of the characters subconsciously determines my choices. The lower the resolution, the more I tend to use close-ups. With higher resolution, I feel confident using a wider shot, or a longer shot, because you can clearly see what a character’s eyes are doing, which is to say what the character is thinking.” At the Satellite Awards Walter Murch contended for Best Editing, while the Hollywood Film Festival lauded him with the Editor of the Year trophy

Venturing into the realm of documentaries, Walter Murch was the sound mixer for Seeing in the Dark (2007) based on a book by Timothy Ferris; the one hour film which was aired on PBS explores stargazing. In the same year the San Francisco International Film Festival premiered a documentary featuring the movie veteran talking about his profession in Murch: Murch on Editing. “In film, there’s a dance between the words and images and the sounds,” observed Murch. “As rich as films appear, they are limited by two of the five senses – hearing and sight – and they are limited in time – the film lasts only as long at it takes to project it. It’s not like a book. If you don’t understand a paragraph in a book, you can read it again, at your own pace. With a film, you have to consume at one go, at a set speed. But if a film can provoke the audience’s participation – if the film gives a certain amount of information but requires the audience to complete the ideas, then it engages each member of the audience as a creative participant in the work. How each moment gets completed depends on each person. So the film, although it’s materially the same series of images and sounds, should ideally provoke slightly different reactions from each person who sees it.”

Youth Without Youth (2007) marked the reunion of a working relationship that started in 1969. “I like the way his mind works,” stated Walter Murch of American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now). “I like the adventuresome areas that he goes into. He once described directing as "being the ringmaster for a circus that is inventing itself." That kind of circus is very interesting to me, and by the same token I think he likes the way my mind works in complimentary form to his. I'm adventuresome also, but very systematic. I think the two sides -- adventuresome and systematic -- compliment each other.”

Walter Murch’s involvement with the cinematic adaptation of the novella by Micrea Eliade about a seventy year old professor (Tim Roth) who discovers he is growing younger after being struck by lightning was delayed. “I was still working on Sam Mendes’ Jarhead so I didn't join the film until all the material was shot, although I did meet with Francis at a kind of midway point. He took a break from shooting in Romania and he came for Christmas to the States. We met to talk about the screenplay and he said, ‘Are there any other scenes we could shoot?’”. Responding to the question, Walter Murch suggested the insertion of the mirror scene that takes place near the end of the picture.

“It's about this person who is youth without youth,” explained Murch, “he's young, objectively in his early to late 30s or early 40s but he still has all the knowledge that he had when he was 70 years old. It examines the tension of that situation which really is the tension Francis finds himself in.” The re-recording mixer and film editor for the tale that unfolds in 1938 Romania added, “There are times when it's a reincarnation movie, a sort of a Mummy film, if you will. There are other times when it's like Frankenstein. There are other times when it's sort of a split personality movie like The Portrait of Dorian Gray [1945]. There are times when it's a Nazi movie and people are running through alleyways like in The Third Man [1949]. All of these come in some form from the original novella, but once they're visualized they have a weight and an impact that is different than the printed word. [The challenge was] to find ways to integrate and balance these, while still being respectful of the original novella and Francis's adaptation of it.”

“I hope it finds an audience that's congenial to it,” said Walter Murch. “I'm very happy it was made. It got Francis directing again after an absence of 10 years.” Murch is impressed by the ingenuity of his friend and colleague. “Francis has gotten himself into a place where, because of his success with his winery, he can afford, if the budget is low enough, to self-finance these films and get them off the ground.”

Two years later the first original screenplay composed by Francis Ford Coppola since The Conversation (1974), had him working again with Walter Murch. “Francis funded Tetro [2009] in the same fashion as his previous film Youth Without Youth, “revealed Murch who served as a film editor and re-recording mixer on the project. “He has personal money in it from his Napa Valley winery, as well as that of a few other investors. This lets him make the film the way he wants to, without studio interference. Francis’s directing style is process-oriented – he likes to let the film evolve during the production – to make serendipitous discoveries based on the actors, the sets, and the atmosphere of a new city. Many directors work this way, but Francis embraces it more than any other. In Coppola’s own words: ‘The director is the ringmaster of a circus that is inventing itself.’ I think that’s why, at age 69, he was enthusiastic about jumping into a country that was new to him and working with talented young local filmmakers.”

Travelling to Buenos Aires, Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) searches for his long lost older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo). “Ideally everything needed to make a Zoetrope film on location should be able to be loaded into two vans,” revealed Walter Murch. “The Buenos Aires building that was our base of operations reminded me of the Zoetrope building in San Francisco 40 years ago. The central idea was to break down the separation between tasks and to be as efficient and collaborative as possible. In other words, to operate more like a film-school crew. Zoetrope has always embraced new technology – the classic ‘early adopter’ profile. Our crew in Buenos Aires was full of young, enthusiastic local film technicians and artists; on a number of occasions, rounding a corner, I felt like I was bumping into a 40-year-younger version of myself.” The film was originally shot in colour. “The footage was already desaturated before I started cutting, so I was always looking at black-and-white material. However, a few times when I’d match-frame a shot, the color version of the source media would pop up and then that was quite a shock!” There was a certain perk attached to the production. “My cutting room also doubled as the screening room and, as we were using the Sim2 digital projector, I had the luxury of being able to cut and look at a 20-foot wide screen as I did so.”

When American filmmaker Joe Johnston (October Sky) needed a fresh pair of eyes in the editing suite for The Wolfman (2010), he turned to Walter Murch. “I sort of rediscovered what the movie was all about with Walter,” Johnston said. “He wrote the book, literally, on film editing [In the Blink of an Eye]. Walter believes in trying things that are a little unorthodox. If there’s a scene that you, as a director, know is central to the film and that you can’t live without, he’ll say, ‘Let’s cut that out.’ A film at that point is a liquid medium and it’s amazing how the loss of one shot or a piece of one shot will change an entire film. . . . With Walter, it was a good experience for me.”

In the remake of the 1941 classic horror picture, Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) plays a nobleman who is tragically bitten by the cursed beast. “I create my first assembly without reference to the sound,” confided Walter Murch. “I view everything with sound, and I take detailed notes about what the sound is like. But when I’m actually assembling a scene, I assemble it as a silent movie. Even if it’s a dialog scene, I lip read what people are saying. I then refine it as a silent movie, and when I feel that it’s telling itself as a series of images, then I’ll light up all the tracks, and see what all of my cuts have wrought.” Joe Johnston was impressed with the work of Murch whom he has known for two decades. “Walter did what became the final cut of the film. He shortened it by about twenty minutes and rearranged a lot of it. I don’t think he left any scene intact.”

There are certain cinematic truths which Walter Murch keeps in mind when assembling a picture. “If you were to think of the audience’s focus of attention as a dot moving around the screen, the editor’s job is to carry that dot around in an interesting way. If the dot is moving from left to right and then up to the right-hand corner of the frame, when there’s a cut, make sure there’s something to look at in the right-hand corner of the next shot to receive that focus of interest.” Crosscutting between storylines makes the movie viewing experience more dynamic. “Films with a single point-of-view are on borrowed time if they are more than two hours long. Since there’s only one point-of-view, there’s no relief if the audience is not one hundred percent with the film, and it can subsequently seem too long even if it isn’t objectively so.”

Outside of movies, Walter Murch is an avid beekeeper. “A film is a very rich distillation of a tremendous amount of work,” reflected the New York-native whose son Walter Jr. (Goya’s Ghost) has followed him into the edit suite. “I forget exactly what the ratio is for honey but the honey you put into your tea -- that teaspoon represents a gallon of nectar that had to be refined and brought down to size. So there is a similarity on that level.” Having worked with a number of renowned filmmakers over a career spanning four decades, the entertainment industry veteran observed, “If you crudely divided directors into two types, you could say there are result-oriented directors like the Coen Brothers [Fargo] or Guillermo [Pan’s Labyrinth] and there are process-oriented directors like Francis Coppola or Anthony Minghella who delight in making discoveries along the way; during shooting, opportunities will present themselves and they will seize those opportunities.”

Contemplating the future of film editing, Walter Murch remarked, “I think Avid and Final Cut will continue to be the two primary editing tools. Four years from now, who knows? I see more possibility for sooner changes in the area of sound editing and mixing.” As for the latest theatrical craze, Murch stated, “3D certainly has excellent box office numbers right now, but there is still a fundamental perceptual problem with it. Through millions of years of evolution, our brains have been wired so that when we look at an object, the point where our eyes converge and where they focus is one and the same. But with 3D film we have to converge our eyes at the point of the illusion [say five feet in front of us] and simultaneously focus at the plane of the screen [perhaps sixty feet away]. We can do this, obviously, but doing it continuously for two hours is one of the reasons why we get headaches watching 3D. If we can somehow solve this problem and if filmmakers use 3D in interesting ways that advance the story, and not just as gimmicks, then I think 3D has a very promising long-term future.”

While in the edit suite, Walter Murch adopts a certain cinematic point of view. “We hope to become better editors with experience! Yet you have to have an intuition about the craft to begin with; for me, it begins with, ‘Where is the audience looking? What are they thinking?’ As much as possible, you try to be the audience. At the point of transition from one shot to another, you have to be pretty sure where the audience’s eye is looking, where the focus of attention is. That will either make the cut work or not.” Murch carried on to say, “The key is just to follow your interests wherever they may lead - keep the audience in mind; don't abuse the audience unnecessarily - but also, follow your interests and then just keep going. Don't let anything stop you because then that would be the real crisis.”

For more on Walter Murch, be sure to visit FilmSound.org and NPR, while Michael Ondaatje's The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film provides a comprehensive analysis of Murch's career.

You can also show your appreciation and discuss his body of work on the Walter Murch Facebook page.

Walter Murch lecture - part one and part two.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Track down The Girl Who Played With Fire and win prizes!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo may be gearing up for a Hollywood remake but fans of Stieg Larsson's acclaimed Millennium Trilogy are already looking forward to the UK release of the second installment, The Girl Who Played With Fire, which hits cinemas on August 27th.

To celebrate, Momentum Pictures have teamed up with Metro Online and book sharing site BookCrossing to offer a unique opportunity for fans in Bristol, London, Oxford, Nottingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Newcastle, Dublin, Liverpool, Sheffield and Manchester to take part in a nationwide search for ‘The Girl’ and win a variety of fantastic prizes from private screenings to cinema tickets and exclusive film merchandise.

So, what do you have to do to be in with a shout? Well, 60 copies of the book have been hidden in the above cities, each containing special codes to unlock the prizes. The hunt for The Girl Who Played With Fire starts at BookCrossing where keen investigators can find clues to locate the hidden books and unlock their secrets on Lisbeth’s bookshelf . Over a seven day period clues will be provided to locate books and those lucky enough to locate one of these special books will not only have an opportunity to read one of the most popular thrillers in recent history, but can also use the code inside the book to redeem their prize at Metro.co.uk. Simple, so what are you waiting for?

The Girl Who Played With Fire sees Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) once again caught up in a brutal murder investigation. Having served his prison sentence, Blomkvist returns to Millennium intent on exposing a billion dollar sex trafficking ring. When two of his researchers are murdered, Salander is framed for the murders and emerges as the police’s chief suspect. Unconvinced, Blomkvist attempts to track her down and find out the truth but secretive hacker Salander goes on the run and soon stumbles upon secrets of her own past.

The Girl Who Played With Fire UK trailer:


The Girl Who Played With Fire is released on August 27th, 2010. Visit the official website for more information.