Top Story: Reloaded Breaks One-Day Record
Not surprisingly, The Matrix Reloaded has broken the one-day box office record, grossing $42.5 million on Thursday, its opening day, Reuters reports. Playing in over 3,600 theaters, the film seems well on its way to breaking the box-office record for an opening weekend, most likely beating last year’s record holder Spider-Man, with took in $114.8 million in its first three days.
Berry Breaks Arm on Gothika Set
Halle Berry, who plays a criminal psychologist in the upcoming supernatural thriller Gothika, broke her arm Wednesday on the Montreal set, Reuters reports, during a physically demanding scene. Warner Bros. spokesman Joe Everett told Reuters, “It wasn’t a stunt scene, it was just one of the physical scenes in a movie. Her arm didn’t go the way it was supposed to.” The Oscar-winning actress was treated at a local hospital for a broken ulna–the bone that extends from the elbow to the wrist–and released the same day. Gothika also stars Robert Downey Jr. and Penelope Cruz.
EU Awards Honor Sisters
The European Union gave its annual movie award to the controversial film The Magdalene Sisters, directed by Scottish director Peter Mullan, The Associated Press reports. The film concentrates on four free-spirited Irish women sentenced to an abusive Catholic convent in the 1960s. The $28,000 prize is awarded each year at the Cannes Film Festival to the European film shown in the largest number of EU countries, AP reports.
Comic Strip Asterix Gets Film Treatment
One of Europe’s most popular comic strip characters, a tough little warrior named Asterix, is getting his own movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Asterix and the Vikings is being made into a $25 million feature film, one the most expensive European animated films to date, revolving around Asterix, whose village is the last outpost of resistance in Gaul to the invading Romans but whose adventures take him to other countries.
Good Old Joe
Fox has decided to bring the reality show Joe Millionaire back in the fall for another season, focusing on an average, well, Joe, who is passed off to a gaggle of women as a millionaire. AP also reports the network has picked up two new teen-oriented dramas for the fall: Tru Calling, about a young woman with the Groundhog Day-like ability to relive a day, and The O.C., in which a poor youngster is suddenly thrust into a wealthy Orange County, Calif., home.
Carey Calls Eminem’s Threats “Excessive”
Mariah Carey has a few choice words for bad-boy rapper Eminem, whom she briefly dated, about rumors he may use voicemail messages she left for him in a song, LAUNCHMusic.com reports. Apparently, the messages have Carey saying graphic things in a baby voice. The pop diva told New York’s Daily News, “I don’t know what the hell he’s doing. It’s a little excessive. Doesn’t it seem a little bit girly? Like we’re in a catfight.”
Untouchables Stack Dies
Actor Robert Stack, best known as Eliot Ness in the hit ’60s show The Untouchables and as the host of Unsolved Mysteries, died of a heart attack Wednesday in his Beverly Hills home, Reuters reports. He was 84.
Country Music Icon June Carter Cash Dies
June Carter Cash, one of country music’s pioneering talents and wife of 35 years to legend Johnny Cash, died from complications from heart surgery Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. She was 73.
Role Call: Cage Wants His Rights
Nicolas Cage is set to star in Dead to Rights, a film based on the popular video game. Variety reports Cage will play Jack Slate, a disgraced cop who is hell-bent on discovering who murdered his father.
