The Back Room Edition – Each week we’ll give you an insider’s look at some of the big topics in the movie industry and some casting news and rumors
It’s New Moon week here on Earth – although the media blitz on all things Edward and Bella and Taylor Lautner’s chest has probably reached the stratosphere by now. I admit to being a member of the uninitiated (having neither read the books nor seen the films), but it’s hard not to get swept up in the frenzy. Sort of uninitiated, I guess, is a better way to put it: This year at the Cannes Film Festival I was privy to a very close brush with Robert Pattinson at an industry event and all I can say is the guy, bedraggled though he was, seemed like a good sport. I stood about two feet from him while he had his photo taken over and over again with businessmen (“This is for my daughter”) and women who were hardly so demure.
In any case, the film’s reviews are out, and while they’re not really skewed in either direction (“committed performances from the actors,” “better than the first but still a disappointment”), it doesn’t really matter; at the end of the day, the filmmakers and studio have found gold. The films are not terribly expensive to make by today’s standards and the stars’ salaries have not yet skyrocketed.
Since films in many foreign countries are released on Wednesdays, the first numbers are in for places like France – where it sold a half a million tickets on only 750 screens on its first day. It had the fourth-best opening day this year behind Ice Age 3, Harry Potter 6 and 2012. In Spain, the film also opened Wednesday, and according to Variety, is not far off from a record-breaking five-day run. Advance sales in the U.S., meanwhile, have been staggering, with MovieTickets.com reporting that New Moon is the site’s all-time top pre-seller. The Twihards are not waiting for reviews. And, as New York magazine pointed out this week, neither are their moms. Indeed, the series has racked up quite a following of so-called “Twilight Moms” – smart, sophisticated, well-read ones who see Edward as a gentleman and Bella as a caretaker (just like them).
The Twilight series is not solely responsible for the world’s undying fascination with vampires (see Dracula, Anne Rice, True Blood, etc), however. With the release of New Moon, The Daily Beast saw fit to crunch some numbers and tabulate the size of America’s vampire economy. Taking into account movies, books, TV shows, Halloween costumes, video games and tabloids, what the site dubs as the “Gross Vampire Product” is a staggering $771.5 million annually, which, for whoever is actually reaping that cash, does not bite.
The Casting Couch
- Oh, what a tangled web indeed. The Spider-Man 4 casting rumor mill has been working overtime in the past 10 days or so. Not only was the Internet abuzz with the possibility that Peter Parker may be a father in the upcoming film (a casting notice has circulated for a 2-year-old boy to play a caucasian with red hair, “an adorable toddler with an engaging personality”), but the parade of female stars said to be in talks to play Black Cat won’t quit. First it was said that Rachel McAdams was a top contender to play Felicia Hardy (aka the Black Cat), but she shot down that rumor a few days later, telling Entertainment Weekly, “That’s a total rumor, I have to say…I was hanging out in Toronto the other day and someone came up to me and said, ‘I just heard you’re doing Spider-Man 4.‘ And I said, ‘Really? No one told me!’ It’s not true.” After that, it was Julia Stiles’ turn. UGO movie blog said that the actress had met with “a casting company” to discuss the film. A day later and Deadline Hollywood chimed in that sources say Anne Hathaway has been approached by producers. Sony insists no decisions have been made.
- Sam Worthington is an actor whose name keeps surfacing for a whole series of roles. Now that he’s dropped out of The Tourist and is about to embark on the tidal wave that will be Avatar, the actor has been attached (Internet style) to two new projects this week. The first is The Texas Killing Fields, which Pajiba.com claims will also star Bradley Cooper. The script was written by an ex-cop from Galveston, Texas, and is said to be very dark. Danny Boyle, who was once attached, told MTV earlier this year, “You’d have to have half a dozen super megastars for a studio to even consider making it.” According to Mania.com, Worthington has also signed on for an adaptation of the comic book The Last Days of American Crime. Comic book creator Rick Remender told Mania that the heist thriller, told against a sci-fi backdrop, is “motivated by Mamet’s Heist film and James Ellroy’s American Tabloid.” Worthington would be playing Kevin Cash, the safecracker who gets involved in the heist at the last minute. Remender also said that other announcements are coming. “The people that (the producers) are bringing in are all big A-list Hollywood people.”
Stay tuned…
