Business is booming at the cinema, but what will break the box office in 2010? Steve Pratt finds that Greek gods, Harry Potter, Nelson Mandela and a fresh take on Alice in Wonderland are hoping to do the business.
HOLLYWOOD has just enjoyed its most lucrative weekend since records began, with cinemas in the US and Canada raking in more than $278m (£172m) in three days.
The biggest 72-hour take in modern history tops a year when the movies around the world bucked the recession and did record business, with receipts passing $10bn (£6.2bn) for the first time in the US.
While independent movies fight harder to get finance, studios continue to spend big bucks on blockbusters in the knowledge that, traditionally, in economically hard times people still go to the cinema.
Not just in the US, but all over the world.
Tickets are healthy too in this country, where the North-East has seen the opening of a new digital cinema with a giant IMAX screen, the Odeon Metrocentre.
Despite the extra money you have to fork out for the 3D glasses, going to the pictures is still cheaper than most forms of leisure activity.
The studios have more of the same planned for 2010, so picking ten for 2010 from the hundreds to be shown is a bit of a lottery. But all of these have something special to offer, even if it does only repeat an old formula. The results are, as Brucie and Tess would say on Strictly, in no particular order.
ROBIN HOOD
It’s Gladiator in Lincoln green tights. Director Ridley Scott and star Russell Crowe reunite to reimagine the the Sherwood Forest hero, played in the past by Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner and Sean Connery among others. The makers didn’t venture into Sherwood Forest, filming down South where a Nottingham village was built on a private estate in Surrey. As for Hood – “Russell doesn’t have the old tights.
He’s got armour. He’s very medieval. He looks more like he did in Gladiator than anything we’re used to seeing with Robin Hood,” according to one source.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Or should that be Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland?
In the light of his past flights of fantasy – Beetlejuice, Willy Wonka and Batman to name but three – the odds are that Lewis Carroll might not recognise this Alice. Here, a 19- year-old Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska, revists her childhood haunts and fights the Red Queen. Johnny Depp teams for the seventh time with Burton as the Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham-Carter is the Red Queen. You’ll also spot Stephen Fry (Cheshire Cat), Christopher Lee (the Jabberwock), Matt Lucas (Tweedledum and Tweedledee) and Barbara Windsor (the Dormouse).
CLASH OF THE TITANS
Sam Worthington had two starring roles in 2009, in Avatar and Terminator Salvatian. Now he stars in the remake of Clash Of The Titans as Perseus – “born of a god, but raised as a man”. No wonder he’s a crazy, mixed-up guy.
Ralph Fiennes is mad as hell as Hades, who’s out to seize power from Liam Neeson's Zeus.
This new version will be using CGI rather than the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion trickery of the original.
THE A TEAM
The last time they tried to make a movie of Eighties TV show The A-Team the name of Bruce Willis was mentioned. Now it’s Oscar nominee Liam Neeson taking charge as Hannibal in the story of how the team came together.
The other Team players are The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper (Face), District 9’s Sharlot Copley (Murdock) and Rampage Jackson filling Mr T’s size tens.
THE WOLFMAN
The hairy one has had some problems on his way to the cinema. This new take on the old Universal horror classic was scheduled to open in May 2009, then the studio shifted the release date twice. That was followed by reshoots last spring. Benecio Del Toro plays the title role with Emily Blunt, fresh from royal duties as The Young Victoria, co-starring. It opens in February. Definitely.
INVICTUS
His 80th birthday is approaching, but Clint Eastwood shows no sign of using his bus pass.
Invictus reunites him with Morgan Freeman after Unforgiven (for which Eastwood won an Oscar) and Million Dollar Baby (for which they both won Oscars). Freeman plays Nelson Mandela.
He spent ages trying unsuccessfully to get a film made of leader’s memoirs. Invictus is based on another book centred around the 1995 rugby world cup. “The responsiblity is huge,”
admits Freeman. “I mean, people have played him before, it’s been done, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have a tremendous responsibility.
He’s one of the world’s most noted icons.”
GREEN ZONE
A fourth Bourne thriller is under consideration but, in the meantime, director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon go looking for weapons of mass destruction. The film follows CIA officers as they venture into the Iraqi desert to search for WMDs. As Greengrass’ previous films include Bloody Sunday and United 93, we can rest assured this will be no jolly gung-ho war movie, but one with a brain.
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEADLY HALLOWS PART 1
They’ll probably say this one is darker than the last one, which is what they said about the last one and the one before that. Daniel Ratcliffe returns as the not-so-boyish wizard in the final book, which was too much to get into a single film, so they’ve made two and twice as much money as well, probably.
KICK-ASS
Stardust and Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn brings Mark Millar and John Romita Jr’s ultra-violent comic book to the screen in what one pundit reckons could be “the coolest superhero movie the world has ever seen”.
Aaron Johnson goes from impersonating John Lennon in Nowhere Boy to being Kick-Ass, alias comic book fan David.
SEX AND THE CITY 2/WALL STREET 2/IRON MAN 2
Sequels may be artistically lazy and rarely achieve the greatness of the original, but they make commercial sense. Sex And The City 2 follows the huge and unexpected success of the big screen version of the TV hit. All four leading ladies return, as does Michael Douglas to his Oscar-winning role of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street 2 for director Oliver Stone. Considering the current economic and banking situation, the sequel seems timely. Gekko is out of jail and involved with an ambitious young trader (Shia LaBeouf). I have higher hopes for the return of Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man 2.
He faces off against Russian badman Whiplash (played by Mickey Rourke, capitalising on the career boost given by his Oscar-nominated turn in The Wrestler).
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