Awake Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The holiday weekend was a good one for ticket sales. The Disney magic is apparently still working, with Enchanted pulling $35 million for the weekend and a total of $49 million since its release on Wednesday. The holiday themed This Christmas has already turned a profit, pulling in a total of $26 million, roughly twice what it cost to make the thing. I underestimated that one in my prediction, and overestimated the performance of The Mist which came in ninth, making $8.9 million for the weekend and a total of $12.8 million. Not too shabby for a movie with a budget of only $18 million. Here's the final tally:

1. Enchanted: $35.3 million.
2. This Christmas: $18.6 million.
3. Beowulf: $16.2 million.
4. Hitman: $13 million.
5. Bee Movie: $12 million.

If you absolutely must see something new this weekend, pickings are slim, but there are still plenty of movies in release to suit many tastes. This week's newbie poses perhaps the greatest philosophical question of our age: what might happen if a Jedi Knight married a member of the Fantastic Four?

Awake
What's It All About: Hayden Christensen plays a victim of anesthetic awareness, a phenomenon in which a patient remains conscious but paralyzed under anesthesia. While in this state, he hears his surgeons plotting to murder him and pretend his death was the result of complications. Jessica Alba stars as Christensen's wife.
Why It Might Do Well: Being this week's only new wide release certainly won't hurt the film's chances.
Why It Might Not Do Well: I'm betting Enchanted still has legs enough to pull off a second week in the number one spot, so I think Awake may have to settle for the silver.
Number of Theaters: 2,000
Prediction: $14 million

Last week's Thanksgiving dinner and the steady stream of turkey sandwiches that followed have left me chock full of tryptophan, a substance commonly found in turkey and believed by some (well, me at least) to enhance a person's precognitive abilities. The turkey has given me visions of the future, and here's what I think next week's box office take will look like:

1. Enchanted
2. Awake
3. This Christmas
4. Beowulf
5. Hitman

Participation in last week's competition was on the light side. Sure, cast me aside in favor of spending time with your loved ones. Here's how everyone did:

1. Ray: 11
2. yoyo456: 9
2. Mario: 9
3. Matt: 7
3. Chris: 7
4. Gregory Rubinstein: 6
4. L: 6
4. Chloe: 6
5. Aaron/ABIRD0006:5

Now's your chance to wow the world with your box office prediction prowess. Don't forget to post your prediction in the comments section below before 5:00PM on Saturday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.

Although I generally prefer my wings with hot sauce and blue cheese, we're looking at a different type of wing here. This week we're looking at movies that are joined together by the common theme of winged creatures, so one might say we're Just Winging It.

Valkyrie
I'm not sure if the Valkyrie's of Norse mythology had wings of any kind, but whenever I hear the name I always picture the Marvel Comics character Valkyrie who was known for riding a winged horse. Anyway, this new flick from Bryan Singer (director of the first two X-Men movies and Superman Returns) looks awesome. Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer at the heart of a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler's regime and assassinate the dictator. Knowing that the plot is doomed to fail adds a sense of tragedy to the whole thing, as does the fact that this based on a true story. Kenneth Branaugh and Terrence Stamp also star. Here's Erik's take on the trailer.

Alvin and the Chipmunks
I know, Chipmunks aren't winged creatures, but flying squirrels sort of are and it's not a huge leap to... Oh come on, work with me, people. After the absolutely dreadful teaser trailer (click here to share my pain) that dropped a few months ago (you have only moments to sell us on your film and you give us a poop eating joke?) this full length trailer looks surprisingly less awful. I'm not saying it looks great, but it made me laugh a few times and yeah the little buggers are kind of cute. Jason Lee plays Dave Seville, a down on his luck songwriter who happens upon three talking squirrels whose singing voices make his otherwise crappy songs palatable. This one is coming out right before Christmas, so I'm betting we'll be hearing the classic Chipmunks Christmas song along with the covers of pop tunes you can hear them sing in the trailer.

Cinematical has just received the first poster for Awake (click on the image for a larger version), starring Jessica Alba, Hayden Christensen and Terrence Howard. The film tackles one of my (and I'm sure most of you as well) worst fears of all time: staying awake on the operating table during surgery. I'm not talking about getting a tooth pulled, while the dentist numbs certain areas. I'm talking the real deal -- a guy suffers "anesthetic awareness" (meaning he's awake, aware and paralyzed) during heart surgery. God, just writing about that freaks me out to no end. I imagine the entire film could be about that; dealing with it, figuring out how to make it through alive.

Nope. Awake takes it one step further -- apparently, someone is also trying to kill him. Christensen plays the guy who goes under the knife, while Alba takes on the role of his wife, a woman who must make life-altering decisions while wrestling with her own personal drama. Did she plan the murder? Or is she simply a victim, like her husband? The poster reads: "Every year 21 million people go under anesthesia. One in 700 remain awake the entire time. When they planned her husband's murder, they never thought he'd be the one." Creepy. I dig it. Awake hits theaters on November 30; check out the trailer over on Moviefone.

You know, sometimes it's like the universe wants to prove you wrong. No sooner did I make one little offhand comment that Zack Snyder had probably abandoned his follow-up to Dawn of The Dead when his wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, tells Shock Till You Drop that Army of the Dead is alive and well (sorry, I couldn't resist). The script was written by Snyder and Awake's Joby Harold. Deborah Snyder summed up the story to Shock as follows: "Basically, something happened in Vegas and there was this huge outbreak of these zombies that were killing people...So to contain it they basically contain Vegas. The city is this wasteland with walls around it and all of these zombies are inside" -- and it could just be me, but that sounds awfully similar to Resident Evil: Extinction.

As we all know, Zack Snyder is hard at work on his big-screen version of Watchmen, and he will only produce the 'sequel' to his 2004 remake of George Romero's zombie classic. Deborah Snyder tells Shock that they are currently on the hunt for a director for the project, but that it is "...a little hard [to do] because we're here [on set] and every day is killer. We want the right person for it. The script has been turned in to the studio and they're really happy with it, with pretty minimal notes back, so they said, 'Hey, let's get a director.'" As soon as they do find their director, we'll be here to let you know who it is. Any ideas?

[via Justpressplay.net]

Some new stills have arrived online showing Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba acting all serious for their upcoming film Awake. In the pic, Christensen will play out a hospital patient's worst nightmare - no television reception! Okay, maybe a nurse who smells worse than your stained hospital gown would be worse.

What really happens is that, while undergoing surgery, Christensen suffers from what is called "anesthetic awareness." This is when you're fully conscious but paralyzed and unable to say or do anything about the situation. Yeah, it's pretty much one of the most horrific things that can happen to a person...but Jessica Alba is there, so that's okay.

Alba will play the wife of Christensen in a contest to see which one of the two turns in the most wooden performance. Just kidding, we're not supposed to say anything bad about the adorable ones, right? According to the film's producer, "This film will do to surgery what Jaws did to swimming in the ocean." Great, now we'll have two things to fear forever - the ocean and breathing. Way to go Hollywood!

[via JoBlo]