DejaVu Tagged Articles at Cinematical

New Line decided to push back the release of Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny by one week in order to steer clear of Casino Royale and Happy Feet's openings, as well as to capitalize on a five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Did the move pay off? Hardly. Pic, which debuted on Wednesday, fell short of even landing in the top ten taking home a measly $3.3 million (counting Friday through Sunday only). So much for that whole destiny part, huh?

The big winners this weekend were, not surprisingly, Happy Feet ($37.9 million) and Casino Royale ($31 million) -- both of which finished number one and two respectively. The animated penguin flick crossed the $100 million mark in only 10 days, grossing an estimated $51.5 million over the course of all five days. Bond was not far behind, racking up $94.1 million throughout its first 10 days. The names Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer and Denzel Washington were enough to land Deja Vu ($20.8 million) in third place, while the abysmal (according to Kim, at least) Deck the Halls captured the fourth spot with $12 million. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan continued to impress, as it too jumped into $100 million territory -- pic rounded out the top five with $10.4 million, for a grand total (so far) of $109.3 million after four weeks. As expected, Darren Aronofsky's latest trippy adventure, The Fountain, didn't do too well in its opening weekend, yet managed to snag the ten spot from Tenacious D with $3.7 million.

Full numbers (Friday through Sunday only) after the jump.

I've always been a big fan of director Tony Scott. While his big brother Ridley is the one who seems to get all the awards and respect (which is what'll happen when you direct Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator), Tony seems more than content to keep churning out his own distinct brand of hyper-stylized, ultra-slick and testosterone-heavy action flicks. Two of Tony Scott's biggest hits, Top Gun and Days of Thunder, rank among my least-favorites examples of the man's work, but if you look back through his filmography you'll notice titles like Man on Fire, Spy Game, Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide and True Romance, all films that improve upon repeat viewings and always have a welcome home in heavy rotation on HBO and Showtime. Even the guy's relative failures (The Last Boy Scout, The Fan, Domino) are entirely watchable and strangely compelling failures.

So when I noticed that the latest Denzel Washington cop flick was directed by Mr. Scott, I immediately switched over from mildly interested to actively intrigued. Toss in the fact that Deja Vu was co-written by one of my favorite Popcorn Movie scribes (Terry Rossio, of Shrek, Zorro and Pirates), and I was officially looking forward to Deja Vu -- and that's even before the trailers switched over from "cop thriller" to "cop thriller with a sci-fi twist." (Rossio's co-writer, Bill Marsilii, makes his big-screen debut here.) Also helping to stir the pot is producer Jerry Bruckheimer, which basically means a movie might be really dumb, but there's very little chance it'll be dull.

When is it inappropriate to use Christ's name in vain? When you're around Jim Caviezel, of course. It isn't that the actor disapproves, but due to the fact that he played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, cursing the name can have an unintended comical context that changes the meaning of such an exclamation. Tony Scott recently found this out during test screenings of his new movie Deja Vu and had to take out a line of dialogue as a result. During a scene in which Denzel Washington's character comes face-to-face with his foe, played by Caviezel, he says, "Jesus." At that moment, the test audience burst out laughing -- with good reason.

How did Scott and the rest of the makers of Deja Vu overlook such a double meaning with the scene? It is understandable that the line was probably in the script before Caviezel's casting and wasn't noticed after he came on board, but how could it not come to anyone's attention during filming? The only thing I can think of is that the production realized the gag, thought it was fine as a seemingly subtle throwaway and kept it in not anticipating the reaction it would receive. If this is the case, Scott and the rest must never have seen Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I, in which Comicus (Brooks) curses the name Jesus in vain, only to have the real Jesus (John Hurt) reply, "Yes?"

Wow, I can't be the only one pleasantly surprised to find a trailer already online for Tony Scott's upcoming thriller Deja Vu. The film doesn't land in theaters until Thanksgiving, but it seems folks behind the scenes want to get this one off to a running start alongside some of the big summer films. Hey, I'm down.

Pic, which stars Denzel Washington, tells the story of an ATF agent who travels back in time to save a woman from being murdered, then accidentally falls in love with her. You may remember, back in February, Deja Vu became the first narrative feature film to be shot in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. Though, right after Katrina, director Tony Scott initially left the project, causing some to fear Denzel would also bail out, leaving Deja Vu very much up in the air. However, Scott jumped back onboard and the filmmakers re-worked the story to include a post-Katrina New Orleans. Now, five months after filming started back up, a brand-spanking-new trailer has hit the internet -- one that looks and feels like vintage Tony Scott, all gritty and what not. Man, am I glad he came back. Deja Vu is set to open on November 22.