Inkheart Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Confessions of a Shopaholic
Perhaps we shouldn't expect anything from a movie about a shopaholic, but this comedy's ditzy heroine and silly story can't even compare to other notable films in the romcom genre. In her review, Jette Kernion said: "Confessions of a Shopaholic tries to have it all ... Unfortunately, it's never as good as the movies it tries to imitate." Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Inkheart
Yet another film in Brendan Fraser's ever-growing collection of familial adventure. (Will he ever leave it behind and return to his dramatic roots?) Nick Schager describes the film as "a scattered collection of ideas, most of them cavalierly mixed together and barely fleshed out." Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

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The Pink Panther 2
It might not seem possible, but as Eric D. Snider wrote in his review of the Steve Martin-starring sequel: "Despite being a sequel that is completely unnecessary, The Pink Panther 2 is actually better than its predecessor," and "It has several funny sequences and a general tone of good-natured frivolity." When fluffy fun is on the agenda, Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Phoebe in Wonderland
Tim Burton's spin on Alice in Wonderland is quickly coming our way. But for now, there's the Elle Fanning-starring tale of a girl trying to find her place in real life. Kim Voynar said: "there are so many rich layers to explore in this carefully crafted story; it's rather like a kaleidoscope, in that what you see and get out of it shifts and changes depending on which character's perspective you're looking at, and what ideas you bring to watching it." Rent it.

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Also out: The Code, Bob Funk, Dragon Hunters, Table for Three, Mr. Troop Mom, Simon Says, Legend of the Bog, Backwoods, He's On My Mind, War Wolves

If I seemed distressed about Paul Blart: Mall Cop handily winning its debut weekend, imagine how I feel about it spending two weeks at #1. Its family film bona fides helped it edge out Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (at least in the estimates), despite the latter winning Friday. Underworld's $20.70 million opening is the weakest of the franchise, dipping just below the first film's $21 million and change; it's a good thing they saved money by ditching Kate Beckinsale in favor of Rhona Mitra, though I sense that the fourth film may go straight to DVD.

The other new wide release this weekend was Inkheart, and it's the year's first genuine flop. Kid-friendly, pervasively marketed fantasy based on a popular book seemed like a recipe for success, but it didn't take, with the film opening to $7.7 million in a not-terribly-crowded marketplace. Possibly not enough whole-family appeal.

Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday; that, combined with a screen count boost, combined with already steamrolling word-of-mouth rocketed Slumdog Millionare to its first double-digit weekend and an 80% gain over last week. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -- the nomination leader -- managed to hold the line from last week without the benefit of a screen count increase, which is good news.

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that adores animated animals and loves sequels, so combine the two and we're totally in business. Last week we asked you to churn out some funny for a photo from the new film Inkheart, in theaters this weekend. Congrats to our two valiant winners!


1. "With a sense of dread, he realized he'd glanced at the Miss March's "childhood" picture right before he'd read her out of the magazine." CP

2. "Now tell me again why your autograph is supposed to make this more valuable?" -- BP

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This week we're reuniting with our friends Elliot and Boog for the sequel to their ultra successful Open Season -- named, appropriately, Open Season 2, which arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD on January 27. The two crazy cats behind our favorite captions this week will take home one Open Season 2 BluRay DVD, one Open Season 2 book, one Open Season 2 script page signed by Jane Krakowski and one Open Season 2 script page signed by Joel McHale. Sound off below ...



Read the official rules for this contest

Inkheart is a scattered collection of ideas, most of them cavalierly mixed together and barely fleshed out. Director Iain Softley's adaptation of Cornelia Funke's 2004 best-seller is a fantasy film built from spare parts - deliberately so, as it involves a hero known as a "silvertongue" who, by reading aloud, can bring fictional characters and objects off the page and into the real world. Shortly after the birth of his daughter, bookbinder Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) unintentionally transports villains from the titular swords-and-sorcery novel into our universe, and sends back in their place - because this supernatural gift is of a tit-for-tat variety - his wife Resa (Sienna Guillory). Determined to set things right, he sets out to find a copy of the rare "Inkheart," a quest that years later leads him and pre-teen daughter Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett) to Europe. There, they discover not only the highly sought-after paperback but also trouble in the form of Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), a fire-dancer who, eager to return to his book world, hands Mo and Meggie over to chief "Inkheart" scoundrel Capricorn (Andy Serkis), who's using silvertongues to make himself rich, collect famous literary creatures (a tick-tocking crocodile, winged monkeys, a unicorn) and usher into our dimension the monstrous Shadow.

A record setting Martin Luther King weekend was led by the Kevin James comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop, out distancing the second place Gran Torino by $10 million. Here's the top five:

1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $31.8 million
2. Gran Torino: $21.9 million
3. My Bloody Valentine 3-D: $21.2 million
4. Notorious: $20.4 million
5. Hotel for Dogs: $17 million

We're down to just two new flicks this week, each representing an aspect of the fantasy genre.

Inkheart
What's It All About: Brendan Fraser stars as a man with the ability to literally bring characters from books to life by reading aloud.
Why It Might Do Well: A 60% rating at Rottentomatoes.com isn't stellar but it's still fresh, and the film should have strong youth appeal, while fans of the book will want to see it.
Why It Might Not Do Well: There's always the possibility that it could be mistaken for a documentary on the art of tattooing.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $22 million

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
What's It All About: This third installment of the franchise is a prequel, detailing the origins of the animosity between vampires and werewolves.
Why It Might Do Well: Underworld and Underworld Evolution took in $52 million and $62 million respectively, this prequel may do similar numbers. Also having a colon in the title worked pretty well for Paul Blart: Mall Cop, so maybe it will help here.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Director Patrick Tatopoulos is best known as an effects artist. Does he have the chops to helm a feature?
Number of Theaters: 2,800
Prediction: $18 million

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that could (and would) magically leap off the screen and come to life if it weren't so lazy. Last week we asked you to put your best paw forward and bark out a caption for a photo from the new flick Hotel for Dogs. Congrats to the three hounds behind the following winning captions:


1. "Okay kid, they look pretty clean. You can pet me now." -- Herb S.

2. "In an attempt to take the Karate Kid series in a new direction, the studios decided to replace Mr. Miyagi with a Jack Russell Terrier." -- Rex P.

3. "An unfortunate early attempt at a Vulcan mind-meld left the young Mr. Spock with lingering confused feelings toward fire hydrants and the neighbor's poodle." -- Matt H.

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This week we're taking a closer look long-awaited big-screen adaptation of Inkheart, about a father (Brendan Fraser) and daughter (Eliza Bennett) who share the ability to read characters out of their stories and into the real world. Wouldn't it be cool if we all had that power? And I wonder if it would also apply to recipes in our favorite cookbooks? The folks behind our three favorite captions this week will take home one Inkheart leather belt with pouch, one Inkheart sketchbook that includes pencils & case, one Inkheart tattoo sheet and one Inkheart shirt. Sound off below ...



Read the official rules for this contest

Not too long ago, Cinematical had a chance to travel to London to visit the set of Inkheart over at Shepperton Studios where stars Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Eliza Bennett and Andy Serkis were filming a crucial scene in the film -- one that involved fire, magic, a non-CGI'd Serkis and strange-looking evil men. But we'll come back to that in a little bit. Shepperton Studios is made up of several buildings, and unlike the set of The Golden Compass (which we visited the day before), there wasn't much green screen to be found on this flick. Instead, the Inkheart sets were big, bold and quite beautiful -- one of which felt as if you were walking straight onto a village street, with shops and cobblestones and realistic rooftops.

On the side of this set stood the interior of a medieval-looking cathedral, which runs up about two stories and boasts a large staircase at its center. They were still dressing this set, which would be used for one of the final scenes later in the week. During our visit, we would meet with executive producer Diana Pokorny, costume designer Verity Hawkes, legendary production designer John Beard, two animal trainers and, of course, the cast with director Iain Softley (The Skeleton Key, K-PAX, Hackers). For more on the Inkheart set visit, follow us after the jump.

Okay, so the truth is a bit less exciting than the headline might suggest, since David Lindsay-Abaire, who is signing on to write the screenplay for Spider-Man 4, also wrote Inkheart and had a hand in the awful, low-rent Robots. So we're not exactly getting John Updike, here. Still, Lindsay-Abaire did win a real, honest-to-goodness pulitzer for his 2007 Broadway play Rabbit Hole, which he's also currently adapting for the screen. (He got a Tony, too.)

This means they'll be scrapping a previous draft by Zodiac's James Vanderbilt -- or whatever he had managed to write, since just a short while ago Sam Raimi was claiming that he still didn't have a script. Of course, we have no idea what the plot is, though it hasn't stopped us from speculating. Will it be Lizard? Maybe it'll be Lizard.

Anyway, Raimi is excitedly returning, as we know, and Tobey Maguire has signed on too. The Hollywood Reporter story insists that Kirsten Dunst is "expected to return" as well. My stance on all of this is pretty clear-cut: I love this character and Raimi's take on him, think the third film was criminally underappreciated, and want more, as soon as possible. And I'm glad that they've brought on a serious, thoughtful writer, Robots or no Robots. This franchise deserves it.

Here's a strange twist to the writer's strike, and a postponement excuse we haven't heard before: New Line has pushed back Inkheart from March 2008 to January 2009 because of what the strike is doing to the television industry. Huh? According to Variety, the studio figures that without first-run programs on TV, it can't reach enough viewers through commercials, which is apparently the only way to market a movie these days.

OK, I kind of get it, but I hardly ever watch TV, and I've seen about 1,000 TV ads for Cloverfield this week, so there has to be a way to reach an audience by the original release date of March 18. They could have bought some time during the Super Bowl or the Oscars or, since its a family fantasy, any children's program. Seriously, kids don't care if their show is in repeats or not. I'm not going to go the usual route and accuse Inkheart of having production troubles. Judging by the trailer and Erik's visit to the film's set last year, the movie looks and sounds like it's a lot of fun, and anyway, it's reportedly all finished and ready to deliver to theaters. But since the TV marketing excuse seems odd, I'll assume that New Line is simply trying to figure out how to market a movie that could be accepted as just another fantasy movie and go mostly ignored by the same public that didn't go to see The Golden Compass or The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.

Those of you who need your Brendan Fraser fix need not cry for too long. The actor can still be seen in New Line's Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, which comes out July 11, and Universal's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, out August 1.

In other release date news, New Line has also pushed back Pride and Glory, which stars Edward Norton and Colin Farrell (which I remember them filming in Brooklyn back in Summer 2005), from March 14 to sometime in 2009, though the reasoning behind this one may have had more to do with Norton and Farrell having other new releases coming out soon, than it had to do with the writer's strike effect on TV ads. Meanwhile, Universal has moved up its Judd Apatow-produced comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall so that it doesn't have to go up against Sex in the City (which New Line will have no problem advertising on television) and Starship Dave (which I can't imagine really being a threat to anyone). Forgetting Sarah Marshall will now bow on April 18, which should perfectly fit in with some college kids' spring break. The same studio also pushed back its Baby Mama one weekend, from April 18 to April 25.

As The Golden Compass hits theaters, the trailer for New Line's next big fantasy flick, Inkheart, has arrived online alongside a website. When Cinematical flew to London earlier this year to visit the set of Compass, Inkheart was the other movie we got to check out ... and we (meaning I) dug it. Based on the novel by Cornelia Funk (which, like Compass, is the first in a trilogy -- with Inkspell and the soon-to-be-released Inkdeath following behind), Inkheart follows the story of a man named Mo (Brendan Fraser doing his best Mummy lite) who has the ability to read stories aloud and bring fictional characters to life. When he brings three characters from the book Inkheart into the real world, Mo and his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett) soon find they've bit off more than they can chew.

The greatest thing about Inkheart: The Movie? Andy Serkis plays the villain! Ah, but this time he's not covered in CGI (Gollum from Lord of the Rings) or ape hair (King Kong); yes, this time, Serkis gets to play a real-life guy (or, well, a character from a book who's brought to life). And based on the trailer, he looks great. Also starring in the film are Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent. We'll have a full report from the set of Inkheart shortly before its March 19 release date. Until then, enjoy the trailer and let us know what you think.