a christmas carol Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I was considering a title pun on Richard Kelly getting Box-ed out -- which works on multiple levels!! -- but I couldn't pull the trigger. That, though, is my main concern this weekend, to be honest: I am heartbroken (though not surprised) that Kelly's wonderful, hugely ambitious sci-fi flick couldn't get a foothold at the box office. People at my Thursday night screening thought they had seen one of the worst movies ever, which I guess is what happens when you're led to expect harmless PG-13 horror and get something so radically different. I also suspect that Donnie Darko would have been similarly received had it opened on 2,600 screens instead of building its cult cred in mini-release and on DVD.

Anyway, The Boxearned $7.9 million -- not a total disaster for a $25 million movie, but not exactly a resume-builder for Kelly to the extent he has commercial ambitions. It was roundly defeated by the rest of the weekend's newcomers, most notably A Christmas Carol, which took first place with $31 million. That may not seem like a lot, but note that Zemeckis's The Polar Express opened to even less on its way to $180 million. I predict that A Christmas Carol, which looks wonderful on IMAX 3-D, will hold up well.

The weekend's other big winner was Precious, which Lionsgate pushed to an impressive $100,000 per-screen average on 18 screens. Even accounting for the very limited release, that's pretty strong; Brokeback Mountain-like numbers ($80-90 million) are probably within reach.

More, and the weekend top 10, after the jump.

The fear many of us had when it was announced Jim Carrey would play Ebenezer Scrooge and other parts in Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of A Christmas Carol was that Carrey's clowning would turn the story into a goofy farce. This fear turns out to have been unfounded. If anything, the opposite is true: The film has no personality at all, not Carrey's or anyone else's.

Charles Dickens' holiday classic has already been adapted for movies and TV dozens of times, but Zemeckis noticed something peculiar: Somehow, none of the previous incarnations had managed to be in 3-D! He sought to rectify this oversight with that newfangled motion-capture technology he's been so excited about the last several years, where actors' movements are translated into animation. The Polar Express and Beowulf demonstrated that for as neat-o as the technology is for action scenes, characters' faces -- especially their eyes -- look dead and soulless. Some improvement has been made in that respect, but most of the people in A Christmas Carol still look like creepy robots.

Halloween slowed down box office figures, but Michael Jackson's This Is It still managed the top honors for the weekend. Here's the top five:

1. Michael Jackson's This Is It: $23.2 million (total of $34.4 million)
2. Paranormal Activity: $16.3 million
3. Law Abiding Citizen: $7.4 million
4. Couples Retreat: $6.4 million
5. Where the Wild Things Are: $5.9 million

With only one wide release last week studios are making up for it with four new flicks this week.

The Box:
What's It All About: A couple in a tough financial situation are given a box that will grant them riches, except every time they use it someone somewhere will die.
Why It Might Do Well: Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly is at the helm, with a script based on a Richard Matheson story.
Why It Might Not Do Well: 55% at Rottentomatoes.com.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $16 million

A Christmas Carol:
What's It All About: Jim Carey stars in several roles in this 3D animated version of the classic Dickens Christmas tale.
Why It Might Do Well: This Robert Zemeckis guy has got some decent flicks on his resume.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Good lord, how many times has this been adapted before?
Number of Theaters: 3,500
Prediction: $42 million

We've all lamented the way that Christmas decorations, candies, and wrapping paper start appearing on store shelves between fake pumpkins and cheesecloth ghosts. In some stores, the Christmas stuff appears as early as July or August. But when it comes to our local multiplex, we're generally safe from holly and plum pudding until it's actually cold outside. Not this year.

Being entertainment fiends, I'm sure that the last week found most of you were tuning into AMC, IFC, and other assorted channels to check out their horror selections. You were also undoubtedly watching your favorite television shows, football teams, and following the World Series. I'll bet that you saw the tv spots for A Christmas Carol around ten times a day. Possibly more than that given all the games. Did you feel a cold chill run down your spine?

I did, and it wasn't caused by a pocky Jim Carrey or the possibility of Robert Zemeckis' mo-cap dead eyes. It was the fact that my jack o'lantern was flickering on my kitchen counter, bell jars of bones were decorating the top of my television, and Shadow of the Vampire was beckoning from my DVR. It was Halloween weekend. Even after October ticked down to its last gasp and we fell back, it was still autumn. It's harvest time. It's heartwrenching drama time, the real start of the Oscar race. It's time for The Road, The Men Who Stare At Goats and the Coens. It is not Christmastime. I don't care what the Three Spirits try to tell me, or whether Tiny Tim wants God to bless us, every one. I'm not going to listen until December 1. Perhaps I'll miss a great 3D thrill ride and the velvet voice of Colin Firth, but I'm not ready for snow and Dickensian morality just yet. Are you?

If you thought America was the only place where Christmas displays popped up in July, you can take some comfort that England is also suffering from holiday fatigue. But there's one corner of London that has proudly held out against decking the halls too soon: The West End. Until this year. The Independent reports that Disney has struck a deal with London's Mayor Boris Johnson to turn on Oxford and Regent's Christmas lights on November 3, nine days earlier than they're normally on, in order to coincide with London's world premiere of A Christmas Carol.

While some early Christmas lights aren't the end of the world, it's a rather sad state of affairs. Not only is it frightening to see a venerable city become a marketing tool, but the West End lights are famous, and always pick a unique decorating scheme from the rest of the city. For the first time, they'll not only follow the City of London's switch-on schedule, but they'll share the city's theme. Of course, that city wide theme is A Christmas Carol, and Disney has spent a million pounds in order to deck the halls of Oxford and Regent with Scrooge related decorations. From Leicester Square and beyond, Mayor Johnson promises lights and Dickensian events will provide "one of the biggest festive celebrations the capital has ever seen."

Disney's plans are causing quite a commotion in England, and many Londoners are dismayed to see the West End tradition fall prey to such overwhelming marketing. Dickens' scholars are even weighing in as to what the author himself would think, and the surprising consensus is that he would heartily approve of anything that inspired gift giving and commerce.

Continued below the jump ...

Click image below to view full poster

Cinematical has received this exclusive final poster for Disney's A Christmas Carol, Robert Zemeckis' newest dive into the pioneering world of motion capture animation. The Polar Express and Beowulf director's spin on Charles Dickens' timeless tale of a bitter old man, Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taken on a midnight journey of self-redemption by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, stars Jim Carrey as not only the cranky Scrooge, but all three apparitions as well.

As you might have guessed from the poster, Zemeckis' take promises to be the most wondrous adaptation of Dickens' original story to date. Substituting the dour introversion found in countless other cracks at the tale with a sense of adventure is a perfect fit for the man who created Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. If there is any doubt that Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol is going to be anything less than a must see exhibition this November 6th, just take a look at the roll call at the bottom of the poster: Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D. That's every flavor the cutting edge tech has to offer.

And if the above poster doesn't sell you on the Disney sponsored trip to a magical, Victorian-era wonderland, I'm sure the below trailer will.

I went back and forth for about a half hour as to whether or not I was going to post about this, but in the end I figured I owed it to the three people out there who enjoy looking at new images of Megan Fox from Jennifer's Body. Luckily, though, there's more for the lot of you as MTV has just revealed their big fall preview full of new images from a ton of upcoming films, like The Lovely Bones, Ninja Assassin, Sherlock Holmes, Amelia, A Christmas Carol, Whip It, A Serious Man and many more.

In Jennifer's Body (which, mind you, I've been hearing good things about), Megan Fox stars as a hottie cheerleader who turns all demonic and begins to off the boys at her school in the most horrific ways. Amanda Seyfried stars as her best friend, who eventually has enough of it all and attempts to stop her devilish gal pal before the end credits begin to roll. Juno scribe Diablo Cody wrote the script, and it's due out in theaters on September 18.

Also, in related news, Megan Fox will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, which I hope will include at least one sketch about lame internet bloggers who constantly write flattering things about the girl because she looks good in a tight skirt but has very little talent.

Check out a larger version of the above image below, and the rest over at MTV.

A photo and the first footage (which you can see below) from Robert Zemeckis's Disney-produced motion capture version of A Christmas Carol has arrived online with the video coming in by way of Trailer Addict. Zemeckis was also at the helm of 2004's The Polar Express which used the same technology to attempt to breathe life into another Christmas story. I say attempted because the characters in that film never quite made it as cartoons or real people (at least for me), falling into a creepy sort of Twilight Zone between the two. This new film seems to pull it off more convincingly thanks to more cartoony characters and several years of advancement with the technology. That's Jim Carrey playing Scrooge and he'll also be portraying the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. The cast will also include Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins, and Colin Firth.

It really says something about a story that can be adapted for film, stage and television as often as A Christmas Carol. One might even say it's a Dickens of a tale, but that's a joke too lame even for me. A quick search for the title on IMDB brings up 26 film and TV productions, which of course doesn't include the ones that took liberty with the title like Bill Murray's Scrooged.

Previously known as Stuff and Things, Stuff We Missed is exactly that: stuff we missed. Consider this the Costco of blog posts, where you save time and read your movie news in bulk. Yum.

-- Will Watchmen hit theaters on March 6th, as scheduled, or will those evil demons at 20th Century Fox prevent fans from seeing their beloved film on time simply because they hate human beings and everything they stand for? Okay, maybe there's a little more to it, but good news is both sides have agreed to let a judge settle this on January 20th. It's complicated, but we'll know then whether the film will arrive on time or not.

-- Our friends over at io9 came across a few images of early concept art for that new Judge Dredd flick (see them below). These come from comic artist Jock, who also worked on Losers, 2000 A.D and Green Arrow: Year One. The images are all tagged with the name Rebellion, which is the company behind the 2003 Dredd video game, and is also producing the new film.



-- The ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) have dished out their nominations for best of the year, with nods going to Revolutionary Road, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire (my choice) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

If it hasn't happened already, within the next year or so Disney and 3-D technology should become BF4EVAH (or Best Friends For Ever). Just today two whoppers of announcements have been made: First, that Disney will release its classic Beauty and the Beast in Disney Digital 3-D on the big screen in 2010. Joining Beast that same year in Disney Digital 3-D will be the re-release of Toy Story 2, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, Rapunzel and Step Up 3D (from Touchstone). Wait, we're not done -- that was just the honeymoon. In 2009, we're looking at Jonas Brothers 3-D Concert Movie, Pixar's Up, G-Force, the re-release of Toy Story and Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol.

Oh, and regarding that last film -- A Christmas Carol -- well, Disney also just announced a deal where Carol will kick off a five-picture arrangement with IMAX Corporation, meaning you will soon be seeing Disney on an even bigger screen in 3-D. Of course, this all leads to the biggie: Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and a continuation of their most popular live-action franchise right now. Those brilliant minds over at Variety seem to think it'd be a no-brainer for Disney to bring Pirates into 3-D territory, and when we asked Jerry Bruckheimer about going 3-D with Pirates recently while visiting the set of Prince of Persia (which we imagine will be one of those five films hitting IMAX screens), he said "Absolutely. I'd love to do it, so let's just see if we can work it through the production schedule with everything else."

But what do you fans of the franchise think? Would you want Pirates 4 to go the 3-D route, or do you feel the technology would take something away from the franchise? Sound off below ...