I'll admit that for some silly reason seeing the poster for The Bank Job made me think that this flick might be a step above the usual Lock, Stock rip-off. Unfortunately, a new TV spot over at Coming Soon has me rethinking that position. CS is now hosting the new commercial for the crime caper and by the looks of things, this film is just going to be another paint-by-numbers British crime caper -- the legacy of Guy Ritchie lives on.

The Bank Job is based on the true story of the famous Baker Street Robbery. In 1971, over $900,000 was stolen from Lloyds Bank in London. The thieves were never caught and even stranger was the fact that a gag order was placed on the investigation. Well, 27 years later and director Roger Donaldson is claiming that finally the real story can be told. According to the film's writers and their "Deep Throat" source, the real reason for the heist was to cover up a scandal involving the Royal Family. The conspiracy theory also manages to incriminate high-ranking police officers, the secret service, politicians and a prominent member of the royal family.

So you can maybe understand why I'm a little disappointed that a fascinating story like this might be reduced to nothing but choppy editing and glib dialog. Screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Flushed Away) have been trying to get the story of the Baker Street Robbery to the screen for years, so hopefully they wanted to do it right. I guess I will have to wait and see when The Bank Job hits theaters later this month.

Check out the theatrical trailer for The Bank Job after the jump ...

I guess it's never fun to be fired, but I bet it's worse when there is a full-page press release about it. Variety reports that Colin Brady has been replaced by David Bowers to direct the feature film version of the classic manga, Astro Boy. The announcement was made by Imagi Entertainment's Co-CEO & Chief Creative Officer, Francis Kao, and there was no official reason given for the switch. It doesn't look like Imagi has really 'traded up' all that much with their choice of director. Brady was a newbie director with only one film under his belt, and Bowers' last film was Flushed Away.

Created in 1951 by "God of Manga," Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy tells the story of a young robot boy who fights crime and technology gone wild, as well as the usual manga struggles of humanity versus technology, and of course, what it means to be human. Michael Lachance's script will focus on "a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist in the image of the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the grieving man's expectations, our hero embarks on a journey in search of acceptance, experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before he returns to save Metro City and reconcile with the father who had rejected him."

It's too bad that Brady won't get the chance to direct the boy in the red boots, since he seemed pretty keen on the whole thing back in November. But I wouldn't feel too bad for Brady; the visual effects master has already scored the job of directing another classic kid's tale, The Smurfs. Astro Boy is scheduled for release in 2009.

Because there is still good in this world, it has taken only about three months for Aardman Animation to find a new partnership in Hollywood. The animation studio, which DreamWorks mistakenly flushed away back in January, has a new deal with Sony, and it sounds like it will be a much better team-up for the Aardman gang than their last. Reportedly, Aardman will not face the same sort of assimilation it faced at DreamWorks, where its most recent picture, Flushed Away, suffered from too much Hollywoodization. Instead, it is expected to produce a new title every 18 months, each with different budgets and some being made with CGI (as opposed to the studio's signature claymation style), all with less restriction from Sony and all based out of Aardman's home base in Bristol rather than out of Hollywood. The deal is presently set at a three year agreement, but Sony seems hopeful about the partnership lasting a long time.

Sony should benefit just as much from the deal, which will increase its output of animated films. The studio recently got into the competitive animation market full force, and so far with Monster House and Open Season it has only been performing so-so (its next release is Surfs Up, coming out June 8). Aardman will be bringing familiar characters to the table, though, with confirmed new Wallace & Gromit features. The Aardman name is also a fairly known brand around the world, which should prove profitable for overseas distribution (which Sony seems to appreciate even more than others). The partnership already has four projects in the works -- they obvioulsy aren't wasting any time -- but we are still probably a few years away from seeing the first collaboration (I'm hoping one is the animated mockumentary Tortoise vs. Hare). Although I wish Sony could now grab Crood Awakening, which had originated as an Aardman project, away from DreamWorks, I am otherwise really happy about this partnership. I may even be happier than Wallace at a cheese buffet.

After a bad year at the box office, which resulted in a major financial blow, DreamWorks Animation is anxiously awaiting the release of Shrek the Third. The sequel will be out in a month and it is sure to put the studio back in the black, though I have to point out how appropriate the movie would have been in the new 3-D format. Aside from 3-D being so hot right now, it would have been great for the film to be released as Shrek 3-D (when I was a kid it seemed all franchises went to part three just for that gimmick.) Now the studio must wait and put out the planned fourth installment of the green ogre as Shrek 4, in 3-D. And we can be sure it will actually be in the format because as of 2009 all of DreamWorks Animation's features will be in 3-D.

If a 3-D Shrek title sounds familiar, you may remember the short film shown at Universal Studios and then released on DVD a few years back (even before Shrek 2 came out.) The IMDb actually labels the thing as Shrek 4-D, but I'm pretty sure the video is titled Shrek 3-D. Of course, it was made before the current Real D 3-D technology was being utilized (it still used the red and blue glasses.) Actually, if you follow all the trends closely, you may even remember that the first Shrek was supposed to be shown on IMAX in digital 3-D (again, the old kind.)

As we told you back in January, the box-office take for Flushed Away was such a disappointment that it soured and ended the partnership between Dreamworks and Aardman Animation. Wallace & Gromit was also cited as an underperformer, even though it made more than $192 million worldwide. Wall Street is now looking hard at exactly how much of a hit Dreamworks took from the poor-performing animated features, and the results aren't pretty: the company has apparently swung from a $63.2 million profit position to a $21.3 million loss. Flushed Away is estimated to have cost over $140 million to produce, and pulled in just $177 worldwide in box office receipts. Variety reports

Jeffrey Katzenberg making the following statement about the decision to Variety: "It's difficult, because we're proud of the work they've done, but this is just not a good business financially for our company." The story notes that expectations are now higher than ever for Shrek the Third, which is dropping in 2007 and is generally expected to do well. The film will be sandwiched in between the release of Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Bee Movie, the Jerry Seinfeld animated feature scheduled for fall, is also highly anticipated, for has a heavy cost structure due to Seinfeld's involvement.

Everyone knew it was coming. Following the disappointing box office of Flushed Away, there was speculation that it would happen. And now it is certain: Dreamworks has cut Aardman Animation loose. Sadly, the studio is now also citing the weak performance of the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit as an added reason for the end of the partnership. Aside from winning prestigious awards, that film made more than $192 million worldwide (actually, only $20 million more than Flushed Away). I guess when you're used to Shrek 2-size figures ($920 million), though, a lot of numbers look small.

I'm not too worried about Aardman. They were doing amazing work before the Dreamworks deal, and they'll do amazing work after. The animation studio still has a thing going with CBS, which is sitting on seven episodes of a Creature Comforts series, which I think is based on Nick Park's Oscar-winning short. However, there may not be any features from Aardman for awhile. I was very upset to learn that Crood Awakening, which was co-written by John Cleese and was to be the next Aardman feature, is being left behind at Dreamworks, where it will presumably be shelved for good. I'm sure that Dreamworks is hoping the Shrek movies will never lose their steam, but I just can't believe that there's much more to do with those characters.

It was a good year for much of Hollywood, but a bad year for A Good Year. The Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe team-up only grossed $7 million domestically, and has been labeled a flop. Variety has listed the major box office disappointments for 2006, and interestingly enough, a few of them have to do with water. The appropriately bad way to describe their fate, then, is to say that they drowned. Flushed Away, The Lady in the Water, Poseidon and The Fountain (okay, I didn't see it, but I don't think there's an actual water-type fountain), just couldn't swim. Here's some more bad puns: Sharon Stone didn't have the Basic Instict 2 stay away from a dumb sequel; Producer Dean Devin said, "Flyboys," to his new movie but it crashed and burned; All the King's Men stayed away from this remake, and so did everyone else; Audiences let their Freedomland in other activities besides seeing a movie starring Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson. There's no pun needed for The Wicker Man; it just sucked.

Unlike the biggest flops of all time, none of these movies from 2006 broke a studio or likely ended a career. Ridley Scott and Wolfgang Petersen (director of Poseidon) have had flops before, but they can be forgiven for "flukes" every once in awhile since they usually turn out successful work. Plus, their films did okay business overseas. International box office saves more flops these days than back in the times of the really big bombs. Most of the other filmmakers represented are also probable to bounce back, or at least fall back on their other talents. Joe Roth (Freedomland) has already returned to producing. Steve Zaillian (All the King's Men) is back to writing. Tony Bill (Flyboys) may continue acting. Michael Caton-Jones (Basic Instinct 2) will eventually make another crappy film. M. Night Shyamalan (Lady in the Water) might need to be forced to work on somebody else's script for once, but he isn't going to disappear anytime soon, unfortunately.

As expected, the animated penguin flick Happy Feet danced and waddled its way into the top spot at the box office this weekend, however its $42.3 million just barely beat out Casino Royale, whose $40.6 million fell short of the previous Bond (Die Another Day) opening of $47.1 million -- the current franchise record. While Royale took a small lead after Friday, it was quite obvious the cuddlier tuxedo-clad protagonists would ultimately prevail -- c'mon, those giddy penguins are way cuter than Daniel Craig.

After dominating the media and the box office for two straight weeks, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan ($14.35 million) took a respectable ass-beating, but still managed to beat out the other two family flicks in theaters to take third place. Tim Allen and the Santa Clause 3 continues to disappoint (in more ways than one) falling to fourth with $8.2 million, and Flushed Away ($6.8 million) rounded out the top five. Saw III ($2.8 million) and The Departed ($2.6 million) continued to linger around, while it was a pleasant surprise to see one of this year's best films, The Queen ($2.3 million), narrowly beat out one of this year's worst, Let's Go to Prison ($2.1 million), for the tenth and final spot.

Full numbers after the jump.

Dreamworks isn't too happy with the box office performance of Flushed Away, the new computer-animated film released by the studio as part of its deal with Aardman Animation. The picture has only made about $41 million in the U.S. since it opened two weeks ago, and it isn't likely to come anywhere close to recouping its cost of $149 million. Variety is reporting that the studio will take a "an unspecified write-down" on the film. I'm not good with financial jargon, and I don't understand what this exactly means, but it is something kind of like a tax write-off, only partial. If anyone can explain it better in layman's terms, by all means, leave me a comment.

The part of this news that is easier to comprehend, and a little more unfortunate, is the possibility that Dreamworks will now drop its deal with Aardman. Flushed Away is the third Aardman picture co-produced by Dreamworks. The first two were Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, both of which performed much better. The next Aardman feature, Crood Awakening, which is being co-written by John Cleese, will likely have to be distributed by someone else. This is a shame, because although I haven't yet seen Flushed Away, I imagine it is better than Shrek the Third, which will make Dreamworks a whole ton of money when it's released next Spring.

It is hard -- no; it is impossible -- to imagine a foreign film at the top of the box office. But, of course -- even though I've been humming the phrase "... all other countries have inferior potassium" under my breath for the past week -- Borat is not a foreign film. It's a fake foreign film -- and, again, when was the last time a fake foreign film was on top of the box office? And also -- in the face of over three thousand screens of Martin Short and over three thousand screens of computer-simulated claymation -- when was the last time a movie playing on just 837 screens was on top of the box office?

Borat may be rude and Anthony Lane may not get it, but people hit the screens in droves, giving the mock-Kazakh-doc a box office total of $26,375,000 on its opening weekend. The question of what will happen in subsequent weekends as Borat expands is, of course, an appropriate one for election week -- Will it play in Peoria? If there's any link between per-screen average and word-of-mouth, then Borat may very well have legs.

Meanwhile, The Santa Clause III opened on 3,458 screens and came in second with $20,000,000, while Flushed Away came third with $19,100,00 despite opening on a massive 3,707 screens. The only other film opening this week -- Volver -- played to good art-house numbers on five screens -- which is to say $200,000. Big movers included Babel, adding 28 screens (from a mere 7) and seeing a 135% increase in box office, hitting nearly $1.5 million in America. The Queen also added screens this week -- 235, for a total on 387 - and made more money; it's hit a total of $10,000,000 in American release in six weeks. Finally, the winner of this week's Make-out Award -- which goes to the film with the lowest per-screen average -- is Alex Ryder: Operation Stormbreaker , which barely squeaked out a paltry $304 per screen. (If you saw Operation Stormbreaker in a theater this weekend, you probably would not just have been able to sneak in snacks; you probably would have been alone enough to make a two-course dinner. During the film. With a gas grill.) Next week, look for Will Ferrel's existential meta-angst comedy Stranger than Fiction and Russell Crowe's new film What Ridley and I Did on Our Summer Vacat -- ooh, I mean A Good Year -- as the big releases.