fox Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's tough to lose a legend like Paul Newman, and the rush of DVDs, biographies, and rumor mongering don't make it any easier. The rush of merchandising seems to walk a fine line between actually honoring the person, and pure graveyard profit. You can decide what category Fox's upcoming Paul Newman Tribute Collection falls into. I'm going to err on the side of classy, even at its steep price of $89.98, because it contains a total of 17 DVDs. The list includes:

The Long, Hot Summer (the film that Newman Joanne Woodward met on)
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys
From the Terrace
Exodus
The Hustler Collector's Edition
Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man
What a Way to Go!
Hombre
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Collector's Edition
The Towering Inferno Special Edition
Buffalo Bill and the Indians Or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Quintet
The Verdict Collector's Edition

The collection goes on sale on September 22. It's definitely a fine collection of films (and it's especially nice to include the posh Collector's Editions of films like Butch Cassidy, unfortunately the notes say nothing about the lesser known films like Exodus or Quintet getting the remastered treatment. Still, it's a chance for a lot of people to meet some gems of Newman's impressive career for the first time, and for longtime fans to rediscover a film they forgot all about. To sweeten the deal, the set comes with a 136 page softbound book with new photos of Newman, photos of cast, crew and sets of the film along with , movie excerpts, and personal quotes from the man himself. The book alone might help tip the balance -- he was possibly the most beautiful man to have ever lived! Who wouldn't want a nice book like that?

[via DVD Active]

Just when we thought we had seen the last of gossip columnist and part-time movie pirate Roger Friedman, it looks like the guy has found a new home at The Hollywood Reporter. The trade paper announced that they've hired the infamous writer to head up their new celebrity news feature. According to THR editor Elizabeth Guider, Friedman was joining the team because, "For some time, THR has wanted to beef up its coverage of the celebrity world and how it intersects with and influences the business of show business. Bringing Roger on board gives us a great leg up in that effort and will help extend our audience reach."

In case the name isn't ringing any bells, Friedman infamously covered the OJ Simpson trial back in 1995, and was also considered one of the 'leading authorities' on Michael Jackson after covering the pop star's 2005 child-molestation trial. Friedman always had a taste for the tawdry, and over the years, broke some equally seedy stories about Anna Nicole Smith and the collapse of Rudolph Giuliani's marriage. But after Friedman published a review of Wolverine using an unfinished print that had surfaced online, he was quickly (and publicly) fired. Granted, it didn't come as a big shock, but you almost felt sorry for the guy ... almost. Even if you didn't want to argue about the morality of Friedman's actions, you have to wonder: just what did he think was going to happen when he admitted to downloading an illegal copy of one of the summer's big releases?

Friedman already has a reputation for fighting dirty, but as periodicals jostle for position among a growing pool of online competition, I guess even THR isn't above playing fast and loose for a scoop -- and it looks like nobody is willing to bend the rules like Friedman.

If you believe the post-Oscars party talk, it's official: Emily Blunt is out as the Black Widow. According to The Playlist, Jon Favreau was cornered by E! at an aftershow party, and confirmed that Fox had exercised its option on Blunt, and pinned her into Guilliver's Travels.

Now, given that there's so little finalized on Iron Man 2, I think it's very possible that Blunt could still pop in. As it stands now, the cast consists of one Robert Downey Jr., Sam Rockwell, and Don Cheadle. Even Gwyneth Paltrow told MTV News has no idea if she's returning as Pepper Potts. They haven't even given me a script yet. They don't tell me anything. I could be, like, a costume assistant in it. I know nothing."

But, if Mickey Rourke decides to sign once and for all, they could have it before cameras pretty quickly, and that means they would need a new actress. Let's just hope that Favreau & Co aren't lured by the curves that are Scarlett Johansson, and either accept Eliza Dushku's very public offer (she can speak Russian, and she'd be better than Johansson) or wait around until Blunt can return. I'd prefer the latter. I mean, Favreau always did think that April 2010 release date was unrealistic.

If Warner Bros. is to be believed, the studio is going to fight to the death to keep from making a payout to Fox. Their lawyers are running around swearing that a settlement is "unlikely," that they will prevail on appeal or at trial, that tonight they dine in hell, etc.

Don't believe it. Warner Bros. will pay up. Events over the next couple of weeks may determine how much they'll have to pay. But I would be astonished if Watchmen misses its date with the multiplex.

No one wants to go to trial in the best of circumstances. Something like 95% of all court cases settle. When it comes to big, multi-million dollar brawls between huge corporations, that number jumps even higher. Trial is expensive. Warner Bros.' legal fees would be astronomical. Trial is uncertain. Juries are unpredictable. You could be clearly right and still lose.

Furthermore these are not the best of circumstances for Warner Bros. I'll skip over most of the legal-speak involved here, but the crucial fact is that the judge has already decided the biggest issue in the case: whether Fox owns a distribution right in Watchmen. It's a done deal. The jury's not getting another crack at it. What's left to decide is stuff like damages and whether Warner Bros. should be enjoined from releasing the film. So even the best case scenario for Warner Bros. at trial isn't that great. To take a risk like that would be... Well, I repeat that I'd be astonished.

Yikes -- Warner Bros. obviously landed on Santa's naughty list this year. The New York Times reports that the judge has ruled in favor of Fox Studios. Sayeth the Honorable Judge Feess "Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture."

This comes as quite a surprise since last we heard, the judge didn't have enough information to make a ruling, and was moving the trial to January 20th. Judge Feess indicated he would make a more detailed ruling soon.

Warner Bros. has declined to comment, and as of now, has not backed off the film's planned release date of March 6. I can hear you all crying (and I hope it's in your very best Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer voice) "There goes Watchmen, and there goes Christmas!" But it's highly doubtful Watchmen will lose its release date. There's no need to panic. Feess advised Fox and Warner Bros to look towards a settlement or appeal. "The parties may wish to turn their efforts from preparing for trial to negotiating a resolution of this dispute or positioning the case for review." So, expect a major payoff from Warner Bros. (and maybe those rumored Batman television show rights) to Fox in order that we'll still be at that March 6th show. And you thought a lump of coal was bad.

Those manatees really know how to keep themselves busy. In one of the more irreverent news items of the day, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane -- whose voice work is currently on display in Hellboy II: The Golden Army -- has told TV Week that he hopes to get a Family Guy movie off the ground in a year or so. The announcement was first picked up by Ain't It Cool News, where most commenters seem fairly lukewarm about the idea. Honestly, it's hard not to agree with them. Family Guy already has two feature length titles out on DVD, and neither one really raised the bar for the show or even played better than a decent episode.

At least The Simpsons movie had a plot that made sense for ninety minutes. Family Guy, with its incessant randomness, generally works as a series of distractions. In other words, not the sort of thing that really needs to get expanded beyond the half hour structure. Then again, the show has its devout base, which eagerly anticipates each sloppily constructed gag like clockwork, so maybe the new film project is good business sense. Either way, the South Park two-parter that took Family Guy to task remains far more entertaining (and insightful) than Family Guy's entire six-season run.

Now that just about every horror movie ever made has been RE-made, I guess we're now preparing for a massive onslaught of science fiction retreads ripofffs remakes. New versions of The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and When Worlds Collide are in various stages of re-production -- and now it's time for the 1970s sci-fi flicks to be exploited. To that end, Irish director John Moore will direct a remake of Peter Hyams' 1978 sci-fi thriller Capricorn One. I imagine it will be only weeks before we get fresh news on remakes of Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Zardoz, and Silent Running.

The original Capricorn starred Elliott Gould and James Brolin, and it was about the trouble that goes down after NASA decides to "fake" a moon Mars landing. According to Variety, the screenplay comes from Jurassic Park 3 writer Peter Buchman and the funding will come from New Regency / Fox. The director's last film was an ill-fated remake of The Omen (which was just so damn boring), but I'm definitely a fan of Moore's Flight of the Phoenix as well as his basic-yet-entertaining Behind Enemy Lines. Also, he just finished up Max Payne for Fox, and I'm definitely looking forward to that one.

Yesterday we told you that Ricky Gervais was in talks to reprise his character from the first Night at the Museum for its sequel, now titled Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian, and that whether or not he joined the film depended upon his very busy upcoming schedule. I told him he has to do it (seeing as he was the best part of the first film), and he definitely wants to do it, but we'll see. Now Variety tells us today that Night 2 will take Avatar's release date of May 22, 2009, with the highly-anticipated James Cameron 3D film shifting over to a December 18, 2009 release. This kinda sucks, as I'm sure a lot of you were looking forward to Avatar kicking off the summer of 2009 with a bang. Instead, it will arrive shortly before Santa does. (Am I the only one who would rather the big films come in summer? December is always so ... hectic. Shopping, lists, fat men in suits ... I could go on.) Then again, Avatar will now be released on the same weekend that saw Titanic back in 1997. So perhaps it's a lucky weekend for Cameron.

Now that Night at the Museum 2 is swapping locations, they can also include some more historical figures. Variety tells us that Reese Witherspoon has been approached to play Amelia Earhart. The trade also indicates that other cast members from the first film might return (like Gervais), but we won't hear about those moves for another few weeks. Ben Stiller is already attached to reprise his role from the first film. As a straight-up kids film, I kinda enjoyed the first Night at the Museum. While the plot was cruddy, and the bad guys weren't all that scary, the flick was very alive and entertaining ... for kids. I'm curious to see what they do with the sequel. On another front, Fox also announced that it will release Ice Age 3 in digital 3D on July 1, 2009.

Talk of a Wolverine movie have been ongoing since (I think) right after X2 came out, and the project has been moving forward (slowly but surely) since that time. Now comes word from Variety that the Hugh Jackman spinoff project has claimed a release date, changed its title (slightly), and promises some new mutants that we haven't seen yet ... as well as some old young friends.

May 1, 2009, is when the Gavin Hood-directed Fox action movie will make its debut, and when it arrives it'll most likely be called X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- which means we can probably expect to hear some fresh news about X-Men Origins: Magneto some time soon. It also looks like Liev Schreiber is close to signing on as William Stryker. Yes, he'll be playing the younger version of the Brian Cox character from X2.

According to Variety, the story "explores the claw-wielding character Wolverine's violent and romantic past, and his complex relationship with Victor Creed and the ominous Weapon X program, as well as his encounters with other mutants." (The Wolverine screenplay comes from Troy writer David Benioff.) And since Mr. Hood is presently scheduled to shoot some of Wolverine in New Orleans, that's led to some speculation that Gambit may be among the new mutants.

For (lots) of previous reports on Wolverine, just toss the word "wolverine" into our search bar and get comfortable.