Amalgamated Zen

Who Ya Gonna Call...GhostBusters 3

In a conversation with MTV news Harold Ramis has confirmed a new Ghostbusters movie is in the works. The Original cast is expected to reprise their roles with their characters becoming "sage mentors" to new a new team, in a passing of the proton packs to a new generation of Ghostbusters.
Though the first draft of the script is apparently still in the works, Judd Apatow is signed on as at least a producer so thus far the casting rumors have been hovering around members of the "Apatowverse" Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen being tapped to take up the fight.
Taking into consideration the track records of the parties involved, I believe this will be a worthy sequel/reboot of the franchise and I'm actually enthused about this project coming together.
What do you think?

Wanna Write for Marvel?

Following the incredible success of Iron Man which earned over $500 million worldwide, Marvel Entertainment is taking a page out of the Disney play book and assembling a team of new writers to develop scripts for their vast stable of characters.
Emphasis will be placed on the second and third tier Heros such as such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and  the Vision, with the hope of catching Iron Man type lightning in a bottle.
Marvel will be bringing in up to five writers each year to work on specific projects under a fellowship program similar to the one Disney has been running since 1990. They will be paid an annual salary that is estimated to be twice the $50K Disney is paying with Marvel owning the rights to what they've written over the course of the year.
Time to start firing up the spec scripts.

Moon Bloodgood to get "Burned"

With Tricia Helfer's departure at the season 2 finale of Burn Notice (pause for a moment of silence), Jeffery Donovan's character Michael Westen is going to need a new antagonist. Enter Moon Bloodgood. The Terminator: Salvation starlet is stepping in to replace Jennifer Esposito who was cast as a Miami Detective trying to discover the real Michael Westen - Esposito is said to have dropped out for health concerns, though the exact nature wasn't given. Production for the third season of Burn Notice started last week.

Box Office Hits & Misses

The fans have spoken and the box office tells their story! Nic Cage's new movie Knowing sits at the top of the box office bringing in $24.6 million in the opening weekend. The anticipated film, directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) is all ready half-way to budget and still has plenty of time in theaters. Following another dismal weekend for a movie that was so highly anticipated, it seems that word-of-mouth has failed The Watchmen. The movie brought in a mere $6.8 million this weekend bringing it's gross box office to $98.1 million... still significantly short of the $130 million it cost to make. Meanwhile in comparison, the movie Taken which cost 30 million Euros ($40.6 million) has grossed $133 million in seven weeks out and Tim Burton's Coraline has grossed $73 million in six weeks for a movie that cost $35 million to make.

Watchmen sinking fast?

After having a ground-breaking opening weekend with $55.2 million, Watchmen struggled throughout the week and into the weekend and has only raked in another $31 million with $18 million coming in over the weekend. And while it still sits in a comfortable second at the current box office, if the movie continues to drop off at this rate, trying to break even at $130 million will be more of a challenge than producers would have hoped. The highly anticipated movie opened with a bang, but word of mouth seems to have failed this movie. From my experience, the movie was good, but not great and if it passes budget, it won't be by much. The movie started slow and when it picked up, only hit a few points I felt should have had more focus. It was a good attempt, but for me it falls short.

Star Wars Live-Action TV Series Casting Underway

Good news or bad news for Star Wars fans. Depending on how you feel about the three previously released live action prequels, Episodes 1-3 and the current animated Clone Wars series, casting has now officially begun for the live action sequel/prequel Star Wars tv series.
The series is to be set between Episode 3 "Revenge of the Sith and Episode 4 "A New Hope". The series will serve as a bridge between the two series featuring secondary characters and focusing on the Rebel Alliance. So while we can expect to see Storm Troopers, No Jedi, new or old will be on hand, including Darth Vader...for now...and depending on story arcs and and of course the almighty ratings.
Personally the series concept appeals to me for this type of project. I enjoyed the prequel films overall, especially the birth of the empire aspect so I fairly stoked to witness the birth of the Alliance. I've also watched and enjoyed most of the animated Clone Wars episodes, which feature the Clone Troopers as much as the Jedi. This to me bodes well for the series.
What do you think?  
Follow the link below to the MTV moviesblog post.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Star Wars’ Live-Action TV Series Casting Underway

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Questionable Movie Decisions

With the upcoming release of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, one begins to wonder at what point did this script seem like a good idea. The new Street Fighter film will focus on Kristin Kreuk's version of Chun-Li... but don't worry, Jean-Claude Van Damme won't be in it. However, like the first movie, the directors instead choose to focus on the wrong character. For those that ever played the video game or remember the old anime cartoon, Street Fighter was about Ryu - who had a minor role in the first film and doesn't appear in this new one. Following Street Fighter will be the release of Dragonball Evolution this spring. Now while this movie looks a little more promising than Street Fighter, it honestly looks questionable, in particular, Justin Chatwin's casting as Goku (Canadian/Asian... same difference). And finally we come to this summers release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra which looks rough because it's been largely modernized. G.I. Joe is more of a period piece and may very well be over done with the overly modernized technology. While the cast list in all three movies features some rather impressive names in the major roles, it seems as though the filmmakers thought the names would be enough to carry these films while leaving the story on the shaky side. If everyone's lucky, they won't be complete flops like Super Mario Bros. (Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper), Double Dragon (Mark Dacascos, Scott Wolf, Robert Patrick) or Street Fighter (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia).... it might be a stretch, but one can hope.

What If Casting: Star Trek

Star Trek Casting That Almost Happened
It's fun to learn what actors might have taken certain roles, but didn't. Here are some of the biggest Hollywood stars who were almost cast in Star Trek.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/506199/star_trek_casting_that_almost_happened.html

Star Trek Super Bowl Trailer

Paul Blart gets Taken

Despite two weeks at the top of the Box Office, Kevin James' comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop has been "Taken" by Liam Neeson's new movie. "Taken" finished it's opening weekend with $24.6M while "Mall Cop" pulled in $14M for it's third weekend out. Horror flick "The Uninvited" with Elizabeth Banks, "Hotel for Dogs" and Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" round out the remaining top spots.