Amanda Bynes isn’t happy with a new set of paparazzi pics, and said on Twitter that she will sue anyone who dares to publish the “morphed” image. “OH MY GOD! THAT’S NOT ME!” wrote the image-obsessed 27-year-old. “They morphed my face onto someone with a different face shape!” “I’m suing any site/magazine that shares that image!” It’s not clear which Amanda Bynes photos she’s talking about, but in the interest of making her happy/not getting sued, we have used one of her Twitpics here. A sexy one, we might add! Threatening legal action isn’t new for Bynes, who recently threatened to sue In Touch for “morphing photos of my face onto someone’s body to ruin my life!” In Touch denied altering the images, but no matter. She also encouraged celebrity gossip magazines to reach out to her directly … or pay the price. “You CAN NOT talk about someone you don’t know!” she tweeted. “All Magazines: Contact Me Personally! I’m sick of your insanity!” Amanda’s reasoning is simple, if you stop and think about it: “You can’t state something about me by hearing it through someone I don’t know/met once and never spoke to again who now claims to still know me enough to check MY brain and search inside it and find a developed at 27 mental illness without getting a huge lawsuit at your office.” Noted.
Sam Mendes, you’re killing us! After he insisted he didn’t want to direct any more Bond films, Mendes had reportedly signed on to helm Bond 24 , and was even working on a deal for Bond 25 . But, that no longer seems to be the case. During a red carpet event for the opening of his West End theatrical production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Mendes insisted he’s been too focused on the new play to deal with Bond . When asked about his involvement with the next Bond film, Mendes said “I don’t know yet. I’m in discussion over the ‘B’ word and I won’t make any decision until this [play] is open.” Regardless of whether Mendes is directing it, we do know that Daniel Craig will return to play 007. We also know about the sexy new Bond girl: Penelope Cruz . That’s good enough for now.
Remember a couple of days ago, when we saw what purported to be the perfect Batman , a composite photo created from all the actors who have played Batman onscreen (we assume he’d sound like Kevin Conroy)? Not to be outdone by the combination of multiple, independently wealthy superheroes, an enterprising person has done the same for Britain’s top wetwork operative, James Bond . The ‘perfect’ 007 is something of a creepy masterpiece, possessing as it does all the finest qualities of the actors who have infused Britain’s top spy with their smarmy essences. The bad toupee and suit of Sean Connery ! The bedroom eyes and soft cheeks of Pierce Brosnan ! The radar ears and, presumably, bad career decisions of George Lazenby ! The poncy elegance and eyebrows of Roger Moore ! The fiercely lined cheeks of Timothy Dalton ! And of course, the… stunning abs??? of Daniel Craig . I can’t for the life of me find Daniel Craig in this. Any of you readers care to wager a guess as to where he’s hiding? I mean, besides Eve Moneypenny’s bedroom, of course. This truly is a thing of beauty, but I have to be honest: the composite image looks less like the ideal James Bond and more like James Bond after he’s retired from MI6 and has been elected to Parliament from the borough of Brothel-Upon-Liquor Store. As played, of course, by early 1980s Richard Burton — or a younger, less jowly version of Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. ( Check it out .) Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. [ iO9 ] Follow Ross Lincoln on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Box-office numbers show that Gerard Butler’s latest didn’t stand a chance against big figures ‘Breaking Dawn- Part 2’ and ‘Lincoln.’ By Ryan J. Downey Daniel Craig in “Skyfall” Photo: Sony/ Columbia Pictures
The 23rd James Bond film lived up to its lofty hopes at the box office, continuing its stellar run Stateside after scoring hundreds of millions overseas including the U.K. where it opened theatrically late last month. The third 007 feature starring Daniel Craig grossed $87.8 million plus $2.2 million from Thursday night IMAX screenings. Skyfall ‘s total pushed the box office’s top 10 to over $159.1 million. Wreck-It Ralph placed second after debuting atop the box office last weekend. Steven Spielberg ‘s anticipated Lincoln , meanwhile opened in limited release at just 11 theaters with a stunning $81,800 per screen average. It should easily be in the upper echelon if not the top grossing film next week when it goes wide. 1. Skyfall Gross: $87.8 million (Cume: $90 million) Screens: 3,505 (PSA: $25,050) Week: 1 Skyfall stole the box office over the weekend with the highest grossing Bond opening in the franchise’s fifty year history. Quantam of Solace opened with $67.5 million which was the previous record. The latest film’s was also double Casino Royale ‘s $40.8 million debut which was the current 007, Daniel Craig’s, first turn as the dashing British operative. In addition to this weekend’s $90 million take, it has grossed $428.6 million worldwide. 2. Wreck-It Ralph Gross: $33,056,000 (Cume: $93,690,000) Screens: 3,752 (PSA: $8,810) Week: 2 (Change: – 32.6%) The pic dropped one spot in its second weekend, remaining in the same number of theaters in its second round. Last weekend it debuted with a $13,070 screen average. With momentum going its way, a $200 million gross is not out of the question. 3. Flight Gross: 15.1 million (Cume: $47,770,299) Screens: 2,047 (PSA: $7,377) Week: 2 (Change: – 39.4%) The film, which debuted at the New York Film Festival last month dropped almost 40% added 163 theaters in its second weekend and remained third in the overall box office chart. Flight ‘s total compares to star Denzel Washington’s $41.9 million total for the 2010 thriller Unstoppable at this point in its release. That film ended up at $81 million. 4. Argo Gross: $6,745,000 (Cume: $85,710,958) Screens: 2,763 (PSA: $2,441) Week: 5 (Change: – 33.9%) The Ben Affleck-directed film held solid in its first month with only incremental declines week to week. This time, it had its most sizable drop. Still, it has held on and in 11 less theaters than last week and it dropped one spot. 5. Taken 2 Gross: $4 million (Cume: $131.2 million) Screens: 2,487 (PSA: $1,608) Week: 6 (Change: – 32.4%) The feature topped the box office in its early October debut, but then skidded heavily in its second weekend. Since then it dropped less severely though its sixth weekend drop at nearly 33% compares to the previous weekend’s 23% decline. Still, the film placed fifth as did last week with 152 less locations. 6. Here Comes the Boom Gross: $2.55 million (Cume: $39,061,095) Screens: 2,044 (PSA: $1,248) Week: 5 (Change: – 27.7%) The pic dropped 270 screens from the previous weekend, though its nearly 28% drop shows the movie is holding solidly going into its second month in release. 7. Cloud Atlas Gross: $2,525,000 (Cume: $22,711,706) Screens: 2,023 (PSA: $1,248) Week: 3 (Change: – 53.1%) The film debuted with a $9.6 million gross, but fell 44% in its second weekend and a much steeper 53% drop in the third. Its reported $100 million production budget will be a huge loss for sources that invested in this ‘independently produced’ feature, which will struggle to top out at $30 million. 8. Pitch Perfect Gross: $2,503,800 (Cume: $59,030,443) Screens: 1,391 (PSA: $1,800) Week: 7 (Change: – 18.3%) The film’s $17 million budget has been more than tripled in the box office. Pitch Perfect dropped only 18.3% after dropping 111 locations from the previous weekend. 9. The Man With The Iron Fists Gross: $2,489,760 (Cume: $12,718,085) Screens: 1,872 (PSA: $1,330) Week: 2 (Change: – 68.5%) Ouch, the title added four locations but dropped a stunning 68.5% and dropped five spots from its opening. Still the pic’s $15 million budget should handily be made up, minus P&A. 10 Hotel Transylvania Gross: $2,350,000 (Cume: $140.9 million) Screens: 2,566 (PSA: $916) Week: 7 (Change: – 46.7%) The animated pic lost 356 theaters vs last weekend. Worldwide, the feature has grossed over $270.4 million. Not bad for an $85 million budget. It has been losing momentum, but it may cross $150 million before all is said and done. [ Sources: Rentrak, Box Office Mojo ]
Introspective masculinity, women on top, cross-dressing PSAs , gay undertones — the James Bond franchise has come a long way in 50 years, most notably during the current era built around Daniel Craig ’s serious Blond Bond with the icy blue eyes. Behind the scenes, producers Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson set the record straight on recent Idris Elba-as-Bond rumors and pointed to the post-9/11 shift that spurred them to take Bond from the slick reign of Pierce Brosnan to the morally-complex brand of progressive contemporary heroism embodied in this week’s Skyfall . “I think once we made the decision to go with Casino Royal e – we had the rights, and we decided to make the change after Die Another Day – it had a lot to do with 9/11 and the way the world was at that time,” Broccoli told Movieline recently in Los Angeles. “A post-9/11 world. It was a real opportunity to recalibrate.” Craig’s Bond re-set the franchise on a grittier path starting with Casino Royale , which exposed 007’s only vulnerability — his heart — and its continuation Quantum of Solace , which healed his emotional wounds with violent redemption. Skyfall , however, finds Bond unencumbered by romance; feeling his loneliness and approaching obsolescence. His new enemy is mortality itself — and Silva, the off-kilter, tech-savvy nemesis bent on revenge against former boss M (Judi Dench) played with calculated control by Javier Bardem. “They are mirror images of one another,” explained Wilson, who has produced every Bond film since 1979’s Moonraker . “They come from the same background, and in a way M has sacrificed them at one point or another for what she considered to be a greater good. But one becomes obsessed by this and it drives him. The other one goes through a funk but gets over it and comes back to defend her and the country. It’s an interesting thing about how people cope with the negative things that happen in their lives.” PHOTO GALLERY: 007 MINGLES WITH ROYALTY AT THE SKYFALL PREMIERE In a franchise known as much for its suave but patriotic spy hero as its insanely evil and flamboyant villains, Skyfall dares to contradict both tropes. Bond, for the first time, questions whether queen and country value his service, his sacrifices, and his very life, while Silva, it’s revealed, actually has a pretty good reason to seek vengeance. Skyfall asks a question relevant to today’s global military interests: Who is to blame when the few are sacrificed for the good of the many? “We wanted to create a complex story, and the whole point is that things aren’t black and white anymore,” said Broccoli. “As M says, they have to operate in the shadows. You don’t know who the enemies are. You have to fight on a very different playing field than when there was a more specific world order. Ultimately it comes down to individuals and the spirit of self-sacrifice for the greater good, and that’s what Bond is about. It’s about heroism.” That heroism isn’t exclusively reserved for James Bond, either. Broccoli and Wilson see the role of women in Skyfall as part of a larger legacy of 007 heroines in various forms — mostly shapely ones, embodied in five decades of Bond girls — that stems from writer Ian Fleming’s own wartime experiences. “You have to understand that in his experience during the war, women were very active and part of the resistance, part of the war effort,” said Broccoli. “So he saw women as being very heroic and courageous. And I think when you look at the early films, that’s very evident in the characters — they’re all very strong characters. Some of them have had some hardship, but they all go about their missions with a real determination. Many times they sacrifice themselves for Bond, and I think that’s something that definitely came out of his experience in the war.” PHOTO GALLERY: MEET BERENICE MARLOHE, SKYFALL ‘S NEW BOND GIRL Bond’s women, of course, weren’t always written with strengths to complement their overt sexualization. “I think that there was a period in time in the films when the women became more window-dressing,” she admitted. “But certainly in the last five or six films there’s been a real effort to make them as complex and interesting and heroic, or as bad and evil as the villain. And casting Judi Dench as M, making her the authority figure, has given that relationship between Bond and M a lot more complexity. But I think the films have evolved the same way society has evolved. I hope that they’ll continue to evolve.” Could there conceivably be a female Bond one day? “Everything is possible,” teased Wilson. That said, Bond is a man, and will probably stay that way. Broccoli, who produced the Equals campaign PSA, which featured Craig as 007 dressed in drag , cautioned against getting too carried away with the possibilities. “It isn’t about interchanging men and women, it’s about giving people an equal kind of opportunity,” she said. “So there’s certainly the possibility of having a female heroic figure that is like Bond, but just to interchange them — I don’t know what the point would be.” As for the notorious Skyfall scene in which Bond and Silva share a flirtatious exchange , Wilson and Broccoli are amused by fan speculation about 007’s newly fluid sexuality. “I think they’re trying to psych each other out,” Wilson said of the scene. A game of chicken, so to speak, I asked? “Yes!” he replied. So maybe the producers aren’t quite ready for an openly bisexual Bond, or a lady Bond. They’re also not jumping to replace Craig in that bespoke Tom Ford suit either, despite a report that Idris Elba was being courted to become the first black 007. Broccoli set the record straight. “I love Idris and I met him on something else,” she explained. “We are very happy with Daniel Craig [laughs] and I always say I can only be in love with one person at a time.” “Daniel Craig is James Bond,” she continued. “It’s not even… we can’t even think about it. It’s like going down the aisle to get married and looking for your next husband. It doesn’t work that way. But [Elba] is a phenomenal actor. With Craig signed on for at least two more Bond films, we likely won’t see a new Bond come into the picture for a few more years. But could the future of Bond ostensibly be color-blind? “Oh, absolutely,” said Broccoli. “Why not?” Read more on Skyfall and celebrate Bond’s 50th Anniversary with all things 007 . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe talk about their ‘close connection’ with Daniel Craig and making their characters ‘real human beings.’ By Kevin P. Sullivan Naomie Harris in “Skyfall” Photo: Columbia Pictures
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