Before “After Earth” had its struggle performance at the box office this past weekend, there were plenty of movies with big names, big hype, and big money, that failed to perform the way we thought. Continue reading →
Bow Wow is all up in the news this month. First, he went into detail about the women he’s smashed. Then, we hear about a $126,000 tag on back taxes he owes. Now, Bow Wow is speaking out about why he chose NOT to appear in the movie, Red Tails. In a recent interview, Bow Wow said: “I got the script for Red Tails and I was actually busy… I was busy…You got to understand anytime you see any roles in Hollywood for young back men they ALL come to me. They ALL come to me.” Source: Rhymes With Snitch
Let’s hear it for Gang Grey , which handily sprinted off with first place at the weekend box office while fellow newcomers One For the Money and Man on a Ledge settled a little more quietly into their own top-five niches. A couple of unremarkable holdovers fared not much better, but hey. At least now we can look forward to February! Your Weekend Receipts are here. 1. The Grey Gross: $20,000,000 (new) Screens: 3,185 (PSA $6,279) Weeks: 1 Audiences got behind the Liam Neeson man-against-the-frozen-wild thriller in a big way — a surprisingly big way, if you believe some box-office observers. But come on: Since Taken in 2009, Neeson hasn’t led a wide release that opened below $20,000,000. And he’s only supported in one — The Next Three Days , which bombed out under $7,000,000 in 2010. Give the guy some credit! Big ups as well to distributors Open Road Films, who’ve hopefully shaken off their machismo-factory false start Killer Elite and can move forward accordingly. First start: Getting guys (and their dates) to come out for Super Bowl weekend and hold this movie up in Week Two. Developing… 2. Underworld: Awakening Gross: $12,500,000 ($45,126,000) Screens: 3,078 (PSA $4,061) Weeks: 2 (Change: -50.6%) Actually, 50 percent is a surprisingly low drop for this one against three new wide releases, so hats off to Screen Gems! Place your bets now as to whether or not it has what it takes to beat the franchise’s second installment, Underworld: Evolution , as the series’ highest grosser at $62.3 million. The math says “not likely,” but it’ll be close. 3. One For the Money Gross: $11,750,000 (new) Screens: 2,737 (PSA: $4,293) Weeks: 1 Well, that should just about do it for Katherine Heigl’s plans for a Stephanie Plum franchise. If this was One For the Money , I’d hate to think how the putative sequel, Two For the Dough , would be rebranded. Two For the Oyyy ? Two For Whatever Pocket Change You’ve Got on You ? Two For Anything But Another Katherine Heigl Comedy ? You tell me. 4. Red Tails Gross: $10,400,000 ($33,780,000) Screens: 2,573 (PSA $4,042) Weeks: 2 (Change: -44.6%) Needs more Liam Neeson. 5. Man on a Ledge Gross: $8,300,000 (new) Screens: 2,998 (PSA $2,769) Weeks: 1 Ouch . First the What to Expect When You’re Expecting poster , now this. It just wasn’t Elizabeth Banks’s week. That’ll teach her to take second billing to Sam Worthington. Seriously, Hollywood, stop doing that! [Figures via Box Office Mojo ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Known as one of the most successful black filmmakers in Hollywood, Tyler Perry foresees a major shift in films starring an all African American cast. Perry recently wrote an open letter on his site stemming from George Lucas’ recent statement on the lack of support that he received during the making of ‘Red Tails,’ stating that films starring an all black cast are on the verge of being extinct: Unfortunately, movies starring an all African American cast are on the verge of becoming extinct. THAT’S RIGHT, EXTINCT! Ask any executive at a Hollywood Studio why, and most of them will tell you one of two things. The first thing they’ll say is that DVD sales have become very soft, so it’s hard for a movie with an all black cast to break-even. Secondly they’ll say, most movies are now dependent on foreign sales to be successful and most “black” movies don’t sell well in foreign markets. So what that means is you will begin to see less and less films that star an all black cast. Isn’t that sad in a 2012 America? Somewhere along the way we still haven’t realized that we are more alike then not. I must tell you that I have been very fortunate to work with a studio that sees the value in my type of storytelling and filmmaking. As well as having you, an audience of all races of people, who have stood by me arm and arm. It has helped me navigate through some pretty rough waters. I thought that as black people in Hollywood, this is just our reality, but I quickly realized that this is not racism. What made me realize this is I had a conversation with Mr. Star Wars himself, George Lucas, and he was telling me that he was having the same problem with Red Tails. I was blown away! Red Tails is an important story about, not just black history, but American history about the Tuskegee Airmen. It has an all-star African American cast, including Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard, which opens this Friday. He went on to say that he brought the movie idea of Red Tails to several studios and no one wanted to make this film… AND THIS IS GEORGE LUCAS! Not to be deterred, he put up his own money, shot the movie then took it back to those same studios, and they wanted nothing to do with it. One of them even refused to see the film, citing the above mentioned problems. So George decided to take a huge risk by entirely funding the movie and releasing it himself. What a guy! For him to believe so strongly in this story is amazing. I think we should pull together and get behind this movie. I really do! Not just African Americans, but all of us. I have seen the movie and screened it here in Atlanta. I loved it and I think you will too. The Tuskegee Airmen, who were at the screening, were so happy that somebody is telling a small part of their story. It opens this Friday. Please take your kids, you will enjoy it and so will they. There is a lot of action and adventure and also a great history lesson to be learned. George, I just want to say, thank you for having the courage to do this. Is Tyler right? Do you think Tyler has helped give Black actors work in Hollywood or made the struggle of working Black actors even worse by making movies that depict African Americans stereotypically? Source
On Friday January 20, 2012 George Luca’s passion project, Red Tails , will finally be in theaters. After years of lobbying in Hollywood to get a feature film made about the Tuskegee Airmen, the director and producer financed the project with his own money. Where The Red Tails Worked And Played Overseas Tapping director Anthony Hemingway (“The Wire”, “OZ”, “The Corner”) to execute his vision, an all-star cast of talent was assembled to tell the story of the fighting 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps that fought in WWII. Given that Lucas is known by most for his epic Star Wars franchise, which was inspired in many ways by the fighting in World War II, it only seemed right to ask the cast of Red Tails if their new movie qualified to be the Black Star Wars. RELATED POSTS: Terrence Howard And Cuba Gooding Jr. Show Man Love [PHOTOS] “Red Tails” Is Putting Black Filmmakers In Jeopardy The Cast of “Red Tails” Heat Up Cover of Ebony Magazine [PHOTOS]
“I’m retiring,” Star Wars media emperor George Lucas recently told the NY Times, having toiled through today’s difficult indie film climate to get his ambitious Red Tails into theaters. “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.” Or, as Lucas producer Rick McCallum put it: “Once this is finished, he’s done everything he’s ever wanted to do. He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker .” Say it ain’t so, George! Wait, what’s that? It’s not really the end? Oh, you tease. It turns out Lucas means he’s retiring from making huge popcorn blockbuster films, the last of which (he hopes) will be the Tuskegee Airmen flick Red Tails , directed by Anthony Hemingway. The full NY Times profile is a fascinating peek into Lucas’s self-image and future aspirations once Red Tails opens, or doesn’t. As corny as he sounds when talking about the importance of the film and what it could mean for black film and black filmmakers, he’s fairly upfront with his idealism. He embraces and acknowledges his own “naive” filmmaking style. He admits he made Red Tails “for black teenagers.” He says Star Wars fanboy backlash following his numerous tweaks to the franchise have discouraged him from making more sequels. (Yay?) And perhaps most curiously, Lucas wrestles credit away from Steven Spielberg for making Indiana Jones nuke the fridge. “He’s trying to protect me,” he says of Spielberg, although why those two would fight for that attribution, I have no idea. The cumulative profile is one of a man of many contradictions who prefers, it seems, to see himself as idealistically and naively as he approaches his films. A bazillionaire 99 percenter. The ultimate anti-fanboy fanboy. A white filmmaker making, as he says he’s described Red Tails , “a Tyler Perry movie, only without jokes.” Do African American filmmakers like Spike Lee and Lee Daniels and Tyler Perry even want Lucas to be their champion, to have their names jokingly bandied about as potential Red Tails sequel directors? Probably not; they’re all forging their own paths, navigating the indie film world. It’s intriguing to think that for Lucas, that’s the great unknown that lies ahead as he faces “retirement” from the world he knows — blockbusters, megafranchises, endless marketing and merchandising opportunities — and dives back into the brand of personal filmmaking he started out with in films like THX 1138 . But remember! He also reserves the right to make another Indiana Jones movie, according to the piece. Even the New Lucas won’t say no to that chance, no matter how much we wish he would. • George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits [NYT]
After a short run in television on “Law & Order: LA,” Terrence Howard is making a big return to the big screen this year in “Mandela” and in “Red Tails,” the 2012 film about the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. Our affiliate KYSDC.com spoke with him about this role, and also spoke with Dr. Roscoe Brown of the Tuskegee Airmen. RELATED POSTS: Tuskegee Airmen Story Told By George Lucas In “Red Tails” [VIDEO] Black Male Actors Shine In “Red Tails” [TRAILER] The Tuskegee Airmen Fly On To The Big Screen In “Red Tails” SOURCE
The troubled, George Lucas-produced historical action drama Red Tails finally has a release date: January 20, 2012. Lucasfilm announced the news this morning; it comes more than 20 years after Lucas first hatched his tale of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen and a little more than a year after Lucas ordered significant reshoots on director Anthony Hemingway’s film. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard star.
Just hours after George Lucas and Lucasfilm announced a release date for the long, long, long in development Tuskegee Airmen action-drama Red Tails , the first trailer has debuted online. “We count our victories by the bombers we get to their targets, by the husbands we return to their wives, by the fathers we give back to their children,” says a very determined Terrence Howard at a crucial moment in the very determined two-minute clip. Sounds heroic, Terry! But how does Red Tails compare to the 1995 HBO film, The Tuskegee Airmen ?
Tristan Wilds, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Oyelowo, Elijah Kelley, Kevin Phillips, Leslie Odom Jr., Marcus T. Paulk, Michael B. Jordan, Nate Parker, Ne-Yo and Method Man star in “Red Tails” a film about the experience of black Tuskegee airmen during World War II. It is reported that George Lucas is funding the motion picture out of his pocket. This shall be epic for black film! Spotted @ TheYBF.com
Breaking Sports Video
