The Morning Roundup: Law Suits En Masse (Watchmen, CBS), Transformers 2 Pics, Trailers
Written by: Phoebe Raven, CC2K Staff Writer
We're back with news on law suits en masse: FOX and the WB battle it out over The Watchmen, WBTV sued CBS and got sued themselves. There's new pics from Transformers 2 and bad news on an Arrested Development movie, but brand new trailers to cheer us up.
In between Christmas dinner and New Year's hi-jinks, some people took the chance and spent their free time at the movies. Though ticket sales are down a few percent overall, Warner Bros still made $1.74 billion this year, which is more than Sony's 2006 record.
At the box office this weekend, Jennifer Aniston once again triumphed. Not only did her flick Marley & Me beat out Brad Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opening week, it did so this week as well. M&Me was No. 1, Bedtime Stories (starring Adam Sandler) came in second and Ben Button only managed to gross $27 million for the number three spot.
In more important B.O. news: Viggo Mortensen got in a performance for Oscar consideration just under the wire. His flick Good opened this weekend, after being pushed back from a fall release. Let's see how many more Nazi films people want to see (Valkyrie and Defiance are also vying for attention).
After the good news about Warner there, now come the bad ones: FOX isn't surrendering in the court case concerning Watchmen. A judge has just ruled that FOX does indeed hold the distribution rights. A trial date is set for January 29th and until then the judge will make a "fuller ruling" to resolve the issues. In the meantime, Warner isn't moving the Watchmen release date of March 6th one inch. Let's hope this can be worked out or we, the people, are going to be the ones who lose in this.
Speaking of 2009 blockbusters: Empire and USA Today have new pictures from Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. See some cropped versions below and go here and here for the full glory.
And for story details (no Megatron!, hieroglyphics speak of early Transformers) go to the Transformers Live Action Movie Blog.
Oh, and we aren't done with those pesky law suit news either:
1. WBTV has sued CBS over the show Two and a Half Men. Apparently CBS agreed to pay fees (deficit recoupment, for all you lawyers out there) for airing the show's fifth and sixth season and yet CBS hasn't done so. Oh, Warner Bros, breaking records and still wanting more.
2. But in a move of divine retribution, WBTV got sued as well. Gilmore Girls executive producer Galvin Polone is suing WBTV (and the CW) for "tens of millions of dollars". The techical side: something about breach-of-contract, defraud, greed and self-dealing. Read more here.
In more sad TV news, it doesn't look good for a big screen adaptation of Arrested Development. Apparently all stars are gung-ho for the low budget project, except one of its breakout stars. Read the interview with show creator Mitch Hurwitz over at JoBlo and you just might guess who I am talking about. (*cough* Michael Cera *cough*.
I know we have Netflix fans among us, so I thought it important to note that Netflix is changing their shipping process. You can read the official statement here. It's not terribly long or convoluted, you should get the gist.
New Trailers!
Two Lovers (starring Joaquin Phoenix; catch him while you can, he's quitting movies, you know?!)
Lesbian Vampire Killers (oh, yeah!!!)
9 (Elijah Wood "sort of" reappears from Middle Earth)
State of Play