News Hour with Routinely Average

Here are some news stories about whats going on in the movie business, accompanied by RA's take.

News: The notorious Tom Cruise might be reprising his wildly popular role as Les Grossman, the foul-mouthed movie exec from the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder, in a spin-off movie with Grossman as the main character. He also recently made an appearance as Grossman at the MTV movie awards where he performed a dance number with J. Lo. LINK
RA's Take: I'm not usually a big fan of spin-offs, but Cruise was hysterical in Tropic Thunder. Some smart writing, and maybe Ben Stiller back to direct could lead to very funny things. Plus its nice to see Tom back in the spotlight in a positive way.

News: It sounds like Sony has settled on Jamie Bell as the new Peter Parker for the upcoming Spider Man reboot. Cinematical looks at how appropriate the choice is. LINK
RA's Take: I don't really get why we need a reboot anyway considering we just finished a trilogy with a significantly more popular actor in Tobey Maguire. Cinematical raises some interesting points though, and who knows. I try not to write off a project before it has even begun filming.

News: Guillermo Del Toro is no longer directing The Hobbit. The director of Pan's Labyrinth seemed to be the perfect fit to bring the world of Middle-Earth to life in his own distinct way. Apparently filming delays and uncertainty surrounding the financial side of the movie were too much for Del Toro. LINK
RA's Take: I was truly excited about a Del Toro version of The Hobbit and it seems that this troubled production might never get made. MGM's financial woes, combined with the difficulty of finding a new director to not only step in so late, but also be up to the task artistically seem like they might be insurmountable obstacles. Very disappointing news.

News: Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl's new comedy, Killers gets panned by critics once they were finally able to see it. LINK
RA's Take: Not all the surprising. It looked crappy, and then gave the figurative finger to movie critics everywhere. Can't imagine Lionsgate execs are shocked.

News: The annual actresses under 30 power rankings by lovefilm.com were just released with some surprising entries. LINK
RA's Take: It's not that the usual suspects aren't on there, but many of them are much lower than expected as a new group of young women have burst onto the scene in the past year.

News: Since we are getting so close to the World Cup, here is an interesting LA Times article for you about why there is no definitive Hollywood soccer movie. LINK
RA's Take: I love soccer, and have often lamented the lack of a major soccer movie. Maybe one is coming down the pike as soccer (or should I say football) continues to increase in popularity in the US.

Link me up Scotty!

Its been a while since we've had some current movie news here, so today's post is just going to be a bunch of news and rumors you may or may not find interesting. Enjoy.

News: Straight from the news desk of Ron Burgundy, Adam McKay announced over his twitter account that Anchorman 2 seems all but dead thanks to budget concerns. LINK

RA's Take: Twitter is far from the most reliable news source, but this certainly could be credible. It would have been hard to recapture the magic of the first one though, and Anchorman already had a psuedo-sequel anyway.

News: Richard Gere and Topher Grace will star in the new spy thriller The Double. LINK

RA's Take: Intriguing news, but those two are hardly a can't miss team, so I have a feeling the film will not belong in that category either.

News: Sean Bean's new movie Black Death, a movie about knights and witchcraft during the bubonic plague, just released a trailer. LINK

RA's Take: I'm a sucker for Mr. Bean and the trailer looks intense.

News: A brief Mickey Rourke interview on his upcoming Genghis Khan biopic. LINK

RA's Take: Rourke has always been a bit of an odd duck, but everything else I've heard about the movie sounds very cool.

News: Sharlto Copley has dropped hints about the possibility of a sequel to District 9. It sounds like he and director Neill Blomkamp consider this to be almost an eventuality. LINK

RA's Take: If you are like me and loved District 9, then this should be exciting news. If you aren't, well then you probably don't care.

News: Katherine Heigl's new film has been picked up by Lionsgate for distribution. LINK

RA's Take: While I tend to think the majority of Heigl's films are as predictable as they come, she is starting to assert her box office draw. I don't think Ms. Heigl will be fading into obscurity anytime soon.

News: Not news so much. This link is a clip of NY Times film critic, A.O. Scott, reviewing an old David Mamet movie, Glengarry Glen Ross. LINK

RA's Take: It is a terrific movie and a nice succinct breakdown of the film. Watch the clip and especially the film, if only to see that rarest of movie phenomena... a restrained Al Pacino performance.