The Invisible Man Stalks the Box Office
Universal and Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man sneaked into cinemas last weekend, stealing the first place from Sonic the Hedgehog. Directed by Leigh Whannell (Insidious movies) and featuring a stellar performance by Elizabeth Moss (Handmaid’s Tale, Mad Men, Us), this modern-day re-telling of H. G. Wells’ science fiction classic grossed $28 million in its inaugural weekend. Not bad for a $7 million production! Where big-budget version of The Mummy failed miserably in 2017, a finely crafted low-budget horror remake became a winner.
Sonic the Hedgehog is in second place at the last weekend’s box office. Now in its third weekend in cinemas, Sonic earned $16.2 million, with the domestic gross of $128.5 million. For comparison, by the same time in its theatre run, Pokémon Detective Pikachu grossed about $116.2 million. That film is the most financially successful video game movie in history. It looks like Sonic is racing towards a new record!
In the third place at the box office is The Call of the Wild with $13.3 million. After two weeks in cinemas, this adventure film starring Harrison Ford still hasn’t recuperated its production cost of $135 million. Currently, its total worldwide gross stands at less than $80 million. Anime superhero film My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is in the fourth place $5.8 million. And finally, in the fifth place is the action-comedy Bad Boys for Life with $4.3 million, according to the Box Office Mojo.
Antonio Banderas Joins Uncharted Movie
Just like its protagonist, intrepid treasure hunter Nathan Drake, the Uncharted movie refuses to give up. According to Variety, Antonio Banderas (The New Mutants) has joined Sony’s big-budget live-action adaptation of this popular video game series. Sophia Ali (Grey’s Anatomy) and Tati Gabrielle (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) will also appear in the film alongside previously announced cast members Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Far From Home) and Mark Wahlberg (Transformers: The Last Knight). This news arrives a month after director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Zombieland movies) agreed to direct the film.
Sony has had a surprisingly hard time turning this modern-day Indiana Jones story into a big-budget movie. Uncharted live-action film has been stuck in development hell pretty much since the producer Avi Arad first proposed the project back in 2008. Names of possible stars, directors, and screenwriters changed over the years. Last time we reported about this seemingly never-ending saga, Uncharted’s release was postponed from December 2020 to March 2021. This was, among other things, due to director Travis Knight (Bumblebee, Kubo and the Two Strings) deciding to pass the project. Before him, Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum movies) also discussed the possibility of directing the film.
Mark Ruffalo Joins HBO’s Parasite Miniseries
GeekTyrant says Mark Ruffalo (Avengers: Endgame) confirmed his involvement with the upcoming HBO limited series Parasite. Based on the award-winning satirical thriller by Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho (Snowpiercer, Host), the miniseries will broaden up the film’s story, exploring its characters and setting in greater detail. Parasite tells of a story of a resourceful, yet impoverished family that infiltrates the household of a rich couple posing as experts and hired help. But the situation soon escalates and things take a dark turn.
While the film’s fans were skeptical at first, Bong Joon-Ho himself admitted he had plenty of ideas and material he wanted to use but simply couldn’t due to the time constraints. Even so, Parasite was an all-round success. Critically acclaimed, it became one of the highest-grossing Korean movies of all time, earning $257 million worldwide on an $11 million production budget. This culminated at 92nd Academy Awards ceremony where Parasite won awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. Even before the Academy Awards, HBO offered Bong Joon-Ho an opportunity to remake his film as a miniseries with Adam McKay (Succession, The Big Short) as a producer.
