The Croods Sequel Takes Over the Turkey Day Weekend
CGI-animated film The Croods: A New Age opened surprisingly strong during the Thanksgiving weekend, earning over $9,7 million. This family adventure follows the titular Stone Age family as they settle in a dwelling of their better-evolved neighbors only for shenanigans to ensue. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal, this is a sequel to the 2013 film The Croods and features voices of Nicolas Cage, Peter Dinklage, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Leslie Mann, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, and Kelly Marie Tran.
In the second place at the Turkey Day weekend’s box office is Freaky, a new horror-comedy by Christopher Landon, featuring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn. Last weekend, Freaky grossed about $800,000, bringing its total domestic earnings up to over $7 million. The War with Grandpa remains unkillable and is currently in third place with almost $600,000. After eight weeks in cinemas, its domestic gross is $17,2 million. Neo-western Let Him Go featuring Diane Lane and Kevin Costner is in fourth place $454,000 and a gross of $8,7 million. And in the fifth place of the top movies of the Thanksgiving weekend is the horror film Come Play with $374,000 and a domestic gross of $8,6 million. All of this data comes courtesy of the Box Office Mojo.
Marvel’s Hawkeye Series Starts Shooting; Hailee Steinfeld in Lead Role
The shooting of Marvel’s Hawkeye TV series has begun! According to an article by the GeekTyrant, the filming will take place in New York starting this week. Even better, Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee, True Grit) will star as Kate Bishop, a trainee set to pick up the mantle (not to mention bow and arrows) of the original Hawkeye Clint Barton, portrayed in movies by Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town).
The last time we wrote about Marvel’s Hawkeye was back in June when Disney hired filmmaking duo Amber Finlayson and Katie Ellwood (Troop Zero) as well as Rhys Thomas (Documentary Now!, Comrade Detective) to direct episodes of the show. Jonathan Igla (Mad Men) will serve as scriptwriter and showrunner. At that time, however, it was still unclear will Steinfeld accept the role.
Thus far, we know that the story of Hawkeye will take place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Barton will train his replacement – a young prodigy skilled in archery, sword fighting, and unarmed combat. There’s a possibility the show might feature a side plot about Barton gradually losing hearing. Ultimately, the show will most likely derive inspiration from David Aja and Matt Fraction’s critically-acclaimed run of the Hawkeye comic book series.
Universal Developing a Van Helsing Remake
Remember Van Helsing? We’re not talking about the 2016 SyFy’s fantasy horror series or the original character from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. We mean Stephen Sommers’ 2004 loud, goofy, love letter to Universal’s classic movie monsters that featured Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale in lead roles. That film miraculously grossed $300 million at the box office, which would have been more impressive if it didn’t cost at least $160 million to make.
Well, according to GeekTyrant, Universal is currently considering producing a remake. The idea may not be as silly as it sounds since the studio wisely signed on Julius Avery as director. In 2018, Avery made Overlord, a fun horror film pitting G. I. Joes versus Nazi monsters on the eve of the invasion of Normandy. That film just might have been the closest thing we ever got to a live-action Wolfenstein movie. As for Van Helsing himself, the legendary vampire hunter from Stoker’s novel was fun as portrayed by Peter Cushing in Hammer horror films. There are currently no details about the plot. We do know, however, Avery himself is rewriting the script by Eric Pearson, who previously worked on Marvel’s Agent Carter, Black Widow, Thor: Ragnarok, and Godzilla vs. Kong.
