Just Like Michael Myers, Halloween Keeps Slashing
According to Box Office Mojo, last weekend’s box office was pretty much a reprise of the weekend before, featuring most of the same movies holding on to the same positions. Once again, David Gordon Green’s Halloween reached the box office top by grossing $31,4 million. Filmed for about $15 million by the producers of horrors such as Get Out, Split, The Purge and Paranormal Activity, Halloween earned around $118 million domestically in its first ten days in cinemas, thus proving the immense staying power not only of Michael Myers, but of John Carpenter’s cult slasher franchise as well.
Featuring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, musical drama A Star Is Born is once again in the second place with just a bit over $14 million. Sony’s superhero blockbuster Venom remains in the third place with $10,6 million while the fourth place once again belongs to children’s horror film Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween ($7,2 million). Lone newcomer closes off the top five list of the last weekend’s box office: Hunter Killer. This action movie about a group of Navy SEALS trying to rescue Russian president after a coup grossed a bit over $6,6 million.
Star Trek To Boldly Go Into Animation, Shorts
Despite some setbacks, CBS All Access continues its plans of developing new Star Trek shows. Recently, Variety revealed that the streaming service hired writer Mike McMahan – one the writers of the cult favorite Rick and Morty – to develop two seasons of a humorous, half-hour Star Trek cartoon. Titled Star Trek: Lower Decks, this animated TV show will follow a support crew aboard one of “Starfleet’s least important ships”.
This is just the latest among a growing number of projects set in the Star Trek universe. In August, CBS All Access announced it is developing a new series about Jean Luc Picard, with Patrick Stewart himself returning to one of his most iconic performances. Then there are Short Treks: a series of short films set in the universe of Star Trek: Discovery. A teaser to one of them was released just last week. Titled Calypso, it follows Craft, (played by Aldis Hodge – Leverage) a lone man who wakes up aboard a Starfleet ship a thousand years after the events of the TV show. The short was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon who is also working on the Jean Luc Picard series. Short Treks will be released before the première of the Star Trek: Discovery‘s second season in January 2019.
This Is Not a Drill: Avatar Sequels Are on Their Way
In 2009, James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi extravaganza Avatar became the highest grossing movie in cinematic history. Featuring Stephen Lang (Don’t Breathe), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious franchise), Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy), Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) and Sam Worthington (Clash of the Titans), Avatar was produced for $240 million and earned over $2,7 billion worldwide. Naturally, there was a lot of talk about sequels. And then… nothing.
Leaving aside how much – or little – of an impact Avatar actually had on pop culture, the lack of sequels and the constant shooting delays could be simply attributed to Cameron’s notorious perfectionism. It was Weaver herself who, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, confirmed that not only have the cast and the crew finished the shooting of the first two Avatar sequels, but that there are another two sequels being filmed at the moment, even though the first Avatar sequel doesn’t come out until 2020. Now, in his interview for Vanity Fair last year, Cameron said something quite different, claiming that, if the first two Avatar sequels fail to earn enough money, there won’t be any further films. However, it is also known that 21st Century Fox has invested around billion dollars to turn Avatar into a franchise. So, how many Avatar sequels are there? We’ll report it as soon as we find out.
