Unhinged Wins the Weekend Box Office. Yay. I guess?
So, box office results seem to be a thing again because cinemas are reopening. It looks like people are getting bored with the pandemic that has, so far, killed over 180,000 people in the US alone and shows no signs of stopping. OK. Cool. Cool cool cool.
It’s apt that one of the first films to receive a widespread US release in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic is titled Unhinged. Get it? Get it? Oh, never mind. It’s a thriller about a single mother (played by Caren Pistorius – Mortal Engines) who finds herself on the run from a driver suffering from a terminal case of road rage (Russell Crowe – The Nice Guys). Directed by Derrick Borte (American Dreamer, The Joneses), this low budget flick grossed a bit over $4 million last weekend. Usually, that wouldn’t be all that impressive, but we’re not living in normal times.
In the second place of the last weekend’s box office is The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. Directed and co-written by the series developer Tim Hill, this live-action/CGI-animated film tells an origin story of how SpongeBob met Gary the Snail and embarked on a quest to rescue him after he’s abducted. Now in its second week in cinemas, this adventure film earned $550,000 last weekend. In the third place is the romantic drama Words on Bathroom Walls. Based on a novel by Julia Walton, it earned $419,173 in its inaugural weekend. Richard Donner’s beloved 1985 adventure classic The Goonies is in fourth place with $260,000. Finally, in the fifth place of the last weekend’s box office with $243,379 is Cut Throat City, a heist film directed by RZA, featuring Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), Terrence Howard (Iron Man, Dead Presidents) and Wesley Snipes (Blade, Dolemite Is My Name). All of this data comes courtesy of the Box Office Mojo.
The CW Developing a Live-Action Powerpuff Girls Remake
Variety claims The CW is working on a live-action The Powerpuff Girls TV show. Set after the events of the original Cartoon Network animated series, the show would follow the titular trio as young adults. Even though they are bitter about spending their childhoods risking their lives to fight evil, the world still needs their help.
Craig McCracken came up with The Powerpuff Girls in 1998. The show follows super-powered kids Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. They were created by accident after Professor Utonium mixed sugar, spice, and everything nice with the mysterious Chemical X. The series became immensely popular due to its combination of cutesy animation style and comic-book violence. It was followed by a movie in 2002 and a new series that first aired in 2016.
While the idea of darker and edgier Powerpuff Girls may sound silly, the crew behind the concept — Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier — is rock solid. Cody won Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Juno and later wrote Jennifer’s Body, Young Adult, and Tully. She also worked on TV shows like The United States of Tara. As for Reignier, she wrote scripts for shows like Veronica Mars, iZombie, Sleepy Hollow and Falling Skies. And then there’s the network itself. The CW has experience producing teen-friendly superhero shows. It also took Archie Comics and turned it into Riverdale, mixing teen romance and over-the-top plotlines.
Sony Picks Up The Kaiju Score
Sony just picked rights for an adaptation of an as-yet-unpublished comic book called The Kaiju Score, reports GeekTyrant. Its premise is an ultimate genre mash-up, following a story about a group of criminals trying to do a perfect bank heist while the city is under an attack by a giant sea monster. Its Godzilla meets Tarantino!
The Kaiju Score was created by the writer James Patrick and artist Rem Broo. A duo came up with the idea together, inspired by both the rich history of kaiju movies as well as by Donald Westlake’s hardboiled Parker novels. Even though the comic book hasn’t even come out yet, Sony has already expressed interest in adapting it into a movie, sight unseen. Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Steve Tisch from the company Escape Artists will adapt the graphic novel along with Tony Shaw. In the past, Escape Artists produced movies like The Equalizer, The Magnificent Seven, and the 2009 remake of the 1974 crime film The Taking of Pelham 123.
The Kaiju Score is coming out on November 25th, courtesy of the Aftershock Comics.
