In this morning’s roundup of movie news ‘n’ notes from around the web, vampires mean big money, and one horror comedy gets awfully long-winded.
The Hollywood Reporter runs the numbers, and reaches the startling conclusion that vampires are now big business. Since the first “Twilight” movie debuted less than two years ago, they say, vampire-related projects have grossed about $7 billion, including last weekend’s $20 million opening for “Vampires Suck.” That includes movies (from the “Twilights” to “Let Me In”), television (“True Blood” and “The Vampire Diaries”), books (with the trio of Vampire Queen authors being Anne Rice, Stephenie Meyer and Charlaine Harris) and videogames (“Castlevania” and “Legacy of Kain”), among other things. They call it “an entire inexhaustible industry,” which in Hollywood it probably has been since before Bela Lugosi (below). (The Hollywood Reporter)
Jeff Sneider had the news on Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell making cameos, and on the impact of some recent script revisions – but here’s scary information on “Scream 4,” courtesy of Borys Kit: the screenplay is 140 pages long. Unless director Wes Craven is planning on making his actors talk really fast, that means we’re looking at a movie potentially well over two hours long: 2:20, if you’re going by the rule that says one page equals one minute of screen time. Need it even be said that two hours and 20 minutes is way too long for a jokey horror movie? (Heat Vision)
Well, this is setting the bar awfully high: when asked about the upcoming “Star Trek” sequel at a pre-Emmy party, co-writer (and “Lost” creator) Damon Lindelhof immediately said, “We’re looking at a movie like ‘The Dark Knight,’ which went one step beyond ‘Batman Begins.’” Producer Bryan Burk had also made the comparison, leading Adam Quigley to wonder if co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have it in them to reach a “Dark Knight” level. But Quigley’s a glass-half-full kind of guy: “Even if they don’t achieve the same fantastic results as ‘The Dark Knight,’” he concludes, “at least they will have tried.” (Slashfilm)
Australian director Baz Luhrmann is going to a fall festival – but it’s not Toronto, or Venice, or Telluride, or New York, or AFI Fest, or any of the other usual suspects. Instead, the man behind “Moulin Rouge” and “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet” and “Strictly Ballroom” is the new honorary chairman of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, a three-week fest that begins on September 27. He’ll host the opening night gala, and also run a master class that’ll deal with putting works of musical theater on the stage and the screen. In making the announcement, the NYMF executive director lauded Luhrmann for his work at “the intersection of musical theatre and contemporary pop culture.” And all concerned have probably agreed not to mention Luhrmann’s last film, the non-musical and non-successful “Australia” (BroadwayWorld.com).
