Box Office: Hair-Raising Franchise Battles

One could argue, and some did, that we didn't need another Alien movie after four regular features and Alien vs. Predator mash-ups. One could argue, though no one bothered to, that we didn't need another Madagascar. Yet both films had robust attention from audiences for their opening weekend. When all the new entries are crowd-interest family films always win since they have better legs at the box office. Their target audience doesn't even require legs to get to them since they're carried to or wheeled to the movie theaters question via their parental units.

an unlikely franchise showdown: Aliens vs. Madagascar

THE DIRTY (BOX OFFICE) DOZEN 
01 MADAGASCAR 3 new $603
02 PROMETHEUS  new $50.0
03 SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN $23 (cum $98.5) Review & Sequel Plans
04 MIB 3 $13.5  (cum $135.5)
05 THE AVENGERS  $10.8 (cum $571.8) Review
06 THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL $3.2 (cum. $31) Review

07 WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING $2.7 (cum. $35.7)
08 BATTLESHIP $2.2 (cum $59.8)
09 THE DICTATOR $2.1  (cum $55.1)
10 MOONRISE KINGDOM $1.5 (cum $3.7) (Wes Anderson's Dark Side)
11 DARK SHADOWS $1.3 (cum. $73.7) Review
12 THE HUNGER GAMES $1.0 (cum. $400.2) Review

What did you see this week? I was busy taking in the musical Rock of Ages, the buzzy poetic Beast of the Southern Wild (ohmgod. Do not miss it when it opens... but lower those Oscar expectations. Not that kind of movie), the Italian coming out comedy Loose Cannons (2010), and Prometheus (more on that as soon as I can manage).

Twins: Band of Marshall-Green-Hardy Brothers

twins daily @ 2:22 PM during Gemini

Rising star Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus) --  who we were recently talking about since he's about to play Tennessee Williams --  is pictured left... or is it right? He has a twin brother named Taylor (who is not an actor) also pictured to your left... or right. They are not actually identical but fraternal according to Logan but they coulda fooled me.

To make things more confusing (and more delightful for the internets) people keep mistaking Logan for another rising star Tom Hardy (Bronson, Inception, This Means War). Hardy does not share DNA with the Marshall-Green twins having been born to totally different parents on a different continent 10 months apart. 

And yet...

 

To make things more confusing⁴...

• Tom and Logan both made their screen debut in Band of Brothers (2001). Tom played a Brit and Logan a German.... but still. How weird is that as coincidences go? 
• Tom & Logan seem to have similar taste in (changing) hair affectations.
• Tom (Lawless) & Logan (Prometheus) are both currently co-starring with Guy Pearce (albeit in separate movies).
• Tom came to the recent Prometheus premiere which Logan also naturally attended being one of its stars. Unfortunately the internet has (at this writing) denied us pictures of the two twin-like actors standing in each other's general vicinity. Damn you internets!

Over the course of the past four years Tom Hardy's career has been going supernova whilst Logan Marshall-Green has been sexing up Marisa Tomei. So it's kind of a draw.

Marisa & Logan, who aren't photographed much together, in 2010

Maybe Logan and Taylor and Tom should have all played "Number 14" together in Battlestar Galactica instead of wasting time with sci-fi pictures like Prometheus (Logan) and Star Trek: Nemesis (Hardy). Or maybe Marisa and Logan should've replaced Reese & Chris Pine and co-starred with Hardy in a better sexier smarter version of This Means War or maybe th--- okay, okay. I'll stop now. But the point being: The Film Experience ♥ twins.

P.S. I have not yet seen Prometheus but I'll rectify the situation tomorrow and we'll discuss.

Curio: Visions of Prometheus

llustration by PJ McQuade.

Alexa here.

Since the first teasers and trailers for Prometheus arrived I've been firmly in the YES camp.  Take the implications of providing a practically Precambrian timeline for a seemingly familiar alien species, and add all the apocalypticism of a season of Buffy and you are left with me trying to preorder my tickets in March.

Nathaniel has pointed out that Ridley Scott, with his background as an art director, always delivers when it comes to the look of a film, so for a visual fetishist like me even his poor efforts have their appeal (Legend is a Sunday afternoon favorite).

I've been hoping that all the anticipation would galvanize some artists and designers out there, and I haven't been disappointed.  Here are some intriguing creations I've spied in advance of the release.

Illustration by Miguel Delicado.

Click for more posters...

Click to read more ...

Thirteen Links About Eleven Things

Antagony & Ecstasy remembers Whit Stilllman's great comedy Metropolitan (1990)
Monkey See Kevin Kline and a puppy because... well... Kevin Kline and a puppy!
Empire Ben Kingsley will provide the mustache twirling for Iron Man 3
Telegraph Tim Robey sees an expo reel from Ridley Scott's Prometheus 
MNPP who wore it best? 'cubist memory disintegration' with Colin Farrel & Jake Gyllenhaal

Movie|Line sums up all the "will Gary Ross direct The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire?" serialized drama that's been syndicated all over the internet. I've ignored it until this recap because who has time for meaningless speculation that reverses itself each day?
World of Wonder "The Hunger GAYmes"
Coming Soon Woody Harrelson joining the cast of Out of the Furnace (the new film from Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper) as the villain
Cinema Blend still more Woody news. He's signed on for a cable series with his BFF Matthew McConaughey that sounds like a prestigey version of Cold Case. Why? His film career is going so well at the moment... stranger still is that Cary Fukunaga who has directed two terrific movies (Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre) and needs to keep stoking the early fires of his screen career has signed on to direct it.

The Mary Sue Tim Burton may be lining up another stop motion movie Night of the Living
24 Frames no full frontal this time for Jason Segel in Five Year Engagement
Flavorwire has an interesting list of the best platonic boy/girl friendships on tv. It is an underexplored realm.
Playbill Margaret obsessives take note. Kenneth Lonergan's next play "Medieval Play" opens in May. It's a story of two French knights described thusly.

A story of friendship, love, noble feats of arms, indiscriminate brutality, the progressive refinement of medieval table manners and the general decline of the chivalric ideal at the onset of the Great Papal Schism of 1378.

So in other words he's going to keep shoving as many ideas as possible into his narratives.

Linkbender

Stale Popcorn awww. our friend Glenn held a Titanic Oscar.
Guardian fun old interview with Helena Bonham Carter from her first film The Lady Jane (1986)
The Mary Sue new Dr. Horrible Sing-Along films this summer? Maybe.
Prometheus the full second trailer. Not doing a "yes no maybe so" because we already covered this one.
Tom Shone is not looking forward to Prometheus and here's why.

ioncinema Laurence Anyways trailer (in French) and posters. I love Xavier Dolan so I'm excited for this on principle if not quite in actuality.
Telegraph Tim Robey on George Clooney's arrest.
Movie|Line takes a different approach with the 9 most handsomely stoic photos of Clooney from the Sudan event.
In Contention Christopher Plummer in Barrymore... his stage triumph is going big screen this fall.
Antagony & Ecstacy is doing a 1930s week with fine pieces on Leo McCarey (Make Way For Tomorrow) and early horror (Island of Lost Souls) with more to come.
Deadline Scorsese & DiCaprio committed to making The Wolf of Wall Street.
Immersed in Movies has a strange bit about Krypton mythology in the upcoming Superman movie Man of Steel... but since it's about costume design we're intrigued.

My New Plaid Pants (NSFW) has been having a ton of fun wrapping up 2011 cinema with the Golden Trouser awards including "ten great gratuities of 2011 cinema" ... Michael Fassbender keeps popping up and also wins Best Actor.
Hollywood Prospectus surveys the week in celebrity gossip. Minimal commentary pointing to the ridiculous.
The Broadway Blog interviews ubiquitous out actor Denis O'Hare of stage, film and television and grills him cheekily at the end about all the hot men he works with. Who is crush worthy?

Crush-worthy….hmmmmm. I’d have to go with Jamie Bell. Mysterious."

Good choice, O'Hare.

Finally...
Check out this Snow White and the Hunstmen featurette on Costume Design. We're campaigning for 2012 Oscars so soon?

Will the queen's costume's alone win Collen Atwood her 10th nomination -- even before those dual armies?

All in all she's quite the haute couture sort of queen but with an aged rotting edge to her."

We like the sound of those... especially with diva Charlize Theron inside of them.