Morning Deal Report: Buffy Slays Again

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:30:00 GMT

More people spent time at the Smithsonian than received Salvation over the long Memorial Day weekend. Ben Stiller’s second Night in the Museum trumped the latest Terminator at the box office, taking in $70 million from Friday to Monday. Salvation, which actually opened Thursday night, took in $53.8 million for a total gross of $67.2 million. Star Trek, Angels and Demons and Dance Flick rounded out the top five.

This can’t possibly be a good idea. “A new incarnation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer could be coming to the big screen,” per The Hollywood Reporter. “Buffy creator Joss Whedon isn't involved and it's not set up at a studio, but Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment are working with original movie director Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, on what is being labeled a remake or relaunch, but not a sequel or prequel.” This new version “would have no connection to the TV series, nor would it use popular supporting characters like Angel, Willow, Xander or Spike.” Surely there’s a lawsuit brewing back at Whedon headquarters.

Flight Of the Navigator is also set to take off again. “The 1986 original told the story of a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by an alien spacecraft in 1978 and reappears eight years later, still the same age and with no memory of what happened.”

Strike 2: Electric Boogaloo

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Hollywood is always up for a fast-tracked sequel, but this is ridiculous. The dust has barely settled from the WGA strike, but that won’t stop the Screen Actors Guild from hitting the picket lines on June 30 if a new agreement can’t be reached by then. Producers are "cautiously optimistic" that the walkout won’t happen, but what tragedies might be in store for you, the movie fan, if it does?

Already Steven Spielberg has put the brakes on The Trial of the Chicago 7, which was set for an April start date. According to Variety, Spielberg will instead polish the script with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin while waiting to see if the actors’ strike develops. Other high-profile pictures are going ahead with their shooting schedules and making contingency plans should they suddenly find themselves without a cast. Terminator Salvation is proceeding under the following arrangement: "in the event of a strike, the paychecks stop, but nobody will be force majeured and everyone will get a plane ticket home from the Albuquerque set." (Force majeure is contractual gobbledegook for a clause that releases the studio from obligation in the case of natural disasters, Acts of God and, of course, strikes.)

The Da Vinci Code sequel Angels and Demons is set to roll cameras on June 5. "Director Ron Howard will spend three weeks shooting all of the film's exterior scenes. The rest of the film will be shot on Sony soundstages, where sets will wait, if necessary, until an actor's strike is over. That allowed Sony to somewhat contain the costs to halt and re-start the picture."

Michael Bay’s Transformers sequel is on the fast track, but have no fear that the script will suffer; Bay has hired three writers to handle all the plot complexity and character development such an enterprise entails. "They did a detailed outline before the writer's strike, and now they are in Michael Bay jail, holed up in a hotel and working feverishly," Bay said. "We're paying for a beautiful suite and they are getting a lot of work done. Hiring three writers was unusual, but it has been a godsend in getting us to where we need to be. Somehow you find a way to get it done."

From the picket lines to Michael Bay jail. Ah, the writer’s life.

The Screengrab : angels and demons

Morning Deal Report: Buffy Slays Again

Strike 2: Electric Boogaloo