Fantastic Four

• Several entertainment bloggers have launched an Adopt a Writer site, which will feature interviews with striking writers.
• Cinematical ponders the possibility of a third Fantastic Four movie. Would this be necessary at all?
• In honor of the Price is Right getting six primetime episodes, TV Squad has a list of the six worst prizes you can win on the show.
• Stereogum has posted video of Lisa Loeb playing inside an Ikea store.
• TV with MeeVee wonders whether David Simon is too angry for his own good on this season of The Wire.
• Hypeful helpfully puts together Rob's party mix from Cloverfield.
• Meanwhile, Popwatch hails the return of Erykah Badu.

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.

1408
Just in time for scary movie season, Stephen King's summer sleeper hit 1408 is coming out on DVD! The movie quietly opened over the summer and then surprisingly became the No. 2 movie at the box office in June, coming in ahead of the Fantastic Four sequel and just behind Evan Almighty.

John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer of horror fiction whose young daughter dies. He scoffs at the idea of paranormal activity and goes around discrediting allegations of ghosts and hauntings. However, when his work leads him to a haunted hotel room (number 1408) where "nobody lasts more than an hour," Mike starts to experience things he never knew were possible. Samuel L. Jackson plays the hotel manager. You can watch the preview for 1408 here.

Two more new titles so read more

Not only can Steve Carell get animals to board an ark — he can also entice people to go to the movies. Carell's Evan Almighty took the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office, bumping The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer from its temporary throne. But Evan didn't exactly attract a moviegoing flood of Biblical proportions. Considering that it was said to cost at least $175 million to make, chances are the movie's estimated $32.1 million take wasn't exactly the miracle its producers were hoping for.

Possibly the biggest surprise of the weekend was the John Cusack thriller 1408, which edged out Silver Surfer to take the No. 2 spot with just over $20 million. Variety notes that more than half of its ticket-buyers were women — maybe because it's a creepy but not gruesome horror film, maybe because John Cusack is just kind of awesome.

A Mighty Heart, on the other hand, took in just $4 million to finish in the No. 10 spot. Was the weighty biopic just too heavy for a breezy summer weekend?

Other notable results: Ocean's Thirteen nabbed the No. 4 spot with $11.3 million, while Knocked Up finished in fifth with more than $10 million, bringing its total for the summer to almost $109 million — which, incidentally, is about how much Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin raked in overall. Those Pirates brought in another $7 million to finish at No. 6. Surf's Up, Shrek the Third and Nancy Drew rounded out the top 10.

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This weekend the Fantastic Four sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, "flamed on" to take the top slot at the box office, raking in an impressive $57.4 million. This just beats the first Fantastic Four movie's opening weekend which brought in $56 million last year.

In second place was Ocean's Thirteen with $19 million while Knocked Up followed behind at No. 3 with $14 million. Captain Jack Sparrow and his buddies came in 4th place with $12 million, and family flicks Surf's Up and Shrek the Third took 5th and 6th places, respectively.

Nancy Drew opened in 7th place, unfortunately, bringing in just $7 million. At least she beat out Hostel: Part II, but still, it's disappointing that Nancy didn't draw in too many viewers. Perhaps the books were not adapted for screen very well. This weekend we'll see if Evan can be Almighty enough to get the No. 1 box office slot.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

The Fantastic Four movie that came out before this summer's Rise of the Silver Surfer made some money in the box office, but was given pretty bad reviews.

As poorly as those reviews may have been, though, it fared much better than this even earlier Fantastic Four movie did, despite its stellar cast and super-impressive special effects (sarcasm alert). I dug this photo up on Wikipedia, and I'm so glad I did.

Wikipedia explains: "A movie adaptation of The Fantastic Four was completed in 1994 by famed B-movie director/producer Roger Corman. The film was made on a shoestring budget and is largely mocked by fans of the comic book foursome for what they see as poor acting and disappointing special effects (at one point, The Human Torch — played by a human actor — turns into an obvious cartoon upon 'flaming-on')."

Classy!

• Now that "Veronica Mars" is over, BuddyTV tells us what's next for Kristen Bell.
• Cinematical brings us news of another comic book movie, this time following the Teen Titans.
• TV with MeeVee chats up Taylor Handley, now of "Hidden Palms" and formerly of "The O.C."
• The Movie Blog proudly presents the newest trailer for the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
• Stereogum tells us where to hear Kelly Clarkson's super-hyped next album.
• Reality Blurred is pretty sure that the camp in "The Simple Life" is fake.




• Best Week Ever got ahold of a Japanese commercial marketing beer to little kids, which is more funny-disturbing than funny-ha-ha.
• Idolator asks: Which music magazine has the better Amy Winehouse cover?
• Give Me My Remote has my favorite "So You Think You Can Dance" clip yet: Jamal swing-dancing with E-Knock.
• I Guess I'm Floating rounds up the leaked tracks off the much-anticipated next M.I.A. album.

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Let me start off by saying, folks I am really surprised by the longevity of the "Got Milk?" campaign. These things have been going strong for what, a bajillion years now? I suppose everyone loves to see a celebrity with a milk moustache and this time it's Jessica Alba and the rest of the Fantastic Four. It's interesting to me how milk campaigns went from celebrity endorsements to actual movie-tie-ins. An ad within an ad I suppose... At anyrate, if you're in to the Fantastic Four, you can head over to bodybymilk.com and test out your F4 knowledge, find out which character you're like, and bid on a bunch of other F4 items. See folks, an ad within an ad.

Image Source: MilkPEP

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