BuzzSugar

Nicolas Cage Tops a Slow Weekend Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:45:46 PDT

Well, the Fall movie season came in with a whimper. According to Variety, "The first weekend after Labor Day is always sluggish, but this year the frame was affected by the start of the NFL football season and was particularly dreary." Bangkok Dangerous came in at No. 1, but it only earned an estimated $7.8 million and narrowly beat Tropic Thunder, which earned an estimated $7.5 million.

The House Bunny came in third place, followed by The Dark Knight in fourth and Don Cheadle's thriller Traitor in fifth place. Interestingly, Hamlet 2, which received major buzz at this year's Sundance Film Festival, is not doing too well in theaters and has only grossed an estimated $4.3 million over the two weekends it's been out.

Kind of a bummer of a weekend, but don't worry-next week The Women and Burn After Reading hit theaters! Who's excited?

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Do You Worry About Being Tracked Via Your Gadgets?

GeekSugar — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:00:23 PDT

Current releases Traitor and Pineapple Express both feature main characters convinced that they are being tracked and monitored by the police or some government agency. In some cases it's true and in others it's just drug-induced paranoia, but the fear certainly isn't limited to fiction.

I have a friend that is certain that Fastrak, a company that created an electronic toll collection system for Bay Area bridges, is in cahoots with the police and monitors drivers' activity and whereabouts. It's a notion that seems laughable to me, but cell phone carriers are required to provide the ability to trace cell phone calls to a location within 100 meters or less.

For the most part e-tracking is reserved for emergency situations, but the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice can locate a cellular customer and track their whereabouts. Is this something you consider or worry about?

Source

Box Office: Tropic Thunder Wins Again

BuzzSugar — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:00:50 PDT

Labor Day weekend officially signals the close of the Summer box office season, and this year's ended on, as Variety described it, "a whimper" as opposed to a bang. Tropic Thunder landed in the top spot for the third weekend in a row, pulling in an estimated $14.3 million over four days. The second spot went to Babylon A.D. which earned an estimated $12 million. The Dark Knight came in at No. 3, surpassing the $500 million mark on Sunday.

Traitor starring Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce opened this weekend and came in fifth place with $10 million, just behind The House Bunny, which came in No. 4 with $10.2 million.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Movie Preview: Traitor

BuzzSugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:33:55 PDT

If the always-amazing Don Cheadle weren't in this new movie Traitor, I probably would have greeted its trailer with a big old "meh." But while the preview makes it look like another one of those run-of-the-mill espionage thrillers Hollywood churns out regularly, the talent involved suggests that I shouldn't necessarily be so quick to judge.

In addition to Cheadle, the movie co-stars the terrific (and handsome) Guy Pearce (of Memento and an odd movie that no one's promoting with Catherine Zeta-Jones), as well as Jeff Daniels. Another fun fact about this project: Steve Martin (yes, the funny one) co-wrote the movie and is an executive producer.

Basically the trailer shows official-looking CIA types acting stressed out, and there is a lot of secret-keeping and secret-sharing. The movie opens August 27 so to take a look for yourself and tell me what you think,

The Breaking Dawn Cast Talks Wedding, the Birth Scene and Shows Off Some Sexy Footage at Comic-Con!

Shannon Vestal — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:55:46 PDT

Twilight's principal cast of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner hit Comic-Con to talk part one of Breaking Dawn. Along with director Bill Condon, they addressed the film's most anticipated scenes, like Edward and Bella's wedding and their ensuing honeymoon, as well as the infamous vampire-human baby birthing scene.

In addition, we got to see a couple of scenes in the movie that are not in the book. One showed Jacob talking to Carlisle and Esme about protecting Bella, and then having a confrontation with his own wolf pack, who see him as a traitor for helping the Cullens. The other scene we were shown got a ton of catcalls from the audience because it was a clip from Edward and Bella's honeymoon. In the sexy scene, Bella preps for a big milestone (brushing her teeth, shaving her legs . . .) and then meets her new husband on the beach in the moonlight - wearing nothing but a towel. The cast had lots of juicy tidbits to share about the film, and I've shared highlights from the panel below.

Kristen talked about what it was like to shoot the wedding scene, which she said she'd been "ramping up to shoot for four years" because she regarded it as the "most important part of the whole thing." She said it was "so beautiful" when she got on set and saw everyone in the pews, and was as nervous and terrified as she expected herself to be. However, she got into "wedding mode" when she put the dress on - but was locked away in a room to protect the dress and images of her in it, which required her to be under "Secret-Service-style crazy security."
On shooting the honeymoon in Brazil, Robert said the climate was amazing and beautiful on the first day, and then it started raining and turned into "hurricane storms." He said crappy weather made it feel like they were "having a honeymoon in England, playing board games, instead of making love on the beach."
Taylor said Jacob starts out as the same character we've always known at the beginning of Breaking Dawn Part 1, "then he gets his heart crushed." He said Jacob "becomes a totally different person, who is forced to mature and become his own man." Taylor said Jacob's journey was exciting to him and that he can't wait for the audience to see it too.

To find out more about the Breaking Dawn panel at Comic-Con, including what Kristen, Robert, and Taylor each think of the birthing scene, just