Is that déjà vu I feel? With no major new releases this past weekend, Christmas week’s top five films at the box office all held their spots for another week. Avatar continued its box office reign, earning $68.3 million over the weekend, bringing its total gross to over $352 million. Add to that the $133 million it made in the international markets over the weekend and it’s total gross surpasses $1 billion, making James Cameron the first moviemaker to ever direct two movies to this milestone (the first being Titanic). At $1.02 billion, Avatar is the fourth highest grossing movie of all time.

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes trailed behind at spot number two with a weekend gross of $38.4 million, while Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel earned $36.6 million, staying at spot number three. It’s Complicated took spot number four, with a weekend gross of $18.7 million, and spot number five went to The Blind Side, which earned $12.7 million and passed the staggering mark of $200 million.

The only new releases this past weekend were The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, which earned $24,450 in six theaters, and Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or-winning film The White Ribbon, which earned $61,317 in just three theaters.

Next weekend’s releases face the unenviable task of competing with Avatar. The movies debuting include the Amy Adams romantic comedy Leap Year; the vampire movie Daybreakers, starring Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe; the Michael Cera-starring Youth in Revolt, directed by Miguel Arteta; and Crazy on the Outside, the directorial debut of actor Tim Allen. Alas, not a sci-fi epic in the bunch.

Movieline may have just scored one of the biggest scoops of the late year. Either that, or their about to be the biggest turkeys of the late year in movie news. According to their report, the Sam Raimi led production of Spider-Man 4 (due out May 5, 2011) is eyeing to very big names as villains.

First, the previously rumored Anne Hathaway is said to be in negotiations to play Felicia Hardy. And that’s where is gets fuzzy, as this version of Felicia Hardy will not transform into the Black Cat, but rather a brand-new superpowered figure known as the Vulturess, which oddly sounds like a villain from The Twilight Saga.

Second, John Malkovich is in talks to play Spider-Man’s nemesis the Vulture, an older villain who despite being of advanced age, can still kick some ass. Here’s the rundown on his comic origins:

Adrian Toomes was born in Staten Island, New York. He is a former electronics engineer who was once the business partner of a man named Gregory Bestman; Bestman handled the finances while Toomes, the inventions. One day, after creating a flight harness, Toomes eagerly rushed into Bestman’s office to share the happy news. However, Bestman was not there, and Toomes discovered that Bestman had secretly been embezzling funds and that Toomes had no legal recourse. Enraged, Toomes wrecked the business, discovering that the harness also granted him superhuman strength. He then decided to turn to crime professionally as the Vulture. His wings are as sharp as swords and can be used as projectile weapons. They will replenish themselves so he can maintain flying abilities.

The Vulture employs a special harness of his own design that allows him to fly; his flight is directed by a pair of wings worn on his arms. The harness also endows him with enhanced strength and (according to some sources) increases his lifespan. Although Toomes is advanced in age, he is a strong fighter and a remorseless killer. On one occasion, he restored his youth through biochemical means, though this wore off after exposure to the corpse of an elemental superhuman. At one point he had used a device to steal Spider-Man’s youth, leaving Vulture young and Spider-Man elderly, but this effect wore off within hours.

According to Movieline, this also means that Dr. Curt Connors (played by Dylan Baker), will continue to have his transformation into the supervillain the Lizard on the backburner, as execs are skiddish about another villain that doesn’t have a human face. At best, his character will continue to lay waiting, possibly for future Spider-Man adventures.

My overall impressions of these developments is two-fold. One, here we go again with a crowded room full of bad guys, the exact problem that plagued Spider-Man 3. Two, the casting is dynamite, both Hathaway and Malkovich are top-tier talents and in the case of Malkovich, very few actors can, or ever have played psychotic better. Should negotiations go well and these two characters be placed in this fourth film, I’d say we’re in for an interesting experience.

Your thoughts about Malkovich and Hathaway for Spider-Man 4?

The big question for Hollywood this holiday season is whether James Cameron’s 3D science fiction epic, “Avatar,” will be as successful as his last movie, “Titanic,” which remains the most profitable film in history.

According to The New York Times, “Avatar” will have cost almost $500 million, including promotion, when it’s released worldwide this month. Because of “Titanic,” Cameron was given complete freedom by financial backers of “Avatar” to make the movie he wants, and for the past 12 years the director has designed new cameras and other technology to do just that.

Cameron’s ambitions are enormous, but as one of the movie’s stars, Sigourney Weaver, said to the press after 25 minutes of “select footage” was shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October, “Avatar” is “the movie Jim dreamed of seeing when he was 14, and I think he’s made a film that the 14-year-old in all of us will enjoy seeing again and again.”

The trailer for the movie bears out this observation. “Avatar” looks like a typical sci-fi adventure fantasy for boys. It’s about earthlings battling the indigenous intelligent species of another planet so that the earthlings can mine the planet’s valuable ore.

The visuals may be the most sophisticated ever designed for a film, but the story sounds familiar. Will audiences line up to see it?

“Avatar” will be released in Japan nationwide on Dec. 23 in a premium 3D version, dubbed into Japanese, and a 2D subtitled version. This dual release approach will also be used for “Up” (Dec. 5), the latest Disney/Pixar animated feature, which should appeal to a wider demographic than 14-year-old boys.

Grumpy old men are hardly the normal choice for protagonists of adventure tales, but Carl Fredericksen, the septuagenarian widower who attaches thousands of balloons to his house so that he can fly away to South America and fulfill a dream he shared with his late wife, is intriguing because he’s forced to live the adventure he never had time for in his prime.

The wonder of “Up” is the way it takes an odd premise and turns it into a moving and exciting film. It’s a true feat of imagination that has nothing to do with its technical achievements.

“Up” is the only major English-language family film opening here before to the holidays. (Another Disney movie, “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure,” will be offered in a Japanese-dubbed version.) Spike Jonze’s long-awaited adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic illustrated book “Where the Wild Things Are” won’t come to Japan until mid-January.

Fans of elaborate costume dramas will have to be satisfied with “The Young Victoria” (Dec. 26), which follows the life of the 19th century British monarch, played by Emily Blunt, until shortly after her marriage to Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). By focusing on the queen’s youth the film searches for a balance between romantic drama and political intrigue and mostly finds it. It’s all very tastefully done, with lots of beautiful costumes and scenes set in what look like real palaces and old mansions.

As usual, Japanese moviegoers won’t get to see the big Hollywood films that open at year-end to qualify for the Oscars until the new year, but there are three major movies that have been handicapped as Academy Award contenders, especially in the acting categories, and all happen to be based on true stories.

Or true up to a point. Steven Soderbergh’s latest, “The Informant!” (Dec. 5), stars Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, an executive for the American agrichemical conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland who spied for the FBI after claiming that ADM was involved in price-fixing.

Soderbergh presents this business thriller as a comedy, and as it becomes apparent that Whitacre may be pulling everybody’s leg, the audience may wonder if Soderbergh is doing the same thing. Nevertheless, Damon’s performance is something to behold.

So is Meryl Streep’s impersonation of the late, beloved American TV chef Julia Child in “Julie & Julia” (Dec. 12), which is based on two books presented as parallel stories.

One is Julie Powell’s (Amy Adams) titular record of her attempt to prepare all 524 recipes in Child’s 1961 cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and the other is Child’s memoir of her years in Paris after the war, when she learned all about French cooking from scratch.

Johnny Depp’s impersonation of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger in “Public Enemies” (Dec. 12) isn’t particularly faithful, but it doesn’t matter. Depp gives an appropriately intense performance in a movie that’s more about the taut restlessness of the criminal life than it is about one particular outlaw.

Director Michael Mann has made a career out of depicting the battle between the law and the lawless, and this may be his most definitive statement on the subject.

“The Fourth Kind” (Dec. 18) is also based on a true story, though believability may be in the eye of the beholder. A psychologist (Milla Jovovich) finds similarities between several sleep-deprived patients whose “recovered memories” indicate they may have been abducted by extraterrestrials. The inclusion of documentary footage from the real cases is supposed to make you believe it even more.

Believability is not an issue with Michael Moore’s latest muckraking polemic, “Capitalism: A Love Story” (Dec. 5), since the worldwide financial meltdown he chronicles in his populist-funny way is something most of us know firsthand. There’s nothing in the movie that’s new or provocative, but it’s nice to have Moore poking around for our benefit. Even 14-year-olds should appreciate it.(IHT/Asahi: December 4,2009)

Let’s hope James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ becomes a huge success!

“I found a stray on the street. He’s like a little Chihuahua that all the neighbors were into,” he says about the dog called Kevin.”

Film hunk Kellan Lutz showed off his softer side when revealing to Us Weekly at the Art of Progress event in Miami on Monday, November 30 that he has just adopted a dog. “I found a stray on the street. He’s like a little Chihuahua that all the neighbors were into,” he said about the dog, whom he names Kevin.

When asked on how he finds Kevin, the Emmett Cullen of “Twilight” recalled, “I don’t know why, but he just lay on the street and acted dead and all these cars drove around him.” He then added, “I’m going home to Arizona, which I only get to do once a year. So I’m taking him to Arizona, too.”

Kellan Lutz, who reprises his role as Emmett Cullen in the recently released “The Twilight Saga’s New Moon“, is quite open with the press when it comes to non-acting issues. Among the things that he has discussed publicly include his love life, big lips, crazy encounters with fans, and also the secret to his buff body.

Let’s hope Kellan Lutz takes good care of his dog!

Leona Lewis has recorded the lead song for director James Cameron’s much anticipated new movie, Avatar.

The former X Factor winner’s track, entitled ‘I See You’, has been produced alongside James Horner and Simon Franglen.

They are the same production duo responsible for Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’, which was included in Cameron’s 1997 epic, Titanic.
‘I See You’ will play over Avatar’s closing credits.
Set to release in December, the big-budget movie tells the story of a battle raging in a far-away world called Pandora.

The film utilises a number of groundbreaking new filmaking techniques and will be screened in both 2D and 3D.

As Gigwise reported last week, Lewis is due to embark on her debut UK tour next summer.

Is Leone Lewis a good enough singer for Avatar‘?

ROBERT Pattinson says he’s surprisingly “relaxed” about the release of Twilight sequel New Moon.The eagerly-awaited movie, which also stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, hits theaters Friday — and Pattinson insists he’s remaining calm.

“I’m surprised at how relaxed I am about the whole thing now,” the 23-year-old said. “I was really nervous when we started shooting New Moon, especially because of the expectation and everything… only because the first one did so well. I was really freaking out.”

Referring to the time Twilight fans were writing on internet message boards that they didn’t want him to play Edward, Pattinson said, “I think, in a way, I liked that. I felt I had less pressure because I had absolutely zero expectations whatsoever.

“For New Moon I was kind of freaking out a little bit at first, but hopefully I learned a couple of things that seemed to work on the first one. So I’m pretty calm now.”

Pattinson recently revealed he didn’t make the most of the exposure from his role as Cedric Diggory in the 2005 movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire because he was more interested in perfecting his craft than lining his pockets.

“I was a real prat for the first month,” the British star said, referring to the time when the Potter movie hit theaters. “I didn’t talk to anyone. I just drank coffee and told everyone I was 24 and this famous theatrical actor just back from South Africa.

“I kind of blew it after the Potter films. There was a chance for me to really kick on and use the exposure, but I didn’t really want to do anything. Looking back, it was a good thing. I was able to teach myself how to act for a start. I could have done some more teen movies, but I thought what was the point? I’m not all that fussed by making loads of money.”

Is Robert Pattinson really relaxed about New Moon Release?

SOME MOVIE PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

The movie “2012″ had a great opening this weekend. The end of the world flick directed by Roland Emmerich and starring John Cusack brought in $225 million world wide according to Reuters, positioning it as one of the highest grossing films ever.

The masses were attracted to this film either because of curiosity of what may happen on December 21, 2012 or because of the cool computer graphics that show the major cities of the world being crushed by Tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Indeed, the powerful images of seeing the coast of California being swallowed up by the Pacific after a 9.4 earthquake hits Los Angeles, and the scenes showing a super-volcano blowing up at Yellowstone National Park are quite exhilarating.

In 2012, the viewers follow John Cusack’s character as he tries to save his family from the chaos. While the whole world falls apart and the billionaires make their way to “the ships” that will save them, it’s an author and limo driver, Jackson Curtis (Cusack) who gets the sympathy of the crowd. The wealthy and the politicians that know about the impending doom and refuse to make the news public, got the boos from the audience and a few laughs as well. The casting director did a great job picking actors that really portrayed well the stereotypical vain, self-fish and greedy rich folk.

The movie also included numerous other well-known actors: Danny Glover as the President of the U.S., Woody Harrelson as a hippie and end-of-the-world theorist and radio host, and Thandie Newton as the First Daughter.

At the Vista Theater on Sunset Boulevard where I went to see 2012 on Friday night, the crowd was giggly during most of the movie. Cheers erupted with applause after Cusack is able to get his family away from Los Angeles’ tumbling skyscrapers and symbolic concrete freeways as a powerful earthquake created by “Earth crust displacement” breaks up the city into pieces. Scenes of people falling into huge cracks on the ground and hanging from the torn up buildings really excited the audience as they contemplated their own city being obliterated on the big screen. Ironically, such a catastrophe is likely to actually happen in Los Angeles since a major earthquake in the region has been overdue 150 years.

The movie is about 2 hours 40 minutes long, but the pace of the film made the time fly. There were some moments on the film that could have been shorter and others that perhaps were not necessary — these were mostly the scenes about the drama in the Oval office. Numerous humorous moments broke up the suspense, which I guess was good for those who can’t take destruction after destruction for almost 180 minutes.

There was only a brief mention of the Mayan calendar in the movie. This solar calendar, one of the most exact in the world, ends on December 21, 2012. No one has been able to figure out why the Mayans stopped counting the days after that date. Curiously enough, the Mayans were indeed able to predict the year that their civilization would end, which makes the sudden end of their calendar quite scary.

My advice: don’t wait for this movie to come on DVD, the computer graphics are too precious to miss on a TV screen. Only at a movie theater with superior sound and a pumped up audience can give you the full experience of this film. If the world is actually meant to end of 2012, then at least you would have seen the best portrayal of it by the folks in Hollywood.

You can also read Roger Ebert’s review of “2012″ where he gave the movie high ratings.

Get out of your couch and run to the cinema and watch “2012″!

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