Sherlock Holmes and Avatar boasted large numbers on Friday, helping to shatter last year's Christmas box office record, The Wrap reports.
In total, films playing on Christmas brought in $85 million, topping last year's $75 million haul. Holmes contributed $24.9 million, leading the pack on its opening day. James Cameron's Avatar finished close behind the Guy Ritchie flick, with...
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Jason Reitman, hot off his accolades for Juno, and Jim Carrey have said, "Mais oui!" to direct and star in, respectively, the new comedy, Pierre, Pierre. The Fox Atomic film follows a nihilistic, self-indulgent French man who brings a stolen painting from Paris to London. If the premise didn't give it away already, the film will be "politically incorrect," according to Variety.For Reitman, the flick will be a brief break sandwiched by Diablo Cody projects: Next up for him is the Cody movie Jennifer's Body, which is billed as a comedy-thriller about a cheerleader from hell (unlike real-life cheerleaders, with apologies to Hayden Panetierre's Claire). — Anna Dimond
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Sid Ganis president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and actress Kathy Bates have just announced the major Oscar nominations for last years films and for my money there are some real surprises among themThe critically acclaimed comedy Juno which is also doing strong business has been recognized in a major way especially surprising since traditionally comedies often get short shrift in the major categories Written by first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody starring up-and-coming Canadian actress Ellen Page and directed by Jason Reitman it took a best-picture nomination and major category recognition for the key players a best-actress nom for Page original screenplay for Cody and director for Reitman Tommy Lee Jones nabbed a best-actor nomination for the sober Iraq War picture In the Valley of Elah directed and written by 2005 Oscar-winner Paul Haggis Crash and ignored in all other categories like every other fiction film dealing with the
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Paul Verhoeven will direct Pierce Brosnan but sadly not Rene Russo in a sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair remake. Me, I'm boycotting unless Famke Janssen gets the female lead.... Jada Pinkett Smith will make her directorial debut with The Human Contract, a rom-com whose description makes it sound an awful lot like the old Melanie Griffith/Jeff Daniels movie Something Wild.... Juno director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody are reteaming for Jennifer's Body, a horror comedy about a man-eating cheerleader.... Ridley Scott has signed on to helm Stones, a Stonehenge spookfest. — Ben Katner
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