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Monday Morning Mixer: 'Dawn' breaks again

Posted Monday, November 19, 2012 at 2:50 PM Central

by John Couture

You know what they say about deja vu, it only comes twice. In the case of the latest film from the blockbuster series of novels by Stephenie Meyer, this is really the end - allegedly.

Of course, the studio and even Meyer herself is leaving the door wide open for potential new stories about Edward, Jacob and Bella. Great, just what we need, another 200 pages of an emo girl getting all mopey.

So, did anything else exciting happen this weekend? I don't know, that's a very good question. Why don't you grab that cup of coffee, sit back and relax.

The MMM is here to answer this and all of your other pressing questions.

Box Office 411

So, I went to see a movie this weekend. I know, you're probably sitting there thinking, "Hey, he runs a movie site, I hope he's going to see films every weekend."

Yes, there was a time when that did happen, but with an almost one-year-old at home, my theater time has taken a serious hit. So, we have to pick and choose our selections carefully.

In other words, there was no chance in Hell we were going to go see The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. Apparently though, we were the only ones who didn't see it this weekend.

Breaking Dawn - Part 2 opened with an incredible $141.3 million over the weekend which was on par with the openings of the rest of the Twilight films. Breaking Dawn - Part 1 opened slightly lower at $138.1 million, but all of the films, save for the original, perform remarkably similar at the box office.

We are still incredibly bullish about our projected North American box office total of $300 million for Breaking Dawn - Part 2. These films just all run out of steam right around $300 million.

Overall, the top films performed quite admirably, bringing in approximately $237 million, good enough for sixth best weekend of all time. Skyfall brought home a nice sum of $41.5 million to sail North of $161 million at the box office. It looks like it will become the highest grossing Bond film of all time at some point this week.

Lincoln expanded to a wider release and ended up with one score and one million dollars. For those of us not as schooled with Civil War era history, that equates to about $21 million. The soon-to-be lauded awards darling is targeting nicely for a total cumulative box office just North of $100 million.

Not whores for 'Star Wars'

While we could do a daily report on Star Wars given the ridiculous amount of news that is being speculated about it, we've decided to save the stand alone stuff for real news. Besides, this way, we can add the little tidbits in the MMM.

Since the news broke, one name that has been bandied about as a possible director is Brad Bird. After his successful leap to live-action action in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, he seems like a no-brainer, but don't get your hopes up fan boys.

Brad answered that question pretty conclusively when he replied to a fan's inquiry on Twitter.

Well, that's that. So, what about another director that has been rumored to be in a position to direct Episode VII, Colin Trevorrow?

Well, Film School Rejects found this little video that seems to indicate that those rumors about Trevorrow directing Episode VII were more than idle chatter.

If you don't want to watch the whole thing, I don't blame you. The good part is towards the end. Or you can write a transcription below.

I can’t speak with any specificity as to what the next thing will be. There are amazing opportunities that have arisen as a result of this. One of them, I will say, will probably create a good deal of ire against me on the Internet when people find out what it is. So, I just want to say in advance that I promise you, for all those who love the mythology that I will be tackling, trust that I love it as much as you do. And I will respect it, and hopefully make it not suck.

Now this podcast was published in June when Safety Not Guaranteed was making its theatrical rounds, but in hindsight, it's really easy to insert Star Wars as the "mythology" he was talking about at the time. In light of this podcast surfacing, Trevorrow has backed off the possibility of directing Episode VII.

Of course, that rather coy odds might just be a geek reference in disguise. As anyone who was born before 1980 can attest, those odds are precisely what C3P-O quotes to Han Solo about their ability to successfully navigate an asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back.

But alas, it seems that Trevorrow doesn't even want to play into the speculation because he later tweets the following:

That's a bit unfortunate because the more I learn about Colin Trevorrow, the more convinced I am that he would deliver a kick ass Star Wars movie. Although, that does beg the question as which beloved mythology he was talking about in that podcast from June.

Could it be that we have the right studio, but wrong franchise? Could Trevorrow be prepping a new Raiders of the Lost Ark film? That might be rather interesting.

Where celebs go to die

Did you ever wonder what happened to those one-hit celebs who pop up in a film (or series of films) that quickly becomes a cult classic, but then become typecast? Well, if you're Chris "The Sherminator" Owen American Pie fame you start waiting tables at a sushi restaurant to make ends meet.

If you're Tom Wilson, aka Biff from Back to the Future, you poke fun at it and hit the road as a comedian. We were fortunate a couple of years ago when Tom brought his comic stylings to our sales convention. He regaled us with this great little ditty.

So, with that in mind, Tom updated his YouTube channel this weekend with a new take on those Sci-Fi conventions. I think you'll agree that he expertly captures the comedy in them.

I can't stress enough that if you ever have a chance to see him do his routine, don't think twice about it. He's that funny.

Got next?

It's only fitting that with this past weekend's closing chapter to The Twilight Saga that the film's fans look for the next big thing. Some say that author Stephenie Meyer's next book/film The Host will pick up where Twilight left off, at least in terms of serving an audience.

While the subject matter is wildly different (vampires and werewolves vs. aliens), there are some themes that resonate through both stories. It remains to be seen whether The Host will ever be able to get the same traction as Twilight (probably not), but we did get the first look at the film.

So yeah, it looks like more of the same to me. We'll find out for sure on March 29, 2013.

Hammer Style?

Finally today, we don't cover music much, but the AMAs were this weekend and these big musical events produce all sorts of of interesting mashups. Everyone, by now, is familiar with PSY's international sensation "Gangnam Style," but did you ever think you'd see MC Hammer sharing the stage with PSY?

Of course, if you're asking who MC Hammer is, then you're not alone. Last night's AMAs gave us this mashup of "Gangnam Style" and "2 Legit 2 Quit." It was awesome!

Of course, it was also awesome that half of the audience had no clue who MC Hammer is. Well, that's enough for now, until next week mix well.