The Morning Roundup: B.O. Report, beef over No Country, VMA winners
Written by: Phoebe Raven, CC2K Staff Writer
This morning we have the usual box office report, beef over No Country For Old Men, love for The Wrestler, the winners of the VMA's and more.
Labor Day has passed and although we are still technically in summer, the fall season for TV and movies has officially begun.
The start of the new season though was good for some – in TV Land the CW scored big, with Gossip Girl returning amongst big buzz and the new 90210 premiering to awesome numbers – and worse for others – the box office was off to a slow start . That is no surprise, the weekend after Labor Day tends to be slow, but this year was the the slowest in eight years. Topping the B.O. was Bangkok Dangerous, starring Nicholas Cage. Holding up in second place was Tropic Thunder, followed by The House Bunny and, what else, The Dark Knight, which is nearing a $600 million worldwide intake.
Talking about great films: apparently there is some beef over No Country For Old Men. Tommy Lee Jones is suing Paramount for more than $10 million, claiming that he was promised box-office bonuses and compensations depending on the film's success. Since it earned four Academy Awards and took in $160 mill, Tommy apparently feels entitled to a little more dough than he got. Neither he nor Paramount are commenting on the matter though.
Looking towards future Oscar seasons, we duly have to report that this year's winner of the Golden Lion in Venice, Darren Aronofsky's film The Wrestler, has been picked up by FOX Searchlight for wide distribution, following its run at the Toronto Film Festival. And apparently a huge package to promote an Oscar win for star Mickey Rourke is a part of the deal. It's about time, eh?
More news to rejoice?! Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are all set, locked and ready to go for Spiderman 4 and 5. Whether Kirsten Dunst (aka KiKi Drunkst) will return is yet up in the air, although Sony appears willing to keep her despite rehab and all. That would be a decent move on their part.
In case you missed it, this Sunday saw the 25th birthday of MTV's Video Music Awards , short VMA's, and yet again Britney Spears made headlines. Fortunately – come on, let's be nice for once! – it wasn't for another lackluster performance like last year. She won her first three Moonmen this year for her video to her single Piece of Me. Here are some of the winners:
Video of the year: Britney Spears, Piece of Me
Female video: Britney Spears, Piece of Me
Male video: Chris Brown, With You
Rock video: Linkin Park, Shadow of the Day
Hip-hop video: Lil Wayne, Lollipop
Pop video: Britney Spears, Piece of Me
Dancing in a video: The Pussycat Dolls, When I Grow Up
New artist: Tokio Hotel (These are some brats from Germany. Besides horrendous hair-dos, they do have some good songwriters, but if you are annoyed with Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers you still have no idea how much every German over the age of 20 hates these four milksops.)
More interesting winners were in other categories, like Cinematography for The White Stripes' Conquest or Editing for Death Cab For Cutie's I Will Possess Your Heart. For a full list of the winners click here .