"The Summer box-office season kicked off in earnest this weekend with "Mission: Impossible III" taking in a stellar $70 million in foreign markets. Domestically however it was another story. With a $48 million taking, M:I-3 certainly began the Summer season robustly but was far from breaking any records despite its massive 4000 screen opening. In comparison, the first made $45 million whilst the second took in $57 million over the same 3-day period. Whilst both the previous were released on holiday weekends, both were put out on significantly less screens..." (full details)
"A WoundedKnee Independent Films has picked up the English-language film rights to Fredric Brown's mystery "The Lenient Beast," with Lance Doty set to direct and adapt. Brown's 1956 novel is a five-part narrative recounting the perfect crime from the perspective of five people. A French version directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky was released in 2001..." (full details)
"Bernie Mac and Josh Duhamel are set to star in Michael Bay's "Transformers: The Movie" for DreamWorks and Paramount. Live-action production starts lensing this month, with release scheduled for July 4, 2007. Budgeted well north of $100 million, "Transformers" is based on the comicbook, cartoon and Hasbro toy line popular in the 1980s. Story centers on the central saga of the Autobots vs. the Decepticons. Mac will play a salesman who sells Shia LaBeouf's character his first Transformer. Jon Voight, Megan Fox, John Turturro, John Robinson and Travis Van Winkle round out the cast..." (full details)
