Santa came earlier fo(u)r Christmases

The domestic box office flourished over the long Thanksgiving sesh, ending slightly ahead of last year. Better yet, all sorts of films did well, further indication that going to the movies is becoming more and more appealing as worried consumers cut back on more expensive forms of entertainment, including eating out.

Biggest victor in terms of sheer grosses went to Warner Bros/New Line's Vince Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon comedy "Four Christmases." Pic -- opening Wednesday and coming in far ahead of expectations -- grossed an estimated $46.7 million from 3,310 runs for the five-day frame, and $31.7 million for the three-day weekend, according to Rentrak.

The most anticipated Thanksgiving film was 20th Century Fox's adult-leaning epic "Australia," from director Baz Luhrmann, which also debuted Wednesday. Film grossed an estimated $20 million from 2,642 runs for the five days, and $14.8 million for the three-day weekend, to place squarely No. 5.

After a soft Wednesday debut, "Australia" noticeably picked up the pace as adults were sprung from holiday duties. Film logged a 96% bump Friday -- considered the biggest single moviegoing day of the year -- the largest uptick among non-family titles.

See full Box Office reults Here

Len Wiseman to Direct Gears of War

If you're a big Gears of War fan, then I really hope you liked Live Free or Die Hard. Hollywood Reporter officially confirms that Len Wiseman, who directed the fourth Die Hard last year, is officially signed on to direct the Gears of War movie currently in the works. This was initially announced last year and since then have reported on various rumblings, including a rumor that the film was canned. Apparently the New Line merger, since this was a New Line film, didn't affect this project too much - because Wiseman is now attached and the project is actually moving forward as a big summer blockbuster. Screenwriter Stuart Beattie has been replaced with Chris Morgan instead, however, which may hurt the film more than help.

Gears of War, developed by Epic Games, became an instant success when it debuted on the Xbox 360 in November 2006. It became one of the most popular games on Xbox Live and sold more than 3 million units worldwide in its first 10 weeks. It received numerous awards, including Gamespot's Game of the Year and the Interactive Achievement Awards' Overall Game of the Year. Set on the planet Sera, the game thrusts players into a battle for survival between humans and a race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet known as the Locust Horde. Players assume identities of soldiers on Delta Squad, specifically the character of Marcus Fenix, as they fight to save Sera's inhabitants.

Cliff Bleszinski aka CliffyB, the lead game designer for Gears of War and Epic Games, worked with Stuart Beattie on the original 21-page treatment before handing it off to Chris Morgan to finish. Morgan previously wrote the scripts for Cellular, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and the upcoming Wanted. If you're concerned about this film, Bleszinski tries to calm our fears. "Hollywood needs to take the source material seriously, win over the avid gamers and make it work for an audience that is young and old, male and female." He continues, "Disney made a great movie out of a theme park ride, and somebody is sooner or later going to make a great one out of a video game. Having someone like Len really helps the odds. I think we're going to create something special here."

Before I get too far into the discussion of how great Gears of War could be, let me say that I really did not enjoy Live Free or Die Hard. But maybe it was the script and terrible ideas for an action movie that annoyed me more than Wiseman's directing. All I know is that with Wiseman directing and Morgan writing, I'm very concerned for this movie. I really don't think Wiseman is the one who is going to show us how good video game movies can be. Thankfully this probably won't hit theaters until 2010, meaning we'll see Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia before this hits. Maybe that will be the first movie that will kick video game adaptations into high gear.

Journey Trailer and Poster!

Warner Bros./New Line has brought online the new trailer and we have the new poster for Journey to the Center of the Earth, the action-adventure starring Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem. The movie opens in theaters on July 11. You can watch the trailer in High Definition QuickTime and regular QuickTime formats here and a bigger version of the poster can be viewed by clicking on it below!

New Line Hires Badass

New Line has bought Chad Kultgen's spec script Dan Mintner: Badass for Hire and set up the project with Beau Flynn and Mason Novick producing, reports Variety.

The purchase is the first for New Line since the mini-major was scaled down and absorbed into Warner Bros.

The story centers on a man who's earned every military award and discovers that his billionaire mentor and father figure has been kidnapped.

Source: Variety

New Hancock Trailer - Actually Looks Good?

Hancock Trailer

I hope you remember the first Hancock teaser trailer? An extended trailer for Hancock debuted last night on American Idol and has showed up online for our viewing pleasure. Whether you're enjoying the trailers for this or not, you better accept what it is - it's the only movie opening this July 4th so far (no Transformers this year). Anyway, now for my own take on this new Will Smith superhero comedy or parody or whatever you want to call it. This time with this trailer - I'm honestly actually a bit intrigued. I still hate the ridiculously bad wire work and stupid lines, but I'll be damned, could this movie be good?! No, no, I can't get ahead of myself…

Don't get me wrong, I still am not looking forward to this, but maybe, just maybe, this could actually turn out good. I think my biggest problem is that it's in the 4th of July spot - one that should be reserved for exciting blockbusters like Transformers and Independence Day, not this awful superhero parody. I hope I'm wrong but so far I'm still not sold - this isn't going to be an exciting 4th of July.

Watch the new trailer for Hancock:


Hancock is directed by Peter Berg, of The Rundown, Friday Night Lights, and The Kingdom previously. The film's script was written by over five different writers, including John August, Vince Gilligan, Akiva Goldsman, Vincent Ngo, and Peter Berg. Hancock arrives in theaters on July 2nd this summer - Will Smith's own 4th of July weekend spot. The teaser poster is featured below.

Hancock Poster

Confirmed: Del Toro to Direct the Hobbit

Guillermo del Toro has officially signed on to direct the New Line/MGM's The Hobbit and its sequel, reports Variety.

The widely expected announcement came Thursday afternoon jointly from executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich, and Mary Parent, newly named chief of MGM's Worldwide Motion Picture Group.

Del Toro's moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He'll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. (You can read what he told ComingSoon.net about the preparation he'll be doing for this in our exclusive interview here.)

New Line is overseeing development and will manage production. Both films are being co-produced and co-financed by New Line Cinema and MGM, with Warner Bros. distributing domestically and MGM handling international.

Del Toro won't leave for New Zealand immediately as he's still in post-production on Universal's "Hellboy II," due out in July.

The official signing of Del Toro comes four months after New Line settled a lawsuit with Jackson over "The Lord of the Rings" and announced that it had agreed with MGM to turn J.R.R. Tolkien's "Hobbit" into two live-action films.

The studios didn't give a start date on production and don't yet have a script. Though no screenplay deal's been set, it's expected that the LOTR scripting team of Jackson, Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with Del Toro.

With Del Toro blocking out four years for the project, it's likely that the studios are aiming at starting shooting next year and releasing the films in late 2011 and 2012.

Jackson's WETA stages, post-production and visual effects facilities -- built for "The Lord of the Rings" -- will be used for both films. And New Zealand will again be the site of Middle-earth, with the story centering on Bilbo Baggins taking the Ring of Power from Gollum.

Source: Variety