Black Sheep @ The Box Office: Christmas Comes Early ... Too Early

It seemed promising enough on Friday. Robert Zemeckis's expensive remake of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, starring Jim Carrey, debuted strong, prompting some to expect a weekend take north of $40 million. The final tally came in around $31 million and begs the question, why? Could be that audiences aren't ready for Christmas just yet but it could also be that audiences are not connecting with Zemeckis's obsession with motion capture animation. His previous effort, THE POLAR EXPRESS, was hardly a resounding success and the word on A CHRISTMAS CAROL is that some of it works but it is just as cold and lifeless this time out with Carrey as it was with Tom Hanks. The past and present are pretty shaky for motion capture animation so unless the ghost of Christmas future has a few tricks in store, Zemeckis might have to go back to making movies the old fashioned way ... just once.


This week's big winner is a pleasant surprise. Yes, it won the Audience Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Yes, Mo'Nique was on Ellen and Mariah did Larry King this week. And yes, Oprah has been telling all of her minions to see it for weeks now. Still, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE is difficult movie to watch so it would naturally repel certain viewers. I'm happy to report that audiences in the four cities that it is currently playing in decided not to cower but to face the harshness head on. PRECIOUS earned over $1.8 million on just 18 screens in all of America. That makes its $100K per screen average a record breaker for an urban picture and one of the 25 greatest per screen averages of all time. It should be noted that the greater per screens are for lower screen counts, making PRECIOUS look even more impressive. Best Picture, here we come? (Note: Black Sheep's interview with the director and star is coming soon!)


There was a lot of other activity in the Top 10 and for the first time in while, it wasn't paranormal. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY did continue to hold up well though. I can't say I understand why now that Halloween is done with and everyone should know by now that it isn't anywhere near as scary as was suggested. Its continued success may explain why THE FOURTH KIND did not blow up, instead managing a respectable fourth place finish. Coming in ahead at number three was the George Clooney/Ewan MacGregor war farce, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. Adult films are harder and harder to sell and subsequently, the $13 million debut is considered to be a win for Overture. Neither film was able to take down MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT. I finally caught that one this weekend and the theatre was definitely packed so Jackson's music is alive and well. I cannot say the same for Richard Kelley's follow-up to DONNIE DARKO, THE BOX. The film, which fizzled in sixth place, asks if you would take a million dollars if you knew someone random in the world would die. The answer: Nobody cares.


NEXT WEEK: PRECIOUS will expand slowly and Wes Anderson's first foray into animation, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, debuts on 4 screens. I caught it this week ... see it! PIRATE RADIO wants to dominate the airwaves on 900 screens but none of this matters. Nope because next week the world ends when 2012 debuts on 3000+ screens. It was nice knowing you.

SOURCE: Box Office Mojo

Best of Black Sheep: THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS

I’m not sure what I was expecting considering the title. I can say that what I got from Grant Heslov’s new film, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, I could never have expected even if I tried. Heslov tells you right away that most of what you’re about to see is truer than you would think, which implies that at least some of what you’re about to see is a fat lie. What actually follows is so entirely ludicrous that it’s hard to imagine it as either made up or the truth. The other thing I wasn’t expecting before going in was laughing as hard and as often as I did.


Ewan McGregor is back in familiar territory as an earnest, likeable lead. He plays reporter and underachiever, Bob Wilton. His wife has just left him and he has, in turn, left the United States for Iraq. It is 2003 and he wants to prove to the world and himself that he is worth something by writing the best post-Iraq war feature ever written. He decides the best angle for his story is to be found with Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney). Cassidy, an army man himself, used to roll with the U.S. Army’s New Earth Division, a division based on the principal that peace is the only thing that can actually win a war and that takes from the paranormal studies to develop its weaponry and calls its top soldiers Jedi warriors. Cassidy himself is said to be able to stare at goats long enough to make their hearts stop. How the U.S. army could have funded any of this is beyond me but it was … or at least some of it was.


I’ll be honest; I am not sure whether Heslov is suggesting that this approach is just as nonsensical as the military methods that we’re familiar with now or that war makes no sense no matter what your plan of attack is. All I know is that when McGregor asks Clooney what a Jedi warrior is, the theatre erupts in laughter. Now, that’s using the force.

Black Sheep TIFF Review: THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS

I’m not sure what I was expecting considering the title. I can say that what I got from Grant Heslov’s new film, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, I could never have expected even if I tried. Heslov tells you right away that most of what you’re about to see is truer than you would think, which implies that at least some of what you’re about to see is a fat lie. What actually follows is so entirely ludicrous that it’s hard to imagine it as either made up or the truth. The other thing I wasn’t expecting before going in was laughing as hard and as often as I did.


Ewan McGregor is back in familiar territory as an earnest, likeable lead. He plays reporter and underachiever, Bob Wilton. His wife has just left him and he has, in turn, left the United States for Iraq. It is 2003 and he wants to prove to the world and himself that he is worth something by writing the best post-Iraq war feature ever written. He decides the best angle for his story is to be found with Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney). Cassidy, an army man himself, used to roll with the U.S. Army’s New Earth Division, a division based on the principal that peace is the only thing that can actually win a war and that takes from the paranormal studies to develop its weaponry and calls its top soldiers Jedi warriors. Cassidy himself is said to be able to stare at goats long enough to make their hearts stop. How the U.S. army could have funded any of this is beyond me but it was … or at least some of it was.


I’ll be honest; I am not sure whether Heslov is suggesting that this approach is just as nonsensical as the military methods that we’re familiar with now or that war makes no sense no matter what your plan of attack is. All I know is that when McGregor asks Clooney what a Jedi warrior is, the theatre erupts in laughter. Now, that’s using the force.

Black Sheep Previews: TIFF 2009 (part one)

The full list of films expected to play at this year's Toronto International Film Festival is now online. The schedule comes later this week and the individual tickets go on sale September 4. I moved to Toronto this summer in order to be closer to the festival really. It is my intention to get in there any way I can and work my way up until I am running the whole show. Lofty? Perhaps. Impossible? Not at all. So far though, the trek has not been so productive. In the midst of my move, I missed the deadline to apply for media accreditation. The good folks at TIFF allowed me to submit anyway but I still have yet to hear back from them. They assure me I will hear soon enough and I figure if I write a bit more about them, the answer will be positive and come sooner than later. I'm willing to try anything here.

I do have access to a few of the films on the roster through film companies that have embraced Black Sheep already - primarily, Maple Pictures and Alliance. Just through these two companies, I have access to the following films and, if I am lucky, access to the stars and filmmakers. Here are the Maple films I am fairly certain I will be covering during TIFF this year. (Alliance will follow tomorrow.) I hope you will be as excited about them as I will.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
Directed by Grant Heslov (GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK)
Starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey
GALA Presentation


The TIFF website describes the film as a modern DR. STRANGELOVE, bringing war to absurd conclusions and inspiring hilarious results. If Heslov does anywhere near as well as the beautiful and effective Oscar-nominated GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, it is fair to say that he will have another awards contender on his hands. All the stars are expected at the festival, as is the director himself and the author of the book the film is based on, Jon Ronson.

PRECIOUS - BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE
Directed by Lee Daniels
Starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton and Mariah Carey
GALA Presentation


This is one of the festival's most anticipated titles, even though it has been seen around the world already. It debuted at Sundance, where it won both the audience and critic's awards. It then went on to Cannes. It is expected to screen at the New York Film Festival in October but it makes its Canadian premiere first at TIFF. The film, about an obese teenager who is pregnant for the second time, is horrifically depressing on the surface but I hope incredibly inspiring by the finish. It captured the attention of Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, who are both distributing the film through their respective companies. All the stars, the filmmaker and even Winfrey and Perry are expected to be attending the festival. This is a serious Oscar contender! (side note: if i meet mariah carey, i may fall to the floor.)

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE
Directed by Rebecca Miller
Starring Robin Wright Penn, Keanu Reeves, Alan Arkin and Winona Ryder
GALA Presentation


The TIFF website describes Pippa Lee as a woman who has surmounted so many obstacles in her life only to find herself still searching for her identity. Miller, wife to Daniel Day-Lewis and mother to his children, adapts her own novel here. This is also not her first directorial effort, having already helmed the sensitive films, THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE and PERSONAL VELOCITY: THREE PORTRAITS. Wright-Penn has generated strong awards buzz for her part and she is expected to attend the festival with the director and her co-star, Reeves.

THE BOYS ARE BACK
Directed by Scott Hicks
Starring Clive Owen
Special Presentation


Director, Scott Hicks, perhaps most famous for his directorial turn of SHINE, which won Geoffrey Rush a Best Actor Oscar, returns to TIFF with this touching tale of a husband (Owen) who loses his wife and has to learn to take care of not only the son he shared with her but the son he left behind from a previous marriage. Like most festival fare, there is some awards hopeful buzz expected and it belongs to Owen here, who has been nominated once before for his role in Mike Nichols's CLOSER. Both Owen and Hicks are expected to attend.

Tomorrow, Black Sheep will take a look at what he hopes to catch through Alliance Films. In the meantime, he will hold his breath until TIFF confirms his accreditation. On second thought though, finger crossing might be the healthier option there.