Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt to Join “2012″
Three more actors are coming aboard Roland Emmerich’s next apocalypse project. Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt are in discussions to join Columbia Pictures‘ epic disaster project, 2012.
The film centers on a global cataclysm and tells the heroic struggle of the survivors.
Glover will play the president, with Newton as his daughter. Oliver Platt will star as the president’s chief of staff. John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor already are on board.
Emmerich is directing a script he penned with his 10,000 B.C. co-writer Harald Kloser.
The studio is planning a July 10, 2009, release, with filming set to begin in July.
Iron Man Soars Above Competition at North American Box Office
Iron Man battered the competition for the second consecutive weekend as an estimated $50.5m haul through Paramount Pictures raised the running total to $177.1m.The result consolidated the Marvel Studios adaptation as the season’s first bona fide blockbuster and relegated new openers Speed Racer from Warner Bros and What Happens In Vegas from Fox to second and third, respectively.
Box office was up 21% against the same weekend last year as the top 12 films combined for $128m. Year-on-year 2008 still trails 2007 by some 2.5% at this stage in the game.
Speed Racer disappointed on $20.2m. The family film was adapted from the 1960s Japanese anime television series by Andy and Larry Wachowski in their first outing as directors since The Matrix Revolutions opened in 2003.
Emile Hirsch stars as a talented racing driver in a high profile cast alongside Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox.
Opening in third place on $20m was the romantic comedy What Happens In Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. By the time actual results are confirmed on Monday, What Happens In Vegas and Speed Racer may switch places. Read the rest of this entry
