Jump For Laz - Weekend B.O.

The good news at this weekend's box office is Jumping The Broom from TriStar, which was expected to cash-in $8M - $10 million, will ante up closer to $14M and a #3 weekend finish just behind mega budgeted blockbusters Thor and Fast Five and ahead of the wron-com Something Borrowed, dare I say starring Kate Hudson.

One can only imagine what the expectations were for Kate and the rest of the run-of-the-mill Borrowed cast. Hollywoodteurs seem only to be happy looking at a screen reflecting themselves, friends, high school, college, workplace and families and placing them in familiar Hollywood derived places, and if you can get nearly famous Hollywoodteur offsprings to play - this helps get the greenlight, hereby perpetuating your shallow existence void of any other participants in society, unless they can be the victims of your discriminating taste. These little date-y styled movies were so well made and so fun in the 1930s.

Back to Broom, made for just $6.6M (probably less the Kate Hudson's Something Borrowed salary), in typical fashion Broom had Hollywoodteurs actually working for their oversized and undeserved inflated salaries with atypical marketing tactics to reach an audience treated as a sidebar at best. And guess what Hollywoodteurs? It worked. Now that's something to borrow and implemented: if you create inspired advertising and marketing for your products, you just might receive above your expectations especially from audiences you do not know or invest in.

Jeremy Renner Dominates Hollywood

Jeremy Renner continues his march towards Hollywoodteur status. The two-time Oscar nominee has been on an upward trajectory since starring in Oscar winning best picture The Hurt Locker, has formed his own production company, The Combine, with partner Don Handfield. Hitting the ground running, Renner and Handfield are developing a Steve McQueen biopic that will serve as a starring vehicle for the actor.

James Gray, who wrote and directed We Own the Night, is attached to write the McQueen screenplay based on the two books by Marshall Terrill: Portrait of an American Rebel and The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon, while video director Ivan Zacharias makes his directorial debut. Renner and Handfield will produce with Hurt Locker producer Greg Shapiro, Cross Creek Pictures’ Brian Oliver (Black Swan) and Zacharias’ producing partner Nick Landon. Sounds like a budding bunch of Hollywoodteurs vying for top status.

With swagger and attitude, Renner seems like a great fit for the iconic '70s star. However with McQueen in the development stage and Renner has plenty to keep him occupied, including Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol already in the can, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters currently in Berlin shooting for Paramount, after which he segues into Marvel’s The Avengers, now lensing in New Mexico. Renner takes the reigns to the The Bourne Legacy for Universal, which would shoot in the fall, and there's animation, Renner lends his voice for the latest installment of Fox's Ice Age franchise.

With The Combine, Renner and Handfield, an actor-turned-filmmaker, are trying to create entertainment from an artist-based perspective. Sources say, “the company will provide a framework to create, develop and support the vision of actors, writers and directors across all platforms.” Spoken like the future generation of Hollywoodteurs.

Big Twists & Turns for Matt Damon

In a $500,000 against $800,000 deal, Warner Bros has finalized a deal to acquire Father Daughter Time: A Tale of Armed Robbery and Eskimo Kisses, the Matthew Aldrich spec that had multiple bids on the table including one from Hollywoodteur Matt Damon who is eyeing the project as his feature film directorial debut.

In a Hollywoodteur bid out, the spec script auction had many big twists and turns, as Matt Damon and Warner Bros with money from a private financier faced rival bids from Hollywoodteurs including JJ Abrams attached via Paramount, Fox for Peter Chernin, Walter Parkes with Relativity Media and other future Hollwoodteurs also in the mix. However, Damon is the Hollywoodtuer with the midas touch this time around. Damon will produce through his WB-based company Pearl Street, with partner Ben Affleck, Chris Moore and Drew Vinton also attached as producers.

The script focuses on a man who goes on the lam with his daughter, his accomplice on a three-state crime spree. Father Daughter Time is not high concept, it's a smallish, very personal and dark but playful road movie about a father and daughter - sounds a bit like Damon's True Grit. However, this is a strong spec sale at a time when not a lot of money is being paid in the marketplace for scripts that don't come with attachments. "While specs are considered the riskiest form of employment right now," Aldrich continued in finely tuned selfish Hollywoodteur rhetoric, "it has worked well for me."

Additional Hollwoodteur self praise ensued from Aldrich's manager Jewerl Ross, "When one of the biggest movie stars in the world, who also happens to be an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, gets on the phone with your client and offers to protect the writer's vision and opens his hand to be a creative partner, it's hard to say no," Ross said. "The money becomes secondary." Yeah - until there is no money, no Academy Award-winning screenwriter, no Matt Damon, no Warner Bros - no Hollywoodteur stuff.

He's Back! Schwarzenegger Lines Up the Million Dollar Paychecks.

Ultimate Hollywoodteur and former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has zeroed (salary) in on the film that will mark his return to the big screen: Cry Macho. Enough of the Governor comedy, Cry Macho is the story of a down-on-his-luck horse trainer, Mike, a once well-regarded horse trainer whose wife and son have died. His former boss makes him an offer he just cannot refuse: $400,000 to kidnap the boss' trust fund son, who is living with the man's ex-wife in Mexico. But when Mike locates the boy, trouble ensues with the ex-wife. Now with the Feds hot on their trail, the two form a father-son bond, as they head to the American border.

Schwarzenegger is also attached to a Hollywoodteur sized "Terminator" package. Hollywoodteurs cannot manage and leverage billionaire lifestyles by nearly bankrupting states alone with their benign personal political aspirations. Another noted Hollywoodteur, Al Ruddy, an Oscar winner for both The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, will produce, while Brad Furman, who helmed the recent The Lincoln Lawyer, has been tapped to direct, with filming set for September.

Speaking in true Hollywoodteur rhetoric, "I guarantee that you'll get another look at Arnold Schwarzenegger in this movie," says Ruddy. "Arnold always plays these big muscular guys, but there's a sweetness to Arnold in real life, and we want to bring that sweetness to the screen. Now that Brad's met with Arnold, he's convinced there's an accessibility and vulnerability there that he wants to bring out." As the French say, "bon chance!"

Arnold's reps at CAA hammered out a $12.5 million plus 25% of first-dollar gross. The project, which Ruddy has been nurturing for years, will be financed by Bill Block's QED International, which will begin offering Macho to international buyers in Cannes next week. The film is based on the 1975 novel, Cry Macho, by N. Richard Nash, who also wrote the screenplay.

Prepare To Trance

Multi-Oscar nominate and anti-Hollywoodteur, Danny Boyle, will follow his recent Oscar nom 127 Hours with Trance.

The thriller will shoot in London in September. Trance is the story of an art heist gone wrong. However with Boyle at the heim, Trance is bound to be dark, sexy and hard-edged like the tone of earlier Boyle films Shallow Grave and, my pers fav, Trainspotting. Trance will reunite Boyle with his 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire producing partner Christian Colson.

Currently talks are underway with Fox Searchlight and Pathe for funding and worldwide distribution. Boyle will shoot Trance in September before turning all of his attention to directing the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Casting talks have begun with top British and American talent. Boyle will shelf Trance upon shooting to devote himself exclusively to the Olympics, then plans to return to Trance in August 2012 with a theatrical distribution in March 2013.

Unlike other Hollywoodteurs who exasperate enormous budgets with no real monetary profits, critical acclaim or Oscar consideration outside of the most technical categories, Boyle's budgets are usually in the mid teen budget range of which he always deliver sizeable return on investment with international praise. Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire cost $15 million and 127 Hours was $18 million. These films have grossed over $450 million between them.

Ridley Scott's Prometheus Casting Continues to Swell

Greenlight has learned that Guy Pearce has joined the cast of Ridley Scott’s epic Prometheus. Last seen in the Oscar winning The King's Speech, Pearce joins an all-star cast which counts Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender.

For months, the word has been Prometheus is not an Alien prequel, but elements have leaked out that prove otherwise, including a Fassbender interview with connection claims between the two films. And while the initial script draft was penned by Jon Spaihts (The Darkest Hour) from Scott's idea, Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek) and Scott have since retooled the current version expanding the story into new directions.

"In a world flooded with prequels, sequels and reboots," said Lindelof. "I was incredibly struck by just how original Ridley's vision was for this movie. It's daring, visceral and hopefully, the last thing anyone expects." Currently filming on sound stages in London, principal photography began in Toronto earlier this year. Hollywoodteurs expect Prometheus to arrive in theaters June 2012.

Fast 5 Races to #1 Stimulates US Box-office

Hollywoodteur’s obsession with franchises paid off as Universal’s Fast Five raced to an $83.6 million opening at the domestic box office, brings its international cume to $81.4 million and worldwide receipts to $165 million. Fast bested Paramount and Marvel Studios’ Thor (US May 6th), in several markets where the two both opened. 20th Century Fox's Rio continues to colorize Hollywoodteurs' pockets green ending the weekend with a world total of $366 million.

Fast Five lifts the North American box office, which has endured a long-running slump, up 53% over the same frame a year ago, welcome news for Hollywoodteurs as the summer season gets underway. Fast Five is a huge and much needed victory, for Universal. Fast Five was originally supposed to open in June, but when Paramount’s Super 8 moved onto the same date, Universal took a risk and pushed the film to April 29th.

Directed by Justin Lin, one of Hollywood’s hottest young talents, Fast Five reunites franchise stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Tyrese Gibson and introduces Dwayne Johnson to race. Universal says Fast Five cost $125 million to produce after production incentives and tax credits, but others Hollywoodteurs put the price tag as high as $150 million.

Other weekend’ new films stalled, including Disney’s tween-driven Prom and the Weinstein Co.’s Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil; however, holdovers Rio, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family and Water for Elephants performed respectively.

Hollywoodteurs will have tons of great demographic information from the numbers according to Fast Five to rebuild their current marketing campaigns for their upcoming summer tentpoles, franchises and summer blockbusters.