what's tasty and new in show business. [beta]
The holiday box office season was kicked off to a chilly start with the debut of Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol. Despite having Jim Carrey take on the lead and being pushed with the Disney Digital 3D tag, the performance-captured film was only able to gross a disappointing $31 million to take the top spot.
Considering its $200 million budget and Madagascar 2’s $63 million debut in the same frame last year, there wasn’t much merriment coming from Disney’s offices. However, Zemeckis’ last mo-capped Christmas film The Polar Express also had a shaky $23.3 million start before chugging to a $160+ million domestic gross over its holiday season run. Carol doesn’t have much direct competition through the winter season either, so it may find a foothold yet.
The Men Who Stare at Goats bowed above expectations with a decent $13.3 million haul for 3rd place. The Fourth Kind, meanwhile, came in right behind in 4th with $12.5 million. Richard Kelly’s The Box however was unable to find an audience, with the esoteric director’s third feature debuting in 6th place with a sub-par $7.9 million. As for last weekend’s number 1, Michael Jackson’s This Is It dropped to second with $14 million, while Paranormal Activity rounded out the top 5 with $8.6 million to come just short of the $100 million mark. Read»
Splinterheads tells the story of a twenty-something slacker named Justin whose “thing” is that he doesn’t have a “thing” at all. However, when a small-time carnival comes to town, Justin meets Galaxy, a beautiful and spunky barker who cons unsuspecting carnival-goers into parting with their money (a “splinterhead,” in the parlance of the carnies). Galaxy has more “things” going for her than anyone Justin has ever met, and he soon finds himself joining her on a geocache-ing adventure where he learns to embrace life, falls in love, and may just figure out what his “thing” may be after all.
Splinterheads feels like it could be a bit of a coming-out party for a group of young, talented filmmakers. You’ve got two charming actors in Thomas Middleditch, playing the lead in a feature for the very first time, and Rachael Taylor, the 25-year old Aussie import who’s parlayed supporting roles in films like See No Evil and Transformers into meaty roles in well-received indies. And you’ve got writer-director Brant Sersen, who already made a splash when Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, his feature debut, won the audience award at SXSW 2004. Judging by the positive buzz coming out of festivals, Splinterheads may be just the beginning in the very promising careers of this bunch.
Check out the trailer after the jump to see for yourselves.
Read»
