News

MaryAnn’s quick take… Thoroughly charming. Spider-Man’s signature light comedy works surprisingly well even as this story is uniquely steeped in the darker Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m “biast” (pro): love the Marvel Cinematic Universe

I’m “biast” (con): tired of Spider-Man

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Oh, god, not another Spider-Man movie! We’re all tired of Spider-Man, aren’t we? Didn’t we all groan a little when he showed up in Captain America: Civil War because we knew it meant more standalone Spider-Man movies? (I mean, of course it did. Like how every Avenger gets their own movie: Iron Man and Cap and Thor and Ant-freakin’-Man and Black Widow– oh, wait.) It was only just five years ago, in 2012, when we got Andrew Garfield as The Amazing Spider-Man (with its sequel only three years ago), and that was only...

MaryAnn’s quick take… Thoroughly charming. Spider-Man’s signature light comedy works surprisingly well even as this story is uniquely steeped in the darker Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m “biast” (pro): love the Marvel Cinematic Universe

I’m “biast” (con): tired of Spider-Man

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Oh, god, not another Spider-Man movie! We’re all tired of Spider-Man, aren’t we? Didn’t we all groan a little when he showed up in Captain America: Civil War because we knew it meant more standalone Spider-Man movies? (I mean, of course it did. Like how every Avenger gets their own movie: Iron Man and Cap and Thor and Ant-freakin’-Man and Black Widow– oh, wait.) It was only just five years ago, in 2012, when we got Andrew Garfield as The Amazing Spider-Man (with its sequel only three years ago), and that was only...

Chicago – It was 38 years ago that the seminal horror film “Halloween” was released, and its impact made a star out of the heroine in the film, Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis was in the Chicago area in September to promote her new children’s book, “This is Me: The Story of Who and Where We Came From,” (illustrated by Laura Cornell).

Happy Halloween! Jamie Lee Curtis at Anderson’s Book Shop in Naperville, Illinois

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

The New Book by Jamie Lee Curtis

Photo credit: Harper Collins

Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Hollywood “It” couple Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, and lived with her mother after her parents split in 1962. She lasted one semester at the University of the Pacific (Stockton, California), before pursuing a career in acting. In 1977 she made her TV debut on the series “Columbo,” but made her...

Did you ever think Lucy Liu and Snoop Dogg would be in a movie together? What if you add in Milla Jovovich and Method Man? And what if I told you the story was by James Franco? Welcome to Future World. I think James Franco is a good actor; it's just that he's become a parody of himself (sometimes, as in the case of the Veronica Mars movie, literally). So I'm not sure what to make of his new project Future World. Franco came up with the story, will act in the film, and also direct along with Bruce Thierry Cheung. Here's how Variety describes it: Set in the barren landscape of a dystopian world, where a young prince from the Oasis (one of the last known safe havens) and a robot named Ash go on a daring journey of self-discovery through the violent and desolate world of the Wastelands.

Tracy Scott, a script supervisor for Megan Ellison Films, has died. She was 46. Producer Megan Ellison confirmed her death in a tweet Monday evening that read: “Rest in peace Tracy Scott. A stunning soul and talent, my prayers are with her family & loved ones. You are missed.” Scott worked for Ellison on hit films such as “Joy” “American Hustle,” “Her” and “Foxcatcher.” Also Read: Kathryn Bigelow to Direct True Crime Drama About Detroit Riots for Annapurna She was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2015, and was told by doctors in April that it had spread to her liver. Scott also worked on “Whiplash,...

At this time last week, I was pleading with Scream Queens to give us answers or give us deaths. I’m happy to report that Tuesday’s episode gave us plenty of both.

VideosScream Queens: Pete Joins the Kappas for a Round of Truth or Dare

Let’s start with the death: Ladies and gentlemen, Jennifer (aka “that really unusual girl with the very odd candle fetish”) has left the building. The non-Boone Red Devil took her out after failing to off Dean Munsch — in a spectacular homage to 1960’s Psycho, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother Janet Leigh...

Sleepy Hollow‘s Jenny Mills can’t let her guard down just yet, because the Fox series has made a series regular of Jessica Camacho.

Camacho debuted in the current season’s third episode, playing Sophie Foster, who (like Abbie’s sis) has experience obtaining artifacts and a connection (however murky) to the dearly departed Sheriff Corbin.

RelatedNovember Sweeps Preview: Scoop on Castle, Vampire Diaries, The Blacklist, Quantico, Gotham, NCIS and More

The Hollywood Reporter first reported the promotion.

Camacho’s TV credits include Longmire, Bones, Castle, Veronica Mars and Last Resort.

Related storiesNikita Exclusive: Last Resort Alum Joins...

More than likely you know Martin Starr from his fantastic supporting work on HBO’s comedy series Silicon Valley, or maybe from his appearances in movies such as Knocked Up, Save the Date, This is The End and Veronica Mars. But now you can see a completely different side of his talent with a special live […]

The post Los Angeles: Martin Starr is Directing a Comedy Western Radio Play You Won’t Want to Miss appeared first on /Film.

The Ties That Bind - A group of teens get a scare when a disheveled young pregnant woman approaches them muttering for help. Unfortunately, the woman doesn't survive but her baby does. Liv (Rose McIver) and Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) begin questioning suspects in her murder, and after consuming the victim's brain, a fierce maternal instinct kicks in for Liv. Meanwhile, Major (Robert Buckley) makes a shocking discovery. Rahul Kohli and David Anders also star. Patrick Norris directed the episode written by Bob Dearden (#107). From the executive producers of Veronica Mars, iZOMBIE stars Rose McIver (Power Rangers R.P.M.) as Olivia “Liv” Moore, a medical resident on the fast track to a perfect life … until she’s turned into a zombie. Now stuck between half-alive and undead, Liv transfers to the city morgue to reluctantly access the only thing that allows her to maintain her humanity — human brains. But there are side...

The directors of “Bachelorette” and “Miss Representation” return to Sundance with, respectively, a brilliantly bawdy comedy and a vital look at how our culture raises...

I try not to make sweeping pronouncements about Sundance movies until I’m back at sea level, and my brain is receiving its usual amounts of oxygen; there’s something about the air up here that can occasionally lead to irrational exuberance. (Google “The Spitfire Grill” or “Happy, Texas” if you don’t know what I mean.)

Even though I’m still in Park City, Utah, (and panting when I walk up hills) I’ll...

3Rd Update, Monday, 5:28 Pm: Most of the major studios have not reported their Monday actuals, as is customary due to the holidays. Warner Bros, Sony and Relativity are still off this week, which means Rentrak won’t issue a final report until January 5. What we do know, though, is that Disney’s Into The Woods beat Universal’s Unbroken by the hair of its chinny-chin-chin over the Christmas Week frame.

Some distribs marveled yesterday why Into The Woods, a PG film, didn’t beat Unbroken, which is largely adult-driven. Woods wound up posting a better Sunday thanks to matinees of $8.2M vs. Unbroken‘s $7.5M. Nonetheless, both films have driven a ton of biz to the year-end box office, with each exceeding $46M in their four-day openings. Rentrak currently sees the total weekend at $208.9M, still up 6% over last year’s comparable frame of $196.9M. The 2014 B.O. is at $10.22B,...

Unforgettable

CBS has opted to cancel its Summer drama series "Unforgettable" after three seasons. Poppy Montgomery stars in the procedural drama which averaged six million total viewers at the end of its third season run last month. The news comes a day after the network locked down its summer 2015 plans with the renewals of both "Extant" and "Under the Dome". [Source: The Live Feed]

Untitled Patricia Cornwell Series

Bestselling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell is writing an original drama pilot for CBS and ABC Studios. The untitled project revolves around an unorthodox female police detective in San Diego who is haunted by her past.

Cornwell, Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts wll shape the concept into a TV series and executive produce. Cornwell is best known for the series of novels focusing on the character of medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. [Source: Variety]

12 Monkeys

Syfy has announced a January 16th 2015 premiere date for its upcoming TV series adaptation of...

Marvel's Agent Carter is still casting main characters as it begins production for it's debut this winter, serving as a bridge between Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2's two halves. Joining the ABC series today is actor Kyle Bornheimer, best known for his roles in Veronica Mars, She's Out of My League and Bachelorette.

Kyle Bornheimer is set to play Agent Ray Krzeminski, who will clash with Hayley Atwell as the title character Agent Peggy Carter.

The story will pick-up shortly after Captain America: The First Avenger, at the end of WWII. Peace has dealt Peggy Carter a serious blow as she finds herself marginalized when the men return home from fighting abroad. Working for the covert Ssr (Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark all while trying to navigate life as a single woman in America, in the wake...

Being that 95% of the human race is comprised of idiots, I so understand the desire to never leave the house. Still, there are times when even our places of refuge are violated and become pretty damned scary. Read on for the first word on the new horror flick Shut In.

THR is reporting that Beth Riesgraf (pictured), who was one of the stars of TNT’s "Leverage," is starring in the psychological horror thriller Shut In, which began production this week in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Rory Culkin (Scream 4), Martin Starr (Veronica Mars), and Jack Kesy ("The Strain") are also starring in the indie flick, which is being directed by Adam Schindler (Delivery: The Beast Within).

Riesgraf is playing a woman who suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don’t realize is...

A meditative contemplation of the boredom of overprivileged, under-aspiring, shallow, spoiled kids. As you’ve been dying to see. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

I can’t wait for the day when James Franco finally comes out of the performance-art closet and reveals that almost everything he’s done in the past, oh, ten years or so has been part of an intricate ongoing practical joke to yank celebrity culture and our knee-jerk worship of those who are famous. His turn as the charlatan man behind the curtain in Oz the Great and Powerful was a big clue, I think. He’s waiting for someone — anyone — to debunk the smoke and mirrors of the fame that allows him to churn out increasingly ridiculous pontifical junk. And no one does.

Deploys twisty sci-fi concepts to warp the almost-clichéd dinner-party soap opera into a horror story of the human condition in the face of quantum philosophy. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m hungry for smart science fiction

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Pro relationship tip: Do not go to a dinner party with a bunch of your friends who all have long-term interconnected relationships — with all the unresolved resentments and secret entanglements that can come with that — when there’s a quantum anomaly in the neighborhood. Not when there are important, even life-changing, decisions to be made at the same time.

See, just as Em (Emily Foxler: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) is having to decide whether to fly off to Vietnam with her boyfriend, Kevin (Maury Sterling: Veronica Mars, The A-Team), for four months to accompany him for his work,...

Marvel Studios has gained a reputation for selecting actors and filmmakers whom most fans would not have previously considered for their superhero adventures. Today, The Middle star Eden Sher revealed on her Twitter page that she had a three-hour meeting with Marvel today that left her "paralyzed with excitement." Take a look at the tweet below, then read on for details.

Went to marvel offices at noon for a "15 minute meeting." 3 hrs and 80 lbs of issues later, here I am paralyzed from excitement.

— Eden Sher (@edensher) May 21, 2014

Of course, now begins the speculative game of what role she could have been meeting for. While it's possible that she could be up for the title role in Marvel/Netflix's Jessica Jones TV series, that seems unlikely, since her ABC sitcom The Middle was recently picked up for Season 6.

However, since she is currently a part of the ABC family, she may...

Ace in the Hole (Criterion Collection) I've only seen Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole once before and it's as relevant now as it was when it was made as Kirk Douglas plays a reporter who ends up in Albuquerque and finds himself at the center of the story of a lifetime and he milks it for every headline he can. It's essentially a perfect example of today's Internet journalism.

Blazing Saddles: 40th Anniversary Edition One of the best comedies you're ever going to see and Warner Home Video is giving it the 40th Anniversary treatment and unless I'm mistaken the only new feature is a new interview with Mel Brooks looking back on the film and its effect on cinema.

Veronica Mars: The Movie The Veronica Mars movie will finally be available for everyone it was made for, those that don't go to the theater to see movies,...

I’ve never seen the show that spawned it, but it was still exactly what I was expecting. I am neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed by it. I am whelmed. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not seen the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

I haven’t seen a single episode of Veronica Mars, but I figured that if fans prepaying for movies on Kickstarter was the future of film — or one of the futures, at least — I’d better take a look at the Veronica Mars movie and see what all the fuss was about. And even never having seen the show that spawned it, it was still exactly what I was expecting. I am neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed by it. I am whelmed. This looks and feels like a double-length episode of a TV show,...

Persona (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray/DVD) I have watched all of Criterion's new Blu-ray for Ingmar Bergman's absolute classic, Persona, and will have a more in-depth look at the film tomorrow, but for now let me just say I consider this an essential title for film fans interested in collecting the best cinema has had to offer over the course of its rich history. I only saw Persona for the first time a little over three years ago and was absolutely floored. It's one of those films you don't need to "get" to understand, which I know is confusing. Put, hopefully, more simply, this is a film that's meant to confuse and confound, but it does it in such a way that you never feel you're missing something. Yet, by the end you'll be left enthralled by the images you've witnessed, the story (or lack thereof) you've witnessed, the performances,...

I'm not even sure the biggest story of the weekend is Divergent seeming to prove it's the first young adult franchise since The Hunger Games to prove profitable, though the "A" CinemaScore certainly has me questioning the intelligence of today's movie going audience once again. Instead it would seem the biggest surprise is God's Not Dead coming out of nowhere with $9.2 million and a third place finish. I hadn't even heard of the film until Saturday morning. Goes to show how much I'm paying attention to the faith-based movie market. It's probably best just to begin at the top and with Divergent, which brought in $54.6 million from 3,936 theaters. With an $85 million budget it still has some work to do and I'm really curious to see how it does overseas where it will open in the UK, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Mexico and Finland on April 4, and there are some things to...

Thousands of fans contributed more than $5.7 million to the Kickstarter campaign to see their beloved Veronica Mars once again on the big screen. But not all of them were able to access their digital copies of the movie when it was released Friday, due to technical problems. Contributing $35 to The Veronica Mars Movie Project Kickstarter campaign by writer and producer Rob Thomas was supposed to guarantee fans "a digital version of the movie within a few days of the movie's theatrical debut," but many backers have experienced technical difficulties with the services chosen to distribute the digital copies of the film,...

From creator Rob Thomas, Veronica Mars enjoyed a passionate fan following during its three-season run on TV, and was able to turn that fan support into a feature film, now in theaters and on VOD, to give both the fans and those involved with the show the closure that they didn’t have when it originally went off the air in 2007. In the movie, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) has put Neptune and her amateur sleuthing days behind her, instead trading it in for a job at a high-end New York law firm. With everything going her way, of course Veronica gets a call from her ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), who has been accused of murder, and decides to head back to Neptune where she finds herself being pulled back into a life she thought she had left behind. During this exclusive interview with Collider, actor Jason Dohring talked about...

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I backed the Veronica Mars movie on Kickstarter. In addition to a myriad of cool perks this gave me, and thousands of other backers, access to regular updates on the process of making this movie, a level of access rather atypical today and totally unheard of a decade ago. I watched this movie grow from a cool pipe dream to an actual thing that is actually playing in theaters. This all adds up to a movie that I liked a great deal but am unable to assure myself that this affection is genuine, or is it more like the love a parent feels for their potentially mediocre child?

If you loved Veronica Mars when it was on TV you will almost certainly like the Veronica Mars movie. They took a story that feels an awful lot like what a...

Glenn here to discuss Veronica Mars. Did you see it this weekend? Maybe you streamed it on demand or (like me) trekked to a cinema to see it on the big screen and watch the crowd collectively laugh at the exploits of Neptune, California’s best young private detective. Either way, I find it hard to believe that anybody who loved the series wouldn’t also find the film a whole bunch of fun. I know I did, and even if it does spend a lot of its time providing lip service to fans, given its Kickstarter origins there was never any hope for a Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me style reinvention, you know? Not at all.

Among those who admitted to not having seen the show prior to the film, many complained that it looked like a 100-minute extended 'very special episode' of a series. While it’s...

The effort to bring young sleuth Veronica Mars‘ adventures to the big screen was a huge success, as fans of Rob Thomas’ beloved television series, known as “Marshmallows,” raised more than $5.7 million to ensure a filmic extension of the character could be made. However, some of these Marshmallows are now melting due to some difficulty downloading a digital version of the movie.

Thomas wrote an apology to fans who dished $35 or more to the Kickstarter campaign in 2013, which guaranteed them “a digital version of the movie within a few days of the movie’s theatrical debut.” Server and connectivity issues through Flixster made it difficult for many to watch the film as desired though and now, people are starting to get angry.

In his letter, Thomas writes: “If you paid for a copy of the movie a year ago, we don’t want you to have less choice and freedom...

Movie Title

Directed by: Rob Thomas

Cast: Kirsten Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni, Chris Lowell

Running Time: 1 hr 47 mins

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: March 14, 2014

Plot: Private investigator Veronica Mars (Bell) returns to her hometown of Neptune, CA when her ex-boyfriend is accused of murder.

Who’S It For? If you paid for this movie, you might as well see it. If you aren’t one of the 91,585 people who backed this film on Kickstarter, the answer isn’t so simple.

Overall

In a way that gives the show its hip geeky edge, the dialogue of Veronica Mars is constructed around sporadic mad-libs, which includes name-drops to the Barenaked Ladies, Sharknado, Clint Eastwood, and the term “asshat”. In an admirable feat, the portion in which characters spout these phrases is fitting – while the “Veronica Mars” may not be all that funny, it doesn’t come as desperate for relevancy. Instead, it...

The final numbers are in and as much as it looks like a down weekend, it was actually an improvement on last year when Oz The Great and Powerful when in its second frame. Same goes with this weekend as a holdover takes the top spot ahead of a couple of new releases. Rising to #1 after a second place finish last weekend is Mr. Peabody & Sherman with $21.8 million, a $600,000 increase over Sunday's estimates. The film flip-flopped with last weekend's champion, 300: Rise of an Empire, which added $100,000 to its estimate for a $19.2 million second weekend, a drop of 57.4% from its opening. Dreamworks' Need for Speed wasn't very big off the starting block, coming in with only $17.8 million in its first weekend and Tyler Perry suffered the worst opening for any of his films as The Single Moms Club tallied only $8 million. It's the first of Perry's releases to open below $10 million.

I liked the Veronica Mars movie a whole lot. I've already watched it twice, in fact, and have gone back and viewed a bunch of fan videos on YouTube because, goddammit, I believe in Logan and Veronica. But what the movie really made me want is more of the same. [This post contains spoilers about the content of the Veronica Mars movie.]Most of what I'd hoped for found its way into this movie, though of all the Neptune High people I've cared about over the years, Carrie Bishop and Susan Knight have never been among them, nor was Madison Sinclair someone I felt I needed an update on. There were other characters from the original series I wanted to see, though. Norris, the guy with the weapon collection wrongly implicated in "Weapons of Class Destruction," for example, and Mandy, the sad dweeb whose dog was kidnapped, for another. But my...

A long time ago, we used to be friends... and it looks like the friendship is still as strong as it ever was. The long-awaited cinematic adventures of Veronica Mars did extraordinarily well for such a limited release. The Kickstarter-funded film awkwardly marched into only 291 theaters . all AMC-owned venues, mind you . at the same time it was released on VOD this past weekend, but it still managed to rake in right around $2 million, making it the tenth highest-earning film of the week. Those numbers probably wouldn.t excite a superhero movie producer, but director Rob Thomas and Warner Bros. are quite pleased with the result. Does that mean they.re ready to start talking about a sequel? According to Thomas, there have been discussions about having discussions about a sequel, so I guess that.s something. Speaking with EW, he shared that his biggest goal was to make the fans...

It was good news and bad news for "Veronica Mars" this weekend. The "marshmallows," as the film's fans are called, turned out in droves to support the Kickstarter-funded film, driving the box office to a healthy $2 million from 291 theaters (265 in the U.S.). But the bad news is that fans who contributed $35 via Kickstarter to get the movie made in exchange for a "free" digital download of the film, experienced some technical snafus due to problems with Ultraviolet, the digital "locker" system and Flixter, the movie app owned by Warner Bros., the film's distributor.After backers took to social media to gripe about problems downloading the film, Warner Bros. issued a statement Saturday: "The vast majority of 'Veronica Mars' backers who attempted to redeem their code had a successful experience. A communication was sent to all backers yesterday from (the film's director) Rob Thomas telling them to get...

Now that "Veronica Mars" has been in theaters and on demand for a full weekend, what's next for the detective franchise? While at SXSW we asked Kristen Bell, Rob Thomas (creator of the show and movie) and the rest of the cast just what they thought would be coming up. "I would just do just about anything," Bell told us. "It would great to do a franchise of movies, we have a bit more creativity ...

By Alex Zalben, with reporting by Josh Horowitz...

The "Veronica Mars" movie was released on Friday, in a limited number of theaters, via various digital and On Demand platforms, and through digital downloads that came as one of the Kickstarter rewards. (Though I understand there have been some glitches with that.) I already reviewed the film in advance, but there are certain things I didn't want to talk about until many of you had seen it. So spoilers coming up just as soon as I'm a Hooters barback... The best thing about the movie was how much it made me want to see another one — not just because I thought Rob Thomas, Diane Ruggiero and Kristen Bell did such a great job of making Veronica work as an adult character, but because the unusual circumstances of this movie's creation meant it had to be made in a very particular way. I respect the idea that Thomas wanted to...

Those eager to return to Neptune, California finally earned the chance this past weekend, as Warner Bros.’ crowd-funded “Veronica Mars” movie landed on both VOD and 291 screens. Or so they thought: the continuation of the Kristen Bell sleuth series was always going to be scrutinized because of its controversial Kickstarter origins, but following a slow theatrical weekend take and many backers left without a working digital copy, some needed reassurance has come courtesy of the show’s creator.While earning a place in the weekend Top 10, “Veronica Mars” ended up only making $2.02 million at the box office upon its release—still a distance away from the film’s $5.7 million budget. The fact that a large section of its audience already paid for a ticket via Kickstarter—those who donated $35 or more—is a logical conclusion for those numbers. However, the increasingly vital VOD take may hold a success story in wait,...

"Veronica Mars" Kickstarter supporters: Rob Thomas understands your frustration. Responding to fan anger over difficulties downloading the new film via online-distribution platform Flixster (digital copies of the movie were provided free to donors who gave $35 or more to the crowd-funding project), the creator of the long-defunct Upn series encouraged fans to be proactive in sorting out their issues in an open letter on the movie's official Kickstarter page Friday, stating: "I genuinely want today to be perfect for all of you. It's March 14. Today, your movie came out worldwide, and I want you to be able to watch it on whatever platform or device works best for your needs. So, here's the deal: We understand that some of you prefer other platforms or services for watching digital content. If you contact our Customer Support team, they can help. If you paid for a copy of the movie a year ago,...

So as promised I watched the first episode of From Dusk Till Dawn the series and….pretty damn good actually. It starts off with a scene that will come to mean more as the series wears on and which calls back to the second straight to DVD From Dusk Till Dawn sequel Hangman’s Daughter which dealt with the origins of Salma Hayek’s Santanico Pandemonium head vampire character. After this we are back in sort of familiar territory with Don Johnson playing a suitably grizzled and weary Texas Ranger Earl McGraw on the look out for the Gecko Brothers who are on the lam and headed for Mexico.

Basically when it comes down to it, From Dusk Till Dawn is like a faithful adaptation of the original novel that the first film was based on if that were the case and it wasn’t an early Tarantino script. So...

See the movie return of teen favourite Veronica Mars in Sky Store now - the same time it's in cinemas. Former high school sleuth Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) is now living in New York after leaving her hometown of Neptune almost a decade ago. However, when her old boyfriend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) is once again accused of murder she's forced to return and prove his innocence.

A lot of Hollywood experts must be scratching their heads in befuddlement this morning.

The weekend box office was supposed to be dominated by 3D racing video game adaptation "Need for Speed," which was expected to open in the upper $20 millions. Opening in second place was supposed to be "Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club," which was expected to open around $20 million, as his comedies usually do. And last week's cartoon "Mr. Peabody & Sherman," which debuted in second place, was expected to be in the mix, losing about a third of last week's business to finish around $20 million and land in second or third place.

Of these movies, only "Peabody" behaved as expected, thereby winning by default with an estimated $21.2 million, for a not-bad two-weekend total of $63.2 million. Last week's chart-topper, "300: Rise of an Empire," also performed more or less as predicted, losing nearly 60 percent of last week's...

Dreamworks' video game adaptation "Need for Speed" hit a roadblock at the domestic box-office this weekend. The $66 million-budget film not only scored scathing reviews, but debuted in third place to a lower-than-expected haul of $17.8 million.

A write-off? Not so fast. The film also launched internationally in 40 markets and did very healthy business, taking in $45.6 million outside the United States - almost half of that from China. Having essentially made back its production budget in the first weekend, and with some major territories like Germany and Japan to go, don't count this out just yet.

Action sequel "300: Rise Of An Empire" is also doing robust global business, with its worldwide tally at $158 million at the end of its second weekend. The first "300" managed $245 million globally, this won't be that far off.

'Rise' came in second in the U.S. with $18.8 million, beaten by holder "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" which took the top spot with $21.2 million.

Hopefully everyone who pledged money to the Veronica Mars movie Kickstarter campaign is now basking in the film's afterglow (or weeping, whichever feels right for you), but some backers might still be irritated after experiencing difficulty streaming the movie via Flixster or Ultraviolet after its Friday release. After feeling the ire of numerous Marshmallows, Warner Bros. has allegedly decided to give backers $10 or a full refund if they opted to purchase the film or see it in theaters rather than wait for the campaign's streaming problems to get resolved. Hopefully the next Veronica Mars movie campaign will become more streamlined as a result, and allow Veronica to finally resolve things with you-know-who after that stuff that happened with the guy.

Maybe it was word of mouth, maybe the time-traveling dog went through time to correct last week’s mistake, but audiences finally gave the dog of critically well-received Mr. Peabody & Sherman his day with a first-place finish and an estimated $21.2 million weekend at the box office. It topped both its release rival 300: Rise of an Empire (estimated $19.1 million) and newcomers Need for Speed (estimated $17.8 million) and Tyler Perry’s The Single Moms Club (estimated $8.3 million), none of which have earned much praise from critics. While critics did not take Non-Stop well either, its estimated $10.6 million put it neatly into fourth place, along with being the only one of the top five to be domestically profitable.

The Lego Movie slides further down the list, but as a massive success; its estimated weekend take of $7.7 million added to a $236.9 million domestic total. Son of God has also done quite well, even despite an unreleased budget,...

Veronica Mars has returned. But, before I continue, it’s important to get one fact out of the way: I am a Huge Marshmallow. I had my expectations and my hopes for this film like all the rest of the fandom, and had been following the news ever since the Kickstarter campaign made its first appearance.

For those that aren’t familiar, Veronica Mars was a television series on the now-defunct Upn, from 2004 to 2007. A mere three seasons, not even long enough to make it into syndication. Since cancellation, Rob Thomas, the creator and writer behind it all, has been determined to continue Veronica’s story.

The show starred Kristen Bell as the daughter of a private investigator in class-divided Neptune, CA. When not in high school, Veronica works with her father, Keith (Enrico Colantoni), solving mysteries for her fellow students and other citizens of their town. Its noir-ish feel...

Happy Sunday everyone (my birthday weekend, if you haven’t heard too), here’s the weekly box office report for you fine ladies and gentlemen! Leading the way in a somewhat close race on this kind of quiet weekend was the holdover Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which rose from number two to number one with an estimated $12.2 million, taking advantage of a lack of particularly enticing new releases at the multiplex. At number two we had last week’s top grosser 300: Rise of an Empire, which hauled in an estimated $19.1 million this time around. Number three was the new release Need for Speed, which stole $17.8 million from paying customers, while Tyler Perry’s The Single Moms Club was number five with $8.3 million, and we also had one other new release in the top ten, which was Veronica Mars, transitioning from Kickstarter to theaters with about $2 million. I’ll have something...

"Need for Speed," starring Aaron Paul ("Breaking Bad") and based on the popular video game franchise, struggled at the box office this weekend, grossing under $18 million, which was under the $30 million expectations and only good enough for third place. The $66 million film will struggle to make its money back domestically, but luckily it was able to bring in another $45.6 million overseas for a worldwide debut of $63.4 million. "Need for Speed" is also not a favorite with critics. On RottenTomatoes, it currently has a lousy 24% fresh rating. "It's a disappointing start on the domestic side, but to open to that number worldwide and nearly match the budget of the film is great," said Disney. "This was a very affordable movie and with many territories left to open, everyone will be just fine. We feel great about where we are." "Need for Speed" lost to the animated "Mr. Peabody and Sherman," which...

Mr Peabody and Sherman has climbed to the number one spot at the Us box office.

The DreamWorks animation fell 34% in its second week of release to an estimated $21.2 million, but fought off competition from Aaron Paul's Need for Speed.

The film - featuring the voice of Ty Burrell - lost out to 300: Rise of An Empire last weekend. The Noam Murro-directed sequel slipped to second place this week, dropping 58% to $19.1m.

Video game adaptation Need for Speed debuted in third place with $17.8m.

Liam Neeson's thriller Non-Stop dropped to four on this week's countdown, with earnings of $10.6m. The film has now taken $68.8 million and has surpassed Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra's Unknown.

Tyler Perry's The Single Mums Club had an underwhelming opening weekend, taking a total of $8.3m. It is the lowest opening for a Tyler Perry-directed movie.

The Grand Budapest Hotel...

The Marshmallows turned out in droves this weekend to check out the theatrical debut of Veronica Mars. The Kickstarter-funded, cult TV show adaptation opened to a cool $2 million from 291 theaters (265 in the U.S.), earning the pic a spot on the top 10 according, to initial estimates.

The PG-13 pic was also released simultaneously on VOD — free for Kickstarter backers who’d contributed $35 or more to the record-breaking campaign, but also available for purchase or rental through digital download services such as iTunes or Amazon. The industry has not gotten into a mode where they share VOD earnings, but the multi-platform...

Now that the big-screen version of Veronica Mars has finally come out, it has turned out to be breezy, pulpy, enjoyable, disposable entertainment (Veronica attempts to solve the murder of a famous rock star in Amy Winehouse makeup…whom she happened to go to high school with!). And now that the film has proved, for the first time, that a movie funded by crowdsourcing (in this case, via Kickstarter) can readily make its money back — and perhaps even do better than that — one could, I suppose, choose to be cynical by viewing the entire phemonenon of the Veronica Mars movie...

Veronica Mars (2004)[/link]Veronica Mars fans who donated $35 or more to the Kickstarter campaign that financed the recent movie adaptation were promised a digital download of the film upon its release. Unfortunately for many fans, that didn't come to fruition.

On Friday night, many users took to Twitter to complain that the movie wasn't downloading properly from Flixster. Creator Rob Thomas responded promptly on the movie's Kickstarter page.

Read More >...

The same passion that drove Veronica Mars fans to contribute over $5.7 million to help a movie version of the beloved television show come to life fed some vitriol after a number of Kickstarter backers were unable to download the film digitally. Backers who contributed $35 or more to the campaign were promised “a digital version of the movie within a few days of the movie’s theatrical debut.”

But, as of Friday night, some were experiencing difficulties downloading the film via Flixster/Ultraviolet. One backer wrote: “Tried to get the movie streamed/downloaded on several devices and ended up wasting 5 hours...

New Veronica Mars movie got mostly positive reviews from top critics. Warner Bros. Pictures released their new drama/crime flick, "Veronica Mars" into theaters this weekend,and the top critics have submitted their reviews. Most of them thought it was pretty good as it got a 62 score out of a possible 100 across 32 reviews at Metacritic.com. We posted snippets from a couple of them,below. The movie stars: Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Chris Lowell, Ryan Hansen, Krysten Ritter, Percy Daggs III, Tina Majorino, Francis Capra Ken Marino, and Enrico Colantoni. Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com, gave it a great 88 score, stating, "I can't imagine anyone who liked the show not enjoying this film, even though the first half is stronger than the second, which spirals into a frenzy of double- and triple-crossing that's less engaging than watching the characters reconnect, awkwardly but with feeling." Elizabeth Weitzman at the New York Daily News,...