08.15.08: 'Thunder' Set To Depose 'Knight', Myers A 'Bastard', 'Harry Potter 6' Postponed, LaBeouf Returns To Work

Tropic Thunder is set to end The Dark Knight’s four-week reign at the top of the box-office this weekend. Ben Stiller's controversy-seeking missile was launched on Wednesday but wasn’t able to surpass rival comedy Pineapple Express’ first-day take from last week (which was boosted by hundreds of midnight screenings). Paramount, however, is still feeling mighty confident that Thunder will snatch an estimated $41 million in its five-day debut, including $25 million over the weekend which should be enough to dethrone Batman. Also opening this weekend are the Lucas empire’s latest Star Wars moneyspinner The Clone Wars, which could attract enough fanboy love to squeak past $20 million, Fox’s Kiefer Sutherland horror flick Mirrors and Woody Allen’s Spanish-flavoured threesome-com Vicky Cristina Barcelona, featuring Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. More at Variety

Myers The Latest Bastard
You can’t accuse Quentin Tarantino of not possessing a perverse sense of humour – he’s handed a role in his World War II epic Inglorious Bastards to Mike Myers. Yes, that’s right – the man who just stank up cinemas with his abysmal Love Guru is getting Tarantino's career kiss of life. Myers has been cast as British military mastermind General Ed Fenech, who helps hatch the bastards’ plot to wipe out Nazi leaders and will allow the funnyman to wheel out another English accent in the name of war. With comic-actor Simon Pegg also on QT's casting hit list, you have to wonder what madness is hatching in his movie-brain.

Harry Potter 6 Postponed
Warner Bros. is pushing back the release date for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince from this November to summer 2009. The sixth HP instalment will now open day-and-date in the US and major international territories on July 17, 2009. Warner Bros. chieftain Alan Horn blamed “repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films – changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of.” Which is big-studio-boss speak for, “We’re running on fumes here…” Without Potter, Warners’ summer ’09 line-up would have been fronted by Todd Phillips’ comedy Hangover, Robert Rodriguez’s Short and, er, Final Destination 4 3-D. Ouch.

LaBeouf Back To Work
Shia LaBeouf, who recently underwent hand surgery after a car accident, is due back on the set of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen today. And according to Entertainment Tonight, Shia’s hand-mangling injury will be written into the script of Michael Bay’s Transformers sequel, which has been pencilled in for a June 26, 2009 release – three weeks before Harry Potter rides his broomstick into multiplexes.

Green Lantern Moving Forward, Justice League Stalled
From comic-geek corner, IESB has new intel on the state of play of The Green Lantern and Justice League Of America. They’ve nabbed a copy of the latest Lantern script by Greg Berlanti (Eli Stone), Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green and are hailing its fanboy faithfulness. Echoing the comic's sci-fi flavourings (Green Lanterns are planet-hopping extraterrestrials who protect the universe), their script is packed with massive set-pieces which means that greenhorn Berlanti is likely to lose the director's gig… quite possibly to Australian helmer George Miller, who had been attached to Justice League Of America but has been yanked off that project according to IESB's sources. After the massive success of The Dark Knight, Warners are apprehensive about alienating Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale if they move ahead with the current JLA script, which introduces the Caped Crusader into its plot mix, and thereby scupper their involvement in a third Batman.

Bale: No Charges Filed
Looks like Christian Bale won’t face charges relating to the altercation with his mother and sister that reputedly took place at London’s Dorchester Hotel last month. Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service has instructed police not to take further action against Bale due to insufficient evidence… More at Reuters

Casting Call: Carell, Ramirez
* Steve Carell and Tina Fey will play a married couple in Date Night, Shawn Levy’s comedy about a spousal unit who pep up their boring date-night routine…

* Having lost Javier Bardem in the role of Columbian kingpin Pablo Escabar, Joe Carnahan tells Chud that he’s cast Venezuelan-born actor Edgar Ramirez – best known for roles in Domino and The Bourne Ultimatum – in his cine-portrait of the notorious drug lord, Killing Pablo. “I spent the last week in Colombia with Edgar Ramirez talking Pablo and he has every intention of portraying Escobar,” said Carnahan.

Coraline: Making Of Video

Here’s a cool little video about the making of Henry “Nightmare Before Christmas” Selick’s latest stop-motion fantasy, a collaboration with author Neil Gaiman that looks as visually enticing as any of Selick’s previous films. There are more Coraline videos available for your viewing pleasure here.