Franchises

"Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? When it comes to successful movie franchises, Hollywood doesn't seem to think so. And judging by the billions of dollars earned by the most successful franchises, neither do moviegoers".

Spider-Man

Total Revenue:
$2.5 billion (lifetime worldwide gross)
$1.1 billion (lifetime domestic gross)
$1.2 billion (adjusted)
Years: 2002-2007
Episodes: Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3
Studio: Sony Pictures
"Star Tobey Maguire imbues the character with just enough depth that teenagers can relate to and yet still doesn't look completely ridiculous stomping bad guys". Source: images.businessweek.com

Franco: 'I stole cologne to make money'
"James Franco has confessed that he used to steal bottles of cologne to make money.

Appearing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, the Spider-Man actor said that he was involved in a scheme to shoplift then sell bottles to classmates in high school.
It's kind of ironic now," said Franco, who endorses Gucci fragrances. "We would go into department stores and they had the testers out there, we were looking for a bit of excitement.

"We had our cologne stealing ring. We would chat up the cologne attendant and then the other would swipe the bottle. We accumulated a huge stash, we would keep it in our lockers. We were in eighth grade so we'd sell it to the seventh graders, we would sell it for $15 - I think it cost about 25 in the shops."
Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk

"Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke won't helm the next picture in the Summit vampire franchise.

Hardwicke had until recently been thought a candidate to helm the sequel, titled "New Moon", but word began to circulate in the industry that the relationship between Summit and the helmer has not always been smooth.

On Sunday, Summit confirmed that Hardwicke won't direct the film.

The studio said in a statement that its targeted end of 2009 or early 2010 release of the film does not work with Ms. Hardwicke's required prep time to bring her vision of the film to the big screen. Thus, as has been done before with many successful film franchises, the studio will employ a new director for "New Moon."

The picture, whose start date has not yet been set, will nontheless reunite writer Melissa Rosenberg and actors Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart".
Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Over the next five years, Rourke won eight professional fights. ''I'm not the kind that's going to go down real easy,'' he says. ''There ain't no quit in me. I could whack guys out with either hand. I was three fights away from a world title fight and then I failed my neuro [neurological test] so bad they went, 'Mickey, you have to stop now!''' Rourke had taken a beating in the ring, breaking his nose and hands and shattering his cheekbone. When asked if boxing was perhaps a subconscious attempt to destroy the good looks that had made him famous, he pauses to consider the question. Finally, he says, ''There may be some validity to that.'' He knows that even after he's gotten his story out, the Academy may not be ready to embrace a guy who had so much potential and threw it away. But Rourke has always been a fighter. And he won't go down easily. ''Listen, winning an Oscar ain't about performance,'' he says. ''There's a lot of politics involved. So if it's about politics and all that other stuff, that's one thing. But if it's about acting...'' Source: www.ew.com

"A couple days ago, MTV's Splash Page chatted up actor Mickey Rourke at a party for Fox Seachlight and the results of that discussion (which you can read here) seemed to indicate that both Frank Miller and Mickey were ready to go on the long-delayed Sin City 2.

At the junket for Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler in which Rourke gives a heartbreaking performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a has-been wrestler trying to go out in a blaze of glory, he told ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype! that he's not as gung-ho about returning to play Marv as he might have been last week. "No, I'm not interested in that right now". Who knows how much of a role Marv would have played in the sequel considering that it was to be based around the mini-series "A Dame to Kill For" but Marv was always kind of in the background even in the stories that didn't feature him, so hopefully, they can work things out".
Source: www.comingsoon.net