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Tom Hanks will be the main protagonist in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. PHOTO: EPA

Director John Singleton outgunned his rivals at the North American weekend box office in North America with his revenge drama Four Brothers, one of four newcomers whose arrival failed to boost overall sales.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, Four Brothers sold about US$20.4 million worth of tickets in the three days since opening on Aug 12.

The film's distributor, Paramount Pictures, said it had hoped for an opening in the mid- to high-teens. The story follows four men who seek to find the killer of their kindly foster mother. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Andre 3000 of hip-hop duo OutKast, Tyrese Gibson and Garrett Hedlund.

The Skeleton Key, a voodoo thriller starring Kate Hudson, unlocked US$15.8 million at No. 2. The film was released by Universal Pictures, which said the opening was within expectations.

On the other hand, the comedy sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (Columbia), starring Rob Schneider as a "man-whore," failed to find many clients, opening at No. 5 with US$9.4 million. The World War Two drama The Great Raid (Miramax) capitulated at No. 10 with just US$3.4 million.

James Gandolfini in the season finale of HBO's The Sopranos. PHOTO: AP

Last weekend's champion, The Dukes of Hazzard (Warner Bros) fell to No. 3 with US$13 million, taking its 10-day haul to US$57.5 million. The southern comedy should hit US$85 million, said Dan Fellman, president of domestic theatrical distribution at the Time Warner Inc-owned studio.

It cost US$53 million to make, with an additional US$17.5 million paid in an out-of-court settlement to a group of people who held rights to the underlying Dukes TV show.

The top-12 films sold a combined US$103.5 million worth of tickets, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The tally was down 16 percent from the year-ago period, when Alien vs. Predator opened at No. 1 with US$38.3 million.

Sister Mary Michael is no killjoy. Only the other day the 61-year-old Catholic nun was riding around on the back of a motorbike.

But her sense of fun does not extend to The Da Vinci Code, a film based on the Dan Brown best-seller and starring Tom Hanks that is being filmed this week at the towering Gothic cathedral in her home city of Lincoln, eastern England.

The sister staged a 12-hour prayer vigil to protest at the decision by the building's custodians to let director Ron Howard use it in his movie of the novel, which has angered the Vatican by suggesting Jesus was married and had children.

"It seems to be an attack on the very tenets of the faith," Sister Mary Michael, dressed in a brown habit and pale blue veil, said of the story by the US novelist.

"I was a little afraid that this might bring some disrepute and some badness to the city," shesaid at the small red-brick apartment she uses as a Christian community center.

"I love this city and I love the people and I didn't want anything bad to happen."

The sister protested on Monday outside the cathedral of pale yellow stone, which perches atop a steep hill of cobbled streets, as the building became a film set complete with scaffolding, giant lights and large trucks parked outside.

Conventional Christian teaching has it that Jesus was unmarried and celibate.

Cable network HBO on Friday said it will produce eight bonus episodes of its hit mob drama The Sopranos to air from January 2007 in a surprise move likely to delight fans of hot-tempered crime boss Tony Soprano. The much-anticipated sixth season of The Sopranos, scheduled to debut in March 2006 with 12 episodes, was expected to wrap up the often violent and darkly comic saga of Tony and his family, although creator David Chase had hinted that viewers might not have to say goodbye just yet.

Cliche or not, the James Bond 007 franchise continues to be held in high esteem as regards sex appeal in Britain, and this extends to the car most closely associated with the celebrated spy. Aston Martin drivers, numbering various Bonds from the movies among them, are considered the sexiest according to a British motor insurer survey released last week.
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