The star-studded film Sin City stole the top of the North American box office this weekend, snatching an ungodly US$28.1 million in its debut, preliminary figures showed earlier this week.
Starring Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro and Clive Owen, the film is set in a violent city where street fighter Marv (Mickey Rourke) hunts down his lover's killer. The movie is based on the popular comic-strip novels by Frank Miller.
The comedy Beauty Shop, featuring singer-actress Queen Latifah, debuted in second place with an estimated US$13.5 million, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co Inc.
PHOTO: EPA
The comedy Guess Who, starring Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher in an updated version of the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, dropped from first place last weekend to third, with US$13 million.
The animated children's film Robots raked in US$10 million at number four, followed by Sandra Bullock's comedy Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, a sequel that grossed US$8.3 million in its second weekend.
Vin Diesel's The Pacifier was sixth with US$6 million, followed by the horror flick The Ring Two with US$5.8 million.
PHOTO: AP
The Upside of Anger was eighth with US$4.1 million, followed by Hitch with US$3 million and Ice Princess with US$2.5 million.
The producers of the hugely successful James Bond film franchise have chosen British actor Daniel Craig to take over the role of the suave super-spy, a report said on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old has been offered a three-film deal by Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and is expected to sign up formally in the next few weeks, the Sun newspaper reported.
Craig, a tough-looking character actor who has mixed up appearances in many art-house titles with roles in blockbusters such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, just beat fellow Briton Clive Owen for the role, the report said.
Craig will be the sixth Bond in the official series of films based on the novels by Ian Fleming, following Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and most recent incumbent Pierce Brosnan.
According to the Sun, Owen -- nominated for an Oscar this year for film Closer -- had told casting agents he did not want the job, although Broccoli was already favoring Craig.
Citing an unnamed "movie source," the Sun said that staff working at Eon Productions, which makes the Bond movies, had been told Craig would star in the next films.
Brosnan's last film as Bond was Die Another Day in 2002. Since then a string of possible replacements have been mooted, including Britons Jude Law and Ewan McGregor and Australian actors Hugh Jackman and Eric Bana.
Fleming's novels chronicling the adventures of the British spy codenamed 007 were first turned into a film in 1962, with Dr No.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and other American action heroes could be muscling into more South Korean theaters soon after Seoul indicated earlier this week it may ease a quota system set up to protect the local film industry.
Seoul's top antitrust official said on Monday the government was inclined to relax a screen quota system ensuring that 40 percent of the films shown in local movie houses are South Korean fare.
The quota system, introduced in 1966 to prevent the local industry from being swamped by big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, has been a key barrier to a bilateral investment treaty with the US.
Washington has told Seoul the system must be scrapped if it wants to establish a bilateral investment treaty that would level the field for investors in both countries.
South Korea's film industry is keen to keep it intact.
"I understand the direction for the screen quota is going to be a reduction," Kang Chul-kyu, chairman of South Korea's Fair Trade Commission, told reporters.
He said the culture ministry, which has been reluctant to ease the quota, was currently reviewing the proposal.
South Korea's finance and trade ministries have proposed cutting back on the screen quota as a compromise.
The foreign ministry said in October the bilateral investment treaty would spur US investment and raise the prospects for an early free-trade agreement with Washington.
Talks over such a treaty, first proposed in 1998, have stalled mainly due to lack of progress over the screen quota.
A main source of disagreement is one clause in the proposed treaty that bars South Korea from requiring foreign-invested movie theatres to show locally produced films.
Two South Korean blockbuster films drew more than 10 million moviegoers alone from a population of 48 million last year, further fuelling debate on whether the local industry needs protection.
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