Superman Returns Earlier Than You Thought!

Giving fanboys everywhere a chance to call in sick or leave work early, Warner Bros. annouced today that Superman Returns will be released in theaters and on IMAX a few days earlier than expected: on Wednesday, June 28th.

The move will give the movie a few more days "alone" at the box office before it has to go head to head with Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (on July 7th). It also means that die-hard fans will be able to see the picture a few days before the more casual moviegoer flood over the weekend and the 4th of July holiday period.

For more about the release of Superman Returns, be sure to check out Warner's Official Website, which just underwent a "super" update!

Wolverine & Pals Slice Up American Box Office

The critics were no match for the mutants at the box office this weekend, as X-Men: The Last Stand battled its way to an impressive $120 million over the four-day holiday weekend - the biggest Memorial Day take ever.

Directed by Brett Ratner (taking over from X-Men 1 & 2's Bryan Singer, who is helming this summer's Superman Returns), the third installment was met by both lukewarm reviews and harsh "fanboy" reaction - as many felt Ratner couldn't live up to the quality established in the first two films.

X-Men is one of the few Hollywood franchises to actually increase its box office take after three installments. So even though it's titled "The Last Stand," don't be surprised if Wolverine and his mutant mates claw their way onto the big screen for a fourth time a few years down the road.

Taylor Hicks Wins American Idol

In a vote that surprised few, gray-haired Alabama native Taylor Hicks was crowned the new American Idol.

The 29-year-old beat out runner-up Katherine McPhee in a finale that included guest appearances by Prince, Mary J. Blige, Meatloaf, Toni Braxton, Al Jarreau, Burt Bacharach, Dion Warwick, and former American Idol winners Carrie Underwood and Clay Aiken.

Both Hicks and McPhee will be releasing solo albums in the coming months, and will also be going on tour with the 10 other contestants that made up the final 12 from this season's show.

Viewership for American Idol was up 14% this season - impressive for a show in its fifth season.

"You're Far To Valuable To Kill, Mr. Bauer"

When the clock ran out last night on 24's CTU Agent Jack Bauer, he had once again saved civilization as we know it - bringing down a corrupt President and saving California from a possible missile attack.

But just when it seemed Jack might be headed off for a well-deserved nap, he was abducted by Chinese officials - who blame Bauer for a death that took place at the Chinese embassy way back in Season 4 of the show.

So with no sleep in sight, Season 5 ended with Bauer - quite literally - on a slow boat to China.

However, the health of TV's hottest super spy is assured...at least for now. Star Keifer Sutherland recently signed a multi-year contract that should keep Jack Bauer having really bad days for at least two more seasons.

Code Cracks $224 Million Worldwide

Despite overwhelming negative reviews, The Da Vinci Code was able to conjure up $224 million worldwide - $77 million coming from the United States. That makes it the biggest opening so far of any domestic movie in 2006, and the second largest worldwide opening of all time, behind only last year's Star Wars: Episode III.

Critics were not kind to the film, with the only noteworthy positive review coming from America's most famous critic - Roger Ebert, who called it "preposterously entertaining".

As one of the many who both read the novel and saw the movie, I have to admit that The Da Vinci Code is likely to confuse those not familar with the book and disappoint those well-versed in Dan Brown's story. One complaint that can't be lodged against the movie, however, is that it's not faithful to the book. It's extremely loyal to the novel - perhaps to a fault...with only a few minor alterations and deletions in the interest of pacing and running time.

Original Star Wars On DVD Non-Anamorphic?

In a move that is sure to leave heads scratching and bring the "Lucas raped my childhood" fanboys out of the woodwork, The Digital Bits reported yesterday that the upcoming "Limited Edition" releases of the Star Wars Trilogy will NOT have the original movies in the 16x9 anamorphic format.

That's bad news for widescreen TV owners everywhere, since it basically means they'll need to either "zoom in" on the picture (and thus reduce picture quality) to have it fill their TV screens, or they'll simply have to settle for watching the originals "window boxed," with black bars on both the top and sides of the screens.

It is important to note that the "Special Edition" versions on these releases WILL be 16x9 anamoprhic...but those versions are already out on DVD - it was the inclusion of the original, unchanged versions of the movies that had Star Wars fans everywhere excited about these DVDs. Now one wonders if anyone out there will even bother to pick up these releases, since the original versions contained within are nothing more than dubs of the old laserdisc versions that most die-hard fans already have their hands on.

Keep in mind that we've heard nothing "official" from Lucasfilm yet on the anamorphic issue...but no news could be bad news in this case, since if the originals really are non-anamorphic, they probably won't be going out of their way to advertise it.

For the complete Digital Bits story on this rumor, click HERE.

Water Bomb

Budgeted at $160 million dollars, Warner Bros. was expecting "Titanic"-like numbers for Poseidon - but won't be swimming in the money after a disappointing $20 million dollar opening weekend.

In fact, the movie couldn't even muster enough box office dough to oust Mission: Impossible III from the top-spot, which remained the number one movie in America for the second straight week. Mission is also considered somewhat of a box office letdown, having only earned about $84 million in two weeks of release - far behind the $130 million Mission: Impossible II made during its first two weeks of release back in 2000.

It's still unclear whether these box office returns are due to a disinterest in these particular films by movie-goers or are indicative of the overall box office slump movie theaters have been seeing for the past several years. The answer to that question may come this Friday, when one of the biggest movies of 2006 - The DaVinci Code - hits theaters. If opening weekend for that picture falls under $50 million dollars, it could be an indicator of a very slow summer for theaters and movie studios alike.

Is Deadwood Dead In The Water?

While fans eagerly await the beginning of Season 3 (June 11th), word comes out that HBO has not picked up the options of any of the show's actors - and many of them have already signed on to other projects.

In fact, series creator David Milch has already begun to tackle a brand-new project, entitled "John From Cincinnati," which he is scripting for HBO.

Why HBO wouldn't want to keep Deadwood going is anyone's guess, since the show is only second to their mega-hit The Sopranos in terms of quality and popularity.

While fans await the premiere of Season 3, Season 2 of Deadwood will hit DVD on May23rd.

Ethan Hunt: Disavowed?

It's a crazy world we live in where a movie can make $48 million dollars on its opening weekend and still be considered a disappointment.

But that's the consensus on Mission: Impossible III, which failed to live up to the $57 million weekend gross of the previous entry in the series (in 2000) and only surpassed the first Mission: Impossible flick's opening ($45 million) if you don't factor in inflation or the number of tickets sold (by which the original's opening weekend is far more successful).

It remains to be seen if Mission's $48 million weekend is the result of the general ongoing box office slump, or a specific audience reaction to the barrage of bad press that Cruise has been getting over the past year.

One thing is for certain, the lukewarm box office take probably isn't due to the quality of the movie - which is by far the best of the three Mission: Impossible films released. Director J.J. Abrams does a slam-bang job of loading the film up with action and suspense, and the pre-title sequence alone is enough to lock any doubters about this latest Mission into their respective seats for the remainder of this 2-hour thrill ride.

For the record, Mission Impossible III's opening is the second-biggest in 2006. A few weeks ago, Ice Age 2 pulled in $68 million in its first weekend.

Han Shoots First Once Again

Although creator George Lucas had claimed publicly that the films “no longer existed,” Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox made the surprise announcement yesterday that the original versions of Lucas’ first Star Wars trilogy would finally be released on the DVD format in September.

The original, unedited (i.e. non-special edition) versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi will be released separately, in 2-disc versions that also include the 2004 digitally remastered “Special Editions” of the films. The original versions will be part of the “bonus material” on the sets.

Each original version will be presented in 2.0 Dolby (no 5.1 remastering) and will only be available to purchase from September 12th to December 31st, 2006.

Summer Movie Season Starts With A Bang

That sound you hear is thousands of movie buffs getting ready to storm the local multiplexes as this Friday marks the "official" launch of the 2006 Summer Movie Season with the release of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible III.

If the past few weeks have been any indication, audiences are once again hungry for "big" releases, as spring titles such as Ice Age 2 and Scary Movie 4 have really raked in the dollars, despite being only so-so in quality.

For those of you who want to plan your summer around some of Hollywood's most-anticiapted films, here's a brief list of this summer's "must-see" titles:

May 5th - Mission Impossible III

May 12th - Poseidon

May 19th - The Da Vinci Code

May 26th - X-Men: The Last Stand

June 9th - Cars

June 30th - Superman Returns

July 7th - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

July 28th - Miami Vice

August 18th - Snakes On A Plane