With X-Men: First Class blowing people’s expectations out of the water, there has been some more movement in other X-Men film properties, because Fox just loves to strike while the iron is hot.

For a while, the Wolverine sequel was held up in pre-production hell because they couldn’t seem to lock in a director. Darren Aronofsky was originally set to direct, but he dropped out back in March. Now, Fox is announcing that 3:10 to Yuma and Walk The Line director James Mangold is a lock and the film will continue into production. From Deadline:

Negotiations are about to get underway, but I’m told that Mangold will take the helming job on the sequel to the X-Men spinoff film, a post that became vacant when Darren Aronofsky dropped out of the film in March. I’d heard that Mangold was on a very short list coming into this week, along with Warrior director Gavin O’Connor and Brooklyn’s Finest helmer Antoine Fuqua.

I’ve heard that Fox will look to start principal photography in the fall. Scripted by Christopher McQuarrie, The Wolverine takes place mostly in Japan.

The main problem that Aronofsky had when going into the film was that he’d have to leave his family and work it Japan for up to 6 months. It seems that Mangold is more into the idea. We hope to hear more and get a glimpse at the film’s look and feel as we enter production later this year.

I just saw Knight and Day and in a summer notably lacking in quality, this one stands out as being the worst film in terms of the script and editing. The 2 and a half minute trailer was better than the entire film. In the film a rogue FBI agent, Roy Millerand the FBi, steals a never-ending battery that looks like the generic D Energizer kind. June, a hapless bystander, gets caught up in the action. Together they must keep the battery safe while on the run from arms dealers and the FBI.

In editing class you’re taught that if a movie is well edited then you won’t question the loopholes until hours later when you’re at home, hence the term refrigerator moment. Quite apropos when you consider Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. In Knight and Day, however, I started questioning the flick while it was still playing.

For starters, whenever characters would mention anything of importance, it was never once brought up again or answered in any kind of way. None of the characters had any semblance of a back story. There was no time limit set for the mission, no sense of urgency, and no one saved anything, much less the world. In essence the film lacked discernible goals. This film brings new meaning to the term, “We’ll fix it in post”.

What follows is a list of questions. I would say there are spoilers, but since there are absolutely zero twists, turns, or creativity in the script, there are no spoilers. Anyone who can answer these questions solely based on the film will receive a highly valued, Flickcast Certified No. Prize. Go ahead smarty pants, make my day.

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*Note: this column was written on Sunday, so four-day totals that include Monday’s receipts will differ from these numbers.

It was no surprise that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse dominated the weekend box office. The film made $69 Million over the weekend.  Add in a record breaking $30M midnight take on Tuesday night,  and Wednesday and Thursday’s totals, and the movie has made $161 Million as of today.

It did fall short of breaking the all-time opening day record set by its  predecessor New Moon, which made $72 Million on its opening day. Eclipse came awfully close, making about $68.5 in the same time frame.  At any rate, Eclipse recouped its budget of $69 Million in one day.

We can expect the film to drop off quite a bit in upcoming weeks, as the series historically has been very front loaded, but this film does seem to be getting good word of mouth, so the drop off might not be as steep.

The Last Airbender did a lot better than I expected it to.  Obviously the built in fan base helped elevate the critically reviled film to an okay opening weekend.  Airbender made $40 Million over the weekend, but since it opened on Thursday, its total is now $56 Million.

That’s still a long way from its $150 Million budget, though, and word of mouth has been brutal, so the movie may fall off considerably after this weekend.  If so, it will be a disaster for Paramount, which has sunk about $280M into the film between the budget and marketing.  It also leaves the future of the franchise, and the career of director M. Night Shyamalan hanging in the balance.

Toy Story 3 is still going strong in its third week in release, making another $30 Million.  This brings its total to $289 Million.  Finding Nemo is Pixar’s highest grossing movie of all time, with $339 Million in ticket sales. It is looking highly likely that Toy Story 3 will exceed that during its theatrical run.

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Toy Story 3 had another stellar weekend at the box office and held off new releases Knight and Day, and Grown Ups.  It made over $59 Million over the weekend.  That is a drop of around 46%, but that is not unusual when a movie has a huge opening weekend.  The film still enjoyed a healthy $14,600 per/screen average.

Toy Story has now made $226.5 Million in its first 10 days in release.  It is on the fast track to becoming the number one animated movie at the box office this year (Shrek Forever After currently stands at $229 Million after five weeks.)  It’s also doing a bang up job abroad, earning another $100 Million overseas in the same time frame.  So far, it looks like Toy Story 3 will become one of the biggest films of the year.

Grown Ups may have taken a critical drubbing, but audiences didn’t seem to mind.  They snatched up a cool $40 Million in ticket sales, to make the movie the number two offering of the weekend. Love him or hate him, Adam Sandler is reliable at the box office.  This will be his tenth movie to open at above $34 Million.  There are not  many stars working today who can match those numbers.

The same cannot be said for Knight and Day, the Cameron Diaz/Tom Cruise spy caper/romantic comedy. The movie opened on Wednesday, but benefited very little from that early opening. Wednesday night the film earned a little over $3 Milion, a paltry sum for two former box office draws.

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I enjoyed Knight and Day quite a bit more than I expected to. Mind you, the bar was scraping the ground when I entered the theater. I thought the movie would be a complete disaster. Tom Cruise wore out his welcome with me long before the infamous couch jumping antics,  and while I generally enjoy Diaz, I just wasn’t sure about her playing opposite Cruise.

Cruise stars as CIA agent Roy Miller, who is on the run from his handlers.  He is feverishly  casing an airport when he spies June (played by Cameron Diaz.) Shortly thereafter, he  deliberately bumps into her, staging a “chance” encounter.

A few moments later, the two run into one another again, and you can practically see the gears going in June’s head.  Cute guy+fate = romantic opportunity. Her daydreaming is derailed when she is denied entrance onto the plane that her new friend is boarding.  He assures her, “Everything happens for a reason.”

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Tom Cruise has gotten a pretty bad rap in the past few years. Ever since his epic “couch jumping” episode on Oprah, he’s been labeled by some as, well, crazy. Most people in the public eye can take that information two different ways. They could choose to be sticks in the mud and hate the media, or they could embrace it in a film, making light of their eccentricities.

Luckily, as fans of comedy and action, we are treated to the latter with Tom Cruise’s newest upcoming flick, Knight and Day. The film is basically Tom Cruise playing his typical Mission: Impossible super spy when he’s blacklisted and forced to take to a civilian (Cameron Diaz) for assistance in staying alive.

In the newest international trailer for the film, they focus more on the “cover story” that the government forges, in which Cruise’s character has gone crazy. After his epic cameo in Tropic Thunder, there’s no doubt that Cruise is willing to take a few shots at himself, or the characters he’s played.

Check out the trailer after the jump, and catch Knight and Day in theaters on June 25th.

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While Tom Cruise has been working like a fiend to pick a director for the upcoming sequel to his popular Mission Impossible franchise, he’s also got a new film coming out where he plays an international action spy. That’s called range.

While the characters may seem a bit played out, the premise is somewhat fresh. From 20th Century Fox:

An action-comedy centered on a fugitive couple (Cruise and Diaz) on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.

The film also stars Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Lost’s Maggie Grace, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Marc Blucas. Check out the newest trailer after the jump. Knight and Day hits theaters on June 25th.

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The very first trailer for Knight and Day, the Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise action movie that we showed you the poster for the other day is now online. With James Mangold (Walk the Line) directing the film, it looks to be a great action-comedy with both Cruise and Diaz looking like they’re having a good time.

Seeing these two actors together for the first time since Vanilla Sky, I’m reminded of the chemistry they had on-screen; and it’s fully evident again here. The trailer’s funny moments seem to be a continuation of Cruise not taking himself so seriously, much like in Tropic Thunder – which really helped to lighten the atmosphere around him, after all the Scientology and “Katie-gate” snafus.

Of course, the comedy meeting the action scenes make this seem like a perfect match for everyone involved. Diaz is showing her comedic side, such as she did in her hits, There’s Something About Mary and My Best Friend’s Wedding - where she plays much better as the ‘straight-man’, rather than trying to actually be a comedian. Mangold also comes through, giving us the action that he’s proven to do so well in films like 3:10 to Yuma and Copland. Put it all together and it’s a bundle of fun.

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Instead of getting a trailer for Piranha 3D, as reported to be attached with this week’s release of Avatar, most people got the trailer for Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise’s upcoming action-thriller, Knight and Day. Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line, Cop Land) and written by Patrick O’Neill, in his first produced, feature screenplay, the film is centered around Diaz and Cruise’s characters being chased around the world where “no one and nothing is what it seems – even themselves.”

The trailer was pretty funny, and looked like the 20th Century Fox film is going to feature some fantastic action including Tom Cruise crash-landing a plane to jumping from a motorcycle onto the hood of Diaz’s car. The film also features Peter Sarsgaard (Orphan and An Education), Maggie Grace (LOST, Taken), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) and Viola Davis (Law Abiding Citizen and Doubt). Unfortunately, here isn’t much more to go on until the trailer gets released online.

However, Slashfilm recently got a photo of the poster – which I hadn’t seen, and actually don’t even remember hearing anything about this movie before now – so now I’m sharing it with you. It’s all text and stylized people (assuming it’s the lead characters), but is interesting – and better than the soon to come, I’m sure, photoshopped heads version.

Check out the full-size image below. Knight And Day is scheduled for release in July, 2010.

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