My thoughts on some newsworthy events of the week:
The MPAA has rated “Fun Size” PG-13 for crude and suggestive material, partying and language. This is only Nickelodeon’s second movie to be rated PG-13 (the first was “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging”, which was only released on DVD here in the US). That makes “Fun Size” Nick’s first PG-13 in US theaters. Very interesting since the film stars Nickelodeon’s own Victoria Justice, who’s seen as a role model to young girls. We’ll see if this has an affect on the box office, when it opens on 10/26.
Earlier this year, the Weinstein Company announced that they would be releasing four animated movies in 2013: “Escape from Planet Earth” (Feb. 14), “Leo the Lion” (Aug. 30), “The Trick or Treaters” (Oct. 25) and “Santapprentice” (Dec. 6). Weinstein isn’t known for their animated films (“Hoodwinked!” is their only successful release). I mentioned at the time that four seemed like a lot for them. Well, now the studio has decided to change the last three to “undetermined 2013 release dates”. “Planet Earth” will still open on Valentine’s Day.
It seems like the studio just wasn’t ready to handle four movies in a year. And if rushed each of them could have turned out badly. We could still see new release dates for these films sometime in the future: “Hoodwinked Too!”, you may remember, was supposed to open in 2010, but didn’t come out until last year. It bombed at the box office, but partly because of the problems with the release schedule.
And Joss Whedon has asked Clark Gregg, who played Agent Coulson in “The Avengers”, to reprise his role on the TV series “S.H.I.E.L.D.”. Gregg also starred alongside Julia-Louis Dreyfuss on the comedy “The New Adventures of Old Christine”. I like this decision, especially since Gregg is getting a chance to return to the Marvel universe, even though his character…(well, you know) in “The Avengers”. The show is currently in development for ABC.