Leading up and during the weekend at Comic Con Marvel.com released The Avengers character posters. The Marvel/Disney super hero venture is set to hit theaters May 4, 2012. Directed by Joss Whedon, it stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk and Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Also stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeremy Reener as Hawkeye, Cobie Smulders Maria Hill, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulston, Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Currently shooting, The Avengers is due in theaters May 4, 2012

Click for Hi-Res. Images courtesy of Marvel.com

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE ESTIMATE

March 19-21

Title	Engagements		Estimated Weekend Box Office
1.	Alice in Wonderland (Disney)	3,739	$34,500,000
2.	Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Fox)	3,077	$21,800,000
3.	The Bounty Hunter (Sony)	3,074	$21,000,000
4.	Repo Men (Universal)	2,521	$6,200,000
5.	She’s Out of My League (Paramount)	2,958	$6,000,000
6.	Green Zone (Universal)	3,004	$5,900,000
7.	Shutter Island (Paramount)	2,704	$4,800,000
8.	Avatar (Fox)	1,236	$4,000,000
9.	Our Family Wedding (Fox Searchlight)	1,609	$3,800,000
10.	Remember Me (Summit)	2,215	$3,300,000
in millions of dollars

Variety

week box office final

Mar 12 – Mar 18, 2010

Variety

Probably not. Since the days of Avatar, it seems that the bar has been raised when it comes to big budget 3d movies. I expected Alice in Wonderland to produce big numbers but on this level? In just it’s two weeks of release, it has brought in over $2oo million dollars. Is it the appeal of Johhny Depp,the classic story or the 3d option? Who knows but if Clash of the Titans lives up to the hype,Warner Bros. is looking ahead at another blockbuster.

You can catch Disney’s Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp in theaters now and Warner Bros. Clash of the Titans in theaters April 2nd.

Johnny Deep is set to become Captain Jack Sparrow once again when filming for the 4th installment of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is slated to start this summer in Hawaii but one cast member who is not coming back…Orlando Bloom. Bloom talked with the press while in Sundance and told them he was not slated for the new film.

What?! You can’t have a ‘Pirates’ film without having Will Turner! Before you go blaming Orlando it was Disney’s decision. Also not returning is Keira Knightly. In the last film, Will Turner was bound to the sea for 10 years but is Orlando Bloom that expendable now? They couldn’t have written him in the film? Here’s to hoping for Turner’s return in Pirates 5. (Oh you know Disney will milk this cash cow dry. )

As reported here last month Disney/Pixar’s 3-d animation ‘Up’ kicked off the this years Cannes Film Festival.

The low-key ceremony stuck to tradition as Huppert’s jury — Asia Argento, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Lee Chang-dong, James Gray, Hanif Kureishi, Shu Qi, Robin Wright Penn and Sharmila Tagore — took their seats onstage.

The Palais red carpet sparkled with diamonds and a mix of celebrities that included actress Tilda Swinton, the L’Oreal spokesmodels and even French Cultural Minister Christine Albanel.

The opening ceremony, broadcast live by Gallic pay TV channel Canal Plus, was hosted by French funnyman Edouard Baer, who found plenty of material in the global financial crisis. The ceremony itself featured a montage of Huppert’s history with the Festival de Cannes and excerpts of films in the official selection.

As the lights dimmed in the Palais theater, Huppert talked about her vision for this year’s fest, reminding the audience that “We go to the movies to remember.”

Legendary French singer Charles Aznavour, the voice of the old man in the French version of “Up,” declared the 62nd edition of the fest officially open alongside Gallic actress Hafsia Herzi.

Hollywood Reporter

‘Up’ is in U.S. theaters May 29th.

Yes two Disney post in a row! Before Princess Tiana is debuted Disney is releasing A Christmas Carol based on the classic story of Ebenezer Scrooge. To hype up the release (like Disney needs hype) A Christmas Carol Train Tour is set to depart for a cross country trek starting in Los Angeles’ Union Station May 22nd and ending in New York City’s Grand Central Station on November 1st.

Click here to see complete tour schedule,virtual tour and gallery. Disney’s A Christmas Carol opens in theaters November 6th.

The Princess and the Frog official poster and trailer were released this weekend and see a preview of Disney’s Rapunzel all below.

Official Site

Rapunzel Preview Picture

Source

A Spoonful of Sherman — Richard Sherman Chats About His Remarkable Career

“Chim Chim Cher-ee.” “I Wanna Be Like You.” “It’s a Small World.” They’re the songs that we all grew up with, the classics — and they were all written by Richard and Robert Sherman. The Sherman Brothers were truly a legendary Disney creative force, writing songs for TV, Theme Park attractions, and films — whatever Walt Disney required. And in 1990, they were formally inducted as Disney Legends, acknowledging their many accomplishments.

Now “the boys,” as they were known to their colleagues, are the subjects of a new documentary film by the same name. “The Boys” was a labor of love for filmmakers Jeff and Greg Sherman — cousins, and the sons of Robert and Richard respectively. In it, the cousins remember their fathers’ careers, and the distance between them in later years. It’s a wonderful and touching movie that has taken years to make the journey to the big screen at last.

In honor of “The Boys” — and “the boys” … — we sat down with Richard Sherman to discuss his amazing Disney career. Appropriately enough, we met in the very soundstage on the Walt Disney Studio Lot where some of the songs for “Mary Poppins” had been recorded, as Richard recalled.

He remembers Walt Disney well, as a remarkable boss to work for. “You had to be good — you couldn’t just be ordinary, you had to be incredible!” Richard laughs. “And everybody knew that, and everybody broke their butts to get stuff as good as they possibly could. And he’d look at it, and he’d say ‘Okay, that’ll work.’ “It was the highest form of praise any Disney employee could hope for — then later they might hear from a colleague that Walt absolutely loved what they did.

It was a demanding environment that pushed everyone to perform at the very highest level, but it was also a highly rewarding one. Richard recalls, “It was a great big brotherhood. Everybody cared about everybody, and we all wanted the projects to succeed. We all loved and respected Walt. We’d have our disagreements, but basically it was a very warm environment.”

As with every detail of his Studio’s creations, Walt was very hands-on with the songs created by the Sherman brothers — and knew what he wanted to hear. “Walt was very appreciative of music,” Richard says. “He could hear a finished product from what I played for him — that’s an amazing talent! If it was a song that a young woman would be singing to a little boy, and I sang it with my husky baritone, he’d hear the woman singing to the little boy.” Often on Friday afternoons, he would ask the brothers to come to his office and Richard would perform “Feed the Birds,” Walt’s favorite song.

The creative partnership between the Sherman brothers and the Studio began in the late ’50s, as Richard recalls. “We began at Disney because of Annette Funicello. She was the star of the Mouseketeers and she had some big hits with some of our songs, like ‘Pineapple Princess” and “Tall Paul.” We were asked by the Studio to come up with a song that she could sing in a film — we didn’t know that Walt Disney himself had asked for this!

“We wrote a little tune called ‘Strummin’ Song.’ We brought it up to the Studio and played it for Jimmy Johnson, head of music publishing at the time, and he said, ‘That sounds great — we’ve got to play it for Walt.’ And we said, ‘Walt who? You’re kidding me!’ But he said, ‘Walt OK’s everything.’

“Then when we met Walt, he started describing the wrong picture to us. He said, ‘This picture is about two girls who meet in summer camp,’ [Walt must have been working on 'The Parent Trap' at the time, and gotten his films mixed up] and we were dying because we had written the song for Annette’s picture, ‘The Horsemasters’! But we played it for him and he said, ‘Yeah, that’ll work.’ Then he gave us the script for ‘The Parent Trap,’ and we wrote songs for that film as well. Eventually, we wound up writing songs for six different films. And that’s when he got the confidence to let us come up with some ideas for this book called ‘Mary Poppins’ — and that’s how it began.”

The brothers realized that “Mary Poppins” was truly going to be a unique musical opportunity. “We did songs for about 12 Disney films and TV projects before ‘Poppins.’ We did songs for the television shows, for the Parks, everything. But all the while we were working on ‘Poppins’ ideas and ‘Poppins’ songs.” In fact, in addition to writing the unforgettable songs for “Mary Poppins,” the brothers were instrumental in helping to adapt the disconnected stories in the “Mary Poppins” books into a movie with a strong storyline, along with screenwriters Bill Walsh and Don DeGradi.

But another film — Walt’s last as a hands-on creative force — just might be Richard’s favorite to recall. As he says, “‘The Jungle Book’ was the most fun we ever had working on a movie. We had Louis Prima, Phil Harris, and Sterling Holloway — all these wonderful talents!”

And yet it was a movie that almost wasn’t a Sherman brothers project at all: “We came in late to ‘The Jungle Book,’ because the picture was rejected when it was done, except for one really fine song — ‘Bare Necessities.’ All of the rest — well, put it this way, Walt didn’t like it!” Richard chuckles. “And he didn’t like the storyline. So we came in because they needed a new score except for the one song. So we did it, and it was fun! Louis Prima’s rendition of ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ was definitely a high point.”

Songwriting has truly been Richard’s life — as his son Greg says, “Growing up, we had a piano in every room!” and he is still ever-willing to tickle the ivories.

“I’ve loved music ever since I was a little boy. And if you need something Japanese, I know how to write the flavor of Japanese — it won’t be Japanese, but it will feel like it. If it’s India, I can hear how it will sound,” he tells us. “That’s what I do! I can’t do much of anything else, but I can write songs.”

And from “Strummin’ Song” through “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” “The Happiest Millionaire,” “The Tigger Movie,” and dozens more, those songs have made us all richer — and a little more tuneful.

Disney Insider

Upcoming actress and waitress Scheana Marie Jancan, who I assume got tired of waiting tables and waiting on that right script that would catapult her into stardom, decided one day to drop some more notable names to get hers out there. Last Wednesday Star Magazine announced that musician John Mayer has a new girlfriend moving on from actress Jennifer Aniston.  In the three days of admitting dropping this story to Star Magazine, Jancan couldn’t help but talk to whoever would listen.

If you were to be one of the fortunates to pick up Star Magazine last week you would have read that not only did Jancan admit to spending time at Mayer’s recording studio home you would have also learned she dropped  more famous Aniston’s name saying all of Mayer’s new songs set to appear on his new album out later this year are about Aniston. Juicy.

Interestingly enough Jancan was not only telling tabloids juicy details she was also dropping them on her twitter. While this was happening suddenly everyone comes to find out that Jancan has a stint on the new Disney show JONAS that premieres this Saturday on the network. Blogs also conveniently acquired pictures and video of her on the show. Coincidence? Of course not. Someone got paid overtime for this publicly stunt. Now everyone knows her name. Expect to see her in more stints soon.

Saturday Mayer decided to have a early work out in Santa Monica picking up some paparazzi on the way where he later told them that he didn’t have a girlfriend. Burn.

I did witness for myself how suddenly the JONAS preview that had been airing for a few weeks on Disney Channel has now changed to feature Jancan as the “Pizza girl”.  Also Buzz Tv today uncovered that a script to the “Pizza girl” episode is available for download if you can find it as it is hidden on the JONAS show official site. Obviously not that hard to find since Buzz Tv found it.

Was this clever pr from Disney or did they just see a open opportunity for free publicity? Even though Jancan’s stint doesn’t air until May 16th, she got what she wanted and Disney got free publicity out of it. Jancan even went as far as deleting previous tweets about what she told tabloids after all was said and done. Unfortunately while Mayer had to play the Hollywood game and deny it all to paparazzi, this had to be a valuable lesson to him; just because you have a mantel full of Grammys doesn’t mean you can’t get played by up and coming actresses. He’ll live through it but Jancan better watch out, she might actual be the one to end up on his new album.

So where is all the visual aid for this? Not to fear follow the link to see what she worked hard on promoting the past few days and check out some of her now deleted tweets. It’s fun to see how the story from admitting she went to Star to denying she did, to deleting the tweets altogether. Also how on the undeleted tweets she is just so exhausted from having to answer to the press. She’s already knows how to act as if she is famous. She even tried to follow Jennifer Aniston on Twitter.  Doesn’t get more Hollywood than that!

Deleted Tweets on Twitter (thanks to clever fans who made sure to save them.)

scheanamarie: Wow… Star Mag, this is craziness.. At least quote me accurately!
2:30 PM April 24th from TwitterBerry

Three days later.

scheanamarie: again, i didn’t say any of the Star “quotes” no idea where this stuff came from.. kinda comedic if you ask me… another long day,bedtime!! 10:46 PM April 27th from web

scheanamarie: People=accurate…Star = BS… goodnight everyone!!! =) 10:50 PM April 27th from web

Following (a fake) Ms. Aniston on Twitter until she changed her mind sometime later.

And lastly a preview of her stint on Disney’s new show JONAS.

How long until her 15 minutes are up?