$502.4 MILLION AND COUNTING... That’s how much The Dark Knight has made in the United States since its release on July 18. Expect George Lucas to try to reclaim the No. #2 spot (or possibly the #1 spot...dethroning Titanic) on the all-time domestic box office chart by releasing the Star Wars: Special Edition Digitally Enhanced Director’s Cut 3-D version on IMAX. You know that doesn’t sound so farfetched.



And going back to Disaster Movie, it is currently No. #1 on the Bottom 100 list on IMDb.com. You suck, Friedberg and Seltzer.

DISASTER MOVIE... This film currently has a "fresh" 00% rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Would it be disturbing of me to suggest that director/writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, as well as the studio big wigs behind this abomination, Epic Movie, Date Movie and all those other (Blank) Movie "spoofs" (oh, and Meet the Spartans) need to be shot in the head? Multiple times?

Didn't think so.

REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Update... Lots of updates this week, including interviews by Transformers 2 writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, photos and videos of the current film shoot taking place in Long Beach (California), and another ‘burnt’ photo of Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky. Since the excerpt below was copied word for word (What’s plagiarism? I never heard of that term), just thought I’d give some free advertisement to the original site in return:

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Anyways, here’s the excerpt by Orci:

About Writing Shia’s hand injury into the Script: "Luckily nothing has to be re-shot. Yes, we were on set last week to write it into the movie, not because it’s absolutely necessary, but more because we want to make sure Shia’s hand is protected for the remainder of the shoot..."

On the Leftovers from the First Film: "There were a a couple things we couldn’t do (in Transformers 1 due to) budget, but also because they seemed too "out there" to the studio. Some of those things we get to do in the second movie. After we see it, I’ll point out which."

Regarding the budget for the sequel: "Yes we do get a bit more dough. Expect an upgrade. And we also know better what we can do this time to maximize the mighty buck. And we have the secret weapon that is Ian Bryce."

Length of Transformers 2: "Going by the length of the script can be tricky because the action is longer in reality than on the page. We’re trying to keep it to two hours, but I get a feeling it’ll be about the same as movie 1."

On the Structure of the Sequel: "(Transformers) had 3 plot lines—A boy and his car, soldiers behind enemy lines, and defense policy people—all reacting to Transformers in a somewhat multiple point of view disaster movie paradigm and structure. Part two will be a different paradigm. More like parallel stories."

Location of the Sequel: "The story for part 2 is more global, for sure."

Inspirations for Transformers 2: "Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters and Terminator 2." "We were emulating the style of movie from the old Amblin days, like Back to the Future and Gremlins, which if you watch today are still very funny. Also, the cartoon itself was quite funny. Also, comedy makes things more accessible to a larger audience."

On Michael Bay’s Misinformation Claims: "We knew the names of most, but (Michael Bay) was so upset by leaks that he put out a bit of disinformation, even claiming that we, the writers, had no idea which characters we were writing, which as I hope is painfully obvious, is absurd on its face."

On the difference between the first and second films: "The first movie is all about the mystery and reveal of the Transformers as a concept and a species, which means we had to hide them a lot in the first hour. In the second movie, now that everyone believes in the universe, we can jump right into the world of the Transformers." "The hardest aspect is that you lose the element of surprise. We got away with a lot in the first movies because for a long time, no one thought it would work, or that it was just a silly cartoon, and simply proving that wrong is all we had to do. The first movie was meant to be somewhat of a mystery. For the sequel, we need an entirely different structure and paradigm for the movie, and we can’t rely on it being the first."

Themes in the Sequel: "One of the themes is about the responsibilities you face when being away from home—reflected by Sam going to college and by the fact that the Transformers themselves, are of course, far from Cybertron."

Will the Sequel have any Transformers with Animal Modes like Scorponok? "All signs point to ‘probably.’"

The story of Jonah Hill: "Rumors are not exactly true. He came, he read for a while, and he left. Then days later we had a meeting with him to talk about his concerns, all of which were simple to deal with. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t too close to the character’s he’d been playing, and we told him it would be our pleasure to differentiate him. We all left the meeting smiling and laughing, and his agents and the studio started negotiating. We just couldn’t come up with a mutually satisfactory deal. Sometimes it’s s scheduling conflict, sometimes it’s that an actor only wants to agree to be in one movie at a time... etc. So all I can figure is someone who doesn’t know much saw him leave the read early, and assumed the rest. No hard feelings here."

On the possibility of Robots with Three Alt Modes: "Two 'bot modes may be too much for 2. But later, who knows..."

Teaser Trailer: "Teaser will surely come out before the end of the year."

On the Marketing: "Starting in November, you’ll start seeing the MASSIVE push..."

Film Title: "Alex Kurtzman came up with the title, and it was the only one we put up on the cover of the script."

He also confirmed the film would be aiming for a PG-13 rating, and would be darker than the first.

Here’s a photo of Sam "Two-Face" Witwicky (haha):



And a video of something goin’ BOOOOM in Long Beach. What are the chances Bay will eventually film something at Cal State Long Beach, my alma mater? Production on Revenge of the Fallen still has about 2 months to go, ya know...

EVEN THOUGH SAG once again rejected a new contract offer by the major movie studios, production continues to go on for the Transformers sequel. First Unit shooting supposedly went on a 4-week hiatus to allow Shia LaBeouf to recover from the hand injury he got from last month’s car accident, but now LaBeouf is back on set...earlier than expected. Apparently, the action in Transformers 2 will be a lot more ferocious than in the first movie...judging from how bloodied and burnt LaBeouf looks in the photo below (don’t drool, ladies). Either that, or he went against Michael Bay’s orders and decided to drive his new motorcycle to the film set after all—and got in yet another crash. Haha.



Here’s a candid photo of Megan Fox on the set of TF2. Do you think Katy Perry’s heart is beating (even more) rapidly after she saw this pic?



Below are pics of the Corvette Centennial and an ice cream truck...which both happen to be the vehicle modes for two (or should I say three? Rumors go that the ice cream truck is made up of twin robots) new Autobots that will make a debut in Revenge of the Fallen.



And, of course, here’s Sam and Mikaela together. Didn’t think Mikaela is the kind of girl to be entertained by sock puppets.

MORE DARK KNIGHT VIDEOS... There are so many spoofs and tributes devoted to the mega blockbuster [which has grossed $442 million in the U.S. box office since its release on July 18...currently making it the 3rd highest grossing domestic film of all time...trailing only behind Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope ($461 million) and Titanic ($601 million)] on Youtube that I just decided to include most of them in this journal entry. Don’t feel like having to worry about posting 'em when I get back from the Bahamas on August 20th...

Sorry. Don’t mean to keep bringing that up. Okay, I do.

The Dark Knight Trailer Spoof



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Borat Meets The Joker Spoof

FRESH PRINCE OF GOTHAM... Here is yet another hilarious Youtube video devoted to The Dark Knight, with the Joker doing a homicidal take on Will Smith's rap song from the old TV show, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Funny lyrics. You gotta hand it to folks out there for coming up with such hilarious parodies. There’s another spoof that I found... I’ll probably write an entry about it on Monday or Tuesday. But not Wednesday. I’ll be heading to Florida for a cruise to the Bahamas that day.

JOKER INTERROGATION SCENE - THE SPOOF... This hilarious video was posted on Youtube.com more than 2 weeks ago...poking fun at The Dark Knight scene where Batman is having a one-on-one with the Joker in that police interrogation room. Needless to say, the Clown Prince of Crime is having a bit of a hard time understanding the Caped Crusader’s question about why the Joker wants to kill him. Though I’m pretty sure Christian Bale would punch harder than that, haha...



EDIT: If the "We're sorry, this video is no longer available" message pops up when you try to play this clip, click on the link I provided at the start of this entry instead. Trust me, this spoof is a must-see if you enjoyed watching The Dark Knight.

REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Update... This past week saw Shia LaBeouf’s movie character, Sam Witwicky, getting a hand injury written for him in the Transformers 2 script to mirror LaBeouf’s real-life injury, after he got into a car crash last week...



Tyrese Gibson (Sergeant Epps) talked about how the war between the Decepticons and the Autobots, as well as their human allies, became a lot "angrier" in Transformers 2...



Filming took place in the Long Beach and San Pedro area of southern California...



And last, but not least: The Fallen was confirmed as the main villain in Revenge of the Fallen.



Here’s hoping Industrial Light & Magic does a kickass job on making a giant f*ckin’ robot covered in flames look absolutely photo-realistic for TF2... Can’t wait.

And to add a little estrogen to this journal entry, here’s the teaser poster for Megan Fox’s upcoming horror flick, Jennifer’s Body. I can picture something other than blood dripping from her mou— Nevermind.