The Last Exorcism opened at #1 at the box office this weekend, grossing a first-weekend total of $21.3 million dollars. It opened in 2,874 theaters for a per-screen average of $7,411 on a minuscule $1.8 million budget.

The ensemble heist film Takers, starring Matt Dillon, Hayden Christenson, Paul Walker and Zoe Saldana, opened at #2 with $21 million. The movie has a $9,519 per-theater average from 2,206 theaters on a $20 million budget.

The Expendables fell from #1 to #3 in its third weekend, scoring $9.5 million. That puts the action film at a total gross of $82 million off a budget of $82 million as well.

Eat Pray Love fell one spot from #3 to #4 with $7 million in its third week. The film has a total gross now of $60.7 million on a budget of $60 million.

The Other Guys held steady at #5 in its fourth week, bringing in $6.6 million. The action-comedy has now brought in $99.3 million on a $100 million budget.

Vampires Suck fell from #2 to #6 in its second weekend, grossing $5.3 million. It has thus far pulled in $27.9 million on a $20 million budget, making it another success for the parody duo of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer.

Inception jumped up from #9 to #7 in its seventh week, bringing in $5.1 million to bring its total gross to $270.7 million and $628 million worldwide. The film had a budget of $150 million.

Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee Returns held steady at #8 in its second weekend. The film grossed $4.7 million, giving it $17 million total domestically and $79 million worldwide. It had a budget of $35 million.

The Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman romantic comedy The Switch fell two spots to #9 with $4.7 million. The movie has now grossed a total of $16.5 million.

Piranha 3D slipped from #6 to #10 in its second week, grossing $4.3 million The horror film film has now grossed $18.3 million on a budget of $24 million.

BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
1. The Last Exorcism - $21.3 million ($21.3 million total)
2. Takers - $21 million ($21 million total)
3. The Expendables - $9.5 million ($82 million total)
4. Eat Pray Love - $7 million ($60.7 million total)
5. The Other Guys - $6.6 million ($99.3 million total)
6. Vampires Suck - $5.3 million ($27.9 million total)
7. Inception - $5.1 million ($270.7 million total)
8. Nanny McPhee Returns - $4.7 million ($17 million total)
9. The Switch - $4.7 million ($16.4 million total)
10. Piranha 3D - $4.3 million ($18.3 million total)

According to Comic Book Movie, True Blood's Stephen Moyer (vampire Bill Compton) is up for the role of Victor Von Doom in the Fox reboot Fantastic Four Reborn. The site says that the offer is out there for Moyer to play Doom, who in the movie will, "be showcased as the ruler of Latveria and a master of the mystic arts."

The site also reports that Kevin Pennington (90210) is the front runner to play Johnny Storm/Human Torch. Adrien Brody and Alice Eve have been rumored for the roles of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, respectively. Fox ants to get the film out by 2012, which would set it in the same year as The Avengers and the Spider-Man reboot.

James Cameron recently spoke about Piranha 3D, and he isn't exactly a fan…

"You've got to remember: I worked on Piranha 2 for a few days and got fired off of it; I don't put it on my official filmography. So there's no sort of fond connection for me whatsoever. In fact, I would go even farther and say that... I tend almost never to throw other films under the bus, but that is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3-D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3-D horror films from the 70s and 80s, like Friday the 13th 3-D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3-D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip. And that's not what's happening now with 3-D."

Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper are attached to star in an untitled action comedy film. Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) wrote the script, which, "follows two friends, who are also San Francisco cops, whose fathers were once partners on the police force. The older generation is forced out of retirement to help their sons crack a case, with typically antagonistic results." Neal Moritz, Andrew Panay and Reynolds' Dark Trick Films partner Jonathon Komack Martin will produce the film along with J.C. Spink and Chris Bender of Benderspink. Panay and Turner previously developed the concept, then called Blowback, five years ago with Dwayne Johnson attached to one of the roles.
 

The Argyllshire Standard recently spoke with Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who), who has revealed that he is up for a role in The Hobbit. Here is what he had to say…

"I am being cast in The Hobbit. We're currently in negotiations - there are two of us under consideration. It's not the Bilbo role, but could be bigger."

TheOneRing.net is speculating that he could be up for the role of Radagast the Brown.

John Woo's next film will be Flying Tigers. Flying Tigers is the story of the 1st American Volunteer Group during World War II. The story first came to the big screen in 1942, starring John Wayne. Woo's film will start filming in the spring of 2011, and while nothing has been confirmed, Woo wants Liam Neeson to play the lead role of U.S. Army Air Corp Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, the American officer who trained the Chinese pilots to fight the Japanese in World War II. The film will also be digitally re-mastered into The IMAX Experience. John Woo spoke on that, saying the following…

"It has always been a dream of mine to explore shooting with IMAX cameras and to work in the IMAX format, and the strong visual element of this film is incredibly well-suited to the tastes of cinemagoers today. Using IMAX for Flying Tigers would create a new experience for the audience, and I think it would be another breakthrough for Chinese movies."

Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has purchased a World War II pitch from Bruce C. McKenna (The Pacific, Band of Brothers). The film would be shot in 3D, and would tell the story of the days between June 4th and June 6th in 1942, The Battle of Midway. McKenna is expected to turn in a script within the next eight weeks, and the film could carry a budget of $200 million. The Battle of Midway previously hit the big screen back in 1976, starring Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn and Hal Holbrook.

Mark Ruffalo, who will play The Incredible Hulk in the upcoming The Avengers movie, said recently that he would not have done a comic book movie before now.

"I probably wouldn't have done this movie in the past," Ruffalo said. "But because of what Robert [Downey Jr] had done and where that genre has gone since then, I did it."

Ruffalo added that he was a fan of The Incredible Hulk on TV, but said he was a little wary of doing so many scenes in front of a green screen. He's also not doing the film for the money.

"I have never really been one to go for the cash," Ruffalo explains. "If my dad knew how much money I had turned in my lifetime he would kick me in the a—."

The Avengers releases on May 4, 2012.

According to sources close to Lindsay Lohan, the actress is interested in playing the title role in The Bride of Frankenstein.

Lindsay's agent at CAA reportedly gave her the script for the remake before she went to jail, and Lindsay "really wants it." However an executive at Imagine Entertainment, which is making the film, says that there is "no truth to this."

The film has been stuck in development for quite a while, but maybe some Lohan buzz could revive it.

Idris Elba, who will appear in Thor as the Asgardian warrior Heimdall, spoke recently about his role in the film and whether he would be back for more comic book movies. Some highlights:

On working on Thor: It was dope. It was an interesting genre of film to make. I had never done comic book stuff, so that was really great.

On the best part of working on the film: Just the bigness of the show. It's so epic, these huge sets were just amazing to look at. And they really pay attention to detail. When you read the comics, you see all the drawings, and to actually see them in real life, it's like, "Whoa!"

On doing more Marvel movies: I have a deal with the Marvel Studios team, a four-picture commitment. I'm sure I'll be back in something cool.

Sylvester Stallone tweeted the following today:

"Had dinner with Bruce Willis last night. I want him in EXPENDABLES II as a super villain. What do you think?"

According to a report, a remake of Back to the Future may be happening...and it may star Justin Bieber. Sources are saying that Bieber is under consideration for the remake, if "he is capable of acting at that level." Would you want to see Bieber in Back to the Future?

According to a report, Oscar-nominated screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson (Ali, Nixon) have joined the crew of the planned Tupac Shakur biographical film, being directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day).

The film is said to stray from the usual biopic route, which is a big change from the original Steven Bagatourian screenplay which was said to be "largely documentary in style, simply laying out the facts of the slain rapper-poet-actor's brief 25-year life." Instead it will focus on the last day of the slain rapper's life, flashing back to various points in the four years leading up to it.

Rivele compares Tupac with a "19th century Romantic poet … This is the story of an artist whose character is at odds with his medium. He was a really sensitive, very romantic, talented young poet who also could sing, dance, and act. But the realities [of the hip-hop record business] were that he had to create this persona of the gangster."

The film is not meant to resolve or lay blame for Tupac's murder. Instead it wants to identify why he was killed. "He was not a gangster, but the people around him were," the writers explain. "They saw he was going to leave, that they were going to lose him, and so I think they decided to kill him."

The film could start shooting as early as this November.

Toy Story 3 has joined Alice in Wonderland as the year's only two billion-dollar movies. Disney released both films.

Toy Story 3 became the 11th Disney-Pixer movie to debut in the top box office spot earlier this year. It will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on November 2.

According to a report, Kung Fu Panda writers Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff have signed on to write the sequel to The Karate Kid.

In addition to the animated flick, Voris and Reiff also worked on the TV shows Brimstone and Sleeper Cell. The first film, which was remake of the 1984 classic, starred Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Will Smith produced and the movie has made close to $300 million worldwide.

The sequel to the original movie was set in Japan. With the remake being set there, could this one be set in the US? Columbia, who is behind the project, has not revealed that information yet.
 

Paramount has decided to follow the Dark Knight route and get rid of the Mission: Impossible name, meaning the next film in the franchise won't be called Mission: Impossible IV.

Brad Bird is set to direct with Tom Cruise starring. The plan is to keep the film's costs down by giving Cruise "potential compensation" based on how the film does rather than a guaranteed upfront payday. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) has also been cast in the film in a role that is said to be "as big" as Cruise's. The hope is to have the next film establish Renner as the main star and freshen up the franchise.

Also, Lauren German (Hostel: Part II) and Paula Patton (Deja Vu) are testing for the role of a young female operative.
 

John Cusack has announced via his Twitter that he is set to play Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven. The film is a fictional thriller where Poe and a police detective track a killer whose murders are patterned after Poe's stories.

James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) is set to direct.

Shenae Grimes (90210) and Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) will both be making cameos in Scream 4. Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell are also set for cameos, and since they are bigger stars, they will likely be the first victims in the movie, holding true to past Scream traditions of having major stars die early.

Producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk (Lost) recently spoke about the Star Trek sequel, comparing it to The Dark Knight in how they are approaching it. Here are some of the highlights:

Lindelof on their approach for the sequel: "We're looking at a movie like The Dark Knight, which went one step beyond Batman Begins...We don't want to abandon all the things that made [2009's Star Trek] work and have it be fun and emotional, but we also really want the movie to thematically resonate."

Burk on the sequel: "Our aspirations are for [Star Trek 2] to be even bigger and better than the first one. I don't mean that just in scope, I mean content and characters and emotionally. We had a lot of conversations about Batman Begins and how that movie kind of re-invented that franchise, and we looked at what The Dark Knight did and how that really ramped it up...So we have strong ideas of what we want to do and we are hoping that this one is an even bigger film than the last one."

Deadline is reporting that Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) will likely join Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible IV. According to the report, the studio has been struggling to find the right man to star opposite of Cruise. The goal was to find someone that could potentially carry on the series if Cruise's Ethan Hunt character would not continue to be the focus of the franchise. While Cruise is expected for the fifth installment of the franchise, production chief Adam Goodman, "wanted a guy who could grow into a leading man in his own right."

Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) was rumored as one of three actors set to screen test for the film, but the site adds that the screen tests have been canceled, due to Renner's casting.

- Producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently discussed Magneto, X-Men, and more. Here are the highlights…

On The X-Men Franchise: I personally feel that the X-Men franchise is kind of like Marvel in that there's a lot of characters, there are a lot of stories, 40 years of comics and that we can make multiple movies. It's not like Spider-Man where there is a Spider-Man and you follow him. This is THE X-Men and there's a world. In that world, we can tell many stories.

On Wolverine: Well, we have another Wolverine that we're going to do, The Wolverine Saga, with Mariko, The Japanese Story, that miniseries. But that we pretty much follow the comic pretty closely, as closely, really closely.

Is There Any Movement On The Magneto Movie?: No. You know, there's internal discussions but probably not. It kind of got incorporated into this one, a lot of it.

On Ryan Reynolds As Deadpool: You know, Ryan is so committed to being Deadpool. He is Wade Wilson. Well, no, he's Deadpool. He is so committed to it that he worked with the writers on the script. Even though he's doing Green Lantern, he's stayed involved in that project. I'm hoping we'll get it off the ground next year.

Will Reynolds Playing Green Lantern Help Deadpool At The Box Office?: Oh, yeah, sure. It's very different. It's like Harrison Ford doing Star Wars and Indiana Jones. DC and Marvel are different universes with different movies. But sure, the more popular and well known he is the better.

Variety reports that Steve Carell will be starring in A Boyfriend for My Wife. Mark Gibson and Phil Halprin (Snow Dogs) will adapt the script, which will be a remake of the 2008 Argentine romantic comedy. In the original, a timid husband thinks that the only way to save his failing marriage is to get her to fall in love with another man. This leads to him enlisting the services of a legendary, yet unlikely Lothario.

Sony has joined the race against Toshiba and are trying to develop 3D TVs that do not need the special glasses. But will this technology lead to 3D home releases? According to the article, it sounds that way…

"Sony said it will start selling in Japan next month two films and two music videos in 3-D, and planned home software of 3-D theater releases, including a 3-D "Spider-Man" opening in 2012."