Thursday, 13 October 2011
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood has signed up its first female director for a major superhero movie.
Marvel Studios announced Thursday that Patty Jenkins will direct "Thor 2," the sequel to last summer's hit that is due in theaters Nov. 15, 2013.
Jenkins is best-known for writing and directing 2003's "Monster," which earned Charlize Theron the best-actress Academy Award. Her credits also include episodes of "Entourage" and "Arrested Development."
Chris Hemsworth will reprise his title role in "Thor 2" as the Norse god of thunder, with co-stars Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston also returning.
The first "Thor," directed by Kenneth Branagh, took in $448 million worldwide.
Another female filmmaker, Lexi Alexander, made the lower-budgeted Marvel movie "The Punisher: War Zone" in 2008. But Jenkins is the first woman to direct a blockbuster superhero franchise.
Thursday, 13 October 2011 0
"Avatar"
Famously, Cameron once touted 3D filmmaking as the entertainment industry's best hope for combating piracy. Unfortunately, the 3D spectacle doesn't seem to have helped his film escape the wrath of torrent sites, but the film has raked in nearly $2.8 billion in wordwide theatrical gross nonetheless.
Avatar's 21 million downloads beat out 19 million downloads apiece for The Dark Knight and Transformers.
All of the films on the TorrentFreak's all-time list of "most pirated movies" did quite well at the box office. Only Kick-Ass failed to crack the $100 million mark, although it came close at $96 million.
Of course, theatrical gross is merely part of the story. Some studio executives believe that online piracy does its most damage on ancillary income like DVDs and TV sales.
Here's the full list of the top 10 most all-time pirated movies:
- Avatar (21 million downloads)
- The Dark Knight (19 million)
- Transformers (19 million)
- Inception (18 million)
- The Hangover (17 million)
- Star Trek (16 million)
- Kick-Ass (15 million)
- The Departed (14 million)
- The Incredible Hulk (14 million)
- Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End (14 million)
