Priest

Weekend Box Office – Lightning Strikes Twice for THOR; BRIDESMAIDS a Strong Second

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: May 15th, 2011 at 9:33 am

The summer movie season is only two weeks old and, here it is, napping on the job. The respite did give Thor another opportunity to flex his muscles before the blockbusters of May get back to work next weekend, however.  The Marvel hero easily conquered his competition to take first place for the second week in a row with an estimated $34.5 million.

	Title	Weekend	Total
1	Thor	$34,500,000	$119.3
2	Bridesmaids	$22,400,000	$22.4
3	Fast Five	$19,500,000	$168.8
4	Priest	$14,500,000	$14.5
5	Rio	$8,000,000	$124.9
6	Jumping the Broom	$7,300,000	$25.9
7	Something Borrowed	$7,000,000	$25.7
8	Water for Elephants	$4,100,000	$48.4
9	Madea’s Big Happy Family	$2,200,000	$50.2
10	Soul Surfer	$1,800,000	$39.2

Friday Box Office – THOR Stays at Number One with $9.1 Million; BRIDESMAIDS in Second with $7.8 Million

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: May 14th, 2011 at 9:28 am

It looks like it will be Thor again, by default, on top of this weekend’s domestic box office.  Though the summer movie season kicked off last weekend (two weeks ago if you count the giant debut of Fast Five), uncharacteristically low-profile debuts will help the God of Thunder retain his box office throne with a projected $32 million.  Thor earned an estimated $9.1 million on Friday: down 65% from his May 6^th debut. Bridesmaids, the female-skewing, R-rated comedy from producer Judd Apatow, came in second on Friday, bringing in an estimated $7.8 million from 2,918 locations and a projected $20 million for the weekend.  The weekend’s second new release, Sony/Screen Gems’ Priest, placed fourth.  The 3D adaptation of the sci-fi/horror graphic novel earned an estimated $5.6 million from 2,864 locations and is on track to earn $14 million over the weekend.  That’s pretty low for a 3D fanboy pic, but it is actually more than the studio expected.  Details tomorrow.

	Title	Friday	Total
1	Thor	$9,100,000	$93.8
2	Bridesmaids	$7,800,000	$7.8
3	Fast Five	$5,900,000	$155
4	Priest	$5,600,000	$5.6
5	Something Borrowed	$2,300,000	$20.9

Maggie Q Video Interview PRIEST

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: May 13th, 2011 at 8:58 am

With director Scott Stewart’s Priest opening this weekend, I recently spoke with the cast and after the jump is my interview with Maggie Q.  Since I spoke to her at last year’s Comic-Con about Priest, I tried to ask her new questions.  We talked about seeing the finished film for the first time, the challenges of making it, how one of her action scenes got the biggest reaction at the press screening, how does TV (Nikita) compare with making films, and what’s her karaoke song.  Hit the jump to watch.

Paul Bettany Talks PRIEST, Video Games, THE AVENGERS, A KNIGHT’S TALE and More

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: May 12th, 2011 at 4:59 pm

With director Scott Stewart’s Priest opening this weekend, I was recently able to interview the cast and after the jump is my interview with Paul Bettany.  Since I had an extended interview with him at this year’s WonderCon, I tried to ask all new questions.  We talked about what it was like at WonderCon, what video games has he been playing, will he voice Jarvis in The Avengers (he tells a great story about a Russian reporter), which of his films do people always want to talk about, and is he down for doing sequels to Priest.  Hit the jump to watch.

Lily Collins & Cam Gigandet Talk PRIEST, Karaoke, Video Games, and Gigandet Reveals His Xbox User Name

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: May 11th, 2011 at 4:53 pm

With director Scott Stewart’s Priest opening this weekend, I recently spoke with the cast and after the jump is my interview with Lily Collins and Cam Gigandet.  Since I had an extended interview with Collins at this year’s WonderCon, and I spoke to Gigandet at Comic-Con last summer, I tried to ask new questions.  We talked about their reaction to seeing the finished film, filming the action scenes, what have their experiences been like at WonderCon and Comic-Con, what’s their karaoke song, and what’s the last video game they’ve played.

Finally, if you’re a Call of Duty player, or just want to play a video game with Gigandet, he revealed his Xbox user name during the interview…hit the jump to watch.

Karl Urban Talks PRIEST, DREDD, the STAR TREK Sequel, Karaoke, More

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: May 9th, 2011 at 6:54 pm

With director Scott Stewart’s Priest opening this weekend, I was recently able to interview the cast and after the jump is my full conversation with Karl Urban (I posted part of it last week).  During the interview we talked about his reaction to the finished film, how Stewart pitched him on the project, what was it like to film the action sequences, how did his character change once he got involved, what’s his karaoke song, when does he start filming the Star Trek sequel, how did Pete Travis’ Dredd turn out, and will he visit the set of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit while they’re filming.

Director Scott Stewart Interview PRIEST

by Christina Radish    Posted: May 7th, 2011 at 7:30 pm

With the action-horror film Priest opening in theaters on May 13^th, Collider was invited, along with a handful of other outlets, to Sony Studios to preview a few scenes of the film and see the comparison between the 2D that it was shot in and the 3D conversion. The brief scenes gave a feel for the world that was created, the characters that inhabit it, the tone of the story, and one of the evil, snarling creatures. Getting to see the scenes first in 2D, and then again in 3D, really gave a sense of the conversion process and showed how time can really make a difference in the quality.

During the interview, director Scott Stewart talked about what he enjoys about working with Paul Bettany, how he determined the look for the Priests, deciding on the color scheme of the film, creating the look of the vampires, the process of converting to 3D, his plans for the DVD/Blu-ray, and whether he’s thought about a possible sequel for the film. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Maggie Q Interview PRIEST

by Christina Radish    Posted: May 7th, 2011 at 7:33 am

In the vampire action thriller Priest, Maggie Q stars as Priestess, a mysterious soldier who fought to defend mankind from the vicious vampire creatures that threatened to destroy the human race, and then was banished, along with the other Priests, for being seen as too powerful. Spending their time doing menial labor, the warriors who once saved the human population from its most terrifying enemy are now shunned by their neighbors. But, when a vampire attack leads to the abduction of the 18-year-old niece (Lily Collins) of Priest (Paul Bettany), he decides to break his sacred vows and defy orders by setting out to find the girl, with the help of Priestess and their otherworldly fighting skills.

During a recent interview to promote the film, actress Maggie Q talked about playing a character who has sacrificed everything, how she sees Priest as a drama that just happens to have action and vampires in it, and how much she enjoyed working with Paul Bettany and exploring the relationship between their characters. She also talked about how her television series Nikita will have a big finale that will run like a movie for the last couple of episodes. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

4 Clips from PRIEST

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: May 1st, 2011 at 9:58 am

With Screen Gems Priest opening May 13, the studio has sent over four clips from director Scott Stewart’s film that stars Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Lily Collins, Brad Dourif, Stephen Moyer, and Christopher Plummer.  Here’s the synopsis:

Priest is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi ride, set in an alternate world – one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his niece’s boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.

New PRIEST Trailer Sells the Action

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: April 12th, 2011 at 2:12 pm

While some trailers try and sell you on the story, the new trailer for Screen Gems Priest is selling just one thing: action.  From the moment the trailer starts, we watch as Paul Bettany and Cam Gigandet have to fight off some ugly looking vampires and they use some cool weaponry to try and survive.  I got to see the full sequence in 3D at WonderCon and thought it looked really good even though it had been post converted.  With this sequence being the main thing they’re selling in the new trailer, I am a bit nervous that this is the only big money shot in the movie.  However, I really like the cast, and I’m hoping the movie has a few other kick ass action set pieces.

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.  You can click here for all our previous Priest coverage.   Finally, here’s my recent video interviews with Paul Bettany, Lily Collins and director Scott Stewart.

Director Scott Stewart Talks PRIEST and MORTAL INSTRUMENTS at WonderCon

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: April 5th, 2011 at 8:33 pm

Arriving on May 13 is director Scott Stewart’s Priest.  Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the film stars Paul Bettany as a renegade warrior priest who goes on the hunt for his niece who’s been kidnapped by vampires. The 3D film also stars Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, and Lily Collins. At WonderCon, Screen Gems premiered a few scenes and I thought it looked like a pretty cool vampire movie.  In addition, while the film has been post converted, the 3D looked really well done and it just shows when you spend the time, post conversion works.  It took them 6 months to do it.

The day after the panel, I sat down with Stewart for an extended interview.  We discussed the footage he brought to WonderCon, did his previous experience in visual effects help him on Priest, the release date shift and how that helped the film, and he discussed his next project: Mortal Instruments (which is set to star Lily Collins).  While Priest was post converted, Stewart tells me he’s shooting Instruments in 3D and “we’re in the midst of doing a bunch of designs for the vehicles, the weapons, the creatures and the world.”  Hit the jump to watch.

Exclusive: Lily Collins Talks PRIEST, ABDUCTION, THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS and THE BROTHERS GRIMM: SNOW WHITE at WonderCon

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: April 4th, 2011 at 7:06 pm

Lily Collins has won the actors lottery.  I say this because after starring as Sandra Bullock’s daughter in The Blind Side, Collins jumped into filming director Scott Stewarts Priest alongside Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Karl Urban, and Maggie Q.  A short time after that, she starred alongside Taylor Lautner in director John Singleton’s Abduction, which gets released this September.  While that would be great for almost any actor, in the past two weeks she’s been named the frontrunner to play Stormy Llewellyn in director Stephen Sommers Odd Thomas, and she landed her biggest role to date: Snow White in director Tarsem Singh’s The Brothers Grimm: Snow White.  Needless to say, Collins is about to lose her anonymity.

At this past weekend’s WonderCon, I got to sit down with Collins for an extended video interview.  We talked about attending her first convention, how she got into acting, her character in Priest, filming Abduction and what it was like to work with Lautner and all his Twilight fans, what’s up with Mortal Instruments (talks about how she is tweeting as her character and the movie is filming in 3D), and we end the interview talking about getting cast as Snow White and what can people expect.  She reveals they start filming in June and she will be training for “quite a bit of fighting.”   Hit the jump to read or watch the interview.

Paul Bettany Talks PRIEST 3D at WonderCon

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: April 3rd, 2011 at 5:47 pm

Arriving on May 13 is director Scott Stewart’s Priest.  Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the film stars Paul Bettany as a renegade warrior priest who goes on the hunt for his niece who’s been kidnapped by vampires. The 3D film also stars Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, and Lily Collins.

On Friday night at WonderCon, Screen Gems premiered a few scenes and I thought it looked like a pretty cool vampire movie.  In addition, while the film has been post converted, the 3D looked very well done and it just shows when you spend the time, post conversion works.  I heard it took them 6 months to do it.

Anyway, I got to speak with Bettany the day after watching the footage and we talked about post conversion, why he wanted to do Priest, playing against type as an action star, what’s his karaoke song, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch:

WonderCon 2011: PRIEST Recap

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: April 1st, 2011 at 10:09 pm

Tonight I was able to see some footage from Scott Stewart’s Priest as Screen Gems premiered a few scenes to a number of WonderCon attendees. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the film stars Paul Bettany as a renegade warrior priest who goes on the hunt for his niece who’s been kidnapped by vampires. The 3D film also stars Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, and Lily Collins. Hit the jump for my reaction to the footage.

Programming for Wondercon 2011 Announced: GREEN LANTERN, COWBOYS & ALIENS, IMMORTALS, and More

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: March 21st, 2011 at 8:11 am

Programming for this year’s WonderCon has been announced.  This will be my first year attending WonderCon and Steve has informed me that it’s like Comic-Con except you can breathe.  While WonderCon may be the less-famous sibling to Comic-Con, it still has some big-name panels for fans.  This year, WonderCon is giving over the Esplanade Ballroom to some of the year’s biggest genre properties.  Leading the list of films is Warner Bros’ Green Lantern as well as Cowboys & Aliens, Super, The Three Musketeers, Hanna, Priest, and Immortals.  TV is also getting some attention with panels devoted to the new series Falling Skies, ThunderCats, and Terra Nova as well as Nikita, Doctor Who, Human Target, and V.  There will also be plenty of artists, writers, and other creative folks.

Hit the jump for the full schedule.  Wondercon 2011 runs from April 1 – 3rd at the Moscone Center South in San Francisco.

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