It looks like negative word of mouth was indeed a factor for this weekend’s highest-profile debut.  After earning decent midnight and Friday numbers, Green Lantern fell off by an estimated 22% on Saturday – giving it a three day opening of just $52.6 million.

As the only new release of June’s first frame, X-Men: First Class easily claimed the top spot with an estimated $56 million from 3,641 locations.  While that is nowhere near what the last three X-films earned in their debuts, let’s face it, First Class was never playing in their league.

After a record breaking Memorial Day, it looks like the good times are going to continue to roll this weekend thanks to X-Men: First Class.  The Fox/Marvel release had no trouble landing at number one on Friday with an estimated $21 million from 3,641 locations and is projected to earn $53 million through Sunday.  That is more than all four of 2010’s wide releases earned on their post-Memorial Day frame.  In terms of its mutant predecessors, First Class is on par with the $54.4 million the first X-Men took in on its debut in July of 2000 and is also just above the $48.7 million that Batman Begins made in 2005.  Considering that, like the latter, this film attempts to reset a popular franchise with a young, new cast, that is pretty much as it should be.  In terms of the last X-offering, X-Men: First Class will not get near the $85 million that X-Men Origins: Wolverine made in May of 2009, but with 87% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes next to Wolverine’s 37%, I’m sure that’s a discrepancy they can live with.  Details and analysis tomorrow.

With the script expected in January and shooting set to start in May of 2011, the rumor mill for The Dark Knight Rises is cranking up. The latest speculation has the movie based on Prey, a story arc in the Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight graphic novel series. As the rumor spread like wildfire across the Internet, the frenzy has driven prices way up and flooded the market with copies of the previously commonplace series.

Prey, written by Doug Moench, is an unofficial follow-up to Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One (which influenced Batman Begins and The Dark Knight). It features prominent Gotham psychiatrist Dr. Hugo Strange (rumored to be played by Tom Hardy), who uses his influence on the mayor to form a task force to capture the vigilante Batman, the object of Strange’s obsession. Heading this task force is the newly promoted Commissioner Gordon, who must weigh his responsibilities to Gotham against his loyalties to Batman. Meanwhile, Dr. Strange deduces Batman’s true identity and plays mind games with him, finally attempting to kill the Dark Knight in order to become him.

While this assumption remains wildly speculative, hit the jump to see why it might have a leg to stand on.

News just broke that David Goyer, heavily involved in Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s other DC franchise (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), will be writing the next Superman film, according to Latino Review. Goyer has extensive experience with comic book films adapted to the big screen, and even wrote and directed Blade: Trinity. No, he likely won’t be directing this, but it does appear that this is one step closer to getting a good Superman flick.

For various plot details and who won’t be involved with the film, hit the jump.

Last week I got to do something extremely cool…I got to interview Hans Zimmer in his private Los Angeles recording studio!  While I get to speak with actors and directors all the time, getting to talk with a great composer is not the norm.  And getting to speak to one where he records his music…let’s just say I jumped at the chance to make this happen.

Thankfully, Zimmer could not have been nicer and while we spoke for over twenty minutes, our interview could have been all afternoon.  That’s because as the composer of such scores as Sherlock Holmes, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight (with James Newton Howard) Frost/Nixon, Inception and a ton of others….I had a million questions.

And while we talked about how he comes up with his music and all the normal questions, the best part was getting him to give me a tour of the room and show me all the equipment.  If you’re a fan of Hans Zimmer, want to write music for movies, or just a movie fan curious how composers work, you are going to absolutely love this interview.  Take a look after the jump:

A few days ago, I got to sit down with director Martin Campbell for an exclusive interview on his new film Edge of Darkness (which I really liked).  While I’ll be posting our full conversation next week, I wanted to get what he said about Green Lantern online now as everyone is talking about it.

Since all the big casting has been announced, I decided to use my limited time to discuss what kind of tone he would be going for and is there any chance Green Lantern might be in 3D. If you were wondering if Green Lantern would be like Batman Begins or Iron Man, here’s Campbell’s answer:

“It will be much more in the tone of Iron Man. It’s got to be. Certainly not Batman Begins, which is a pretty dark movie. No, he’s the Hal Jordan character who’s the sort of shoot from the hip, irresponsible kind of cocky test pilot if you will. In fact, the character seems to be the least likely to be chosen as Green Lantern.  Well, of course that’s the fun of it. So no, it’ll be much more like Iron Man. So it’ll have one foot in reality if you see what I mean.”

He also told me Green Lantern is going to another planet!  More after the jump: