We haven’t seen too much from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s animated family-friendly sequel Despicable Me 2, but we can expect to hear even less from Al Pacino as the veteran actor has left the picture.  Pacino had come onto the film to replace Javier Bardem as the new antagonist, but apparently creative differences have led to a parting of ways.  Although Pacino has done a fair amount of work on the film, the studio is already looking for an actor to replace him in order to make their early July release date.

Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud are directing the sequel with Steve Carell reprising his role as Gru.  Other voice cast members include Kristen Wiig, Ken Jeong, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand and Steve Coogan.  Despicable Me 2 opens July 3rd.  Hit the jump for more.

If anyone ever offers you a free ride on a blimp, you say, “Yes.”  If you’re afraid of heights, you get over it.  If you have a fear of blimps, you have a very strange phobia, but still need to get over it.  When Universal offered me a chance for a blimp ride, I leaped at the opportunity.  The studio has commissioned a blimp to promote Despicable Me 2, and converted it into the “Despicablimp” by painting on a gigantic minion.  I have no idea if blimps are part of the plot for Despicable Me 2, but after today, I’m convinced all movies should incorporate blimps into their marketing campaigns.  Lincoln was a hit at the box office, but it could have been even more successful if the studio painted Daniel Day-Lewis on a blimp.  People would look in the sky, see a giant Day-Lewis looking down on them, and know that all was right with the world.  That’s how they’re going to feel when they see an adorable minion flying high above.

Hit the jump for more about my ride on Despicablimp.  Despicable Me 2 opens in 3D on July 3rd.

Entertainment Weekly has announced the complete lineup for the upcoming EW CapeTown Film Festival, and it’s chock-full of great films and exciting guests.  Screenings include Shaun of the Dead, The Thing, Escape from New York, The Goonies, Twelve Monkeys, and Star Trek (2009), with a special “May the 4th Be With You” all-day marathon of Return of the Jedi.  More excitingly, though, is the fact that Edgar Wright, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Richard Donner, Neil Gaiman, Terry Gilliam, Leonard Nemoy, and more will be onhand to introduce and discuss the various films.

Hit the jump to check out the full lineup, which also includes a special announcement that’s coming soon.  EW CapeTown Film Festival will run in Los Angeles from April 30th – May 6th.

A new trailer, poster, and images are now online for Despicable Me 2.  The new trailer shows Gru (Steve Carell) being kidnapped by the “Anti-Villain League”, and being recruited in order to defeat a new super villain.  Gru seems to have softened considerably since becoming the father of Margo, Agnes, and Edith.  Unsurprisingly, the best jokes belong to the minions, and although Despicable Me 2 looks okay, I’m still more excited to see the minions’ spinoff.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, poster, and images. The film also features the voices of Kristen Wiig, Al Pacino, Miranda Cosgrove and Russell Brand.  Despicable Me 2 opens in 3D on July 3rd. 

Last year, we reported that Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment were developing a Despicable Me spinoff for the lovable minions.  The spinoff, appropriately titled “Minions“, now has a voice for its lead villain.  According to Deadline, Sandra Bullock will provide the voice of “Scarlet Overkill, a stylish bad-ass super-villain who is (what else?), bent on world domination.”  The story shows the minions have been around forever, and unintentionally thwarted and destroyed their masters’ plans through adorable incompetence.  Set in the 1960s, Minions has three of the creatures going to a villain convention to find a new master, and compete to get the job from Overkill, who aspires to be the world’s first female supervillain.  It sounds like a fun role for Bullock, and I’m eager to see what she does with it.

Minions is due out in 3D on December 19, 2014.  The minions will next be seen in  Despicable Me 2, which arrives in 3D on July 3rd.  Bullock will next be seen in Paul Feig‘s R-rated action-comedy The Heat, which opens June 28th.

A new trailer and three new images for the animated sequel Despicable Me 2 have been released.  Unlike the teaser, this trailer looks to have footage from the actual film.  The marketing is unsurprisingly centered on those adorable little minions, but this trailer has a pretty cute Halloween bent in keeping with today’s festivities.  It also may or may not hint at some sort of alien presence in the follow-up, but we really get very, very little by way of plot.  Universal knows that the key to getting kids excited for the sequel is showing the minions getting into all sorts of goofy shenanigans—that’s why the they have their own spinoff film in the works.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and images.  The film features the voices of Steve Carell, Al Pacino, and Steve Coogan.  Despicable Me 2 opens in 3D on July 3rd, 2013.

We learned last month that, in addition to a direct sequel to Despicable Me, Illumination Entertainment is planning a spinoff centered on the minions.  The movie will look to corner the holiday toy market, as Deadline hears that Universal (Illumination’s distribution partner) has scheduled the untitled minions spinoff for December 19, 2014.  Not much is known about the movie, other than its focus on the unintelligible-yet-adorable yellow creatures and their interactions with humans, and it will be 3D.  Despicable Me directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud are returning to helm both Despicable Me 2 (scheduled for July 3, 2013) and the spinoff.  Illumination’s Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy are producing.  Hit the jump to watch the minion-centric teaser for Despicable Me 2.

Universal Pictures has announced a 25-film Blu-ray collection to commemorate the studio’s 100th anniversary, and it’s a genuinely great box set.  The “Universal 100th Anniversary Collection” includes 25 of the studio’s finest films, a 15-track music CD chock full of iconic film scores, a “100 Years of Universal” 72-page collector’s book and more.  Though the inclusion of HD versions of films like Dracula, Jurassic Park, The Sting, Back to the Future, Jaws, Do the Right Thing, and To Kill a Mockingbird alone would have been worth the purchase, the box set includes a number of vintage cartoons and shorts as well as a collection of featurettes covering the studio’s entire history.

The 25-disc Blu-ray set and 26-disc DVD collection (Schindler’s List is included in the DVD set only) will be available for a limited time starting November 6th.  A price has yet to be announced, but I don’t expect it’ll be cheap.  Hit the jump to read the full rundown of films and special features.

Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures spawned not one, but hopefully two new franchises with the release of 2010’s animated feature Despicable Me.  A direct sequel, Despicable Me 2, is already set for release in July 2013, but Deadline now reports that the studios have quietly been working on a spinoff featuring those adorable/pesky little Minions.  The spinoff feature is currently without a title, but Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me) will direct with Kyle Balda (The Lorax) acting as co-director.  Brian Lynch (Hop, Puss in Boots) has already written the screenplay.  Hit the jump for more.

We all knew The Lorax was going to be number one, and a big number one at that.  But most box office watchers were expecting the animated film to land somewhere between $49 and $59 million on its first weekend – making it easily the biggest debut of 2012.  Instead, the adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic has earned an estimated $70.7 million from 3,927 locations.  Not only is that the third-highest March debut ever, it also stands as the biggest animated feature debut since Toy Story 3.  In other words, this is huge.

He is the Lorax! He speaks for the trees… and for dozens of other corporate sponsors if the marketing for the new animated feature is to be believed.  All of that advertising helped the adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic The Lorax achieve the highest single-day debut of 2012 with an estimated $17.4 million from 3,729 locations.  That puts the family film on track for a weekend in the $60 million range.  Not only would that be significantly higher than initial tracking indicated, it would also help The Lorax beat the $56.4 million that Despicable Me, the first animated feature from Illumination Entertainment, earned for its own debut in July of 2010. Predictably, The Lorax sucked up most of the available resources at Friday’s box office, though there was enough green left over for Project X to claim a solid launch.  The R-rated Warner Brothers’ comedy earned an estimated $8.2 million on Friday, including $1.15 million from midnight screenings, and is projected to come close to $20 million through Sunday. We’ll have full details and analysis tomorrow.

Universal has released the teaser trailer and poster for Despicable Me 2.  There aren’t any plot details or even footage from the film, but that doesn’t mean the marketing campaign can’t begin 15 months before the movie opens.  So how do you sell a movie without the movie?  The minions!  By being adorable, the minions can sell anything.  Granted, this is really more of an announcement trailer, although I have no idea why they’re “singing” the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann”.  I can’t remember if that was a thing in the first movie or not.

Hit the jump to check out the teaser trailer and poster.  The film features the voice talents of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, and Al Pacino.  Despicable Me 2 opens in 3D on July 3, 2013.

After two weeks spent chasing the superior numbers of New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 has finally achieved something that its predecessor could not: three weeks in a row on top of the domestic box office.

Universal scored a big hit with Despicable Me and they sent a sequel into development almost immediately after the animated film opened #1 at the box office.  This past June, we reported that the studio had set Despicable Me 2 for July 3, 2013 and even though that’s ridiculously far away, the marketing has begun.  Collider reader Max has sent along the first promo poster for the movie and it proclaims “More Minions.  More Despicable.”  Unless the entire planet is getting covered in adorable minions, I don’t see how they could fit any more of the scene-stealing characters into the movie.

Hit the jump to check out the poster.

In its magical debut, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 has claimed another record: the all-time domestic weekend opening.  With an estimated $168.5 million from its 4,375 locations, Harry Potter’s final installment topped the former record of $158.7 million that The Dark Knight set in July 2008.