It’s been a decade since Doug Liman helmed the spy-actioner The Bourne Identity, but it appears he’s readying a return to the genre.  Deadline reports that Sony has acquired author Olen Steinhauer’s series of novels The Tourist, Nearest Exit, and An American Spy with Liman attached to direct.  Matt Corman and Chris Ord (Covert Affairs) are set to write the screenplay for an adaptation of The Tourist.  The series centers on Milo Weaver, “a burned out spy for a clandestine US intelligence agency that battles global organized crime, terrorists and the like.”  Weaver’s happiness is threatened when an investigation into the death of a target he’s been hunting begins.

The story feels like familiar territory for Liman, but he made two entertaining action-thrillers with Bourne and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, so it’s reasonable to assume he’d bring the same enthusiasm to this material.  He’s next set to direct the sci-fi actioner All You Need Is Kill with Tom Cruise, but with Corman and Ord just now getting to work on the script it may be some time before we see The Tourist move forward.

New Year’s Eve is the new number one movie in America; but with one of the lowest first-place debuts of the year, Warner Brothers may not feel like toasting their success.  The studio’s follow-up to last year’s Valentine’s Day estimated just $13.7 million from 3,505 locations, or 76% lower than its predecessor’s first weekend total.

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.

Top 10 lists are a dime a dozen in the Hollywood circle, but while most writers are busy compiling their “Best of” in terms of films, directors and performances I’m always more curious to explore the less-appreciated categories – particularly Best Motion Picture Score. And so without further ado, here are my picks for the Best Scores of 2010. Hit the jump to see the list.

Oh, the Golden Globes: the most popular awards show where nominations and victories are bought and paid for.  While the Globes have a modest reputation as a good indicator of what will be getting Oscar nominations, this year’s list of nominees features a solid, respectable Best Drama category and a laughably terrible Comedy/Musical category.  Nominated for Best Drama, you have likely Oscar contenders Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The King’s Speech, and The Social Network.  But fighting for Best Comedy/Musical you have the critically panned Alice in Wonderland, Burlesque, and The Tourist.  You also have Red and then the only film that deserves to win, The Kids Are All Right.

Hit the jump for the full list of nominees including my thoughts on the TV shows which received nominations.

When all of the good box office news is coming from the specialty market, you know that Hollywood is having a rough December.  Both Black Swan and The Fighter posted big numbers in limited release while few fans felt the urge to “Return to Narnia” with Fox’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  The Narnia franchise’s third installment does at least get to claim the “Number One Movie in America” tag for its TV spots over the next few days, however.  Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie got The Tourist to second place this weekend, as expected… it is only that number in the total column that could have been bigger.

In our latest installment of our ongoing podcast series, Running Dialogue, Russ, Curt, and I discuss Black Swan, The Tourist, and Four Lions.  All three of us talk about Black Swan and our various issues with the film.  Russ and I talk The Tourist and how it fails and then Curt and I talk about Four Lions and how it succeeds.  Since I was the only one of us who saw all three films, I proclaim myself the King of all Movies for all-time.

Click here to listen to the new episode.  Also, you can hit the jump for a list of all the movies we’ve recommended so far. Finally, click here to add Running Dialogue to your RSS feed.

Two new wide releases opened Friday and, so far, neither of them looks much like a blockbuster.  Fox’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader took first place with $8 million from 3,555 locations (1,989 in 3D).  Just to refresh your memory, Fox picked up the Narnia franchise from Disney after the second installment, Prince Caspian, failed to match the trajectory of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  Dawn Treader seems destined for a weekend total in the $30 million range so, considering that Caspian was deemed an ‘underperformer’ with its $55 million first weekend, this third chapter is going to need serious word of mouth to propel it into friendlier waters. Things don’t look any more promising for The Tourist.  The romantic thriller starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp made an estimated $6 million from its 2,756 locations on Friday.  That is less than Knight & Day, another star-powered espionage vehicle, saw from its first Friday last June.  Overall, business looks like it will be down by about 25% over this week in 2009.

Twist endings are a tricky proposition.  When executed successfully, they give the film a bravura finish that will have people talking for years to come.  But that’s rare.  More often than not, they leave the audience confused and frustrated.  The Tourist is a charming albeit forgettable trifle of a film that chooses to throw an unnecessary and maddeningly stupid twist at the audience.  It’s a twist ending that not only blows up in the movie’s face, but blows it’s face clean off, turning a pretty veneer into a mangled pile of “Are you kidding me?’ and “That makes no goddamned sense.”

While I rarely post studio provided interviews, when it’s Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, I make an exception.  Also, the press junket for The Tourist was in Paris the other day, and since we didn’t get invited, this is the only way you can see Jolie and Depp talk about the movie.  While both video interviews are very brief, they each talk about their characters, working with each other, and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

But what I really love about Depp’s interview is that he obviously recorded it while on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  You can tell because he’s wearing eye liner and his Jack Sparrow gold teeth.  Also, unlike most EPK interviews which are done in a generic location, this one looks like they recorded it in Depp’s  trailer.  If you’re a fan of Johnny Depp, you’ll dig it.  Hit the jump to watch:

With director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Tourist getting released next week, Sony has released 5 movie clips and 4 minutes of behind the scenes footage.  So if you’re curious about the first on screen pairing of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, these clips should make you very happy.  While the trailers haven’t done much to excite me, I’m still checking this film out opening weekend because like you…I want to see Depp and Jolie on screen together.  Here’s the official synopsis:

Johnny Depp stars as an American tourist whose playful dalliance with a stranger leads to a web of intrigue, romance and danger in The Tourist. During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, Frank (Depp) unexpectedly finds himself in a flirtatious encounter with Elise (Angelina Jolie), an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice, their whirlwind romance quickly evolves as they find themselves unwittingly thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Hit the jump for the clips.  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Not satisfied with utilizing trailers and posters to sell the movie, we now have the first interactions between Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s upcoming thriller The Tourist. The poster we revealed last month clearly showcased Depp and Jolie as the main selling point, and this clip seems to follow right in line with that. Instead of showing an action piece or something involving other characters (Paul Bettany and Timothy Dalton are in the film as well), we get this flirtatious interaction between the main characters. While I’m not completely sold on the film yet, I am intrigued by what is being held back and the fact that Christopher McQuarrie co-wrote the script. The Tourist hits theaters December 10th, and you can hit the jump to check out the clip for the film, complete with synopsis.

Columbia Pictures has released a new trailer for The Tourist, the international thriller which stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.  Depp plays an American on vacation in Paris and Venice who becomes entangled in the web of intrigue spun by the enigmatic Elise (Jolie).  Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, and Timothy Dalton also star; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) directs.  Hit the jump to check out the new trailer.

Sony has released a new poster for director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s (The Lives of Others) The Tourist.  As most of you know, the film stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie and it was filmed on location in Venice.

While some posters can be considered high art and are the type to hang on your wall, the new poster for The Tourist is about one thing: letting you know Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie are in this movie.  It’s not trying to tell you what it’s about.  It’s not trying to sell you on the action or drama.   Instead, the poster just wants to let you know two of the biggest movie stars on the planet are together and in one movie.  It’s smart marketing.

If The Tourist ends up being a great movie, Sony can start printing money now.  Hit the jump to check out the poster:

The first theatrical trailer for The Tourist starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie has gone online.  Directed by Oscar winner Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others), the trailer more or less consists of Jolie being her typically seductive-self while Depp seems to be in trouble thanks to a classic case of mistaken identity.  While I can’t say the trailer did a ton for me, I definitely enjoyed the music which sets up the film as more fun than serious.  I also liked seeing Depp in more of a typical “every-man” role in exchange for what has seemingly become his expected “over-the-top” character work (i.e. Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Sweeney Todd, etc.).

To check out the trailer, hit the jump.  The Tourist also stars Paul Bettany, former Agent 007 Timothy Dalton, and Rufus Sewell.  It hits theaters on December 10th.