Though the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past is gearing up to begin production next month, another long-promised X-Men spinoff film continues to linger in development hell.  Fox has been working on a Deadpool movie for what feels like an eternity now, and the last thing we heard about the project was a rumor that the studio had shot 8-minutes of test footage for the proposed pic.  That was over a year ago and we haven’t had any significant updates in the interim.  Ryan Reynolds remains attached to star, but the hurdle for the studio is greenlighting a hard-R superhero movie in which the protagonist frequently breaks the fourth wall.

Reynolds recently gave a bit of an update on the project, saying that “it’s sitting there” and discussing the difficulty of getting the go-ahead from Fox for such a unique film.  The actor also addressed how the Deadpool spinoff would handle the character’s appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

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.

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.

Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is lining up another big franchise by taking the lead role in Peter Berg’s upcoming adaptation of the board game Battleship.  According to Heat Vision, Kitsch will play Naval commander Alex Hopper who is described as “wildly spirited” and “a great seaman but a lousy politician.”  The script, written by Jon and Erich Hoeber, centers on an international armada who must fend off an alien attack.  Since Kitsch is known for having his roguish charm explode off the screen and onto the audience’s face, the role of a wildly spirited seaman should fit him like a latex glove.

As we previously reported, Oscar-nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) was up for the role but decided to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming religious drama alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Battleship could be a second massive franchise for Kitsch as the actor has already signed to play the title character in John Carter of Mars.  Based off the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs book series, the John Carter series is intended to be the first part of a trilogy.  If Fox ever begins moving ahead with a Gambit movie, we may need to clone the guy.

Wolverine 2 is set to begin shooting in January 2011 and definitely will take place in Japan. As reported by Roger Friedman’s Show Biz 411 (who, in an bizarre twist, is just reporting on a Wolverine movie instead of happily bootlegging it) , the second Wolverine appears to be an adaptation of Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s classic 1982 comic book arc. Hit the jump to learn more about Logan’s exploits in Japan.

I’m not a negative person, but it’s come to my attention that what I intend as mockery is interpreted as bitter disdain.  I just think a lot of things are funny and this is a job you can’t take too seriously.  Sure, there are events that pissed me off this year like Roger Friedman happily bootlegging X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but I understand I’m not writing about the atrocities in Darfur or the meltdown of the U.S. economy.  I write about movies and I’m very happy to do so.

Of the five films I think were the “worst” of 2005, all of them were screened for critics.  If a film was deemed too terrible to give the public a heads-up, then I think that speaks for itself (although G.I. Joe proved an exception as the majority of my friends told me it was surprisingly enjoyable).  However, I respect all filmmakers who put themselves out there and even the worst film deserves my admiration because filmmaking is a grueling process which takes months; in comparison, it takes me about an hour or so to criticize it.

Finally, two of these films I just think are silly and while terrible, they’re mostly harmless.  The other three, well, I have a bit more to say about them.  Hit the jump for the countdown.

How much did people love J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek?  So much that they felt too much ecstasy to leave their computers and see the movie again.  However, thanks to the wonder of the Internet, they just pirated the shit out of it and made it 2009′s most pirated film of the year with almost 11 million downloads.  THR reports that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a close second, but down at number nine was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which at first seems surprising due to the leaked work print a month before the film came out.  I would say that it was a matter of demand but Wolverine made $180 million at the box office, but RocknRolla came in third with almost 10 million downloads even thought it only made $26 million at the box office.  What does this all mean?  It means I need to get out of the speculation biz because I clearly have no clue.

In a story less open to my terrible statistical analysis, Zoe Saldana recently told MTV that she expects Star Trek II to head into production around this time next year.  Here’s what she had to say: “I spoke to J.J. and Bryan Burk, his producing partner at Bad Robot, and they are still in the middle of building the script with Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, and we’ll probably be going into pre-production around this time next year.”

If that’s the case, then I’d imagine they’d be shooting for either a Winter 2011 or Summer 2012 launch.  Either way, that’s way too far away.  I mean, that could be three years.  Three years without a new Star Trek movie!  By that time, people may be able to pirate it on their phone in less than five minutes!

With Avatar the reigning champ and Sherlock Holmes still to come, Hollywood crossed the $10 billion line for the first time in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales for 2009.  Through Sunday, the total stood just $36 million short of crossing the $10 billion line, according to tracking firm Hollywood Box Office, and was set to plow across it Tuesday night.

The year’s top box office attractions were Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and with hits like Harry Potter and The Hangover, Warner Bros. was the North American box office champ among studios.  And with both Robert Downey Jr.’s take on Sherlock Holmes and the return of those rascally rodents in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel coming in time for Christmas, the final take is expected to top $10.4 billion.

Hit the jump for a list of the top 20 domestic box office hits of 2009.

There are certain moments that essentially cause such a disconnect, you can longer walk with whatever the film you are watching. Be it a totally disingenuous moment of proclaimed love or hate that has no hidden agendas, there are just some things that have to work for a film to progress. For me the make or break happened in the first reel of Wolverine. My review after the jump.

With only hours to go before Hollywood’s golden season draws to a close, I thought it was a good time to do the post-mortem on the summer of 2009.  By now you may have heard that this summer was Hollywood’s most-profitable ever with grosses topping $4.3 billion. But has it felt like the biggest summer ever?  Not really.  Blockbusters like “Transformers 2″ and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” aside, 2009 was a season of expensive movies that didn’t live up to the hype and cheap movies that performed above all expectations.  Follow me now into the murky world of box office number crunching to see just how huge Hollywood’s hugest summer really was.

If you’ve seen Fox’s recent film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, or you’ve been talked out of seeing it by friends, or by this website, chances are you have a low opinion of the recent travails of one of Marvel Comics’ best-loved characters.  Well, let this reviewer tell you now that the game X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the Uncaged Edition for your Xbox 360 or PS3 ) is far more worthwhile than its cinematic counterpart.  Maybe its logic and methodology are the same, but the game is far more gleefully gruesome, and far, far more fun.

Started about two-and-a-half years ago by the competent Raven Software, XO:W (hereafter, “Wolverine” ) clearly shows an excellent amount of polish.  Raven, the makers of last generation’s X-Men Legends series and the more recent Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, got a hold of the Wolverine license, and were itching to “do it right.”