Dwayne Johnson is Hercules (reviews) for director Brett Ratner. in an adaptation of the Steve Moore penned comic, the story follows our hero years after he carried out his twelve tasks and has turned his back on the Gods. He discovers a higher calling as he defends the mythical Mount Olympus from an evil army. He and six friends have become mercenaries who've been hired by the King of Thrace to train his men into becoming an army every bit as ruthless as they are.
Luc Besson ("La Femme Nikita," "The Fifth Element") wrote the script for Lucy (reviews) from which he directed that follows a woman (Scarlett Johansson) who is forced to become a drug mule. When the drug goes into her system, she is transformed into an ass-kicking machine. She can absorb knowledge instantaneously, is able to move objects with her mind and can't feel pain. She sets out to rescue a professor (Morgan Freeman).
I am rooting for Scar-Jo. Nothing against Johnson but I am bit Hercules weary....
Michael Douglas stars in Rob Reiner's And So It Goes (reviews) as a self-centered realtor with an empathy deficiency, who ends up learning to love again after reconnecting with his granddaughter and forming a friendship with a bubbly neighbor played by Diane Keaton.
A Most Wanted Man (reviews) is based on author John le Carré's 2008 political novel the story is set in present-day Hamburg, the action begins when a mysterious, near-dead half-Chechen, half-Russian fugitive arrives in the city's Islamic community desperate for help and looking to recover his late Russian father's ill-gotten fortune. The story is loosely based on Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen and legal German resident seized by American authorities and sent to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba before being released without charge in 2006. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Willem Dafoe, Rainer Bock, Charlotte Schwab,Daniel Brühl Max Volkert Martens and Martin Wuttke star.for director Anton Corbijn.
Pamela McClintock of THR:
Dwayne Johnson's buff Hercules may be no match for Scarlett Johansson's Lucy, making for one of the most interesting action showdowns at the summer box office since action movies don't traditionally feature a female star. Hercules marks Brett Ratner's first directorial outing since the ill-fated Tower Heist in 2011.
The weekend's other new nationwide offering is Rob Reiner's independent dramedy And So It Goes, starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. Clarius Entertainment opens the movie in roughly 1,800 locations, compared to more than 3,000 for Hercules and Lucy.
Pre-release tracking suggests Lucy will race past $30 million in its debut -- many think it will cross $35 million -- while Hercules is expected to earn in the mid-$20 million range, a disappointing start.
Lucy director Luc Besson is certainly no stranger to using female protagonists, having directed Zoe Saldana in Colombiana and made La Femme Nikita. There were also strong female characters in The Professional and The Fifth Element.
Universal made Lucy for a reported $40 million, and is touting Johansson's turn as Black Widow in Marvel's superhero films, including The Avengers and, more recently, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In Lucy, the actress plays a drug mule who gains super-human brain capacity. Johansson stars opposite Morgan Freeman in the, one of the few R-rated action films this summer.
Paramount and MGM partnered in making Hercules, which cost $100 million to produce and hopes to accomplish the Herculean task of finally launching a franchise centered around the Greek hero. Earlier this year, The Legend of Hercules failed at this task, opening to an anemic $8.9 million.
Adapted from Radical Comics' Hercules, Ratner's grittier take on the mythical hero sees Hercules and a band of mercenaries help end a civil war in the land of Thrace. A tormented soul from birth, Hercules has the strength of a god, but feels the suffering of a human as he's tested by unimaginable villains.
Johnson stars opposite Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan and John Hurt in the action epic.
Hercules could be a big player in some international markets, and rolls out in its first 19 territories this weekend, including Russia, the U.K. and Australia.
The specialty box office sees the debut of several high-profile titles, including Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight, from Sony Pictures Classics. With a cast led by Colin Firth and Emma Stone, Magic debuts in 17 theaters in select cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the film.
Espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man, starring the Rachel McAdams and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, makes a far more aggressive push, opening in 360 locations in 75 markets. Roadside Attractions is releasing the movie, directed by Anton Corbijn and based on the book by John le Carre.
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