Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, and after a weekend with such a close call at the box office (well at least on Friday), this weekend is a bit more cut and dry, because when you take Ben Stiller, a huge box office star, and team him with the Farrelly Brothers, who helmed Stiller's earliest hit There's Something About Mary and you have a bonafide way to kick off October with a veritable comedy explosion!

Nearly guaranteed to open at the top, it's just a question whether their remake of The Heartbreak Kid will cross the $30 million mark like DreamWorks' other 2007 comedies, Eddie Murphy's Norbit and Will Ferrell's Blades of Glory, or whether its R-rating and less-than-ideal fall release will have it opening somewhere in the mid-20s.
There's a fairly open field for a comedy and little competition from the other weekend prospects, which are somewhat dicier: The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (Fox Walden) is being given a release into over 3,000 theatres with not a lot of promotion or interest to support it, while Feel the Noise (Sony/Tristar) is another one of those "urban" dance dramas that tends to do well in select areas like You Got Served (which also starred R ‘n' B singer Omarion) and Stomp the Yard from earlier this year, although this one isn't going as wide as either of those. Expect the Fox Walden movie to end up under $10 million, making a push for third place against Peter Berg's The Kingdom, while Feel the Noise should wind up in fifth place with less than $5 million.

Also, Sony Classics, daringly (or rather foolhardily), will expand their romantic comedy The Jane Austen Book Club nationwide into 800 theatres this weekend, but it's likely to remain well outside the Top 10 with roughly a million dollars or slightly more.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

Four years ago this weekend, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson starred in Peter Berg's action-comedy The Rundown, but in an odd twist of fate, the collaborators were forced to face each other at the box office and Johnson's family comedy The Game Plan (Disney) held a decisive win by grossing an estimated $22.7 million to the $17.7 million earned by Berg's Saudi thriller The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner.

The Weekend Warrior looks to be choking a bit this week, because it seems very likely that Disney's marketing of the Rock family comedy The Game Plan is going to have a similar effect on seriously neglected family audiences as 2005's The Pacifier, and though Disney is releasing it in over 3,100 theatres (and 300 more theatres than Peter Berg's The Kingdom), the October release will keep it closer to the $20 million mark. Still, this means that we're not as sure today about The Kingdom being #1 for the weekend, but it's still likely to win Friday due to school cutting into The Game Plan's business.

MGM's romantic drama Feast of Love, well let's just say even our modest prediction of $3 million might be somewhat generous, although it's been advertised enough that it could pick up the slack from older childless women who might not have interest in some of the other movies.

Warner Independent will expand Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah into 762 theatres on Friday, and it should end the weekend with roughly $1.7 million while Sony still isn't expanding Julie Taymor's Across the Universe despite it doing far better per theatre than In the Valley on a weekly basis.

Updated Predictions -

1. The Kingdom (Universal) - $20.5 million N/A (down $1.1 million)

2. The Game Plan (Disney) - $19.8 million N/A (up $2 million)

3. Resident Evil: Extinction (Sony/Screen Gems) - $9.5 million -59% (down .2 million)

4. Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate) - $7.6 million -44% (down .1 million)

5. The Brave One (Warner Bros.) - $4.3 million -43% (up .1 million)

6. 3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate) - $4.1 million – 35% (up .1 million)

7. Eastern Promises (Focus) - $3.3 million – 42% (same)

8. Sydney White (Universal) - $3.1 million -40% (same)

9. Feast of Love (MGM) - $3.0 million N/A (down .1 million)

10. Mr. Woodcock (New Line) - $2.9 million -42% (same)

Welcome to the Weekend Warrior and flip a coin because for some, that might be the easiest way to decide which movie will be #1 this weekend. While Peter Berg's Middle East action-thriller The Kingdom has a lot going for it, including its star Jamie Foxx, one can't deny the success that Disney has had with family comedies and giving Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson a young daughter in The Game Plan is the type of high concept comedy premise that has worked so well for the studio in the past. Ironically, when The Kingdom director Peter Berg teamed with The Rock for the action-comedy The Rundown, it also opened in this exact same weekend four years ago, but this time, they're facing each other for the top spot. Both movies have received advance sneak previews and are being released into a similar number of theatres and while the Disney movie should close any gap over the weekend, we're going to give a slight advantage to the action-thriller since it will generally have a wider audience and more appeal to the over-20 crowd.

On the other hand, the character drama Feast of Love (MGM), starring Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear, isn't being released into nearly as many theatres and besides its cast, it really doesn't have very much to convince people it's worth seeing in theatres, especially with so many other choices for older audiences. It might get into the Top 10 but fairly close to the bottom.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

The easy victor for the weekend was the action threequel Resident Evil: Exctinction (Sony/Screen Gems) which grossed an estimated $24 million in 2,800 theatres, exceeding the opening of its predecessor Resident Evil: Apocalypse three years ago in 400 fewer theaters, with an average of $8,400 per theatre. It's likely to end up just outside the Top 5 of September openers.

Lionsgate's latest comedy Good Luck Chuck, starring Dane Cook and Jessica Alba, did better than last year's Employee of the Month despite its R-rating, grossing an estimated $13.8 million its opening weekend, with an equally impressive average of $5,300 per theatre in second place.

Amanda Bynes suffered her first box office bomb with the comedy Sydney White (Universal), which grossed an estimated $5.3 million its opening weekend, barely half the opening of her last two comedies, to wind up in sixth place.

The big differences going into the weekend from the column earlier this week (actually yesterday) is that Julie Taymor's Across the Universe still isn't going nearly as wide as expected, expanding into 276 theatres after its impressive debut, while Richard Shepard's The Hunting Party, starring Richard Gere and Terrence Howard, will expand into 329 theatres on Friday. With fewer theatres than expected, Across the Universe should still end up in the Top 10, but possibly below The Bourne Ultimatum while The Hunting Party will end up with less than $1 million. (That is, if The Weinstein Company actually goes through with the expansion, unlike last week where they announced an expansion then cancelled it at the last minute.)

Screen Gems isn't releasing Resident Evil: Extinction into as many theatres as the last movie, but it should still end up around the same place as the previous movie, though more frontloaded towards the Friday and Thursday midnight screenings. Lionsgate is expanding the James Mangold Western 3:10 to Yuma even further, so expect it to give David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises and Amanda Bynes' Sydney White for their places in the Top 5.

Updated Predictions -

1. Resident Evil: Extinction (Sony/Screen Gems) - $22.8 million N/A (down -.6 million)

2. Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate) - $12.9 million N/A (up .3 million)

3. The Brave One (Warner Bros.) - $7.5 million -45% (no change)

4. Eastern Promises (Focus) - $6.5 million +1084% (up .4 million)

5. Sydney White (Universal) - $6.3 million N/A (down -.2)

6. 3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate) - $6.0 million -33% (up .3)

7. Mr. Woodcock (New Line) - $4.8 million -44% (no change)

8. Superbad (Sony) - $3.2 million - 37% (down .1)

9. The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) - $2.6 million - 37% (no change)

10. Across the Universe (Sony) - $2.4 million 423% (down .5 million)

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior with another busy weekend with lots of movies to see… or miss. The decision's all yours.

17 to 25 year old moviegoers will have the toughest choice to make this weekend between an action-horror movie with lots of gore or a raunchy sex comedy with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba with competition from last weekend's breakout limited releases which will expand wider this weekend. Based on the popular video game, the action-horror threequel Resident Evil: Extinction (Sony/Screen Gems) should continue the success of the franchise, followed by the Dane Cook-Jessica Alba R-rated comedy Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate), which should account for most of the younger male audience, although there could be some surprises bubbling under, especially with Eastern Promises (Focus) , David Cronenberg's follow-up to his hit thriller A History of Violence, opening wider this week. (Oddly, the last time a Cronenberg movie expanded wider, it also went up against the second weekend of a Jodie Foster movie and the opening of a Jessica Alba flick.) Also, Sydney White (Universal) starring Amanda Bynes might wind up being a first choice for teen and 'tween girls, but they also might go for Julie Taymor's movie musical Across the Universe, which should get into the lower end of the Top 10 as it expands into an estimated 400 theatres.

With so many dour and depressing dramas playing at this year's Toronto Film Festival--a couple of doozies will be reviewed shortly--two of the biggest surprises of the annual fest were dark, somber comedies. Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl (MGM), starring Ryan Gosling, came into TIFF as an underrated film with very few expectations and quickly became a crowd-pleasing favorite. On the other hand, Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding (Paramount Vantage), his highly-anticipated follow-up to the 2005 critical fave The Squid and the Whale, left a lot of people wondering whether Baumbach had used up his talent on his previous award-garnering film.

The 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Ryan Seacrest ("American Idol"), took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday night and you can view the winners below:

Outstanding Drama Series - "The Sopranos"
Outstanding Comedy Series - "30 Rock"

Lead Actor, Drama Series - James Spader, "Boston Legal"
(A huge upset... first line of speech: "I feel like I just stole a huge pile of money from the mob.")
Lead Actress, Drama Series - Sally Fields, "Brothers & Sisters"
Supporting Actor Drama - Terry O'Quinn, "Lost" (2nd nom, 1st win)
Supporting Actress Drama - Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy"

Lead Actor, Comedy Series - Ricky Gervais, "Extras" (a lot of confusion due to a gag pulled by Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert)
Lead Actress, Comedy Series - America Ferrara, "Ugly Betty"
Supporting Actor Comedy - Jeremy Piven for "Entourage" (3rd nom, 2nd win)
Supporting Actress Comedy - Jamie Pressley, "My Name Is Earl"

Directing Drama Series - Alan Taylor, "The Sopranos"
Writing Drama Series - David Chase, "The Sopranos"
Directing, Comedy Series - Richard Shepard, "Ugly Betty"
Writing, Comedy Series - Greg Daniels, "The Office"

Outstanding Mini-Series - "Broken Trail"
Directing for Mini-Series/Movie - Philip Martin, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act"
Writing for a Mini-Series/Movie - Frank Decey, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act"
Lead Actor in a Mini-Series - Robert Duvall, "Broken Trail"
Lead Actress in a Mini-Series - Helen Mirren, "Prime Suspect: The Final Act"
Supporting Actor Mini-Series or Movie - Thomas Haden Church, "Broken Trail"
Supporting Actress Mini-Series or Movie - Judy Davis, "The Starter Wife"

Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series - "The Daily Show"
Writing, Variety, Music or Comedy Series - "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"

Reality Competition Program - "The Amazing Race"

TV Movie - "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"

Oustanding Variety, Music or Comedy, Special - "Tony Bennett: An American Classic"
Directing Variety, Music or Comedy, Special - Rob Marshall, "Tony Bennett: An American Classic"
Individual Performance, Variety Special - Tony Bennett for "Tony Bennett: An American Classic"

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.

The Jodie Foster crime-thriller The Brave One (Warner Bros), directed by Neil Jordan, topped the box office with an estimated $14 million in 2,755 theaters, making it Foster's lowest-opening wide released movie since 1999's Anna and the King. Still, it held a respectable margin over the rest of the Top 10, which saw a number of tight races for various spots including 2nd place, which was very close between last week's #1, the Lionsgate Western 3:10 to Yuma and the New Line comedy Mr. Woodcock, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Sean William Scott.

The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival is over, but it wouldn't be a film festival without awards and prizes and though the competition at TIFF isn't something on which a lot of focus is placed, the awards reception today put the spotlight on a number of notable Canadian films and filmmakers. It probably wasn't too much of a coincidence that the Cadillac People's Choice Award was won by a hometown boy, as Toronto's own David Cronenberg took that honor with his new movie Eastern Promises (which conveniently opened yesterday), narrowly defeating Jason Reitman's crowd-pleasing Juno, starring Ellen Page.

You can read the full list of awards presented after the jump.

Continuing the trend that every movie I miss at a film festival is immediately bought, the latest to get picked up late in the fest is Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallack's Bill starring Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba, according to The Hollywood Reporter. I skipped this to see Death Defying Acts and haven't heard too many good things about it, but obviously, the buyers at First Look Studios must have liked what they saw, because they shelled out $3 million for the commercial comedy about a disillusioned man who mentors a young boy (Logan Lerman) after finding that his wife (Elizabeth Banks) is cheating on him.

It's also been reported that THINKFilm picked up Stuart Townshend's Battle in Seattle (which I also missed) for $2 million and The Weinstein Company paid the same amount for George Romero's Diary of the Dead, which I did see, and which you can read my mostly negative review here.

One of the better movies at the Toronto Film Festival this year was Anton Corbjin's Control about the life and death of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. I loved the movie (you can read my review here) and I was seriously bummed that I missed TIFF's other Joy Division film, Grant Gee's documentary called merely Joy Division. Well, things are looking good that I'll get another chance because according to The Hollywood Reporter, the Weinstein Company, who brought Control to TIFF after buying it at Cannes in May, have picked up the documentary with the suggestion that fans of the seminal British post-punk band will someday be able to own a double disc DVD of the two movies. As a huge fan of the band myself, this might be some of the best news I've heard in my entire week spent in Toronto, and things are certainly looking up for the fans of this band's often gloomy music.

From a horror lover's point of view, one of the most anticipated movies in the Toronto Film Festival's Midnight Madness track had to be George Romero's latest zombie offering Diary of the Dead. As the filmmaker who single-handedly launched the zombie genre in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, he's returned to that genre a number of times in the past few decades, but this is a very different beast from the studio-funded Land of the Dead.

Being that this week's column was late, this is the fastest update for predictions, most of them being done because my estimated theatre counts were so off. For instance, The Hunting Party (Weinstein Co.) is not opening wide on Friday after all, probably due to the less than great showing in its platform release and Dragon Wars (Freestyle) is getting more theatres this weekend and apparently, it's built a lot of buzz for itself over the past week, possibly due to the title sounding like something cool and worth watching. I still think that it will have a really low per-theatre average, doing most of its business in the big cities like L.A. and little elsewhere, but it should do better than tenth place at this point.

Either way, it's Jodie Foster for the win this weekend thanks to her regular audience and having 500 more theatres than the other two new movies.

Updated Predictions -

1. The Brave One (Warner Bros.) - $16.8 million N/A

2. 3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate) - $8.2 million -42%

3. Mr. Woodcock (New Line) - $7.2 million N/A

4. Superbad (Sony) - $5.0 million - 35%

5. Halloween (Dimension) - $4.5 million - 52%

6. Dragon Wars (Freestyle) - $3.8 million N/A

7. The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) - $3.4 million - 40%

8. Balls of Fury (Rogue) - $3.1 million - 45%

9. Shoot ‘Em Up (New Line) - $2.9 million - 47%

10. Rush Hour 3 (New Line) - $2.8 million - 45%

If there's a secret to making a good British crime-thriller, a strong script and a good cast would probably be the best place to start. It also doesn't hurt to actually have those involved be British, which is why Woody Allen's latest attempt at a British crime-thriller Cassandra's Dream, starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, falters worse than the flawed "remake" of Sleuth, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law. Both films played at the Toronto Film Festival, the Woody Allen movie having premiered at Cannes, and neither quite lives up to the expectations one might have when you have such strong writers and actors tackling this type of material.

What was rumored earlier in the week at the Toronto Film Festival has been confirmed, that The Weinstein Company has picked up Gillian Armstrong's long-in-deevelopment Houdini drama Death Defying Acts, starring Guy Pearce as the famed magician and escape artist. The film also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Timothy Spall and young Saoirse Ronan, who has made waves in Toronto with her performance in Joe Wright's Atonement.

Look for our review of Armstrong's film very soon.

Greetings and welcome back to the (late) Weekend Warrior, this time brought to you from the lovely city of Toronto in the wonderful country of Canada where the Warrior is busy seeing way too many movies at this year's Toronto International Film Festival to write much more than the basics for this week's movies.

The strongest new film of the weekend that's likely to take over the top spot without much competition, is the Neil Jordan directed revenge thriller The Brave One (Warner Bros.) starring Jodie Foster, which puts her into another tough role that will appeal to those who liked her in The Panic Room and Flightplan both which opened with over $25 million. Her new movie, which is also Neil Jordan's first major studio film since Interview with a Vampire, is a darker and more violent film, which might make it a harder sell to the female audience who would normally go see a movie with a strong female heroine. Also, being released so early in September could theoretically keep the movie from bringing in the size audience to which Foster has become accustomed, and it won't be helped by the fact that there are so many other high-profile movies opening in limited release, including new movies from David Cronenberg and Paul Haggis, which will offer far too much competition in larger cities where a vigilante revenge thriller like this might normally do well.

Two movies with a lot of advance Oscar buzz merely from their trailers and their pedigree were the highlight of Day 4 at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival: Atonement (Focus Features) is the second movie from Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright, while Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Universal) is a sequel (of sorts) to Shekhar Kapur and Cate Blanchett's triumphant Oscar-nominated 1998 film. (It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, winning only one for make-up.) The fact that they're both produced by Working Title Films makes one think they're hedging their bets as is Universal, who while distributing the latter is also the parent company for the former.

Continuing to be so swamped with screenings and interviews that I've had very little time to write, but this morning, I caught a Weinstein Company double feature, Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (eh.) and Todd Haynes' Dylan movie I'm Not There (great!), both which were greatly delayed due to technical problems. (Cassandra started nearly 55 minutes after the planned start time throwing the next movie into disarray.)

After having a rare sit-down lunch with a local friend, I'm off to potentially three more screenings in a row, including the anticipated George Romero's Diary of Dead, the Asian crime drama Blood Brothers and then Paul Schrader's latest The Walker. Only the latter has distribution, being released by THINKFilm later this year.

Tomorrow morning is Reservation Road (Focus Features) starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly and Mark Ruffalo, all of whom I'll be interviewing later, and I'll also be doing interviews for Kenneth Branagh's Sleuth with Michael Caine, who I've never met, and Jude Law, who I haven't interviewed in three years. Will also try to catch the international anthology Chacun son Cinema, Julian Schabel's concert film Lou Reed's Berlin and possibly the historic epic Silk, which opens on Friday.

Hope to have more to report and more reviews very soon...

Two of the goriest non-horror movies at this year's Toronto International Film Festival might not be too surprising when one takes into account the directors, David Cronenberg and The Coen Brothers, but only one of them really delivers on the goods. Both films deal with ordinary people who get caught up in the world of crime and violence, but the Coens' No Country for Old Men starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, is a far stronger effort than Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which reunites him with his A History of Violence star, Viggo Mortensen.

THINKFilm has acquired all US rights to Then She Found Me, Helen Hunt's directorial debut starring Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick. TVA Films acquires all Canadian rights. The deal was completed in an overnight negotiation with several players involved following the film's World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Then She Found Me was directed by Helen Hunt. The screenplay was adapted by Hunt, Vic Levin and Alice Arlen from a novel by Elinor Lipman. It tells the funny and moving story of April Epner (Hunt) and her very unlikely path towards personal fulfillment.

A Killer Films production, the film was produced by Pamela Koffler, Katie Roumel, Christine Vachon, and Connie Tavel and Helen Hunt. The deal marks the first acquisition by THINKFilm of a Killer film. The title falls outside of the first-look deal but underscores the strong relationship between the two companies.

Notes Koffler: "Of course we love THINKFilm, but their swift action and real connection to and vision for the film is what sealed the deal."

Urman adds: "We are thrilled to be working with Killer and Helen on this thoroughly delightful film and look forward to bringing it to the widest possible audience."

And the backlog of movies to write-up continues as I'm finding that with all the running around and standing in line, it's very hard to sit down, take a breather and do some writing (not to mention the fact that I've been doing 15 to 18 hour days every day). I don't think that's going to stop very soon, although today I'm going to schedule some time to write. I'll be starting the day bright and early with Kenneth Branagh's remake of Sleuth, starring Jude Law and Michael Caine, that is if I don't cave and go to see the Joy Division documentary I've been dying to see. (In which case, I'll have to see Sleuth at 10:30 pm...ouch.)

Following that is Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, his follow-up to The Squid and the Whale starring Nicole Kidman and Mrs. Baumach aka Jennifer Jason Leigh. Going to run to do a couple interviews with director Joe Wright who helms the excellent novel adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement followed by a rescheduled chat with Thomas McCarthy, who's here with The Visitor.

After that is fairly open-ended although Renny Harlin's Cleaner is a definite option, and I'll see if I can squeeze in Johnnie To's Mad Detective and an animated film called Terra at 9:30pm or else I'll just use that time to write as I have about four reviews I need to finish up.

Unfortunately, I've fallen even further behind on writing-up the movies I've seen on Day 1 and 2 on TIFF due to the flaky and intermittent wireless service at the Bond Place Hotel, and I have to say that of my TIFF experience so far, my choice in hotels has been the one thing I've regretted the most, as I've spent far too much time over the last three days trying to resolve it. Seriously, if you ever come to Toronto, and the Bond Place Hotel is the only place with available rooms, I'd suggest sleeping on the street.

That be as it may, I had a pretty decent day of interviews, including one with director Anton Corbjin and Sam Riley from Control; Tony Leung, the star of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution; interviews for Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (and that review is ComingSoon, I promise!) and insanely crowded press conferences for Michael Clayton and The Assassination of Jesse James. I'm off to see Tom (The Station Agent) McCarthy's new movie The Visitor in a couple moments, but tomorrow (i.e. today) I'll be back to seeing movies from the morning to night.

First up is Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl (MGM) starring Ryan Gosling--essentially a boy meets blow-up doll comedy from the director whose 1st film Mr. Woodcock opens Friday. Hopefully, everyone else will be going to see Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Universal) tomorrow morning, although I'll be seeing the gala premiere that night.

Next up tomorrow morning is another movie that's one of my most anticipated at the fest, which is Joe Wright's Atonement starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. I'll be talking with Joe on Monday afternoon, which I'm also looking forward to.

I have a couple interviews and then tomorrow night is all about the premiere of Elizabeth and then if I'm still alive after that, I'll be going to see the foreign horror-thriller The Passage, which I know very little about at this time. (I guess I can read the description at the link, but then again, so can you.)

Strange and Completely Irrelevant Toronto Trivia of the Day (The Return!): I noticed this the last time I was in Toronto, but all of the squirrels here seem to be black and you can see them scampering around any park. I've never seen a black squirrel anywhere else besides Toronto, and there doesn't seem to be any other color squirrel. The adventurer in me wants to try to find a way to sneak a black squirrel back to New York City in my luggage (surely, they don't check all of it!) and then start a genetic breeding experiment by letting it loose in Central Park.

You probably won't find two more different movies than two of the ones shown on Day 2 of TIFF, both press screenings shown in the largest Varsity theatre which holds 580 people. There was a lot of interest in both movies since each movie is the sophomore effort from the director of a popular debut, Rendition (New Line) being Gavin Hood's second movie after winning an Oscar with his South African crime-drama Tsotsi, and Juno (Fox Seachlight) is Jason Reitman's second movie after Thank You for Smoking, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight after the Toronto Film Festival two years ago. Both directors return to Toronto with full studio backing and movies in which their female stars are pregnant, although in Juno, the premise revolves around that pregnancy, while in Rendition, Reese Witherspoon's pregnancy is far less important to the story. More importantly than any of this is the fact that both movies star J.K. Simmons of HBO's "OZ", best known as Spider-Man's J. Jonah Jameson.

In case you hadn't noticed, I've fallen a bit behind on writing about the movies I've been seeing due to difficulty in finding time to write and finding places in downtown Toronto to get online to post--the wireless at my hotel has been a real bane on my existence the last few days, only working about fifteen minutes at a time. Because of this, I had to give up my chance of seeing Dario Argento's Mother of Tears tonight to try to catch up, and I'll have to hope I get another chance to see it next week.

Tomorrow (or today depending on when you're reading this) will be all about the interviews as I talk to the directors and cast of David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (review coming soon!), Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, Anton Corbjin's Control and attend press conferences for Michael Clayton and The Assassination of Jesse James. If I'm not too exhausted after all that, I'll try to catch the Darfur doc Darfur Now, hoping its better than The Devil Came on Horseback and then I have to choose to see Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (which I should see as I hope to interview him) or Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, which I kind of want to see more since I'm such a huge Greenaway fan. (I actually saw all six hours of The Tulse Luper Suitcases in one sitting...that's how big a fan I am!)

I also will hope to finish up some reviews that I haven't had a chance to finish including a few lower-key foreign films from Day 1.

Ang Lee's latest movie Lust, Caution is a period drama set during WW II China, split between Hong Kong and Shanghai, and it has a lot in common with Paul Verhoeven's recent Black Book in terms of its content, dealing with the resistance in an occupied country and a woman who does her part to fight against the enemy by infiltrating the enemy camp using her body and her sexuality. In this case, the woman is a young college co-ed played by newcomer Tang Wei and the target is China's finest actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Mr. Yee, a high-ranking Japanese collaborator who the resistance wants to kill as a traitor to the Chinese people. At over 2 and a half hours long, the movie is somewhat of an enigma, and I have a feeling I'll probably have to see it a second time if I really want to batten down my opinion on the movie, because I'm generally mixed about it. It's a beautifully written, acted and shot film--another masterpiece in filmmaking from Lee for sure--but it's very long and there are aspects that at first glance don't seem particularly necessary that could have easily been trimmed.

My last movie of Day 1 (having missed Persepolis) was Control (The Weinstein Company), Anton Corbjin's profile on the life of Ian Curtis, the late singer of the British post-punk band Joy Division, who took his own life at the cusp of their fame. For fans of the band such as myself, there was always an air of mystery (and even romance) behind Curtis' suicide, because he did something so deliberate at such an odd time in his life that it left many early (and even later) fans wondering why the musical output of this talented singer was cut so short.

If you're reading this, that means I've survived Day 1 at TIFF with at least part of my sanity intact, which means that I'm probably crazy enough to schedule just as busy a day tomorrow. (Saturday will probably be lighter on the movie screenings as I conduct a bunch of interviews for the movies I've already seen.)

Tomorrow is going to be tricky because it'll start with a super-early screening (8:45AM!) of Gavin Hood's Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon, in the Varsity's biggest room (capacity 580) and I still expect it to be packed.

Next up is my most anticipated movie of the fest, the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, which I expect to be mobbed despite being shown in two screening rooms simultaneously, followed at 3:30 by Jason Reitman's Juno, which I also expect to be packed considering how well Thank You for Smoking was received two years ago at the fest, and the raves that Juno received from the recent Telluride Film Fest. Oh, and it stars the ultra-cute Ellen Page, who despite her role in Hard Candy is legal.

At 8pm, I'll finally get to see my second most anticipated movie of the fest, that being David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which opens next week. I'll be doing interviews for this movie on Saturday morning with David Cronenberg and the cast, which I'm looking forward to, as well.

Unfortunately, this screening is a good two miles away from the rest of the screenings so I might call it a night after that, but if I'm still alive, I'll try to get to Dario Argento's Mother of Tears at 10:15, which they're screening in the theatre at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Hopefully, tomorrow will go as well as today, and keep checking back for updates as I start cranking out some reviews for movies I've already seen.

I'm sure there are going to be a lot of great movies at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, but sadly, the opening night choice, Jeremy Podeswa's adaptation of Anne Michaels' novel Fugitive Pieces, isn't one of them.

Based on the novel by Anne Michaels and clearly influenced by every single European movie about the Holocaust, it follows the life of Jakob, who was found as a young boy hiding in Poland from the Nazis that killed his parents by a Greek archaeologist (Rade Sherbedgia) and eventually winding up in Canada after being smuggled out of the country. There, he begins to establish a career as a writer and meets the beautiful Alex (Rosamund Pike), but it's a marriage that's doomed from the start as he's unable to let go of his past and get over his obsession with his missing older sister.

Tonight, the Toronto International Film Festival kicked off with its opening night feature, the premiere of Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces about a boy found hiding in Poland after watching his family slaughtered by Nazis and who spends the rest of his life wondering what happened to his sister. Apparently, it's the tenth film by Toronto producer Robert Lantos to open TIFF.

If you read my earlier preview piece, you may have heard me kvetching about the number of movies at this year's Toronto Film Festival and how hard it would be for any one person to see more than 30 movies while up in Toronto. Thankfully, there have been early screenings for a number of the movies premiering at the fest, some of which I'll be reviewing more fully, but right now, we'll look at some of the movies I've seen which don't yet have distribution. If you're attending the film festival and any of these sound interesting, you can check for screening dates and times by clicking on the respective title below.

Hopefully, Part 2 will look at some of the movies that already have distribution, many of which will be opening in the next few weeks, although as mentioned in my Day 1 Preview, things are about to get really crazy.

Sidney Lumet turned 82 earlier this year and arguably, some might have thought his best years as a filmmaker were behind him after the dog Find Me Guilty. Then again, anyone who might be counting the director of Network and Dog Day Afternoon out of the game will be pleasantly surprised by his new crime-drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (THINKFilm), which features his strongest cast and work as a director in over 20 years.

By contrast, screenwriter Tony Gilroy of the "Bourne" movies is making his directorial debut with Michael Clayton, a conspiracy thriller starring George Clooney as the "fixer" of a large corporate law firm who gets caught up in a major cover-up involving a multi-billion class action lawsuit against one of the firm's biggest clients.

There's something to be said for movies that play at TIFF after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year, but when they also play the New York Film Festival the following month, you know there's something special at hand. That's certainly the case with these foreign language films from Spain and France respectively, both of which are likely to be included on many year's end best lists. It doesn't hurt that Juan Antonio Bayona's debut The Orphanage (Picturehouse) has Guillermo del Toro's name on it as a producer, because his Spanish language ghost movie The Devil's Backbone is a fine precursor for this horror film with a heart.

The pedigree for the French film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax) is equally impressive, starting with the fact that it's Julian Schnabel's first film since 2000's Before Night Falls, and it's based on a heart-stirring French novel adapted by Ron (The Pianist) Harwood.

Greetings and welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, where a lot of bullets were sacrificed to entertain male moviegoers in two of the three new movies opening wide this weekend, since both movies feature a lot, and I mean A LOT, of shooting. Of course, that would be expected when one of the movies is called Shoot 'Em Up (New Line), but the other being a Western almost guarantees gunfire as well.

Both movies may need more than guns to take out Michael Myers' return in Rob Zombie's horror hit Halloween, but since that will probably have a big drop, the new movie with the best chance at beating it is James Mangold's Western remake 3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate), which has the strongest pedigree by its genre and a cast that includes Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Although both actors have had their share of stumbles--Crowe's A Good Year was countered by Bale's Harsh Times--this movie seems more up their alley and Mangold earned himself a lot of respect from movie fans in the South and Midwest with his treatment of Johnny Cash in the biopic Walk the Line, which won Reese Witherspoon her first Oscar and Joaquin Phoenix a placement. Yuma isn't opening that wide and it will certainly appeal more to older guys than women or the teen crowd, but it should have enough solid reviews (at this writing, it's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes) and positive word-of-mouth from sold-out previews this past weekend to top the box office, although being targeted to older guys and Western fans might limit how much it can make.

By comparison, Michael Davis' action flick Shoot 'Em Up (New Line) has a cast that isn't quite as strong, although Clive Owen's general popularity among both men and women should help this, especially following his role in Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men earlier this year. Likewise, Paul Giamatti, who plays the bad guy, and Monica Belluci as the sexy vixen (not much of a challenge to be frank) have both become fairly well known from their own recent hits. Michael Davis isn't a known director on par with Mangold, but his first action flick has already generated internet buzz and interest from the promo screenings being done by New Line over the summer, including a couple at Comic-Con. The movie will also appeal to younger guys, though it will have even less interest among women to 3:10 to Yuma, if that's possible, nor does the marketing campaign seem as poppy or strong as Lionsgate's ads for the Western. The other major problem is that both movies will be looking for the same male audience, making Shoot 'Em Up a likely second choice for guys, since it might be harder to convince their dates to go see it.

For those who can't decide which movie is for them, check out my special Double Feature Review.

This being the first year that ComingSoon.net will be covering the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (affectionately referred to as "TIFF" by entertainment hipsters everywhere), we felt that we had to do our homework a bit more than usual to try and provide as much coverage and information on our Official Festival Blog as we could.

It was obvious to us right off the bat that there were two very distinct film festivals in play here. There's one showing the movies by big name directors with big stars that already have distributors who are using the festival to promote them, knowing that they'll have the largest group of entertainment journalists from all over the world in one place who can help their movies get attention… and then there's all the rest. Sadly, it's the latter that needs and deserves the attention--especially the docs and the foreign films--because they're the ones that need to find distribution in order to be seen by more than a festival crowd, and it's tough getting attention away from all the high profile movies with big stars and name directors. Put it this way, if you have a choice between seeing a movie starring George Clooney or Brad Pitt or seeing a little movie about kids in Queens called Chop Shop, which would you go for?

Yeah, me too, which is why Toronto has to be such a hard festival for journalists and critics to cover thoroughly, and it's so important to make good choices, since the two hours spent watching a bad movie can keep you from seeing one of the bigger films that everyone's talking about later. This was somewhat of a problem at my first Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, but it's compounded by the fact that there are a lot more studio junkets and interview opportunities in Toronto, which means some movies might have to wait until the New York Film Festival later this month.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and check back on Tuesday for final figures based on actual box office.

With an estimated $31 million in its first four days, Rob Zombie's remake of John Carpenter's Halloween has obliterated the previous Labor Day box office record held by The Transporter 2 ($20.2 million) and dominated the box office with more than twice the amount made by the #2 movie, the Sony comedy Superbad.

After grossing just $3 million on Wednesday and Thursday, the Rogue Pictures ping pong comedy Balls of Fury produced the company's biggest opening weekend with an estimated $13.8 million over the four-day weekend for third place.