After a successful comeback that consisted of four direct-to-DVD features, Matt Groening’s animated sci-fi series Futurama was set to head back into full production this year with Comedy Central placing an order for 26 brand new episodes. It was assumed that all of the original cast members had signed on to return, but now the truth has come out: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille are all asking for a bigger piece of the pie. The studio’s response? They put out a casting call for replacement actors… as if fans needed another reason to hate Fox lately!

The actors were reportedly asking about $75,000 per episode, but with Fox looking to do the new season on the cheap, the actual offer ended up being well below this figure. To be fair, with the show airing on a cable channel rather than network TV this time, it should mean a more limited budget; however, there is a chance the show could also get picked up to air on Fox first. So, would Fox actually go ahead and do a new season with a whole new cast? I doubt it. They made the same threats with The Simpsons cast a few years back before eventually coming to terms with them. Still, I think there’s little doubt that the fans are going to be 100% behind Billy West and Co. in this situation, and the only likely result is more ill-will toward Fox. Do you think the actors are asking for too much? Would you watch a new season of Futurama with a different cast?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is on fire. The movie scored the highest-grossing five-day start for any Harry Potter movie to date, coming in just shy of $160 million earned (about half of which came over the weekend itself). Someone also managed to find a box office record that it broke as well — the biggest opening ever overseas ($237 million). Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen stayed near the top of the charts, while Bruno fell to #4 with a massive 73% drop-off. No surprise there. The Hangover once again proved to be the summer comedy with staying power, as it continued to hang in the top 5.

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — $79.5M
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs — $17.7M
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — $13.8M
4. Brüno — $8.37M
5. The Hangover — $8.31M
6. The Proposal — $8.29M
7. Public Enemies — $7.59M
8. Up — $3.15M
9. My Sister’s Keeper — $2.83M
10. I Love You, Beth Cooper — $2.67M

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Directed by: David Yates
Written by: Steve Kloves (screenplay), J.K. Rowling (novel)
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Jim Broadbent, Helena Bonham Carter

It has been eight long years since the Harry Potter series first debuted on the big screen, and while the hardcore fans are still just as dedicated as ever, it’s hard to say that the same level of magic and wonder remains for the rest of us. There aren’t many other franchises (if any) that have delivered this many installments in such a short period of time, but as Warner Brothers races to finish these movies before the cast outgrows their characters, clearly audience burnout is the furthest thing from their minds.

Truth be told, it’s the formulaic nature of the stories that are starting to wear thin for me. I can’t say for sure if J.K. Rowling is to blame since I have not actually read any of the books, but I enjoyed the first few movies a great deal, and at this point they’re all starting to blur together in my mind. The only thing keeping me interested is the fact that there are brief glimpses of an epic showdown with Voldemort at the end of it all. My hope was that this sixth installment would finally stop peddling meaningless subplots about wacky teachers and concentrate on developing the main story arc. In that sense, it only partially delivers.

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On an almost weekly basis now, it seems that whenever a new major Hollywood movie hits theatres, one of the major criticisms we inevitably hear from people is that it’s too long. While I know some people will skip a movie as soon as they hear that it’s beyond a certain length, there are some movies that simply need the extra running time in order to do the story justice. On the other hand, there are also plenty of movies that overstay their welcome and end up boring us to tears. But is the overall length of movies really on the rise, or are we just imagining it?

Over at /Film, Peter Sciretta recently took a look at the top 50 movies from 2008 and found that they average out to about 110 minutes (under 2 hours). The IMDB Film Length Project did a similar thing for the past 10 decades and drew the overall conclusion that movies are indeed getting longer. The thing is, if you look at their statistics, that number hasn’t really changed in the past 50 years.

Regardless, it does feel like a lot of the major blockbusters have been growing not just in terms of budgets but also duration as well, which may be a result of all these adaptations of books and graphic novels, where no one wants to cut out any of the source material for fear of reprisal from fans. What do you think? Are movies getting to be too long, or are they just not very well-made? Are you less likely to enjoy a movie if it’s over 2 and a half hours long? Should theatres start introducing intermissions? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.

Word on the street is that casting has begun for Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, the feature film based on the fake trailer he created for Grindhouse a couple of years ago (which is being co-directed by his longtime editor Ethan Maniquis). The movie will obviously star Danny Trejo as the titular blade-wielding madman seeking revenge, but who else might be appearing in this film? Well, according to Bloody Disgusting, there are some surprisingly big names in the mix, which could mean that this won’t be such a b-movie after all!

The first and most surprising name is Robert DeNiro, who is apparently in talks to play Machete’s nemesis, Senator McLaughlin. On top of that, Jonah Hill and Michelle Rodriguez are supposedly being considered for the roles of Julio and Luz respectively. But wait, that’s not all, friends. The Playlist is also reporting that Steven Seagal may have been offered a role in the film! Wow, what an odd assortment of actors. I’m pretty sure we can all agree that it would be great to see DeNiro in a non-comedic villain role, but the mention of Jonah Hill seems a bit odd. At this point you should probably take these rumours with a grain of salt, but that doesn’t stop you from predicting what it might mean for the film. Will a full-length Machete movie actually work? And is it going to be a no-holds-barred action flick or a tongue-in-cheek parody?

As the release date for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds draws near we’re starting to see the publicity machine gear up, and plenty of interviews with both QT and Brad Pitt are popping up all over the place. GQ Magazine currently has a great piece on Tarantino where he talks about (among other things) the juicy topic of film criticism. Basterds got a mixed response after its premiere in Cannes, which isn’t all that surprising considering the mixed response to his last film, Death Proof as well. But does that really mean anything? Pretty much everyone has an opinion on Tarantino’s films, and according to him, they’re mostly irrelevant:

“I respect criticism, but I know more about film than most of the people writing about me. Not only that, I’m a better writer than most of the people writing about me. And I can write film criticism better than most of the people writing about me.”

Spoken like a true egomaniac. The thing is, after recently watching the documentary Not Quite Hollywood and hearing Tarantino talk at length about Australian exploitation flicks, it’s clear to me that he’s not exaggerating about this. Sometimes people say that movies like Transformers 2 are critic-proof, because they will make a boatload of money no matter how bad they are. In the case of Tarantino, he’s almost saying that his movies are critic-proof because if you don’t like them, you just didn’t get it. What do you think, is he right about this? Are most film critics (and the general public for that matter) ill-equipped to offer an opinion on his work? Or is he just an arrogant jackass who thinks he’s above pleasing the average moviegoer?

Alright, now I know some people are getting sick of hearing the phrase “viral marketing”, but love it or hate it, it seems to be here to stay. Creating little mysteries and games that immerse people in the fictional world of a movie is a great way to raise awareness and get people talking about your film — or in the case of a large blockbuster, a great way to keep fans engaged while it’s currently in production. We’ve now seen a fair number of groundbreaking viral campaigns over the past few years, but my question is: which one was the most creative and effective? Cast your vote in the poll below, then feel free discuss why you voted the way you did, along with any other noteworthy movies with viral campaigns that we may have missed.

Well I think we all know what movie is hitting theatres this weekend… in fact, probably half of the world has probably already seen it. The only counter-programming out there in terms of new releases is the indie comedy (500) Days of Summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Is there anyone out there not planning on seeing Harry Potter this weekend?

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• (500) Days of Summer (limited)

A new international trailer has been released this week for Guy Ritchie’s re-imagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. As you may know, the movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. Watson, and as the first trailer proved, it’s aiming to be a pretty high-energy action movie. I’m okay with that, but what I’m more interested in are the fun comedic elements and the interplay between Holmes and Watson. Could Sherlock Holmes mark the return of the Victorian Era buddy cop film?

Well, the new trailer isn’t all that different from the original, but it does have some additional footage sprinkled throughout, and there are some nice character moments as well. Plus, the more I see of it, the more I am digging the look of this movie (cinematographer Philippe Rousselot previously shot Interview with the Vampire some recent Tim Burton films including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish). Yep, I guess there’s no point in denying it… I’m actually pretty excited about Sherlock Holmes. Check out the new trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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For some reason, up until now I haven’t gotten around to posting anything about all the viral marketing stuff that has been floating around out there for Judd Apatow’s upcoming movie Funny People… which is weird, because I love viral marketing! (No really, I do.) The websites and videos that they have been releasing for this are pretty hilarious and definitely some of the best examples of viral marketing that I have seen to date.

Thus far, they have created extensive fake websites for the characters George Simmons (a big Hollywood movie star played by Adam Sandler), Mark Taylor Jackson (a sitcom star played by Jason Schwartzman), and Raaaaaaaandy (a painfully unfunny stand up comedian played by Aziz Ansari). While it remains to be seen whether or not the whole terminal health condition subplot will serve as a major downer, I am now completely convinced that the satirical world of comedy that Apatow has created in this movie will be hilarious and absolutely spot on. After the jump, check out trailers for Schwartzman’s sitcom Yo Teach! and the George Simmons movie Re-Do, plus some comedy gold from Raaaaaaaandy. Funny People hits theatres on July 31st.

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It’s not very often that a documentary filmmaker is able to make the transition to directing major Hollywood features, but Seth Gordon is one of the few that has successfully done it. After his arcade game doc The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters became such a big hit, he was offered a handful of big budget gigs, the first of which was the Vince Vaughn/Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy Four Christmases. The movie was garbage, but it made $160 million worldwide, which was certainly good for Gordon’s career. Now he is in talks to direct a new comedy, an adaptation of the book King Dork by Frank Portman.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gordon will likely direct the coming-of-age story about Tom Henderson, a teenager who is an outcast at his high school. He must deal with the death of his father, his awkwardness with members of the opposite sex, and his attempt to form a band with his best friend, Sam Hellerman. The project is being produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, and after the folding of Paramount Vantage has now changed hands over to Sony. It should be a good fit for Gordon, but hopefully he’ll have the freedom to craft something slightly less broad than Four Christmases. Other projects on Seth Gordon’s plate include Kentucky Derby heist flick Suicide Squad, romance competition comedy Mr. Romance, and a feature adaptation of The King of Kong.

This week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly has a preview of the San Diego Comic Con and a cover story about Iron Man 2, which includes the very first images of Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow. While I don’t know anything about the character other than the fact that she is a Russian spy, I am pretty sure these images are going to get a lot of people even more excited about the movie.

Who knew Scarlett Johansson would look good in black leather? Go figure. Let’s just hope she can make up for her terrible performance in The Spirit. Comic book fans, speak up… does ScarJo look the part or what?