Earlier today, Eddie Murphy dropped out of his Oscar-hosting job after his Tower Heist director Brett Ratner resigned from his Oscar-producing gig. But if the Academy has things their way, Murphy may return yet. Producer Brian Grazer has been tapped to replace Ratner as the new Oscar producer, and apparently his first job will be…
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What do you call a movie that's not NOT funny and not NOT entertaining? Tower Heist sounds right. The latest film from director Brett Ratner has some fun moments to keep the audience engaged but never puts the claws in. It never grabs you. Never makes you laugh until you cry or pump your fist…
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This week, Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley chat about the fall of Netflix, enjoy the listlessness of The Trip, debate the impressiveness of The Last Exorcism, and try to figure out who would pay $60 for Tower Heist. Special guest Matt Patches joins us from Hollywood.com. You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com,…
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Last week, Universal Pictures revealed that it would be releasing the Brett Ratner comedy Tower Heist on VOD for $59.99 just three weeks after its November 4 opening in Atlanta and Portland, Oregon. The move immediately sparked outcry from exhibitors across the country -- Cinemark, the U.S.'s third-largest theater chain, quickly announced that it would…
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Universal had to know that exhibitors would show some strong resistance to the studio's plan to release Brett Ratner's film Tower Heist On Demand only three weeks after it bows in theaters. That's even with the VOD plan going into effect in only two markets (Atlanta and Portland, OR) and for the family-unfriendly price of…
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The first trailer released for Brett Ratner's new film Tower Heist was very obviously a trailer for a Ratner film, complete with pumping music, flying shots of the tower in which the action takes place, and a jokey introduction to the story and cast. (Which features Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Téa Leoni, Gabourey…
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It's oddly fitting that a movie about robbery is now poised to rob theatrical exhibitors of their box office dollars. In the most bold experiment of Premium On Demand yet, Universal will experimentally release Brett Ratner's Tower Heist, starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, on demand to two targeted markets a mere three weeks after…
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Watch the trailer for Tower Heist, below, and see how long it takes to guess who made it. (Assuming you don't already know.) The film follows a group of people who work in a wealthy New York City high rise building. When the building's penthouse resident (Alan Alda, playing a Bernie Madoff-like scumbag) defrauds everyone…
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Briefly: We just saw a behind the scenes photo from Brett Ratner's Tower Heist in Page 2 this morning, but here's a real still, scanned from Entertainment Weekly. You probably don't need the rundown on the lineup here, but from l-r that's Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena, Casey Affleck and, yep, Eddie Murphy. They're…
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What is Page 2? Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 35 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. If…
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The cast of Brett Ratner's Tower Heist continues to attract talent. Matthew Broderick has just signed on, and Casey Affleck and Judd Hirsch are joining as well. Mr. Broderick will play Chase Fitzhugh, "a Wall Street guy who, like the building staff, had his finances cleaned out by the Bernie Madoff-like character played by Alan…
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Brett Ratner's new movie, the thriller/action/comedy Tower Heist, is prepping to shoot in November in New York City. The cast is enough to earn at least an interested glance: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda, Gabourey Sidibe and Michael Pena. Now there are two new additions: Téa Leoni and Nina Arianda. Jeff Nathanson is currently…
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Is Tower Heist going to be the movie that helps turn around some of the prevailingly bad opinion on Brett Ratner? The guy was doing OK before taking over the X-Men franchise from Bryan Singer, at which point his approval rating went right in the toilet. But the cast for Tower Heist is pretty solid…
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Before becoming Tower Heist, Brett Ratner's latest film was conceived as an urban version of Ocean's Eleven, with Eddie Murphy in the starring role. The title then was Trump Heist, and the original cast poised to join him included Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Chris Tucker. One title and casting change later, Murphy was out,…
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David Wain directing Alan Alda is something I can pretty easily picture. Brett Ratner directing Alan Alda is something of which I'd never even conceived, though I suppose Alda would have been right at home in Ratner's The Family Man, with Nic Cage. Regardless, Alda will work with both directors as he's been cast in…
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This is basically an incremental update on Tower Heist, which we've known for a while would likely be the new film from director Brett Ratner. The script and cast were reconfigured a while ago from the original conception (at one point described as a "black Ocean's Eleven") and Ben Stiller has been attached to star.…
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I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone just typing that title. The other day we told you that Ben Stiller was looking to take the lead in a film called Trump Heist (likely to be retitled Tower Heist) which had formerly been conceived as a "black Oceans 11". Brett Ratner has been attached to…
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While I'm not wild about Francis Lawrence directing Water for Elephants, some of the cast additions have me more and more interested. We already knew that Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon would be the primary leads for the picture, which takes place in a low-rent traveling circus. Sean Penn was in the mix as one…
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