Vanessa Hudgens In A “Sucker Punch” Promo Poster…

Sucker Punch is an upcoming American action-fantasy film written by Steve Shibuya and Zack Snyder, who is also directing the film. Sucker Punch features an ensemble female cast that includes Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Jamie Chung and Jena Malone. The film follows a young girl in the 1950s about to be lobotomized and as she attempts to escape the asylum with her inmate friends.

The script, which was penned by Snyder and Shibuya, was finalized in five years and was actually planned to be made first before Watchmen. To work on Sucker Punch, Snyder gathered most of the Vancouver-based crew who worked on Watchmen.

The film is scheduled to be released in both conventional and IMAX theatres on March 25, 2011. It was earlier said to be released in October 8, 2010, but it was pushed back instead. Snyder is already mapping out the Blu-ray interactivity for that movie. Development began in March 2007 when Snyder first mentioned the film. Pre-production took place in Canada on June 2009. Filming took place in some parts of Toronto and Vancouver, and lasted at least four months, from September 2009 until January 2010.

Tom Cruise Knight and Days at the Box office

As expected, Knight & Day did poorly at the box office this weekend, coming in third toToy Story 3 in its second week and the Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups. As Kaiser reported Friday, Knight & Day cost a whopping $115 million to make and tens of millions to promote. It took in only $20.5 million over the weekend, which may signal the death knell for Cruise’s action hero career. Cruise has Mission Impossible IV in pre-production, and now that it’s known that he can’t single-handedly carry a film the studio may reduce his role and focus the story on a younger agent. They are also expected to reduce the budget for MI IV.
I like this analysis of the numbers from Box Office Mojo, which points out that unclear marketing along with a focus on Cruise as an unhinged character may have sunk this film. It’s too bad, because Cruise’s performance is earning praise and the movie is said to be decent and entertaining.