With the end of Summer upon us (or for me, Winter, but whatever), cinemas are seeing less and less profits from their showings. And though Tropic Thunder has once again managed to grab the top spot at the box office, it managed to do so with a measly $11.5 million. The blockbuster summer is definitely over, and who knows how long until we get one like it again.

The highest placed newcomer to this weekend’s box office (I feel like I’m commentating at the Olympics) was Babylon A.D., which itself has been in the news lately due to its directors hatred of the movie. The movie’s director, Mathieu Kassovitz, came out earlier in the week blaming the likely poor performance on Fox, who he blamed for interfering in the process. Nevertheless, it did come in number two, with $9.7 million in takings.

Trapped Ashes (2006)
Directed by Sean S Cunningham, Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell, John Gaeta
Written by Dennis Bartok
Starring John Saxon, Rachel Veltri, Scott Lowell, Lara Harris, Henry Gibson, Jayce Bartok
Lionsgate Films
Release Date: July 15, 2008

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, anthology horror movies poured from low budget production houses throughout Europe, including the time-honored Black Sabbath from Mario Bava and EC Comics inspired Tales From The Crypt by Freddie Francis. Anthology horror on the big screen took on new life in the US in the 1980s with Creepshow and sputtered out in the early 1990s with Tales From The Darkside: The Movie. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a ghostly anthology series called Troublesome Night has been going strong since 1997 and most recently the East Asian anthology films Three and Three: Extremes have been chilling audiences around the world.

But is there hope for a revival of this horror niche here in the United States? Writer Dennis Bartok would like to think so. Bartok, who has spent much of his career on the fringes of the film community as the head of programming at American Cinematheque in Los Angeles and as an interviewer for DVD featurettes, makes his screenwriting debut with Trapped Ashes, and with the help of some Japanese financing has brought along some top-name talent to back him up.

Don’t expect to see James Marsters to reprise his role as Detective Grant Mars from the Without a Trace television show. The actor/musician told fans the studio was likely “pissed off” when he declined to resign his contract in favor of other work.

“I thought that they were pretty much done with me,” said Marsters when explaining to fans at Dragon*Con 2008. The studio signed him to a partial contract that meant he wasn’t locked in for the entire season but was also paid less money.

Marsters declined to return after signing on to play Lord Piccolo in the Dragon Ball live-action movie, which is currently in post production and due out in theaters next year.

“I didn’t have to do very much research,” he said of the film. “I have a son, so I’ve probably watched every single episode of Dragon Ball.”

Latino Review is reporting that Max Makowski has been signed to direct Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

This comes shortly after it was announced that Voltron was indeed still being made (see ‘Voltron’ Movie To Take A Page From ‘300’), only cheaper.

Word is that Makowski is a great choice for the job, even though no one knows who he is. Apparently he had a couple movies at Sundance and one go to Cannes and he’s writing the Hawaii Five-O movie and directing a new Kung-Fu movie, but aside from that, most has been TV work (Queer Eye For The Straight Guy).

As you can imagine, Voltron fanboys are writhing with concern. All the rest of us can do is sit back and see how the new guy does!

Below is the trailer to his movie One Last Dance, which went to Sundance and Cannes, in case you want to see his style-type.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning
Directed by Peggy Holmes
Starring (voices) Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Sally Field, Jim Cummings
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertaiment
Release date: August 26, 2008

In this prequel to Disney’s 1989 hit The Little Mermaid, we get to see what life was like under the sea for everyone’s favorite mermaid, Ariel, before she explored the surface. And it wasn’t all fun and games, unfortunately.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning opens with the adorable red-headed Ariel as a wee tike, playing happily with her sisters as her deeply in love parents — King Triton and Queen Athena — rule over the merry kingdom of Atlantica. Since Queen Athena doesn’t appear in The Little Mermaid, you immediately know something’s about to go awry. That’s when this happy animated feature takes a page from Disney’s Find Nemo by showing what happened to Ariel’s mommy. Since Queen Athena had a beautiful singing voice, the King can’t bear to hear music any longer, so he bans it from his sea kingdom.