While no greenlight has been given for a Salt 2 both Sony and Angelina Jolie have shown interest in making a sequel. The film has made $293 million worldwide on a budget of $110 million thanks to strong interest overseas, so the financial incentive is there to make another one.

Although, they may have to find a different director as it appears Phillip Noyce isn’t interested in returning.

From MovieHole:

“Those 3 [alternate] Blu-ray cuts [of the film] represent just about everything I have to offer on Everlyn Salt”, says the filmmaker. “If there ever is a sequel, better its directed by someone with a completely fresh take on what I believe could be a totally entertaining and complex series of stories.”

The Salt DVD and Blu-ray will be released tomorrow so Sony will probably see how that fares before moving forward with a sequel, but it’s likely they will. Jolie’s latest movie, The Tourist, hasn’t exactly made a mark on the box office but if you put the actress in an action movie she always delivers the goods.

Are you interested in seeing a Salt sequel? If so, who should direct?

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Sony has announced that Salt, which hit screens in July, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 21st. There will also be an an Unrated Edition released which comes with extra scenes and an ‘Extended Filmmakers’ Commentary’.

Salt starred Angelina Jolie as a CIA agent who goes on the run after a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. The film managed $289 million worldwide on a $110 million budget, so if Sony see strong DVD/Blu-ray sales they may start work on that sequel they’ve been talking about.

The special features include:

DVD and Blu-ray Bonus Features Include:

- Filmmaker Commentary
- “The Ultimate Female Action Hero”
- “Spy Disguise: The Looks of Evelyn Salt”
- Radio Interview with Director Phillip Noyce

Exclusive Blu-ray™ Bonus Features Include:

– “SALT: Declassified – An undercover look at the secrets of making Salt”
- “The Real Agents”
- “The Modern Master of the Political Thriller: Phillip Noyce”
- “False Identity: Creating A New Reality”
- movieIQ
- Spy Cam: Picture in Picture Track – Discover how the stunts and action were created. With pre-visualization sequences, storyboards, and behind-the-scenes interviews with filmmakers, cast and crew you can uncover the truth behind Salt!

Salt is now available to pre-order from Amazon on:

DVD | Blu-ray | Unrated Edition

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Salt, Angelina Jolie’s return to the action genre, is approaching the $100 million mark in the US which is a reasonable number given the $110 million budget. Those who have seen it will know there is potential for more films, however Sony wants to see how the film performs in key international territories such as the U.K. and Germany over the upcoming weeks before deciding whether to move forward with a sequel.

From The L.A Times:

Writer Kurt Wimmer has ideas for how to advance the story of the spy thriller, in which Evelyn Salt is a Russian plant in the highest echelons of the CIA who may or may not be working for her home country.

Director Phillip Noyce, for his part, is said to be interested in returning for a new installment. Scheduling and preferences would need to be worked out, however: Though the filmmaker doesn’t officially have a new movie, he is involved with several high-priority development projects.

Angelina Jolie had said that she’s keen to work on a sequel; she has the Tim Burton film “Maleficent” and the big-franchise dreams of Kay Scarpetta waiting in the wings, but no commitment to a new movie now that she’s finished Spyglass’ “The Tourist.”

Salt will probably have to make more than $200 million for Sony to consider a sequel (it is currently on $160 million). Jolie’s latest effort won’t make Wanted or Mr. & Mrs. Smith numbers, but Angelina can still hold onto her action star status.

Would you be up for a Salt sequel?

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So Inception is the 4th movie this year to sit on top for at least 3 weekends in a row. Avatar (5 weekends, came out last year), Alice in Wonderland (3 weekends) and Shrek Forever After (3 weekends) are the other 3. Mighty impressive even considering that the competition for Inception this past weeks was rather lacking.

With $27.4 million Inception managed to score another consecutive win and stands so far at $197.6 million (including Monday) in 18 days in North America and a total of $369.1 million worldwide. I’m starting to think Chris Nolan might have made a deal with the devil, just like James Cameron. Inception is looking like it will finish with around $270 million in North America and $650 million or so worldwide.

In 2nd place we have Dinner of Schmucks opening with $23.5 million, pretty much in line with expectations. If this shows good legs in the coming weeks then it might finish north of $80 million in North America, not bad for a $69 million movie considering I’m not even counting what it will do Internationally (probably not as much as in the US but still).

Salt is in 3rd place with $19.4 million, good hold for this kind of action-spy movie. $73.6 million in 11 days and well on its way to finishing with at least $110 million proving once again that Ms. Jolie still has the touch.

Despicable Me with $15.5 million is still very strong and has banked so far $192.7 million in 25 days. When it will reach $200 million later this week, Despicable Me will become the 4th consecutive animated movie this year to pass that mark after How to Train Your Dragon ($217.5 million), Shrek Forever After ($235.7 million) and Toy Story 3 ($390.6 million). So basically 4 of the top 8 movies this year were computer animated pictures.

Charlie St. Cloud finished the top 5 by opening with $12.3 million, just little over $100.000 more then the other wide release this weekend, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. So Cats & Dogs, big disappointment, Charlie not so much since it only cost $44 million and is sure to do well on DVD and Blue-Ray.

Rounding out the top 10 are Toy Story 3 ($5.1 million, $390.6 million), Grown Ups ($4.5 and $151.3 million), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice ($4.4 and $52.7 million) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($4 and $288.8 million).

One more thing to add is Toy Story 3 now stand at $827 million worldwide while the 3rd chapter of the Twilight Saga grossed so far $645.5 million worldwide. New Moon finished with $709 million worldwide so Eclipse will probably pass that number in the following weeks.

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Apparently I underestimated just about every movie last weekend, Inception hit it big with $42.7 million for number 1, just a 32% drop from the previous weekend while Salt outdid itself by opening to a more then satisfactory $36 million. The one movie that I did not underestimate was Ramona and Beezus, $7.8 million for 6th place.

Chris Nolan somehow managed to make another terrific movie without sacrificing his artistic integrity while at the same time making it enough of a cinematic experience to draw people into theaters yet again. Sure, this will never reach The Dark Knight heights when it comes to box office but for a similar movie that is not a sequel and doesn’t draw from any intellectual property, you’d have to go way back to the original Matrix back in 1999 to find something with this much success. Inception stands now at $148.9 million in 11 days (including Monday numbers) in North America and $234.6 million worldwide with many countries yet to have the movie open.

Salt with Angelina Jolie would have been number 1 if it wasn’t for the amazing hold of Inception, either way $36 million is great even when taking into account the rather large $110 million budget. This did another 4.1 million on Monday and now stands at $40.1 million.

Despicable Me continues to fly high with another $23.6 million for the weekend, enough to guarantee this animated movie will pass $200 million in North America.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice had a decent hold and brought $9.6 million $43.7 million in 13 days. Bound to finish with around $60 million, Disney must not be to happy right now. But good thing they have Toy Story 3 still in the top 5 after 6 weeks with $8.9 million for a North American total of $380.5 million and a worldwide grand total of $731.5 million with still a long way to go around the world.

Ramona and Beezus, as mentioned above, finished in 6th place while Grown Ups in 7th place with the best hold of the top 10 (-25%) and $7.4 million making it now the 4th highest grossing flick in Adam Sandler’s career. Just $20 million more and it will be number 1.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was 8th with $7.1 million and $280.9 total in North America and $607.3 million worldwide.

The Last Airbender and Predators finish the top 10. Airbender now stands at $123.3 million making it the 3rd biggest box office hit in M. Night’s career.

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Funny story: I was going to spend a majority of this review comparing Salt to 1997′s The Saint, a Val Kilmer spy movie in which he plays a master of disguise. The humorous part is – unbeknownst to me until just now – Phillip Noyce actually directed both movies. I guess it all makes sense now.

A brief bit of background: this film was initially conceived as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise, but when Cruise dropped out and Angie jumped in, it was rewritten for a female in the lead role. Watching Salt, the Cruise connection is obvious; it’s thematically similar to many of his other works (the old “agent on the run” story), and there’s even a motorcycle scene through the streets of Washington, DC. Kurt Wimmer – who directed the really slick Equilibrium and wrote the middling Law Abiding Citizen – wrote this script, and it’s clear to me that he’s a more talented director than writer.

In its new form, Salt aims to be Bourne for the female persuasion. The only trouble is that the politics and motivations on screen aren’t nearly as interesting as the Matt Damon franchise; here, the stakes seem too low for the audience to care. A comically trite scene involving nuclear launch codes seems by-the-numbers instead of suspenseful, and story elements similar to those in “Fringe” and Conspiracy Theory (with shades of the MK-ULTRA Program) felt so overplayed that the film – which only ran and hour and thirty-nine minutes – seemed to drag way longer than its running time would indicate.

The acting was sufficient all around, but I’ll put it this way – if these actors or actresses win any future Academy Awards, clips from this movie won’t be included in the highlight reel. Jolie was incredibly convincing speaking Russian, and brought a palpable intensity and sense of determination to her character that helped her keep my interest for most of the time she was on screen. Schreiber had a consistently good Southern accent (unlike Peter Saarsgard from the recent Knight and Day), but has given much better performances in the past. Chiwetel Ejiofor, one of my favorite working actors, seemed like he was trying but didn’t have much to work with on the script end of things.

In a film like this, I’m fine with ridiculous physics and unbelievable action sequences. This is an action movie, after all, and if John McClane can get away with insane moves, so can Angie. The set pieces are so preposterous that they seem almost like a parody of the genre at times, but the rest of the film is played with a straight face – so it becomes kind of awkwardly obvious that they aren’t kidding. But like I said, it’s easy to get past those moments because they’re such a staple of the genre. Sequences in which Salt leaps across the tops of moving trucks on a highway or jumps wall to wall down an elevator shaft can be overlooked and enjoyed as simply coming along with the territory.

Speaking of genre, Guillermo del Toro once told me (not me personally, but a bunch of us at Comic-Con last week) that he only enjoys genre films if they subvert the genre or works entirely within them. Straddling that line makes them completely uninteresting, and since Salt definitely works within the action thriller spy genre, it’s a totally fine movie. It’s a bit predictable, but it’s enjoyable enough and provides some entertainment during yet another summer of sequels and reboots.

There haven’t been any plans for a sequel announced yet, but I’m actually more excited about seeing a sequel than I was about watching this film for the first time. The ending clearly is clearly a set up for more installments, and since the character motivations were only revealed during the final few minutes, I’d be interested in seeing a film where I can actually relate to the heroine for the duration and where she has a clear cut goal in mind. The ending – and this could be considered a minor spoiler – actually reminded me of the end of The Dark Knight, and just as I’m eager to see how Batman handles his predicament at the end of that film, I’m eager to see Salt handle her embattled position in a sequel if one ever makes it to theaters. Until next time…

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Two new movies open wide this weekend in North America, Salt starring Angelina Jolie and Ramona and Beezus starring Selena Gomez, very different movies.

Salt opens in 3612 theaters (this many venues usually means the distributor has a lot of faith in the movie) and comes from Sony and Columbia. This is a full on action flick in the vein of the Bourne series that is supposed to solidify Angelina Jolie’s box office draw status. Personally, while I do think Ms. Jolie can open a movie, she really ain’t Will Smith and Salt looks very run of the mill, also 56% on Rotten Tomatoes means it might very well be just that, an average spy flick. This is expected to open around $30 million and I’m going to keep it close to that, $32 million from me.

Ramona and Beezus comes into 2719 theaters from Fox and is based on a very popular series of books. From the previews it looks like good old family fair aimed mostly at young girls. Unfortunately, movies aimed at young girls have a tendency to not bring that much money at the box office, turning out to be a lot more profitable on DVD and Blu-Ray. So I don’t see Ramona and Beezus making more then $8 million or so.

But the winner of the weekend will be none of the above, instead we will have Inception for a second time in a row. After downright phenomenal weekdays that made it pass $100 million in North America before Friday in just 7 days since it opened, Inception is looking at around $35-$40 million for the weekend, but I’m going to say $37.

Despicable Me will have another great weekend at $20 million or so that should drive this great movie to $157 million and ever so close to becoming the 4th animated flick to hit $200 million in a row this year.

Rounding out the top 5 is The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, clearly a bit of a disappointment for the parties involved, $8-$9 million this weekend. Still can’t decide if this will make more or less then Ramona and Beezus. And then there’s the outside chance that Toy Story 3 might overtake one of this two and finish in the top 5 for the 6th weekend in row. Definitely the 4-5-6 spots could go either way and I ain’t leaving The Twilight Saga: Eclipse out of the equation either if Ramona and Beezus manages to underperform, in this day and age it seems young girls are more interested in vampires and werewolves.

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Columbia Pictures have released a brand new poster for Salt featuring Angelina Jolie. I think it’s her anyway; someone appears to have gotten a bit carried away in the photoshop department.

In the film Jolie plays a CIA officer who is accused of being a Russian spy. Liev Schreiber plays a character called Winter, Jolie’s ally and supervisor in the CIA’s Russian office and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a counter-intelligence officer who is trying to take her down. You can watch the trailer below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHUPQaK0XUc

Salt will be released on July 23rd in the US and August 20th in the UK.

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Angelina Jolie is one of the very few actresses who can actually control her own career. Other actresses still have to fight for decent roles in a climate where there aren’t many female leads to go around (apart from romantic comedies of course). Jolie however has the luxury of turning down parts, as she recently did with Wanted 2 and Gravity. For every action role such as Wanted and Mr. & Mrs. Smith Jolie balances it out with an Oscar-type drama like A Mighty Heart and Changeling.

Next up its time for another one of those action roles with Salt (which originally had Tom Cruise as the lead). In the film Jolie plays a CIA officer who is accused of being a Russian spy. Liev Schreiber plays a character called Winter, Jolie’s ally and supervisor in the CIA’s Russian office and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a counter-intelligence officer who is trying to take her down. Columbia has released another trailer for the film, which can be seen below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHUPQaK0XUc

Salt will be released on July 23rd in the US and August 20th in the UK.

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Joblo got their hands on the first poster for Salt which stars Angelina Jolie as a CIA officer who is accused of being a Russian spy. Liev Schreiber plays a character called Winter, Jolie’s ally and supervisor in the CIA’s Russian office. Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012) plays a counter-intelligence officer trying to take her down.

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