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While it looked like Lionsgate might be pulling ahead in the rush to make a film about the April 2013 bomb attack on the Boston Marathon with news of Jake Gyllenhaal mulling the lead, CBS Films is countering by closing in on a deal for Peter Berg to direct Patriots’ Day . According to Variety , he’s in final negotiations to make the film, which would be another real-life tale after Lone Survivor and the upcoming Deepwater Horizon . And, assuming the actor/producer actually makes a deal himself, it would also mark Berg’s third film in a row with Mark Wahlberg , who has been trying to help get the movie made for a while, but might have to duck out of a lead role if scheduling becomes an issue. Patriots’ Day is based on the account of Boston Police commissioner Ed Davis, with the producers securing his life rights and setting Bridge Of Spies writer Matt Charman to work on the script. Stronger has David Gordon Green directing and there is also a third project bubbling away at

The numbers are impressive, but what lessons can be learned from them? Story by Matt Cummings As if we didn't know already, the 2015 box office is certainly gearing up to be one of the biggest ever. We pontificated about this in our Big Movie Questions article back in January, but already the numbers are proving we were right to be excited. According to our friends at BoxOfficeMojo, the first 46 days of the 2015 box office have generated $1.45 billion, which represents the biggest start for the industry since 2010's $1.48 billion. That's 11% higher than 2014 and 26% higher than 2013. Moreover, the top 10 releases in 2015 combined to take in over $925m as compared to a paltry $775m for the year prior. Comparing 2015 and 2014 also yielded the following information: Both year's top performers ( Lone Survivor and American Sniper ) were released in their previous years. 2014 had four $100m movies by February 15 ( Lone Survivor , Ride Along , The LEG

Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg , the duo behind the critically acclaimed and box office success Lone Survivor , are re-teaming for the feature film version of The Six Billion Dollar Man with various writers circling the project for The Weinstein Co.’s Dimension Films label. ( Yes, billion with a ‘b’ ). Berg will direct and Wahlberg is attached to star in the film about former astronaut Steve Austin who, after a horrific crash of an experimental plane, is saved by doctors when he is fitted with bionic replacements — both legs, his right arm and left eye. With super-human power, he becomes a force to be reckoned with for the government as a secret agent for the Office of Scientific Intelligence. The story is based on the sci-fi book Cyborg by Martin Caidin which became a bestseller when it debuted in 1972 and was partially used for the popular 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man. The show had a large fan base and spawned a spinoff — The Bionic Woman. With such a well-kn

January Box Office By: MattInRC Lone Survivor leads the best January in four years. Last year around this time, we lamented about Hollywood's disappointing January, a fact which took three months to correct - not so in 2014. Led by a gripping war flick and an animated musical, January's box office took in $894 million, up 8% from 2013 and 18.6% from 2011. Lone Survivor finished just under $100 million, while Frozen took in $89.8 million. The biggest difference can be seen when comparing the top 5 this year from last, which lately has been dominated by December leftovers. In 2014, two of the top three films are new releases: Lone Survivor and the buddy-cop comedy Ride Along , which took in $84.6 million. As a matter of comparison, 2013 sported only one new release in its top 5 (Mama), while 2012 had two ( Contraband and The Devil Inside ). In 2014, Oscar contenders American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street rounded out the top 5. Although the animated c

An LA Weekly cover story detailing cocaine-dealing allegations and prison time done by financiers Remington Chase and Stepan Martirosyan has Hollywood distancing itself from the pair. In the wake of revelations of a criminal past, film financiers Remington Chase and Stepan Martirosyan have gone from indie darlings to radioactive. The U.S.-born Chase and Armenian Martirosyan, who financed 2013's Denzel Washington - Mark Wahlberg starrer 2 Guns and Wahlberg's Lone Survivor , are scrambling following a Jan. 2 LA Weekly report detailing cocaine trafficking convictions, prison time and stints as federal informants (both have gone by other aliases in the past). The pair have hired high-profile crisis lawyer Howard Weitzman, who is no stranger to controversy with a clientele that includes O.J. Simpson, Justin Bieber, the Kardashians and the Michael Jackson estate. Universal, which distributed both films, declined comment, but producers Randall Emmett and George Furla ,