I had planned on taking the day off from the Bloggery today, but I was drawn in by the odd attention being paid to some new photos of Dakota Fanning on the set of the girl group biopic The Runaways. I guess it fits to end the week with another look at rock and roll pedophile bait, since I already devoted one day to the Chipettes. But it’s not like this is actually the first look at the 15-year-old former child star as singer Cherie Currie. It’s not even the most scandalous. Still, the fact that the media is focusing on Fanning and ignoring the full band shots (this is apparently the first look at all the Runaways actresses, if not the first look at Fanning) is either because people are obsessed with the maturation of a female child star or, due to the near-equal concentration on Kristen Stewart, they’re trying to get traffic from Twilight fans.

Anyway, I’m still waiting for the re-creation of this costume to really spark talk of “kiddie porn,” and I’m still wondering if we’ll end up with a “leaked” shot of the Fanning/Stewart lesbian kiss once that scene is shot. It would rival the Vicky Cristina Barcelona kiss as far as media attention goes. Otherwise, there’s not much reason to discuss these latest images, other than to hope that it makes teenyboppers curious about Iggy Pop.

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The first (real) trailer for the Twilight sequel New Moon debuted at the MTV Movie Awards last night, and while it appears to be receiving less attention and buzz than the Bruno/Eminem stunt, it is stirring a bit (just a bit) of noise on the Interweb today. Though I admit to not being very familiar with the franchise, I think it’s a well done spot considering the film is still shooting. I especially like the parallel action of the junkie-like lunging of the rude birthday party guest and the shapeshifting leap attack from Taylor Lautner’s werewolf character. Those in the Twilight world are apparently very quick to their feet when it comes to both cravings and savings.

Still, probably my least favorite thing ever is a CGI werewolf, whether its in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Cursed, Van Helsing or any other lycanthropic films I purposefully avoided and forgot about. The one in the New Moon trailer, however, is relatively decent-looking. But could that just be because it looks adorable?

Obviously the majority of my bloggery peers are responding with ignorance and disinterest, but surely there are a few non-Twilight-obsessed movie sites excited about this sequel. Let’s take a look after the jump:

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If these Bloggery roundup posts were truly meant to represent the hottest film news of the day, they’d always be about Twilight, or at least its star, Robert Pattinson. As I’ve learned from regularly monitoring movie sites, there’s something relative to the franchise to report on at least once every 24 hours (today we somehow got double news, with Pattinson announcing he’s committed to a fourth installment). And it will continue to be this way for the next few years. So forgive me this one time for caving in, like others, to turn the spotlight on an advertisement for a movie I know little about and likely will not see.

At least I do have an appreciation for posters, as an artform. And at least a lot of the commentary coming from the blogs regarding this new The Twilight Saga: New Moon one-sheet is humorous. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother with it. Everyone knows we’re going to see another hundred or so marketing images for the sequel before its November release (this wasn’t even the first), so why bother talking about just one? Here’s why: to point out that between this and the official teaser poster for Where the Wild Things Are, movie marketers are really into forestry shots with background light sources.

Okay, that wasn’t very funny (honestly, it wasn’t really supposed to be, anyway), so I’ll just leave it to the film bloggers with more wit to make us laugh at this heavily airbrushed poster. Check out the Twilight jokes after the jump:

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I haven’t seen Twilight, but from what I can tell the film only has one memorable scene. That’s the way the Twilight parodists make it seem, anyway. Everything from the puppet parody to  this new Christmas version (see below) recreates this scene, in which Bella acknowledges that Edward is a vampire and then the couple flies through the woods. It’s getting to the point where the parodies are losing their edge if only because of the familiarity. The one thing that could possibly be more tired is if someone parodied the bullet-time scene from The Matrix within a parody of Twilight.

But it’s mid-December, and tis the season for humorous movie-related Christmas videos on YouTube (like “Rambo Bells”). Twilight fans already got their Christmas wish with the announcement that Twilight: New Moon will be out before Thanksgiving next year, but this is a little stocking stuffer (for that Edward-face stocking pictured, available from Amazon). And if those little goths like the idea of Santa being a vampire (how is this not the concept of another Christmas horror flick?), they can buy an unrelated Santa Vampire t-shirt here. Oh nevermind, they’re not going to have enough cash for unrelated items when there’s so much real Twilight Christmas crap to buy.

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• While at the Dubai International Film Festival over the weekend, Terminator Salvation director McG “announced” that a fifth installment of the Terminator franchise is definitely in the works, although The Halcyon Co. revealed over a year ago their plans for a trilogy. That McG is back to helm the installment must mean Halcyon is happier with the way Salvation looks than some of us are.
• As rumored, Chris Weitz will indeed take over the Twilight franchise from exited director Catherine Hardwicke. And yes, for those who agreed the job was only appropriate for another woman, Chris is short for Christopher.
• F/X artist-turned-director Stephen Norrington is finally following up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with the remake of The Crow that’s been talked about in Hollywood for awhile. I wonder if Jason Statham is still interested in playing the lead.
• The Dark Knight seems to be for Blu-Ray what The Matrix was for DVD a decade ago.
• Oh yeah, the weekend’s box office results: well, The Day the Earth Stood Still managed to just barely edge out The Happening to be the higher grossing of the year’s lame eco-sci-fi films. The animated film you never heard of, Delgo, couldn’t make a million bucks on more than 2,000 screens, while the Bollywood film you never heard of, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, cracked a million bucks on about 100 screens. And a ton of limited specialty films, including new releases Gran Torino, Wendy and Lucy, The Reader, Doubt and Che, all had better per-screen-averages than did the #1 film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

• In a huge blow to women in film, Catherine Harwicke was officially announced to be exiting the Twilight franchise after a weekend of rumors. Summit Entertainment’s press release politely claims the decision was rather mutual because the first sequel, New Moon, is being rushed into production yet Hardwicke desired more prep time. Gossip in the blogs, however, says it had more to do with the director being difficult during the first film’s shoot. Whatever the reason, Summit will be pressured to hire another female filmmaker. I bet Lexi Alexander could use the gig after her miserable weekend.
• Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone “fired blanks” at the box office over the weekend, placing 8th with only $4 million, which was less than a third the opening of the last Punisher in 2004. As for other new releases, Cadillac Records grossed $3.5 million, though on far fewer screens, and Frost/Nixon made $180,000 from only 3 locations, earning it a per-screen average of $60,000! And from a mostly 35+ audience. Four Christmases kept its top spot on the box office chart with another $18 million.
• In foreign box office news, Madagascar 2 finally knocked Quantum of Solace off its throne. The Bond installment enjoyed five weeks at #1, internationally, but animation is evidently quite popular overseas. Just look at how Chinese authorities are treating their country’s opening of Bolt 3-D.
• Due to the troubled economy, a number of producer deals at Paramount and Universal will not be renewed, including that of the prestigious duo of Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. Though The Hollywood Reporter claims the producers will continue prepping Jurassic Park IV at the studio, ComingSoon.net just heard from them directly that the sequel has died with Michael Crichton’s recent passing.
• Uwe Boll and Luke Perry could be a craptacular match made in heaven.