Joblo
While Monster Hunt is "cute" first and foremost, thankfully it isn't bereft of weird ideas and darkly funny sequences. Most of the third act is set in a swanky restaurant where monsters are routinely roasted, spliced, baked and subsequently eaten; even our poor Wuba is subject to a few horrific cooking techniques, but like almost everything else in the film, these moments are played for surreal laughs - since Wuba apparently can't be killed. The fact that the villain in the movie wants to saw off this little tyke's head and eat his brains while he's alive goes a long way toward showing you that we're not in Kansas anymore. Monster Hunt is bonkers, and I'm grateful for that.
Variety: “Monster Hunt,” the Chinese movie which last year claimed China’s all-time box office record, is set to get a North American release later this month.
The film grossed over $390 million after a release in July, marginally exceeding the unprecedented success of “Fast & Furious 7.”
Deadline: It took 58 days, but China’s local summer blockbuster, Monster Hunt, has now overtaken Universal’s Furious 7 to become the highest-grossing film ever at the Middle Kingdom box office. Furious 7‘s milestone was set with a run that lasted only 30 days. State news agency Xinhua, citing industry watchdog SAPPRFT, today says Monster Hunt‘s total sales as of yesterday exceeded 2.428B yuan. Furious 7‘s local currency haul was 2.426B yuan. In today’s dollars, Monster Hunt‘s take is $380.99M versus what would have been $380.67M for Furious 7. That’s reflective of market fluctuations over the past few months: when F7 ended its China run in mid-May, the conversion from the yuan came to $391.2M.
Deadline: McG is set to direct The Babysitter, a new horror-comedy being set up through his Wonderland Sound and Vision at New Line. Based on a blacklist script by Brian Duffield that was the subject of a bidding war, the film is about a babysitter and a 12-year old boy during a crazy night when things go horribly wrong. Life and death lessons ensue. The film is being co-financed through a partnership between Zack Schiller of Boies/Schiller Film Group and Wonderland, with New Line execs Richard Brener, Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter overseeing.
