Open Season, the flagship CG-animated feature film from Sony Animation, opens across North America today with the weekend’s highest theater count. Arriving in 3,833 venues, including IMAX 3-D locations, the family-oriented buddy comedy about a domesticated bear and a neurotic mule deer is out to dethrone a certain reality-based movie about a bunch of self-proclaimed jackasses.
In Open Season, a couple of unlikely forest friends rally all the other animals to turn the tables on unsuspecting hunters. Martin Lawrence lends his voice to a 900 lb. grizzly bear named Boog, who was raised from a cub by a forest ranger voiced by Debra Messing. His cushy life is turned upside-down when he hooks up with scrawny mule deer Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) and they tangle with a seasoned hunter voiced by Gary Sinise.
The film is directed by The Lion King helmer Roger Allers, along with Jill Culton, whose credits include Toy Story 2 and Monsters Inc., and Anthony Stacchi, who counts ANTZ among his various credits. The filmmakers built the pic around the unique humor of In the Bleachers cartoonist Steve Moore, who serves as exec producer along with John Carls.
Open Season is just one of two major releases for Ashton Kutcher this weekend. The That ’70s Show alum also stars alongside Kevin Costner in the Coast Guard drama The Guardian. CG water, wild weather and other visual effects for the film were provided by Furious FX, Flash Film Works, Digital Dream and Pixel Magic.
Also opening in wide release is School for Scoundrels, a comedy starring Jon Heder and Billy Bob Thornton. Released in just over 3,000 theaters by MGM and The Weinstein Co., the movie features appearances by Ben Stiller, Michael Clark Duncan, Horatio Sanz, Sarah Silverman and David Cross. Cross’ animated series, Freak Show, debuts on Comedy Central on Wednesday, Oct. 4.
In limited release, Warner Independent’s The Science of Sleep opens wider today, picking up an additional 207 theaters. The latest feature from acclaimed director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) offers up a good deal of stop-motion animation in its many imaginative dream sequences. Another gem to seek out is Miramax’s Renaissance, a fully-animated sci-fi noir thriller from Onyx Films, Millimages, Luxanimation, Timefirm Ltd. and France 2 Cinema. Animated by Attitude Studio, the film opened in two locations in New York and Los Angeles last weekend but can now be found in six additional theaters.
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