Universal Pictures today releases The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie. The CG-animated family film from Big Idea Prods. rolls out in just over 1,300 theaters across North America and goes up against FreeStyle Releasing’s video-game adaptation In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Though they’re not necessarily competing for the same audience, the films seem to be in a dead heat for longest title of the weekend. Also debuting today is Sony ScreenGems’ First Sunday, a comedy starring Tracey Morgan and Ice Cube.
Written by Phil Vischer and directed by Mike Nawrocki, the team behind 2002’s indie animation hit Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything revolves around supporting characters introduced in that first movie. A trio of lazy would-be vegetable pirates must rise to the occasion and learn what it means to be heroes when a message from the past sends them on a time-traveling mission to save a royal family.
Big Idea’s lucrative VeggieTales franchise began life in 1994 as a home video series that has reached sales of approximately 50 million units. With a built-in audience in place, Artisan’s FHE Pictures decided to release the first movie in more than 1,000 theaters in the U.S., where it grossed north of $25 million. The success lead Universal to get involved with the sequel, which was animated by Starz Animation. Read more about the making of the pic in the January issue of Animation Magazine.
Based Microsoft’s popular video-game series from Gas Powered Games and Take-Two Interactive, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is directed by the notorious Uwe Boll, whose credits include the big-screen interpretations of such games as Sega’s House of the Dead, Atari’s Alone in the Dark and Majesco’s BloodRayne. The Ed Wood of video game movies, the maligned filmmaker lived out every director’s fantasy last year by challenging his staunchest critics to boxing matches and soundly pummeling them all. Footage of those brawls will apparently be incorporated into his upcoming film treatment of the Postal video-game franchise.
For the Dungeon Siege pic, Boll has managed to assemble a cast with some star power. Jason Statham (Crank, The Transporter) stars as Farmer, a common man who sets out to rescue his kidnapped wife and avenge his son’s death at the hands of an evil sorcerer played by Ray Liotta. The cast also includes Leelee Sobieski, Burt Reynolds, Ron Pearlman, Claire Forlani, John Rhys-Davies, Kristanna Loken and Mathew Lillard.
Like The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, In the Name of the King is being conservatively deployed, rolling out in roughly 1,600 theaters. Taking this into consideration, the pics should have a hard time besting such holdovers as 20th Century Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks, Disney’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Warner Bros.’ I Am Legend. Warner Bros.’ The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman opens wider and should do quite well with mature moviegoers, while Fox Searchlight’s teen relationship comedy, Juno, continues to build momentum and climb the charts.
