What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that is celebrating Monday Funday with what amounts to a bunch of shenanigans. Don’t worry though, we’ve slipped in at least one legitimate piece of news. We’ll get to that shortly. We begin tonight with something found a few weeks ago via Warming Glow, where an image from the Twitter account of Charley Koontz, best known as Fat Neil on Community, shows that Executive Producer Dan Harmon is just as bitter about Community‘s ratings as the rest of us. Seriously, who is the Nielsen Family? In other news, I hope Dan Harmon never changes.

Yes, January is a graveyard. Lots of dead bodies just getting dumped left and right A) to fill up the space and B) because some of these studios have dead bodies just laying around not making money. Such is the case with The Devil Inside, the only film getting a broad release this weekend. It doesn’t take a genius – thank God – to pick up on the fact that Mission: Impossible and Sherlock Holmes will be topping the box office once again. It’s that surefire longevity these December releases have noticed doing its best. A mockumentary about exorcisms that some studio decided to pick up won’t make much noise. But let’s see just how well it could do, shall we?

Here’s how the Christmas weekend broke down: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – $29.5m (+130.7%) $61.9m total Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $20.2m (-48.9%) $79m total The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – $12.7m NEW $21.1m since Tuesday release Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – $12.5m (-45.9%) $49.5m total The Adventures of Tintin – $9.7m NEW $17.7m since Wednesday release We Bought a Zoo – $9.3m NEW War Horse – $7.5m NEW released Christmas Day New Year’s Eve – $3.3m (-54.7%) $32.6m total The Darkest Hour – $3m NEW released Christmas Day The Muppets – $2.1m (-39.1%) $75.7m total Yes, we usually save this chart for the end of the recapping Reject Report, but this week is about the year, not the weekend.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly collection of things you’ll want to read, even if they didn’t originate on this website. We know, we know, all the good stuff can only come from Film School Rejects. But every once in a while (at least 8 times per day), other websites strike gold. And we’re here to celebrate their modest victories. We begin tonight with an image from Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, one of a number released today by Magnolia Pictures. It features Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim as… well, I have no idea what’s going on in this picture. But apparently people find this funny. Having watched numerous episodes of their show, I’m not convinced that they’ve ever been funny. But who am I to argue with the masses? Oh right, I do argue with the masses. Seriously, guys, this stuff isn’t funny. At all.

Yeah, Chipmunks. How do you like it when we change your words? Another week of movies. Another week of slight disappointments. Sherlock came out on top, but both Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked came in under expectations. Neither were major letdowns but noticeable enough. Chipwrecked debuted at half of what The Squeakquel brought, while Game of Shadows made about 2/3 of what Sherlock Holmes did. This could be a good indication of the law of believed diminishing returns on the sequels, not believing they’ll get their money’s worth. In the case of Chipwrecked, it could just mean kids are getting movied out. The past few weeks have been inundated with new family features.

Opinions vary slightly on Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise, but they generally go like this: Brian DePalma’s film is fantastic, John Woo’s follow-up is an epic abomination, and JJ Abrams’ third entry is an interesting but otherwise pedestrian effort. That’s the general consensus seemingly held by the majority of folks online. But that consensus is missing the point. The series has actually gotten more entertaining with each new installment. No, seriously. The dramatic quality of each is arguable and the levels of stupidity have fluctuated (although they peaked with Woo’s film), but for sheer entertainment value each successive film has been bigger, more thrilling, and more technically impressive than the last. And happily, that trend has continued with Brad Bird’s slightly goofy, deliriously fun and exciting as hell Ghost Protocol. It’s the best summer movie of the year… even if it did just open two weeks into December.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly collection of things, movie related and otherwise, that will entertain you, astound you and most likely give you that much needed late-night push toward deep, restful sleep. We begin tonight with the new logo Paramount Pictures has released for their 100th anniversary celebration. I caught it this evening on a massive IMAX screen in front of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which was quite awesome. But more on that later. Up first, some trivia: Did you know that the original Paramount mountain was based on a doodle by W.W. Hodkinson and that the live-action logo is based on Peru’s Artesonraju? Wikipedia did.

Paramount Pictures has released a first look featurette for their upcoming winter action release Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the first live-action film from long-time Pixar company man Brad Bird and the return of Tom Cruise to the character of Ethan Hunt, rogue spy undoubtedly trying to clear his own name of some misunderstanding. This one has Jeremy Renner as a fellow spy and just like Mission: Impossible III, it’s got Simon Pegg as Ethan Hunt’s go-to tech nerd, Benji. He’s got wit and social awkwardness, along with a few other tricks that involve fake apendages and an outfit from Aladin. It’s all in this new featurette. 

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that, at least for tonight, will divert your attention away from it being a slow news day by using a rousing round-up of visual stimuli. That’s right, we’re busting out infographics! We begin tonight with one of a few hot-off-the-press photos from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, featuring the cast. Among them was this shot of dreamy Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace, also dreamy. There’s also some pretty kick-ass science fictiony stuff promised alongside this oozing sexuality.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that would like to be the first to welcome you to Earf… We begin tonight with news that will make all 4 of you die hard Roland Emmerich fans out there: Fox is looking to make two Independence Day sequels, with or without Will Smith. It feels like an outlandish rumor, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone if it really came to fruition. Either way, we’ll all probably watch them, right?

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that brings life to the otherwise gray twilight of your day. It brings color where boredom once lived. Because what the hell else are you going to do before bed, read a book? Ballderdash! We begin tonight with something not exactly news, but equally as important. Above you will see a new product that ThinkGeek will release in 2012 called the IRIS 9000 voice control module for iPhone and Siri. It’s exactly what you might think, an iPhone dock that allows you to interact with Siri as if she were HAL 9000. It is perhaps the new holy grail of nerd things. And if you’re a member of the FSR staff still looking for a gift for your favorite boss, I will accept a pre-order of this item as an acceptable gift. Seriously, get on that. There’s even a video, which I’ve included after the jump.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s the nightly movie news column you need right now. It doesn’t care what you want. It knows what you need. We begin tonight with some news about The Dark Knight Rises, a film that has not been mentioned in this column for quite some time. We missed the part where it was going to Occupy Wall Street and skipped ahead to the good stuff: like the confirmation of a TDKR proluge showing with 70mm IMAX prints of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol when it hits theaters on December 16. That’s awesome.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s nothing more than a nightly film news column that keeps fighting the good fight. The one that celebrates movies, good, bad and otherwise interesting, and is generally optimistic. It doesn’t attack other websites that smear its name. Though if /Film’s Page 2 keeps mean-mugging it, that bitch is gonna get smacked. That’s how we settle things in the streets. As you are about to see, this week’s final News After Dark edition comes on a very slow news night. So it’s all posters, future Blu-rays and articles I found interesting. Including this AV Club Q&A about first R-rated movies. Like AV’s Josh Modell, I’m fairly certain — almost completely certain — that my first R-rated film was The Blues Brothers, a film that has remained part of my beating, movie-loving heart ever since. What was your first R-rated movie? Feel free to let me know in the comment area below and we’ll have some fun discussing. Or not, whatever. I see how it is.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a rumblin’, stumblin’, often bumblin’ and at times even tumblin’ nightly look at the world of entertainment news through the lens of brevity and wit. But mostly brevity. And fancy images. Tonight’s lead image came to me randomly while browsing around Yahoo! Movies. It’s the first still from A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas, and I can’t for the life of me explain why we haven’t featured it yet. Perhaps it was just released. If so, I feel like I’ve stumbled upon buried treasure. A gold mine of full-force ridiculousity. And NPH.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch this trailer several times. That’s what it took for me. The first time I watched it, the entire thing was in French. It looked okay. The second time was last night, prior to a screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. At the point, I couldn’t help but think that it was a mess of a trailer. Exposition up front, a smattering of incoherently laced clips in the middle, some Eminem for ambiance and finally, a big stunt. After a few more inspection runs just now, I’m seeing some pretty wicked stuff inside Brad Bird’s first live-action film. And I’ve heard from a few insiders that Tom Cruise still has it. It’s hard to throw all that together and not be confident that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is going to be one hell of a ride. But we’ll see about all that. For now, here’s the first trailer.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly round-up of movie news and informational links that will marry whomever it damn well pleases, male, female, alien or otherwise. Except /Film’s Page 2, that bitch never called it back. She thinks she’s so cool because she’s on a “legitimate” film site that “people actually read.” Bitches be trippin’. Our most photogenic story tonight, a first official look at John Cusack in The Raven (working title) as the tormented Edgar Allen Poe. Lets face it, if that hair (facial and cranial) is real, we should be impressed. Also impressive is the expansive amount of Cusack-related news included in tonight’s edition of Movie News After Dark, so stick around.

Paramount Pictures and IMAX have made a business agreement with each other (heretofore known as “the contract”) that will see four Paramount flicks splayed out on those giant canvas-like screens the kids love so much. Those four films? No surprises there. Except maybe one. Transformers: Dark of the Moon and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn will be converted into the IMAX format (which I assume means completely) so that the explosions and computer generated dogs can be seen with crystal clarity. J.J. Abrams’s mysterious Super 8 will also be at IMAX theaters, but even they aren’t releasing how it’s being shot or whether the entire film or just a few segments will be formatted to be size extra enormous. The one semi-surprise is Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which will have several of its sequences converted, but won’t be entirely in IMAX.

Consider this as a rumor from the Swedish TMZ crowd until further confirmation, but Tom Cruise and director Brad Bird may have found their villain for Mission Impossible 4… Per online Swedish tabloid, Nojes Bladet, Michael Nyqvist may be starring against Cruise as one of the baddies in the latest installment of the action/spy franchise. If the name doesn’t sound familiar it may be that you have yet to catch international sensation, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, or its two equally popular sequels. I don’t speak Swedish, so I’ve had to trust in the infallible accuracy of Google Translator. Which means any errors in this post, big or small, can be blamed on the fine folks at Google. And probably on the Swedes too.

It had to happen sometime I suppose. One day some producer somewhere would look at the budget of a film and see that half of it was there just to pay for the services of Tom Cruise. Then they’d notice he just isn’t that popular anymore. News from Vulture online is that Paramount has cut Tom Cruise’s salary for Mission: Impossible 4.  Before all you Cruise fans start firing up the ovens to make cupcakes, brownies and cookies for the “Save Tom Cruise” bake sale, and before George Clooney jumps on board and gathers the rich and famous for the “Tom Cruise Needs Your Help” telethon, let me make you aware this is only a cut in upfront salary and poor beleaguered Tom will get some nice cash on the back end if the film performs well. We also have to come to grips with the fact that half a Tom Cruise salary is more money than any of us would make in, I don’t know, four trillion life times? Why the pay cut? For starters Cruise hasn’t had a hit since. . .since. . .anyone out there know the last Cruise film that was a hit?

Things were going well for the currently in development fourth Mission: Impossible film. Tom Cruise was ready to get back into the shoes of super spy Ethan Hunt. Paramount scored a great director in Brad Bird. And former Alias scribes Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec were putting together a script. This was all before Cruise’s latest action flick, Knight and Day, took a giant steamer at the box office. Now the word on the street is that Paramount is looking to retool Mission: Impossible 4 and give Cruise’s character a new role: mentor.