Movies Daily by Zach Cannon

Due to a busy day, I’ll have to keep today’s update short. Here’s some quick bullets of today’s news.

To strike, or not to strike. That is the question. At 12:01 tomorrow morning (Tuesday at midnight), the SAG contract with AMPTP will expire. As of yet, no strike has been authorized. SAG’s president doesn’t want it, others do. Read all about it here and here.

After he’s done with Watchmen, director Zak Snyder already has an animated feature lined up, as well as an adventure/drama set in Afghanistan, but it looks like he could be sticking around in the Middle East after that and leading the Spartans against the Persians again in a sequel to 300. Frank Miller, the author of the original graphic novel, is writing a new one upon which the film sequel will be based.

Terminator 4 (I know I never refer to it by its real name, but that name is just too stupid to type out) has gotten itself a new actress. Helena Bonham Carter will join Christian Bale in a “small but pivotal” role.

Brett Ratner has tried to dispel the rumors online that Beverly Hills Cop 4 will be PG or PG-13 so that younger audiences can rediscover the franchise. He told Latino Review: “Dont believe everything you read on the internet. Believe me, this is going to be a hard core ‘R’ Beverly Hills Cop. I start shooting next year.”

And two interesting stories about trends in entertainment came from Variety today. The average TV viewer is getting older, probably in large part because of the growing number of baby boomers, and, despite the record summer last year, rising tickets, gas and popcorn prices, this year’s box office is doing 4% better than 2007’s.