Dumars: Brown agrees to two-year deal with Pistons

Kwame Brown's search for another fresh start is taking him back to the Eastern Conference.

The center and the Detroit Pistons agreed to a two-year, $8 million contract Monday night. Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars confirmed the deal to The Associated Press late Monday.

The contract is likely to be signed Tuesday and will include a player option for Brown to return to free agency after completing one season according to agent Mark Bartelstein, who told ESPN.com of the agreement earlier Monday.

It remains to be seen whether the Pistons will be able to make the splashy trade that Dumars vowed to consider after Detroit's loss to Boston in the Eastern Conference finals. But this signing is bold in its own way for the Pistons. They will be hoping that Brown can finally start to find a foothold in Detroit after another recent top-three pick who has significantly underachieved -- 2003's No. 2 overall selection Darko Milicic -- lasted only 2½ seasons with the Pistons before being dealt to Orlando in 2006.

The Pistons, though, can counter with multiple success stories -- most notably Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace -- when it comes to working with former top-five draft picks who endured problematic starts in their careers. Detroit will try to make Brown its latest reclamation project, figuring that his size, athleticism and relative youth are still too enticing to pass up, especially on a short-term commitment.

Brown earned nearly $9.1 million last season in the final year of his previous three-year deal, which the 26-year-old received in the summer of 2005 in a sign-and-trade from Washington to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Brown's expiring salary was the chief chip that the Lakers used to convince the Memphis Grizzlies to send Pau Gasol to L.A. on Feb. 1 in a trade that earned the Grizzlies widespread criticism. Memphis essentially settled for the salary-cap relief created by Brown's expected departure, two late first-round picks, young point guard Javaris Crittenton and the rights to Gasol's brother Marc. The Grizzlies subsequently signed Marc Gasol earlier this month after his breakout season in the Spanish League and used one of the first-round picks last month to acquire the rights to No. 28 overall selection Darrell Arthur of Kansas.

Brown played in only 15 games with the Grizzlies after the trade, averaging just 3.5 points and 3.8 minutes in just under 14 minutes per game. He returns to the East after spending his first four seasons as a pro in Washington, having been drafted by then-Wizards president Michael Jordan.

There were reports in the past week suggesting that Brown was a candidate to re-sign with the Lakers, with longtime Lakers coach/consultant Tex Winter telling noted Lakers historian Roland Lazenby that coach Phil Jackson "has always liked Kwame" and has "always felt that defensively he's pretty good." Yet sources say that Brown never seriously considered a reunion with the Lakers after a tumultuous stint in which he absorbed plenty of public criticism from Jackson.

In his seven pro seasons, Brown has averaged just 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds, posting his best season in 2003-04 by averaging 10.9 points and 7.4 rebounds for the Wizards. Brown has likewise been plagued by various injuries, appearing in 42 games or less in three of the past four seasons.

Jacks Mannequin Announces Pre-Release EP

Jack’s Mannequin, led by singer-keyboardist Andrew McMahon, will release its second album, entitled The Glass Passenger, on September 30th, 2008 on Sire/Warner Bros. Records.

Co-produced by McMahon and Jim Wirt (Incubus, Hoobastank), The Glass Passenger is the follow-up to the band’s debut Everything in Transit, which was released in August 2005 and debuted at No. 37 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.

Like that album, The Glass Passenger was written and recorded over the course of nearly two years with McMahon going into the studio whenever inspiration struck. As a result, McMahon describes the album as “a bizarre balance between present and past. I was trying to use the music to sort through and reconcile with the adversity of my past.”

While The Glass Passenger is essentially autobiographical, the album is not meant to serve as a direct description of McMahon’s life. “My past is my past and a lot of this record is about that,” he says “but it’s also about trying to write myself out of it. This is a record about trying to get well. It’s about getting out from underneath something. I want people to receive the music for what it is and not have to contextualize it against my own personal battle.”

Jack’s Mannequin, which McMahon formed in 2004 with guitarist Bobby Anderson, bassist Jonathan Sullivan, and drummer Jay McMillan in Orange County, CA, has been busy touring this year, including an appearance at the Bamboozle Festival in May. They have performed a series of acoustic shows on this year’s Vans Warped Tour, and will hit the road with Paramore on July 28th.

To tide fans over, the band will release an iTunes exclusive EP titled "Ghost Over Ground" on August 5, 2008 featuring new music from "The Glass Passenger" as well as unreleased live material from the past album.

For more on Jack’s Mannequin, including the latest news, photos, tour dates, and McMahon’s blog, please visit the band’s official website www.jacksmannequin.com or MySpace page: www.myspace.com/jacksmannequin

George Lucas on a Fifth Indiana Jones

With Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull having earned a massive $743.7 million worldwide (#27 on the all-time worldwide list), The Sunday Times asked George Lucas if he, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford would be up for a fifth film:

"We were hoping for box-office figures like that, which is, ultimately, with inflation, what the others have done, within 10%," Lucas explains. "So, we squeaked up there. Really, though, it was a challenge getting the story together and getting everybody to agree on it. Indiana Jones only becomes complicated when you have another two people saying 'I want it this way' and 'I want it that way', whereas, when I first did Jones, I just said, 'We'll do it this way' — and that was much easier. But now I have to accommodate everybody, because they are all big, successful guys, too, so it's a little hard on a practical level.

"If I can come up with another idea that they like, we'll do another. Really, with the last one, Steven wasn't that enthusiastic. I was trying to persuade him. But now Steve is more amenable to doing another one. Yet we still have the issues about the direction we'd like to take. I'm in the future; Steven's in the past. He's trying to drag it back to the way they were, I'm trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that. It's kind of a hybrid of our own two ideas, so we'll see where we are able to take the next one."

One suggestion? A shorter title!

The Dark Knight Reaches a Record $314.2M in 10 Days!

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark Knight earned an estimated $75.6 million from 4,366 theaters in its second weekend, surpassing Shrek 2's $72.2 million for biggest second weekend ever. Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins follow-up has reached $314.2 million in just 10 days, another record. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest held the previous record in the amount of days it took to cross the $300 million mark - it needed 16 days to do so. On Monday, The Dark Knight will surpass Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to become the biggest movie of 2008 domestically. It is already up to #23 on the all-time domestic blockbuster list and has a good shot at surpassing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope's $460.998 million (not counting inflation) to become the second-biggest domestic earner of all-time, trailing only Titanic's $600.788 million. The Dark Knight, budgeted at $185 million, stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

Columbia Pictures' Step Brothers opened in second place with a strong $30 million from 3,094 theaters. The Adam McKay-directed comedy, starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen, averaged $9,696 per theater. The movie cost about $65 million to make.

Universal Pictures' Mamma Mia! dropped one spot to third and lost only 35.6% in ticket sales from its first weekend. The musical, carrying a budget of $52 million, added $17.9 million and has pushed its total to $62.7 million in two weeks.

20th Century Fox's The X-Files: I Want to Believe failed to pull in moviegoers its first weekend as it collected just $10.2 million from 3,185 theaters, according to estimates. The Chris Carter-directed film, starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xzibit, Amanda Peet and Billy Connolly, averaged $3,202 per location. One thing going for it is that it had a budget of just $30 million, making the risk for the studio minimal.

Warner Bros./New Line's Journey to the Center of the Earth rounded out the top five with $9.4 million and has earned $60.2 million in three weeks. The family adventure was made for $60 million.

Columbia Pictures' Hancock took in $8.2 million in its fourth weekend in sixth place, sending the $150 million Will Smith superhero film over the $200 million mark with $206.4 million.

In seventh, Disney/Pixar's WALL•E earned $6.3 million and has collected $195 million after five weeks. The animated film cost the studio $180 million to make.

Eighth place belonged to Universal's Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which made $4.9 million in its third weekend for a total of $65.9 million, followed by Fox's Space Chimps in ninth which made $4.4 million and has earned $16 million in two weeks.

SDCC EXCL: Francis Lawrence Confirms Legend Prequel

Last year, Will Smith starred in an update of Richard Matheson's future shock novel I Am Novel, which became the second-biggest non-sequel of 2007, and ever since then, there's been a lot of rumors and speculation and curiosity whether Warner Bros. would try to do some kind of prequel or sequel to it. (Note: If you haven't seen it or read the book, the next sentence will probably spoil both.) A prequel would be the most obvious because it would mean that Will Smith could return as Dr. Robert Neville, and we'd be able to see more of the time in between the virus being unleashed in New York and where the first movie picks up the story.

Francis Lawrence was at Comic-Con International to talk about the new NBC series "Kings" for which he directed the pilot and the first couple of episodes, and we had a chance to ask him a few questions about the rumor about a prequel, which he confirmed he would definitely be involved with. "Yes, yes, absolutely, we're actually trying to crack that. We're trying to figure out some ideas for it, but yes, it would be a prequel." He did confirm that Will Smith, who's done a couple of sequels in his career, would definitely be into doing more with the character.

The pilot for "Kings" has a lot of great aerial shots of New York City, which is doubling for the city of Shiloh, and talking about that lead to us talking about how it was portrayed in Legend. "Akiva and I really wanted to do 'Legend' in New York, because it's such an iconic city and it's just more striking to see it abandoned than Los Angeles, 'cause honestly, parts of Los Angeles can look abandoned in the middle of the day."

We asked him whether he'd have go through the same things in creating an abandoned New York as he did for I Am Legend and whether it would be easier for a prequel, having already figured out how to do it. "Well, even as we went through them with the movie itself, it got easier. The first time you got out there and shut down 6th Avenue, it's like, 'How are we going to do this day after day after day?' but by the end, it's just like you know how to do it. You got the P.A.'s who know how to shut it down, how to let the traffic through in between set-ups and you just sort of get the routine down, so that's not the issue."

That led directly into Lawrence sharing some interesting ideas that might go into making the proposed prequel: "In the prequel, it's slightly different because it's earlier. We were three years later so we did a lot of research into the way nature would have sort of overtaken the city, with the cracks in the streets and the weeds, so if it's just back earlier, it'll be slightly different so the approach will be different. We're not positive of the time of the year, because if you go in winter, you can do some entirely different kinds of things."

As far as getting Richard Matheson's blessing on this prequel, Lawrence commented, "I'm sure we'll definitely keep him involved in the prequel just in terms of updating him and inviting him to read the script and see what he has to say. Matheson was very happy (with the first movie). It was a great moment when we showed him the movie. He had read the script and I invited him when we were done to see the movie and he brought his family, and I called him when we were on the international junket in Japan and I was really nervous, because it's an adaptation and it's different, and he knew along the way, it's Richard Matheson. He really loved it and I had this great letter from him about it."

As far as some of the other things on Lawrence's slate, he told us, "There's something on my IMDb page called 'Eddie Dickens and the Awful End,' which is not happening. That was an animated project that I was going to do alongside with 'Legend' and that we sort of decided with the studio not to do. Then there's a Disney thing called 'Snow and the 7' that I'm still working on which is a modern retelling of the Snow White story." He said that it would be a family movie in the sense of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. "It's in that kind of a vein. It's 19th Century China, a British girl is discovering who she really is, and it's a great action-adventure story. That one's a ways away but we got this great writer in and we're working on the script. This great world and great ideas."

SDCC: Jordan Mechner on the Prince of Persia Movie

"Prince of Persia" creator Jordan Mechner kept details of the upcoming Disney live-action adaptation of the popular video game series close to his chest while speaking to Con-goers in San Diego on Friday. The movie is based on the "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" game, which was the first in a trilogy of POP games released by Ubisoft. Mechner did tell ComingSoon.net that he had mulled an animated feature film of the property following wrapping up production on the "Sands of Time" game, but the lure of a Disney/Bruckheimer big budget summer film was 'too hard to resist.'

Asked about the challenges of adapting a game to the big screen, Mechner – who wrote the screenplay and is an executive producer for the upcoming film – said character development was key for the movie.

"You want to be taken on an emotional journey," he said. "You want to care about the characters."

Mechner did say that the film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan, will have a large cast of characters and have a much larger scope then just running around the insides of a single palace.

The Prince's name has been a point of interest with fans of the series, given that no name had ever been given for him in any of the video games. Mechner said it was not practical for the film for the Prince to remain nameless. The name Dastan was chosen in part because it is the Persian word for 'trickster'.

He also added that the script is based solely on the "Sands of Time" game and not the sequel games "Warrior Within" and "Two Thrones."

Mechner said he was very pleased with the cast that has been assembled for the film, which includes Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton and Alfred Molina.

Mechner also has just released a new "Prince of Persia" trade paperback, which is a completely new storyline from any previous iterations. He also has a trilogy of trade paperbacks in the works called "Solomon's Thieves."

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, being directed by Mike Newell, is due out on June 19, 2009.

Aronofsky and Self Confirmed for RoboCop

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM) has signed Darren Aronofsky to direct and David Self to write a new installment for its "RoboCop" franchise. Aronofsky, the director of The Fountain, and Self, the writer of Road to Perdition, make a formidable creative team, fast tracking the RoboCop motion picture and spotlighting it as one of the most anticipated new films for 2010.

The announcement was made today by Mary Parent, Chairman, Worldwide Motion Picture Group, MGM.

In making the announcement Parent said: "Darren is undeniably one of the most talented, original and visceral film makers, and David is one of the greatest writers in Hollywood. All of us at MGM couldn't be more excited."

Phoenix Pictures' Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Brad Fischer and David Thwaites will produce "RoboCop." Cale Boyter, Executive Vice President Production at MGM will oversee the project for the studio.

Phoenix Pictures' Chairman and CEO Mike Medavoy said: "After making the first 'RoboCop' at Orion more than 20 years ago, I'm thrilled to be helping to return this character to the screen with our partners at MGM and through the eyes of Darren Aronofsky and David Self."

Phoenix co-presidents Brad Fischer and David Thwaites added: "With a filmmaker of Darren Aronofsky's vision and imagination and a writer of David Self's caliber, we are poised to bring to the screen an entertaining and provocative film, which will now be under the creative guidance of two of the best storytellers working in our industry today."

The original RoboCop, which premiered in 1987, was "part man, part machine and all cop." The film's storyline focused on the future of law enforcement as a terminally wounded cop returns to the police force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories. The original film was nominated for two Academy Awards -- Best Film Editing and Best Sound.

Third Harold & Kumar in the Works

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and directed the latter, will return to write and direct a third installment for Mandate Pictures.

Greg Shapiro will return as producer. Variety says the storyline is being kept under wraps.

Stars John Cho and Kal Penn are expected to reprise their roles as the ganja-loving duo because Mandate has options on the actors for the third installment.

New Line, which was folded into Warner Bros. in February, distributed the first two films. Warners will likely distribute the third installment.

WB and DiCaprio Eyeing Twilight Zone Movie

Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way are in the early stages of seeking material for a feature take on one or more episodes from the classic TV series "The Twilight Zone," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The trade says that the studio and production company are quietly putting out word to creators that they are looking for pitches and script ideas based on the show for feature development.

The companies are not seeking to remake an episodic movie, as the only big-screen version of the show did 25 years ago, but rather hope to build one continuing story line based on one or more episodes.

Warners owns rights to the Rod Serling-penned episodes, which comprise the bulk of its 1959-64 run.

Harvey Keitel Joins Life on Mars

Harvey Keitel has agreed to his first-ever regular TV series role, joining the cast of ABC's upcoming "Life on Mars" adaptation, reports Variety.

Keitel is on board to play Det. Gene Hunt, who heads up the homicide department and is known for using any means necessary to do his job.

"Life on Mars" - which has been completely revamped from its earlier pilot - is now set to start shooting in New York on Aug. 5. Keitel is set to star alongside Jason O'Mara (who plays lead character Det. Sam Tyler), as well as Michael Imperioli (Det. Ray Caling) and Jonathan Murphy (Det. Chris Skelton).

"Life on Mars" revolves around O'Mara's character, a contemporary cop who wakes up in the 1970s after a car crash.