'Flight' Screenwriter John Gatins Shares How The Denzel Washington Pic Took Off

Though a Paramount release, Flight did not take the trajectory of a typical studio concept plucked from an internal idea bin. Screenwriter John Gatins began working on what would become the feature starring Denzel Washington and directed by Robert Zemekis earlier last decade on his own. While still new to Hollywood, Gatins, who first hit the scene as a writer on sports pics including Summer Catch and Hard Ball, sobered up. He took that experience and his fear of flying, to quietly craft the story that would evolve into Flight.
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'Wreck-It Ralph' Smashes The Box Office; 'Flight' Soars

Fallout from Hurricane Sandy may have kept some crowds away from theaters over the weekend, but that did not stop Disney animated feature Wreck-It Ralph from packing a wallop at the box office. Box office in the top 12 headed northward to $124.6 million, 20 per cent higher than the previous week.

1. Wreck-It Ralph
Gross: $49,038,712
Screens: 3,752 (PSA: $13,070)
Week: 1

The Disney animation had a terrific bow, cashing in on great reviews and a solid marketing campaign. The feature also made $12 million internationally, making the title Disney's top animated pic The $49 million plus domestic total compares to $40.1 million for Chicken Little in 2005. The opening compares to Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, which brought in over $60 million when it opened in June. But Ralph helped bring up an overall box office which eclipsed the previous weekend.

2. Flight
Gross: $24,900,566
Screens: 1,884 (PSA: $13,217)
Week: 1

Flight cruised with strong results in its opening weekend, even edging out the weekend's number one box office winner, Wreck-It Ralph in terms of per screen average. The results were stronger than expected and shows Denzel Washington, who is tipped to be a force this Awards Season due to his performance, is an audience draw. This is Washington's fifth best debut.

3. Argo
Gross: $10,209,103 (Cume: $75,860,240)
Screens: 2,774 (PSA: $3,680)
Week: 4 (Change: - 16%)

The Ben Affleck-directed feature in which he also stars is continuing to show very solid momentum now one month into its theatrical life. Word-of-mouth is propelling the feature's box office prowess and it will likely hit the $100 million mark in the next few weeks.

4. The Man With the Iron Fists
Gross: $7,910,980
Screens: 1,868 (PSA: $4,235)
Week: 1

The gross is in line with what was expected, but it's still a bit of a downer. It should reach a lucrative overseas market.

5. Taken 2
Gross: $5,919,493 (Cume: $125,586,929)
Screens: 2,639 (PSA: $2,243)
Week: 5 (Change: - 23%)

The film dropped 356 theaters in its fifth weekend, though it actually managed to climb the chart one notch compared to the previous weekend. Its 23% drop is also a sign of momentum and it should top out at $145 million.

Melissa Leo On Addiction In 'Flight,' Intimidating Denzel, And Making Robin Williams Laugh

Oscar winner Melissa Leo has always been one to keep busy, and in Robert Zemeckis's Flight she fills her dance card with yet another brief but potent supporting turn. "'There are no small parts, only small actors,'" she quoted to Movieline as we sat to discuss her Ellen Block, the key investigator and the lone figure standing between alcoholic pilot-hero Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) and a prison sentence in the addiction drama. "Sometimes there are small parts, actually," she laughed, "but this was no small part." more »

REVIEW: 'Flight' Soars Then Nosedives Despite Denzel Washington's Acting Aerobatics

Flight, the first non-motion-capture feature Cast Away and Forrest Gump filmmaker Robert Zemeckis has directed in over a decade, is the kind of movie that, people like to bemoan, the industry doesn't make anymore. It's a solid, burnished work made about adults for adults and anchored by Denzel Washington in a role that calls for some classic star gravitas. It's a mainstream film, but a consciously meaningful one, occupying that increasingly perilous mid-budget middle ground in a world continually drifting toward the opposing poles of massive blockbusters and scrappy indies. There's not a superhero in sight and not a trace of nuance either — it's the straightforward drama of a man forced by circumstances out of his control to confront the destructive way he's been living his life. more »

OMG! Denzel Washington Top Choice To Play Jesus in '60 Minutes'/Vanity Fair Poll

If you are a previously godless East coaster who's found himself prostrate and praying for electricity in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, here's a suggestion:  Visualize Denzel Washington when you say those Lord's Prayers.  If God makes his will known through the people, then it turns out  that the Flight star would be the top choice to portray Jesus Christ in a movie about the New Testament.   more »

WATCH: Denzel Washington Lets His Wife Take The Controls on Flight Red Carpet

That's right, Denzel Washington is such a gentleman he gave his actress wife Pauletta the spotlight on the red carpet for Flight, which closed out the 50th Annual New York Film Festival. Getting an answer from the celebrity couple was more difficult than getting an on-time flight out of Newark Liberty International Airport,  thanks to a scheduling snafu that got Washington and his wife onto the red carpet late. This led what's known in the business as a soundbite stampede from the media who'd gathered at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

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Austin Film Festival Takes Flight With Early Film Roster

Robert Zemeckis' Flight starring Denzel Washington will screen as the Centerpiece of the Austin Film Festival & Conference. The 2012 event, taking place October 18 - 25 revealed some details of its upcoming event Tuesday including 10 films that will join this year's lineup. AFF annually hosts over 180 film screenings and events, while the Conference welcomes over 100 speakers in its panels and roundtables. Among the films screened during the festival are numerous world and US premieres in a wide range of genres, from comedy to documentary, horror to drama. Also on tap for this year, X-Files creator Chris Carter will receive the event's Outstanding Television Writer Award at AFF's annual Awards Luncheon on Saturday, October 22nd.
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Denzel Washington's Flight To Close 50th New York Film Festival

The world premiere of Robert Zemeckis's Flight will close the 50th anniversary edition of the New York Film Festival, organizers said Thursday. The action-packed thriller stars Oscar-winner Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker, a veteran airline pilot who crash lands his plane following a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly everyone on board.
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Robert Zemeckis' Flight Trailer: Denzel Washington Runs Into Turbulence

After riding train after train and whatnot, Denzel Washington is back navigating giant hunks of careening metal in Robert Zemeckis's Flight, which marks the director's return to live-action filmmaking after a decade spent trying (in vain, IMO) to conquer the uncanny valley. So how well do director and star succeed in piquing your interest in a movie about an airline pilot (Washington) who saves a plane full of passengers only to have his heroism — and drinking habits — come under scrutiny in the aftermath?
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Play the Safe House Drinking Game

If you're going to watch Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds traipse through the stinker that is Safe House, at least have fun with the unofficial Safe House Drinking Game, courtesy of the fine folks at Film School Rejects: "TAKE A DRINK WHEN YOU SEE: a flag, an explosion, a close-up on a computer screen... TAKE A DRINK WHEN SOMEONE SAYS 'Frost,' 'house,' 'file' or 'files,' the name of a city..." Might I also suggest taking a swig every time you find yourself on the verge of a shaky-cam migraine? Prepare to get wasted. [Film School Rejects]

Paula Patton To Play Denzel Washington's Love Interest, This Sounds Familiar

Deadline reports that Paula Patton is in talks to star with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg in 2 Guns, a crime pic directed by Contraband's Baltasar Kormakur based on the graphic novel by Stephen Grant "about a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who unwittingly investigate each other as each steals mob money." Patton will play Washington's love interest, though I feel like they've already been here before... or maybe I just have DEJA VU. HONK! Yeeeeah. Sigh. [Deadline]

REVIEW: Damn! My Eyes! Who Hit Safe House with the Ugly Stick?

Safe House is a twisted claw of a movie, a picture so visually ugly that, to borrow a line from Moms Mabley, it hurt my feelings. Let’s forget, for a moment, about the sub-sub-sub-Training Day plot, in which a wily old-coot operative played by Denzel Washington simultaneously annoys and educates spring-chicken CIA agent Ryan Reynolds. The plot mechanics don’t matter much. What does matter is the inexplicable horror of how lousy this film looks. Movies aren’t strictly a visual medium -- they’re too complicated for that -- but there’s something wrong when the only thing you can think of while watching a picture is, “Damn! My eyes!”
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