Flash Cuts: Tuesday, June 30, 2009

“The Fighter” adds cast members; Warner Brothers figures out what Blu-Ray fence-sitters really want; “Unstoppable” might be anything but…

Oscar-bait all the way, “The Fighter” is getting closer to production. Amy Adams joins Christian Bale and Mark Walhberg in the story of boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer half-brother Dick Eklund (Bale), chronicling their early days on the rough streets of small-town Massachusetts leading to Ward’s eventual world championship. David O’Russell directs; the film should begin production in September.

If you’ve been sitting on the Blu-Ray fence, Warner Brothers is ready to knock you clean over to the owner’s camp with the “Watchmen Maximum Movie Mode” that’s included on the upcoming Director’s Cut Blu-Ray disc. director Zach Snyder not only provides commentary, but freezes and rewinds the flick for you, to show you precisely why things were shot the way they were. TheBluRayBlog has the preview footage, which is simply damned cool.

In a fit of irony, the “runaway train” action flick “Unstoppable” might have been stopped in its tracks, due to money concerns. Director Tony Scott, known for going over-budget with films like “Man On Fire” and “Black Hawk Down,” is meeting resistance from Sony Pictures, who are growing skittish when seeing box-office returns from high-dollar projects like “Land Of The Lost” and Scott’s own 2009 release, “The Taking of Pelham 123.” Denzel Washington is set to star in “Unstoppable,” if the project ever leaves the station. (Sorry.)

Since there isn’t any point in having movie news this month without talking about “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen“: final numbers are in from the first weekend of the blockbuster, and the IMAX figures are equally massive. “Fallen” had the biggest IMAX weekend ever: the $201.5 million five-day take included $11.7 million at 169 IMAX locations (for $14.4 million in five days), topping the take from J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek,” the previous record-holder ($8.5 million at 138 venues).