Speed Racer may not take the box-office pole

Early tracking results for Speed Racer are in and it appears that adaptation of the popular animated series may not be sitting at the pole when box-office tallies are released Monday according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Experts estimate that Racer is on a course to gross between $25-$35 million at the box-office this weekend. Given that Iron Man grossed close to $100 million at the box-office last weekend and has a great word of mouth from fans and critics, it is possibly and even likely that Iron Man could hold on to the top spot and send Racer to second place.

However, two hard to predict factors could play into Racer‘s favor–a must-see word of mouth for the film and the fact that its targeted more toward families, which can be hard to predict in whether or not they’ll turn out at the box-office.

“It’s too early to tell,” Warners domestic distribution president Dan Fellman said. “But this is the first real family movie of the summer, and we’re going to give it our best.”

Warner execs are spinning the news in their favor, saying that Racer was filmed in front of a green screen and cost only $100 million to produce. A $25 million opening this weekend should put them on track to make back the production costs of the film.

We’ll have to wait and see how the first big showdown of the summer box-office season goes this weekend. Slice of SciFi will have all your box-office results Monday and Tuesday of next week.

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McConaughey front-runner for Captain America

Cinema Blend reports that Matthew McConaughey is the rumored front-runner for the role of Steve Rodgers/Captain American in the upcoming Captain America movie.

Citing sources close to the production, Cinema Blend reports that McConaughey is the first choice for the role.

We should warn readers to that its still early in the Captain America movie process. The film was officially announced earlier this week and without a script or director, any casting news is only a rumor at this point.

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Details on the next Batman feature revealed

The Dark Knight hasn’t even hit theaters yet but already details of a third Christopher Nolan-directed Batman feature are hitting the Internet. As a warning, this story may feature SPOILERS so we’ll put those behind the jump….

Citing a source close to the Batman films, Cinema Blend revealed this week that talks are already underway for the plot details for the next Batman film.

Initial proposals included featuring the Joker in the third installment but according to reports those have been dropped. After the death of Heath Ledger, there was talk of recasting the Joker. However, producers decided instead to honor Ledger’s final performance and instead shift the focus to Two-Face.

The undisclosed source went on to say that the next installment will use the popular graphic novels “The Long Halloween” and “Dark Victory” as part of the basis for the next film.

“The Long Halloween” seems to deal with a lot of the plot elements we’ll see in The Dark Knight. According to Wikipedia, it involves the Joker, and the creation of Two-Face. More importantly, it involves the evolution of the gang of criminals Batman fights into full fledged supervillains. “Dark Victory” is a sequel to “The Long Halloween”, in the same way Batman 3 will likely be a direct sequel to The Dark Knight. “Dark Victory” continues the story of “The Long Halloween” and seems primarily focused on Two-Face, while introducing Batman’s sidekick Robin.

The good news for fans is that director Christopher Nolan is signed on for the third installment and that actor Christian Bale has expressed interest in donning the cape and cowl a third time for a trilogy.

Of course, all of these are rumors and have not been confirmed officially by any studio. Details could change at any time.