Suvudu Universe

The 2013 summer blockbuster curse has been broken … sort of. “Elysium” came in at the top with $30.5 million, but it beat “We’re the Millers” by less than $5M, and unlike the low-budget “Millers,” it still has to make great gobs of money in order to succeed. I didn’t think “Elysium” was particularly memorable, but I have to admit that some of its predictions about the future seem terrifyingly plausible. We already live in a world where, for example, doctors are curing soldiers with “super-honey” and a slime mold can control a robotic human face.

Meanwhile Brad Pitt passed a major milestone: with $502.6M, “World War Z” is officially his highest-grossing movie ever. However, that’s not adjusted for inflation, or the fact that movie tickets now cost about twice what they did back in 1995 when “Seven” came out. So that’s more money pulled in, but not necessarily more people in the audience, if that makes any sense. Still must be nice to feel that spring in his step again.

At the Locarno Film Festival last week, Faye Dunaway finally commented on her directorial debut — an adaptation of Terrence McNally’s play Master Class, about the life of Maria Callas — which suddenly appeared to cease production early last year. Dunaway blames legal woes and claims the film will be finished this fall, so perhaps in 2014 we’ll finally get to see how her brain works behind the camera. As for the front of the camera, here’s a clip of her explaining the nuts and bolts of her unforgettable performance in “Mommie Dearest.”

The AV Club has been enjoying a look back at some of the oddest adaptations of our childhood. First we have The Witches by Roald Dahl, and the nightmare inducing film that resulted from it — however dampened it might have been by the shamefully bowdlerized ending. Then there’s the two films inspired by Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, each of which tackles the imaginative subject matter from its own odd angle. And now if you’ll excuse me, I have some re-watching to do, and some witch nightmares to re-have.

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