Hoping not to lose anyone in the deal making process, Gandalf and Gollum both already agreed to do the next Hobbit movie. In an interview with theonering.net, director Guillermo Del Toro said “I had the most charming meeting with Sir Ian, and all bureaucracy pending, he’s on board, as is Andy Serkis. [...] It is our intention that we will not lose any of the key elements.“

Considering Bilbo Baggins is the main character of the ‘The Hobbit’ book, Ian Holm might be getting the best deal out of the two movies. While the contracts for the first three ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies were probably signed before the movies got shot, the potential of the ‘The Hobbit’ movies is already known. It’s like asking an extra figure for the payment of a sequel to a box office hit.

But the audience might not mind someone else playing Bilbo Baggins as much as someone else playing Gandalf. In a couple of months we’ll know if someone was getting a little too greedy.

It’s almost as if Hollywood found a new marketing strategy. Fake an on set accident to get the whole world writing about your movie. In a collision between a bus and several cars, 7 people were injured Saturday on the set of the new ‘G.I. Joe’ movie in Prague.

Last week, a Bond car was driven into a lake in Italy, followed by two more accidents on the set later in the week. What’s going on people? Is everybody in a rush to get their movies done before the actors’ strike?

The accident in Prague “happened in a closed area that was rented out to the filmmakers for the weekend,” the Prague police said. “According to my information, there were only slight injuries,” the production company stated.

See, that’s what happens when you move your movie to a low budget country to make more money.

No surprises here. ‘Baby Mama’ opened Friday with a good $6.3 million at 2,543 theaters, a little under $2500 per screen. While ‘Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay’ came in just a couple of seconds later, doing $5.8 million at 2,510 screens. It made an even better opening than its prequel in 2004, with a little over $2300 per screen.

‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ was down 43% in its second week, while ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ dropped 59%, continuing the switch we saw earlier this week. They respectively did $3.4 and $3.2 million.

The horror ‘Prom Night’ is finally on its way out, but still brought in $1.7 million on the first day of its third week. Some unexpected legs, for a movie that was solely reliable on its marketing. The consolation prize however, goes to Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor. While nobody was expecting an amazing opening, the pair only managed to make $750.00 with their thriller ‘Deception.’

[update]
Here are the final estimates for the weekend, with ‘Baby Mama’ beating last week’s opening by ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall.’ And ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ surprisingly jumping before ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ again too.

‘Baby Mama‘: $18.3 million ($7200 per screen)

‘Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay‘: $14.6 million ($5800 per screen)

‘Forbidden Kingdom‘: $11.2 million ($3550 per screen)

‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall‘: $11 million ($3900 per screen)

‘Deception‘: $2.2 million (10th place, $1100 per screen)