Is Morgan Freeman Clint Eastwood's Lucky Charm?

I remember reading somewhere that Morgan Freeman told Clint Eastwood that if he ever made a western that he would like to go along for the ride. That movie turned out to be 1992's "Unforgiven." It went on to win 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood and grossed $101 million domestically.

In 2004, Eastwood made "Million Dollar Baby." It co-starred Morgan Freeman and went on to win 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman, and Best Director again for Eastwood, as well as grossing just above $100 million dollars.

Now it's 2009, and we have "Invictus" starring Morgan Freeman and directed by Eastwood. It's too bad Eastwood's not starring with Freeman because it looks like those two have the magic touch. I'll be curious to see how "Invictus" does at the box office without Eastwood in a starring role with Morgan Freeman. Maybe their collaboration alone can warrant another critical and box office hit. We'll just have to wait and see in the next few weeks.

Fox can't get lightning in a bottle twice

James Cameron's "Avatar" is coming our way Dec. 18th twelve years and one day before his "Titanic" was released in hopes that this magical time frame will help their movie do well at the box office. Studios always think that if they re-create another movie's marketing mode that they will catch lightning in a bottle. This rarely seems to happen. Take for example, Zack Snyder had a huge hit with "300" being release on March 9, 2007. The studios released "Watchmen" on March 6, 2009 hoping to catch that same buzz and magical dollars at the box office. While "Watchmen" was a modest success, it did not match what "300" did.

I have a feeling that "Avatar" is going to be the same as that model. There will be a curiosity to see it, but Fox seems like they are trying too hard to create buzz around it. Buzz just happens. It has a life of its own, and when people feel it's pushed upon them they start to back off. I will reserve judgement until I see the film. Cameron has always made entertaining films and this one looks at least to be that.

I'm just curious as to why they aren't playing up the 3-D aspect of it in the marketing because it seems to be a great selling point these days pushing movies like "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "Monsters vs. Aliens" well past the $100 million mark. You would think that with the new technology Cameron is promoting and working on that the notion of this movie being 3-D would be the main focus behind the marketing even ahead of Cameron's name.

*UPDATE January 3, 2010*

Ok, I was way wrong on this one. James Cameron is truly the god of box office cinema since now he is the only director to have two films pass the $1 Billion mark. That is truly amazing considering I was not that impressed by "Avatar." I thought it started out really great, and I was really impressed by the effects but the recycled story really killed the movie for me. Cameron has always been an entertaining filmmaker, and I hope that "Avatar's" success leads to "Battle Angel Alita" being made because I would love to see that film.