Friends, relatives and show-business colleagues gathered Sunday to remember Oscar-winning special-effects maestro Stan Winston, the man responsible for bringing the dinosaurs of “Jurassic Park” and other iconic movie creatures to life.

Winston died at his home in Malibu surrounded by family June 15 after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma. He was 62.

Winston’s son Matt recounted his father’s last day as being filled with laughter, hugs, kisses, tears and music from the Beatles. At the end of the private memorial service at the Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary, Matt played the last song Winston heard before he died: the Beatles’ “All My Loving.”

Colleagues including “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Arnold, Ernie Hudson and Robert Patrick joined Winston’s family and friends to reminisce and listen to personal stories from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rabbi Judith Halevy, brother Ronny Winston, uncle Mitchell Karlan, son-in-law Erich Litoff, and directors James Cameron and Steven Spielberg.

“What Stan did is that he took our dreams - he took all of our dreams - and he blended them with his own dreams,” Spielberg told mourners in attendance. “He then workshopped those dreams with pencil, clay and later years on the computer. He would basically give life to all of our ideas. He would make them come to life.”

In a career spanning four decades, Winston created some of the most memorable visual effects in cinematic history. He helped bring the dinosaurs from “Jurassic Park,” the extraterrestrials from “Aliens,” the robots from “Terminator” and even “Edward Scissorhands” to the big screen. He was a pioneer in merging real-world effects with computer-generated imagery.

Winston won visual effects Oscars for 1986’s “Aliens,” 1992’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and 1993’s “Jurassic Park.” He also won a makeup Oscar for 1992’s “Batman Returns.” He was nominated for his work on “Heartbeeps,” “Predator,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman Returns,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and “A.I.”

Frequent collaborator Cameron told those gathered he spoke with Winston the day before he died. Cameron said Winston expressed something that he never had before: Winston told his colleague and friend that he loved him. Cameron also let “the fans speak for Stan” by reading several messages posted after Winston’s death by users of the movie news and gossip Web site Ain’t It Cool News.

“He inspired a generation of fans,” Cameron said. “I think that just maybe the words of a bunch of people who didn’t even know him personally may be his best tribute.”

Winston’s survivors include his wife, Karen; and his son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Edward Norton’s The Hulk hopes to revitalize the falling green monster franchise with better cgi — looks the same — a new Bruce Banner, a new Betty Ross and a surprise cameo by Robert Downey Jr. who reprises his role as Iron Man aka Tony Stark. Usually, these types of crossovers are kept secret until people actually go watch the film, but Marvel is attempting a new strategy in acknowledging The Hulk might suck and instead, aiming to build off the popularity of Iron Man.

A better strategy would have been to ask Leslie Bibb from Iron Man to get naked. That would be cool because she’s hot. Oh and they could drip honey over her body and then have her suck on a banana and do other sexy things with fruits. The Hulk? What?

It looks like “The Incredible Hulk” has exceeded everyone’s expectations. When the numbers come in this afternoon, look for the Edward Norton-Liv Tyler Marvel comic spectacle to have reeled in around $60 million this weekend.

That means Marvel comics’ Stan Lee, using first Paramount with “Iron Man” and now Universal with “Hulk,” has had the biggest hits of the spring back to back. In a smart move, Lee made sure to include “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr. in the “Hulk” promotion and even in a “surprise” scene at the end of the film.

Will the sequels to these movies include cross-overs? No one’s saying anything yet. But on Friday I came upon Paramount chief Brad Grey and Universal head honcho Ron Meyer lunching together in a booth at the Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills. Odds are the topic came up.

To think that yours truly was reading these comics in the late 60s when the magazines themselves cost — yes— 12 cents. A million years later, the Marvel superstars are bigger than ever. Next up: Captain America. And then, can a 4th Spider Man film be far behind? Tobey Maguire had better be at the gym. PS—he’s Ron Meyer’s son in law. Small super hero world!

‘Hulk’ Lampooned On ‘Kimmel’

Edward Norton skipped doing “live” interviews for his movie “The Incredible Hulk” on shows like Letterman, Leno and “Today.” But in what everyone involved is hoping will turn into a YouTube smash, Norton delivered a video Thursday night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” sending up the movie and everything that’s happened with it.

Just as “Hulk” stands to be a monster hit this weekend, Norton filmed a segment in which Kimmel character Guillermo, who’s four feet, four inches, turns into his big-screen alter ego — a mini Hulk. Norton lampoons his own character, and concludes by saying “this is not what I signed up for.”

The idea, it’s hoped, it to make this video as big as the ones the Kimmel show did with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck earlier this year. Those videos, which were hysterically funny, became cult hits.

For the “Hulk” movie, the Norton video is a great idea. Norton was put in the position of not wanting to have to answer all kinds of questions about who wrote the movie’s screenplay, or any disagreements he might have had with the film’s direction and editing.

To avoid all that, he limited his appearances to the movie’s red carpet premiere, where he spoke to the “controlled” press, and to the MTV Movie Awards and just a few other outlets. The Kimmel video, if it takes off, could be a new way to market big stars who don’t want to deal with tricky questions. It’s also very funny.

Norton, who’s a serious guy, should take a page from Robert Downey Jr.’s book of superheroes. Downey (see below) is taking full advantage of his “Iron Man” success and enjoying it. Maybe after Norton’s box office numbers come in Friday night, he’ll do the same.

Warren Beatty Feted In Hollywood Left-fest

It was the most star-studded Hollywood lovefest in some time Thursday night as the American Film Institute honored Warren Beatty with a lifetime achievement award at the Kodak Theater.

The guest list combined Beatty’s interest in movies and liberal politics, starting with the continual playing of the Communist Party anthem, “The International,” which was featured in Beatty’s Oscar-winning movie “Reds.”

With that theme used as a processional, Beatty took the podium at the Kodak in front of 600 people including Bill Clinton, retired Sens. George McGovern and Gary Hart, Warren Christopher and former California Gov. Jerry Brown representing Beatty’s lifelong political circles.

From the movie community came the heavy-hitters: Jane Fonda, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, Steven Spielberg, Robert Evans, James Caan, Halle Berry, Keith Carradine, Quentin Tarantino, Brett Ratner and Hugh Hefner, as well as Art Garfunkel at the top of the list.

On the dais with Beatty sat his wife, Annette Bening, sister Shirley MacLaine and Hollywood power players Barry Diller, David Geffen, Creative Artists Agency’s Richard Lovett and lawyer Bert Fields (the recent Anthony Pellicano scandal subject) with his art-dealer wife, Barbara Guggenheim.

Late to the four-hour dinner because of the Lakers-Celtics game were Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon, but they made it with enough time to deliver toasts.

Plenty of studio execs showed up, too, such as Ron Meyer, Tom Rothman, Jeff Zucker, Jim Gianopulos and Alan Horn. Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer, who sat with Fonda, opened the evening.

Most of the reminiscing was about the movies, but eventually things turned political and left. Said McGovern in a moving toast: “Richard Nixon would have been much better off if we’d been elected” in 1972.

McGovern got a big laugh, but in all seriousness, the 86-year-old former presidential candidate had an important point to make: back in 1972, Beatty invented the celebrity political fundraiser when he staged a superstar concert at Madison Square Garden for him. He brought together Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, who’d parted ways two years earlier at their height, and he also reunited the comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May. All of these people at that moment could not have been bigger.

McGovern was not alone among politicians who gave thanks to Beatty. On a serious note, Gary Hart saluted him and thanked the film star, enigmatically, for “an act of personal generosity to me.” He added, on a lighter note, that “people always thought Warren wanted to be me. But in fact, I always wanted to be Warren Beatty.”

As many people noted Beatty’s long history of romantic conquests before meeting and marrying the love of his life, Bening, in 1991, Hart’s words may have been all too true considering what happened to him.

And it wasn’t just liberals — although at one point, the evening really took on the look of a Hollywood backyard Democratic fundraiser.

Among the many video tributes that were interspersed (rather skillfully, I might add) with the live speeches was one from Sen. John McCain. He and Beatty are actually quite good friends as it turns out, even though their politics — as each has pointed out — are very different.

I think the audience was a little taken aback when they saw McCain’s face pop up among those of Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, Arthur Penn, Streisand, Paul Sorvino, Charles Grodin, Estelle Parsons, Robert Towne and Pacino (who later surprised the room by also coming to give Beatty the AFI honor). Here’s a case where politicians shouldn’t make jokes. McCain’s was something to the effect that he, the Senator, had been bombed — as in literally — in Vietnam, but Warren had once “bombed” with Miss Vietnam. Ouch!

But, as Beatty himself said when he took the stage, the AFI event was “like psychoanalysis.” Indeed, I cannot recall a tribute like this when so many famous people showed up and spoke, without Teleprompters or notes, from the heart.

All of the speeches were superb, and some were sublime. Faye Dunaway nearly stole the evening by recalling “Bonnie and Clyde” in rhyme a la her Bonnie Parker character from that landmark movie. Hoffman, whom everyone would like to speak at their lifetime achievement ceremonies, came with a sheaf of papers and held the room in thrall as he touted Beatty and tweaked Nicholson for choosing the losing Lakers over his best friend until the very end of the night.

And then there were the women. A stunning looking Fonda — noting that she and Beatty had done their first screen test together — told the audience what she’d told this column a few months ago. When they met, she thought he was gay. “He was so good-looking and all his male friends were gay. What were the odds he wasn’t?”

Perhaps the biggest serious jolt of the night came from Diane Keaton, who never speaks about her personal life. Dramatically taking the stage at the end of the night, after Clinton, Dustin, et al she presented right before her two former lovers, Pacino and Beatty himself, and just after Nicholson.

Keaton also spoke without notes. She kind of joked that she didn’t remember much about her outstanding film career except that “’The Godfather’ was important, ‘Sleeper’ was very funny and ‘The Little Drummer Girl was a bomb.’”

However: in recalling the landmark film she made with Beatty, “Reds,” for which she received an Oscar nomination, Keaton talked about the famous reunion-at-the-train-station scene near the film’s end.

“It’s my favorite few minutes of anything I’ve done on film,” Keaton said, which is saying a lot. She said of Beatty, who directed her, “I didn’t make it easy for him.” She said that she wore a Walkman (you remember — the tape kind) “blasting Bob Dylan to block out all your direction. It was take after take till I finally got it.”

Keaton continued: “It’s the memory of the kind of love I never imagined possible in the movies.” On that train station in Spain, where the scene was filmed, Keaton said, “it was the sweet anguish of love when I saw your face.”

Keaton’s moment should be quite memorable when the AFI tribute is edited for broadcast on USA Network on June 25 (it’s not to be missed).

Robert Downey Jr. and Elaine May were also in the category of sublime performances. May’s was, well, a kind of pure ditzy comedy as she explained how Beatty pitched “Heaven’s Gate” to her originally as a project for Muhammad Ali, and then explained “Reds.”

And Downey: how to describe the star of “Iron Man” totally rehabilitated from Hollywood’s very bad boy to gigantic star of the moment? Downey was such a drug addict that he was found sleeping in strangers’ beds and went to jail.

He is now hailed as a conquering hero. He is also brilliantly gifted with verbiage, and so his fictional monologue about being a 9-year-old producer advising Beatty and late director Hal Ashby about the movie “Shampoo” will wind up being one of those viral videos on YouTube. It’s a classic.

Woody: Should He?; Quentin’s Terms Of Endearment

Now that the AFI has honored Warren Beatty, I am told that there’s a move afoot for next year to get Woody Allen. It’s a great idea. Woody’s “Vicky Christina Barcelona” will be a big hit for the Weinstein Company this fall, with many Oscar nominations likely. And imagine the cast of that tribute — Diane Keaton, Alan Alda, Dianne Wiest, Louise Lasser, Tony Roberts, Mira Sorvino, Michael Caine and so on.

“VCB” is just one of four big expected Oscar pictures touted hits this fall for the Weinstein Company, now in its second full year of operation. Look for “The Road” and “The Reader” as well as “Shanghai” to lead the unsinkable Harvey Weinstein back to the Kodak Theater stage. His investors should be smiling.

Meantime, Weinstein has a lot to look forward to on Sunday night at the Tony Awards with all his nominations. The play he backed, “August: Osage County,” is set to win Best Play. …

Also Thursday night, from the AFI tribute: how about Quentin Tarantino chewing the ear off of Shirley MacLaine? He couldn’t get enough of her! Tarantino was sitting at a hot table hosted by producer Steve Bing, who also brought James Caan, Mitch Glazer and Kelly Lynch and R&B legend Solomon Burke .

My own table hosts were the fantastic Larry and Michelle Herbert. Larry has been on the AFI board for over 20 years. He invented the famous Pantone numbered color system used in every art store in the world, and by corporations who need punch for their logos (you can buy his fascinating memoir on amazon.com). Michelle Herbert looked like such a movie star Thursday night on the red carpet that the paparazzi and the fans at the Kodak kept stopping her to take her picture. Bravo!

As you may have heard, everything about “The Incredible Hulk” is different. Cast, director, the look of the big green guy, the overall storytelling approach all have been changed for the sequel to Ang Lee’s over-thought and poorly CG’d 2003 “Hulk.”

Does the new approach work better? Generally, yes. “Incredible” has a few annoying flaws, but it’s gratifying in many of the ways a Marvel Comics movie should be.

Set five years after the original story, this one finds scientist Bruce Banner hiding out in a Brazilian favela, working in a soda bottling plant and studying martial arts in hopes of controlling his Hulk-heralding rage. Edward Norton underplays Banner, atypically, to a fault. The guy’s so passive he’s often just a wisp on the screen, but that may have something to do with the cutting of character scenes the actor has reportedly been upset over.

Though it might have damaged the main performance, emphasizing action quickly proves to be a fair trade-off. Louis Leterrier, the French director of the “Transporter” series, stages a fantastic raid/pursuit/horror movie style Hulk appearance on the Rio hillsides when an elite force of U.S. commandos tries to capture Banner.

Commanded by Hulk’s old nemesis, Gen. “Thunderbolt” Ross (a good, borderline sociopath William Hurt), and led by aging supersoldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth in the movie’s best performance), the Americans don’t achieve their objective. But they do drive Banner back to the States on a more urgent search for a cure to his condition. And the chase, sometimes breathless, is on.

Liv Tyler is perfectly adequate as Betty Ross, the general’s estranged daughter and Bruce’s true love. Tim Blake Nelson provides the bulk of the movie’s welcome comedy relief as a university researcher who may have found the antidote to Hulking out. And then there’s The Abomination, a bigger, stronger, smarter and much uglier creature that provides this movie with something crucially missing from previous film and TV versions: a formidable foe for our unstoppable antihero.

The digital Hulk itself is more fearsome and expressive than the video-game cartoon we saw five years ago. There’s more of a Frankenstein quality to him, especially whenever Betty’s able to reach the tender man inside the raging giant. That, Blonsky’s warrior fascination with what gamma radiation can do, the constant blurring of the line between good guys and bad … they all scream Marvel.

And that’s no surprise; the movie was written by “X-Men” expert Zak Penn (with an uncredited assist from Norton) and is the second production from Marvel Studios, the comic-book company’s new moviemaking arm.

Some major loose ends are left dangling by the time “Incredible Hulk” smashes to its finish. However, it is - like the studio’s first release, “Iron Man” - competent, fan-pleasing fun (nerds will be delighted by the presence of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a wry Tony Stark cameo). This one doesn’t have the extra-special ingredient of Robert Downey Jr. riffing all over the place, but it does have better and much more destructive action. And isn’t that what we really want from the Hulk?

Mount Olympus never had such a potent gang as Marvel Comics, whose vast pantheon ranges from Hollywood A-lister Spider-Man to the murky shape-shifting process server Ditto.

Now producing its own film adaptations for all but a few previously licensed superheroes, Marvel Studios unveils “The Incredible Hulk” on the heels of blockbuster “Iron Man,” whose 2010 sequel will be followed by an ambitious Marvel lineup.

Headlining their own upcoming movies are Norse thunder god Thor, super soldier Captain America and bug impersonator Ant-Man, those adventures culminating in 2011’s Marvel all-star tale “The Avengers.”

With an estimated 5,000 characters and a wealth of stories dating back nearly 70 years, Marvel could spin an endless web of big-screen yarns.

“It’s inexhaustible,” said Gale Anne Hurd, a producer on “The Incredible Hulk” and Ang Lee’s critically drubbed 2003 take on the character, “Hulk.” “What I love is, Marvel is now controlling Marvel’s destiny. They are the greatest caretakers of the characters and the stories.”

Until “Iron Man,” the company watched big movie studios count their millions on superpowered comic adaptations of Spidey, X-Men, Fantastic Four and other Marvel properties. Marvel made some cash by licensing the characters for films, but it was a pittance compared to what studios hauled in on such billion-dollar franchises.

Following George Lucas’ “Star Wars” formula, Marvel now finances movies itself and hires studios to release them for a fee, Paramount distributing “Iron Man,” Universal releasing “The Incredible Hulk.”

Marvel keeps all of the profits and retains lucrative rights for toys and other merchandise based on the films.

“The financial upside on a movie like `Iron Man’ or `Incredible Hulk’ is multiples of multiples of what we had in the old arrangement,” said David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Studios, a division of Marvel Entertainment Inc. “We have the power to greenlight our movies. We set our schedule. We’re not reliant on a third party.”

A few elite franchises — among them Sony’s “Spider-Man” and 20th Century Fox’s “Fantastic Four” and “X-Men” with its upcoming “Wolverine” spinoff — remain under those studios’ control.

That still leaves legions of superheroes for Marvel to put on screen.

Iron Man was a beloved character among fans but far from a household name to general audiences. The comic-book gods smiled on his movie adaptation, though, as all the ingredients came together to create an instant Hollywood franchise.

The manic charm of Robert Downey Jr. made billionaire weapons designer Tony Stark as interesting in a business suit as he was inside the metal contraption he builds to fight bad guys. Downey’s own stints in rehab added a nice nuance to the movie’s boozy Stark.

Director Jon Favreau struck an ideal balance between action and character development, resulting in one of the best-reviewed entries in the onslaught of comic adaptations.

After a nearly $100 million opening weekend in May, “Iron Man” is closing in on $300 million, a mark previously reached only by the “Spider-Man” flicks among comic-book movies.

Though the Hulk was more widely known than Iron Man from the comic books and the TV series starring Bill Bixby, no one in Hollywood expects his new movie to put up those kinds of numbers.

“Previews of this film have been mediocre. The buzz seems to be lacking,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst who follows Marvel for Janco Partners.

The Hulk has been a problem child on the big-screen. The 2003 version, which starred Eric Bana as scientist Bruce Banner and featured a cartoonish Hulk hopping around in the desert, opened with a whopping $62.1 million weekend, then a record for June debuts.

But word of mouth was bad, and the audience quickly dried up, leaving one of Marvel’s standard-bearers in Hollywood limbo.

“It was a noble experiment, I think, that first film, but I, like much of the audience, left wanting a lot more than what we got,” said Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios’ president of production.

The new movie is more action-oriented, clocking in at well under two hours, nearly 30 minutes shorter than Lee’s dark, ponderous version.

As with “Iron Man,” Marvel cast an acclaimed actor, Edward Norton, as Banner, the guy who turns into a not-so-jolly green giant when angry. The story emulates the TV show, with Banner a fugitive, and it gives him real villains to battle, including Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky, a soldier transformed into the Hulk’s huge nemesis, the Abomination.

Roth did not see Lee’s “Hulk” but said he expects the new movie will satisfy fans looking for spectacle.

“Our thing opens with a big action sequence. That’s probably going to set the tone with the audience,” Roth said.

While Norton took an active role in reshaping the story and rewriting the screenplay, the notoriously finicky actor almost became a liability after word leaked out that he, director Louis Leterrier and Marvel executives disagreed over the final cut of the movie.

Norton, who typically does little press, declined an interview for this story. The filmmakers downplayed any differences, saying the usual discussions that take place as movies near the finish line were blown out of proportion.

“It was just somebody, somewhere, somehow heard we were arguing, but we were not arguing,” Leterrier said. “We were having a meeting, and maybe somebody walked in and heard Edward saying, `I really want this scene back in.’ But there was no argument.”

There is no argument that Marvel’s move to finance its own movies has paid off, at least so far. A month after “Iron Man” opened, Marvel Entertainment’s stock was trading at an all-time high of about $36 a share.

Analysts take a wait-and-see attitude about whether the strategy will work over the long haul. While Marvel plans to make two movies a year, there is a two-year lag before its next releases, “Iron Man 2” and “Thor.”

“That’s a big hiccup, to have no movies next year,” analyst Hickey said. “They did a phenomenal job with `Iron Man.’ I think the jury’s still out, but the initial read is positive.”

The Marvel logo will be in front of audiences with next year’s “Wolverine” from Fox and this fall’s vigilante thriller “Punisher: War Zone” from Lionsgate, which retains the rights to that Marvel franchise.

A clear benefit Marvel has gained by making its own movies is creative control. Comic-book fans are perpetually wary that Hollywood will mess up their favorite characters. With Marvel calling the shots, fans can rest a little easier that the movies will remain true to their origins.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Fast Food may be the secret to Robert Downey Jr.’s success at overcoming drug addiction, as the actor’s Burger King break played a big part in helping him beat drugs.

The story goes that the “Iron Man” star was driving along Pacific Coast Highway in 2003, when he pulled over at the chain restaurant for a fateful fast food fix.

As he dug into his burger, Robert came to an epiphany: it was time to clean up his habits. He then threw all of his drugs into the ocean.

The actor’s rep told Access Hollywood, the savory story was “not as simplified as described, but true enough.”

On a related note, Burger King played a key role in Robert’s “Iron Man,” a movie that made the actor a box office superstar.

After being imprisoned overseas, his character, whose life, like Robert’s has been saved, requests “an American cheeseburger.” And he fulfills his wish at Burger King.

Jack Black’s Po the panda outgunned Adam Sandler’s Zo the hairdresser. Black’s cartoon comedy “Kung Fu Panda” pulled in $60 million in ticket sales to debut as the weekend’s No. 1 movie, while Sandler’s salon romp “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” opened in second place with $40 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The movies combined to carry Hollywood to a big weekend. The top 12 films took in $172.4 million, up 32 percent from the same weekend last year when “Ocean’s Thirteen” led with a $36.1 million opening.

DreamWorks Animation’s “Panda” and Sony’s “Zohan” bumped off the previous weekend’s leader, the Warner Bros. chick flick “Sex and the City,” which slipped to fourth place with $21.3 million.

That was a steep 63 percent decline from its $56.8 million debut, but with a total of $99.3 million “Sex and the City” was just shy of $100 million hit status after only 10 days.

Paramount’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was No. 3 with $22.8 million, raising its three-week domestic total to $253 million.

Two strong weekends in a row enabled Hollywood to chip away at its box office deficit compared to 2007, a record year for revenues.

“This month offers the marketplace the opportunity to catch up with last year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “Last year’s June was not as strong as expected and this year’s may be stronger, so we’re definitely narrowing the gap in terms of revenue and attendance.”

Receipts are at $3.8 billion this year, off 1.5 percent from 2007, while attendance is down 4.3 percent, according to Media By Numbers.

“Kung Fu Panda,” distributed by Paramount for DreamWorks Animation, has Black providing the voice of the tubby Po, a panda in ancient China who becomes an unlikely martial-arts hero. The voice cast includes Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu and Jackie Chan.

While the movie played well to families with young children, moviegoers 17 and older made up 71 percent of the audience, according to Paramount.

“There was strong appeal for this movie in the tweens, teens and general audience beyond the core families and kids,” said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks. “Certainly, families and kids also showed up in droves, but we really have the opportunity to play as a broad comedy, too.”

“Kung Fu Panda” had the best opening ever for a non-sequel cartoon flick from DreamWorks, topping such hits as “Shark Tale” and “Madagascar.” Among DreamWorks animated releases, only the second and third “Shrek” movies did better.

“You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” features Sandler as an Israeli commando who fakes his death so he can live out his dream to become a hair stylist in New York City. The movie came in on par with other comedies from Sandler, whose top four past openings range from “The Longest Yard” at $47.6 million to “Click” at $40 million.

“He’s just in his zone. He’s incredibly consistent,” said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. “He’s the guy that always is going to make you laugh.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Kung Fu Panda,” $60 million.

2. “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” $40 million.

3. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” $22.8 million.

4. “Sex and the City,” $21.3 million.

5. “The Strangers,” $9.3 million.

6. “Iron Man,” $7.5 million.

7. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” $5.5 million.

8. “What Happens in Vegas,” $3.4 million.

9. “Baby Mama,” $780,000

10. “Made Of Honor,” $775,000.

With the Incredible Hulk tracking surprisingly well and threatening to smash Iron Man’s box office records next weekend, director Jon Favreau is keeping Tony Stark and company in the news by hinting at the plot of the Iron Man sequel.

When the original film made mention of the terrorist organization The 10 Rings, it was a clear reference to Marvel history and the alien artifacts The Mandarin discovered before beginning his career of oppression and supervillainy. It seemed like a pretty obvious clue from Favreau and his writers that Iron Man’s arch-nemesis would appear in a sequel.

Now, with the director saying he needs “heavy duty, heavyweight bad guys” to confront Iron Man in the next film, Mandarin seems all but a lock. There’s no mention of casting yet for the Far Eastern troublemaker, but that will have to break soon, as Robert Downey Jr. will be ready to begin filming in the golden titanium suit again when he finishes the Hugh Hefner biography he’s working on now.

Joan Cusack admits that it was tough shuttling back and forth between her Chicago home and Bulgaria location for her brother, John’s, “War, Inc.” big screen political satire that opens in limited release May 23 – but she was glad to do it.

“At this point I appreciate how hard it is to get something made that you love, that you really feel has content that’s worth talking about, that’s stimulating cultural conversations.  It’s a great luxury,” says Joan, who plays an executive of the corporation running the world’s first fully-outsourced war – complete with tanks bearing sponsor logos.  “To me, whenever John is working on something that he feels passionate about and I have an opportunity to work with my family and be able to support him, of course I’m going to do it.”

She notes, “The easy part was that I have a great husband and John was obviously flexible about when I could go and come back, so it worked with my family.”

Her other upcoming film this summer couldn’t be much more different – the July 2 release “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl’s Story,” inspired by the popular line of dolls, and its young heroine wannabe reporter of the Great Depression era.  That film stars the superb Abigail Breslin, with whom Joan is currently working in the big screen adaptation of Jody Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper.” “I’d worked with her before in ‘Raising Helen,’” reminds Joan, “and she’s a great kid with a great family.” She also notes, “I have two boys, so this girls’ world wasn’t a world I knew very much about.  I was impressed with the content of the story and the way they dealt with the subject matter.  It’s very psychologically empowering.  It made me want an American Boys store.”

Next up for Cusack, “Toy Story 3.”  “They’re just in the beginning stages,” reports the actress known to Pixar lovers as the voice of cowgirl Jesse.  “That’s easy.  I can do it from my home.”

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE: Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan admits that time with her beau, “Dancing With the Stars” pro Mark Ballas, has been pretty hard to come by lately between their respective professional activities.  “We’re just both really busy,” says Bryan, who competed in the upcoming Disney Channel Games last week.  “My partner has his card taken right now with Kristi Yamaguchi, which I’m so happy for.  We did go on tour together, which was awesome – to meet so many of the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ fans face to face and hear their applause.”

Bryan finished the much-anticipated summer Disney Channel movie “Cheetah Girls 3: One World” in India with group mates Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams last month.  “I got back on a Saturday and Adrienne and I went to that Monday’s ‘Dancing With the Stars’ show.  I couldn’t wait to get back and see him dance with Kristi, so I support Team Yamaguchi.  They’ll definitely make the finals, I think.”

As for Bryan and Ballas?  “We’ll see. We’re seeing how were going.”

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: As fans eagerly await J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” , which just wrapped production, Faran Tahir, who plays the Federation Captain, says he’s confident it will bring forth a new legion of Trekkies – and not the kind that still sleep in their parent’s basement.  “J.J. is one of those people who has the ability to re-introduce water to you in a new way.  He’s such a creative man,” claims Tahir.  “I love what he’s done with it because he hasn’t said farewell to the tradition or the story of ‘Star Trek,’ but he has such a fresh approach to it that I think he will re-introduce it to this generation in a way they can relate.  It will create this bridge between the people who grew up with it and this younger generation who didn’t know about it.”

Tahir is certainly no stranger to fantasy flicks as he is also starring in “Iron Man” as Robert Downey Jr.’s nemesis Raza.  The actor believes people will really take to Downey Jr.’s approach to playing a superhero.  “The thing about Robert is that no matter what he attempts, he brings so many layers to the character.  Yes, this is an action movie and you could just do the action part of it and it would be fine, but he brings a certain amount of levity, which not many actors can do,” he notes.  The movie certainly holds a special place for Tahir, whose son got a part in it as well.  “For other movies I might have said no, but for a nine-year-old to be in superhero movie, what is cooler than that?  I couldn’t deny him that, and he did an amazing job.”

IN HIS SITES: Gerald McRaney’s off to Namibia to hunt game for his “World of Beretta” Outdoor Life Network series.  It’s the kind of unscripted show multi-series veteran McRaney can get into.  As for other non-scripted fare, “I agree with my brother’s notion about reality television.  He said, ‘Survivor my a–!  The craft services table is 20 feet away.’”  McRaney’s wife, Delta Burke, is staying home.  He says that while she understands hunting intellectually, “She’s not going to go there herself.”  He’ll be bringing Horton Foote’s “Dividing the Estate” onto Broadway this fall.  On the scripted TV front, “I’ve seen a couple of things this year that look promising, but any more, something is going to have to be really interesting to get me involved in it.  I’m getting a little long in the tooth to putting up with something less just to have another payday.”