'Rango' Leads Friday Box Office

He's a chameleon able to blend in seamlessly against any background, but Rango's latest transformation might be his best yet: box office champ.

Led by Johnny Depp and an all-star cast of voice actors, "Rango" topped all comers at the Friday night box office with an estimated $9.75 million from 3,917 screens. Should form hold, the Gore Verbinski animated western about a chameleon who finds himself leading the small desert town of Dirt as sheriff will corral upwards of $40 million for the weekend and another number one opening from the team behind the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.

The secret to the film's success? There's a little Rango in all of us, Depp told MTV News.

"What I saw early on with the character, and something that Gore and I talked about, is that it is in sort of all of us, in a way," Depp explained. "There is a chameleonic side to all of us in which we find ourselves in certain situations that you have to adapt to."

Trailing in second place, "The Adjustment Bureau" managed to nab $6.6 from 2,840 theaters. Based on a story by acclaimed author Philip K. Dick, the Matt Damon and Emily Blunt actioner was no doubt buoyed by a largely positive response from critics.

But while "Rango" and "The Adjustment Bureau" soared, two new releases aimed at the young adult market languished. A modern day update of the classic fairy tale about the ultimate "opposites attract" couple, "Beastly" managed just $3.5 million to wind up in third place. The Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens starring flick should wind up with approximately $10 million for the weekend.

After languishing on the shelf for years, "Take Me Home," meanwhile, scored just $1.2 million on Friday. Starring Topher Grace and Anna Faris, the flick might slip out of the top ten come Monday.

Rounding out the top five, "Hall Pass" and "Just Go With It" managed $2.7 million and $1.9 million, respectively. Among other films in the top ten, "The King's Speech" followed up its four wins at the Academy Awards with a $1.6 million Friday.

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Tyler Perry, 'For Colored Girls,' Win Big at NAACP Image Awards

Tyler Perry has yet to crack the Oscar ceiling, but the multi-hyphenate took home the gold at the NAACP Image Awards Friday night (March 4), winning Best Director and Best Picture for his "For Colored Girls. The flick also nabbed a statue for co-star Kimberly Elise, who won for Best Supporting Actress.

Based on Ntozake Shange's 1974 Broadway hit "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf," Perry's film follows the lives of nine black women in and around Harlem, all of whom are confronted with an interpersonal crisis.

While ostensibly about trouble and heartbreak, the flick is really about "basic human love and regard for one another," Elise told MTV News.

"[It's a] great statement on sisterhood and community," Elise said of the movie. "I think you do leave the film feeling like, 'I am woman, I can do this, I can stand on top of this pain and especially with my sisters around me.'"

To nab the award, Elise had to best three of her co-stars from the ensemble flick, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, and Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg. The fifth nominee, Jill Scott, was also singled out for her performance in a Perry flick, "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?"

Among other film winners, double Oscar winner Denzel Washington took the trophy as Best Actor for "The Book of Eli," Halle Berry won Best Actress for "Frankie & Alice," and Samuel L. Jackson nabbed Best Supporting Actor for his turn in "Mother and Child."

In the musical categories, Usher, who recently agreed to donate to charity all proceeds from an appearance at a New Year's Eve concert linked to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, won Best Male Artist and Mary J. Blige won for Best Female Artist.

Presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP Image Awards celebrate "the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts," according to their website.

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Liam Neeson As Hollywood's Newest Badass: 'Unknown' Co-Stars Explain

He may have broken in with roles in sword-and-sorcery flicks like "Excalibur" and "Krull," but how in the world did the Oscar-nominated man best known for his quiet, dramatic work in films like "Schindler's List," "Nell" and "Kinsey" suddenly become film's most believable, in-demand 60-year-old badass?

It's precisely because of his previous work, "Unknown" co-stars Diane Kruger and January Jones insisted to MTV News.

"I wanted to be in this movie because of Liam really," Kruger said. "Especially this kind of film. ... I think because of his age and because of his body of work and his gravitas as an actor, I think it brings a whole other layer of depth to this kind of film. It feels fresh. It feels like, yes, it's entertaining and it's light, but there's a whole other layer of emotions and character work going on."

Two years after Neeson rocked audiences as a super-talented assassin out to save his daughter in "Taken," the Irish thesp is back to kick butt and take names in "Unknown," a neo-Hitchcockian thriller about a man bereft of an identity after a car accident leaves him unsure of who he really is. While unquestionably dangerous and capable, here Neeson also has to play fragile and flustered.

It's a dichotomy that doesn't just show up in his film roles, January Jones argued, but in the man himself.

"He's such a perfect casting choice for this movie, because you could be intimidated by him physically because he is fit and could cause you harm," the future Emma Frost told MTV News. "But at the same time there's something so vulnerable about him in certain things he says and certain things he does that makes you want to take care of him, there's both sides of that. You could believe that he could be a bad guy, but you could also want him to succeed."

Check out everything we've got on "Unknown."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Kevin Costner Will Be 'Pa' In 'Superman,' Sources Reveal

Kevin Costner is a man of interest for the Man of Steel, with director Zack Snyder and team keen to cast the "Bull Durham" and "Dances With Wolves" star in their Superman reboot, according to a Deadline report.

Citing "well-placed sources," Latino Review reported that Costner will play Jonathan "Pa" Kent, Kal-El's adoptive Earth father. With the film shrouded in secrecy, though, it might take Brainiac himself to figure out exactly for what role Costner is being courted. But, given Costner's screen history in films like "Field of Dreams," the role of "Pa," played by Glenn Ford in Richard Donner's 1978 "Superman," seems likely.

What little is known about the film suggests Costner also could play the role of Perry White, editor-in-chief of Metropolis mega-paper The Daily Planet , or General Zod, hinted as a companion to a rumored fellow Kryptonian villain. It's possible Costner might even step into the shoes of fellow Oscar-winners Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey to play archenemy Lex Luthor.

Whoever he plays, Costner would be alongside Brit Henry Cavill, pegged to wear the Man of Steel tights in Snyder's re-imagining. Fans recently got their first glimpse of "The Tudors" star on the cover of Entertainment Weekly sporting a T-shirt with the iconic Superman shield.

Would you prefer to see Costner play a good guy or a villain? Sound off in the comments!

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock —, visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

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Daniel Radcliffe To Star In Indie Comedy 'The Amateur Photographer'

At the same time that Daniel Radcliffe readies to return to Broadway — previews of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" begin on February 26 — the 21-year-old actor is continuing to plot his post-"Harry Potter" career on the big screen.

Radcliffe is now attached to star in "The Amateur Photographer," an indie comedy from writer/director Christopher Monger, according to Variety . Monger shared writing credits on HBO's "Temple Grandin," the biopic that earned him an Emmy nomination and Claire Danes a Golden Globe win.

Set in a New England mill town during the 1970s, the movie will follow Radcliffe as a young man who finds in himself an unlikely artistic streak when he begins photographing the "most intimate moments" of the townspeople's lives, as Variety puts it, and ends up battling "local authorities while bringing a bit of a velvet revolution to the community."

Radcliffe has already wrapped production on his first film following the completion of the "Harry Potter" series. "The Woman in Black" is a thriller in which Radcliffe plays a lawyer who travels to a strange town filled with supernatural secrets. The Brit has also lined up another big-screen project in "All Quiet on the Western Front." He's set to play a German soldier during World War I when the production kicks off in the spring of 2012. And come July, he'll be busy with promotional duties for the final part of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

For now, though, Radcliffe is settling in on Broadway. After a month of previews, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" will officially open on March 27.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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50 Cent To Star In Crime Drama 'Freelancers'

Like many before him, 50 Cent is making the transition from hip-hop to Hollywood. The rapper, who has a finger in various projects — from his own film-production company, called Cheetah Vision Films, to distributing a line of earphones — has signed on for yet another movie role.

According to Variety , Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson will star in an upcoming crime drama called "Freelancers," in which he'll play the son of a murdered New York City police officer who joins the force and finds himself "on a team of rogue Gotham cops."

The movie will reportedly be directed by Jessy Terrero ("Soul Plane"), who has previously worked with 50 on some of his most-memorable videos such as the MTV Video Music Award-nominated "Candy Shop."

The latest news is just another step in 50 Cent's plan to move from music to movies. Making his big-screen debut in 2005's "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," the star shocked fans a few years later when he tweeted a picture of himself looking frighteningly thin in preparation for his role in his passion project "Things Fall Apart."

In fact, the 35-year-old seems to be continuing to take his craft very seriously. When MTV News caught up with him at this year's Sundance Film Festival — which he attended alongside his friend, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., to promote their newly launched film company, Mayweather Productions — 50 seemed as ambitious as ever.

He not only said he feels as though he's "growing" as an actor, but also that he hopes to have a career akin to trailblazing Oscar-winner Sidney Poitier. As 50 put it, "Shoot for the stars if you would do that."

Does 50 Cent have the acting chops to make it in Hollywood? Sound off below!

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'Prometheus' Has 'Definite Connection' To 'Alien,' Michael Fassbender Says

Ever since a Deadline New York report last month, there has been a lot of confusion about Ridley Scott's newest "Alien" film, which marks the director's return to the franchise more than 30 years after he brought the first "Alien" movie to the big screen.

After word of the project first broke in the summer of 2009, the new report suggested the film was in fact not an "Alien" prequel but rather a film born of "Alien DNA" that is "unique, large and provocative." Yet at the same time, contrary to this new spin, we were hearing that the film — titled "Prometheus" — was in fact a prequel to the franchise. Now, this all might be a matter of semantics (not to mention movie marketing), but there's no doubt that confusion has surrounded the exact nature of the production.

So when we had the chance to speak with one of the stars of the new film, Michael Fassbender, while he was promoting "Jane Eyre," we asked him to shed some light on these conflicting judgments. And as he told us, "Prometheus" is most definitely an "Alien" movie.

"Absolutely," he said. "There's a definite connecting vein. You realize you're part of something else. But it's definitely in keeping with the old ones."

What's more, Fassbender said the new film is more closely related to the slow-burning "Alien," which Scott directed, than James Cameron's more action-oriented follow-up, "Aliens."

"It is more sort of the original one," Fassbender explained. "There's things happening and building, and the intelligence of the first two-thirds of the film gets you ready for the action ... it's creeping, it's sinister, things are happening and building, all the different intrigues and politics going on between the different relationships onboard."

That's not to say Damon Lindelof, who worked on the script with Scott, was blowing smoke when he said things to Deadline like, "In a world flooded with prequels, sequels and reboots, I was incredibly struck by just how original Ridley's vision was for this movie."

Fassbender told us that while "Prometheus" fits squarely within "Alien" mythology, the film delivers "a whole new revelation."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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