The “Man on Fire” himself, Denzel Washington, went toe to toe with “The Rider” and won at the box office this weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, “Safe House” took first place with $23.8 million, and a domestic total of $78.1 million. The movie ranks as Denzel’s second highest grossing film, domestically, just behind “American Gangster’s” $80.4 million. In second place was the romance/drama “The Vow” with an estimated $23.1 million, bringing its surprising total to $85 million and earning the title of Sony/Screen Gem’s highest grossing film to date. Satan’s bounty hunter didn’t capture the numbers it was expecting with a weak opening of $22.1 million. The movie carried a production budget of $57 million excluding advertising, but only earned half as much as its predecessor did its opening weekend. “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” held on strong in fourth place with $19.9 million, and a domestic total of $53 million. “This Means War” came in fifth place with $17.4 million and a Cinema Score of A-. The movie has been getting horrible reviews, but should be able to manage some more dough with the positive word of mouth it’s receiving.

Another anthology film in the vein of “New York, I Love You” and “Paris, J’Taime” is on the horizon. THR has learned that actors and directors Anthony LaPaglia (TV’s “Without a Trace”), Toni Collette (“Fright Night”), Liev Schreiber (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), Russell Crowe (“Cinderella Man”), Alex Proyas (“Dark City”), David Michôd (“Animal Kingdom”), and more are all set to create multiple short films for “Sydney Unplugged.” Director John Polson and Arclight Films' Gary Hamilton are producing “Sydney Unplugged” as an ode to their home city. Each person will direct a 15 minute segment, and it might include interloping stories or completely unique ones. I always found anthology films to be fascinating because you get to experience multiple people’s visions of the same thing in one sitting.

The sequel to the 2010 hit “RED,” currently named “RED 2” (easy enough), is slowly picking up steam. Director Dean Parisot (the hilarious “Galaxy Quest”) has been hired to helm the feature. Variety is reporting that the writers from the original film, Jon and Erich Hoeber, are back to re-write the sequel. Bruce Willis (“Planet Terror”) is in the process of working out his schedule so that he can lead the project, and contracts are out to the rest of the original cast to reprise their roles. It would be nice if they could bring Morgan Freeman back in some capacity; I always love seeing him in films. The project is set to begin production before the end of the year with hopefully a late 2013 release date. I can’t wait to see these Retired and Extremely Dangerous (get it? “RED”) ass-kickers back on the big screen.

It looks like Michael Fassbender (“Inglourious Basterds”) is becoming more active behind the camera. Variety caught a scoop that Fassbender is currently developing a project of his own that revolves around the legendary Celtic warrior Chuchulainn; a hero who appears in the Ulster Cylce, a series of epic old Irish legends that first appeared in the 8th century. Fassbender, an Irishman himself, is developing the film with screenwriter Ronan Bennett (“Public Enemies”) and plans to star as the warrior. Based on his work in “300” I have no doubts that he could play a manly badass like Chuchulainn. The saga is set in the northern part of Ireland so the scenery is sure to be a feast for the eyes (much like New Zealand was for “The Lord of the Rings”). Chuchulainn is usually compared to the Greek warrior Achilles; they were both fierce warriors but died young. Even though this project is far from being filmed we don’t have to wait that long to see Fassbender on the big screen again. He is starring in Ridley Scott’s (“Alien”) film “Prometheus,” which is hitting theaters this summer.

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