VARIOUS: Museum comedy "Night at the Museum" rules the Christmas box office

Hollywood is hanging out a number of stockings as Christmas weekend arrives. Among the new movies, broad appeal is the name of the game. The Ben Stiller comedy "Night at the Museum," which has been generating positive buzz for some time, is likely to dominate the weekend. Insiders put the four-day haul for the Twentieth Century Fox effects extravaganza in the 35 million-40 million U.S. dollar range. Time will tell whether this family friendly film will knock two sports-themed movies -- "Rocky Balboa," which bowed Wednesday (December 19), and "We Are Marshall," out of the top spot. In 'Night at the Museum', good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), despite being perpetually down on his luck, thinks he's destined for something big. But even him could never have imaged how "big," when he accepts what appears to a graveyard-shift security guard at a museum of natural history. "Ever since I had kids I have been more aware of family movies like everybody does when they have kids. You know you just start to appreciate them because you want to have something you can enjoy with your kids and watch together and you become more aware of that. You're just sort of oblivious before, you know, before you have kids. And then get more in touch with those movies that you watched when you were a kid, because you see the ones you can watch with your children now. So it's fun to be able to be a part of something that you know has a chance to do that," Stiller told Reuters in Los Angeles recently. During Larry's watch, extraordinary things begin to occur: Mayans, Roman Gladiators, and cowboys emerge from their diorama to wage epic battles and a T-Rex reminds everyone why he's history's fiercest predator. Amidst the chaos, the only person Larry can turn to for advice is a wax figure of President Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who helps our hero harness the bedlam, stop a nefarious plot, and save the museum. "Theodore Roosevelt, one of the great presidents of all time, a brilliant Republican, a word you haven't heard recently in the same sentence. But I think, uh...using brilliant Republican and this administration. And man able to write a book. Without laughing. I'm serious! The idea of a man who has done extraordinary things for the American people. A great naturalist, a man who created the series of national parks that we have now. And also, uh, an outrageous military figure. And, uh, bigger than life for his time," Williams said while joking with his co-star Owen Wilson who was seated beside him. "Night at the Museum" has an A- list comedian cast which Stiller, Wilson, Williams, British actors Ricky Gervais, and Steve Coogan and veterans like Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke. "It's amazing to me to get a chance to work with all these guys, but Robin -- I grew up watching Mork and Mindy, I was sort of the target audience for that. And then just watching him, you know, his career and what he's done. And he's just a great actor, he's a really soulful, emotionally connected actor, and a really smart guy, and also brilliant comedian, you know, like more than brilliant, like, uh, sort of just, I don't know. What's more than brilliant? Like, uniquely, he does something nobody else does" Stiller said. "Night at the Museum" opened in the United States on Friday (December 22).

ITN Source | December 28, 2006

Tags:. .audience. .guard. .advice. .various. .laughing