Bruce Glikas/FilmMagicCelebrated British filmmaker Ken Russell, who died Sunday at the age of 84, might not have gotten a taste for movies at an early age if it hadn't been for his father. Born in Southampton in 1927, Russell and his mother would go to the theater to escape his abusive dad, who ran a shoe shop. Russell recalled late in life that he wasn't thrilled back then with his mother's film choices, which tended toward romantic comedies. "I used to say to her when we got to the cinema: 'It's not going to be love?' 'No, Ken.' But it always was," he told The Guardian in the spring of this year. "She'd say: 'So listen to the organ.'" Nonetheless, he was hooked for life -- although he made movies his mother probably wouldn't like. Sometimes, audiences and critics agreed.

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Top Five (Full list)
1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1" $62,321,838 ($221,300,000)
2. "The Muppets" $42,000,000 ($42,000,000)
3. "Happy Feet Two" $18,369,613 ($43,773,000)
4. "Arthur Christmas" $17,000,000 ($17,000,000)
5. "Hugo" $15,380,000 ($15,380,000)

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• Rachel Weisz would appear to be one of those lucky actresses who doesn't seem to need to be concerned about her box office value. She'll happily do smaller dramas like "The Whistleblower" and the forthcoming "The Deep Blue Sea," and even if a "Dream House" tanks, well, who really blames her? She's just signed up for "The Railway Man," a real-life drama that stars Jeremy Irvine as Eric Lomax, a World War II British prisoner of war who was tortured by the Japanese. Weisz will play Lomax's wife who helped him recover from the trauma after he returned home. "A film loaded with laughs," declares nobody. [The Daily Mail via Cinema Blend]

Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesWe're gonna level with you, fine readers of The Projector: There was nothing that we wrote about this week that was nearly as exciting, important or joyous as what happened on Monday at 5:57am Eastern time. So, yes, amazing days. But don't worry: Having a rugrat in our midst will do nothing to dull the uncanny wit and insight that you've come to expect from The Projector. But if you catch us suddenly getting weirdly into Wilco and Feist, then you'll know that dad-life has changed us.

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We love director Andrew Stanton. (Loved "Wall-E" and "Finding Nemo.") But we are very concerned about "John Carter," his upcoming fantasy-adventure (and first live-action feature). The buzz has been bad for months, and his New Yorker profile didn't convince us everything would turn out fine. And then today we get this still image. This is one of the film's White Apes terrorizing John Carter (Taylor Kitsch). "[W]hat we did is we made the White Apes a formidable creature that you kind of hear about throughout the movie, but you never really witness," Stanton explained. "There's a subtle sense of anticipation for what these things might be like." Congrats, Mr. Stanton: You've just turned the White Ape into the new Sad Keanu.

DreamWorksAardman, the studio that first came to the world's attention with Nick Park's "Wallace and Gromit" shorts, is hoping you'll check out their latest animated offering, "Arthur Christmas," sometime this long weekend. For us, we're probably always going to be biased toward Aardman's old stop-motion claymation works. There's something about them that had such handmade charm that CG animation simply can't replicate, no matter how much you try. This got us thinking about Aardman's first foray into feature films. It wasn't with "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of Were-Rabbit." It was five years earlier with "Chicken Run."

NALA FilmsWe know, we know: You're still trying to wrap your head around all the movies coming out for Oscar consideration this year, but it's not too early to start thinking about next year. Specifically, it's getting close to the time when Sundance reveals the slate of films that will play during its festival in January. No one know what films will be screened yet, but that didn't keep the fine folks over at ION Cinema from compiling a list of 80 possible movies headed to Park City. These are all guesses, of course, but it gives us an idea of what to look forward to in 2012. We culled through ION's list and picked out five we're particularly curious to see.

Walt Disney PicturesWelcome back to Flop Level Midnight, where we take a look at each of the new wide releases every week and mark what dollar amount in domestic gross they need to hit to avoid the dreaded "flop" moniker. Remember: Much of this is contingent upon a film's budget: The rule of thumb is that 40 percent of a movie's domestic gross comes its opening weekend, so, depending on the cost, there could be a lot of ground to make up, quick. High stakes! This week's contestants are "The Muppets," "Arthur Christmas," and "Hugo." Let's do it.