1. Ted (Universal, 3,239 Theaters, 106 Minutes, Rated R): It’s hard to imagine when Seth MacFarlane wasn’t one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. Family Guy was cancelled after three seasons and it looked like he might just fade into the ether.

However, Family Guy got an unheard of reprieve  on FOX after it became a hit as part of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim line-up. FOX gave it another chance on the network, the new found fans followed it back, and soon enough, MacFarlane add American Dad! and The Cleveland Show to the FOX line-up, lining his pockets all the way.

And now, films. This one has an interesting premise (a childhood wish for a bear that could come to life has different implications when the kid grows up) and a good supporting cast, but, for me at least, Mark Wahlberg seems miscast in the lead role. Not to be ageist, but I feel the part would have been better served with a younger actor.

2. Magic Mike (Warner Brothers, 2,930 Theaters, 110 Minutes, Rated R): So, we finally get to the male stripper movie.

Loosely based on the real-life adventures of star Channing Tatum’s days as a stripper, the film focuses on a young man being taught the stripping ropes by a more experienced dancer. All directed by Steven Soderburgh (?).

I have no idea how how this film will do at the box office. I did get the cover story in Entertainment Weekly, but that was back in May. The film looks like either a drama or a comedy, depending on what ad you saw. It does have a good ensemble cast. But will it draw a big enough audience to make some money? We’ll see.

3. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection (Lionsgate, 2,161 Theaters, 114 Minutes): Tyler Perry once seemed to be a sure-fire box office draw. He had a built in audience and every film he did seemed automatic to debut at number one. He’s been struggling of late, but this latest film seems to be an attempt to reach a larger demographic.

Eugene Levy and Denise Richards star as the Needlemans, a family that has to enter witness protection. Why? Because Levy’s character was accused of running a Ponzi scheme that somehow the Mob was involved in. How were they involved? I don’t know. But I also don’t know why Madea’s house was chosen as the Needlemans hiding spot either.

The Madea movies still do well at the box office, but I doubt this film could beat the other films released this week, let alone Brave. 

4. People Like Us (Touchstone, 2,055 Theaters, 115 Theaters, Rated PG-13): Chris Pine stars as a man who finds out while settling his late father’s estate that his father, well, got around. Got around so much that his father fathered a daughter with another woman.

He does what anyone would do in this kind of situation–he tracks his sister down, infiltrates her life without ever once telling her who he is. She does the natural thing when a cute young man ingratiates himself into her life and becomes a positive role model for her son. She falls in love with him.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

All brought to us by the writers of Star Trek, Cowboys and Aliens and  Transformers. Of course.

Who will be the next Marvel character to hit the big screen? Which one will be the first to be produced under Marvel’s partnership with Disney? It looks like it will be Doctor Strange.

Deadline: New York is reporting that the writers of the Conan revamp, Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, have been hired to develop the good doctor for the big screen. The pair also wrote a draft of another comic book adaptation, Cowboys and Aliens.

Dr. Strange is Stephen Strange, once an egotistical, high-profile surgeon whose practice was ruined when his hands were injured in a car accident. Losing the one thing that made him special, Strange descends a spiral of self-destruction. As a last ditch effort, he travels to a remote Himalayan village to visit a mystic to get his life back. The mystic instead train Strange to take his place as the world’s sorcerer supreme.

Of all the thousands of untapped Marvel characters, I always believed that Dr. Strange would be the best fit for the silver screen. Not only due to his origin, which I think is very interesting and cinematic in its own right, but his adventures can lead to so many different interpretations. They can be in horror–either psychological of “jump out and grab you”–or a trippy, psychedelic mind warp of a film like The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus or Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. But the property would be best served as some combination of all the above.

But who should play the doctor? Well, according to Bleeding Cool.com, Patrick Dempsey supposedly is interested in the role. The image to the right was created by Hollywood-based comic artist Arne Starr and presumably has been shown to Marvel execs to sell them on Dempsey as Doctor Strange.

Dempsey does have a relationship with Disney, having starred in their recent hit Enchanted, so his casting might not be that absurd if Disney takes a hands-on approach to Marvel’s film offerings. However, if I was the one casting, I’d go with another TV doctor. I think House‘s Hugh Laurie would be an excellent choice for the role. He is more of a physical match for the character and can definitely play that kind of role.

And where would Dr. Strange fit in with the Iron Man/Thor/Captain America: The First Avenger/Avengers shared universe thing? Well, he probably wouldn’t. Not that he couldn’t–those films are distributed by Paramount but controlled by Marvel so it’s assumed they will come over to Disney after their distribution agreement is finished. But Dr. Strange, until recently, was never a big part of the Avengers mythos in the comics. So, the best I’d think we could hope for would be a passing reference, if that.

With his work on Iron Man 2 completed last week, director Jon Favreau is turning his full attention to his next project Cowboys & Aliens by announcing via Twitter that the first cast member to join leads Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde in the comic book adaptation will be none other than Harrison Ford.

Set to start filming this July, the film will feature a story that sounds like the mash-up of every kid’s playtime fantasies- cowboys and Indians team-up to defend the Old West from invading aliens. You can read the original comic for free here.

Personally, I think this is exciting news, as Ford is generally never better than when he is in genre material. Even with all it’s problems, Ford was more engaged in his performance in 2008′s Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull than he appeared in years. And as Ford probably doesn’t really need the work for the money, I take it as a good sign that there is something strong in the script that interested him.

Cowboys & Aliens gallops into theaters on July 29, 2011.

Maybe Hugh Jackman told Daniel Craig how great working in an American comic book movie is during their time on Broadway doing A Steady Rain, because MTV’s Splash Page blog is reporting that the British actor is in negotiations to star in the adaptation of Platinum Studios graphic novel, Cowboys and Aliens.

Craig would play Zeke Johnson, the same role Robert Downey Jr. was attached to before he withdrew from the project earlier this week.

If this goes through, it will actually be second film based on a comic book that Craig will have out in 2011. He is signed to star as Red Rackham in The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which was adapted from a legendary Belgian comic book series.

Last summer when Robert Downey, Jr. became attached to Dreamworks/Universal’s Cowboys And Aliens comic book adaptation, the studio had plans to have the film out in theaters for the summer of 2010, the same time that Marvel hoped to have Iron Man 2 in cineplexes. Well, Iron Man 2 will be in theaters next summer, but not Cowboys & Aliens, though when it does hit the local cineplex, it will be sharing not just the star of the Iron Man films, but its director as well. Variety is reporting that Iron Man-director Jon Favreau is close to signing a deal to helm the picture.

The project is as high concept as it’s title implies. A range war between cowboys and Native Americans is interrupted by a crashing alien spaceship and some occupants who mean no good for the planet Earth. Universal originally bought the project in 1997 based on a poster design showing a cowboy and a flying saucer. The project went through a number of writers and bounced over to Columbia Pictures before moving back to Universal. A comic book was published by Platinum Studios in 2006, which can be read here. When Downey signed on to the film, Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus were the current scripters. Now, Variety is reporting that Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindeloff are currently rewriting the screenplay.

Downey and Favreau are already scheduled to work on Iron Man 3 and quite probably The Avengers. They certainly made a good team as evidenced by the first Iron Man film. Let’s hope that magic holds as they’ve certainly committed themselves to working together for the foreseeable future.