Naturally, the spoiled “Harry Potter” kids raked in the most payroll last year, but aren’t you curious to see who else made the list? Take a look below to see where Owen Wilson landed on the list!

Daniel Radcliffe (41 million)
Ben Stiller (40 million)
Tom Hanks (46 million)
Emma Watson (30 million)
Owen Wilson (29 million)
Nicholas Cage (28 million)
Russell Crowe (28 million)
Cameron Diaz (27 million)
Sarah Jessica Parker (24 million)
Katherine Heigl (24 million)
Angelina Jolie (21 million)
Jennifer Aniston (20 million)
Sandra Bullock (20 million)

This excerpt is from a wonderful article over at IFC touching on the roots of the film Bottle Rocket, check out the clip and read about the evolution of this great indie film!

What’s another $4,000 after paying private school tuition? That was probably the pitch made by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson to their fathers, a year after the two met in a playwriting class at the University of Texas at Austin and decided to pen a script together about a trio of unlikely hoodlums. Similar to the clueless would-be criminals they created — Bob (Robert Musgrave), Anthony (Luke Wilson) and Dignan (Owen Wilson) — Anderson and Wilson scored the initial amount of cash that they asked for from their parents, but only wound up shooting eight minutes of 16mm footage before running out of funds. As a result, the Wilsons’ father contacted family friend and “Paris, Texas” screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson to see if the kids’ work had promise, which led to Carson finding enough money to finance the rest of the 13-minute short, as well as producer Barbara Boyle getting in touch with then-Gracie Films vice president Polly Platt. The short got into Sundance in 1993, and though the unusually rhythmic patter of the characters didn’t make much of an impression on audiences in Park City, it got the attention of Platt’s boss, James L. Brooks, who would ultimately bankroll the feature — which ironically was rejected by Sundance, though there’s no question who got the last laugh.

So What’s Different? Beyond an expansion of the plot, not a whole lot is different except for a jazzier score and that it’s shot in black-and-white.

Source: IFC.

This article from Ioncinema puts Fantastic Mr. Fox at the #8 slot in the “most anticipated” top ten of 2009 list. Check out the new tidbits of information we get on this new Wes Anderson flick:

Director: Wes Anderson
Writer(s): Anderson and Noah Baumbach
Producers: Anderson, Allison Abbate and Scott Rudin

The Gist: The book tells the story about a fox, simply named Mr. Fox. At night, he steals animals from the farms of Bunce, Boggis, and Bean, three mean farmers, to feed his family with. The farmers are fed up with this, and try everything to kill him. They surround the hill he lives in with men armed with guns. After three days of starving, Mr.Fox and his children dig a tunnel to Boggis’ chicken house number one, and steal a few chickens. They also raid Bunce’s storehouse and Bean’s underground cellar of apple cider. They invite everyone to a feast made from the loot and decide never to go above ground anymore.

Fact: Anderson and Noah Baumbach also co-wrote The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004). The film was also the first time Anderson used stop animation – only remember the ‘Jaguar shark’?

Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Anjelica Huston.

Release Date/Status? November 13th, 2009 in the USA. October 23rd, 2009 in the UK.

Source: Ioncinema.

You can now follow Owenation on Twitter!

Also, check out Josh Meyers! He’s an actor known for his work on That 70′s Show and Mad TV. Here’s a funny skit he did where he played Owen in Seven Buddy Cops:

He also played Owen in the Wedding Crashers bit in the film Date Movie. He’s a pretty talented guy, find him at IMDB and see him in Brüno July 10th!

The FORUMS are now open! Most of the basic subjects have been added, please sign up and get to discussing!

And also the STREET TEAM is now active! Be patient with me as the kinks get worked out, but go ahead and apply if you’d like to be a part of it! Click on the link for all of the info about what the Street Team is and how to sign up for it.

As a sign of good faith, I’ll go ahead and post some recent Owen Wilson news tidbits!

Night at the Museum 2 (Battle of the Smithsonian) earned a whopping $70 million on its opening weekend (USA), stomping every other movie in theaters at the same time, including Terminator and Star Trek! A DVD release date has yet to be determined, but I’ll keep you guys posted. Check out AMC to locate a theater playing the film near you!

How Do You Know? Is currently in the “filming” stage, Owen is hard at work alongside Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd. The title is yet to be official, some are still simply calling it “an untitled James L. Brooks” project. The story follows a love triangle that has Manny (Owen) and George (Paul Rudd) fighting over the affection of Lisa (Witherspoon), but not much else has been released about it. Seems like it will probably fall into the romantic comedy genre.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is currently in the “post-production” phase. An animated film by the clever Wes Anderson, this title will have several guest stars making a vocal cameo, including Owen Wilson. Other familiar voices can be heard as well, such as George Clooney, Bill Murray, and Willem Dafoe. So far the plot seems a little sketchy, but I trust Anderson will deliver us his usual quirky and charming humor. See a bit more about the story at the Wikipedia page!

Little Fockers, or “Meet The Parents 3″ has been officially announced, and is in the “pre-production” phase. Director Paul Weitz will be taking over the project, with a confirmed return of the original cast members, including Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro. Owen will be returning as Kevin Rawley, and is said to have a much more important and larger role in this third installment. Sadly not much else has been released about the film, but according to the casting call Greg (Stiller) and Pamela (Teri Polo) have a set of twins (one socially withdrawn male, one hellion female) who no doubt cause all sorts of trouble. Of course I’ll keep you guys posted as I hear more details about it. Expected release is in 2011.

Ben Stiller has shown recent interest (according to recent interviews on more than one occasion) in writing a script for Zoolander 2. This no-doubt will cause controversy among its fans as it’s become a sort of “cult classic” to everyone, but nothing has been confirmed or denied in actually getting the ball rolling on this subject. With Little Fockers and a few other “pre-production” films on Ben Stiller’s plate, I’m not so sure we can expect any sort of movement on Zoolander 2 anytime soon.

Disney/Pixar has all but confirmed Owen for a returning role as Lightning McQueen in Cars 2. The film is set for a 2011 release, but is still marked as “pre-production” and no details whatsoever have been given.

That’s it for now! Hopefully you’re all caught up, and I’ll be on top of any news as it arrives!

The following are examples of what you can expect to find here over (hopefully) the next couple of weeks/months, as popularity grows and money allows.

STREET TEAM:
(Now active!)
What you can expect:
This is probably the most important part of the website, it will be a mission-based collective of volunteer Owen Wilson fans that will be given (optional) missions (usually requiring photographic evidence) to earn points that can be spent on merchandise in the *soon to be created* virtual store, and climb the ranks in the forums.

FORUMS:
(Now active!)
A place for all of us to come together and be social!  Subjects will be posted on just about anything and everything Owen Wilson!  From the Frat Pack and his blockbuster movies to his dog Garcia, you’ll find it here!

VIRTUAL STORE:
What you can expect:
A collection of t-shirts, jelly bracelets, bags, buttons and other various types of merchandise available for purchase that will support OWENATION.COM and of course Owen Wilson himself (which is what this is all about!)
These items will trickle in as funds allow, it’s an expensive process but I estimate that I will at LEAST have the t-shirts available in as little as 2 weeks.
Example:

I’ll probably tweek the design a bit more before releasing it, this is just a rough draft. Like it? Dislike it? Have an idea for it?

I also plan on having business cards created that I will distribute in packs of 25 for free.

MEET UPS:
What you can expect:
As membership and popularity grows, I will attempt to organize get-togethers with members who have two or more people in a group that would like to do a project together. These can be events such as HIKING TRIPS, BICYCLE RIDES, CAR WASHES, WALKS and those are just a few ideas. I’m thinking that anyone who signs up to do a project and wants to lead a group, they can send in/donate $10 (per person) and I’ll ship out a package including (but not set in stone yet) 1 t-shirt per person, a set of jelly bracelets per person, a set of business cards per person, and 2 bumper stickers per person. I’ll arrange a place in the forum to share stories and photographs from these events, and I’m always willing to accept ideas and suggestions!

WEEKLY CHATS:
What you can expect:
I would like to be able to set up a chat room (possibly with passcode) for a weekly meet-up of fans to chat live and discuss Owen or just anything anyone wants to share or vent. A time/day of week has yet to be decided, but this will likely be one of the earliest additions to the website and I’ll post reminders here for anyone who wishes to join in.

CONTESTS:
What you can expect:
Contests will sometimes be held simply as a raffle in which I’ll enter all Street Team members names into a hat to be pulled at random. As member count grows, so will the prize count: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on…
Items to be given away will vary (and will probably be items unavailable in the store) such as magnets, stickers, or Street Team points to be used in the store.
Another kind of contest will most likely be of a recruitment nature. Pretty basic, whoever gets the most amount of active/legit new recruits to the Owenation team will win a prize. Probably something of a larger/more expensive nature than the raffle prize, such as a hoodie and mug combo.

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This is all I can think of right now, but I’ll keep you updated as I add to this list and accomplish the goals listed here. Keep checking back, I’ll be accepting applicants for the street team soon!

[Note: I plan on making NO profit from anything that I sell here. All funds will feed back into the website to support the giveaways, get-togethers, and the website cost itself.]