Box office report: 'Turtles' claim top spot

"Turtles" and "Guardians" maintained top spots"Expendables 3" didn't do as well"Boyhood" expanded to more theaters

(EW.com) -- Holdover tent-poles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy maintained the top spots at the weekend box office, while the new openers trailed behind. But, while it was expected that Let's Be Cops and The Giver would open in the teens, the biggest surprise of the weekend was The Expendables 3, a franchise pic which should have easily opened in the $20 to $25 million range, but instead floundered with an estimated $16.2 million.

TMNT's success last weekend was no fluke and the pizza-loving heroes took the No. 1 spot for the second weekend in a row with an estimated $28.4 million from 3,980 locations. That's a 56.7 percent drop from its opening weekend. The movie also earned $25.6 million internationally, bringing its international total to $67.5 million. It still has yet to open in a handful of key territories including Korea (Aug. 28), Spain and the U.K. (Oct. 17), and Japan (Dec. 19).

Guardians of the Galaxy, meanwhile, rocketed past the $200 million mark and earned an estimated $24.7 million—a mere 41.3 percent drop from last weekend, which is similar to Captain America: The Winter Soldier's third weekend fall.

Let's Be Cops (Cinema Score: B) edged ahead of The Expendables 3 to take third place across the weekend with an estimated $17.7 million. The Fox comedy opened earlier in the week and now boasts a domestic total of $26.1 million, which is not bad for a movie that cost a reported $17 million to produce. Audiences were 56 percent male and 54 percent under the age of 25. Demographic breakdowns report that 17 percent of audiences were Hispanic, 20 percent were African-American, and 50 percent were Caucasian. The movie also exceeded expectations in the West and Midwest.

The Expendables 3 (Cinema Score: A-) opened in fourth place with $16.2 million from 3,221 locations. Audiences were mostly male (61 percent) and over the age of 25 (66 percent) for Lionsgate's PG-13 rated action pic. It's a franchise low, and possibly too-easy to ridicule thanks to a cast that's bursting at the seams with aging action heroes, but Expendables 3 also buckled under the weight of a leak, which led to nearly 2.2 million downloads weeks before the movie had even hit theaters.

Rounding out the top five is The Weinstein Company's The Giver (Cinema Score: B+) which earned $12.76 million from 3,003 locations. The $25 million adaptation of Lois Lowry's beloved novel failed to gain much traction with critics, and the opening is a little lower than The Weinstein Company wanted (they were aiming for mid-teens). It will be interesting to see how it holds up across the next few weeks.

Here's the top five:

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — $28.4 million ($117.64 million domestic total)

2. Guardians of the Galaxy — $24.7 million ($222.28 million domestic total)

3. Let's Be Cops — $17.7 million ($26.1 million domestic total since Wednesday)

4. The Expendables 3 — $16.2 million (new)

5. The Giver — $12.76 million (new)

Also of note, Richard Linklater's Boyhood expanded to 771 locations this weekend and took in an estimated $2.15 million to take tenth place. The $4 million pic has earned $13.8 million to date. Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight also upped its theater count to 964 locations (up 794) for a $1.9 million weekend, and What If, starring Daniel Radcliffe, expanded to 787 locations (from 20) to earn $829K.

In limited release, IFC's comedy The Trip to Italy starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan earned $71.6K from three locations and A24's Life After Beth, starring Aubrey Plaza and Dane DeHaan grossed $18K from two locations.

See the original story at EW.com.

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Army still has problems with PTSD, report says

SEATTLE (AP) — An Army report released Friday finds the service still has trouble diagnosing and treating soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder, despite more than doubling its number of military and civilian behavioral health workers over the past five years.

Confusing paperwork, inconsistent training and guidelines, and incompatible data systems have hindered the service as it tries to deal with behavioral health issues, the report said. It's a crucial issue: After a decade of war, soldier suicides outpace combat deaths.

Last May, the Army commissioned a task force to conduct a sweeping review of how it evaluates soldiers for mental health problems at all its facilities. The review came under pressure from Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, who was upset to learn that hundreds of soldiers at Madigan Army Medical Center south of Seattle had had their PTSD diagnoses reversed by a forensic psychiatry team, resulting in a potential cut to their benefits and questions about whether the changes were made to save money.

About 150 of those soldiers eventually had their diagnoses restored.

"I am pleased that the Army completed this review and has vowed to make fixes over the next year, though I am disappointed it has taken more than a decade of war to get to this point," Murray said in a statement. "Many of the 24 findings and 47 recommendations in this report are not new. Creating a universal electronic health record, providing better rural health access, and standardizing the way diagnoses are made, for instance, have been lingering problems for far too long. Our service members and their families deserve better."

The report noted that the Army had made strides in some areas, including cutting how long it takes soldiers to obtain a disability evaluation and publishing a guide to the process.

On a conference call with reporters, Army brass emphasized that many of the report's recommendations are already being put into effect. For example, over the past year the Army has been assigning behavioral health workers to brigade combat teams so soldiers will feel more familiar with them and more comfortable about getting help, said Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, who heads the Army's Medical Command.

Horoho also stressed that there was no evidence that malice motivated the altered diagnoses at Madigan; rather, the changes amounted to difference of opinion, she said.

The task force interviewed 750 people stationed around the globe, conducted listening sessions with 6,400 others and reviewed more than 140,000 records. The Medical Command reviewed diagnoses for all soldiers evaluated for behavioral health problems from October 2001 until last April.

Since September 2001, the report found, 4.1 percent of all soldiers deployed wound up in the disability system with a behavioral health diagnosis such as PTSD or traumatic brain injury.

Nationwide, the report said, 6,400 soldiers had behavioral health diagnoses "adjusted" by medical evaluation boards, with approximately equal numbers having PTSD added as a diagnosis and removed as a diagnosis.

Two locations where medical evaluation boards are held had slightly higher rates of diagnosis changes than the Army-wide average — Fort Polk in Louisiana and Fort Irwin in California, Horoho said. Cases from those locations are being reviewed to ensure no soldiers were improperly affected, but part of the reason for the higher rates may be because those bases rely heavily on civilian health workers, she said.

Last year the Army — and the military as a whole — suffered the highest number of suicides ever recorded, prompting then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to declare it an epidemic. The Army had 183 suicides among active-duty soldiers, up from 167 in 2011, and the military as a whole had 350 suicides, up from 301 the year before.

Among the problems the report documented was that Army bases don't have a person on site dedicated to overseeing behavioral health issues, despite the many problems they can cause: suicide, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and child and spouse abuse. Each installation needs someone with a view of all those programs to make recommendations to the commander, the report said.

Army Secretary John M. McHugh said in a statement that the Army will work to place behavioral health experts "at the command and installation levels to provide better consultation, guidance, coordination and recommendations to improve behavioral health care for our soldiers."

The task force found that of the soldiers surveyed, 37 percent had never received any information about the Army's disability evaluation system or had to seek the information out on their own. It also said it was confusing and inefficient for troops to navigate the vastly different disability systems maintained by the Army and the Veterans Administration.

The Army and VA plan to have a joint disability system, by which health care providers in either organization will have access to records, by 2017.

"Some changes can be made immediately," McHugh said. "Others will require more time and coordination. Importantly, this report reviewed our systems holistically — recommending not only short-term solutions, but longer term, systemic changes that will make care and treatment of our soldiers and family members more effective."

___

Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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White House says jobs report is a good sign, but warns of budget cuts

People wait on line to meet with recruiters during a job fair in Melville, N.Y., last year. (Shannon Stapleton ……look out for the impact of across-the-board spending cuts known in D.C. as “sequestration.”

The American economy added 236,000 jobs in the month of February and unemployment dropped from 7.9 in January to 7.7 percent last month, according to new figures released on Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The White House cheered the report. Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a White House blog post that “while more work remains to be done, today’s employment report provides evidence that the recovery that began in mid-2009 is gaining traction.”

But Krueger emphasized that the data came from early February, “before sequestration began.” Those cuts, roughly $85 billion for the rest of the fiscal year, are expected to whittle down economic growth and cost jobs, according to nonpartisan analysts.

“The monthly employment and unemployment figures can be volatile, and payroll employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision,” Krueger said. “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”

Krueger's comments recalled President Barack Obama's March 1 admonition that failing to replace sequestration would hold down what remains a slow but steady recovery—comments that sounded very much like an insurance policy against the potential political damage to come. "Every time that we get a piece of economic news, over the next month, next two months, next six months, as long as the sequester is in place, we’ll know that that economic news could have been better if Congress had not failed to act," Obama said.

Republicans greeted the report as decent news, but they declared the economy was still weaker than it should be.

“Any job creation is positive news,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. “But the fact is unemployment in America is still way above the levels the Obama White House projected” four years ago in the debate over the stimulus package.

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U.S. wasted billions and billions in Iraq: Report

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten years and $60 billion in American taxpayer funds later, Iraq is still so unstable and broken that even its leaders question whether U.S. efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation were worth the cost.

In his final report to Congress, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen's conclusion was all too clear: Since the invasion a decade ago this month, the U.S. has spent too much money in Iraq for too few results.

The reconstruction effort "grew to a size much larger than was ever anticipated," Bowen told The Associated Press in a preview of his last audit of U.S. funds spent in Iraq, to be released Wednesday. "Not enough was accomplished for the size of the funds expended."

In interviews with Bowen, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the U.S. funding "could have brought great change in Iraq" but fell short too often. "There was misspending of money," said al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim whose sect makes up about 60 percent of Iraq's population.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, the country's top Sunni Muslim official, told auditors that the rebuilding efforts "had unfavorable outcomes in general."

"You think if you throw money at a problem, you can fix it," Kurdish government official Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, told auditors. "It was just not strategic thinking."

The abysmal Iraq results forecast what could happen in Afghanistan, where U.S. taxpayers have so far spent $90 billion in reconstruction projects during a 12-year military campaign that, for the most part, ends in 2014.

Shortly after the March 2003 invasion, Congress set up a $2.4 billion fund to help ease the sting of war for Iraqis. It aimed to rebuild Iraq's water and electricity systems; provide food, health care and governance for its people; and take care of those who were forced from their homes in the fighting. Fewer than six months later, President George W. Bush asked for $20 billion more to further stabilize Iraq and help turn it into an ally that could gain economic independence and reap global investments.

To date, the U.S. has spent more than $60 billion in reconstruction grants to help Iraq get back on its feet after the country that has been broken by more than two decades of war, sanctions and dictatorship. That works out to about $15 million a day.

And yet Iraq's government is rife with corruption and infighting. Baghdad's streets are still cowed by near-daily deadly bombings. A quarter of the country's 31 million population lives in poverty, and few have reliable electricity and clean water.

Overall, including all military and diplomatic costs and other aid, the U.S. has spent at least $767 billion since the American-led invasion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. National Priorities Project, a U.S. research group that analyzes federal data, estimated the cost at $811 billion, noting that some funds are still being spent on ongoing projects.

Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate committee that oversees U.S. funding, said the Bush administration should have agreed to give the reconstruction money to Iraq as a loan in 2003 instead as an outright gift.

"It's been an extraordinarily disappointing effort and, largely, a failed program," Collins, R-Maine, said in an interview Tuesday. "I believe, had the money been structured as a loan in the first place, that we would have seen a far more responsible approach to how the money was used, and lower levels of corruption in far fewer ways."

In numerous interviews with Iraqi and U.S. officials, and though multiple examples of thwarted or defrauded projects, Bowen's report laid bare a trail of waste, including:

—In Iraq's eastern Diyala province, a crossroads for Shiite militias, Sunni insurgents and Kurdish squatters, the U.S. began building a 3,600-bed prison in 2004 but abandoned the project after three years to flee a surge in violence. The half-completed Khan Bani Sa'ad Correctional Facility cost American taxpayers $40 million but sits in rubble, and Iraqi Justice Ministry officials say they have no plans to ever finish or use it.

—Subcontractors for Anham LLC, based in Vienna, Va., overcharged the U.S. government thousands of dollars for supplies, including $900 for a control switch valued at $7.05 and $80 for a piece of pipe that costs $1.41. Anham was hired to maintain and operate warehouses and supply centers near Baghdad's international airport and the Persian Gulf port at Umm Qasr.

— A $108 million wastewater treatment center in the city of Fallujah, a former al-Qaida stronghold in western Iraq, will have taken eight years longer to build than planned when it is completed in 2014 and will only service 9,000 homes. Iraqi officials must provide an additional $87 million to hook up most of the rest of the city, or 25,000 additional homes.

—After blowing up the al-Fatah bridge in north-central Iraq during the invasion and severing a crucial oil and gas pipeline, U.S. officials decided to try to rebuild the pipeline under the Tigris River at a cost of $75 million. A geological study predicted the project might fail, and it did: Eventually, the bridge and pipelines were repaired at an additional cost of $29 million.

—A widespread ring of fraud led by a former U.S. Army officer resulted in tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks and the criminal convictions of 22 people connected to government contracts for bottled water and other supplies at the Iraqi reconstruction program's headquarters at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

In too many cases, Bowen concluded, U.S. officials did not consult with Iraqis closely or deeply enough to determine what reconstruction projects were really needed or, in some cases, wanted. As a result, Iraqis took limited interest in the work, often walking away from half-finished programs, refusing to pay their share, or failing to maintain completed projects once they were handed over.

Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shiite, described the projects as well intentioned, but poorly prepared and inadequately supervised.

The missed opportunities were not lost on at least 15 senior State and Defense department officials interviewed in the report, including ambassadors and generals, who were directly involved in rebuilding Iraq.

One key lesson learned in Iraq, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns told auditors, is that the U.S. cannot expect to "do it all and do it our way. We must share the burden better multilaterally and engage the host country constantly on what is truly needed."

Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno, who was the top U.S. military commander in Iraq from 2008 to 2010, said "it would have been better to hold off spending large sums of money" until the country stabilized.

About a third of the $60 billion was spent to train and equip Iraqi security forces, which had to be rebuilt after the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority disbanded Saddam's army in 2003. Today, Iraqi forces have varying successes in safekeeping the public and only limited ability to secure their land, air and sea borders.

The report also cites Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as saying that the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq weakened U.S. influence in Baghdad. Panetta has since left office when former Sen. Chuck Hagel took over the defense job last week. Washington is eyeing a similar military drawdown next year in Afghanistan, where U.S. taxpayers have spent $90 billion so far on rebuilding projects.

The Afghanistan effort risks falling into the same problems that mired Iraq if oversight isn't coordinated better. In Iraq, officials were too eager to build in the middle of a civil war, and too often raced ahead without solid plans or back-up plans, the report concluded.

Most of the work was done in piecemeal fashion, as no single government agency had responsibility for all of the money spent. The State Department, for example, was supposed to oversee reconstruction strategy starting in 2004, but controlled only about 10 percent of the money at stake. The vast majority of the projects — 75 percent — were paid for by the Defense Department.

___

Online:

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction: http://www.sigir.mil/learningfromiraq/index.html

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

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Coroner, director Tony Scott's family dispute cancer report

Coroner, director Tony Scott's family dispute cancer report - CNN.comvar cnnCurrTime=new Date(1345595782000),cnnCurrHour=20,cnnCurrMin=36,cnnCurrDay="Tue",cnnIsIntl=true,clickID=212106,cnn_cvpAdpre="edition.",cnnCVPAdSectionT1="edition.cnn.com_entertainment_t1",cnnCVPAdSectionInPage="edition.cnn.com_entertainment_inpage",cnnShareUrl="%2F2012%2F08%2F21%2Fshowbiz%2Ftony-scott-probe%2Findex.html",cnnShareTitle="Coroner%2C%20director%20Tony%20Scott's%20family%20dispute%20cancer%20report",cnnShareDesc="",cnnFirstPub=new Date('Tuesday Aug 21 11:34:45 EDT 2012'),cnnSectionName="entertainment",cnnSubSectionName="ent : news",cnnPageType="Story",cnnBrandingValue="default";cnnPartnerValue="";cnnOmniBranding="",cnnAuthor="Alan Duke, CNN",disqus_category_id=207582,disqus_identifier="/2012/08/21/showbiz/tony-scott-probe/index.html",disqus_title="Coroner, director Tony Scott's family dispute cancer report",cnn_edtnswtchver="edition",cnnIsStoryPage=true,cnn_metadata = {};cnn_metadata = {section: ["entertainment","ent : news"],friendly_name: "Coroner, director Tony Scott's family dispute cancer report",template_type: "content",template_type_content: "gallery",business: {cnn: {page: {author: "Alan Duke, CNN",broadcast_franchise: "",video_embed_count: "4",publish_date: "2012/08/21",photo_gallery: "Photos: Director Tony Scott dead at 68"},video: {video_player: ""}}},user: {authenticated: "",segment: {age: "",zip: "",gender: ""}}};if (typeof(cnnOmniPartner) !== "undefined") {if (cnn_metadata.template_type_content === "") {cnn_metadata.template_type_content = "partner";}}var photo_gallery = "Photos: Director Tony Scott dead at 68";Event.observe(window,'load',function(){window.setTimeout("cnn_strysavemrv()",500);});function cnn_strysavemrv(){saveMrvUrl('Coroner, director Tony Scott\'s family dispute cancer report - CNN.com',cnn_strysaveurl);}if(typeof CNN==='undefined'){var CNN=Class.create();}CNN.expandableMap=[''];function _loginOptions(){};var disqus_url=(typeof disqus_identifier!=='undefined') ? 'http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/21/showbiz/tony-scott-probe/index.html' : 'http://www.cnn.com'+location.pathname;cnnad_newTileIDGroup(['607x95_adlinks','336x280_adlinks']); EDITION:  INTERNATIONAL U.S. MÉXICO ARABIC TV:   CNNi CNN en Español Set edition preference Sign up Log in Home Video World U.S. Africa Asia Europe Latin America Middle East Business World Sport Entertainment Tech Travel iReport Share this on:FacebookTwitterDiggdeliciousredditMySpaceStumbleUponLinkedInViadeo Coroner, director Tony Scott's family dispute cancer reportBy Alan Duke, CNNAugust 21, 2012 -- Updated 1644 GMT (0044 HKT)if (typeof cnnArticleGallery=="undefined"){var cnnArticleGallery={};if(typeof cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList=="undefined"){cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList=[];}}var expGalleryPT00=new ArticleExpandableGallery();expGalleryPT00.setImageCount(14);//cnn_adbptrackpgalimg("Director Tony Scott dead at 68", 1);.cnn_html_slideshow_metadata > .cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:'>>';font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px}.cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0}.captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1}.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none}.cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px}Director Tony Scott on location for "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3" on the streets of Manhattan on May 11, 2008, in New York. Scott died Sunday, August 19, at age 68 in an apparent suicide. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":true,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":1,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Scott, best known for directing the movie "Top Gun," started working in films as a teenager. He was born in North Shields, England.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":2,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Both Scott and his older brother Ridley Scott, right, produced and directed films, enjoying careers that spanned decades.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":3,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}British-born director Scott on the set of his film "Man on Fire" in Mexico City in 2003. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":4,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}From left, New Line's Toby Emmerich, Bob Shaye, actress Keira Knightley, director Scott and producer Samuel Hadida arrive at the premiere of "Domino" in Hollywood in 2005.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":5,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}The Hollywood director arrives at the premiere of Twentieth Century Fox's "Unstoppable" in 2010, in Westwood, California. Scott was often seen in a faded red cap. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":6,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Scott directed several action movies, including "Crimson Tide" and "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3," which starred Denzel Washington. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":7,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Scott and his family celebrate the premiere of the movie "Unstoppable" in October 2010. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":8,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Scott was a producer on the film "Prometheus" as well as the hit TV show "The Good Wife."cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":9,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Scott was best known for his 1986 film "Top Gun," starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":10,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Actor Eddie Murphy in 1987 film "Beverly Hills Cop II." The action movie, Scott's first to follow box office hit "Top Gun," helped make him a household name.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":11,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Actress Nicole Kidman in 1990 film "Days of Thunder." She met Tom Cruise on the set of the movie. They married that year, divorcing in 2001.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":12,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}Scott made a name for directing big-budget action films, including 1998's "Enemy of the State," featuring Will Smith and Gene Hackman.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":13,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}The 2010 film "Unstoppable," featuring Chris Pine and Denzel Washington, was Scott's last.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length]={"currentPicture":false,"x":0,"y":0,"pos":14,"title":"Director Tony Scott dead at 68"}HIDE CAPTIONDirector Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68Director Tony Scott dead at 68<<<1234567891011121314>>>Event.observe(window,'load',function(){if(typeof(cnn_adbptrackpgalimg) == 'function' && typeof(cnnArticleGallery) != 'undefined'){cnn_adbptrackpgalimg(cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[0].image,"Photos: Director Tony Scott dead at 68");}});STORY HIGHLIGHTSFilm director Tony Scott left two notes before his apparent suicide, a coroner official saysIt will be weeks before autopsy results are made public, an official says"Unfathomable to think that he is now gone," Denzel Washington saysScott is best known for the films "Top Gun" and "Beverly Hills Cop II"

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Tony Scott's fatal plunge from a California bridge Sunday remained a public mystery Tuesday as medical investigators and his family disputed a report that the British director suffered from inoperable brain cancer.

Scott, best known for the films "Top Gun" and "Beverly Hills Cop II," apparently committed suicide by jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California, about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, said Lt. Joe Bale of the coroner's office.

Scott, 68, wrote two notes before his death, including a message left in his Los Angeles office that was apparently for family members, a coroner official said.

The second note, detailing contact information for authorities investigating his death, was found in his Toyota Prius parked nearby, the official said.

Investigators would not say what clues those notes may have given them concerning Scott's motivation for suicide, which Bale said was the apparent cause of death.

"There's nothing to indicate it is anything else at this time," he said Monday.

Director Tony Scott: An appreciation

var currExpandable="expand18";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='showbiz/2012/08/20/tsr-pkg-wynter-tony-scott-death-obit.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="D:\Other\ABS\Auto Blog Samurai\data\Rich Network\CNN entertainment\120820112207-tsr-pkg-wynter-tony-scott-death-obit-00020708-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand18Store=mObj;Director Tony Scott diesvar currExpandable="expand28";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='showbiz/2012/08/20/ctw-intv-film-critic-on-tony-scott.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="D:\Other\ABS\Auto Blog Samurai\data\Rich Network\CNN entertainment\120820101039-tony-scott-obit-04-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand28Store=mObj;Tony Scott: More 'reflective' recentlyvar currExpandable="expand38";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='bestoftv/2012/08/20/bts-director-tony-scott.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="D:\Other\ABS\Auto Blog Samurai\data\Rich Network\CNN entertainment\120820032853-bts-director-tony-scott-00002510-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand38Store=mObj;Scott: 'Fear of creative failure'var currExpandable="expand48";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='showbiz/2012/08/20/verjee-intv-maher-tony-scott.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="D:\Other\ABS\Auto Blog Samurai\data\Rich Network\CNN entertainment\120820103523-tony-scott-2009-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand48Store=mObj;'Top Gun' director jumps to his deathIt will be weeks before the findings of Monday's autopsy are made public, the coroner's office said Tuesday.

"Our examination is complete and we will be working towards a comprehensive document once we close the case," Deputy Chief Coroner Ed Winter said.

An ABC report Monday suggested the director was scripting his own death after being told by a doctor that he was dying of inoperable brain cancer. The network did not name the source of its information.

"I did talk to the family yesterday late afternoon, and according to his wife, he did not have brain cancer as reported, and (she) does not know who told ABC that information, which is absolutely false," Winter said.

Scott's unexplained death shocked the Hollywood stars who worked with him on a long list of successful movies over the past three decades. Denzel Washington, who starred in several Scott-directed thrillers -- including 2010's "Unstoppable" -- said it was "unfathomable to think that he is now gone."

Tony Scott: Unstoppable Hollywood force

"He had a tremendous passion for life and for the art of filmmaking and was able to share this passion with all of us through his cinematic brilliance," he said.

Born Anthony D.L. Scott in North Shields, England, in 1944, the director got his start as a teenager in front of the camera, starring in his older brother Ridley Scott's film "Boy and Bicycle." In 1995, the two joined forces to create the production company Scott Free Productions.

Tony Scott became a household name in 1986 as director of the mega-hit "Top Gun," starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. He followed that up with the Eddie Murphy action movie "Beverly Hills Cop II" in 1987.

Both Cruise and Murphy released statements mourning the loss of their director.

"Tony was my dear friend and I will really miss him. He was a creative visionary whose mark on film is immeasurable. My deepest sorrow and thoughts are with his family at this time," Cruise said.

Scott made tense films for jittery times

Murphy described Scott as a "wonderful collaborator" and said he will be missed.

Pepperdine University film professor Craig Detweiler called Scott "the supreme stylist" who "operated at the top of his game throughout each decade of his career."

"He was able to make the thinnest of premises into something pulse-pounding and exciting, and he's almost a filmmaker as a magician who found drama amidst almost contrived situations," he said.

Taking his own life by jumping from a bridge is "a high-adrenaline ending, which matches his dramatic style," Detweiler said.

"He put Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Tom Cruise in movies where one man overcomes all struggles, triumphs over struggles, and yet it appears he was not able to write that story for himself," he said.

Actor Michael Rapaport, who was directed by Scott in "True Romance," took to Twitter to praise the director. In one post, he said there hasn't been a day since the movie was released in 1993 that someone doesn't tell him how much they loved the film.

"Tony Scott was a sweet enthusiastic & lovin man," Rapaport wrote.

Scott cemented his reputation for big-budget action films with 1990's "Revenge" starring Kevin Costner and "Days of Thunder" with Cruise. In 1998, he directed "Enemy of the State" with actors Smith and Gene Hackman.

It was on the set of "Days of Thunder" where Scott met actress Donna Wilson, whom he married in 1994. They had twin sons.

Reaction to Scott's death poured out Monday, with directors, actors and fans mourning the news.

11 Scott films we'll remember

"Being around you was always the ultimate experience -- intensity, vitality and celebration. Pure rock and roll and great cigars. Your warmth and generosity was palpable to all us. You treated everyone with care and respect," said actor Edgar Ramirez, who starred in Scott's 2005 film, "Domino."

"You always focused on the subtleties, taking the best out of us. I am proud to be your friend, and although I won't be seeing you for a while, you will live on in the laughter of our memories of you."

"Tony Scott as a friend and a mentor was irreplaceable. Tone, wherever you are, I love you man. RIP," director and producer Joe Carnahan said on Twitter.

Carnahan recounted how when his movie "The Grey" was finished, Scott called to tell him he had seen it. He told Carnahan it was great and not to allow anybody to change anything in it.

"Tony always sent personal, handwritten notes & always drew a cartoon caricature of himself, smoking a cigar, with his hat colored in red," Carnahan said in a post.

Psychiatrist: I hate suicide but also understand it

Scott directed his last film, the train thriller "Unstoppable" starring Washington, in 2010.

"For me, it was the most challenging movie of my life, and the most dangerous because I'm shooting 90 percent of the movie on a train that is running between 50 and 70 mph," Scott told CNN at the time.

Scott's reputation in Hollywood was low-key.

"He wasn't a showy kind of guy," longtime entertainment reporter Jeanne Wolf told CNN.

Scott was often seen sporting a frayed, faded red ball cap on movie sets and at red carpet premieres.

The ball cap, Wolf said, was his trademark.

While Scott's movies garnered box office success, they never received the acclaim that generated Academy Award nominations.

In 2002, the Scott brothers won an Emmy for the television movie "The Gathering Storm."

Scott also was nominated for the Emmy as a producer for the CBS drama "The Good Wife."

"So very, very sorry to hear of the death of Tony Scott," actress Martha Plimpton, who appeared in "The Good Wife," said via Twitter.

Among his last projects was serving as an executive producer on the TV miniseries "Coma," which is due to air this year.

People we've lost in 2012: The lives they lived

CNN's Kareen Wynter contributed to this report.

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