Pilots Michael Carriker and Randall Neville smoothly lifted off at about 10:30 a.m. PST from Everett’s Paine Field and headed northbound on a four-hour flight over Washington state to perform a variety of basic tests and systems checks before landing at Seattle’s Boeing Field.

The 787 program has been plagued by ill-fitting parts and other problems. The first flight was supposed to be in 2007 with deliveries the following year, but Boeing has been forced to push that back five times. It now plans to make the first delivery to Japan’s All Nippon Airways late next year.

Knox’s Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 25, also was convicted of the murder charges. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The 22-year-old Knox and 25-year-old Sollecito were charged with murder and sexual assault in the slaying of Meredith Kercher more than two years ago. All three were studying in Perugia in Italy’s central Umbria region at the time.

Kercher’s body was found in a pool of blood with her throat slit on Nov. 2, 2007, in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox. Prosecutors contended the 21-year-old Leeds University student was murdered the previous night.

The prosecutors contend that on the night of the murder, Knox and Sollecito met at the apartment where Kercher and Knox lived. They say a fourth person was there, Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen who has been convicted in the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

That means Renee Zellweger will likely revisit her Oscar-nominated role as the lovably kooky character.

Universal spokeswoman Damion Stene confirmed another film is in the works but did not respond when asked whether Zellweger was on board.

The 40-year-old actress gained pounds and a British accent for “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and the sequel , based on the books by

Bullock and Reynolds’ “The Proposal” took in $34.1 million to open as the weekend’s No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Disney flick delivered the biggest opening ever for Bullock, nearly double that of her previous best of $17.6 million for the 2007 paranormal thriller “Premonition.”

Bullock stars as a ruthless publishing executive who coerces her put-upon assistant (Reynolds) into a fake marriage so she can avoid deportation back to her native Canada.

“The Proposal” took over the top spot from the Warner Bros. bachelor-party comedy “The Hangover,” which slipped to second place with $26.9 million. A surprise smash hit, “The Hangover” raised its total to $152.9 million.

Disney’s animated adventure “Up” was No. 3 with $21.3 million, lifting its total to $224.1 million and following Paramount’s “Star Trek” as the second movie of 2009 to cross the $200 million mark.

Debuting in the fourth spot with $20.2 million was Sony’s caveman comedy “Year One,” starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as Neanderthals on a road trip after they are banished from their village.

Revenues this weekend were up slightly compared to the same period a year ago, but that followed three straight weekends of declining box-office receipts.

The Warner Bros. comedy “The Hangover” hauled in $33.4 million to remain the top box-office draw for a second-straight weekend. The tale of a Vegas bachelor party gone to extremes raised its total to $105.4 million after 10 days in theaters.

The action comedy “Up” from Disney and Pixar Animation came in a close second again with $30.5 million. That lifts its total to $187.2 million.

Debuting at No. 3 with $25 million was Sony’s action remake “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.” The subway-hijacking thriller stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

Eddie Murphy delivered a dud with the Paramount family comedy “Imagine That,” which opened with a lackluster $5.7 million.

The Warner Bros. bachelor-bash comedy “The Hangover” came in a close second with a $43.3 million debut. Will Ferrell’s action comedy for Universal, “Land of the Lost,” had to settle for a distant third with a $19.5 million opening.

“Up” was the first movie of Hollywood’s busy summer season to take the No. 1 spot for two straight weekends. But overall revenues fell for the second weekend in a row, putting the brakes on what has been shaping up as a record revenue year for the movie business.

The top 12 movies took in $164 million, down 6 percent from the same weekend last year, when “Kung Fu Panda” opened on top with $60.2 million, according to box-office figures compiled by Hollywood.com.

For the year, Hollywood has taken in $4.3 billion, up 12.5 percent from 2008 revenues. But studios have been unable to maintain the red-hot pace of the year’s first four months.

“Definitely, things have slowed,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “But there are some potential saviors on the horizon.”

Three big sequels — “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” — open within three weeks of one another starting June 24.

With $137.3 million in the bank after just 10 days, “Up” is streaking toward the $200 million mark achieved by such previous Pixar hits as “WALL-E,” “Ratatouille,” “Cars” and “Toy Story 2.”

Revenues for most big movies typically drop 50 percent or more in the second weekend, but the audience for “Up” was down only 35 percent from its opening. That puts it in line with “Finding Nemo,” the top-grossing Disney-Pixar animated tale, said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

“Up” likely will finish in the top three among Pixar flicks, Viane said. Leading the Pixar slate now are “Finding Nemo” with $339.7 million, “The Incredibles” with $261.4 million and “Monsters, Inc.” with $255.8 million.

Although Thai police say they suspect his death to be a suicide, David Carradine’s reps are denying reports that the 72-year-old actor took his own life in a Bangkok hotel room Thursday morning.
Carradine’s manager told People “I can tell you 100 percent that he would have never committed suicide. He was too full of life.”

His spokesperson, Chuck Binder, also told the Daily Mail that Carradine’s death was “accidental.”

It’s unclear why the actor’s reps think this wasn’t a suicide, but a maid found Carradine hanging naked in a closet. Bangkok police told the BBC there was rope tied around the his neck and parts of his body.

Despite Carradine’s reps’ comments, however, the actor has admitted to suffering from depression and was quoted in a 2007 interview as saying he’s considered taking his own life before:

“Look, there was a period in my life when I had a single action Colt 45, loaded, in my desk drawer. And every night I’d take it out and think about blowing my head off, and then decide not to and go on with my life. Put it back in the drawer and open up the laptop and continue writing my autobiography or whatever. But it was just to see.”

David Carradine is known for his work in the 1970s television series Kung Fu and more recently in the movie Kill Bill. He appeared in more than 100 feature films and was nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award.

The Walt Disney Co. says Allwine died Monday of complications from diabetes, with Russi Taylor, his wife of 20 years and the voice of Minnie Mouse, by his side. He was 62.

“Wayne dedicated his entire professional life to Disney,” chief executive Robert Iger said in a statement Wednesday. “Over the last 32 years, (he) gave so much joy, happiness and comfort to so many around the world by giving voice to our most beloved, iconic character, Mickey Mouse.”

A Southern California native, Allwine joined Disney in 1966 when he took a job in the mail room. He went on to work in the sound effects department and began voicing the company’s main mouse in 1977.

His falsetto can be heard in 1983’s “Mickey’s Christmas Carol,” 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and at Disney theme parks around the world. He won an Emmy Award in 1986 for his sound editing on the NBC series “Amazing Stories.”

Allwine was the third man behind Mickey’s voice. The first was Disney himself, then Jimmy MacDonald, who became Allwine’s mentor and passed him the reins after voicing the mouse for 30 years.

“He said, ‘Just remember kid, you’re only filling in for the boss,’” Allwine once recalled. “And that’s the way he treated doing Mickey for years and years.”

“Mickey’s the real star,” Allwine continued. “You know you just have to love the little guy while you have him, because he won’t be yours forever.”

Roy E. Disney, director emeritus for The Walt Disney Co., said Allwine did more than give Mickey a voice. He “gave him a heart and soul as well.”

“He did an incredible job of bringing emotion, humor and appeal to the character, and superbly carried on the tradition originated by my Uncle Walt, and later by sound-effects wizard Jimmy Macdonald.”

Besides Taylor, Allwine is survived by five children from a previous marriage: Erin, Alison, Peter, Christopher and Joshua.