Thursday, December 17th, 2009

After an unwelcome dose of Brett Ratner, and then the cinematic abortion that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the Marvel Comics' franchise would gladly welcome any director with somewhat capable hands, seeing that the only way it could spiral further downwards would be if they let Uwe Boll take the reins. Cinematical reports that the director of X-Men and X2: X-Men United, Bryan Singer, will return to helm X-Men: First Class. I would still like to see Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's version of Wolverine make it to the big screen, but with the damage that Gavin Hood did with Origins, moving to an adaptation of First Class seems like the best possible scenario.

Keeping on topic with Marvel, we get some more Spider-Man 4 news flooding in, courtesy of IESB. This time, it isn't involving rumors on whom director Sam Raimi will be casting in the top villain role, but that there is rumors swirling that Sony Pictures has put production on the project on an indefinite delay due to disagreements between Raimi and the studio heads. Although, the article also reveals that the working title for the film is SPIDER-M4N. So yeah, maybe it's a good thing it has been temporarily cancelled. Although, if this story is on par with 80% of the casting tidbits that has come our way, it will be entering pre-production in a week.

And finally, to keep in a complete Marvel theme today, Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 had its trailer debut today. In it, we get the first really good look at Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, and the War Machine suit in action. Enjoy.

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Mickey Rourke was great in The Wrestler. That was probably because Rourke is Randy "The Ram" Robinson. So, despite one of the better lead performances this side of Philip Seymour Hoffman this decade, it is always somewhat worrisome when the news of Rourke's hiring comes, especially if it is a flick as anticipated as Iron Man 2. Faith may be restored a bit more now, as this new poster for Jon Favreau's second installment of the Marvel franchise features Rourke as a very convincing Whiplash. Not to say that my faith ever completely faltered though, with Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. being very capable hands for the comic-to-screen adaptation. Another addition to this poster, from the Cinematical article that I first saw it, claims that the rumor mill has been speculating that we will see a trailer for this by the end of the year before either Sherlock Holmes (which would be fitting) or Avatar.

Speaking of James Cameron's Avatar, via another Cinematical article, the huge-budget science fiction film screened for critics today, and the linked article lists several ecstatic Twitter mini-reviews. Does this get you stoked, or further the unattainable pedestal that we all will inevitably have this on after all the hype that is soon to go into onslaught mode for the December 18th release?

Spoiler TV is reporting that Jonah Hex currently has out a casting call for reshoots, as rumors are also circulating that Francis Lawrence has come aboard to help the troubled direction from Jimmy Hayward (it might be noted that Jonah Hex is Hayward's first live action feature, as his directorial debut was last year's Horton Hears a Who). Let's hope that, especially the source being Spoiler TV, that everything is still ok within the production of this film, probably the last chance for salvation within the sub-genre of the R-rated comic book movie.

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

So, in the movie world, Captain Lou Albano may have been known for a few B-movies and the occasional wrestling VHS from the 80's you'll pass by in the video store, but he did have somewhat of a starring role in Brian De Palma's Wise Guys, so I feel it is relevant to my blog to mourn the loss of the man that is more famously known as the guy with the bitchin' beard in most Cyndi Lauper's videos, the iconic wrestler and wrestling manager (he's in the WWE Hall of Fame) from when the World Wrestling Federation was worth watching, and for playing Mario in TV's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. So in honor of Albano, and since the Internet is evil, the video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" will not embed, so here is a link. Also, check out Geekologie's article on the captain to see a few clips and a link to another article with full episodes of the Super Show on Kotaku.

MTV has an article up in which Jon Favreau confirms that he will not be sitting in the director's chair for The Avengers. Kind of a bummer, as clearly Iron Man was the best cinematic adaptation to come out of Marvel Comics yet. The title of the article would lead the reader to believe that some information on possible tie-ins Iron Man 2 with the rest of the Marvel universe would be confirmed, but Favreau really just tells us what will not happen. Still, a decent a read.

I think I may have been the only person to think that I Love You, Man wasn't the funniest movie of all time, at least if I am to believe some of the message boards I frequent. Anyhow, the cause for my disappointment in the movie may be that I just expect more from Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Not to say that the movie wasn't funny, just in comparison to Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Role Models, films that came out in the same year as I Love You, Man, it just didn't have the same level of laughs. The high points of the movie though? Lou Ferrigno and Rashida Jones. I don't know much of Jones, other than her stint on The Office; however, after reading an article on Variety today, her nerd points just went up. Not only does Jones have a comic book created by her, starring her likeness, Frenemy of the State, but she is also currently writing a screenplay treatment for an Universal Pictures adaptation. Time to look up Frenemy of the State.

Finally, IWatchStuff has an interesting video up, supposedly done by Jordon Mechner, a writer for the Prince of Persia video game series, as a pitch trailer to movie studios. Actually makes me anxious to see Mike Newell's upcoming cinematic version. Enjoy.

Prince of Persia movie pitch trailer (2003) from jordan mechner on Vimeo.

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

I find it difficult to blog today, because no matter what news I can dig up on the entertainment sites, it will ultimately pale in comparison to yesterday's earth-shattering announcement that The Walt Disney Company had purchased Marvel Comics. Still, the biggest news story of the day does come courtesy of the comic distributor, as 20th Century Fox announced, via Variety, that they will be starting production on a re-boot of the Fantastic Four franchise, with Akiva Goldsman being named as producer. The story apparently confirms that Disney is going to honor the deals that Marvel had made previous to yesterday's merger. Still, you almost have to wonder, as much as any of us like the comic book versions of the superhero team, if a great cinematic incarnation is even possible. Of course Tim Story's recent Fantastic Four films seems great in comparison to the Roger Corman-produced 1994 version, but it still didn't make the waves that such Marvel fare as Spider-Man, X-Men or Iron Man generated. It still gives us a reason to be excited, no matter how terrible it will be, and a reason to hope that it will turn around for the heroes. Oh, the reason for that particular picture accompanying the article today, coming from Marvel Zombies, I included because it went with the big story, but also because it brings up another question of Disney's acquisition, can the family friendly company really produce something as senselessly gory as Marvel Zombies? One of the many questions.

On to some more links of the huge Disney/Marvel story, my favorite Cinematical author, Elisabeth Rappe has attempted to calm some of our fears through her Geek Beat column, including some reassurance in the form of quotes from Joe Quesada's Twitter account comparing it to the relationship betwixt Disney and Pixar. Also, MSNBC has a story up giving us Stan Lee's first public thoughts on the deal, which he believes is great. The article also gives a decent link to Lee's other business with Disney, a motion comic he wrote entitled Time Jumper to be available on the iPod and debuted at this past San Diego Comic Con. So after a collective deep breath, maybe the scare is settling. Or maybe at 86 years of age, Lee was brainwashed by the enchanting anti-Semite conglomerate with promises of a trip to Space Mountain.

In further comic-to-film news, according to Variety a DC property I'm not very knowledgeable of, Deadman, will be brought to the screen courtesy of producer Guillermo del Toro and to be directed by Danish director Nikolaj Arcel, whom after looking over his IMDb isn't that known to me either. The character has always seemed fascinating to me, despite my lack of knowledge, added with the fact that anything del Toro touches turns to gold, will keep me looking out for this one.

Also, The Hollywood Reporter announces that Robert Downey, Jr. will star and Jon Favreau will direct a big screen adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens. Also, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, screenwriters on the other little Downey/Favreau collaboration Iron Man, wrote the initial screenplay, which was later given a script-tune up by producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman of Star Trek fame. Haven't heard of the comic? Well, no problem because Cinematical gave us the great link to DrunkDuck.com, a site for reading webcomics where you can read the entire thing online for free. I know what I'm doing for the rest of the night.

Finally, ComingSoon has the first look at Raja Gosnell's CGI The Smurfs with the teaser poster debut. Kind of bland, but enjoy.