Archive for the ‘News and Editorials’ Category

Free Loki Petition

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , on September 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Petition to Marvel Studios to produce a film based on the character Loki, portrayed by Tom Hiddleston

The character Loki, as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston in the films “Thor,” “Thor 2,” and “The Avengers” (2012), has become one of the most recognizable and cherished film characters in recent years. Hence, we respectfully yet strongly request Marvel put into action a full-length feature film production based on the Marvel character Loki portrayed by Tom Hiddleston.

The petition is trying to get 30k signatures… which isn’t a lot in movie terms. With an average movie ticket price of $8.38 US, that’s only $251,000 which isn’t even close to the $150m budget of Thor. However, it’s nothing to simply ignore either.

There is always that question: If this many people signed the petition, then how many either didn’t know it existed or don’t sign petitions regardless? Considering that Loki was introduced to the whole MCU fandom through the Avengers movie (which included people who didn’t bother watching the first Thor film), how Loki rocked at ComiCon and exploded the internet, I think it’s safe to assume that it’s likely the number is higher for those who didn’t sign than those who did.

If we look at other petitions, the petition to get Cyclops back for the X-Men movies tapered out at just over 200. Granted, his character hasn’t been around the movies since 2006 but with the character’s current central role in the comics, Singer ‘putting the band back together’, and the internet’s constant complaints about his ‘worse death ever‘, you would think that he wouldn’t be too far behind Loki, but instead it’s like he’s not even in the race.

So, it’s not hard to believe that Loki wouldn’t do at least as well as a Thor movie… in the current atmosphere. We still have Dark World coming out in November and we don’t know what state Loki will be left in. Will he be redeemed? Will he be same ol’ Loki? Will he be dead (not likely)?

Then you have the biggest issue to contend with: If they make a movie for Loki, will it be ‘evil Loki’ or a ‘redemption Loki’? Some fans love that he’s the villain and want to keep him that way. Some think he’s tragically misunderstood and just needs a hug. Since this is Disney and they love their heroes and happy endings (not that I blame them, I like those too) they will probably go with the redemption arc story.

I think that before Marvel!Disney makes any decisions, they will see how Dark World plays out and how fans react to whatever they do with Loki in it.

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Reblog: Marvel Developing ‘Agent Carter’ TV Series

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on September 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Agent Cartervia Deadline

EXCLUSIVE:The “one shot” short films featured as extras on Marvel movies’ DVD releases are becoming a hotbed for TV series ideas. After one such short, Item 47 on The Avengers DVD about the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., led to the new ABC/Marvel series, another one may also spawn a series project for ABC. Marvel is notoriously secretive about their development, and no one would comment, but I hear the company is working on a concept for a potential TV series inspired by Agent Carter, a one shot, which will be featured on the upcoming Blu-ray release ofIron Man 3. Directed by Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito, Agent Carter brings back Captain America’s girlfriend Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell, and chronicles her life as a budding secret agent after her boyfriend is stranded in ice. (Watch a clip below.) I hear the project is in very early stages, one of several in the works at Marvel, and is in the process of locking in a writer. It is unclear if Atwell would reprise her role if Agent Carter comes to fruition. A Marvel action series with a female lead would fit right into ABC’s wheelhouse of female-skewing dramas with a strong lead and would be a throwback to such network series as Alias. The Iron Man 3 DVD with the Agent Carter short will be released next Tuesday, the same day Marvel’s first series for ABC, Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., debuts.

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Reblog: Hugh Jackman’s Time as Wolverine is ‘Nearing the End’

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on September 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »

As much as I really did enjoy Hugh Jackman’s take on Wolverine, I’m glad he’s ‘retiring’ because I want to see other characters get a more substantial role in the X-Men movies. Hugh’s performance was so definitive as the character, I don’t think they will try to replace him any time soon, which means they won’t be able to use him as the fall-back character anymore.

from Spinoff Online

The Wolverine will outlive us all — including Hugh Jackman, based on the actor’s recent comments about retiring from the role.

Jackman spoke with Vulture at the Toronto International Film Festival about his many appearances in the X-Men movies, including this summer’s The Wolverine and next summer’sX-Men: Days of Future Past. According to the actor, his next appearance as Wolverine could well be his last.

“It’s nearing the end,” he said. “I do feel that. If there are any more movies, there would have to be a really good reason for it.”

Indeed, Jackman admitted he thought his days as Wolverine would have ended a long time ago.

“I can tell you this, and I can say this now: I wasn’t sure that I would do another Wolverine movie after the first one,” he said. “I just felt that I hadn’t done the character justice, and that was a bit of a hole inside of me.”

With the (mostly) critically acclaimed The Wolverine under his belt and a star-studded X-Menmovie in his near future, it sounds as if that hole has been filled — until the next interesting Wolverine project comes along, that is.

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Avengers 2: James Spader cast as Ultron

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , on August 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

James SpaderAccording to The Wrap, James Spader has been cast as Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron.  No word yet on just how much James is going to have to do. Will he be more of a voice like Paul Bettany or doing motion capture like Ruffalo when he Hulks out.

Regardless, I think this is a good fit. Spader is a bit of a character actor, has played all extremes, from Stargate to Secretary, he doesn’t have a ‘type’. Whatever tone Joss is going with Ultron, I’m sure he’ll be able to bring it. But since Joss didn’t go with a more definitive actor, then it puts the whole movie into the air.

At this point, anything goes.

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Wolverine: By The Numbers

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on August 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Wolverine Teaser One-SheetIt’s been a little over a month since The Wolverine hit theaters, how is it stacking up to X-Men: Origins: Wolverine? A movie which left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths and seriously endangered The Wolverine’s chances to do anything but flop.

(all prices in US dollars and courtesy of Box Office Mojo)

X-Men: Origins: Wolverine 

  • Production Budget: $150m
  • Domestic Total Gross: $180m
  • Foreign Total Gross: $193m
  • Total Gross: $373m
  • Opening Weekend: $85m
  • Opening Theater Count: 4,099 theaters
  • Drop off after opening weekend: 67.2%
  • Total Run: 22 weeks

The Wolverine (so far)

  • Production Budget: $120m
  • Domestic Total Gross: $125m
  • Foreign Total Gross: $226m
  • Total Gross: $351m
  • Opening Weekend: $53m
  • Opening Theater Count: 3,924 theaters
  • Drop off after opening weekend: 59.9%
  • Run So Far: 5 weeks

So, while The Wolverine is not a runaway success as some recent superhero movies, it’s not doing too bad. It opened softer than Origins, likely because of buyer wariness. But it retained a higher percent of ticket sales in the second weekend. For comparison, Avengers had a 50.3% drop off in its second week, Iron Man 3 was 58.4%.

Internationally, Wolverine has already surpassed Origins which means that in only 5 weeks the film is only $22m short of making more money than Origins, and on a budget that was 30m less. I can’t be positive, but I think they can call this a win. Maybe not a Gold Medal win, but hey, Bronze Medal is still a medal.

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Reblog: X-MEN-FANTASTIC FOUR Movie Crossover Is ‘Without Question’ Says Fox’s Marvel Man

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on August 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Via Newsarama

Cover from Marvel mini-series X4
CREDIT: Marvel Comics

Fox just wrapped principle photography on 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past this past weekend. So while next up on the studio’s plate will be post-production work and gearing up production for 2015’s Fantastic Four reboot by Chronicle’s Josh Trank, if their Marvel movie consultant Mark Millar has his way, those two things could be very closely related.

In an excerpt from an upcoming longer interview in SFX #239, Millar tells that “without question” he thinks crossover between the X-Men and FF universes (ala the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is in Fox’s future.

“I think you have to see some of these guys showing up in each other’s movies,” he said. “I think the most exciting thing in superhero movies, until The Avengers came along, was when Nick Fury showed up in Iron Man. Even though it was a guy with an eye patch it was really cool – and I expect we will see more of that.”

Next year’s Days of Future Past post-credit scene might be the first opportunity Fox will have to co-opt Marvel Studios’ marketing roadmap, and given The Wolverine’s post-credit baton-passing to Days, staying to the very end of next summer’s X-Men epic would be advisable for FF fans.

And even though Millar has a sentimental attachment to Fox’s first FF movie, the writer was upfront in his assessment of the film and its director, Tim Story.

“These first two movies were not very good but I’m quite sentimental towards them,” Millar responded, asked by SFX what the new film will need to get right. “I took my youngest daughter to see the first one, she was only five when it came out, and she thought it was the best film ever made. At the end, when Johnny Storm says, ‘Flame on!’ for the first time, she thanked me for taking her to see it. So even though it was a crap movie that memory makes me sort-of like it in a strange way.”

“Sam Raimi gave us a great Spider-Man. Christopher Nolan gave us a great Batman. So a brilliant director is probably the most important thing for a great Fantastic Four,” continued Millar. “Tim Story was seen as an odd choice for Fantastic Four but when you have a Josh Trank you know you are in safe hands.”

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Avengers 2: ‘Accent’ly British?

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on August 22, 2013| 2 Comments »

Elle Style Awards, London, Britain - 11 Feb 2013The latest report on Wanda for Avengers 2 is that Elizabeth Olsen is in talks for the role. Now, I have to admit, I haven’t seen her in anything. I can’t say a single thing about her acting, but I’ve heard a lot of good things. And even though she’s not of Eastern European decent, she at least looks close to right for the part. Looks good in brown curly hair and very expressive eyes. A little spray tan and it could work. But here’s the rub, Wanda is Eastern European, she’s the Marvel version of Romani, so why couldn’t they hire one of the hundreds of very capable Eastern European actresses to play her?

An argument could be made that getting an American actress to play an Eastern European isn’t any worse than getting a British person to play an American, or an Australian to play a Canadian, or a Frenchman to play a Czech. It’s not about race, it’s about culture, and as long as they stay true to the character, the actor’s own bloodline shouldn’t matter, right? It’s an argument that is fraught with difficulties with no clear cut answers.

Personally, as much as I would prefer to have a culturally Romani/Eastern European play Wanda, I will settle for an American actress as long as she and the production respects Wanda’s character as Eastern European.

But in that same report, we have comment that she won’t be speaking in a European accent but a British one, thereby clinching the earlier comments that Whedon and Co. were looking to make the twins “edgy and British”.

This… is not acceptable. When you take a character out of a country then you redefine them. Gone is their heritage and birthrights. Gone is their world view and motivations. This is especially true when the culture is something as distinct and unique as Romani. It would be like taking a character that is Texan and making them a New Yorker, or vise versa. It’s a complete disrespect for everything that made that character who they are, for better or worse.

This is especially true for Wanda who is a basically a witch. There is a very spiritual element to her magic/powers and it is highlighted by her heritage. Granted, there is the possibility of going the wrong way with it and turning the character into a racist stereotype of a ‘Gypsy’, but there is also the very real possibility to use Wanda to help rid the world of that negative stereotype. Instead, it looks like they aren’t going to risk it and are taking the safe option of making her British, after all, British is in right now and we can’t offend them no matter how hard we try because they’re just so much better at insulting people than we are.

So the last question is, if Wanda is being stripped of her spiritual heritage, and can’t be a ‘mutant’, then will her magic be dulled down into something much more sterile and cold?

I always try to wait till I have the whole picture and not jump to conclusions, especially this early in the game, after all, Olsen hasn’t been officially signed on yet nor has Wanda’s character traits been absolutely confirmed… but I having a really hard time trying to maintain that level of neutrality.

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Don’t Panic: Ben Affleck is the new Batman

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , on August 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

In an announcement no one saw coming, Ben Affleck has been reported to be the new Batman in the upcoming Superman/Batman movie.

Granted, he’s not the first choice many would make for Batman, but I don’t think people need to panic about it.

1. Ben is actually a pretty good actor, granted, he’s has his moments, but he has talent and can bring intensity when he needs it. Speaking of intensity, Nolan’s Batman was nothing but intense. It makes sense that WB would want to distinguish the new Batman from Bale’s Batman and give us someone less broody, I’m down with that.

2. Something a lot of fanboys forget is that Bale’s Batman is not the definitive Batman, the comic book is. Affleck isn’t going to be taking Bale’s place, he’s simply going to be playing another version of a character Bale has previously played. It’s just like Bond or Sherlock, it’s no biggy when they change actors because, for the most part, everyone has been able to bring a certain something to the role. Granted, there are a few who have failed miserably, which brings me to my next point…

3. We know nothing about the new Batman. Will he have a Robin or Batgirl or any of the extended Bat-family? Will he actually be worthy of the title ‘World’s Greatest Detective”? What kind of suit is he going to have? Will any of his Rogues Gallery be in the film, and if so, are they more real or more comic? I seriously can keep going… The point is, we don’t know a single thing about the story and very little about the universe in which we’ll be seeing. You can’t really make an informed opinion if you have no information.

Lastly…

4. Two people: Chris Evans and Hugh Jackman. Look at all the different characters they have played, characters that are literally polar opposites of the other. There is no reason Ben can’t do the same, especially when he’s done it already.

So, as in all things, it’s a ‘wait and see’.

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Avengers Arena cancelled

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on August 16, 2013| 5 Comments »

Was it the sales? Was it the backlash? Or did they realize it was a bad idea from the start?

Here is the solicit for Avengers Arena’s 17 & 18 via BleedingCool.

AVENARENA2012017

AVENGERS ARENA #17 & 18
DENNIS HOPELESS (W)
KEV WALKER (A)
Issue #17 – COVER BY FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
Issue #18 – COVER BY DAVE JOHNSON
Issue #17 – “BOSS LEVEL” PART 4: THE FINAL FIGHTS RAGE ON!
• Up on Murder World Island, it’s the surviving contestants in an all-out battle royale!
• Down in Arcade’s lair, it’s two other contestants vs. Arcade!
Issue #18 – “BOSS LEVEL” PART 5: THE SEARING SERIES FINALE!
• Arcade’s mad plan comes to pass! Who lives? Who dies?
• Shock follows shock as the game reaches its last desperate seconds!
• AVENGERS ARENA ends here…but it’s also the launch pad for what comes next!
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T+ …$2.99 (EACH)

What will this mean for the characters? Will the deaths stay or will it all turn out to be some kind of VR thing and everyone is alive and well? Or will they just kill everyone off and be done with it? We’ll find out soon enough.

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Captain America 2: Plot Blurb

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , on August 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Here is a new blurb for Captain America : The Winter Soldier, courtsey of Bleeding Cool.

original

After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk.

Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy—the Winter Soldier.

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