Craig Won’t Visit Asgard; Seeks New Director
With Quantum of Solace just weeks away now, the publicity machine has started cranking up with all sorts of interesting tidbits popping up.
First, there’s the confirmation from star Daniel Craig that he was approached by Marvel to see if he might be worthy of wielding Mjolnir, Thor’s magic uru hammer. As quoted over at IESB, the report said, “Craig said yes they [Marvel] did approach him but he turned it down. He added jokingly, it would have been too much of a power trip, both Bond and Thor, and running around with long hair and a hammer.”
Meantime, FirstShowing has quoted director Marc Foster as saying he will not return for the next installment of the series.
“They offered me the next one, but at this point the pressure is so intense — it’s a year of not having a life,” Foster told the site. “And I don’t know if I want to do that again. It’s literally not having a life, and I mean that, it’s not exaggerated. I feel like life is short, you have to find a balance.”
Sony has already started talking about Bond 23 as coming out in 2010 but first they have to see how well this does and how quickly a screenplay can be readied and an appropriate director located. Any thoughts as to who should guide Craig in his next mission?
As films falter in meeting their deadlines to make their scheduled release dates, studios are constantly shuffling the calendar. This time of years the gamesmanship is especially tough as studios eye projects with the hopes of securing Academy Award nominations. The dominoes have been falling with particular speed in the last week so here’s a recap.
IDW has released details about the prequel comic book miniseries leading into next May’s Star Trek reboot. Entitled Star Trek: Countdown, it will focus on Nero, the villainous Romulan played by Eric Bana and said to be seen at the film’s beginning set in Trek’s present before the time travel elements kick in and we see the familiar crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise unite for the first time.
The Washington Post
Tonight, 
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Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is reaching into its vault for more anniversary editions. Coming February 9, Oliver & Company will be available in a two-disc special edition. Overlooked by the snash success of The Little Mermaid, this was really the beginning of a new cycle of animation when things dramatically improved for the studio. Based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, the vocal cast of Billy Joel and Bette Midler signaled new times for the studio. 
Terence Howard was interviewed on NPR recently and he addressed, for the first time, his removal from Iron Man 2.
Max Payne is the first video game-inspired movie in a while and it did something its predecessors failed to do, capture the number one spot in its first weekend and get reasonable reviews.
Ang Lee’s [[[Hulk]]] film failed because he spent too much time on the Jekyll/Hyde aspects, the very ones that inspired Stan Lee. After all these years, people wanted to see the Hulk leap and smash things. When he leapt, we cheered, but there just wasn’t enough of it.
, is largely the Army hunting the Hulk as Bruce Banner searches for a cure. While that worked fine in the 12-page [[[Tales to Astonish]]] stories, it’s not nearly enough for a feature film. The biggest problem with Zak Snyder’s story is that the Super Soldier formula that is now linked to the Hulk and the Abomination is clearly able to turn people into weapons of mass destruction and all the military sees is a weapon. Not a single person in uniform saw it as anything else and frankly, we’ve seen this theme before and done better elsewhere.
