Category: News

Free Nic Cage!

Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be a good time to be Nic Cage.

Two weeks ago, Cage announced he signed for Ghost Rider Two. That made Late, Late Show host Craig Ferguson very happy, as he absolutely loved Ghost Rider
One
and the movie had a major influence in his selection of a skeletal
robot as his side-kick.

A couple days later, Nic’s heavily-promoted new Disney/Bruckheimer movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,
bombed big-time at the box office. It took in a mere $17 million opening
weekend.

Before that we had Nic in Kick-Ass, which opened at less than $20 million. That was another well-promoted movie based upon a comic book series. Before that, he did a movie called Knowing which pulled in a slightly more respectable $80 million total.
Before that… Bangkok Dangerous, which did $15 million total. Total. Not
counting whatever revenue the movie is earning being on cable teevee every time I turn it on.

Next to the National Treasure movies, Ghost Rider was his best earning movie in a decade. All that’s a shame. I like Nic Cage, and I
feel I owe him because he’s been a big-time comics fan. But it’s been quite a
while since he was in a movie worthy of his considerable abilities. I hope he
can find better projects – there’s a great Batman movie villain inside him, just waiting to come out.

#SDCC: Penn & Teller do something you have never seen before!

Good evening, that’s Penn Jillette on the left, and his partner Teller on the right. Together, they are Penn & Teller, stars of stage and screen and hosts of Showtime’s Penn &
Teller: Bullshit!
They came to San Diego with half of the rest of the Showtime original programming crew to share insights into their 35-year-long careers with audience…

…wait a minute…

…what’s that thing in Teller’s hands?

That looks like a microphone.

But that can’t be. Teller doesn’t speak.

Wait– what was that noise?

It sounded like human speech! And it came from Teller!

Amazing! I never knew Penn was also a ventriloquist!

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#SDCC: Joss Whedon to direct ‘Avengers’ movie for Marvel

avenger-joss-7705409Yep, Joss made it official today at Entertainment Weekly’s Visionaries Panel at San Diego with JJ Abrams. Quote: “That is not an official thing. But I’m making that an official thing: I’m directing The Avengers.”

The speculation can finally be laid to rest, and now we can start thinking about what female characters are going to be added to the story…

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#SDCC: ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ – UPDATED

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Byran Lee O’Malley’s popular Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series came to an end earlier this week with the release of the final volume, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour. The series has been basking in popularity for quite some time now, especially since word of Universal’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World movie got out. In fact, the Scott Pilgrim Comic Con panel was all about the upcoming movie.

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There were thirteen members of the panel, plus the moderator: director Edgar Wright, creator O’Malley, Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Aubrey Plaza, Kieren Caulken, Ellen Wong, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anna Kendrick, Mark Webber, Allison Phil, Brandon Routh, Satya Bhabba, Mae Whitman… and Schwartzman’s amazing mustache. There were surprise appearances by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who both starred in Wright’s action-comedy Hot Fuzz. They are not in the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World movie, but the audience loved their presence all the same. Oh, and Cera sported a Captain America suit– an obvious homage to Chris Evans, who is off filming Captain America.

The cast discussed how they spent months training for fight scenes, and how some had to learn to play musical instruments. Wright spoke of filming in Toronto, the setting of Scott Pilgrim and home to members of the cast and crew. He also announced that the movie will be in 2D, to which he added, “How do you feel about watching a film with sunglasses on?”

There was talk of Ubisoft’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World video game. The game has a retro style, similar to old school 8-bit games. If you haven’t noticed, there are many tie-ins to video games throughout the film. Sound effects from Tekken, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Zelda can be heard; Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) mentions “getting a life” as he snatches a floating 8-bit sprite version of his face from the air; a tag line for the film was “This summer it’s on like Donkey Kong.”

After introductions, discussions and Q&A, Wright jumped off stage and led hundreds of fans with 1Up buttons to the Balboa Theater for a special screening of the movie. Fans fortunate enough to posses the buttons excitedly marched with Wright to the theater, while the rest will have to wait for August 13, when the film will appear in theaters– unless you catch the showings tomorrow and Saturday.

UPDATED 10:25 7/23: Video, as expected, has started to leak out. Here’s the cast coming on stage from an… interesting angle.

#SDCC: ‘TRON: Legacy’ UPDATED

Returning for an unprecedented third year to the
fans and convention that started it all is TRON: Legacy, and if there’s ever going to be a film that can say it did everything to cultivate the audience, it’s this one.

As you may remember, it started two years ago when the director brought a visual test of the film to see if you could just make it look cool…

…and got such a huge buzz that the film was given a full go ahead.

Then last year, Disney went ahead and built Flynn’s Arcade in San Diego during the con, populated it with all the old games and made up some direct from the original movie, and released a new trailer, which also hinted at why they were going to delay one more year– a 3D version:

And now this year, after a skydiver came into WonderCon during an improved panel with Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan playing their roles from the Tron Universe, people have been waiting to see what’s next. So people packed Hall H to see cast members Jeff Bridges, Garrett
Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, Bruce Boxleitner, director Joe Kosinski, and producers
Sean Bailey and Steven Lisberger, and all moderated by comedian ubergeek Patton Oswalt.

First off: the film’s finished. All done. And all shot in 3D, no upconversion. They’re saying that the 3D is even an improvement on Avatar‘s tech. Of course, it’s going to look even more impressive when compared against the special effects from the original film 28 years ago.

Jeff Bridges will be playing dual roles, one at his current age and one from the time of his first film.

And in one last piece of fan participation, the audience of eight thousand people was asked to shout certain words, and Skywalker Sound recorded it for later usage in the movie. Vinnie Bartilucci commented,  “Man, the imdb page is gonna be HUGE…”

And yes, there’s a new trailer, which we’ll post as soon as we have it. UPDATE: And here it is:

Tron Legacy opens in regular, 3D, and IMAX 3D theaters on December 17th, 2010.

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#SDCC: Frazetta Conan Painting Sells for $1.5 Million

conandestroy-6733277It’s one of the images that defined the fantasy illustration industry we geeks love so much. And to a lucky buyer, Frank Frazetta’s 1971 Conan the Destroyer sold in a 1.5 million gold piece private sale agreed to at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con with Robert Pistella and Stephen Ferzoco of Frazetta Management Corporation. No word yet on who purchased the piece of where it will be hung, but we assume it’ll adorn a wall next to fine mahogany bookshelves full of leather bound collections of Tolkien, maquettes of scantilly clad heroines, and signed Rush LPs.

Tip of the hat to BleedingCool.com.

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#SDCC: Stan Lee and BOOM! Studios press conference

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During a press conference at Comic-Con International yesterday, Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment and BOOM! Studios revealed the characters, series and creative teams for three superhero titles to be published by Stan Lee and BOOM! Studios this fall, as hinted at back in March. (And how are we supposed to stop those “POW! BOOM! Comics aren’t just for kids!” headlines now?)

The three titles are:

SOLDIER ZERO, written by Paul Cornell with art by Javier Pina, tells the story of a wheelchair-bound astronomy teacher who finds himself in a freak accident that bonds him with an alien weapon of war.

THE TRAVELER, written by Eisner Award-nominee and BOOM! Studios Chief Creative Officer Mark Waid with art by Chad Hardin, features a mysterious new superhero with time-traveling powers battling the Split-Second Men, super-powered assassins from the future.

STARBORN, written by Chris Roberson with art by Khary Randolph, tells the story of a regular guy who discovers he’s the heir to an intergalactic empire, putting him the center of a war between five alien races.

We have partial video of the press conference, recorded by Zennie62:

First Look: ‘Lost – New Man in Charge’

Courtesy of ABC, here’s a first look from the  original, brand new 12-minute Lost
chapter called “New Man In Charge” which offers a look at what Hurley (Jorge
Garcia) and Ben (Michael Emerson) do as the new Island overseers.

This
bonus feature will be available on both LOST: THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON
and LOST: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION which debuts on Blu-ray & DVD on August 24,
2010.

First Look: ‘Thor’

thor-chris-hemsworth-5070329As promised, Paramount Pictures released more images from Thor, opening May 6, 2011. Director Kenneth Branagh has clearly cleaned up Jack Kirby’s vision of Asgard, making things nice and shiny.

In case you missed it, here’s a rundown of the cast for the film which recently completed principal photography. The screenplay is written by Ashley Miller (Fringe) and Don Payne (The Simpsons). Miller has since gone on to write X-Men: First Class for 20th Century-Fox while Payne previously wrote My Super Ex-Girlfriend and was one of the writers on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Dr. Donald Blake/Thor is portrayed by Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek) with Natalie Portman as Dr. Jane Foster (promoted from her original nurse role). Anthony Hopkins is the one-eyed Odin, Rene Russo as Frigga, his wife; and Tom Hiddleston (Wallander) as the sibling Loki. Portraying the delightful Warriors Three are Ray Stevenson (The Book of Eli) as Volstagg, Tadanobu Asano (Snow Prince) as Hogun the Grim, and Joshua Dallas (Doctor Who) as Fandral the Dashing. Sorry, Balder the Brave apparently didn’t make it into the movie — maybe next time.

Rounding out the cast will be Jaimie Alexander as Thor’s Norse love interest Sif, Idris Elba as Heimdall, and Kat Dennings as a new character, Darcy. Clark Gregg continues his tour through the Marvel Movie Universe, reprising his SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson role.

According to a release from Marvel Studios, “At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant
warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast
down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here,
Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous
villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.”

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Captain America & Thor Poster Art

Paramount Pictures has released these images featuring concept art for 2011’s Thor, opening May 6, 2011 and Captain America: First Avenger, which follows on July 22. No doubt more movie imagery will be release during the course of Comic-Con International which opens tonight.cap-sdcc-poster-final-v2-3365567