Tagged: Iron Man

Marvel Gets Smart, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • June 24, 2008

As I begin to type this, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, there are only 211 days left before someone else lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Potomac. I tell you this, not because it has anything to do with what follows, but to perhaps lend a note of cheer to your hour.

Now then:

I didn’t stay through all of the Iron Man flick’s end credits, but I should have because my friend Ken Pisani told me that Samuel L. Jackson has a brief scene in which, in the persona of Nick Fury, he reveals to Robert Downey’s Tony Stark that he represents an organization called, in acronym-crazed Sixties fashion, S.H.I.E.L.D. Dissected, that meant Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law Enforcement Division when the organization first appeared in 1965. It was later changed to stand for Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate, which was probably more au courant, but is no less a mouthful.

It is a nifty coincidence, but no more than a coincidence, that S.H.I.E.L.D. makes a big screen appearance at about the time as another espionage-themed entertainment with roots in the spy-mad decade of peace and love, Get Smart, gets into the malls.

It is not a coincidence that the current tv promos for another popcorn movie, The Incredible Hulk, tells us that Marvel has done it again, thus making a solid connection between theaters and comic shops. So, we don’t go to the multiplex to see a superhero movie, we go to see a Marvel superhero movie. This is called “branding” and it means, as I understand it, the identification of a group of products as a single, collective entity. You, fashionista that you are, don’t buy a suit, you buy a Brooks Brothers suit because the Brooks Brothers label guarantees a certain level of quality and a certain approach to the creation of clothing. (And aren’t you a bit young to be dressing so conservatively?)

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New ‘Wanted’ Clips and Interviews Hit the ‘Net

  • News
  • June 21, 2008

Wanted, the film based on Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ six-issue 2003 miniseries, will hit theaters at the end of this month, and the Universal Pictures marketing machine is chugging along in anticipation of the big day.

Just in case you lost track of this one in all of the Iron Man and Incredible Hulk hub-bub, there’s a lot to be find around the ‘Tubes to catch up with the film and the creator-owned Top Cow series that inspired it.

Yahoo Movies has collected all of the various trailers and previews for the film on a single page, including the latest: a a wild scene that takes place aboard a train in mid-derailment.

Comics2Film has put together a pretty decent list of interviews with the cast of the film, including star James McAvoy, director Timur Bekmambetov and hip-hop musician Common.

For the audiophiles, you can view samples of music from the Wanted soundtrack over at CineMusic.

Finally, we posted links to a Wanted "Making Of" featurette a while back that’s available online, as well as the Wanted viral marketing website that inducts users into the film’s mysterious "Fraternity." (Note: I submitted my email address to the site when I posted that article and haven’t heard anything thus far.)

Leaked ‘Iron Man’ Photo Now Subject of Lawsuit

  • News
  • June 20, 2008

When movie site IESB.net posted one of the first images of the Iron Man suit last May, to say that the leaked photo from the set of Iron Man created a bit of a buzz might be the understatement of the year.

It didn’t take long, however, for the studios involved with the film to direct their full legal attention to the movie news site, forcing it to shut down for a period of time and generating an entirely different kind of buzz.

Well, it seems like the legal tussle over the photo will have yet another chapter, as attentive members of the Iron Man audience might have noticed a familiar image on the front page of a newspaper Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is reading in a scene near the end of the film. Photographer Ronnie Adams, who shot the initial "leaked" Iron Man photo that started all of the hub-bub, is now alledging that the movie studios used his infamous photo in a "pivotal scene" during Iron Man, and is asking for unspecified monetary damages.

Adams filed a lawsuit regarding the photo last week against Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, and also asked that the photo be removed from any future DVDs or videogames related to Iron Man.

Full-size versions of the original, "leaked" image and the offending Iron Man scene (according to Adams’ lawsuit) are posted after the jump for comparison.

(via pdnonline) (more…)

How To Lose Money On ‘Iron Man’

  • News
  • June 19, 2008

Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywod Daily points to the most delicious piece of schadenfreude pie I’ve seen in a long while:

So fired New Line founder Bob Shaye told his close pals the following story: Years ago, as everyone knows, New Line had Iron Man in development. But then Shaye and Avi Arad, the longtime chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, got into an argument over whether Iron Man should fly. (This is what grown men debate in the movie biz…) Bob contended that Iron Man would look goofy soaring in an iron suit. But Avi was adamant that the pic had to stay true to the comic book so the character should take to the sky. Eventually the option ran out, and Avi announced a deal with Merrill Lynch to self-finance Marvel’s future films. Now, most men would have left the argument there. Not Bob. He told his friends that he was so convinced Marvel would run into trouble on its Iron Man movie that he took out a big short on Marvel stock. But, as we all know, the pic not only made gobs of money, but Marvel shares shot skyward to an all-time high. And then the stock was recently listed on the S&P’s midcap index so it went up another 4%. Now, most men would have given up there and then. Not Bob. He told his friends he was still shorting the stock because he believed Marvel would give it back when The Incredible Hulk failed. That didn’t happen either.

Wow. And I thought Shaye keeping Peter Jackson from making The Hobbit was dumb. A shame he’s already been fired from New Line — this is almost worth hiring him back just to fire him again for good measure.

Robert Downey Jr. to Star in ‘Cowboys & Aliens’?

  • News
  • June 17, 2008

Robert Downey Jr. must have enjoyed his foray into comic book films as Tony Stark in the breakaway success of Iron Man. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Downey is in talks to star in another long-in-development comics property, Cowboys & Aliens.

While the armor-clad Marvel Studios’ film rises above the $500 million mark in ticket sales, Downey is looking at the Western/sci fi mashup from the Platinum Studios comic by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley. The property now is at Dreamworks/Universal after bouncing around the studio circuit for about a decade, but now is supposedly set for a 2010 date.

The story centers on an Old West battle between the Apache and Western settlers, including a former Union Army gunslinger named Zeke Jackson (Downey), that is interrupted by a spaceship crashing into the prairie near Silver City, Ariz.

The story draws a parallel between the American imperialist drive to conquer the "savage" Indians with its advanced technology and the aliens’ assault on Earthlings, who must join together to survive the invaders’ attack. …

The most recent draft by "Iron Man" and "Children of Men" writers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus clearly hit the right notes, as the project looks to gain its major players quickly.

No word on how this affects plans for the planned Iron Man sequel. As you’ve read here at ComicMix, that one is supposedly set for May 2010, which would mean a crowded plate for Downey.

Random Video: Iron Man Meets Sesame Street

  • News
  • June 13, 2008

I’m not exactly sure what to make of this video mash-up of the pinball "counting song" from the children’s television series Sesame Street and clips from both old and new versions of the Iron Man cartoons — all I know is that it’s catchy.

 

 

I also know that it will now be stuck in your head, too.

ComicMix Radio: Feeling the Rush From MoCCA

Meet award-winning publisher and writer Tyler Chin-Tanner and step into his fast-paced world of adrenaline, as well as the upcoming American Terrorist. Tyler was just one of the people we met at MoCCA — before things got "hot," plus:

— Marvel adds a cover to Invincible Iron Man

— Fox revamps their fall TV lineup

— Chuck Dixon and DC = splitsville

Kindly press the button and  away we go!

 

 

 And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-8345293 or RSS!

 

Review: ‘The Incredible Hulk’

Going into this film, you will need to play a bit of a trick on your brain. You need to completely forget everything you experienced in Ang Lee’s 2003 version of the film, while still comparing this film to its predecessor.

You’re going to want to compare this film to Marvel’s previous blockbuster, Iron Man, but you shouldn’t do that — this is a whole new beast (pun intended) and needs to be treated as such.

That said, this film certainly delivers for the franchise, with the only major problem being the anticlimactic fight scene at the end, but we’ll get to that.

Starting off, the abbreviated back-story of this film is given to us in the form of the opening titles. Changing from the books: there is no Rick Jones and no Gamma Bomb, but instead a quiet gamma test on our Dr. Bruce Banner that goes horribly wrong, causing him to “hulk-out” and destroy the facility while also injuring his assistant/girlfriend Betty Ross. He goes on the run from the government, and we come into the story a few years later in Brazil, where Banner has now gone five months without “incident.” The first 15 minutes of the film keep the audience well entertained without the need of the Jade Giant, with some great character development and a fair amount of humor.

On the critical side of things, the biggest change from the first film was easily the look of the hulk and computer-generated imaging throughout the film. This was a drastic change from 2003’s “Shrek on Steroids” look. We’re given plenty of shots of the hulk in plain daylight and in action, and the look is next to flawless. If you are not a fan of CGI to begin with, you have to understand that you are going to see a movie about a gigantic green monster here, and no one is throwing Lou Ferrigno in green makeup this time around.

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Alone Together In the Dark, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • June 12, 2008

lab06popcorn-posters-6676198I remember the first time I saw the film Casablanca. It was at the 400 Theater in Chicago, just up Sheridan Road from Loyola University where I attended college. It was on the bill with Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam, an obvious but terrific double feature. I went stag but was lucky to get in at all; the small theater was packed.

I had missed or ignored Casablanca up until this point. I’m not sure why; I liked old serials a lot. The movie had certainly played on TV enough. I’d seen bits here and there or seen send-ups of it; callow youth that I was, I thought it wasn’t for me. Part of it was my own perverseness; my immediate reaction, on being told by everyone else that I must see this or I must hear that or I must read such and such is to say, “No, I don’t.” I get stupid stubborn about such things some times. Being told I would love the film I, of course, refused to see it. Finally, my curiosity overcame my perverseness and I sneaked off to view it without anyone else.

As I said, I went stag but I soon discovered I wasn’t alone. I was part of an audience, folks who mostly knew and loved the film. At the end of the singing of La Marseillaise, they cheered. When Captain Renault said, “Round up the usual suspects,” they cheered again. They laughed out loud at the funny lines (the movie is incredibly witty and they had actors who knew timing) and listened with rapt attention to Bogart’s speech at the end. Their delight and enthusiasm was catching on its own. And then there was the film itself.

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‘Iron Man 2’ Release Date ‘Unrealistic’ Says Jon Favreau

  • News
  • June 11, 2008

After Marvel Studios released a comprehensive lists of upcoming films and their release dates, Iron Man director Jon Favreau recently told fans on his MySpace page that the March 2009 scheduled start date for filming of Iron Man 2 is "unrealistic."

Apparently, Marvel Studios was a bit hasty in announcing release dates for the upcoming slate of films that, if all goes as planned, will eventually lead to a big-screen team-up involving all of the characters in The Avengers. When asked about year’s time between the scheduled release of Iron Man 2 and Avengers, the director (who has also been pegged as a potential director for both of the films) said, "I was really bummed when I saw that there was only a year between the two when Marvel announced the release dates. It would be impossible to direct both."

According to Favreau:

It’s been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel. I know their hands are full with the Hulk and I’m sure they will get into it shortly, as they tell me they intend to. I ran into the Marvel guys at the Hulk premiere and everyone sounded eager to get to work on IM2.

I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010. Neither Robert nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is in light of the fact that we have no script, story or even writers hired yet. This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation. It might be better to follow the BB/DK, X/X2 three year release pattern than to scramble for a date. It is difficult because there are no Marvel 09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one.

Owch.

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