The X3 cast fills out with Michael “Tanner” Murphy, Bill “Predator” Duke, and Olivia Williams as Angel’s Dad, a White House politico, and Moira McTaggart respectively, as well as House of Sand and Fog‘s Shohreh Aghdashloo as Dr. Kavita Rao. Hmmm. I really like the Olivia Williams casting (even if she isn’t Scottish), but, in general, X3 is starting to sound more and more like an overstuffed rush job.
Category: Marvel
Crabgrass (and Martian) Frontiers.
Some trailers for movies I doubt I’ll see: Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni keep up with the Joneses via armed robbery in Fun with Dick and Jane, Eomer and The Rock wield BFGs in the totally unnecessary film version of Doom, and suburban housewife Julianne Moore pens her way to big bucks (much to the chagrin of man-of-the-house Woody Harrelson) in The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio. Ho-hum. Also in film news, Ellen Page is Kitty Pryde in X3, which sits better with me than the idea of Eli of Freaks & Geeks as Angel.
Two Finches, One Fury.
In fanboy cinema news, Alien 3, Fight Club and Se7en director David Fincher picks up two new projects: Zodiac, yet another serial-killer flick starring Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey, Jr., and Anthony Edwards, and Benjamin Button, which concerns Brad Pitt aging backward from the age of fifty (while romancing Cate Blanchett.) Elsewhere, Bruce Willis as Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D? Beats Hasselhoff, I suppose. Update: Gary Oldman joins Zodiac.
Munich, Mission, Muties.
In recent casting news, Geoffrey Rush joins Spielberg’s Vengeance (with Eric Bana and Daniel Craig), Laurence Fishburne boards MI:3, and Alan Cumming announces he won’t be back as Nightcrawler for X3. Well, good to hear at least the blue fuzzy elf will miss the Ratneresque carnage Fox is about to perpetrate on the X-Franchise.
Magneto was Right.
Likely to help squelch the rampant bad buzz since the Ratner hiring, Fox releases this X3 teaser poster. I dunno…the AICN guys got their hands on a spoiler-laden script review, and right now it seems this might turn into a fiasco of Fantastic Four-like proportions.
Broken Watch / Darth Empathy.
As feared, Paramount axes the Watchmen movie. My reaction is very similar to Megg‘s concerning Ratner on X3…Fortunately, the Dark Lord of the Sith can empathize.
Mutant Massacre.
With Matthew Vaughn gone, is Marvel really going to put X3 in the hands of Brett Hackner? Oh, lordy, that’s terrible. Apparently, the film will include three surprising deaths and a sex scene to boot. Well, shucks, I hope they find a way to fit some car chases in there too. I always thought X-Men needed more car chases. Update: It seems official…Ratner’s in.
Fall of the Mutants.
Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn is off X-3, citing the hectic production schedule. That’s too bad…I was looking forward to seeing what he did with the franchise.
In the Company of Spiders.
That ’70s Show and In Good Company star Topher Grace joins the cast of Spiderman 3, likely as a villain. It seems pretty clear Thomas Haden Church is The Sandman, but I can’t think offhand of who Grace might be playing. Electro, perhaps? Or will he be Venom?
Four, War, and a Bore.
Big-time summer trailers piggybacking off of Sith this week include the final trailer for Fantastic Four (I actually liked the Magic Johnson NBA spot, but this is looking lame again) and a new War of the Worlds trailer, with our first brief look at the invaders. Also, Top Guns Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, and Josh Lucas go up against a renegade Skynet-like fighter in the new trailer for Stealth. Oof, Sam Shepard and Joe Morton must have some bills to pay.