Harry gets his hands on a new picture from The Hulk. While the monstrosity in question looks quite good here, I’m really not looking forward to the introduction of “hulk dogs.” I can buy a huge green guy in purple pants, but that’s just plain goofy. Update: The Hulk Dogs are online. Ah, Berk could take him.
Category: Comics
Marlon Brando as The Watcher?
Buoyed by the success of Daredevil, Marvel Comics starts casting its B-list superheroes: Deep Blue Sea‘s Thomas Jane is set as The Punisher (I presume the Dolph Lundgren film never happened) and Vin Diesel is bucking for The Silver Surfer. While a really cosmic and contemplative Surfer flick might be worthwhile, I’m personally more interested in Peyton Reed’s The Fantastic Four (and, of course, The Hulk and X2) than either of these projects.
The Not-So-Subtle Knife.
In less happy movie news, Brett Ratner – recently kicked off of WB’s Superman – is now threatening to screw up Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Pullman’s work aside, a Tom Stoppard screenplay deserves a better director. Can’t you just make Rush Hour 3 or something?
Mein Leiben!
A whole slew of new X2 pics arrive online, including this shot at right of Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (who looks an order of magnitude better than he did here and here six months ago.) A few spoilers scattered throughout.
Bespectacled Freak!
The casting powers-that-be over at Sony officially announce Alfred Molina as Dr. Octopus in The Amazing Spiderman. This isn’t bad casting at all, although I still think Stellan Skarsgaard or Phillip Seymour Hoffman (if he could be induced not to go too far over the top) would have been great fun. Also, the new, Michael Chabon-penned script is rumored to only feature Doc Ock here as the main villain – they have wisely decided to forego the Batman route and instead will use one Spidey arch-nemesis at a time. Update: In a similar long-rumored casting call, WB announces that Michael Gambon will play Dumbledore in the next Harry Potter film. With Gary Oldman, Timothy Spall, and most importantly Alfonso Cuaron, this one could be a definite improvement over the first two.
To me, my X-Men.
Probably the biggest thrill of the Daredevil experience, the X2 trailer is now online. I’m not sure how they’re going to introduce all these characters enough for a layperson’s liking, but it looks like great fun for fans of the comic. Update: Faster than a Wolverine-Colossus fastball special and brighter than a Dazzler stage show, it’s now officially online in Quicktime.
If I ruled the world.
Former Authority scribe Mark Millar offers his vision for revamping Detective Comics. (Via Neilalien.) What with Marvel finally feeling the movie mojo (Daredevil notwithstanding), it’s kinda sad to see DC languish these days. I remember the days when DC/Vertigo were pretty much firing on every cylinder while the X-Men were dinking around the Australian outback and Marvel was trying to garner new readers by having the Secret Wars Beyonder traipsing around dressed like Phillip Michael Thomas. How the mighty have fallen.
Is this a test, sir?
Ok, that’s enough love…now it’s time for hate. Celebrities ponder, Who could you take in a fight? (Seen all over the place, but I caught it first at Webgoddess, Lots of Co., and All About George, none of whom I feel like tussling with.) Whether it be due to Gaelic disposition, number of siblings, or a decade on the school bus, I’ll generally take all comers, be they right-wingers, warbloggers, or whomever made the terrible decision that [Daredevil SPOILERS] a wounded Ben Affleck could beat up Michael Clarke Duncan in three minutes of screen time. (He’s the Kingpin, for Pete’s sake. Fisk should’ve thrown him out the window immediately. Yet another problem in a disappointing film.) At any rate, if you want to throw down, leave a message here and we can meet behind the Piggly-Wiggly after school.
Trailer Day.
A veritable plethora of fanboy/girl trailers have hit the web in the past few days. For one, “The Second Renaissance,” the first episode of the Animatrix, has been posted. It’s probably better than almost all of T3. Also, AICN points the way to an extended Hulk trailer and our first look at The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (The site’s down a lot, but you might get lucky…I did.) The latter looks a bit disappointing, but my hopes for LXG are at Daredevil levels right now anyway (although DD is actually getting surprisingly good reviews.) Update: The LXG trailer is now available here.
Superman Lives!
Great Caesar’s Ghost! Has Kal-El defeated the hacks? Apparently, both Brett Ratner and Michael Bay have now passed on the next Supes flick. And Chris Nolan of Memento is now tackling Batman. Perhaps DC might still throw off the Curse of Schumacher. (Yeah, right.) Update: Agh, Kryptonite! Ratner’s still on.