Disney to buy Marvel.

"NO FUCKING WAY!!", right?

That was my first thought when my friend had alerted me to this, but it's true. As of now, no word on whether the deal has been completed yet, but BBC News reports that Walt Disney is to buy Marvel Entertainment in a shares and cash deal valued at $4bn (£2.5bn).

The BBC News. They don't just make up random shit like that.

Just when the future of Marvel movies had seemed promising, what with origin movies for Marvel Heroes coming out over the next two years to build momentum for the Avengers movie in 2012, new developments like this come to light.

So how now brown cows?

Will subsequent Marvel movies not yet in production get kiddie-dized because of this?

Will we have Will Smith as Captain America, now that Disney has taken over and may be looking for a confirmed and multiple-times-proven crowd-puller?

will smith bringing loud-mouth to the cap'n? please no

Will the upcoming yet-to-be-casted X-Men: First Class be filled by High School Musical alumni?

*shudder*

God help us all.


EDIT: Click here for some Disney/Marvel mash-ups, brought to you by the Punch Drunk Critics.

you gotta admit, they are kind fun to look at

Early draft of Last Airbender script?

LastAirbenderFilm.com has posted up a summary of some aspects of the new movie from aforementioned draft script. Faux or no, this part caught my attention:

The Dragon says that the comet that began the war will return in three years, giving the firebenders control over their Chi, and thus the ability to create fire themselves.

Sozin's Comet is supposed make the Firebenders more powerful, not give them "the ability to create fire themselves"! I mean, the reason why the Fire Nation has been able to keep the other Nations at bay all this time is because they can create fire just like that! Even Pyro from X-Men 2 admitted his lameness, since he could only manipulate fire instead of create it.

As awful as the change sounds, the movie can't really sink any lower now, can it?

To check out the rest of the spoilers (even though they may be untrue), mosey your mousey along to here.

Robert Downey, Jr. to play Lestat??!

Apparently, a new movie based on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books are in the works (rumor is it's The Vampire Lestat), and Robert Downey, Jr. is in talks to play Lestat de Lioncourt, the narrator for most of the books.

The Vampire Lestat is the second book in the series, and is written as Lestat's response to Interview with a Vampire, the first book. If you're kinda confused, This One will be about Tom Cruise, because the Previous One was about Brad Pitt.

Neither is in their original hair color in this picture.

As mentioned earlier, Lestat was formerly played by Tom Cruise in IwaV, while Stuart Townsend took on Lestat in Queen of the Damned. And as much as Downey Jr. can do Cocky And Brash, I'ma have to do a Rorschach and say, "No".

Between Cruise and Townsend, I've always preferred the latter (despite him not being blond), because he's just one of those guys who can never look old. Acting and movie aside, he always comes to mind when I read the books.

[The fact that he's cute didn't hurt :)]

BloodyDisgusting also reports that Anne Rice approves of the casting rumor, and she is totally supportive of Downey Jr. being Lestat. And addressing the 'age' argument, she even goes to say (and I quote), "A twenty year old man in the 18th century is the equivalent of an older man today."

Wat.

So, is she saying that a 20-year-old man back in the 1700s is as mature as a present man in his 40's, or that a man in his 40's today has the maturity level of a 20-year-old dude from three hundred years ago?

By 'age', we mean 'appearance', not maturity. Yes, Downey Jr. is a very good actor, but unless he gets major, major plastic surgery (or they give him major, major CGI and make him look like Patrick Stewart in Wolverine *blanch*), no freaking way this is gonna work without the writers tweaking a few crucial bits of storyline.

Fun Fact: If Downey Jr. does take the job, he'll be the third actor who isn't a natural blond, to play Lestat.

Lemony Snicket sequel may be stop-motion.

Yuppers, folks. Brad Silberling has mentioned that he's still interested in a sequel (despite the first being four years ago), and that he may be using stop-motion animation for that, incorporating "incredible detail and very twisted artistry”.

Incredible detail or no, sounds like they're going cheap second time around.

Personally, I loved the first one. I would miss seeing Jim Carrey as Count Olaf. I would also miss the kids, however past puberty they are. Even bringing them back as voices wouldn't be the same.

Jay Chou lands Green Hornet role!

Note: This is also how Jay Chou emotes 'happy'.

MTV.com reports that Jay Chou will be replacing Stephen Chow as (sidekick) Kato in the upcoming Green Hornet remake. Other actors in the production include (titular character) Seth Rogen, (love interest) Cameron Diaz and (bad guy) Nicolas Cage.

Great.

Another excuse for his lack of facial expressions, i.e., "conflicted and brooding."

I know jack about the Green Hornet mythology (I only know Bruce Lee played Kato for a while), but as a backstory, I'll bet that his entire family or a girlfriend was massacred or something, and that he'll finally enact his revenge on the perps in the movie.

Ton o' updates!

[Okay, two.]

Never fear, true believers, this blog is not yet dead. I'd bore you with WHY I haven't been updating, but eh, I'll spare you the deets.

[It involved an ass-ton of overtime. Sorry peeps.]

First up, A TRAILER:



One thing I don't get is how they always associate eternal youth along with Dorian's name. Eternal beauty, yes, but think about it. Just because he doesn't age physically doesn't mean that it's the same internally. I mean, he could have liver failure and cancer and all that crap and still die, but he'd still look a healthy 20 years of age. And the 'immortality' argument can't be proven, because the book took place over a span of twenty years. Hardly enough time.

That said, Colin Firth doesn't look malevolent enough to be the tarnisher of souls, but I guess that's the idea.

Dorian Gray opens 9th September 2009.
[If you flip the date upside down, you get 6-6-6. Oooo...]

Secondly (and I can't find this on any other Internet source but the one I saw it from, which is here), it seems that Timur Bekmambetov has given up on Twilight Watch, the third of the Night Watch trilogy based on the popular Russian book series of the same name. He will, instead, be doing a sequel for Wanted.

I don't know when Wanted 2 will open.

I did not see Wanted, so I can't bitchcomment about whether it's a lousy decision or not, but I'm disappointed that Twilight Watch won't be made. I've only seen Day Watch (couldn't find Night Watch), and although the storyline was VERY complicating for me, the visuals were simply gorgeous, and so amazing that my tiny TV did not do it justice.

[That's right, folks, I saw Day Watch ON PAY-TELEVISION. I am officially LOUSY.]

It sucks that the third won't be made, though apparently the third was going to be filmed in English, compared to the previous two which were in their native Russian, so it's probably for the better.
Really, they speak Russian for two movies and alluva sudden the characters switch to English. Ridiculous.

Anyway, look out for my long-overdue review on X-Men Origins: Wolverine (FINALLY!) some time tonight / next day, and the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra next weekend!

[That is, if tix aren't sold out :P]

The Last Airbender cast photos!

Courtesy of the Racebending Community on LiveJournal, I come bearing these:

[For clarity's sake, I'll just put their character names below their pics.]

Aang

Katara

Sokka

Zuko

[Click here for larger headshots, where you can see a bit of their costumes.]

We now have a closer shot of Zuko, compared to my earlier post.
*clearsthroat*
YOU CALL THAT A SCAR?!! That's Gerard Butler Phantom of the Opera burn scarring, you lousy-ass make-up people! MovieZuko must have serious, SERIOUS self-esteem issues to wanna redeem his honor with a scar like that. I mean, he still looks good. LIKE GERARD BUTLER DID!!

Secondly, they better color in Aang's tattoo. Geez, the thing is supposed to be bright blue, man. It's supposed to be difficult to go incognito. With this, all it takes is a little foundation.

Normally, I find Jackson Rathbone quite youthful-looking, but in the above pics, the age gap between Sokka and Katara is, well, 10 years +, obvious. Oh well, I guess the kids need a babysitter, or worse, a responsible adult. *pukesinmouth*
Plus, I miss the blue on their costume, but that's secondary :P

And a promo poster-shot (larger one here):


And you know what? The poster shot actually looks GOOD! It looks COOL, which is MISLEADING, since the production team is messing up EVERY SINGLE THING THAT'S GOOD from the ORIGINAL ANIMATED SERIES!!

It's like the remix of your favourite song. It always sucks.

I'm so pissed right now.

Btw, can someone tell me who the frick that Earthbender is?

End-of-levelmovie Boss.

Green Lantern cast!

And it is no other than Ryan Reynolds.

According to Reuters, Reynolds and his people entered into negotiations with the studio on Friday. The article also mentions the other actors that went in screen testing, namely Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, and... Justin Timberlake?

Ew.
Out of the latter three names I just mentioned, I was banking on Brad Cooper. Even Jared Leto is too pretty. Whatever happened to Nathan Fillion?

If the deal goes through, (and if I'm not mistaken) Reynolds would be the first actor to play both DC and Marvel characters (Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity, and of course, Deadpool) on-screen.

[He's hot and awesome. *swoon*]

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with Green Lantern lore, so I can't provide any speculation on my part as to who Reynolds will be playing in the movie. The Google says that it will be the famous Hal Jordan, although over on Punch Drunk Critics, they reckon it might be the younger Kyle Rayner.

I'd love to see the universe explode if there's a Marvel / DC movie crossover. As of now, I'll just have to rely on YouTube ;)

Michael Bay to quit Transformers?

Say it isn't so!

In the Yahoo! News UK article, Bay says that he's sick of his detractors, and wants to do movies of the non-action type. More specifically, the genre which "...an art movie in a winery in the South of France" is categorized.

[Ugh.]

But seriously, I don't care that Michael Bay's movies lack the occasional storyline and has too many slow-mo scenes, or that he painted flames on Optimus Prime. He. Makes. Action movies. Who on earth would go to an action movie, expecting or even wanting to see character development and all that other stuff they put in heavy dramas, or even regular dramas for that matter?

[It's like expecting Watchmen to be the DC version of the X-Men movies.]

Sure, it'll be even better if those elements are there, but even if they're not, it's no friggin' biggie. An action movie's an action movie, and really, the general public wouldn't want to see anything else.

[That's why Watchmen technically bombed in the box office. One of my favourite comic book adaptations, by the way.]

Indy 5?!

According to Shia LaBeouf.

In an interview vid with the BBC (about THAT yet-to-be-released movie with the giant robots), LaBeouf says that Steven Spielberg pretty much has the story figured out, but gives no further details to it.

After the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last year, there have been rumors that LaBeouf's character, Mutt Williams, is set to take over the franchise, with Harrison Ford making a father figure-type cameo, similar to Sean Connery in The Last Crusade.

To that, I had said, "Fuck no."

Make a spin-off, a spin-off. Don't call it Indy 5 if Harrison Ford is not going to be the lead. Don't put the titular character (especially a POPULAR one that many of us grew up with) in the backseat.

At least give people fair warning by calling the movie Jones: The Next Generation or something.

To read a basic summary of the vid, click here for the TotalFilm.com article.

Lindsay Lohan Fever

Three movies, not too bad as I'm bored anyways.

Another photo of Zuko!

From SlashFilm.com

[A South Asian in East Asian attire? Why, that's as almost ridiculous as East Asians IN East Asian attire! Ya don't say...]

Judging by the look on Dev Patel's face, I'm guessing this is post-Agni Kai (I think the snow-white background is also a tell-tale sign, since they're probably at the Southern Water Tribe, i.e. somewhere like the South Pole).

If that's so, then where the fuckity-fuck is Zuko's SCAR??!

The article mentioned that Night is going for "a more minimal and realistic look than the one seen on the show". "Minimal" does not justify WHY Zuko wants the Avatar so bad, WHY Zuko wants to prove himself and do right in his father's eyes, because if he'd just gotten MINIMAL damage from the Agni-fucking-Kai (where his father basically own–no, wait–PWNED his teenaged ass), he wouldn't even WANT TO and/or BE chasing Aang all over the fucking world in the first place!

[Also, where is his top-knot?]

3 Z rated movies [a category I create]

1) Vacancy
2) Hitcher
3) Catch and Release

Thailand Bonanza

[I’VE BEEN REALLY ‘BORING’- quoted by Tan Lisa, high school friend]
Damn bored. Tried two movies made in Thailand. Sawadika…

A-Team roughly in place?

We know that Joe Carnahan is now attached as director; what about the A-Team members themselves?

The only person that's THIS CLOSE to a major role in the movie is Common, who's pretty much the frontrunner to play B. A. BaracusMr. T, even though a proper offer hasn't been made yet. I'm not too familiar with Common's work, so I can't comment on suitability, but appearance-wise, he looks a bit too slender to play Baracus. Ice Cube, anyone?

[Mr. T has said that the only way he'll be in the movie is if he plays Baracus. At least he won't be cameoing as Common's dad or something. Ugh.]

Bradley Cooper is also one of the names on the potential cast-list, to take on the role of Templeton Peck, a.k.a. Face, formerly played by Dirk Benedict. As much as I love Bradley Cooper (always had a soft spot for the poor guy on Alias) and as way-cute as he is, I can't imagine him as Face. He's too adorable to be a con-man (even though con-men probably and usually ARE adorable).

Dirk Benedict. Look at his suave-ness. Look at that hair.

Now this is a major 180˚. Chris Pine also wants to bag a role on the A-Team: that of "Howlin' Mad" Murdock. That's a pretty weird casting choice (if he is signed on), unless he is able to pull a Star Trek again (as in, prove everyone/most people wrong). Personally, even though he's not as flat-out pretty as Cooper nor even Benedict, he's absolutely suitable as Face.

[Dwight Schultz is irreplaceable. Jim Carrey may be insane enough to be Murdock, though.]

So far, there's not much speculation on who'll be playing John "Hannibal" Smith (formerly played by the late George Peppard). I can kinda imagine George Clooney as Hannibal. Probably 'cuzza the whitesilver hair.

The movie is slated for a June 10th, 2010 release.

[Yeah, and LAST YEAR, it had a mid-2009 release!]

New pictures from The Last Airbender!

Article link here.

Let the nitpicking commence!

Dev Patel as Prince Zuko.

First of all, as cool as Dev Patel looks with the fire and all, where the hell is his scar? And why does he still have his hair? Is he not supposed to be half-bald with top-knot? Did the producers realise that putting an East Asian hair-style on a South Asian dude looks as ridiculous as it sounds?

[Just like the idea of casting white people in Asian-looking roles! But who'm I to criticise, I just have common sense.]

Noah Ringer as Aang.

Surprisingly, despite the lovely complexion (and I'm not being sarcastic here), he doesn't look too abnormalweird, which seems a bit promising. Maybe it's the expression on his face Now, where the hell is his blue tattoo? If he's gonna walk around looking like he has that mark etched into his forehead... Ehkk.

If the original cartoon was drawn this way, with an Indian/brown dude as a bad guy and a bunch of white/near-white kids running around saving the world, there wouldn't be any issues with the movie; rather the production crew would be lauded for sticking to and respecting the source material. Just like Watchmen.

[Sorry, couldn't resist.]

Instead, you have people setting up websites, debating endlessly on the cast, and most of all, have the possibly-true presumption that this movie adaptation will suck as much lame as Dragonball: Evolution.

Apparently, the teaser attached to Transformers 2 was a rumor.
[Can't remember where I put the link.]
We shall see on June 24th.

Adaptations to avoid if familiar with source material.

Appointment with Death (1988)

In this murder mystery, Lauren Bacall plays Lady Westholme, who's onscreen for maybe a cumulative half-hour (out of two-plus hours). Now, why would a famous and definitely established actress (with second billing in the movie) accept the role where she only comes out for a quarter of the movie?

Simple. Because SHE DID IT.

In the book, Lady Westholme comes in for about 10 pages (out of 300+). That's why it's shocking when it's revealed. You don't even think she's relevant till the end. With Lauren Bacall's presence in the film, you just KNOW that she's involved somehow.

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

The movie is just touching the tip of the iceberg. The book itself is filled with more conspiracy theories and symbological history and significance, and makes for a very, very interesting read (if you're patient, that is). Besides that, the book didn't place the Opus Dei as a group of conspirators who want the truth withheld; they were manipulated by the Teacher, the true villain of the piece. In the movie, Alfred Molina (of Opus Dei) IN TURN manipulated Jean Reno, who was naturally pissed at this turn of events; in the book, they only meet at the end, when everything's over. Also, I felt that the book's reveal near the end was more cinematic (and is definitely doable on-screen), rather than Tom Hanks telling Audrey Tatou, "IT IS APPLE."

[Okay, he didn't SAY that, I just summarised it :)]

The Golden Compass (2007)

The major flaw of this adaptation is that they tried to translate this book to the big screen with a young or pre-teen audience in mind, which was not what the series was about. Just a warning to those of you who want to read the book after the movie: it's drastically different. Even though the series revolves around kids, it's not something bookstores would put up beside Enid Blyton. It deals with death and loss (it doesn't hold back on the body count), and doesn't really end on a happy note. The biggest faux-pas of the movie was cutting the ending short of the book just to kid-ify it. I was furious.

The Harry Potter movies (third to fifth; 2004–2007)

I don't know why they can't make those movies into three-hour features (if it's a Labour Law/Children's Rights issue, please enlighten me) like what Peter Jackson did with Lord of the Rings. If it were three hours, they'd be able to explore more aspects of the book, and not make it look so rushed and all-over-the-place. I'm sure the kids wouldn't mind watch their favourite stars for another 30-45 minutes extra. The movies have been quite faithful to the general storyline, though, which is good.

[It also didn't help that JK Rowling wanted her latter Potter books to literally be tomes.]

The Holcroft Covenant (1985)

The book was very intriguing, with a lot of twists and turns that you'd come to expect from Robert Ludlum, but still never see coming.

The movie? Hell no.

I like Michael Caine, but the movie was absolute crap. They simplified a LOT of things (probably time constraints) and added some humor (which was totally wrong).

DEFINITELY a "Watch first, read later".

[Or you know what? READ now, watch NEVER :)]

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Purists (and fans in general) will LOATH this movie. It's very, very loosely-based. I would've, too, but since I only read the comic AFTER I'd seen the movie, and despite the continuity issues and corny-ish lines, I liked it.

Max Payne (2008)

Max Payne was looking so far, so good till the ending.

Oh wait, THERE WAS NONE!

The movie only adapted HALF of the video game's storyline. I was way beyond geeking out when I saw the helipad, only to see Max to shoot Beau Bridges, and the end credits roll. By the way, all that close-up of sweat was pretty gross. And not enough bullet-time!

Queen of the Damned (2002)

The book has a lot of backstory on the origins of the vampires, which the movie only devoted a few choice lines to, with Jessie in a prominent role and focused on her relationship with Lestat, which was non-existent in the book, since they only met for a few seconds. The movie was only so-so for me; would be worse if it weren't for Stuart Townsend.

Got something you loved turned into a movie you hate? Comment below and let us know! :)

More Karate Kid remake details revealed!

As we all (relatively) know, the 'reimagining' (po-TAY-toe, po-TAH-toe) will be a Jaden Smith vehicle, since it's produced by his pap Will Smith, with an emphasis on the 'kid' in the title. Back then, they haven't cast Mr. Miyagi yet, with names like Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow (HA!) being thrown around.

Now we know the plot.

Jaden will be playing a kid whose single mother gets tranferred to China, and, obviously standing out and not knowing the language, gets the crap beat out of him. In comes Mr. MiyagiHan (Jackie Chan confirmed), who feels sorry for the kid, and decide to teach him martial arts and Chinese.

Though not a fan of the original (I thought it was okay), this Hollywood trend of rapingremaking old movies has to stop. I get that it's all about 'who you know', but Jaden Smith does NOT have to be in every other movie just 'cuz his father is Will Smith. It gets very annoying.

[Like Shia Labeouf, only I'm used to him now and he doesn't annoy me that much anymore. And Beyoncé.]

And most importantly, karate is JAPANESE, and not part of Chinese culture. If you want to set the movie in China, you might as well call it The Kung-Fu Kid. It's blatantly ignorant on their part to keep the original title.

[Have to get that into those thick gwailo studio heads.]

I mean, seriously, just because there's a name-change doesn't mean people won't know that it's a new take on The Karate Kid, and NOT go see the film. And besides, why isn't it set in Japan? Is it too expensive there or something?

[REALLY doesn't take a genius to see that fuckery is halfway abound.]

How do you guys feel about the remake? Sound off below and tell us what you think!

How difficult is it to find Asian actors in Hollywood?

There was a TV spot on Dragonball: Evolution last night, where there were snippets from interviews with the actors and the directors.

[For some reason, James Marsters with dark hair and an American accent still caught me off-guard. Watdaeff.]

I'll have to admit that the movie scenes looked cool, provided you didn't know what the original looked like.

There was this bit when the director was talking about how they were following the anime and stuff. I told my mom the fans were up in arms because Goku was played by a white guy, in an obviously Japanese/Asian environment, and my mom was like, "Then why is the director saying that he stuck to the source material?"

Bingo.

I don't follow Dragonball, but even I knew that the whole movie was wrong from the first time I saw the trailer. It gave me the impression that Piccolo wasn't green (but turns out he was, in the movie), and someone had even commented that this was actually Bulletproof Monk 2.

[Gave me lulz, partly 'cuzza Chow Yuen Fat's Hawaiian shirt. Also, I found out that Master Roshi is bald in the anime.]

If they could find Asian actors (that speak good English, by the way) to play Yam Cha and Chi Chi, why couldn't they have gotten an Asian actor to play Goku? I don't think a white actor would look any less ridiculous in Goku's famous orange-and-blue outfit than an Asian actor.

Which brings me back to the topic at hand, and to Avatar. Earlier on, the cartoon creators were talking about how M Night Shyamalan was excited and will be respecting the source material

[Now we know that the word 'respecting' is to be referred to in inverted commas.]

As I've mentioned before, I don't follow DB, so I can't nitpick as I do on Avatar, but on surface value (indeed!), it looks like the Avatar movie will be disrespecting the source material even more than DB did, with the producers making radical alterations in the glaring of all aspects: appearance and race.

If DB:E could find a bunch of Asian actors (to be background fodder, but to act in the movie, no less), why couldn't the people behind the Avatar movie do the same? Oh wait, they already have. Looks like there's a trend here, folks.

It's going to be an epic failure on Paramount's part to make Avatar "the next Harry Potter" since all else points to the fact that Avatar is going to be the next DB:E, except with the elements of nature.

[Cross-posted]

Old and fat, fat and old...

Cate Blanchett has signed on to play Maid Marian, replacing Sienna Miller, in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood thingie, alongside Russell Crowe. Miller was kicked off because she made Crowe (to be playing Robin Hood) look "old and fat".

So, what, they're saying that Cate Blanchett looks unfresh-faced and plumpish now? Last I checked, she still looks pretty good.


[P.S. Since it's going to be a Robin Hood origin story, Russell Crowe should really get back into shape soon.]