Color this surprising. After Emily Blunt left the role of Black Widow in Iron Man 2 to co-star in the remake of Guiilver’s Travels, I wasn’t 100% sure who would take the tight vinyl pants.
Guess who? It’s Scarlett Johannson taking the reigns and starring in not just Iron Man 2, but MULTIPLE films, including The Avengers, if this report is to be believed.
Now, I like ScarJo as eye candy, but I have to admit, shy of Lost in Translation and The Prestige, she hasn’t done much for me as an actress. Hopefully she can wash out the bad taste of The Spirit from our mouths, and make nerds worldwide lust over her as she becomes Black Widow.
It seems the “artistic t-shirt” craze brought to you by companies like and now has competition.
The competition? The King. The food type. Not the Elvis type.
Chalking itself up on the list of “Shit I Never Thought I’d See” is the Burger King Studio, which allows users to purchase designer t-shirts with BK related graphics starting at $16, or design their own for the low price of $24.
I can’t say I’m all that surprised that someone is attempting to take the Threadless/DBH idea and make it even more mainstream…but Burger King, really? They’ve even opened a boutique shop on Universal City Walk in Orlando.
Sure, the shirts look interesting…but I’d be very interested to see what crossover there is between the fancy tee shirt and burger eating crowds. Do they know that this is sort of the corporate equivalent of your Dad trying to say he loves the same music as you?
You know, I don’t know if this bolds well for the film version of Watchmen, or if this is a bad thing, but here goes…
David Hayter, who you might know best as the voice of Metal Gear Solid’s Solid Snake, but is just as known as the writer of X-Men, X2 and yes, Watchmen, has a little something to say to the fans.
Basically, he wants…nay, needs the nerd populace to see Watchmen a second time this weekend.
The gist of the letter is that even though Watchmen had a solid opening weekend take, it’s the second and third weeks of release that really show how strong a film is, and given that Watchmen is such a tough to produce yet faithful interpretation of the property, a great second and third weekend will tell the Hollywood Studios to make more comic films that are JUST as faithful.
Here’s part of his letter, to accentuate his point (the full letter is linked below):
This is a movie made by fans, for fans. Hundreds of people put in years of their lives to make this movie happen, and every one of them was insanely committed to retaining the integrity of this amazing, epic tale. This is a rare success story, bordering on the impossible, and every studio in town is watching to see if it will work. Hell, most of them own a piece of the movie.
So look, this is a note to the fanboys and fangirls. The true believers. Dedicated for life.
If the film made you think. Or argue with your friends. If it inspired a debate about the nature of man, or vigilante justice, or the horror of Nixon abolishing term limits. If you laughed at Bowie hanging with Adrian at Studio 54, or the Silhouette kissing that nurse.
Please go see the movie again next weekend.
You have to understand, everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week. If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film’s got both, literally), or true adaptations — And if you’re thinking of seeing it again anyway, please go back this weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Demonstrate the power of the fans, because it’ll help let the people who pay for these movies know what we’d like to see. Because if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again.
In the interests of full disclosure, let me also point out that I do not profit one cent from an increase in box office, although an increase in box office can add to the value of the writers’ eventual residual profits from dvd and tv sales.
But I’m not saying it for money. I’m saying it for people like me. I’m saying it for people who love smart, dark entertainment, on a grand, operatic scale. I’m talking to the Snake fans, the Rorschach fans, the people of the Dark Knight.
What do I think? I’ve seen the film twice at this point, and even with it’s flaws, I feel it really opens up from a second viewing. But that’s from the “geek” perspective. Not John Q Public.
The difficult part of the movie is this…it’s too faithful. Lets be honest, even though I’m speaking directly to you, the “geek”, there is a whole section of the world, arguably the majority, to whom this film just won’t speak to. On any level. Could such an adaptation be shooting itself in the foot? Maybe. And maybe we should let it find it’s audience naturally.
I’ve long been afraid about this adaptation, not out of want to prevent Alan Moore’s “holy words” from being “raped”, or some sort of hyperbolic fanboy statement…but because of what it could do to the superhero genre.
I am unabashedly a fan of how common the superhero film has become in recent years. I grew up a superhero fan, I will die a superhero fan. But the fact is this, superhero films will only continue to be made for as long as the idea is profitable.
And if the “Best Graphic Novel of All Time”, arguably intepreted as the best superhero tale of all time, turns off mainstream audiences…what does that say about the Superhero genre?
You know, I’m not really sure if this is due to the writers strike, or if Hollywood’s finally realized releasing good movies all year is a good thing, but the next few weeks are packed with worthwhile movies (or movies that, by right of my nerd card, I must see) that take us right into the summer season.
Don’t believe me? Check it out.
Of course, this past weekend was Watchmen…then…
March 20th: I Love You, Man March 27th: Monsters vs. Aliens
April 3rd: Adventureland
April 10th: Observe & Report
April 17th: Crank: High Voltage
May 1st: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
May 8th: Star Trek
May 15th: The Brothers Bloom
May 22nd: Terminator Salvation
And so on!
Is this unusual to you, too? And what are you, dear reader, looking forward to? Leave some thoughts in the comments.
So apparently this image is going up and down across the internet today.
Remembering what happened when I posted the image of Two Face in The Dark Knight early, I figure I’ll have some fun on here again.
That image above? That’s the first look at Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s version of Alice In Wonderland. Really.
Where does this come from, you ask?
Walt Disney had their annual meeting on Tuesday, to hype future releases. During this 2 hour meeting, you had the first look at Alice, a 3D screening of Up, and the first footage of Toy Story 3, described as “jaw-droppingly good”. Sounds rad.
The part that kinda sucks? The media was told that they couldn’t release the above image. Why couldn’t they? Well, the big D is releasing a fancy $16 quarterly mag called Disney Twenty-Three, which has the first look at Alice as an exclusive.
So, Iron Man director Jon Favreau hopped on twitter.
And Jon being the sharing guy he is, decided to post a pic.
What of, you may ask? The currently in-construction house for Tony Stark in Iron Man 2!
Sure, we’re not sure who the villains are, the script may not be finished yet, but it’s good to know they’re working on getting everything else ready for the Summer 2010 release.
Am I the only one who’s kinda surprised that they destroy sets so fast, then rebuild them almost identically to the one prior? You’d think they’d leave these things ready to rebuild. Go figure.
If you’re looking to follow Jonny Fav on Twitter, he’s . I’ll say this…if he starts updating from the Iron Man 2 set as often as from the Scott Pilgrim set…I’ll be doing a LOT of posting!
