The Week In Geek: Iron Man 3, Fantastic Four No More, And Logan Runs Again
This week’s column is going to be 100% Wonder Woman rant free. But they cast the part of Wondy soon, so expect another rant sooner rather than later. For now, enjoy your respite. On to the news….
Does Iron Man 3 Have A Writer/Director Already?
This week it was announced that Shane Black, writer/director of the beloved cult movie Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, not to mention writer of such movies as the original Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and co writer of Monster Squad, is on the short list to take over from Jon Favreu for Iron Man 3. This was greeted with much enthusiasm from the online geek community, as his movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is not only an incredibly well written film, but was also a big part of Robert Downey’s big screen post rehab comeback that of course led to Iron Man eventually. By having the news leaked that Shane Black is in the running, and to have so many fanboys react in a positive way, only increases Black’s chances. Because frankly, if Marvel Studios’ doesn’t hire him now, they’ll have to hire someone better and probably more expansive later on. Much like Joss Whedon, this is the smarter (and cheaper) choice. I can I just say I wanna see The Mandarin before this trilogy ends?
I Thought I Recognized That Foul Stench….
As I’ve stated on more than one occasion in this column, The Clone Wars animated series on Cartoon Network is the best Star Wars anything to come along since The Empire Stikes Back. The second half of season two, which is currently airing, has introduced us to the Force Witches, Darth Maul’s even cooler and more bad ass brother, and the living embodiments of the Light and Dark Sides of the Force. Now Clone Wars is about to get cooler, and introduce another character from the original trilogy that was all but totally neglected by the prequels: Grand Moff Tarkin. Well, actually, Captain Tarkin of the Republic Army at this point.
To me, Tarkin was the true villain of the original Star Wars; It was his hand that caused the genocide on Alderaan after all…Vader was just an accomplice. He had all the great evil bastard dialogue, and he also had those awesome very evil cheekbones. Aside from a brief cameo at the end of Revenge of the Sith, the prequels didn’t give us any hint of a pre-A New Hope Tarkin. I always loved his relationship with Vader; he seemed to be the only Imperial officer that Vader respected (and didn’t choke) I always wanted to see just where that respect came from, so I for one am excited to see his foul stench stink up Clone Wars. The first episode featuring Tarkin airs Friday, February 18th.
X-Men First Class Trailer Released, Fanboys Do The Usual About Face
Oh fanboys. Your reaction patterns are as easy to predict as the swallows returning to Capistrano. First, pics are revealed early from a comic book movie that everyone jumps on and hates on, talking trash left and right on them. Then, when an actual well made trailer appears, everyone shuts up. Such is the case with the trailer for X-Men:First Class released this week. With all the noise being made about Captain America, Thor, and Green Lantern, First Class was the one people were talking about the least. Well, no more. Seems everyone is excited for this one now. In conjunction with the release of the teaser trailer this week, producer Bryan Singer revealed to the LA Times that while Havok is obviously not Cyclop’s younger brother in this movie (as Cyclops presumably has yet to be born) there will be some kind of connection between the two. Some of that might be played out in a First Class sequel. I can only hope it is set in the 80’s, and we can see Scott and Jean without the Wolverine distraction. And also an actual well cast version of Storm for once. Maybe in full on 80’s regalia? I can only hope.
I can only hope that summer 2011 is the comic book movie equivalent of summer 2008. That summer, we had four comic book /super hero movies released; two were outright classics (Iron Man and The Dark Knight of course) and the other two were very good, if not quite in the same league (The Incredible Hulk and Hellboy II) There wasn’t a Batman and Robin or LXG among them. Let’s cross our fingers and hope Summer 2011 is more like that.
Fantastic Four Gives Way To New FF: The Future Foundation
In more Marvel related news, this time about the actual comics, 2011 brings about the end of the Fantastic Four. But not the FF. With the apparent loss of Johnny Storm in last months issue, the Fantistic Four comic has ended and will soon be replaced with a new title: The Future Foundation, or just FF for short. In May, FF#1 will debut, and filling in the Johnny Storm slot will be none other than Spider-Man (seriously, at this point, why doesn’t Spidey just join the X-Men too? Good grief.) Of course, as cool as all this sounds, don’t get too attached to this Future Foundation comic for long. The “final” issue of Fantastic Four will be issue #588. Knowing Marvel’s publishing patterns, the new FF series will run for about a year, then by the time we reach what would be Fantastic Four #600 next year, Johnny will be found alive, and the old title and numbering will resume. But I’m not knocking Marvel for trying to get some publicity for the old FF; the current writer Jonathan Hickman has been doing a great job on the book, and if this brings more people to the title and it gets more attention, then so be it. Besides, over the 50 years of Fantastic Four history, Reed Richards, Susan Storm and Ben Grimm have all “died” at one point or another. It was just Johnny’s turn.
Logan To Run All Over Again
Add yet another flick to the Hollywood remake list: Logan’s Run will be running again, with Ryan Gosling as the star, and Nicolas Winding Refn directing. For those who don’t know, Logan was a minor pre Star Wars sci fi hit. Set in a bleak future where resources are preserved by the state by killing everyone on their 30th birthday; Those who try to escape their fate are known as “Runners” Although it came out just the year before Star Wars, the two movies look almost a decade apart in terms of effects and just about everything. Aside from Luke and Han’s hair, the aesthetic of Star Wars remains timeless, while the look of Logan’s Run is strictly 70’s. (some of it looks just like an average 70’s shopping mall because It was shot in an actual 70’s shopping mall) Based on the 1967 novel of the same name, the movie changed many details (such as the age of death being 30 instead of 21) With the casting of Ryan Gosling, it is likely that the original’s movie death age of 30 will remain.
Although I am usually down on these remakes, Logan’s Run is actually a movie that can be improved on. Warners has been trying for years, first with Bryan Singer; Singer was said to be “drawn to the themes of the obsession with youth and mortality in as utopian society” (I think Singer was more interested in the “youth” part. In Singer’s world, 21 year old boys are too old too.) After Singer dropped out, a ton of other names were bandied about, before landing on the director of Drive and Bronson, Nicolas Winding Refn. Now with the lead cast and a director too, it looks like this might be the team that finally gets this project running again. So to speak.
