The Week In Geek: Buffy and Angel Reunited, MI IV, Marvel Movies Galore
Buffy and Angel Reunited at last. Oh, and Spike too…
Buffy Summers and the love of her life/worst enemy Angel seem to always be pulled together, then forcefully torn apart…first storywise on their respective shows, then literally when their shows were separated when Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved on to UPN and Angel remaining on the WB Network, and then again when Joss Whedon brought Buffy to comics over at Dark Horse Comics and Angel ended up at IDW Publishing. People thought the two would never re-unite again, but it was announced this week that Angel would be returning to Dark Horse comics in late 2011, in conjuction with Buffy: Season 9. Apparently, Joss Whedon wanted both properties under one roof again, as the Buffy/Angel storylines are going to intertwine probably more than they have since the old WB network days. As a huge Whedon fan, I am all for the Buffyverse continuing indefinitely in comic book form only…no bitchy actresses asking for too much money for a movie reunion, an unlimited budget, and no worries about hot vampires getting too old or too fat (although the “too fat” part might have already happened in the last season or two of Angel’s series. C’mon, you know you noticed too….)
Marvel Movie News
So the rumor of the week is that the reason Alice Eve dropped out of playing Emma Frost in X-Men First Class was because Fox was crazy about her for the larger role of Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. Also in contention for parts are Adrian Brody and Johnathan Rhys Meyers as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (really??) Note to Fox: Stop worrying about getting actors before you even have a script or a director or even a storyline direction for your movies. Try it, it might work for you. In other Marvel movie news, Marvel Studios have hired a screenwriter for a forthcoming Iron Fist movie. The bad news is that the screenwriter is the same guy who brought us the XXX movies (no, not porn, those movies with Vin Diesel and Ice Cube. Can you imagine a porn flick with the name “Iron Fist”?? Yeah, me too) some guy named Richard Wilkes. If made, this would be (along with presumably Doctor Strange) the first Marvel movies released under the Disney banner.
MI-IV Moves Forward
So Paramount is moving forward with the Mission Impossible franchise, despite the fact that America clearly hates Tom Cruise now (yeah, I know Tom is kind of a douchebag and part of a creepy cult, but it isn’t like he’s Mel Gibson or something. Lay off the guy people.) Apparently though, due to the fact that Paramount no longer trusts Cruise to open a film on his own after Knight and Day tanked, he is taking a considerable pay cut, and is being teamed up with a younger agent. While being teamed with a younger actor would not seem like an insult to ordinary people, for actors, being teamed up with the new younger guy is the nice way of the studio telling you that you’re old. So you know this stings for our favorite Scientologist. And it looks like the new younger agent will be none other than future Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner. I’m not totally sure what the motivation is for casting Renner; this being Hollywood it can’t be just because he is an excellent actor. Sure, The Hurt Locker is a terrific flick, but it isn’t like it made a ton of money. Renner does not in anyway guarantee box office profits, his biggest hit so far being the 2003 movie version of SWAT. Still, the last Mission Impossible movie was easily the best one, so hopefully this will be a good move for everyone involved. And I’m rooting for Renner, since I’ve been a fan since he played a vampire back in the day on Angel. (See how it all comes full circle here?)
