The Week In Geek: Daredevil Returns! Wolverine To Suck! More Zombies For Edgar Wright!
Daredevil Returns
I’m pretty sure I’m one of the few people who didn’t hate the first Daredevil movie. I’ve never been that attached to Daredevil as a character, and really only know him from his numerous appearances in various other Marvel Comics, so maybe that is why I had no real expectations for the movie when it came out. There are things about it that suck, sure (Mostly that awful and annoying pop rock soundtrack that made the whole movie stink of MTV circa 2003 and forever dates the movie, and also a certain playground fight scene) But I like Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock, I like Jon Favreau as Foggy Nelson even more, and I might be the only person who enjoyed Colin Farrell’s over the top turn as Bullseye.
And despite what people think now, Daredevil’s movie didn’t bomb at the box office. It made $103 million on a $75 million dollar budget, and in the month of February to boot, when the box office is traditionally dead. Adjusted for inflation, it would have made $134 million in today’s dollars, which is really not bad for a character with no recognizability with non geeks and released during the “off” season. I mean, even the X-Men had a cartoon prior to a movie, so non comics people had some sort of idea what that franchise was. If the Daredevil movie had tanked, Fox would have never green lit a spin off, which they did. Of course Elektra’s spin off movie did bomb, and so that was the end of that franchise, at least for awhile.
But now Fox is rebooting Daredevil, mostly because they have no choice. During the Marvel bankruptcy of the 90’s, Fox snatched up the rights to Daredevil (as well as the Fantastic Four and the X-Men) for a song, and as long as they keep making movies based on these properties, they can hold on to the rights forever. But that means they have to make movies within a certain time frame, and for Daredevil that window is fast approaching.
David Slade, who made a big splash a few years ago with the pedo- revenge flick Hard Candy, is now set to direct. Since his Hard Candy breakthrough, Slade went on to make 30 Days of Night, which no one really seemed to like, and then last year’s Twilight entry Eclipse. This of course has made internet fanboys scream bloody murder, because his involvement with the Twilight franchise somehow means Robert Pattinson MUST be in line to play Daredevil. (I’ve seriously read like five people say this today) I liked Hard Candy a lot, so maybe he can bring some of that sensibility to Daredevil. It seems this is going to be based on Frank Miller’s seminal 80’s Daredevil story Born Again, and will be something of a soft reboot…in other words, no one from the original movie is slated to appear, but it won’t contradict the events of the previous movie either. At least the origin story won’t be re-told.
And for those of you out there wishing that Marvel Studios/Disney would get the rights back to their super hero properties that Fox has, don’t hold your breath. Fox paid real money for these, and just as a point of pride they will never allow Disney to get their hands on them again, at least not in our lifetimes. It has to sting to have to give Marvel/Disney any percentage of the revenue now, no matter how small it may be. So they’l never let them have the whole enchilada. And if every few years they have to make a Daredevil movie to hang on to the rights, that means eventually they gotta make a great one….right? Well…this is Fox, so maybe not. *sigh* And speaking of Fox and stupidity….
It WAS Too Good To Be True After All:
Wolverine Loses Darren Aronofsky
…..And with him, there goes almost all hope that this movie is going to be any good. Officially, Darren Aronofsky’s decision to leave the directing gig for The Wolverine had nothing to do with any kind of dispute with Fox, but instead had to do with not wanting to be away from his family for close to a year. Uh-huh. It isn’t like Aronofsky just now realized how long this project would take, and there is a lot of speculation that since the movie is set to be filmed about 90% on location in Japan, that Aronofsky didn’t want to shoot there due to the recent tragedy. This last bit really doesn’t make sense either, as a big Hollywood production would bring in millions of dollars to an economy that needs it desperately.
But the folks over at Cinemablend.com seem to have the inside scoop, and according to their sources (same ones who broke the news that Jon Favreau was set to leave the Iron Man franchise) it seems that once again, we all have no one but Twentieth Century Fox to blame. Here’s what they had to say on the matter:
Here’s the short version: He wanted control and they wouldn’t give it to him.
It’s no secret that Aronofsky has been interested in making a comic book movie for years. Before Christopher Nolan got involved and did Batman Begins, he’d even been working on his own Batman vision. He’s also friends with Jackman, who seemed to know that the first Wolverine wasn’t very good, and approached him about taking over the franchise. That explains how Aronofsky got involved, but he’s still Aronofsky, and his style requires total control over whatever he’s working in. Movies like Black Swan don’t happen in an environment of studio interference and Darren no doubt knew of all the problems the previous X-Men movies have had. So he attached himself to the project, but didn’t sign on the dotted line until Fox agreed to give him the control he wanted.
We’re told that after his last movie earned a Best Picture nomination and won Natalie Portman an Oscar, he made his demand for the total control over the film that he’d wanted all along, the kind of control Christopher Nolan now has over the Batman franchise at Warner Bros. They tried to give him more money but that wasn’t what Aronofsky wanted. In response to his demand for total control, our source says, “the producers pretty much told him to walk.” So this morning, he did.
This is the same thought process that killed X-Men 3 from being any good. They will probably find some newbie director, maybe someone with one little critically acclaimed movie under his belt, but not with enough clout that they can’t push him around and make whatever generic action movie they want. Kinda like what happened with Gavin Hood on the last Wolverine movie. Summer 2012 bring us two of the most anticipated comic book movies ever, The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers. If Fox throws out a substandard Wolverine flick amidst these two sure to be huge movies, it will just cement the X-Men movies as being past their prime and tired. Note to Fox. DO NOT rush this movie to start shooting this spring just to meet a release date. Take your time, find another director of Aronfsky’s caliber to helm this, postpone it if you have to. Otherwise this movie is always going to be referred to as a giant missed opportunity, a giant “what coulda been” project. As it stands now, there is almost nothing that can stop that perception now anyway. But you can at least try.
Red Dawn Remake Becomes Team America 2. Or Something Just As Funny.
In what will surely go down as one of the biggest pussy moves in recent movie history, MGM has decided in their infinite wisdom to change the invading force that comes to America’s shores from the communist Chinese to North Korea for their remake of 80’s Cold War exploitation movie Red Dawn. See, we have waay too many financial ties to our Chinese “friends” and don’t wanna piss them off for fear of losing a potential Wal Mart sweatshop or three. Now, this movie was shot and finished well over a year ago, maybe even two. It has been sitting on the shelf while MGM sorted out their financial problems. But now MGM is back on their feet, more or less, and are ready to release this, although in a new mutilated form. So how are they gonna make this change after shooting is long over? CGI will be used to erase every single Chinese flag and patch and changed to North Korean. (yup, some poor guys in the MGM effects dept. have some long pizza filled nights ahead of them. Get ready to order in boys) Chinese actors will be now dubbed to speak Korean, because, ya know…who can even tell them apart, right? (I promise you some asshole executive probably actually said this in a meeting) This will all probably look really shitty and fake looking, and cause people to burst out laughing in the theater, especially since many will know to be looking for it now.
black;”>In one way, this sort of makes sense though. Why does China need to invade us, when they already own our asses? They just ended up buying us. No gunfire needed. But if they are gonna stick to this notion of North Korea invading us, then I say they ressurect the Kim Jong Il puppet from Team America black;”> black;”>for the grand finale. That could totally make it all worth it.
Wonder Woman Pilot Starts Shooting
The pilot for David E Kelley’s Wonder Woman pilot began shooting this week in the Southern California area. So far, it is all exterior shots, and the only major cast member seen has been Elizabeth Hurley (who plays villainess Veronica Cale) So no sign yet of Adrianne Palicki in the costume, but a major action sequence on Hollywood Blvd is scheduled to be shot at the end of March, and there is no way that spy cams aren’t going to catch a shot of Adrianne in her full Wonder Woman get up when that happens. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have an idea of what Diana will be wearing…the cast and crew chairs were sporting the show’s new Wonder Woman logo on them, and fans did get snapshots of those. As much as I’ve been trashing this project left and right, I gotta say I dig the re-design of the Wonder Woman symbol…a nice combination of the classic eagle and the modern double W symbol. If this is what they end up using as the emblem, then I can live with it.
****UPDATE*****UPDATE*****
Well, no sooner did I post this that then Warner Bros. released their first official pic of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman, in her full regalia. And this being Wonder Woman, let’s just say I have capital O Opinions. First off, I actually like the overall design. The bodice and the bracelets are far more like the classic comic book costume than the costume she is currently wearing. Thankfully, the leather jacket, all the annoying straps, and the overly busy doo dads on the bracelets are gone too. I’m never gonna be crazy about pants on Wonder Woman, but at least they are blue now and not black like the current comic design (and looking carefully, there are stars on the pants) I hate that the boots aren’t red. Wonder Woman has always had red boots and/or sandals, because it balances with the top. It’s the same reason that Superman and Spidey wear red boots. That’s something they hopefully change.
But let’s get to the REAL problem. The fabric used looks cheap. Like Halloween Store cheap. Like fuckin’ Hollywood Blvd. 80’s Hooker cheap. When you look at the care put into the fabrics for the costumes for Spider-Man (both the old and new ones) Batman and even Brandon Routh’s Superman costume, this is inexcusable. Yeah, I know this is tv and not a movie, but millions of dollars were spent on this pilot too, you can’t tell me that they couldn’t have spent more money and time on this costume’s fabric. If this show goes to series, then I seriously hope they invest in better fabric. Because this looks like a booth girl at Comic Con. And not the DC Comics booth, the Vivid Entertainment booth.
Edgar Wright To Direct An Episode Of The Walking Dead?? Maybe…
For those of you wondering just what Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright will do next after the so undeserved commercial failure of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, it looks like he may be returning to Zombie territory. In an interview with Collider at South by Southwest, Wright mentioned that Walking Dead producer Frank Darabont has actually asked him to direct an episode of the show. He hasn’t said yes yet, saying that although he is a fan of the show, that with something like this he’d “want to be in on the ground floor” and that he didn’t wanna be the guy to come in and “fuck it up.” Considering that Shaun of the Dead is easily one of the best zombie movies ever, I really doubt he could fuck anything up. Or maybe that is his polite way of saying “thanks but no thanks” Still, this fanboy at least hope he says yes, ‘cuz it would be all kinds of awesome.
