The Week In Geek: Superman & Batman Casting, Plus Wolverine, Star Wars, Star Trek & Jurassic Park 4?
DC Comic Book Movie Casting Bits
Maybe in an effort to get everyone’s attention away from all the shitty reviews Green Lantern is getting, Warner Brother’s has announced casting for one big super hero movie, and pretty much announced casting for a pretty major part of The Dark Knight Rises by letting it leak. The first announcement is that Russell Crowe has signed on for the part of Jor-El in Zack Snyder’s upcoming reboot of Superman, The Man of Steel. It looks like Snyder is taking a page from Richard Donner’s original film, by casting Superman with a little known actor and surrounding him with a lot of very well known names. While I am not the biggest Crowe fan in the world (more for his douchey real life persona, not so much his acting, he’s fine in that department) I do like that this time they are casting a younger Jor-El. The other DC movie casting news (and this is big time SPOILER folks, so we put it in INVISITEXT! Highlight to ruin the film for yourself.) is that Liam Neeson is filming a spot for The Dark Knight Rises as Ra’s al Ghul. Is this just a flashback, or are they really gonna go all super comic booky on us and introduce the Lazurus Pit?? I am hoping for the latter.
Wolverine Gets A Director (Again)
After searching for months for someone to replace Darren Aronofsky, it seems Twentieth Century Fox has finally found a replacement for him in the form of James Mangold, the guy behind such films as Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma and Identity (as well as last year’s Tom Cruise wannabe comeback film dud Knight and Day) He’s a competent director, so let’s hope Fox gives him the freedom they gave Matthew Vaughn for X-Men: First Class. I will admit, that after Darren Aronofsky quit the Wolverine movie a few months back, I kind of lost all hope this could be any good, despite the fact that the script by Christopher McQuarrie has been getting great buzz for months. However, the awesomeness of X-Men First Class has made me think that maybe..just maybe, Fox has turned over a new leaf when it comes to their super hero films. Fingers crossed.
Star Wars Live Action Series Not Dead Yet
Remember back in 2005, after Episode III came out, Lucas announced two Star Wars television projects as coming soon? One was the animated Clone Wars series, that debuted to great success in 2008. The other was a live action series, said to be set between episodes III and IV. Well, the live action show never materialized, but in a recent interview it was revealed that over 50 hours of scripts have already been written, and the Lucasfilm people are said to be waiting for the cost of doing a CGI heavy show to go down…so it is maybe three to four years away, but still happening. But the real question all these years is what the hell is the show supposed to be about anyway? Producer Rick Mcallum said this in a recent interview:
“Basically, it is like The Godfather; it’s the Empire slowly building up its power base around the galaxy, what happens in Coruscant, which is the major capital, and it’s a group of underground bosses who live there and control drugs, prostitution.”
Hookers and drugs in Star Wars? This feels like some weird fan fiction. But with over fifty scripts in the can, it seems that sooner or later this show is going to happen.
Jurassic Park IV Might Be Coming After All
Does anyone really want this? No? Oh well, Too bad. It looks like those presky dinos from Isla Nublar are coming back, despite the fact the Spielberg said not to long ago that with author Michael Chrichton dead, he would feel wrong revisiting Jurassic Park again. But hey money talks, and the 90’s are retro cool now, so why not? It looks like screenwriter Mark Protosevich (who worked on an earlier script for Thor) is said to be the go to guy for this one. I adore the original movie, but think all the sequels are a waste of time, so I’m wondering what can possibly be done to make this one any better? Dinos VS Zombies?
Star Trek II Delayed By Several Months
Alhough Paramount originally slated Star Trek 2 to come out June 29th of 2012, it now looks like that is going to be pushed back. On a recent appearance on the Howard Stern show promoting his movie Super 8, director JJ Abrams revealed that they are 6 months behind on the new Star Trek, so that summer 2012 date is looking less and less likely. I say push they movie to winter if you have to, don’t rush a release date just to make it a summer film. We’ve all seen what a movie rushed to make a date looks like (I’m looking at you, X3) the reboot of Star Trek was so great, the last thing anyone wants is for this franchise to derail after we just got it back. Take your time JJ, we’ll wait.
San Diego Comic Con Losing The Hollywood Luster?
Has the luster lavished by Hollywood studios over the past decade finally faded from Comic Con? It seems that way. Apparently a ton of studios are pulling out from big expensive Comic Con presentations for this year, including Warner Brothers (probably not wanting to show their faces to fanboys after Green Lantern) According to an article in the New York Times, studios are starting to realize that Comic Con buzz does not always translate into real life…otherwise Comic Con hits like Tron: Legacy and Kick Ass would have translated into huge box office. Even Marvel Studios was rumored to not attend (something Marvel has since debunked) There are several major comic book movies coming next year, and at least one (The Amazing Spider-Man) is having a panel, but it seems several of the others are sitting this one out. I can only hope Hollywood’s affair with Comic Con being over means fewer attendees, but somehow I doubt that. I think we’ll all be packed like sardines for years to come.
