Week In Geek News: Marvel vs Norton, Gibson vs Bale
This has been quite a busy week in geek news, so lets get to it, shall we?
MARVEL STUDIOS PULLS A TERRANCE HOWARD ON ED NORTON
So last Friday it was reported that Edward Norton would not be asked back by Marvel Studios to reprise his role as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in their forthcoming Avengers movie, despite public statements on his behalf that he was eager to reprise the role. It was said he had even had meetings with director Joss Whedon, all which went well. But Marvel, notoriously cheap as far as studios go, apparently did not want to pay Norton’s fee. They pulled this cheap ass shit before with Terrance Howard on Iron Man 2, and were this close to cheaping out on director Jon Favreu and Mickey Rourke as well, before wiser heads prevailed. Then things got real bitchy, when Marvel president Kevin Feige released a statement, that in part, went like this:
“We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.“
Umm….so Ed Norton is not creative and collaborative? Way to be classy there Marvel. Yeah, we all know Ed Norton is difficult, but seriously, this only makes you look bad, not him. There are rumors already going around that Mark Ruffalo is the new Banner, but wouldn’t it be awesome if Marvel brought out Eric Bana on stage next week at Comic Con, just for the geek meltdown it would cause?
GREEN LANTERN MOVIE COSTUME REVEALED, NEEDS MORE BLACK
Entertainment Weekly gave us our first look at Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern Hal Jordan this week. Unlike all previous super hero movies to date, Reynold’s super hero outfit will be totally a CGI fabrication (which makes sense as his costume is just made of energy anyway). The internet nerd herd flipped out as usual, by either praising how perfect it was or crapping on it entirely. My recommendation to everyong: relax.
This is clearly just a Photoshop mock up made in time to meet the Comic Con issue deadline (please God, please), and seeing as how the suit is all CG, they have plenty of time between now and next June to tweak it.
I just hope that when they DO tweak it….they fix that mask a bit, cause Hal Jordan looks like a porn parody version of himself. Oh…and add some more black cause green on green? This isn’t Burning Man. Also, it kind of looks like they put his muscles on the outside. Just sayin’.
MEL GIBSON GIVES THE INTERNET COMEDY GOLD, FUEL
Each day this week, a new installment of Mel Gibson’s seemingly endless phone conversation (well, more like misogynist, racist rant, where he couldn’t) with his ex Oksana Grigorieva (I don’t think a single person on this here internet didn’t copy/paste that name when reporting on this) was released to the masses, culminating into about 30 minutes of Mel struggling to find new ways to say the words “Bitch” “Whore” and “Cunt”, with certain racial slurs thrown in for good sport!
This, of course, has inspired numerous internet memes, like a phone conversation between Mel Gibson and Christian Bale, the inevitable Mel dance remix, and my personal favorite, Mel’s rant quotes as kitty cat inspirational posters. Enjoy.
The cutest version of hate on Earth!
See you next week for the rundown on the best, funniest and most embarassing stories of the week in geek.
