Just two quick observations about Joss Whedon’s Zomney political ad, which has gotten plenty of coverage elsewhere. The video has a lot of smart, funny lines in it, but it’s tough to beat the filmmaker’s observation that: “The 1 percent will no longer be the very rich. It will be the very fast.”
The other thing that I love about the clip is that Whedon, who, based on the success of The Avengers alone is probably a member of the 1 percent — the wealthy, not the fast version — is doing dishes by hand in the spot. Love that earthy image Joss, and the drying rack.
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Prepare for a 2015 clash of the superhero titans: According to the LA Times, Warner Bros. is moving full steam ahead on their Justice League movie with an eye to hit theaters in Summer 2015, which also happens to be when Marvel’s set the blockbuster sequel to their enormously successful Avengers.
The announcement via anonymous studio tipster comes on the heels of yesterday’s huge legal win in a battle over the rights to the Superman character, without which any Supes projects would have been delayed another few years pending rights clearances.
LA Times reports that with a Justice League script on the way, the search for a director and stars is next as WB aims to begin filming next year. Per DC Comics lore, the Justice League is comprised of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Martian Manhunter. The plan is reportedly to debut the multi-hero team-up first, then spin-off characters into their own standalone films.
Avengers 2, meanwhile, has a jump on the development process; Marvel/Disney set a release date of May 1, 2015 back in August, and Avengers director Joss Whedon is returning to write and direct.
All of which begs the question: Will the summer of 2015 be the biggest moviegoing season in history? (And if you had to choose, which side of the Marvel/DC culture wars are you on?)
[LA Times]
Ben Affleck’s come a long way since his 1998 Oscar co-win for Good Will Hunting, arguably the first time Hollywood stood up and took notice of the multi-hyphenate as more than just an actor; according to Variety, he’s now being sought after to direct WB’s Justice League, DC’s answer to Marvel’s billion-dollar rival franchise starter The Avengers. But even after the successes of modest-scale thrillers Gone Baby Gone and The Town, and with his buzzed-about forthcoming picture Argo poised for awards season, is the writer/producer/actor/director the right filmmaker to helm the superhero studio tentpole?
Sources tell Variety that Affleck has been given the Justice League script as WB approaches him to direct, speculating further that he could additionally star in the pic. But take it all with a healthy grain of salt: Insiders tell Movieline that the report, while plausible, “is ridiculously vague and early.”
That’s pretty much what the report sounds like, coming conspicuously just a day after Disney’s Bob Iger spilled the news that Joss Whedon will be coming back to helm Avengers 2. So somebody out there wants to gauge public opinion, generate a little Justice League buzz, stir the pot. Given the mixed reaction rippling through the blogosphere today, consider that pot stirred.
The question is, would Affleck make a good choice for the Justice League movie? Notwithstanding the possibility that he’d star while simultaneously helming an epic megamillion-dollar production with billions of box office, a multi-film franchise, and the fiscal fate of the studio on the line — really, would he? Would anyone? — maybe he’d only take one job at a time in this case. Just maybe. What Gone Baby Gone did to put Affleck on the map as a bona fide seriouspants filmmaker to…
Full Story »Thousands Joss Whedonites gathered at Comic-Con Friday to witness the ten-year reunion of Firefly, Whedon’s short-lived space Western cult series that spawned a 2005 feature film and an unusually fervent fan following. The show, Whedon announced, will get a new forthcoming Dark Horse comics continuation that will pick up after the events of previous Firefly/Serenity lore. As for fans of his other genre adaptation… well, he’s not quite set on leaping back into the Avengers‘ director’s chair. “I have not come to a decision on directing Avengers 2 yet,” he said. “I am having too much fun with this now.” [Deadline]
Given Mark Ruffalo’s reported six-picture deal with Marvel Studios to portray mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner and his rage monster alter ego The Hulk in multiple movies after this week’s The Avengers – and considering how well his take on the iconic comic book character plays, both as Banner and the beast — it seems safe to say that the indie veteran’s first superhero outing won’t be his last. But before The Avengers director Joss Whedon came calling, Ruffalo admits he wasn’t so sure he could pull off such a task. “I didn’t have the confidence to do it,” he told Movieline, “and no one was coming to me with those kinds of parts.”
Making Ruffalo’s task even more Herculean in the superhero super-team up The Avengers is the fact that two entirely different recent attempts at a Hulk movie precede his (Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk and Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk). But Ruffalo’s approach was two-fold: First, he saw his Hulk as a progression from predecessors Eric Bana and Edward Norton, one who’s recruited into Nick Fury’s Avengers Initiative (alongside Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye) after years spent harnessing the monster within. And second: Thanks to motion capture technology, he got to actually play The Hulk.
Ruffalo spoke with Movieline about the potentially life-changing decision to take on The Avengers, how far his Banner has come in accepting his gift/curse, why he coined the phrase “boy soup” in relation to co-star Scarlett Johansson, and which of his superhero co-stars possess the greatest skills… in Dance Dance Revolution.
It’s neat to see you all together, and it seems like whenever any of the cast is asked to name their favorite moment…
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The Oscars are staying put for another 20 years, and before Scarlett Johansson joined the Avengers, another superhero was in line for the feature. Read on for that revelation and more in Tuesday’s latest Biz Break.
From Movieline…
Oscars to Remain in Hollywood Home – Recast as Dolby Theatre
The Academy Awards are staying put at the Hollywood and Highland complex under a new two-decade pact, and Dolby Laboratories will have its branding on the theater that has served as home of the Academy Awards since 2002, AMPAS said Tuesday. The venue will now be known as the Dolby Theatre, CIM Group, which owns the Hollywood & Highland center said. Under the new contract with the Academy, the Dolby Theatre (formerly the Kodak Theatre) will host the Academy Awards through 2033.
ARC Entertainment Takes a Knockdown
The distribution and sales company has picked up North American rights to action thriller Knockdown and is planning a June 8 theatrical release. Starring Tom Arnold, the film directed by Todd Bellanca follows the trials and tribulations in the life of an American boxer, whose past follows him halfway across the world.
For Ellen Lands at Tribeca Film
North American rights to 2012 Sundance Film Festival debut For Ellen have been acquired by Tribeca Film, the distribution label under Tribeca Enterprises. The company plans a fall release in select theatrical markets (beginning Sept. 5 at New York’s Film Forum) and will be released via On Demand platforms as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Xbox and Samsung Media Hub. Starring Paul Dano, the film centers on a struggling musician takes who fights his estranged wife for custody of their young daughter.
Around the ‘net…
Avengers: Before Scarlett Johansson, There was the Wasp
A female superhero named the Wasp…
When I was in college, I once went on a weekend trip with my two roommates to Cape Cod, where someone had scrounged up a summer home belonging to a family friend who was willing to let us stay for a few days. The owners were in the middle of renovating the place, so instead of windows there were just sheets of plastic that bulged in and out with the wind. Half the rooms didn’t have electricity, and we had to go to the tap outside to get water — but hey, someone was letting us stay in their house in a scenic location far from our shabby apartment near campus, and for free. No one was complaining.
Except that it got dark, and the fact that we were out in the woods down a narrow driveway removed from the road with nothing sheltering us from the outside but transparent tarps (just the thing for wrapping up dead bodies) started to seem a little spooky. We were three young women huddling around one of the few working lamps in a house in the middle of nowhere, and I started to reflect on the fact that if we were in a movie, we’d for sure get murdered in a few minutes by someone with chainsaws for hands or something. And then the friend who’d set this up, a sporty, outgoing environmentalist who’d definitely outlive me in any theoretical slasher flick, mentioned offhand (she wasn’t joking) that the owners of the house had mentioned that if we saw a guy in the woods outside in the middle of the night, it was probably their friend Bill, who was helping with the remodeling and sometimes stayed in their shed.
What’s my point? My point is that you don’t want me telling you…
Full Story »Talking about Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s savvy and surprising genre deconstruction Cabin in the Woods, the opening night film of SXSW 2012, is a tricky thing partly because nobody involved wants any part of the film spoiled for their opening weekend audience and also, more importantly, because those surprises really are best left discovered by virgin eyes. So rest assured: All spoilery plot details, character developments, casting choices, kills, and surprises that follow in this piece have been redacted for the preservation of discovery, leaving only all the vital bits of information up for discussion. Like, after filming in 2009 and being delayed for so long that star Chris Hemsworth is now kind of famous, is Cabin in the Woods actually any good?
The quick and easy answer is (mostly) yes, though folks who rooted out early-early word on the mysterious meta-horror pic already know that nothing but raves came from an unofficial unveiling – call it a test run in friendly waters – at last winter’s Butt-Numb-A-Thon in Austin. But Friday at SXSW Cabin in the Woods had its true blue world premiere, confirming those early rumblings: It’s smart, fresh, and utterly Whedonesque, even if its ultimate point is more muddled and incomplete than profound.
The basic plot setup is as follows: Five attractive college kids embark on a weekend getaway in the woods at a lakeside cabin, each repping a different classic horror movie type. There’s Curt (Chris Hemsworth), the jock; Jules (Anna Hutchison), his blonde girlfriend; Dana (Kristen Connolly), the average-but-extraordinary in a secretly-stronger-than-she-thinks kind of final girl way; Holden (Jesse Williams), Curt’s good looking friend/ Dana’s new love interest; and Marty (Fran Kranz), their stoner pal. Once at the cabin, the gang is…
Full Story »Each year SXSW plays host to a slate of risk-taking fare of all kinds, from true indie offerings to upcoming studio releases geared to a slightly more open crowd, and the 2012 film line-up features no shortage of movies poised to earn that precious film festival commodity: Positive buzz. But some projects have more at stake than others — say, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s long-awaited Cabin in the Woods, Will Ferrell’s Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre, or the directorial debut of actor Matthew Lillard. On the eve of SXSW 2012 (which runs March 9-17 in Austin, Texas), check out the ten SXSW titles with the most to prove going into their festival debuts.
Click to launch the gallery!
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When Joss Whedon first dropped Angelina Jolie’s name while talking up his doomed Wonder Woman project, folks assumed he’d envisioned her in the lead role. Speaking with Rookie Magazine, he clarified: His Diana Prince, Amazon goddess, was merely Angelina-esque in her globe-trotting humanitarian leanings. And in a way, the superheroine would have been saved by love. Whedon explains after the jump.
“She was a little bit like Angelina Jolie,” the Avengers director said. “She sort of traveled the world. She was very powerful and very naïve about people, and the fact that she was a goddess was how I eventually found my in to her humanity and vulnerability, because she would look at us and the way we kill each other and the way we let people starve and the way the world is run and she’d just be like, None of this makes sense to me. I can’t cope with it, I can’t understand, people are insane.”
“And ultimately her romance with Steve was about him getting her to see what it’s like not to be a goddess, what it’s like when you are weak, when you do have all these forces controlling you and there’s nothing you can do about it. That was the sort of central concept of the thing. Him teaching her humanity and her saying, OK, great, but we can still do better.”
So, kind of like Leeloo meets Thor meets Angelina the ambassador? Long for what might’ve been all you want, but I’d prefer a take (maybe Nicolas Winding Refn’s?) that doesn’t involve the awesomest Amazonian superheroine that ever was learning vulnerability and weakness from her boyfriend.
[Rookie via Cinema Blend]
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