Not to burst your bubble of fun for jeering me, Tony but I actually like the extended version of Daredevil. Honestly, the flow of the story was much better. Director Johnson is still a tool though because I'm sure he okay'ed that costume.. I just hate that damn costume (specifically that S&M mask))
My bad; I seemed to recall a grudging acceptance of the director's cut at best. As for mediocre costumes, let's not go there. :v
As fanboy as I am, I still hate the current Batman's get-up. See? I can be fair. )
I'd forgotten about Speed Racer; that one is acutally pretty cheap, relatively speaking.
Just so you know, Tony, I hear that it's going to be a 3-disc set! I hope that it holds true. {[]
Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice isUNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I'd forgotten about Speed Racer; that one is acutally pretty cheap, relatively speaking.
Just so you know, Tony, I hear that it's going to be a 3-disc set! I hope that it holds true. {[]
The BluRay edition is also 3 discs. In both cases, my understanding is that Disc 1 will have the movie, Disc 2 will have the extras, and Disc 3 will have an unprotected version of the movie at a lower resolution that you can download for viewing on portable devices like Ipods, the Sony PSP and so forth.
I thought the costume for DD wasn't too bad, all things considered. Have you seen the other versions they toyed with in the bonus features? one with roll-up sleeves and one that looked like he was wearing a boxers robe? what the hell was all that about!
I thought the costume for DD wasn't too bad, all things considered. Have you seen the other versions they toyed with in the bonus features? one with roll-up sleeves and one that looked like he was wearing a boxers robe? what the hell was all that about!
) I think the boxer's robe was an attempt at paying tribute or harkening to Matt Murdoch's father who was of course a boxer. Still, all things considered, the suit used wasn't all that bad; it was definitely more functional and utilitarian than a red spandex outfit.
I caught the pilot episode of Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman from 1976 last night. (There was another pilot episode some time before with another actress which lacked the fancy getup of boots and bracelet and bombed).
It was a lot more fun than the Six Million Dollar Man pilot, they seemed to know what they were doing from the off. With one caveat, it was set in World War II! This sounded odd to me, and indeed it starts off with footage of Nazis and tanks, all out of The World at War, with a FDR mimicking voice, saying, "We will fight them thanks to our dignity, our honesty and..." then it interjects with WONDER WOMAN! titles jumping out of the screen and the famous theme tune! Hmmm.
But this turns out to be the WW2 not of Secret Army but Hogan's Heroes so WW's turn is not too incongruous. She has a delayed entrance because it starts off with the Nazis planning to bomb a Brooklyn naval yard with a single plane. The US Military Intelligence, seemingly comprising just two blokes in Washington with a blonde secretary, get wind of this and plan to intercept the plane and shoot it down over the Bermuda triangle.
However the two planes collide after a shootout and the US pilot parachutes injured onto Paradise Island, populated entirely by women. Its a sort of Sharangha-La as none of them have aged in thousands of years. The Princess is Lynda Carter - I hope you're taking notes on this – and she takes a fancy to the pilot and tricks her mum the queen into getting to take him back (in her invisible plane, not sure why they'd need that if they never left the island).
Over in Brooklyn there are the usual fish out of water exploits. It's not too clear how much of a superhero WW is. She's not an alien and originally it seems she's just very well trained. But the island seems to lend her mythical properties, retained away from it by wearing her belt and tiarra. It's not clear how her spinning around gets her fancy get-up on, however.
WW gets to tackle a double agent (the secretary, a Heather Mills lookalike) but no tanks or anything with her lassoo. I guess her persona was in contrast to the square, ernest demeanor of Adam West's Batman, who was always personally astonished at the Riddler's dastardly plan, whereas WW is more amused at these strange men's antics, like an owner with a micheevious dog after a cookie. It is rather more sexy... and a heck of a contrast.
The whole premise behind the Wonder Woman show (at least at the start) was that her people had long ago banished war and learned to live in peace. Also, I think she was supposed to be over 2,000 years old (very well preserved, if you ask me). To her, "civilization" was still in a child-like state and thus her amused expressions.
The spinning costume change makes about as much sense as the Batpoles - but it is fun to look at.
As to the absence of tanks and other WWII hardware, this was a low budget TV movie. It must have been a big enough strain on the budget to set it in WWII (and later seasons shifted the action to modern times) and staging complicated action scenes was way beyond the scope of the show.
BTW, on an unrelated matter, I've become increasingly concerned with Dan Same's misguided love of Spiderman and his constant need to defend emo boy. Time to show him the webhead's real pecking order in the Pantheon of Superheros. Behold...
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
edited August 2008
Supposedly coming out in mid-October:
I really, really hope that they put the option for the edited and unedited versions on this deal for comparison. I'd hate to wait four years for an extended version that airs on the FX Channel. 8-)
I also want to see a possibility of this infamous Cap footage that some say exists while others deny it.
Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice isUNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
IGN has an article on the proposed Green Lantern movie. Apparently the script is done and the producers are very happy with it, so much so that they're thinking of getting a more established director on board as the story appears to be very big and ambitious.
If handled properly, Green Lantern could easily be a breakout hit for DC/WB much like Iron Man became a break-out hit Marvel/Paramount. He's not as well known as some of DC's other, more established heroes, but he still possesses some interesting abilities and a rich backstory.
And here is an IESB article with more info (as well as potential spoilers, if that's possible at this early stage, and a brief update on the JLA movie):
There's still a looooooong way to go before this ever sees the light of day but if this article is legit then these first baby steps appear promising. The story sounds good, the writers seem to get the character and, most importantly, the studio seems to like it, which is a really good sign.
Just reading that little prologue about the Guardians of the Universe gave me goosebumps, it would be a great way to start the movie.
And yeah, I love Iron Man and I'm happy as can be that he's so popular and relevant again, but Green Lantern is still tops for me.
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
edited August 2008
The report only states that execs are thinking of Miller for the Green Lantern job, not that he has actually been approached about it.
The current Green Lantern script is said to include
Hal Jordan (Cool.)
, Sinestro (Very cool but should be malevolent like Bruce Timm's, not the Superfriends' version)
, Abin Sur (Of course)
and Guy Gardner. (Ugh. Not him.)
I dread Gardner about as much as you dread Stewart, Tony. It's funny because I was reading one of my old GL comics the other night from the 70s-80s? where Jordan & Guy get into a scrap with one another in this little podunk town only to lose their rings to a few of the seedy townspeople.
Like Batman, Hal kicks the crap out of him. )
Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice isUNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
The report only states that execs are thinking of Miller for the Green Lantern job, not that he has actually been approached about it.
I'm neutral to Miller possibly directing. The thing he has going for him is that he has experience with action heavy, effects heavy films.
Louis Letterier could probably do a good job. As could Brett Rattner, although I think the fanboys would probably condemn him before they even saw one frame of film.
I'm not much of a Guy Gardner fan but has does have his uses; you can definitely have fun with him and use him for comedy relief.
In the current books he is something of a boneheaded but still good-hearted buffoon who will always stand up for his friends and fellow Green Lanterns and put up a fight when the chips are down. He's also become a much improved character from the "brain damaged thug" of the 80's and 90's. In fact, this might be heresy, but I could almost see Daniel Craig making a half-way decent Guy.
If he were the lead I'd be worried, but in a supporting role, he'll probably be fine. Besides, like it or not, he does have his own set of fans.
And in this week's entry in the ongoing soap opera that is Punisher: War Zone, there appears to be even more discontent as Lionsgate is apparently keen to get a PG-13 rating for the movie. Needless to say, certain people are not all that happy about it.
Given the amount of violence and gore in that recent trailer (including a shot of a head getting literally blown off) I don't see how they can even dream of making it PG-13 without utterly neutering the action. And the very fact that Lionsgate would actually want a PG-13 Punisher movie speaks volumes in and of itself.
OK, now it's my turn to geek out--in an indignant way--on you guys. Apparently the old Super Max project is back on the front burner, and I'm not sure I like what I hear.
Green Arrow Plans Jail Break With Help From Joker, Lex Luthor In Upcoming Film
By Shawn Adler, with reporting by Brian Jacks
He's a DC Comics hero with nearly 70 years of backstory and mythology, a modern-day Robin Hood who uses every tool in his arsenal to fight for the little guys of Star City, but in the pantheon of great comic characters, Oliver Queen (a.k.a. the Green Arrow) ain't exactly the most well-known mask around.
Heck, he won't even be the most well known in his own movie, scribe Justin Marks told MTV News.
"Oh, we've got Lex Luthor in there," Marks gleefully revealed. "I'm pretty sure Riddler gets his shot — Ed Nigma gets his moment."
Tentatively titled "Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max," Marks' take on the titular titan is unlike any superhero movie out there in that it takes the familiar tropes of comic book films and mixes them with the long-established traditions of prison movies. In the film, Queen is unjustly locked up in a federal penitentiary for meta-humans and forced to rely on a whole bevy of villains to make his escape — villains like Luthor, Icicle and even the Joker.
But the best superhero of all in the Green Arrow prison movie? Would you believe it's the prison itself?
"It's a very, very awesome prison. I majored in architecture in college, and design is how I actually started in. For 'Super Max,' designing that prison, it had to be the kind of thing that was a character in and of itself," Marks said. "We're in a world where instead of just trying to contain a guy who's really big, you're trying to contain a guy who can — in the case of Icicle — who can freeze things. What kind of a cell would a guy like that need in order to have his powers neutralized? So to escape from Super Max they have got to go through the most elaborate heist we've ever seen, involving superpowers. Because the prison itself kind of has superpowers!"
It's a fitting tribute to a character that over the years has been more famous for his team-ups than for his individual adventures, Marks pointed out. Those team-ups include characters like the Green Lantern in a legendary run in the '70s and Batman in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns."
You can't find a much better character, then, if you're DC and your goal is to produce cross-pollinating superhero movies like Marvel has done with "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk."
"What we wanted to do, and I think we'll continue to do as the studio continues to push the movie forward, is to be able to [put Queen] in the center of a much bigger universe," Marks said. "In the same way that Marvel is starting to do, when you're in the [filmed] DC Universe [where] this world and this world and this world — they all exist in an interrelated web. It's the kind of thing that I think absolutely is about spelling out a couple different roads for a couple different characters."
That means Queen won't get a traditional origin story along the lines of Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker. But you wouldn't really want that anyway, Marks asserted.
"By the time a movie like this comes out, we will all understand origin stories. And mainstream audiences now are willing to suspend their disbelief to the point that we can believe that a world exists where superpowers exist and people dress up in costumes. So now what? Now what do we do? And I call this Superhero 2.0," Marks said. "We do deal with his origin — he's got a very interesting origin with a desert island and everything else — but we get to the core of Green Arrow not by showing where he starts but by pushing him into a key moment in his life where everything he has is lost, and he's got to earn it all back. I think for audiences it's going to be a great way to get to know a new character."
Queen himself is the "perfect hero" for this sort of reinvention, Marks said, as he's a B-level super without all the heavy baggage of Batman or Superman. More important, though, he's also a real guy, a mortal without any meta-human skills or weapons, a vigilante who gets by on nothing more than his preternatural intellect and guile. That already makes him less like the silly Golden Age caricatures and more like the reinventions so many writers deem necessary these days.
"I see him as the Jason Bourne of superheroes, a guy who exists with his own sort of set of tricks. And I think the difference between Ollie Queen and a guy like Bruce Wayne — they're both rich. They both have their things. But Batman is about his equipment and is about his theatricality and about his detective skills. And Green Arrow is a guy who's really just the sort of MacGyver type," Marks said. "In his hand, anything can be a weapon."
***
It doesn't bother me that Marks wants to put the Emerald Archer in prison, or that he wants to surround him with all the big DC super-villains. What makes me want to scream is that this guy apparently has no freakin' idea who or what Green Arrow is. Excuse me--he's Jason Bourne? A confused loner who responds to dangerous situations like Pavlov's dog responds to a bell? And he's a "MacGyver type?" And, oh yeah, he's like Batman except he doesn't rely on equipment? What the hell are his bow and arrows, you dink?!? Take away his weapons and you rob him of what makes him special--being the greatest archer in the world. I suppose this Green Arrow--well, here he's plain ol' Ollie Queen--will still be railing against the system, but with him in prison, surrounded by the weirdest criminals on earth, how will he be able to stand up for the little guy? It looks like Mr. Marks just had an idea for a movie he fell in love with--a prison filled with all the great DC villains--and he needed an anonymous figure to serve as "hero." He wrongly assumed that Green Arrow fits the bill. Groan. Where's Kevin Smith when you need him?
OK, now it's my turn to geek out--in an indignant way--on you guys. Apparently the old Super Max project is back on the front burner, and I'm not sure I like what I hear.
Green Arrow Plans Jail Break With Help From Joker, Lex Luthor In Upcoming Film
By Shawn Adler, with reporting by Brian Jacks
He's a DC Comics hero with nearly 70 years of backstory and mythology, a modern-day Robin Hood who uses every tool in his arsenal to fight for the little guys of Star City, but in the pantheon of great comic characters, Oliver Queen (a.k.a. the Green Arrow) ain't exactly the most well-known mask around.
Heck, he won't even be the most well known in his own movie, scribe Justin Marks told MTV News.
"Oh, we've got Lex Luthor in there," Marks gleefully revealed. "I'm pretty sure Riddler gets his shot — Ed Nigma gets his moment."
Tentatively titled "Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max," Marks' take on the titular titan is unlike any superhero movie out there in that it takes the familiar tropes of comic book films and mixes them with the long-established traditions of prison movies. In the film, Queen is unjustly locked up in a federal penitentiary for meta-humans and forced to rely on a whole bevy of villains to make his escape — villains like Luthor, Icicle and even the Joker.
But the best superhero of all in the Green Arrow prison movie? Would you believe it's the prison itself?
"It's a very, very awesome prison. I majored in architecture in college, and design is how I actually started in. For 'Super Max,' designing that prison, it had to be the kind of thing that was a character in and of itself," Marks said. "We're in a world where instead of just trying to contain a guy who's really big, you're trying to contain a guy who can — in the case of Icicle — who can freeze things. What kind of a cell would a guy like that need in order to have his powers neutralized? So to escape from Super Max they have got to go through the most elaborate heist we've ever seen, involving superpowers. Because the prison itself kind of has superpowers!"
It's a fitting tribute to a character that over the years has been more famous for his team-ups than for his individual adventures, Marks pointed out. Those team-ups include characters like the Green Lantern in a legendary run in the '70s and Batman in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns."
You can't find a much better character, then, if you're DC and your goal is to produce cross-pollinating superhero movies like Marvel has done with "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk."
"What we wanted to do, and I think we'll continue to do as the studio continues to push the movie forward, is to be able to [put Queen] in the center of a much bigger universe," Marks said. "In the same way that Marvel is starting to do, when you're in the [filmed] DC Universe [where] this world and this world and this world — they all exist in an interrelated web. It's the kind of thing that I think absolutely is about spelling out a couple different roads for a couple different characters."
That means Queen won't get a traditional origin story along the lines of Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker. But you wouldn't really want that anyway, Marks asserted.
"By the time a movie like this comes out, we will all understand origin stories. And mainstream audiences now are willing to suspend their disbelief to the point that we can believe that a world exists where superpowers exist and people dress up in costumes. So now what? Now what do we do? And I call this Superhero 2.0," Marks said. "We do deal with his origin — he's got a very interesting origin with a desert island and everything else — but we get to the core of Green Arrow not by showing where he starts but by pushing him into a key moment in his life where everything he has is lost, and he's got to earn it all back. I think for audiences it's going to be a great way to get to know a new character."
Queen himself is the "perfect hero" for this sort of reinvention, Marks said, as he's a B-level super without all the heavy baggage of Batman or Superman. More important, though, he's also a real guy, a mortal without any meta-human skills or weapons, a vigilante who gets by on nothing more than his preternatural intellect and guile. That already makes him less like the silly Golden Age caricatures and more like the reinventions so many writers deem necessary these days.
"I see him as the Jason Bourne of superheroes, a guy who exists with his own sort of set of tricks. And I think the difference between Ollie Queen and a guy like Bruce Wayne — they're both rich. They both have their things. But Batman is about his equipment and is about his theatricality and about his detective skills. And Green Arrow is a guy who's really just the sort of MacGyver type," Marks said. "In his hand, anything can be a weapon."
***
It doesn't bother me that Marks wants to put the Emerald Archer in prison, or that he wants to surround him with all the big DC super-villains. What makes me want to scream is that this guy apparently has no freakin' idea who or what Green Arrow is. Excuse me--he's Jason Bourne? A confused loner who responds to dangerous situations like Pavlov's dog responds to a bell? And he's a "MacGyver type?" And, oh yeah, he's like Batman except he doesn't rely on equipment? What the hell are his bow and arrows, you dink?!? Take away his weapons and you rob him of what makes him special--being the greatest archer in the world. I suppose this Green Arrow--well, here he's plain ol' Ollie Queen--will still be railing against the system, but with him in prison, surrounded by the weirdest criminals on earth, how will he be able to stand up for the little guy? It looks like Mr. Marks just had an idea for a movie he fell in love with--a prison filled with all the great DC villains--and he needed an anonymous figure to serve as "hero." He wrongly assumed that Green Arrow fits the bill. Groan. Where's Kevin Smith when you need him?
=======
Don't know where Kevin Smith is,but it's a heck of a note to see a character like Green Arrow--who,admittedly is modeled very closely on Batman, but with a Robin Hood motif--contorted into a pale imitation of Jason Bourne(as interpreted in the recent movies,not Ludlum's novels) and Angus MacGuyver(WHY?).
I've always enjoyed the Emerald Archer and think this movie sounds like an absolutely terrible way to treat him.As you say,it's evident Marks just wants to do a prison movie packed with famous DC villains as the convicts.If I recall correctly,David S.Goyer was/is involved with this project.
But if Marks was really looking for obscure DC heroes, he could've chosen Roy Raymond (the TV detective), or King Faraday(DC's master spy), or Lee Travis(aka The Crimson Avenger-DC's imitation of The Green Hornet)or Slam Bradley(the tough P.I.),or even Michael Carter,aka "Booster Gold"(the man from the future), over Oliver Queen as his "Jason Bourne-MacGuyver-like" protagonist.Geez..just describing this oh-so-dated take on Green Arrow shows how creatively bankrupt Marks' imagination actually is.
If this thing ever gets made,I'll wait for it to come to cable, where I might watch it--unless there's something better on...
Very disappointing to be reading that Goyer's wretched Supermax project is still alive. I would have thought that the positive strides made this summer with superhero movies that stay faithful to their sources would have shown WB that turning your hero into a pale imitation of a character readily seen on TV every week isn't the brightest thing to do.
I'm not the biggest Green Arrow fan but even I know enough to understand that if you take away the costume, the trick arrows, the wisecracking, womanizing attitude, and his contempt for "the system", then you've pretty much stripped away everything that makes him what he is. If you're going to do that, you may as well just make up your own original character and drop him into the middle of the story.
I also find it hard to believe that DC and WB would happily let Marks get his unimaginative paws on some of their most prized villains and put them in a movie about a second-tier character. I can't imagine that they'd let him use Joker or Riddler at least until a decision is made on who the villains in the next Batman movie will be. Besides, wouldn't those guys have lifetime reservations at Arkham Asylum? Same goes for Lex Luthor and any future Superman movies.
There's a new article on the state of the Superman movie franchise. Looks like WB is again rethinking how to move forward with this character (can it be that hard to come up with a good story?) and it looks like Singer could be on thin ice as one exec seems to think another reboot might be in order.
Personally, I hope Brandon Routh doesn't get thrown under the bus. He did a good job with what he was given and now that he's a few years older I think he could be even more effective in the role.
As for the kid, while it sounds cruel, maybe they could kill him off near the start and use that as an excuse for Superman to get in touch with his darker side - leading nicely into some intense action scenes where Superman doesn't play it safe or worry so much about his health or collateral damage - before regaining his emotional balance by the end of the film.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
Not good news for those of us who dig Oliver Queen. Personally, I'd pay to see a Green Arrow origin movie B-)
The only way I'd buy into the prison break scenario---on a conceptual level---is if he's out of prison by the end of Act One.
Filmmakers who think they're more clever than these characters' creators are starting to bug me X-(
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
As for the kid, while it sounds cruel, maybe they could kill him off near the start and use that as an excuse for Superman to get in touch with his darker side - leading nicely into some intense action scenes where Superman doesn't play it safe or worry so much about his health or collateral damage - before regaining his emotional balance by the end of the film.
A dark Supes? Similarly to a dark Spidey in Spider-Man 3? :v
I didn't mind her at all. The person who has to go is Kevin Spacey, whom IMO played one of the most boring and worst villains of all time.
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
As for the kid, while it sounds cruel, maybe they could kill him off near the start and use that as an excuse for Superman to get in touch with his darker side - leading nicely into some intense action scenes where Superman doesn't play it safe or worry so much about his health or collateral damage - before regaining his emotional balance by the end of the film.
A dark Supes? Similarly to a dark Spidey in Spider-Man 3? :v
God, no, Dan. This one wouldn't be a comedy like that one.
I'm with Tony on that idea...make the kid cease existing. I really hope that they reboot this franchise with a competent director who understands the Superman mythos and gives him his cajones back.
How emasculating is it to see regular goons beating up Supes while he screams out so pathetically? I don't care if they did have Kryptonite, The Man Of Steel doesn't punk out like that. X-(
Spacey was alot better that Bosworth even if he was trying to channel Hackman. Kate B., on the other hand, was a train wreck.
Sorry Rogue, I guess this is another area in which we have to depart ways. Bosworth wasn't great, but IMO she was nowhere near as bad as everyone says she was. Spacey, on the other hand, was truly horrible. It wasn't becase of his intentions (I don't see how he was trying to channel Hackman, whose Luthor I adored) but because, apart from when he threw away his wig, he was just so incredibly boring. 8-)
(BTW, I too vote for killing off the kid. )
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
Spacey was alot better that Bosworth even if he was trying to channel Hackman. Kate B., on the other hand, was a train wreck.
Sorry Rogue, I guess this is another area in which we have to depart ways. Bosworth wasn't great, but IMO she was nowhere near as bad as everyone says she was. Spacey, on the other hand, was truly horrible. It wasn't becase of his intentions (I don't see how he was trying to channel Hackman, whose Luthor I adored) but because, apart from when he threw away his wig, he was just so incredibly boring. 8-)
He tried to "HACK"man it up, Dan. There were alot of similarities that I noticed during Spacey's performance that screamed good ol' Gene. He wasn't that bad really but the script was horrible. Real estate plot again? C'mon.
I want a reboot with a shaved head Clancy Brown. Yes, I realize just how fanboy that sounds. )
And how can you take up for Bosworth's Lane when by comparison to Kidder's classic portrayal, she's wretchedly remedial? ?:)
In light of Dark Knight's success and WB's penchant for aping other successful franchises (I'm sure Superman Returns' emo and relationship focused storyline was at least partially inspired by the success of the Spiderman and X-Men movies) I could see WB going for a darker Man of Steel adventure next time around.
They could do a complete reboot and pretend SR never happened, or they could do a partial reboot and maybe write off the last film as a dream induced by some supervillain (Brainiac perhaps). Or, seeing as the kid and the love triangle were almost unanimously reviled, I could see WB trying to undo those angles via a few quick deaths to clear up the playing field and also give our hero a measure of grief and thus sufficient motivation to unleash some carnage. You could then introduce a suitably dangerous character - maybe Darkseid or Doomsday - and have Superman throw himself into combat without any regard for his safety or collateral damage. Somethimg like that could work to a certain degree and allow for a more action packed storyline. However, its also important to remember that Superman is a more hopeful and optimistic hero. By the end of the film, he should find his Quantum of Solace ( ), save the day and regain his moral center, maybe with a suitably recast Lois Lane's help.
He tried to "HACK"man it up, Dan. There were alot of similarities that I noticed during Spacey's performance that screamed good ol' Gene. He wasn't that bad really but the script was horrible. Real estate plot again? C'mon.
I too hated the script, however I think that Spacey was genuinely terrible. I like Spacey alot (although he hasn't done anything of value in almost a decade), but in SR, he was horrifyingly boring. In fact I think that his Luthor ranks among the worst villains of all time. I wish I could agree with you that there were similarities between his Luthor and Hackman's (which I loved), but I don't want to give Spacey's Luthor any credit that it deserves.
And how can you take up for Bosworth's Lane when by comparison to Kidder's classic portrayal, she's wretchedly remedial? ?:)
Well, to be fair, compared to Reeves, Routh wasn't particularly good either. I didn't mind Bosworth. She was kinda sweet, and I think she did an okay job. Was she great? No, but the film isn't great, and unlike Spacey and the idea of Supes being a dad, I don't think she was offensive at all.
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
If Superman has a re-boot, does that mean they'll be green instead of red... I'll get my coat...
Routh wasn't bad, but kudos to La Broccoli for getting in non lookalike Craig who had great success cf Routh who offers so much more of the same that it offered no buzz.
Routh wasn't bad, but kudos to La Broccoli for getting in non lookalike Craig who had great success cf Routh who offers so much more of the same that it offered no buzz.
The problem wasn't with Routh's sameness so much as it was that the story didn't give him all that much to do. Superman has over 60 years of visual history behind him and he typically looks a certain way: tall, well-defined, handsome, dark-haired and with that trademark spit-curl in front. Its an iconic look and if you stray from it you really run the risk of being laughed off the screen; just ask Nicholas Cage about his aborted attempt at donning the blue tights a few years ago.
Routh was never the issue; Singer's almost fetishistic fascination with the Donner movies and his decision to focus on the characters' relationship hangups instead of some good old fashioned action is what killed the movie's buzz.
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
edited August 2008
To to tack onto what Tony has already posted, there's a very interesting article floating around the net today in which DC/WB are reeeeeaaally leaning towards re-introducing Superman ala, Batman Begins. Unfortunately, Routh might end up being the fall guy in all of this thanks to Singer's clueless hack job. X-(
I am very glad though that Warner Bros. are finally opening up their eyes to the bevy of potential box office cash that they're sitting on with other superhero properties and thanks to Iron Man for showing them how it's done. Pulling in the cash for movies of this kind should never be a trickle-down effect...Superman Returns was indeed that.
Is it true that Warner re-released SR in a few theartres just so it could make 200 million domestically? I remember it took forever to reach that timid milestone.
Some parts in this article are indeed questionable but maybe it's just me.
Interesting article but, as I feared, WB seems to be going to their tried and true MO of simply copying what has already made them money, as this paragraph from the article suggests:
Like the recent Batman sequel -- which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far -- Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as "The Dark Knight." Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.' DC properties. "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it," he says. That goes for the company's Superman franchise as well.
Just because it works for Batman, doesn't mean you have to go route for every character. Superman, Green Lantern and Flash are not dark, brooding characters. They do not inhabit bleak worlds. Maybe somebody should remind Robinov that the 1978 Superman made bucketloads of money despite being a brighter, more hopeful movie. Likewise Batman Returns shows that not every "dark brooding" movie will do well or be received well.
Comments like that show me that suits like Robinov still don't get it and are taking the wrong approach to making these movies. Read the f*****g books already, it's all there. 8-)
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
edited August 2008
No Bryan Singer for a Superman sequel =
Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice isUNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Comments
As fanboy as I am, I still hate the current Batman's get-up. See? I can be fair.
Just so you know, Tony, I hear that it's going to be a 3-disc set! I hope that it holds true. {[]
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
The BluRay edition is also 3 discs. In both cases, my understanding is that Disc 1 will have the movie, Disc 2 will have the extras, and Disc 3 will have an unprotected version of the movie at a lower resolution that you can download for viewing on portable devices like Ipods, the Sony PSP and so forth.
www.scottacademymartialarts.co.uk
It was a lot more fun than the Six Million Dollar Man pilot, they seemed to know what they were doing from the off. With one caveat, it was set in World War II! This sounded odd to me, and indeed it starts off with footage of Nazis and tanks, all out of The World at War, with a FDR mimicking voice, saying, "We will fight them thanks to our dignity, our honesty and..." then it interjects with WONDER WOMAN! titles jumping out of the screen and the famous theme tune! Hmmm.
But this turns out to be the WW2 not of Secret Army but Hogan's Heroes so WW's turn is not too incongruous. She has a delayed entrance because it starts off with the Nazis planning to bomb a Brooklyn naval yard with a single plane. The US Military Intelligence, seemingly comprising just two blokes in Washington with a blonde secretary, get wind of this and plan to intercept the plane and shoot it down over the Bermuda triangle.
However the two planes collide after a shootout and the US pilot parachutes injured onto Paradise Island, populated entirely by women. Its a sort of Sharangha-La as none of them have aged in thousands of years. The Princess is Lynda Carter - I hope you're taking notes on this – and she takes a fancy to the pilot and tricks her mum the queen into getting to take him back (in her invisible plane, not sure why they'd need that if they never left the island).
Over in Brooklyn there are the usual fish out of water exploits. It's not too clear how much of a superhero WW is. She's not an alien and originally it seems she's just very well trained. But the island seems to lend her mythical properties, retained away from it by wearing her belt and tiarra. It's not clear how her spinning around gets her fancy get-up on, however.
WW gets to tackle a double agent (the secretary, a Heather Mills lookalike) but no tanks or anything with her lassoo. I guess her persona was in contrast to the square, ernest demeanor of Adam West's Batman, who was always personally astonished at the Riddler's dastardly plan, whereas WW is more amused at these strange men's antics, like an owner with a micheevious dog after a cookie. It is rather more sexy... and a heck of a contrast.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The spinning costume change makes about as much sense as the Batpoles - but it is fun to look at.
As to the absence of tanks and other WWII hardware, this was a low budget TV movie. It must have been a big enough strain on the budget to set it in WWII (and later seasons shifted the action to modern times) and staging complicated action scenes was way beyond the scope of the show.
BTW, on an unrelated matter, I've become increasingly concerned with Dan Same's misguided love of Spiderman and his constant need to defend emo boy. Time to show him the webhead's real pecking order in the Pantheon of Superheros. Behold...
I really, really hope that they put the option for the edited and unedited versions on this deal for comparison. I'd hate to wait four years for an extended version that airs on the FX Channel. 8-)
I also want to see a possibility of this infamous Cap footage that some say exists while others deny it.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
If handled properly, Green Lantern could easily be a breakout hit for DC/WB much like Iron Man became a break-out hit Marvel/Paramount. He's not as well known as some of DC's other, more established heroes, but he still possesses some interesting abilities and a rich backstory.
Here's a link to the full article:
http://movies.ign.com/articles/898/898839p1.html
And here is an IESB article with more info (as well as potential spoilers, if that's possible at this early stage, and a brief update on the JLA movie):
http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5319&Itemid=99
I must pass this blow onto the Marvel Sisters!!!
Here's hoping that they don't shelve this project.
And, Tony...Green Lantern > Iron Man. High tech vs. a powerful ring and strong will power? No contest. B-)
*puts Lil' Hal on desk*
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Just reading that little prologue about the Guardians of the Universe gave me goosebumps, it would be a great way to start the movie.
And yeah, I love Iron Man and I'm happy as can be that he's so popular and relevant again, but Green Lantern is still tops for me.
The current Green Lantern script is said to include
Hal Jordan (Cool.)
, Sinestro (Very cool but should be malevolent like Bruce Timm's, not the Superfriends' version)
, Abin Sur (Of course)
and Guy Gardner. (Ugh. Not him.)
I dread Gardner about as much as you dread Stewart, Tony. It's funny because I was reading one of my old GL comics the other night from the 70s-80s? where Jordan & Guy get into a scrap with one another in this little podunk town only to lose their rings to a few of the seedy townspeople.
Like Batman, Hal kicks the crap out of him.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I'm neutral to Miller possibly directing. The thing he has going for him is that he has experience with action heavy, effects heavy films.
Louis Letterier could probably do a good job. As could Brett Rattner, although I think the fanboys would probably condemn him before they even saw one frame of film.
I'm not much of a Guy Gardner fan but has does have his uses; you can definitely have fun with him and use him for comedy relief.
In the current books he is something of a boneheaded but still good-hearted buffoon who will always stand up for his friends and fellow Green Lanterns and put up a fight when the chips are down. He's also become a much improved character from the "brain damaged thug" of the 80's and 90's. In fact, this might be heresy, but I could almost see Daniel Craig making a half-way decent Guy.
If he were the lead I'd be worried, but in a supporting role, he'll probably be fine. Besides, like it or not, he does have his own set of fans.
Given the amount of violence and gore in that recent trailer (including a shot of a head getting literally blown off) I don't see how they can even dream of making it PG-13 without utterly neutering the action. And the very fact that Lionsgate would actually want a PG-13 Punisher movie speaks volumes in and of itself.
Here's the link to the full article:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37955
***
From MTV:
Green Arrow Plans Jail Break With Help From Joker, Lex Luthor In Upcoming Film
By Shawn Adler, with reporting by Brian Jacks
He's a DC Comics hero with nearly 70 years of backstory and mythology, a modern-day Robin Hood who uses every tool in his arsenal to fight for the little guys of Star City, but in the pantheon of great comic characters, Oliver Queen (a.k.a. the Green Arrow) ain't exactly the most well-known mask around.
Heck, he won't even be the most well known in his own movie, scribe Justin Marks told MTV News.
"Oh, we've got Lex Luthor in there," Marks gleefully revealed. "I'm pretty sure Riddler gets his shot — Ed Nigma gets his moment."
Tentatively titled "Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max," Marks' take on the titular titan is unlike any superhero movie out there in that it takes the familiar tropes of comic book films and mixes them with the long-established traditions of prison movies. In the film, Queen is unjustly locked up in a federal penitentiary for meta-humans and forced to rely on a whole bevy of villains to make his escape — villains like Luthor, Icicle and even the Joker.
But the best superhero of all in the Green Arrow prison movie? Would you believe it's the prison itself?
"It's a very, very awesome prison. I majored in architecture in college, and design is how I actually started in. For 'Super Max,' designing that prison, it had to be the kind of thing that was a character in and of itself," Marks said. "We're in a world where instead of just trying to contain a guy who's really big, you're trying to contain a guy who can — in the case of Icicle — who can freeze things. What kind of a cell would a guy like that need in order to have his powers neutralized? So to escape from Super Max they have got to go through the most elaborate heist we've ever seen, involving superpowers. Because the prison itself kind of has superpowers!"
It's a fitting tribute to a character that over the years has been more famous for his team-ups than for his individual adventures, Marks pointed out. Those team-ups include characters like the Green Lantern in a legendary run in the '70s and Batman in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns."
You can't find a much better character, then, if you're DC and your goal is to produce cross-pollinating superhero movies like Marvel has done with "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk."
"What we wanted to do, and I think we'll continue to do as the studio continues to push the movie forward, is to be able to [put Queen] in the center of a much bigger universe," Marks said. "In the same way that Marvel is starting to do, when you're in the [filmed] DC Universe [where] this world and this world and this world — they all exist in an interrelated web. It's the kind of thing that I think absolutely is about spelling out a couple different roads for a couple different characters."
That means Queen won't get a traditional origin story along the lines of Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker. But you wouldn't really want that anyway, Marks asserted.
"By the time a movie like this comes out, we will all understand origin stories. And mainstream audiences now are willing to suspend their disbelief to the point that we can believe that a world exists where superpowers exist and people dress up in costumes. So now what? Now what do we do? And I call this Superhero 2.0," Marks said. "We do deal with his origin — he's got a very interesting origin with a desert island and everything else — but we get to the core of Green Arrow not by showing where he starts but by pushing him into a key moment in his life where everything he has is lost, and he's got to earn it all back. I think for audiences it's going to be a great way to get to know a new character."
Queen himself is the "perfect hero" for this sort of reinvention, Marks said, as he's a B-level super without all the heavy baggage of Batman or Superman. More important, though, he's also a real guy, a mortal without any meta-human skills or weapons, a vigilante who gets by on nothing more than his preternatural intellect and guile. That already makes him less like the silly Golden Age caricatures and more like the reinventions so many writers deem necessary these days.
"I see him as the Jason Bourne of superheroes, a guy who exists with his own sort of set of tricks. And I think the difference between Ollie Queen and a guy like Bruce Wayne — they're both rich. They both have their things. But Batman is about his equipment and is about his theatricality and about his detective skills. And Green Arrow is a guy who's really just the sort of MacGyver type," Marks said. "In his hand, anything can be a weapon."
***
It doesn't bother me that Marks wants to put the Emerald Archer in prison, or that he wants to surround him with all the big DC super-villains. What makes me want to scream is that this guy apparently has no freakin' idea who or what Green Arrow is. Excuse me--he's Jason Bourne? A confused loner who responds to dangerous situations like Pavlov's dog responds to a bell? And he's a "MacGyver type?" And, oh yeah, he's like Batman except he doesn't rely on equipment? What the hell are his bow and arrows, you dink?!? Take away his weapons and you rob him of what makes him special--being the greatest archer in the world. I suppose this Green Arrow--well, here he's plain ol' Ollie Queen--will still be railing against the system, but with him in prison, surrounded by the weirdest criminals on earth, how will he be able to stand up for the little guy? It looks like Mr. Marks just had an idea for a movie he fell in love with--a prison filled with all the great DC villains--and he needed an anonymous figure to serve as "hero." He wrongly assumed that Green Arrow fits the bill. Groan. Where's Kevin Smith when you need him?
=======
Don't know where Kevin Smith is,but it's a heck of a note to see a character like Green Arrow--who,admittedly is modeled very closely on Batman, but with a Robin Hood motif--contorted into a pale imitation of Jason Bourne(as interpreted in the recent movies,not Ludlum's novels) and Angus MacGuyver(WHY?).
I've always enjoyed the Emerald Archer and think this movie sounds like an absolutely terrible way to treat him.As you say,it's evident Marks just wants to do a prison movie packed with famous DC villains as the convicts.If I recall correctly,David S.Goyer was/is involved with this project.
But if Marks was really looking for obscure DC heroes, he could've chosen Roy Raymond (the TV detective), or King Faraday(DC's master spy), or Lee Travis(aka The Crimson Avenger-DC's imitation of The Green Hornet)or Slam Bradley(the tough P.I.),or even Michael Carter,aka "Booster Gold"(the man from the future), over Oliver Queen as his "Jason Bourne-MacGuyver-like" protagonist.Geez..just describing this oh-so-dated take on Green Arrow shows how creatively bankrupt Marks' imagination actually is.
If this thing ever gets made,I'll wait for it to come to cable, where I might watch it--unless there's something better on...
I'm not the biggest Green Arrow fan but even I know enough to understand that if you take away the costume, the trick arrows, the wisecracking, womanizing attitude, and his contempt for "the system", then you've pretty much stripped away everything that makes him what he is. If you're going to do that, you may as well just make up your own original character and drop him into the middle of the story.
I also find it hard to believe that DC and WB would happily let Marks get his unimaginative paws on some of their most prized villains and put them in a movie about a second-tier character. I can't imagine that they'd let him use Joker or Riddler at least until a decision is made on who the villains in the next Batman movie will be. Besides, wouldn't those guys have lifetime reservations at Arkham Asylum? Same goes for Lex Luthor and any future Superman movies.
Personally, I hope Brandon Routh doesn't get thrown under the bus. He did a good job with what he was given and now that he's a few years older I think he could be even more effective in the role.
As for the kid, while it sounds cruel, maybe they could kill him off near the start and use that as an excuse for Superman to get in touch with his darker side - leading nicely into some intense action scenes where Superman doesn't play it safe or worry so much about his health or collateral damage - before regaining his emotional balance by the end of the film.
And one more thing: Kate Bosworth has got to go.
Here's a link:
http://movies.ign.com/articles/900/900047p1.html
The only way I'd buy into the prison break scenario---on a conceptual level---is if he's out of prison by the end of Act One.
Filmmakers who think they're more clever than these characters' creators are starting to bug me X-(
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I didn't mind her at all. The person who has to go is Kevin Spacey, whom IMO played one of the most boring and worst villains of all time.
God, no, Dan. This one wouldn't be a comedy like that one.
I'm with Tony on that idea...make the kid cease existing. I really hope that they reboot this franchise with a competent director who understands the Superman mythos and gives him his cajones back.
How emasculating is it to see regular goons beating up Supes while he screams out so pathetically? I don't care if they did have Kryptonite, The Man Of Steel doesn't punk out like that. X-(
Spacey was alot better that Bosworth even if he was trying to channel Hackman. Kate B., on the other hand, was a train wreck.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
(BTW, I too vote for killing off the kid.
He tried to "HACK"man it up, Dan. There were alot of similarities that I noticed during Spacey's performance that screamed good ol' Gene. He wasn't that bad really but the script was horrible. Real estate plot again? C'mon.
I want a reboot with a shaved head Clancy Brown. Yes, I realize just how fanboy that sounds.
And how can you take up for Bosworth's Lane when by comparison to Kidder's classic portrayal, she's wretchedly remedial? ?:)
There is hope for you yet, young Padawan. B-)
Join the club, Loeff.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
They could do a complete reboot and pretend SR never happened, or they could do a partial reboot and maybe write off the last film as a dream induced by some supervillain (Brainiac perhaps). Or, seeing as the kid and the love triangle were almost unanimously reviled, I could see WB trying to undo those angles via a few quick deaths to clear up the playing field and also give our hero a measure of grief and thus sufficient motivation to unleash some carnage. You could then introduce a suitably dangerous character - maybe Darkseid or Doomsday - and have Superman throw himself into combat without any regard for his safety or collateral damage. Somethimg like that could work to a certain degree and allow for a more action packed storyline. However, its also important to remember that Superman is a more hopeful and optimistic hero. By the end of the film, he should find his Quantum of Solace (
Well, to be fair, compared to Reeves, Routh wasn't particularly good either. I didn't mind Bosworth. She was kinda sweet, and I think she did an okay job. Was she great? No, but the film isn't great, and unlike Spacey and the idea of Supes being a dad, I don't think she was offensive at all.
-{
Routh wasn't bad, but kudos to La Broccoli for getting in non lookalike Craig who had great success cf Routh who offers so much more of the same that it offered no buzz.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The problem wasn't with Routh's sameness so much as it was that the story didn't give him all that much to do. Superman has over 60 years of visual history behind him and he typically looks a certain way: tall, well-defined, handsome, dark-haired and with that trademark spit-curl in front. Its an iconic look and if you stray from it you really run the risk of being laughed off the screen; just ask Nicholas Cage about his aborted attempt at donning the blue tights a few years ago.
Routh was never the issue; Singer's almost fetishistic fascination with the Donner movies and his decision to focus on the characters' relationship hangups instead of some good old fashioned action is what killed the movie's buzz.
I am very glad though that Warner Bros. are finally opening up their eyes to the bevy of potential box office cash that they're sitting on with other superhero properties and thanks to Iron Man for showing them how it's done. Pulling in the cash for movies of this kind should never be a trickle-down effect...Superman Returns was indeed that.
Is it true that Warner re-released SR in a few theartres just so it could make 200 million domestically? I remember it took forever to reach that timid milestone.
Some parts in this article are indeed questionable but maybe it's just me.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121936107614461929.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Is this the end of the midget "S"? The burgundy shower curtain? The kid? Ohhhh,I truly hope so.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Like the recent Batman sequel -- which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far -- Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as "The Dark Knight." Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.' DC properties. "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it," he says. That goes for the company's Superman franchise as well.
Just because it works for Batman, doesn't mean you have to go route for every character. Superman, Green Lantern and Flash are not dark, brooding characters. They do not inhabit bleak worlds. Maybe somebody should remind Robinov that the 1978 Superman made bucketloads of money despite being a brighter, more hopeful movie. Likewise Batman Returns shows that not every "dark brooding" movie will do well or be received well.
Comments like that show me that suits like Robinov still don't get it and are taking the wrong approach to making these movies. Read the f*****g books already, it's all there. 8-)
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -