In Other News: Unprecedented Amounts of Bank

Marvel is gonna be partying it up tonight!!!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!

The Avengers has claimed to prize of biggest opening weekend ever. And not by any small margin either. You know how Deathly Hallows: Part 2 barely squeezed past The Dark Knight by a measly 11 million? Yeah, The Avengers soared past that by about 30 million, taking in a staggering 200 million over the weekend.

Whatever voodoo magic dark energy tesseract fueled machine Marvel is running over there is one to be very wary of. I'm not going to speak on the quality of the film right now. (In short: a triumph of character, effects, action, humor, and emotion.) But God Damn, I don't think anyone saw this one coming.

The marketing has really been clever on this one, hasn't it. I mean, no one else has employed the tactics Marvel has used to take over the world, but I'm getting the feeling that we're going to see a lot more of it. Methinks a Justice League franchise is now being feverishly green lit over at DC.

A lot of people were no doubt betting that The Dark Knight Rises would be the champion of this summer. And I bet all of those people are just as stunned as I am. If TDKR can top this haul in its opening weekend, then... I don't know. Guess the world really will end after all.

Well played Marvel. Well played indeed!

In Other News: Drive Stupidity & Chigurh's New Gig

So, interesting stuff has been happening in the world of movies over the last few days, but there was one little tidbit of news that caught my eye.


FilmDistrict is being sued over Drive. Why? Because the trailer was misleading?
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No really! Someone is suing the studio because they went into Drive expecting something totally different from what it is, claiming that the film was being advertised as "very similar to the Fast and Furious, or similar, series of movies, according to an article over at Yahoo! Movies.  The person who brought forth the lawsuit, Sarah Deming of Michigan, states that "Drive bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film... having very little driving in the motion picture," the suit continues. "Drive was a motion picture that substantially contained extreme, gratuitous, defamatory, dehumanizing racism directed against members of the Jewish faith, and thereby promoted violence against members of the Jewish faith."

So much is "wrong" with this scene, but anit-semitism ain't it!

So, she's not pissed off because the trailer didn't really hint at the level of extreme violence in the picture, or that most of the screen time was devoted to Gosling's budding romance with Carey Mulligan. No, this woman is pissed off because the bad guys in the movie were Jewish, and since we can't have that, she accuses Nicolas Winding Refn of being a Nazi. 


Ok, bit extreme, but still. How dumb is this. You don't like the movie because its trailer didn't do a great job of representing what it actually was? Oh, boo hoo! Do you know how many times I've been to a movie where my expectations proved to be totally off? Many times, but you don't see me suing people over it. 


People, man. People. 


On a happier, less fiery note, Javier Bardem has confirmed that he is playing the villain in Bond 23, which is currently in pre-production after months of doubt of whether or not it would ever be made. 


Now, this makes me happy. I mean, Ralph Finnes is already in as a villain, and with the inclusion of Bardem... well, think about it. Arguably the two most iconic villains from the last ten years are going to be villains together in the same movie. 

Cool!

I might be able to die happy now. 

In Other News: Expendables 2 Casting

Man, Stallone. You really are going all out. Makes me wonder what you were doing on the last film.

Yes, as pre-production gets a-rolling on the sequel to Sylvester Stallone's ode to men, muscles, and magazines (gun magazines), casting news has started seeing the light of day.

And, gotta say, it's sort of cool.

First we got the news that Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger were back, but in real, ass kicking roles, and not the pathetically over hyped cameos that they had in the first movie.

And now, it's being reported that both Chuck Norris (cue a joke) and Jean-Claude Van Damme are in. So, not only do we have Rambo and Frank West, but we also have The Terminator, John McClane, The Muscles From Brussels, and... Chuck Norris, who is the only person in the world who can roundhouse kick a salesman... OVER THE PHONE!!!

It's also being rumored that John Travolta and (brace yourselves) Nicolas Cage are gonna be along for the right.

I popped a blood vessel thanks to all this excitement!

Ai yi yi!

Now, am I the only who is impressed by this? Especially since the Expendables seemed to be pretty light on the whole, "Old School Action Star" thing. I mean, when it comes down to it, the only real "Old School Action Stars" in the film that actually did anything were Stallone, Jet Li, and Dolph Lundgren. Jason Statham is too recent, Terry Crews is more of a comedian, and, as far as I know, Randy Couture had never acted in anything before The Expendables. 


So, to see Stallone firing on all cylinders bringing in all this muscle (literally) is kind of... well it gets me excited in interesting ways.

The only way this could be any more enticing would be if he got The Rock, Kurt Russell, and, I don't know, Vin Diesel. I mean, at this point, resurrecting Bruce Lee doesn't seem so impossible.

What? A guy can dream!

In Other News: Michael Bay Rips Off... Himself

This bothered me when I first saw Dark of the Moon, but I have now had it confirmed by two sources. The article in question first surface on IGN, and then my brother pointed me to another over at Gawker. I wasn't tripping. Michael Bay recycled footage.

During the hectic highway chase that occurs about halfway through Dark of the Moon, there were two shots that had me tilting my head and raising an eyebrow. Why? Because they looked really familiar. As it turns out, they are the exact same footage that Bay shot for The Island. Take a look.



Now, there is a reason for this. The footage from The Island was used due to a catastrophic accident during the filming of the highway chase that left an extra seriously injured. And while I do have to commend the FX team for seamlessly integrating a rampaging Decepticon in the place of a metal slab, it's not a great excuse. I mean, it's not like this is something new for Bay.



Ok, I know. Stock footage and all that, and, yes, it's probably not that big of a deal if he's reusing footage that he himself shot, but, come on Miguel! You gotta at least be better than that. Although, you know what, I guess it is too difficult for you. You probably have some more robot testicles to design. Christ, you are such a hack!

In Other News: JoGo's Dark Knight Character

He's playing Alberto Falcone.

For those who didn't pay attention during Batman Begins, Carmine Falcone was the big, bad crime boss who had a lot to do with the death of Bruce Wayne's parents, and was the first big shot that Batman took down. He then got the bad end of Jonathan Crane's fear drug. Alberto is his son.

In the comics, Alberto was outcast from his father's business because, apparently, Carmine wanted him to have a normal life. Guess Alberto was the Michael to Carmine's Vito. But, the little Falcone had other plans, and went on to become the Holiday Killer, a murderer who only struck on, go figure, holidays. Since The Dark Knight Rises is going to wrap up the story, bringing it back Falcone is certainly in the books.

If anything, this, effectively, kills all rumors that Robin will be showing up, since JoGo was the only one of the confirmed cast who could have played him. While it does seem like there's gonna be a lot of villains in this one, Nolan is better storyteller than to fall victim to the "multiple baddie plague". After all, TDK had The Joker, Two-Face, Sal Maroni, Scarecrow, Lau, Gambol, and the Chenchen. And, last I checked, TDK turned out alright.

Anyway, that's something new. I'm still excited!

Wow, the resemblance is uncanny!

Addendum: This news is false. I just found out today. Serves me right for reporting on it so prematurely. 

In Other News: The Wolverine

All hopes of the Wolverine sequel being any good have now been thrown out the window with the news that Darren Aronofsky will no longer be directing Hugh Jackman as everyone's favorite metal boned mutant. Aronofsky's reasoning behind this is that working on the project would keep him out of the country and away from his family for too long, something he wasn't willing to do.
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Really, man? I can understand not wanting to be away from home for so long, but this was an opportunity missed. After the tidal wave of acclaim that came with Black Swan, Aronofsky's next logical move was to capitalize on said acclaim, and make a popcorn flick. At least, that was what the smart move was. Aronofsky could have kicked ass with the Wolverine character, finally giving the Marvel-verse its Batman, a dark, conflicted, brutal hero. Guess it's not to be.

Now, the film is set in Japan, so the current crisis there might have had something to do with this. Nature can be so troublesome sometimes.

No claws for this guy anymore...

Now, be honest. How much does this suck?

In Other News: Tron 3???

OH BOY!!! SHIT JUST GOT REAL!!!!!

This is the teaser that is included with the Tron: Legacy Blu-Ray. Gotta say, I am intrigued. The trailer touches on quite a lot that wasn't covered in Legacy, like the "Flynn Lives" movement, or more corporate espionage regarding Encom. Also, Ram is back. Oh yes!!!