With this week's release of The Avengers on DVD/Blu-ray and Marvel's Kevin Feige entertaining all sorts of speculative queries as to the future of the superhero franchise, let's put it to the people: Which Avenger do you want to see step into the spotlight in a standalone sequel after Thor and Captain America?
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The Avengers had an even better weekend than initially thought. The Academy sets up a new outdoor screening venue and it looks like Kick-Ass is getting a sequel. Those are among the spotlights in Monday afternoon's Biz Break round up. Also in the mix, Arnold Schwarzenegger picks up a gig and actor Mark Ruffalo's Twitter account gets hacked.
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The San Francisco International Film Festival honored its winners and two first-ever celeb-filled bashes are planned for Cannes (or Cannes adjacent). Also in Thursday morning's Biz Break, a list of way overpaid media heads, Ashton Kutcher lands in hot water, a cinema chain goes up for sale, Mark Ruffalo's Hulk moments, a 'Screamin'' sale and more.
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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.”
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This morning's Biz Break includes news of Webby Award winners, more Hulk gigs for Mark Ruffalo, a Rascal-y pick up by Warner Bros. and a new venture by the founder of Summit Entertainment.
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The Avengers is less a movie than a novelization of itself, an oversized, self-aware picture designed mostly for effect: That of reliving the experience of a movie you’ve seen before and just can’t get enough of. The picture is broken down into narrative chunks that ultimately don’t tell much of a story – what you get instead is a series of mini-climaxes held together by banter between characters. The idea, maybe, is that people already love Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk and Thor so much — like, so, so much — that all a filmmaker really needs to do is put them all into a big stock pot filled with elaborate set pieces and some knowing dialogue and he’s golden. And maybe, given the heightened-lowered expectations of movie audiences, that really is all he has to do: It's possible to have looked forward to a movie all year, to enjoy watching it, and then to have completely forgotten about it the following week.
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The cast of Marvel’s The Avengers were a spirited bunch Thursday in Beverly Hills, where the familial vibe amongst the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Samuel Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, and Mark Ruffalo was evident and mutual admiration, inside jokes, and startling revelations abounded. (Scarlett Johansson, alas, was absent due to a scheduling conflict.) Among the highlights: Ruffalo’s youthful Hulk inspiration, Jeremy Renner’s suggestive Hawkeye imagery (“[I] played with Thor’s hammer while he stroked my bow”), and one mysterious, maybe-still legit admission from Downey that the assembled Avengers would be filming a scene… that night. But, pray tell: Which Avenger possesses the best Dance Dance Revolution skills? SPOILERS AHEAD.
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Marvel's The Avengers has the pressure of living up to years of hype resting on its shoulders, but a new trailer for the May 4 superhero pic looks promising, if not terribly complicated. Plot details, like what Loki's up to and why? Save it for the movie. This is the chance to give every one of the Avengers their close-up. Well, except for you, Hawkeye.
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You know this movie, and chances are that you loved this movie -- except for that one role that almost ruined it all. Miscast Roles is where Movieline and its readers swap out those roles to make it right.
One of last year’s surprise critical and commercial darlings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, wowed audiences, stoked many an awards-season debate and revitalized an important science fiction franchise — all while still managing to appeal to moviegoers unfamiliar with the original 1968 film (or that film's 1963 source novel). As chief chimp Caesar, Andy Serkis’s performative collaboration with the motion capture geniuses from WETA was a great spectacle, presenting viewers with a gorgeously rendered CGI-animated character.
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Here is your first look at Mark Ruffalo in his full motion-capture Hulk get-up from The Avengers. No spoilers on the home page; click through for the Hulk-y goodness/weirdness, whatever.
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If nothing else, this really puts paycheck roles in perspective: “You have all these disparate egos, superheroes in this and that, and they refuse to give up some of their positions in order to make a more perfect union and to join the team. That’s really what the whole movie is about: subjugating your own best interest momentarily to further that of the whole. [...] I didn’t know it a year ago that it was going to speak to so many of the issues we’re having here in the United States and throughout the world, the same kind of theme.” [Speakeasy/WSJ via The Awl]
This morning Disney released the first full trailer for Joss Whedon's Marvel superhero party The Avengers, and ZOMG guys -- have there ever been two minutes of action more packed with hero shots, zingers, and things blowing up before this very moment? (Michael Bay might give Whedon a run for his money, but the Avengers trailer has what even his robot spectaculars don't: copious slow-mo superhero booty shots. Consider the bar raised.)
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