A caped crusader. A city wiped clean of criminals. A madman with a doomsday device who terrorizes the populace until average citizen heroes step forward to help save the day. Batman? Nope! On the heels of The Dark Knight Rises, Movieline takes a look back at 1999's Mystery Men, new to Blu-ray, in the latest installment of Inessential Essentials.
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The most revealing tidbit to come from talking with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is the idea that he equates box office success with the quality of a film – not the kind of mega-million dollar marketing campaigns that put characters’ faces on soda cans, or comic book fandoms that date back half a century, or any other factors that will surely help Marvel’s The Avengers seize the box office crown this Friday. Instead, with twelve years at Marvel and billions in box office under his belt, the exec who’s been integral to the new golden age of the superhero movie is still, refreshingly, idealistic when it comes to making movies: “Every time we actually do it, I get very excited and can’t believe that we pulled it off.”
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Oh...my...GOD, Becky -- look at Catwoman's butt. Ahem. In a new promo image from The Dark Knight Rises, Anne Hathaway poses as Catwoman and shows, as many salivating fanboys have already suggested, just why the Batman sequel might've earned that PG-13 for "sensuality." But wait! Why is everyone talking about Catwoman's butt and not Batman's meticulously sculpted-but-jaunty rubberized codpiece? Equal opportunity for costumed cosplay ogling after the jump, thanks to two new promo images for the July tentpole.
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This just in from Variety: "Ben Kingsley is in final talks to play the villain in Iron Man 3, but fans of the comic book character will be disappointed to learn he won’t take on original Tony Stark archenemy the Mandarin." Well, good. I for one am glad that Ben Kingsley will not be playing a Chinese guy. Instead, the Oscar-winning actor will reportedly play a baddie "involved in the spread of a virus through nanobots."
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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.)
Somehow, despite his chiseled good looks, his True Blood fame, and the glut of comic book movies in Hollywood these days, 34-year-old Ryan Kwanten hadn't yet played a superhero until now. And the one he does play -- the only one that's interested him, he says -- comes in this week's small-scale Australian indie Griff the Invisible, in which the erstwhile Jason Stackhouse plays a mild-mannered, socially-awkward geek by day and vigilante crime fighter by night.
Screenwriting duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely began their partnership in college, moved to Los Angeles together ("We watched Baywatch and thought, 'Somebody wrote Baywatch -- we could do that!'" quips McFeely), wrote a film for Bill Pullman, scripted The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, and caught the eye of Andrew Adamson, who then hired them to write all three Chronicles of Narnia films. Now they've penned Captain America: The First Avenger, the latest in Marvel Studios' multi-film Avengers franchise and a rollicking WWII-set adventure that they hope to follow up with a sequel. It's safe to say Markus and McFeely might have some wise words to share on the subject of their craft.
Who wants to be saved by one-time bodybuilding champ, action star, and former state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? (Not the people of California, amirite?) EW breaks the news that Ahnold is jumping back into showbiz with the help of Stan Lee, who will help him launch a TV cartoon and comic book called The Governator. Yes, seriously. But wait, there's more!
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