The last week or so has seen some descriptions of the costume Chris Evans will be wearing in the upcoming Captain America comic book adaptation floating around. A couple of sites have run fan art based on those descriptions, but earlier today, Aint It Cool actually got a hold of production art for of the costume. (JoBlo.com has confirmed that these are the pieces that they saw last week but were unable to post.) Click on each image for a much larger version.
This design is the second of two Cap costumes that will appear in the film, this being the one he wears into battle against the Nazis and the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) during World War Two. It definitely draws interest from the iteration of Captain America that appears in Marvel Comics’ “Ultimates” line of books, as you can see by comparing the art work at left with the production art below. This is not that surprising. The look of the Ultimates version of spy master Nick Fury was based on actor Samuel Jackson, whom Marvel Studios then went and signed to a nine picture deal to appear in the studios various comic book adaptations.
Captain America: The First Avenger will be in theaters July 22, 2011 and Cap will go on to appear in the superhero team-up The Avengers with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and others in May 2012.
If you’ve read the last volume of the Harry Potter novel series, or just looked up how it ends online, you know that Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows ended with a coda looking at the survivors of the series several years after the end of their adventures. With the two part film adaptation being readied for a release later this fall and then next summer, some set photos of the cast shooting that segment have surfaced. Needless to say, spoilers follow -
Warner Brothers upcoming DC Comics adaptation Green Lantern is chock full of characters who would definitely stand out in a crowd. Most of them are alien members of the inter-galactic police force that star Ryan Reynolds will find himself recruited in to. But one will be Hector Hammond, a scientist who, after exposure to the radioactive wreckage of a spaceship, gets incredible psychic powers and an enlarged cranium to go with them.
Below, you can see the first picture of Peter Sarsgaard in makeup, but not costume, as Hammond on location where the film is hooting in New Orleans. OK, it’s a grainy paparazzi pic, but I think it looks pretty good. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the makeup was going to be augmented through CGI, as we already know that that is how they’ll be realizing Green Lantern’s uniform.
Just seven weeks out from its release and we have seen very little of the action in the upcoming comic book adaptation The Losers, outside of the already released trailer. Now we have six new pictures highlighting the various cast members in some exciting action poses. Most of the pictures show the Losers doing what they do best, fighting and shooting things. The sixth shows stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoe Saldana getting a different kind of action. (Click on each picture for a bigger version.)
If you don’t understand how incredibly awesome it is that they are currently working in a sequel to 1982′s TRON, than I must only conclude that there is no joy in your life. You have my pity.
Upon its release, TRON was a revelation and a herald of many thing to come. It was the first feature length film to use computer generated imagery, paving the way for film’s like The Last Starfighter (1984), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) and other films that helped progress the CGI revolution. Plus, it managed to capture the public’s sense of wonder over the emerging worlds of computers and home video games with its story of a computer hacker (Jeff Bridges) sucked in to a computer network and forced to fight for his life against video game warriors.
Disney has released the first still from the upcoming sequel TRON: Legacy, and it shows Bridges back inside the cyberscape of the computer network. Interestingly, while he has the same type of disc that he had in the first film on his back, he doesn’t seem to have the whole glowy-circuit look that all the characters sported in 1982. Is this a change in the movie’s design or a plot point? We’ll find out on December 17 when it hits theaters.
There are two tales of soldiers of fortune on the run from the government coming to multiplexes later this year. The better known project is the adaptation of the 80s actions series The A-Team, but for my money the one that might turn out to be the better movie is The Losers. Based on the DC Comics/Vertigo series by writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock, The Losers is about a group of Special Forces operatives who were betrayed by their CIA handler, Max, and left for dead. The group now fights back to get revenge on Max, but discover that his reach into the halls of power is far greater than they expected. The series ran for 32 issues between 2003 and 2006 and featured five storylines that could serve as the basis for sequels if this first film does well.
From the trailer below, it looks as if director Sylvain White is shooting for a breezy, if slightly edgier, variation on the recent Ocean’s 11 pictures. Watchmen‘s Jeffrey Dean Morgan is heading up the cast as the Loser’s leader Clay, with Star Trek and Avatar‘s Zoe Saldana as Aisha, a woman who joins up with the Losers who has her own vendetta against Max (Jason Patric). The Wire‘s Idris Elba, the Fantastic Four‘s Chris Evans, Columbus Short and Oscar Jaenada round out the cast.
In addition to the trailer, a new promotion picture for the film has been released. If you’ve read the comic, than it should look familiar to you, as it is a variation of of Jock’s cover for issue number 12 of the book, which he had previously reworked for a promotional poster for the film handed out at last summer’s San Diego ComicCon. You can see all three below. Click on each to enlarge.
I have to admit that I am a little leary about director Ridley Scott’s upcoming take on the Robin Hood legend.
Not because I don’t like the director’s previous work. Far from it. I think he has created a few undeniable classics (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma And Louis) and almost never lets his visual style get in the way of telling a solid story. (I know that I am in the minority when I think that Gladiator is one of those exceptions.)
It is just that when Scott originally became attached to the project, it was called Nottingham and featured the Sheriff in the role of hero, caught between the corrupt Prince John and an outlaw hiding in nearby Sherwood Forest who was promoting anarchy. However, some rewrites straightened out the twists that the original Nottingham screenplay had given the legend to a more traditional story.
From the newly leaked trailer below, we can see that Scott isn’t skimping on the style for Robin Hood. And Russell Crowe looks suitable intense, letting us know that this movie is going to be more about a peasant’s revolt against unjust rulers rather than a swashbuckling adventure, a la Errol Flynn’s 1938 defining version of the character. Though I have to admit, that heavy guitar music featured in the trailer is a big mistake. It’s trying too hard to insist that this is an edgy retelling of the story. Much like some of the promotion for the upcoming Clash Of The Titans, the studio seems to want the message to be “This isn’t your father’s old fuddy-duddy Robin Hood.”
Below the trailer are several new pictures from the film (via the Courier Mail) which include our first look at Cater Blanchett as Maid Marion. Robin Hood opens in theaters on May 14, 2010.
Released in the summer of 2008, chick flick Sex And The City did surprisingly well at the box office against such summer blockbuster powerhouses like The Dark Knight. The film was set to be the finale of HBO’s long running cable series of the same name and featured Sarah Jessica Parker’s writer character Carrie Bradshaw and her friends having one last glorious romantic Manhattan adventure before riding off in to the sunset. And the film actually delivered a nice sense of closure to the quartet and their trials and tribulations with relationships and their adoration of all things shoes. But in the wake of the film’s $415 million worldwide box office gross, studio brass at Warner Brothers were of course quick to order up a sequel. The new film opens next summer, but the first teaser poster (below) has just been unveiled. Also, Warners has just released a picture of the film’s four stars- Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis. Why are they on a stage singing? Is perhaps karaoke a major plot point?
Like many of his brethren of the Hong Kong cinema scene of the 1980s and 90s, director John Woo has not had much luck in trying to replicate his success within the Hollywood studio system. It probably boils down to how Tinseltown works. With numerous people wanting to give their “creative” input, a film’s original vision often becomes diluted to the point where it has become completely lost. This probably explains why many actors who came to Hollywood from Hong Kong, like Jackie Chan and Jet Lee, are instead choosing to split their time between the two filmmaking centers- Do a Hollywood film for the paycheck and then a couple of films in Hong Kong for the greater artistic freedom. Woo, however, seems to have forsaken Hollywood completely following the release of the 2003 dud The Paycheck.
Back in Hong Kong, Woo recently has been wowing audiences with the epic, two-part Red Cliff. And while that film is just starting its limited release here in the States, Woo is already hard at work on his next picture, Jianyu Jianghu, which poetically translates as Rain of Swords In The Pugilistic World. Joining Woo as co-director is Su Chao-Bin whose best known films, Silk and Better Than Sex, are only familiar to the art house crowd here in the States.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s Michelle Yeoh stars in the film as a retired assassin roused from retirement when she discovers that the group of assassins she used to belong to is coming to kill her and steal something from her possession. She also discovers that her husband is the son of a former victim who may want to talk to her about her former occupation. Our first look at the film is below. Click on each picture for a larger version.
Hot on the tails of the release of the first teaser poster for next summer’s super hero sequel Iron Man 2 comes four new pictures from the film. The first two show star Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire Tony Stark/ Iron Man doing what looks like science-y things and some home repair. Next up is Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, one of the villains of the film, examining his own handiwork. Note that some of the magazine covers hanging over his workbench were first seen in the first film. We end the quartet of photos with a new look at Scarlett Johannson in her full costume as the spy known as Black Widow. Click on each photo for a much larger look.
The last week or so has seen some descriptions of the costume Chris Evans will be wearing in the upcoming Captain America comic book adaptation floating around. A couple of sites have run fan art based on those descriptions, but earlier today, Aint It Cool actually got a hold of production art for of the costume. (JoBlo.com has confirmed that these are the pieces that they saw last week but were unable to post.) Click on each image for a much larger version.
