INCREDIBLE HULK Cameo Spoiled In New Commercial

If you don't want any of the surprises in store for you in this Friday's Incredible Hulk spoiled, than you better click away.

Better yet, turn off your computer, go outside and enjoy the fresh air in the great outdoors for the rest of the week. Then, after you see the movie on Friday, and you know you are, turn your computer back on.

Spoilers ahead!

These past several months, we have been reporting on Marvel Studios' plans of using their individual superhero films - This summer's Iron Man and Incredible Hulk, 2010's Iron Man sequel and Thor and 2011's Captain America - to lead into an Avengers feature showcasing all of those characters, in an adaptation of Marvel's popular superhero team book. A number of small seeds have already been dropped in last month's Iron Man, including the establishishment of the government organization known as SHIELD and an appearance in a short after-the-end credits scene by its head Nick Fury, played by an unbilled Samuel L. Jackson.

Comic fans at April's New York Comic Con also got a sneak peek at one or two more things that will appear in the upcoming Incredible Hulk, that lay the groundwork to interconnecting all the films, including a cameo by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, Iron Man's alter ego. While most figured that the cameo would probably show up as an end credits tag like the Nick Fury one in Iron Man, Marvel seems to be pushing it right out front by making it a key feature in its newest television commercial for the film.



I guess I can see Marvel's point here. Ang Lee's Hulk has a fairly bad reputation among the general public. Getting the average moviegoer to plunk down cash at the box office for what could appear with a casual glance to be a sequel to that movie is going to be a tough proposition. However, lots of people did pay to see Iron Man earlier this summer, so it is in Marvel's best short and long term interests to start hammering home the connections as early as possible.

This brings to mind a conversation I had with my wife on our way to see Iron Man on its opening night. I was explaining to her Marvel's plans for building towards an Avengers film through the planting of Easter Eggs like the mentions of SHIELD and the Nick Fury cameo in Iron Man. She questioned while it would certainly be exciting for comics fans to see these things, she wondered if they would be distracting or even alienating to non-comic readers. It looks to me as if Marvel is counting on people making the connections and start wondering how it all will fit together.

I have to wonder, though. If Marvel is willing to publicize the Tony Stark cameo, what do they have still up their sleeve to surprise us with?

NYCC: X-FILES Creator Chris Carter Wants You To BELIEVE

"All I can tell you is, is that there's a lot of information on the internet and there's a lot of speculation that stuff is planted or is leaked," states Frank Spotnitz, producer of The X-Files: I Want To Believe. "For our purposes all that speculation is perfect because we don't want anybody to trust anything they read on the internet. We don't want the surprise spoiled. I would say, 'Trust no one.'"

One thing you can trust is that during the New York Comic Con this past weekend, I and several other journalists got to sit down with Spotnitz and X-Files creator Chris Carter to discuss the upcoming movie.

You can read about that chat here.

New Animated STAR WARS:CLONE WARS Pics

This past weekend at New York Comic Con, Lucasfilm rep Steve Stansweet presided over a presentation promoting several things coming soon for fans of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. In addition to trailers for upcoming video games and a brief live interview with Seth Green and Matthew Senreich about the Star Wars edition of their Cartoon Netowrk show Robot Chicken, Stansweet screened a trailer for the upcoming animated theatrical film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which will kickoff the television series of the same name.

I have to say that I wasn't really that impressed with the footage shown. I think it stems from the odd and uneasy juxtapositioning of the some elements that are far more photorealistic than others which are more stylized. It makes for an ugly and jarring combination. Of course, the writing might elevate the material, so there’s hope there.

In the meantime, Empire has scored a pair of new pictures from Star Wars: The Clone Wars' upcoming theatrical release in August. Click over to their site to check them out.

NYCC: HELLBOY 2 Creature Sneak Peak

Comic book fans looking forward to Guillermo del Toro's second adaptation of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series got an extra surprise Saturday during the New York Comic Con panel for the film, when several creatures took the stage for the duration.

The creatures are set to appear in an otherworldly outdoor bazzar, which will feature in the film.

For del Toro, their appearance at the panel fitted in with his belief that effects produced in the virtual world of the computer have their place, but should never become a crutch for a director to lean on.

"People think that I hate CGI," del Toro stated. "I don't hate CGI, but I hate it when it's lazy CGI. If a director that is making millions of dollars decided to take the easy route when he could have done it physically, I say 'Fuck you.'

"When the craftsmanship of things like prosthetics and animatronics have been taken as far as we can take them technologically, won't do then I agree. If something is too small or too big. You can't fit a performer in or composite a puppet in, then go CG. But that should be a tool, not a tool for just executives changing their mind or directors not working as hard as they should be."


del Toro explained that when it comes to creating the creatures that inhabit his films, he allows his designers to indulge themselves.

"The only thing I ask them is that they should not look like movie monster creatures," he explains. "They should have a flair or a flavor that is more unique than that. If it looks like the last Wishmaster movie or the last whatever, I reject it. What I tell them is 'Show me the best creature, the one you want to do the most.'

NYCC: Guillermo Del Toro Discusses Doing THE HOBBIT, Not Doing THE HOBBIT

Although on hand at this weekend's New York Comic Con to discuss his upcoming comic book adaptation Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro took a few minutes to address what might be next on his directorial plate, promising that an official announcement as to whether he will be directing the Lord Of The Rings prequel, The Hobbit for Rings-director Peter Jackson, within the week.

"It is my personal belief that in the next four or five days it'll be like watching the end of American Idol with a very fat singer," he said. "In the next four or five days, we will know if we were able to conclude every legal thing that is pending for me to be able to do it or not. It can go either way, but I can assure you very soon we will know and that’s all I can say about that. I hope I get to do it."

But if his deal to direct The Hobbit unexpectedly falls apart, Del Toro has plenty of options left open to him. The only obstacle standing in his way is finding a studio willing to front the money to make one of them.

“I would love to do Mountains Of Madness, of course, but unfortunately, they don’t finance it,” he admits, mentioning his long in gestation adaptation of the classic H. P. Lovecraft tale At The Mountains Of Madness. “It’s not a movie I can finance out of pocket, which I do when I can. It’s huge to create that city and so forth. The only thing I control is the smaller movies, Pan’s Labyrinth, Devil’s Backbone and so forth. I have other things - List Of Seven – these things need huge financing.”

If he is unable to secure the financing he needs to make one of these films, he would be just as happy to go back to making the smaller horror films on which he built his reputation.

“So I’m starting to sketch, to write and it’ll take me a couple of years to write this thing,” he states. “But I’m starting to sketch one more, perhaps final, little movie about childhood and horror. It’s called Saturn And The End Of Days. It’s about a kid named Saturn watching the Rapture and the Apocalypse while on the way back and forth from the grocery store. It’s like, what would happen if the Apocalypse was viewed by you [while] doing errands. You go back and forth and nothing big happens except the entire world is being sucked into a vortex of fire.”

NYCC: Will The Avengers Assemble For A Film?

If a film adapting the Marvel Comics superhero team The Avengers never comes about, it wouldn't be for lack of planning.

For the uninitiated, the Avengers is made up of several of Marvel's more popular characters, most of whom are currently being developed for their own solo pictures. The long term goal of Marvel is to establish the characters on their own before bringing them together for an Avengers film. To facilitate the notion that they all exist in a shared world, Marvel plans on planting little references to the other heroes in each others films.

During the panel for June's The Incredible Hulk at the New York Comic Con yesterday, fans got a glimpse of some of those cross-references.

In one of two scenes from the film that were screened for con attendees, Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky is seen being given injections of a chemical to boast his physical strength and agility, in order to track down and capture the Hulk. General Ross (John Hurt) explains this is a bioweapon leftover from an abandoned World War II project which tried to create a "Super Soldier Serum."

Any semi-literate comics fan can tell you that the Super Soldier Serum is what was used to transform the 98-pound weakling Steve Rodgers into the Nazi-smashing Captain America, who would subsequently be frozen and not revived until modern times. Marvel currently has a Captain America film in development.

When questioned about the mention of the Super Soldier Serum, Incredible Hulk director Louise Leterrier remarked, "Did you guys see the color of the serum? Blue. It's Captain America's color."

As for an Avengers movie in everyone's future, producer Kevin Feige stated, "Depending on how these films do, depending on how people respond to how we are making these films, I would certainly like to see that happen."

When asked point blank by a fan if there was any truth to the persistent rumors that Samuel L. Jackson was going to appear in the Hulk film as spymaster Nick Fury or that Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. was going to cameo as Tony Stark, Feige remained elusive.

"I like when people are surprised in movies," he stated. "It doesn't happen very often any more. The truth is that there are some rumors you may have read about online that are not true, there are some rumors that are closer to true. You'll find out soon enough."

Fans didn’t know how soon Feige meant though. At the end of the panel, a new trailer for Incredible Hulk screened, followed by the questioned Robert Downey Jr./Tony Stark cameo. In the short scene, General Ross is in a bar, knocking back a drink, presumably after another failed attempt to capture the Hulk. Stark chides Ross over the problem he seems to be having with his bioweapon, stating he prefers mechanical weaponry. Ross, a bit drunk, compliments Stark on his suit. "You always have such nice suits."

The Incredible Hulk opens June 13, 2008.

NYCC: THE SPIRIT Teaser Trailer Premiers

As expected, yesterday's panel for comic book creator-turned-film director Frank Miller's adaptation of The Spirit at the New York Comic Con premiered the first footage seen from the film, in the f0rm of the teaser trailer below, courtesy of M-TV's Movie Blogs.





We'll have a full report on the panel presentation which featured Miller, the film's co-star Eva Mendes and two of its producers, Michael Uslan and Deborah Del Prete soon.

NYCC: WATCHMEN Figures

The photos that were released recently of the dysfuctional superheroes who populate the graphic novel adaptation Watchmen were met with criticism from some corners for appearing to be over processed. Perhaps these photos of figurines on display at Watchmen publisher DC Comics booth at this weekend's New York Comic Con will allay those fears, as they offer more detail of how the costumes will look in director Zack Snyder's upcoming epic.

NYCC: SPIRIT Teaser Poster!

While it was supposed to be unveiled later today during the New York Comic Con panel to promote Frank Miller's adaptation of the classic comic The Spirit, the teaser poster surfaced last night. Anyone familiar with Spirit creator Will Eisner's work will see the similarities here.

Stay tuned for our coverage of Miller's appearance at Comic Con, plus loads of other film related events from the show.