Unknown Fan Films – The Incredible Hulk Meets The Ever Lovin’ Blue Eyed Thing

The Incredible Hulk

In the late 70’s one superhero had a tight grip on the television industry and that show is fondly remembered even now by most people for numerous reasons. Even the most casual of TV viewer will have seen a shot of Lou Ferringo in his green makeup with only his purple pants on at some stage in their life. Of course I am talking about The Incredible Hulk series which blazed brightly through Television screens. But by 1982 the show had been cancelled and viewers had moved onto other things. But the green paint look was not forgotten by Bob Shreck, Bob Karwoski and Larry Ruggiero (And lets not forget editor Marc Harwood) who had that look in mind when they made their 16mm movie The Incredible Hulk vs. The Ever Lovin’ Blue Eyed Thing.

The Incredible Hulk

If you’re interested in watching a funny (And messed up, in certain places) short film then you have come to the right place. The basic plot revolves around a very strange bar/nightclub where the Fantastic Four’s Thing is trying to relax with a pint or two but just cannot get his happy face on (Due in part to being a grumpy bugger, as well as the interesting array of characters that reside there. But I’ll talk about that later). It is not until his old sparring partner, The Incredible Hulk, turns up that he truly starts to chill out. But enough talk, here is the short film for your viewing pleasure:

The whole thing has a Rocky Horror Show patch-work vibe to it, with colorful costumes and a real sense of fun. Aside from the various monsters, aliens and just general weirdos who pop up in this short, there is a list of well-known characters that pop up. Here are some of the ones I managed to spot: Superman, Spider-man, X-Men’s Angel and Nightcrawler, Chewbacca, Darth Vader (who struts his funky stuff), The Blues Brothers, a Tuscan raider, Dragon Man and Doc Savage (Still not sure about this one but I double checked the credits and it says he is there somewhere!). Truth be told there are probably even more!

The Incredible Hulk

Yes sir, this movie is a continuity fan’s nightmare with different universes all sharing the same space together, but least they are all dressed in the right attire. This brings us to the costumes, which vary greatly in quality. Some of them are obviously bargain basement stuff but others have had some real effort put into them. The Hulk makeup is straight from the TV show and fits in nicely. The Thing’s costume is incredible and as controversial as it sounds, this is the best live-action version of The Thing I have seen. It’s obviously not as realistic as the recent movie franchise’s version but it certainly keeps more in line with the character’s comic book roots. This Ben Grimm gets the moody, mardy look down to a tee but also does not come off as to depressing and melancholy, more just really uptight. And as bad as it is I cannot help but laugh whenever I hear Ben Grimm shout “Back off bitch” to a lady of the night (Though it’s not so funny to watch him get a laugh out of almost killing same said woman with a beer glass thrown at her head).

The Incredible Hulk

For the most part it’s all just a bit of harmless 70’s fun, but there is some nice skill on show for such a short feature, and the cracking soft punk soundtrack is also worth noting. It might not to everyone’s tastes but I certainly got a buzz out of it and there is a weird pleasure to be found watching The Thing lamp Darth Vader in the gut while The Hulk smacks Chewbacca so hard he whelps like a dog (Though it kind of sucks that the two never actually fight against each other). It certainly is amateurish but still fun. If you like the movie there is a great interview with Gerry Giovinco the genius behind the actual costume.

Sylvester Stallone Wants $400 for His Autograph at NYCC

Now this is an interesting piece of information. A bit ago Grizzly Bomb reported how Bruce Willis was doing action jobs just for cash. Fair enough there, it would be nice if he put some passion in his work but that’s just a personal request. Sylvester Stallone however was not too fond of his sparring partner’s love for cash and in another article when we talked how mad he got while casting for Expendables 3 recently.

 Sylvester Stallone

This is where the tale takes a turn for the worst because it has been confirmed recently that Stallone will be appearing at the New York Comic Con this year. Which has to be great news for fans, if it was not for the fact he wants them to pay up their hard earned money for the privilege and it is not cheap. It is $400 in fact, or $450 if you want a photo with the super star. The website Celebrity Authentics confirmed this with the statement featured below.

[box_light]Thank you for your interest in Celebrity Authentics and the talent we are bringing to the NYCC! Stallone with be at the show on Sunday only and doing autographs and photo ops that day. Autograph tickets are $395.00 and photo op tickets are $450.00. Tickets are limited to approximately 300 autographs and 150 photo ops. Chloe Mortez’s autograph tickets will cost $75.00 and photo ops will cost $95.00 each. We are unsure at this point if she will be there Saturday or Sunday. That will be confirmed soon and tickets will go on sale September 5th at 11:00am EST at http://www.celebrityauthenticstickets.com. Let us know if you have any other questions we can assist you with and we hope to see you in New York!”[/box_light]

Now there are numerous things you can say about this, but the main thing is the fact that it is a tad hypocritical to denounce Willis for money grabbing then charge so much yourself at a Comic Con. We are in a recession at the moment and many are suffering from financial difficulties, but even if times were better $400 smackers is a little bit too much to ask for a pose down with Rambo. Asking for money at conventions is not an uncommon practice, but it is normally for stars from a bygone era trying to make a bit of money for themselves, or retiring stars wanting to add to their pension. These people normally charge $30-$40 for this service, and you normally get a photo and a signature for that. Sure Sylvester Stallone is one of the biggest stars on the planet, and popularity wise outshines most of these other people, but also its not like he needs the money. He could make up to $186,000 from this if people pay.

With other conventions you get a nice and intimate meeting with the stars, sometimes rushed along if queues are long, but you feel like it was money well spent. For this amount of money fans are going to want a lot more and I doubt they are going to get it. There is a slim chance that Stallone knows nothing about this but I highly doubt it. He is a clever man and must see this as a possible cash cow situation. But who knows? It will be interesting to see how the session goes when he arrives at the NYCC this year.

Sylvester Stallone
Stallone, made famous for playing the ‘everyman’ underdog…

Abrams Not Directing Star Trek 3, Details a Hidden Into Darkness Cameo

News has hit the web of J.J.Abrams confirming he won’t be directing the next installment of Star Trek; it is hardly surprising, considering he now has the chance to play in a whole other universe with Star Wars Episode VII. And now that Star Trek‘s characters have been well-established it will be nice to see how someone else runs the rebooted franchise. In an interview with Collider, Abrams had this to say about the direction the Star Trek franchise would be heading without him:

[quote]”It’s a little bittersweet. But, I will say that I’m going to be producing the movie. Whomever it is that directs the film will be someone we all know is going to keep the cast and crew in good hands. I feel very lucky to have been part of it, and it definitely feels like the right time to let someone come in and do their own thing. I certainly don’t want someone to come in and try to do what I would have done. We want to hire someone who’s gonna come in and bring their own sensibility. I’m very excited to see what comes next, despite feeling jealous of whomever that person is.”[/quote]

Moving onto news from Yahoo Movies, it is no secret that fans love finding Easter eggs in their beloved movies. Apparently J.J.Abrams does too: He let slip that Star Trek Into Darkness featured a cameo that may have passed the audience by:

[quote]”R2’s really been in all of the movies I’ve done, really for no other reason than I’m a huge fan, and when I was a kid I realized that R2 was also in ‘Close Encounters. Actually, I’m putting a ‘Star Wars’ character into ‘Star Trek’ as an homage to ‘Close Encounters.’ So there you go.”[/quote]

Below is the scene in question and it’s a doozy [Second image below]. Just for fun there is also a cameo by R2 from the first Star Trek movie [Pictured first below].

 jjabrams news r2d2 photo 1

jjabrams news r2d2 photo 2

Incidentally this is not R2D2’s only appearance in other movies. Take a look at the images below to see the little guy popping up in other great films:

Photo from www.movie-club.net
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Photo from http://www.movie-club.net
From themovieblog.com
Transformers. From themovieblog.com
Photo from www.movie-club.net
Indiana Jones. Photo from http://www.movie-club.net
Photo from www.planetadeaficiones.com
More from Indy. Photo from http://www.planetadeaficiones.com

So good news is mixed with bad but the suggestion that a Star Trek character could turn up in the Star Wars universe is certainly intriguing. Jabba’s palace and Mos Eisley cantina seem the most likely of places from the old movies for said character to turn up but who knows? Keep reading Grizzly Bomb for more up to date Star Wars news. Before you go check out Geek Exchange website showing even more of Abrams’s Easter eggs.