Category Archives: Movie News & Opinions

Movie News & Opinions

Is Guillermo del Toro on for “Heaven Sent”?

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Don’t you hate it when someone says something about you and then another person says that you didn’t really say that and then you have to tell people that you did say the first thing and don’t know why anyone is saying you didn’t? Welcome to Guillermo del Toro’s weekend.

On Thursday, November 1st, the Latino Review posted that del Toro was talking with Warner Brothers about a project involving characters from the DC Universe. By Friday, November 2nd, various other outlets had picked up the story. Of course, people start seeing this and getting excited, but who wouldn’t be excited? Marvel has certainly found big success with their ensemble The Avengers, so DC fans are starting to feel it’s their turn.

But wait, it’s now November 3rd and with a new day comes new news. It seems that Pietro Filipponi over at The Daily Blam has talked to Mr. del Toro and says that there is “no truth” to the rumor that del Toro is interested in directing the superhero movie.

Talk about letting the air out of your sails. Before you can even fully feel the disappointment of this news, it’s 15 hours later and Guillermo del Toro himself is responding to the story in the forums of his own site saying that he never said that, and he would love to do the project!

So what is this project everyone has been talking about? An ensemble cast of DC superheroes? Could it be?  Maybe?

No. It’s not those characters. Even though Warner Brothers is saying that they are a go for The Justice League to start filming in 2013, it won’t be with Mr. del Toro at the helm. No, the DC characters that del Toro is interested in are more of the lesser known variety.

Referred to as “Heaven Sent”, the project would be centered around the “magical” characters in the DC Universe; Swamp Thing, The Spectre, Zatanna, Zatara, Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Deadman, and more!

As awesome as Justice League will be (it will be awesome, it has to be, please angels in heaven above let it be awesome) this idea has potential to be amazing. Seriously, when was the last time The Spectre made news? When did you last actively think about Zatara? Not to mention, just imagine the casting discussions to be had! I’m kicking off the official campaign for Timothy Dalton as The Phantom Stranger.

Sound off in the comments below! Are you excited by this possible project? Who would you cast? Mr. del Toro is the man of 10,000 irons in the fire but we can always hope that this one will pan out.

Movie News & Opinions

Jamie Foxx as Electro for Amazing Spider-Man 2? Blame it on the Ah-a-a-Ah-Ah-Alcohol….

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According to various sources, such as EW.com and Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Foxx is in negotiations to join The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie as the villain Electro. This comes as a surprise to some because Electro doesn’t exactly bring to mind Jamie Foxx. Maybe it’s because despite his Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles in Ray, he will always be Sheneneh from In Living Color. It’s still not final but Foxx, ever the showman, decided to tease the masses on Twitter:

Of course, everyone wanted to consult with Marc Webb to see if he would address this new bit of info and he did. Sort of. According to Comingsoon.net, Webb dropped this quote when it was brought up:

“I think Jamie Foxx is electrifying! I think Jamie Foxx is one of the best actors around today. He’s such a great character actor and he’s a really brilliant guy. I would love to work with him and you’ll be hearing more on that shortly, I’m sure.”

Webb goes on to add that the dynamics of Norman Osborn are very important to him and will be a common theme through this franchise’s movies.

“I like Electro, I’m fascinated by Norman Osborn and the different inflections of him. And Harry. Mary Jane and Gwen are always interesting to me. What makes villains interesting to me is what they bring out in Peter. What challenges they provide for him. What’s great about Marvel and other comics is that often there’s a pre-existing relationship… It’s not just about the physical conflict he has, but the emotional ones as well.”

With the new origin story and reboot in the background of the last movie, Webb still feels an obligation to the Spider-Man canon but also feels he can take it to different places and explore different contexts not yet discussed with this iteration of Spidey, not unlike the Ultimate universe in the comic books.

“What’s exciting about moving forward is that, in the first movie, I had to still honor some of the important elements of the origin story. But I also wanted to redefine the context of it because I’m building a different universe than what we’ve seen before. A lot of the nuance is quite different. Now, as we’re approaching the sequel, it’s really exciting because I feel quite liberated. I have a universe that’s my own. I don’t have an obligation to the origin story. It’s pretty fun and exciting and I can dig deeper into the parents.”

Of course, the movie is starting to take shape with this possible casting, as well as the earlier Mary Jane/Shailene Woodley news. It’s interesting that Electro would go this route because obviously Webb wants to show a connection to Garfield’s Spidey, and I figured they would’ve cast someone more age appropriate to connect the generation gap better. I guess we’ll have to see exactly how this character shapes out, and for an official confirmation. There’s also the whole idea that Electro is Caucasian and not African-American, which I think is an absolute non-issue. Character is character and it shouldn’t change performance and how it is projected on the screen. I would like to think we are progressive enough to get past that but time will tell. He is a good actor so it would be interesting to see what he could bring to the table come May 2nd, 2014 when the movie arrives to blow your minds away. Hopefully it will arrive with this suit below.

Movie News & Opinions

Bryan Singer To Direct ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, Nobody Is Really Surprised

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When news broke that Matthew Vaughn was stepping back as director of X-Men: Days of Future Past, fans were a little surprised. The much-anticipated sequel to X-Men: First Class gained a ton of hype as soon as the title was announced, and Vaughn was expected to direct, off of a screenplay he worked on. With the announcement that he was off the project, but still on board as producer most thoughts turned to Bryan Singer taking over as director.

Continue reading Bryan Singer To Direct ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, Nobody Is Really Surprised →

Movie News & Opinions

DVD Catastrophe – Photoshop Abuse

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Now I don’t like to talk about depressing things, but something has been bothering me for some time. I feel it is time to talk about it, right here, right now. It is something we all know about, but are not quite sure when it raised its ugly head. It is something that invades our everyday life. It is the horror of Photoshop, the tool to make stars look even prettier.

Continue reading DVD Catastrophe – Photoshop Abuse →

Movie News & Opinions

Possible Tarantino Trilogy: Basterds and Django Could be Connected…

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Rumor has it that director Quentin Tarantino is planning a loosely related trilogy that includes Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, and a yet unknown third title. Tarantino explained to Total Film that:

[quote]“I don’t know, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained bespeak a trilogy…As different as they are, there is a companion piece quality. There might very well be a third one. I just don’t know what it is yet.”[/quote]

It would appear that thus far the link between the films is a version of alternate history that could carry over into a third film – with another alternate history. The Playlist suggests that third part could turn out to be the “1930s gangster picture he’s mentioned in the past? Or the Len Deighton spy adaptations he was also considering?”  

Hard to say, at the moment, which might be the case as Tarantino himself admits he doesn’t know what it is yet. Still, it will be interesting to see if the director turns out a third film that ties in with the other two. Only time – and Tarantino – will tell.

What would you like to see as a third film tying in with Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained? Sound off below!

Movie News & Opinions

‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’ Loses Vaughn As Director!

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Admittedly I’m not the biggest X-Men fan in the world. However I loved X-Men: First Class, and thought it was the movie the X-Men films always should have been. After having recently read the famous ‘Days Of Future Past’ arc on which this sequel will be based, I found myself getting pretty excited for it. Time travel stories are always great in my book, and Michael Vaughn brought us a group of mutants who actually fought people, used their powers in cool ways, and did things other than talk each other to death.

From where I’m going with this, I’m guessing you can surmise that I wasn’t a fan of the original X-Men trilogy. Especially the second, which nearly everybody else in the worlds seems to think is a masterpiece. I found it flat, boring, and pretty unremarkable considering the storyline it was supposed to be setting up. X-Men 3 at least had mutants fighting and doing things, rather than sitting around and talking about stuff all the time. It was a piece of crap, but it was an entertainingly bad piece of crap. That assessment I just made usually makes most X-Men fans turn off their brains to me once I see it, but I express it to show you just how much I truly loved First Class, and how sad I am to see Vaughn go.

via [EW]

[quote]EW has confirmed that Matthew Vaughn has decided not to direct the film, which he co-wrote, titled X-Men: Days of Future Past. The movie is a spinoff of last year’s X-Men: First Class, which Vaughn directed and also co-wrote.

While Deadline reports that Bryan Singer, who launched the X-Men franchise with 2000′s X-Men, is on a short list to helm the sequel, Singer’s reps at William Morris had no comment when reached by EW. Singer is already named as a producer on X-Men: Days of Future Past. He also co-produced X-Men: First Class.

[/quote]

I have nothing against Singer per se, and in fact I love his other non-X-Men related work immensely. However, the thought of Bryan Singer bringing his cerebral, talky, overly serious style back to this franchise leaves me cold. That’s not to say that I’m hoping Brett Rattner picks up this project, because I would rather have a talky, boring, mutant time travel story, than a f***ing stupid one that makes no sense and is acted horribly. I suppose no matter how I look at it though, it’s a lose-lose for me. One one hand, I’m either going to get another mutant related snoozefest, or some other person is going to pick it up and bring some kind of style to it that will pale in comparison to Vaughn’s.

If I had to choose a new director, I guess I’d pick Rian Johnson. Looper showed us that he knows how to handle a time travel story, emotional pathos, and action to boot. In fact that sounds almost better than the thought of Vaughn doing it. If you’re gonna show us big scary sentinels snatching people up, a dystopian world where mutants are outlaws, and everything has gone to hell, please please make it good. If Singer does get the project, I’m hoping he’ll prove me wrong and make an exciting, exhilarating film. I hate being that guy who hates everything everyone else likes, but boy it sure does seem like it’s gonna be that way with this flick.