Tag Archives: emilia clarke

Hero Express: Iron Man 3 Armors, Mark Millar Joins Fox, & Ben Affleck Still Says No To Justice League!

October 6, 2012 Tim The Film Guy Leave a comment

Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top five stories in comic based Film & TV news!

Iron Man 3 Shows Mark VIII On Set In Miami

Robert Downey Jr. may have injured his ankle during shooting, but Shane Blacks Iron Man 3 is still pushing ahead. Not sure if Robert is back at shooting but his new suit certainly is. The new Mark VIII suit made its debut at this year’s Comic-Con and was met with mixed opinions. I wasn’t a fan originally but it has grown on me a bit since then and I would like to see this suit in action. Where’s the trailer at already, Marvel?

The blue suit to right is apparently not the Iron Patriot like we originally thought but instead is allegedly going to be Rhodey’s new War Machine armor. We mainly think this because of the clear US Air Force insignia stamped on the side of the new armor. I do not like the fact that the War Machine armor is almost exactly the same in appearance to the Iron Man suit! I think it will get confusing in a fast fight scene with them flying through the skies with explosions left, right, and center.

Images via [Collider]

Mark Millar To Take Control Over Fox’s Marvel Films

What a prestigious role to play with such a well-respected film company. Congratulations Mark. Oh by the way I am clapping slowly. Not shocking that Fox decided to do this since Marvel made billions on The Avengers and then got director Joss Whedon to helm their Marvel Cinematic Universe for Phase Two. So Fox wants their remaining Marvel properties to work a little more coherently under the watchful eye of Mr Millar. Nothing wrong with that, though I’d prefer if they would just give them back to Marvel. That’s clearly not going to happen so they might as well try and make them good.

Mark Millar has a rich history with comics and to be honest he is a smart choice to oversee Fox’s comic films. His most noticeable works are The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass. In August 2007, he also won the Stan Lee award at Wizardworld in Chicago. He has the right background and so we will have to just wait and see what impact his involvement in the next Fox films will be. Fingers crossed its good.

These are Mark Millar’s words on taking the job:

“I really like the Fox team, love this bold new direction they have for their franchises and am proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema’s biggest talents. James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn’s one of my closest pals, and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone call I’ve ever had,” Millar said with characteristic understatement in a statement accompanying the announcement. Describing his new role as a “dream gig,” he continued, “I spent 10 years working at Marvel and am really happy with the work I did on the comic side of things, so the idea of working with these characters now in a brand new medium is enormously exciting for me.”

Interview via [Comic Alliance]

Ben Affleck Still Says No To Directing A Justice League Film

Talking to MTV, Ben Affleck has explained that he doesn’t want to direct any Justice League movie and he doesn’t understand where the rumors started. He never suggested to anyone he wanted the part or that he was approached for the directing role by Warner Bros. So in his defense the theory kind of came out of nowhere and I find it funny that he has to explain that point from now on.

These are his words about the suggested directing role:

“What happens is that there’s a lot of bloggers and Internet interest around superhero movies, so there’s regularly a rumor that comes up, obviously [with regard to] ‘Justice League’ once ‘Avengers’ happened they think, ‘Well it would be crazy not to make “Justice League,”‘ and I’m sure they will. I guess I should be flattered, and I’m sure it will be cool. I’ve seen some of the stuff from the new Superman movie and that stuff is awesome. I think they took a really cool, real approach to Superman, which no one has done before, so if that trend continues I’m sure ‘Justice League’ will be great.”

The reason that he won’t be involved, he says, is that he finds that he doesn’t really care to work on superhero movies at the moment, thanks to his experience with Fox’s Daredevil in 2003. But that he may work on a superheroes film in the future:

“I had a negative experience with the one comic book I liked, it was just a movie that didn’t work… It’s such a shame because first of all ‘Daredevil’ [is] a great book, great idea and then right after that they figured out that it was better to make the movies good and then they started making them cool and investing in them. I felt like I was in the 1930s with that outfit, the trousers: ‘Hey chum, hold up there! This fella’s trying to rob a bank!’ It was a drag but I did love it as a kid and they’re rebooting it.”

News via [Comics Alliance]

Captain America Looking for a Female Lead

Captain America is going into production early next year, but they still haven’t picked a female lead. The new lead is going to be a romantic interest to Steve Rogers, and although fans may know that Sharon Carter would be a safe bet as she is the niece of Steve Rogers Wartime love Peggy Carter. The real question though is who will play the role of the Captain’s new love interest.

The short list so far appears to include Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four), Imogen Poots (Fright Night) and Alison Brie (Community). They do appear to have got a mixed group of women for the role which makes for endless speculation. I think with Alison Brie having already worked with the directors of this film that she has a strong chance of getting the role, not to mention the draw she would bring from the loyal fans of Community (Yeah, she’s HOT!). But that’s just my theory as the casting could go to any of these ladies, to be honest they have all done some very interesting work and I am sure they would do a great job.

hero-express-Alison-Brie — *Why wouldn’t we put this picture up?*

News via [Coming Soon]

Patrick Stewart Possibly Returning to X-Men

Rumors of a fourth X-Men film have been floating around the nerd vine for a while after X-Men: The Last Stand nearly destroyed the franchise. What a terrible film. The separate X-Men films First Class and Wolverine put us more at doubt that a fourth film would get made, but that they would continue the other independent X-Men stories. Well it might be more likely to happen now that Patrick Stewart teased us with a reply to a fan at the Montreal Comic Con this year.

SuperHeroHype reports:

At the 2012 Montreal Comic Convention, he was asked by a fan about returning to the series and he replied “I think there is every possibility” and then began to say the names of his female co-stars “Halle Berry! Famke Janssen! Rebecca Stamos! Anna Paquin!” Stewart then said, “yes, I’ll be reprising…”

Yes, he could just be messing with us. Yes, he might just be saying that he’d like to be in an X-Men film again. But with the sequel to First Class titled X-Men: Days of Future Past there might be a chance for him to reprise his role as present Professor and play along side his younger counterpart, which I would love to see and is perfectly possible in the time travel story line of Days of Future Past.

That’s it for this week!

CCI 2012: Game Of Thrones Panel!

July 14, 2012 Adam Popovich Leave a comment

I’m not sure how big a presence Game Of Thrones had at last years CCI, but I’m positive it wasn’t nearly as big a deal as it is this year. What with the show becoming a mainstream success, reaching audiences far and wide, It’s no surprise that the panel at CCI was packed to the brim with GoT fans eagerly waiting to see their favorite characters, hear their anecdotes, and most likely, get some sweet, sweet details and teasers about Season 3. Being a huge Game of Thrones fan myself, imagine my surprise to hear from several sources, fans included that the panel was a bit… let’s say lackluster. While George R. R. Martin himself was moderating the panel, the consensus seems to be that he wasn’t a very good moderator. Most of his questions seemed either uninteresting, or boring, and the basic outcry is that the panel was a bit of a disappointment.

While I’m bummed to hear that the panel was disappointing, It does provide me, and probably you, the reader, some relief that we didn’t miss anything AMAZING. I know I’d be really saddened if they had had amazing, mind blowing, insightful revelations about the show, crazy behind the scenes stories, titillating previews of the new seasons, all wrapped up with some kind of awesome free poster giveaway. In essence, It seemed that the panel got a bit better when questions were turned over to the audience, but still, the impression is there, and now that’s it’s over, we only have HBO’s marketing team for any kind of Season 3 teasers or photos. Anyway, here’s some of the highlight anecdotes from the Panel.

Courtesy of [Collider]

–     Martin asks Allen if he considers Theon a villain. Allen says Theon isn’t a villain, but he’s misguided and has issues. Martin then jokes how he’s given Theon so many sex scenes, and hasn’t received a single thanks from Allen. Allen responds that he had to get in shape for the sex scenes, but so far he’s been enjoying it. Apparently preoccupied with sex, Martin then mentions how Robb has a sex scene as well, and then asks if Madden prefers the loving or the fighting. Madden says he enjoys “swinging a sword”, waits a beat, and then realizes the innuendo.

–      Clarke says she can still walk down the street without being noticed, but when it happens “it really happens.” For example, when she was in a department store, a woman came up to her and said, “Khaleesi.”

–      It turns out that Kristian Nairn (Hodor) is in the audience (instead of the panel for some reason). “He’s still learning his line,” Martin jokes since Hodor is a mute.

–      An audience member asks if the show relates to contemporary issues. Clarke responds that it deals more with universal issues like family and death. Strauss adds that the show goes beyond the fantasy paradigm of good vs. evil, and says that Game of Thrones boils down to complex stories and characters. Martin notes that J.R.R. Tolkien rejected the notion that Lord of the Rings was an allegory for World War II. Martin says it’s the same way with A Song of Fire and Ice, and he’s trying to relate to larger issues rather than recent real-world events.

Overall the panel was fairly by the numbers, and didn’t appear to be anything really special. In my opinion, the biggest announcement was that Season 3 will be premiering March 31st, 2013. Which seems so far away right now… But oh well.

If you’re interested in watching the panel, the videos are below.

http://youtu.be/X6W6adukTYA

http://youtu.be/wFesRwOn4X0

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HBO’s ‘A Game of Thrones’ Premiere – Winter is Coming

April 17, 2011 Stephen Sanchez 1 Comment

If I had any fears that A Game of Thrones on HBO wasn’t going to be faithful to the books, consider them quashed. Tonight’s premiere, Winter is Coming, was masterfully done and as far as I could tell nothing was left out. There were a couple of things that were added in, but they didn’t detract from the flow of the story.

As I said in my review of the preview, the scene with the White Walkers at the beginning was very creepy, something I didn’t even experience during my reading of the book. Everything about the episode was very well done, from wardrobe to the acting to the music and scenery.

The Wall looked ominous as ever, even though you don’t get to see much of it, and ‘Winterfell’ was exactly how it should appear. ‘King’s Landing’ was only shown briefly but from what I saw of it I have no complaints.

So many scenes were a welcome sight after wondering what they would look like on screen. It actually made me smile seeing Bran Stark climbing the castle walls and jumping across the battlements after always imagining it while reading the books. Seeing Sandor Clegane in his hound armor, and the Dothraki wedding are other scenes that first come to mind when thinking of the books.

One half of the story takes place in ‘Westeros’ at the Northern Kingdom of Winterfell, where Lord Eddard – Ned Stark (Sean Bean) rules with his family. We are first introduced to them all before it is announced that the King – Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) is coming to Winterfell. Ned already knows why, since they have just heard that his good friend and current ‘King’s Hand’ Jon Arryn has died. Robert wants Ned to be the next ‘King’s Hand’ since they are also best friends.

Coming with Robert are his Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and her brothers Jaime and Tyrion. Jaime is a member of the King’s Guard, and Tyrion is a bit of a drinker and whoring man. Both are played to perfection by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage. The Lannisters, like the Starks are a mainstay of the whole story, so don’t expect to not see them throughout the series.

The other part of the story takes place across the narrow sea, where the last surviving children of Westeros’s previous ruling family, the Targaryens, plot their return to power. I should say it’s mostly the brother Viserys who is most anxious for the throne, when his sister Daenerys simply wants to return home whether there is a throne or not. Harry Lloyd plays Viserys at his crazy best, who is only out to use anyone and everyone to become the next ruler of Westeros, which he feels he is entitled to. He is even willing to sacrifice his own sister to gain power, and says as much at one point in the episode.

As you may or may not learn in the coming episodes, the last Targaryen King was quite mad, which was one of the main reasons Baratheon, the Lannisters and Ned Stark moved to take him out of power. As the story goes on you will see the same madness ever increasing in Viserys. This is most likely due to the Targaryen habit of inbreeding with their own blood.

So as not to spoil anyone who has yet to watch the first episode, I will say that there is a start to the political machinations that will dominate the series. The Starks are brought word of another possible cause of death for the previous ‘King’s Hand’, and one of the Stark children has quite an “accident”. The next episode will really get things going as mysteries abound and suspicions arise in the little land called Westeros.

I recommend the series very highly for any fans of the books, but especially for those who haven’t read the books. There are so many shocking twists and turns in this series that those who haven’t been spoiled by the books like me, will be affected more profoundly than I could ever hope to be at this point.

The brilliant acting and aesthetics of the whole episode prompted me to give it 5 out 5 Bears. If they keep this up then there is no reason why the series can’t become the best show on HBO, if not television. It was everything I expected an more. I can’t wait to see more Tyrion and more Arya in the coming episodes! (Obviously my two favorite characters after Jon Snow.)

Grizzly Bomb