Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Last night, the Academy of Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films held the 35th annual Saturn Awards. The Dark Knight was the big winner of the night, taking home five awards, including Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, Best Supporting Actor (Ledger), Best Writer, Best Music and Best Special Effects. Iron Man, Battlestar Galactica, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button each won three awards. A full listing of winners is available after the jump
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Cool Stuff: Jon Favreau’s Geek Tour Of His House
Posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I’m a collector, always have been, always will be. I’m the kinda guy who has action figures on my computer desk, movie posters on my walls, a wall of dvds and a few select sideshow collectibles on my book shelf. I always find it interesting to learn about other geek’s collections, or even better, geek directors. At Comic Con, Zack Sndyer admitted that he owns a life-size Han Solo frozen in carbonite. Guillermo Del Toro has a whole second home that houses his geeky memorabilia. Jon Favreau had some extra time as he gears up for production on Iron Man 2 and gave a tour of some of the geeky memorabilia in his home.
French Canadian filmmaker Patrick Bolvin wondered what a fight between Bruce Lee and Iron Man might look like, so he created a 1-minute short film showing what might have happened if the two action heroes battled it out. The narrow depth of field cinematography is stunning, but the stop animated film is much shorter than I would’ve liked. Check out the short film after the jump.
Marvel’s Starting Offer for Mickey Rourke as Iron Man Villain: $250,000
Posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 by David Chen
A few weeks ago, the internet was rampant with speculation about Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell’s roles in Iron Man 2. Conflicting reports from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter made people ask who was playing who, and wonder whether Rourke would in fact be playing Crimson Dynamo in the sequel. You can check out our original post on the subject here, and be sure to check out some good analysis by CHUD and MTV too.
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The visual effects branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures has narrowed down the films of 2008 to just seven selections. These seven films will compete in a “bake off” on January 15th to narrow the list to just three selections — the nominees for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. Here is the lost of the final seven:
- Australia
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- The Dark Knight
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- Iron Man
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
- The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Discuss: Which film would you award the Best Achievement in Visual Effects?
AFI’s Top 10 Movies of 2008; Boston Critics Name WALL-E and SlumDog Best Picture
Posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
The American Film Institute has packed their Top 10 films of the year. Like any AFI list, the films are all over the map from indies to big Hollywood blockbusters, and I find myself a little bit angry after reading through the selections (although, not as much as I usually am). Why was Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire snubbed? I thought it was considered to be partly an American production? I am also surprised that they included two comic book films in the results (not that I disagree).
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Gran Torino
Iron Man
Milk
WALL-E
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler
Also, the Boston Society of Film Critics have voted and declared WALL-E and Slumdog Millionaire both the Best Movies of the Year. And for those of you counting, this is the second critic association to give the Best Picture Award to WALL-E. Could this be a foreshadowing of what might be to come with the Academy Awards?
The Best Picture category was not the only tie, the BSFC awarded both Sean Penn (Milk) and Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) Best Actor of the Year honors. The rest of the list follow:
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Director: Gus Van Sant for Milk and Paranoid Park
Best Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk
Best Cinematography: Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li for Paranoid Park
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Foreign-Language Film: Let the Right One In
Best Animated Film: WALL•E
Best Film Editing: Chris Dickens for Slumdog Millionaire
Best New Filmmaker: Martin McDonagh for In Bruges
Best Ensemble Cast: Tropic Thunder
via: In Contention
Paramount has released an Iron Man game for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch called Iron Man: Aerial Assault. I love iPhone games, so I thought some of you might be interested. Details below including the first screenshots.
“The Iron Man game gives players the opportunity to play as Iron Man and engage in aerial combat and challenges that require quick maneuvering and accurate shooting. As players navigate through high altitude battles, they will soar through 12 different levels of airborne combat where menacing enemies will not rest until they have conquered the skies. To aid in the mission, players have access to high-powered weaponry and strategic flying mechanisms that will serve to eliminate those that stand in Iron Man’s path.”
“Using an upgradeable, high-powered armor developed by Stark Industries, players will hone their skills by using a variety of weapons to battle through wave after wave of enemy units. With the touch of a thumb, players can access, charge and fire an arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons including repulsor blasts, missiles, and the devastating Unibeam.”
“Developed by doublesix, IRON MAN: AERIAL ASSAULT utilizes the innovative technology in iPhone and iPod touch, like the accelerometer and Multi-Touch users interface to enhance the game play experience while providing new and exciting challenges to conquer throughout.”
The game is now available for $7.99 on iTunes.
The Dark Knight Breaks Blu-Ray Sales Record in One Day
Posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
If it wasn’t already expected, Nikki Finke is reporting that The Dark Knight has broken the record for the most Blu-rays sold in just one day of release.
The Dark Knight sold over 600,000 copies on Tuesday alone, while the previous record holder, Paramount’s Iron Man, sold 400,000 Blu-ray copies in one week.
And guess how many copies the film sold on old school DVD? Would you believe 3 million? 7 million copies are expect to be sold by weeks end, making it the best selling release of the year. If I were to guestimate, I would say that the release will have made over $175-$200 million by weeks end.
It took Shrek over four weeks to sell 5.5 million copies on DVD in 2001. The bestselling DVD of last year was Transformers, selling 13.74 million units over the span of two and a half months. Pixar’s Finding Nemo remains the best selling DVD of all time with over 60 million units sold as of last year.
Although the end of the year is coming, along with all of its attendant and obligatory “Top 10″ lists, I thought this year I’d try something different . While 2008 was a year of great films, I wanted to pause and reflect on some of my favorite quotes of the year. Some pretty great actors said some powerful stuff this year. Taken together, these quotes capture some of the memorable moments, and give a taste of the zeitgeist of 2008. Before we begin, you should know:
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL THE FILMS MENTIONED BELOW. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED…
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How One Guy’s Flickr Photo Wound Up in the Iron Man Movie
Posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 by David Chen
Of all the amateur photographers out there, who among us hasn’t dreamed of seeing our photos plastered onscreen during the runtime of a multi-million dollar studio tentpole release/major comic book franchise film? I know this fantasy is what keeps me snapping away at random friends, family, and strangers with my Nikon D50 everyday…
Anyway, it turns out one lucky person on Flickr actually had this dream come true. On the right here, you can see a photo taken of the Vehicle Assembly Building in Cape Canaveral by Flickr user Adactio (real name Jeremy Keith). According to Keith, he was contacted with a strange message to use the photo in an upcoming feature film. “I thought it was an odd picture to be asking about,” Keith said. “Let’s face it; it’s not a very good photo. It’s blurry and washed out. I guess it’s somewhat unusual in that it was shot inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral. Usually members of the public aren’t allowed inside.”
Despite failing to take the woman seriously at all, she kept at it until finally she revealed to him that the photo was going to be used in the movie Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. Eventually, Keith signed away release rights to the photo. And then…
Iron Man was released a few weeks later. I never got ‘round to seeing it in the cinema; I’m not a big fan of the whole cinema-going experience. But some time later I was travelling across the Atlantic yet again and one of the in-flight movie options was Iron Man. I fired it up, wondering if my picture had made it into the final cut and even if it had, whether I’d be able to spot it.
Three minutes into the movie, there was my photo. It fills the screen. The camera lingers over it while performing its best Ken Burns effect. Not only was Robert Downey Jnr. photoshopped onto the picture, Jeff Bridges was on there too! The Dude!! …On my picture!!!
My Flickr pictures have been used in some pretty strange places but this must surely be the strangest …and the coolest.
Check out Keith’s website for the whole story (via Neatorama). This story is proof that wherever you live (Keith is from England), in America, you can still have insanely awesome things happen to you without even trying. Not that I’m bitter or anything…
Sideshow Collectibles is producing an Iron Man Mark I Maquette. Each piece is hand cast in highest quality polystone, hand finished to Sideshow’s exacting standard and enhanced with real wire hoses.
The center of the chest will feature working light-up feature, replicating the ‘heart’ of Tony Stark.
It looks even more detailed than the Hot Toys version. The Sideshow Exclusive version of the Iron Man Mark 1 Maquette (currently on Wait List) includes a unique feature available nowhere else: Flip-up visor option, revealing Tony Stark’s face for alternate display! Available for preorder (second quarter of 2009) for $399.99. More photos after the jump.
Jim Rhodes’ Character Was NOT Scaled Back For Iron Man 2
Posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 by David Chen
A few weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly reported on the details of the Terence Howard/Don Cheadle Iron Man 2 debacle, saying that, due to the problems with Howard for the first film:
…when Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux went to map out the sequel they found themselves minimizing Howard’s story line. Once Marvel learned that Favreau was thinking of curtailing the role, the studio went to the actor’s agents with a new and drastically reduced offer[.]
Now, according to MTV Splashpage, we learn that screenwriter Theroux has unequivocally stated that the Rhodes’ character was not scaled back for the sequel:
All that stuff that was in the “EW” article…I don’t know. I can only tell you what I know which is that from a writing standpoint we didn’t do anything differently [with the character]. It’s not like we were sitting there going, we need less of this or that. We just approached the characters and the story on their own terms.
Theroux also confirmed that Rhodes will in fact be integral to the plot:
I can’t really speak to the plot stuff and all the rest of it but Rhodes is completely present in a very strong and big way…He’s COMPLETELY present.
There you have it, folks: We’ll be seeing a lot more of Mr. Rhodes, the army man who becomes War Machine, albeit with an infusion of Cheadle this time around.
