When Marvel was bought up by Disney (in what used to be a big deal until the Star Wars sale took over) you knew that this would happen eventually. Blogger Phil Postma has taken scenes from various Pixar movies and created shots of the characters not just of Marvel heroes and villains but from the DC universe as well. They range from Magneto, Batman & Robin, Spider-Man and even Phoenix. There are at least four or five that I would not mind having framed up and adorning some wall space.
And before you ask, yes it is kind of weird seeing Merida from Brave as Poison Ivy. Very…very….weird.
So as if I wasn’t already excited enough for Bryan Singer’s return to the X-Men franchise, today brings this bit of information. Singer has brought on Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage for a role in X-Men:First Class. Rumors abound that he will play Puck, a member of the Alpha Flight team. For those unfamiliar, Alpha Flight is Canada’s version of The Avengers which included member like Northstar and Sasquatch.
Of course these are all just rumors and there are any number of characters that Dinklage could be in line to play. If the Puck rumor does pan out it would certainly seem like Mark Millar is hard at work in his new job to try and expand 20th Century Fox’s Marvel universe.
X-Men: Days of Future’s Past releases on July 18, 2014 and stars Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence and Peter effing Dinklage.
UPDATE!!!
Reports are now confirming that Dinklage is being cast to play a villain in the First Class sequel, so the dreams of Puck fans everywhere may be thwarted. Sorry Canada.
Hey! It’s a new Iron Man 3 poster and I think after seeing it we can agree on one thing:
Thank God they replaced Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle.
The new one-sheet focuses on Cheadle’s Iron Patriot complete with sunset sky and flying debris that is required in every action movie poster by the secret Hollywood pact of 1984 which Michael Bay adheres to in the strictest possible way.
Welcome, once again, to the weird and wonderful world of William Shatner. Today “The Shat” gives his opinion about J.J. Abrams taking over the Star Wars franchise. He calls Abrams “a pig” and says the director has “gone too far” for trying to take on both of the biggest sci-fi franchises ever. The great thing about Shatner is that he knows how to carefully walk the line of funny as hell and sarcastic asshole. You can never tell which side he is really on and that’s what makes him “The Shat”.
Check out the interview snippet here and see if you can tell the difference.
DC Collectibles is ready and set to unleash a full line of 1:6 scale statues for Zack Snyder’s huge Superman revival, Man of Steel. Below you can see a very good look at Michael Shannon as Zod. He is looking very non-Terrence Stamp and all badass. Other statues which you can see are Superman himself played by Henry Cavill, the mysterious Faora played by Antje Traue and Jor-El who is obviously played by Russell Crowe who comes with a Kryptonian gun and not a phone to assault people.
Prices have not been revealed for the statues and will be released this spring.
In news that really didn’t surprise anyone, Disney is damn sure going to get their $4 billion worth out of the Star Wars license.
In other news that may surprise, the rumored standalone Star Wars films that will center on stories outside the new trilogy are officially happening with Empire scribe Lawrence Kasdan and Sherlock Holmes writer Simon Kinberg working on the scripts.
But we already heard about that. I hear you exclaiming.
I know that. The surprising part is that it has been found out that one movie will focus on a young Han Solo and his origin story and the second will center on everyone’s favorite Sarlacc dinner (yes, I know he didn’t die technically) and bounty hunter Boba Fett.
The Boba Fett movie would either take place between A New Hope and Empire or between Empire and Return of the Jedi. Either way, as long as they get as far away from the horrible orphan boy clone in Episode 2, then we will be good to go.
On the Han side of things, we don’t know if this will be how he met Chewbacca or if the Wookie will even be involved. The most fun aspect of this new Han-centric movie has got to be the casting. Let’s take for granted that a script by Kasdan or Kinberg is going to be pretty good. Now who do you find to take over an iconic role this large? And do you try to get Harrison Ford to come back? Maybe have Han reflecting back on days gone by as he sits on his intergalactic rocking chair.
Rob Zombie and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with his movies. While I was rather indifferent about House of a 1000 Corpses its followup, The Devil’s Reject,s was a much better structured horror flick. Next, he reinvented the Michael Myers legend with his remake of Halloween which I still hold as the second best in the series behind the original. Then came the inevitable sequel which took everything good he did in the first film and proceeded to take a massive dump on it.
The trailer for The Lords of Salem has given me a little hope that Zombie is getting back to the feel of Rejects.
The trailer seems like it has a lot of influences flowing through it. The Devil’s Rejects, Rosemary’s Baby and The Wicker Man (the classic, not the Nic Cage debacle) all seem to be guiding the way Zombie is crafting this movie.
The Lords of Salem stars Sheri Moon Zombie (per usual and with no complaints from me), Sid Haig, Bruce Davison and Clint Howard, who is working more than Ron these days. It will releases on April 19th.
There has been no studio confirmation, but reports are saying that Marvel Films has found its lead in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Parks and Recreation alum Chris Pratt has reportedly nabbed the role of Peter Quill known as Star Lord on the intergalactic team. Pratt beat out the likes of Joel Edgerton, Jim Sturgess and Jack Huston from Boardwalk Empire who all tested for the role.
The movie version of Guardians of the Galaxy will consist of Star Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora and Groot.
Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey have been in talks for an unspecified role but rumors suggest it will be for the voice of Rocket Raccoon. The role of Drax the Destroyer has been narrowed down to Isiah Mustafa, Brian Patrick Wade and former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista.
Guardians of the Galaxy releases on August 1, 2014.
How odd is it to realize that the Fast series is about the have its sixth movie release? Paul Walker should definitely be thankful because I am pretty sure it has paid his mortgage for the past ten years. While I was never a huge fan of the first four in the series, the fifth (Fast Five) was undeniably fun to me because it got away from the street racing scene (which I officially give zero cares about) and turned it into a Oceans 11 heist movie on steroids.
Now the gang is all back together again in the new trailer for Fast & Furious 6 which sees them offered full pardons for their help in catching a new big bad played by Luke Wilson and assisted by Michelle Rodriguez who has died in more movies and shows than I care to count.
Maybe Adam Sandler has found his new niche in Hollywood. While the actors live action movies have been hitting a brick wall lately, Hotel Transylvania is his biggest hit since Grown Ups almost two and a half years ago. And while it doesn’t exactly blaze new trails in animation or even come close to touching Pixar’s unquestionable quality, it does serve as a mostly enjoyable Halloween romp.
Count Dracula (Sandler) has built an immense castle dubbing it Hotel Transylvania, a place where all monsters can come and vacation away from the real world and be human free. Drac really has a secondary reason for the hotel being so well hidden. His daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) lives with him and he never wants her to leave the castle so he has spent her entire life filling her head with all the reasons why humans are the most horrible creatures in existence. Now it is time for her 118th birthday and on the eve of her huge party, which will be attended by all of Dracula’s (and Sandler’s) friends Frankenstein (Kevin James), the Wolfman (Steve Buscemi), Invisible Man (David Spade) and the Mummy (Cee Lo Green), her father has promised her that she may leave the castle and explore the village closest to them for a few minutes.
After she realizes that humans are terrible creatures, thanks to Dracula’s horde of zombie bellboys playing humans, Mavis promises to stay at the castle forever. During her party a human named Jonathan (Andy Samburg) happens upon the castle. Dracula thinks quickly and dresses him up as a long, lost relative of Frankenstein to keep the guests of the hotel unawares that a human is in their midst. For them to find out would be the end of the hotel.
As is expected, Mavis and Jonathan fall for each other and he shows her and all of the guests that there is a lot more fun to be had in life if you just open yourself up more.
What did you expect? It is a kids movie. It is not like we are dealing with Inception here.
Photo courtesy nydailynews.com
While all the voice performances are good and the animation is serviceable, Hotel Transylvania does play it safe plot wise. We get the boy meets girl, boy leaves girl, friends band together to get boy back story. The jokes are more kid based and don’t have quite the adult bite as some other animated features, but that’s OK. This movie wasn’t made for the fat, cynical, Adam Sandler weary crowd like yours truly.
That is not to say there is no fun to be had in Hotel Transylvania. I had more than a few chuckles with jokes involving the zombie bellboys and Jon Lovitz’s performance as Quasimodo, who plays the foil of the movie as he tries to catch Jonathon and make a human pot pie out of him.
Also fans of Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory and Star Wars: The Clone Wars should take note and give this a watch because it is directed by the legen-wait for it- dary Genndy Tartakovsky and his certain vibe can be felt throughout the film. It is a good start for his feature film directorial debut and hopefully the film’s success will get him looked at to handle more animated features.
Hotel Transylvania has some good stuff going for it. A solid voice and quality director keep this movie from dragging into the Ferngully’s of kids films. It has its share of laughs and can easily be a Halloween movie to enjoy with your family. Your kids should have a great time with it and as an adult you can take it from me, you can watch a lot worse movies that have vampires in lead roles. Much, much worse.
