I was happy about the reboot. A new cast, the old one sucked. A new story, the other was painted into a corner without a lot of room to move. A whole new Spidey, but now…Someone had to throw out the word Gritty. Do we really need another dark realistic superhero?? This is from Entertainment Weekly, and I hope its speculation and not fact.

The next Spider-Man film will be a reboot of the franchise, not a continuation of series Sam Raimi created back in 2002 — in a move similar to Batman Begins restarting the Batman franchise seven years after Batman and Robin underwhelmed fans and critics.

This time around, the series will place Peter Parker in a more contemporary setting, as a teenager battling today’s issues. The decision to go with an origin story stemmed from Sony developing two Spidey projects simultaneously. According to studio insiders, Sony was working on both Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 and the new origin story from James Vanderbilt, who wrote Zodiac. The original plan was to keep the Spider-Man gang together for one last film in 2011 before rebooting the series in 2012. When it became clear that Raimi would not be able to make the summer 2011 release date planned for Spider-Man 4, the studio opted to scrap Spider-Man 4 altogether, and focus solely on the series reboot.

Who will helm the new film is anyone’s guess but with the studio interested in a more gritty, contemporary redo of the series, they are certainly focused on younger directors making waves in Hollywood. One name that has popped up is Marc Webb, the man behind (500) Day of Summer. He was previously in discussions with the studio to take over Moneyball, but that job went to Bennett Miller. Michael Bay has also previously expressed interest in taking over the Spider-Man franchise and Seabiscuit director Gary Ross worked on one of the drafts of Spider-Man 4 and is said to be a huge fan of the comic book series.

I swear to Robot Jesus that if Michael Bay takes over Spider-Man I will start an organization dedicated to his downfall.

Mike Judge’s new film Extract, is a comedy made in the same model as office space. Transplanting some of the focus off of the protagonists job, but still maintaining the same style of small annoyance humor. Starring Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, J.K. Simmons and Ben Afleck.

I thought this movie was good, but I didn’t like it as much as Office Space, or Idiocracy. Not that it wasn’t funny, it just didn’t pull me in the same way. I hear a lot of people say that they love Jason Bateman, but I just don’t understand why, I don’t mind him, but he doesn’t stand out to me in any way. He is so plain, almost to the point of being boring, but he certainly didn’t ruin the film.

In some ways this film goes further with some of the jokes, and it was funny, but the deviations subtract from the overall plot and make it feel a little sluggish. Even though it’s only a brisk 89 minutes long. This might sound a little harsh because it’s just a comedy, and it succeeded in being funny throughout the whole film, but this is the main reason it wasn’t as good as office space. In fact the main plot was so thin that Mila Kunis was barely in it. They were so focused on small secondary plots that the main story hardly existed.

This is admittedly knit-picky, I laughed throughout it, and it’s better than a lot of comedies that come out. I would even go so far as to say this is definitely worth watching once. I thought the sub-plot with Jason Bateman’s wife cheating on him with the gigolo pool-boy was really funny.

As far as the Blu-ray goes, it’s a pretty bare-bones disk. (Less than 20 minutes of special features.) Although I’ve started to move my collection completely towards Blu-ray as of late. As sad as it might sound, I’ve even started to enjoy watching comedy’s in high def. The prices really aren’t that much worse, and the technology is just going to keep getting cheaper.

Overall I would give this movie 6 out of 10 gold stars.

Buy the Blu-ray on Amazon!
Or the DVD!

Oh 2012, how far away you seem.

Paramount has announced that we can expect a follow-up to JJ Abrams’ blockbuster reboot of Star Trek on June 29 of 2012. Of course, this early in the game no confirmed villain has been announced –  though, the entire cast is expected to return.

I for one am all about giving Abrams the time he needs but 2012 just seems so far away now. Good thing we will have plenty of movies like Marvel and DC offerings to keep us entertained (maybe) until then. So, it looks like at least for the next 2.5 years the debate will continue, who will make the best villain for the follow up? Kahn? Klingons? Borg? Maybe the Ferengi? (I’m kidding on that last one…)

Let us know in the comments who you would like to see! I know it’s very “Next Generationy”, but I personally think Abrams should leave well-enough-alone with Kahn (not that I don’t have faith in him) and go with the Borg. Just imagine what kind of badassness Abrams could do with them? I mean, I know that supposedly first contact with the Borg wasn’t made until TNG era, but he’s already messed with the timeline, so why not?!

The Hollywood Reporter is… reporting… that Gossip Girl star, Blake Lively, has been cast in the female lead role of Carol Ferris – opposite Ryan Reynold’s Hal Jordan – in the Green Lantern movie. Those familiar with Green Lantern know that Ferris runs her father’s aerospace company that hires Jordan as a test pilot – a job that plays a part in him becoming the Green Lantern. As you might have guessed, there is some romance between Hal and Carol which I’d be willing to bet plays a moderate to large role in the film.

Now, my only exposure to Gossip Girl (which airs on the CW – that should give you an idea of the quality of the show) is when my hero Joel McHale makes fun of it on The Soup. So if anyone of you readers out there are willing to admit you watch this show (in other words, is there someone out there that is a Gossip Girl and Green Lantern fan? Does this combo even exist?), let us know in the comments what you think of Lively being cast as Carol Ferris in the comments!

The only film I personally have seen Lively in is Accepted, in which I thought she was quite charming. She’s definitely a looker, so of course that shouldn’t be an issue, but her acting in Accepted wasn’t… great; not terrible, but I hope she can hang with Reynolds in a leading role.

That said, she was very funny when she appeared on Saturday Night Live recently…

This probably won’t come as a surprise to most, but amidst all the news about Spidey 4 delays, Raimi hating the script and Sony unsure about a villain, Malkovich visited an Italian sports show (for some reason) called “Quelli Che il Calcio” and was asked about playing the Vulture in Spider-Man 4. The interview is in Italian, but BadTaste.it sent Super Hero Hype the “overall idea” of what was said:

“When conductor Simona Ventura asked him about his role of Vulture in the movie, he not only didn’t deny his involvement, but confirmed that he’s waiting for the final script to be sent to him, and that the movie has been delayed. He also hopes that shooting will begin as soon as possible.”

I am a big supporter of this “Malkovich as the Vulture” idea and I hope Raimi gets his way and this is the direction the movie goes. But of course, none of this matters while production is on hold.

UPDATE: Swankmotron here.  A film critic and friend of the site asked me to stress the following on our reporting of this story:

It’s still not official. According to the flacks, Sony has not announced anything in regards to Malkovich, and if and when they do they’ll send out a press release to the trades (Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter).

It’s good advice.  I still think this story strongly indicates that they’re at least talking to him.

The Associated Press is reporting that Stuart Townsend who was playing Fandral, one of the Warriors Three, has been replaced as the film began rolling cameras today.

Townsend, if you remember, was cast as Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings movies, but was replaced at the last minute then, too.  Granted, Fandral isn’t anywhere near as large a role as Aragorn, but this is going to be one of the biggest movies of 2011 and it certainly wouldn’t have hurt him.  I mean, even the AP says that the thing he’s best known for is being the boyfriend of Charlize Theron.

I’m really excited to see this film shape up and and am doubly excited to hear that it’s already filming.

The other potentially interesting bit in the AP article is a brief synopsis of the film.  So many have been published and they all vary wildly, but this could really be something (or nothing):

“Thor” stars Chris Hemsworth in the title role, a warrior cast down to Earth to live among mortals as punishment for his reckless actions, which rekindled an ancient war in the realm of Asgard. Thor’s troubles continue after dark forces of Asgard are dispatched to invade Earth.

Just saw the A-Team Trailer… Let me say this before you watch- I won’t give away anything that was a huge surprise to me, I just want to prep you a little…

Not since Joss Whedon’s -Ci6k” target=”_blank”>Serenity has a film looked like a more expensive episode of the original show.  I mean- take Firefly and add a couple million bucks to the budget and that’s what you got… Now take The A-Team and add a HUNDRED million to the budget and you get…well- THIS: The A-Team Trailer I apologize for the poor quality- but its the only version of this trailer online so far… I’ll have to wait for the Hi-Res version before I can really pass verdict on this.

The trailer is full of flashy and fast cutting which doesn’t play well over such a terrible flash encode. But I do have this to say: “LIAM NEESON!??” That right there is enough to go see it! (I’ve always wanted to see him try comedy… heh) and NO I had no idea he was in this movie- When it comes to remakes- I try to find out as little as possible as I can, so I can go in with no pre-conceived notions. Oh, and I’ve also become quite the Brad Cooper fan… he has been VERY solid in everything I’ve seen him in. He’s got great timing and a good sense of every character I’ve seen him play-(also- who doesn’t love Wet Hot American Summer??) so… he may be another shining point in the film. Oh- and did I see him almost kiss Jessica Biel? It was super grainy and a really fast cut- but I could swear that was her… hot…

Most of all- I cannot get over how much like the original show this movie looks… I mean, trucks flipping over at the drop of a hat, explosions, cigars, trucks fliipping over THEN exploding, the terribly trite dialogue… I mean- SERIOUSLY I wonder if they found a lost/un-aired script of the original, expanded it and decided to make a movie.

From what I’ve seen- I’ll see it, I’ll laugh my face to pieces, and come away wanting to own a gold necklace and a large black van… oh and smoke a cigar. I PITY THE FOOL! (who doesn’t think this will be a damn good time at the movie theaters…)

This trailer is a vast improvement over the first one! Enjoy!

So you should all know by now that we robots are looking forward to this movie. Specifically myself and Budgetron. So I have to say I’m pretty excited to see these pictures. The first one is nothing special really just a group shot but the second one makes me happy. Scott with a glowing sword, possibly the power of love?? Ramona and Gideon in the background. What do you think? check it out suckas!

Tobey Maguire was on a live webcam chat on latimes.com yesterday morning talking about his latest movie, Brothers. Of course, the conversation turned to the subject of Spider-Man 4 being delayed due to script issues. Maguire had this to say on the issue:

“Like anything, it’s a process, we’re just in the midst of the process. We have a lot of great stuff in terms of story and script. We’re just trying to dial it in and get it ready as quickly as possible. Of course, these movies are a very big undertaking and take a lot more time than a drama or something more straightforward.

“Not only do I have specific ideas, but the ideas are evolving on the page. It’s all happening right now. It’s all sort of coming together. It’s very exciting to me. I think the evolution of the character is really exciting, to be rooted in the history of what we’ve done already and to have a continuity, yet have a progression or evolution.”

So it seems like Maguire isn’t too concerned about the delay and the studio hasn’t officially given up it’s coveted May 6, 2011 opening day yet – despite the fact that Thor will now be opening that same day. I for one am fine with a delay, I trust Raimi, not the studio, and if Raimi isn’t happy with the script and needs to delay production to get his way, then I am all for it. I am guessing that this delay will cause Sony to push the opening date back a few weeks (or months), but if this delay ends sooner than expected would Marvel unleash comic book-movie-fury on us with two Marvel character movies opening the same weekend? It would be an epic weekend for Marvel if they did…