Hot on the heels of learning that the Paul Bettany rumor was just that, we learned that Marvel announced Emmy winner James Spader will play the Avengers’ newest and biggest cinematic foe, Ultron.
Well this is just awesome.
James Spader is one of those quiet badasses who gained recent recognition after his stint on surprise hit “Boston Legal.” Some called it a “comeback” for the actor, but he never really disappeared. His career is one that in a pinch is unremarkable, but when you think on it for just a couple seconds you realize what an amazing actor this guy is. “Two Days in the Valley” is a cult hit that you should probably watch immediately if you haven’t seen it. “Less Than Zero” – ultimate “The Brat Pack is Growing Up” movie (RDJ is a bisexual coke addict prostitute!), “Stargate” is awesome (whatever don’t even hate) and… can we just talk about “Secretary”? Yeah.
So there have been more than a couple great villains in his resume, but my all time favorite?
Blaine, king of the scumbags. Molly Ringwald will have none of your sass, Blaine!!
What are your thoughts, friends? Sound off in the comments and make sure you stayed tuned – Citizenbot hopes to get a quote from none other than Denny Crane (SHATNER!) this afternoon.
RUMOR: An Already-Established Iron Man Character Will Be Ultron
Back at San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that the big Avengers sequel baddie would be Ultron – hence, Marvel’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It wasn’t long after that that it was revealed that Ultron’s origin would be modified for the movie universe and Hank Pym, Ant Man, would not be Ultron’s creators but instead Tony Stark.
This immediately got my gears turning with theories. The one that always made sense to me is this:
In Iron Man 3 we are introduced to an Iron Man suit that doesn’t need Tony in it to operate – Tony can operate it remotely. Already established in the Iron Man movie universe is the artificial intelligence that serves as Tony’s assistant known as JARVIS, who we already know can take control of the Iron Man suits. So perhaps Tony builds a suit specifically for JARVIS to inhabit? Perhaps JARVIS just decides to take control of a suit for other reasons? Or maybe JARVIS makes his own “suit” (ala Ultron form) to gain a physical presence to pursue his own goals?
These were my immediate thoughts on how Ultron would come about in the Avengers sequel, and according to UnleashTheFanboy.com, this just might be the case.
Well, that’s what we’ve theorized . . . but we couldn’t get anyone involved in the project to confirm it… not until our usually tight lipped friend at Disney decided to chime in.
When we asked if JARVIS, or a form of the AI software, would become Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, our source said:
“That’s the plan so far from what I’ve heard. Obvious, isn’t it?”
And since Paul Bettany has portrayed JARVIS in every Marvel Studios film since the cinematic universe’s creation, we asked our source if the thespian would return for a proper physical role, instead of just the voiceover:
“He’s returning, but I’m not sure if they’re doing motion capture with him, or if they’ll use someone else. Since he’s only done voiceovers, the contract is new.”
Unleash the Fanboy also has some interesting ideas about Paul Bettany portaying Ultron and Vision that I don’t believe are completely out of the realm of possibilities and worth considering.
As always, take this as just a rumor until we hear it straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. But I know I’m not the only one who theorized this right out of the gate, and to me it seems like the logical origin for the Marvel Movie Universe version of Ultron. We’ll just have to wait and see.
You can follow Arse-bot and all the pointless thoughts he puts out into the interwebs on Twitter @Arse_bot
Cowboy Bebop – The Movie shown at the Aero Theater with special guests Steve Blum and Peter Ramsey
A night of action, sizzle reels, and a Q&A featuring special guests from design, production and voice acting – Sunday’s presentation of Cowboy Bebop – The Movie at the Aero Theater was not to be missed!
The Presentation
As part of their Summer movie series, the Art Directors Guild Film Society and American Cinematheque (sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter), brought Cowboy Bebop – The Movie to The Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California. It was a special occasion for a lot of reasons, among them that Cowboy Bebop had originally been only briefly shown in theaters in 2001 in the United States, and had barely made a little over $1 million in that run. As John Muto (Production Designer and moderator) mentioned during the introduction, Bebop may be an animated film, but it is practically indiscernible from a classic, live action film noir (albeit on Mars and with future tech). It really deserved more attention than it got in its original run. It’s wonderful and exciting and “really in a category of its own.”
The Aero is a special theater to me. Ever since I moved to Los Angeles I’ve had the chance to see three films with special presentations / Q&A’s attached (the Ray Harryhausen event stood out in particular) and each one has been a really fun time. Though it’s a bit on the older side, the theater itself is well-preserved and I have gotten to enjoy several of this summer’s events hosted by the Art Directors Guild Film Society and American Cinematheque (who also host events at The Egyptian, sister theater to The Aero).
If you haven’t watched Cowboy Bebop – The Movie yet, let me assure you that you should add it to your must-watch list somewhere near the top. My friend Luke reminded me how solid this movie was after it finished when he said, “You know, compared to most action films out right now, this is a whole lot better in many ways.” And he’s right – Bebop has such a well crafted narrative and pacing, and it really manages to pull off part-noir, part-spaghetti western, part-HK action film better than most of its live action counterparts!
The Q&A
The Q&A with Steve Blum (the acclaimed actor who voices “Spike Spiegel,” Bebop’s lead character, as well Wolverine, The Avengers, and Transformers, among many others) and Peter Ramsey (ADG Illustrator who advanced to feature Director on the award winning Rise of the Guardians) was a nice, intimate experience compared to most Q&As I’ve attended at conventions and other events. Since the theater is on the small side, you get a nice atmosphere with about a hundred devoted folks who have stayed till the end of the film and each get the opportunity to ask a question. Here are a few highlights I enjoyed:
“I saw it (Bebop) in a little theater all by myself in Pasedena,” said one visitor. To which Blum replied, “Well thank you sir. You bought me a bag of french fries.”
Blum (on voice acting for Bebop) “Most of the time I don’t get to see it (the scene) prior to the performance. There’s no real preparation for that, so, most of it’s either gut or Mary setting context for me, or whoever my director is at the time…For me that works because I started in anime. I didn’t have a classic acting background so I came in just matching lip flaps and matching characters to the best of my ability and it’s all instinct…”
Ramsey – “How many takes do you usually get to do to get the lip sync right, cause that’s hard!”
Blum – “We did probably more takes on this than we did in the series but generally if you can’t do it in three takes they’ll look for another actor because they’re on a time schedule, and for anime and tv shows particularly they want you to do about 40 lines an hour so.
Ramsey – “and you dont see the script before?”
Blum – “You don’t see the script beforehand and sometimes you don’t even get a preview of the scene beforehand. Basically you’re at 3 beeps and you’re going and you need to match and look at the page and look at the screen at the same time. It’s a juggling act. It’s a skill set you need to have when you’re doing this work.”
Guest – “What are all your favorite anime?”
Ramsey – “Akira, just about anything by, obviously, Miyazaki – and then I reach all the way back to childhood cause that’s where I was first exposed to it. You know… Kimba the White Lion, Ape Man, Gigantor… all those that have the same hallmarks that I feel that most animated features do. So Miyazaki is kind of like refined to the Nth degree but yeah, I’m a huge fan of Akira and there’s a lot of similarities in the story with it and Bebop.”
Blum – “Uh, Bebop (joking). I actually haven’t watched that much anime. Like I said, I only watched Bebop about two years ago. Probably the only other anime that I watched end to end was Digimon because I was a writer for it.”
Blum – (on bad projects) – “Probably the only one I ever walked out on turned out to be Hentai… I was hired onto a thing called Project X” and I started recording and I’m this creature with all these tentacles and I’m like ‘wow this is a cool looking creature.’ All of a sudden, they show this little girl… it was really awful. I lasted maybe 10 minutes. I walked out and didn’t finish that session. I let them keep their money *laughs.*
Me – Bebop was one of the first shows to come over to get really solid localization. Was there ever a show you worked on where you got a hold of the script and realized that the adaptation dialogue was not that well written (localized)?
Blum – “Yes, several shows as a matter of fact. Probably the worst being a show called GTO. Basically we had the Japanese translation and it was not adapted for American voice actors so I walk into the room and I’m seeing a million flaps and four words and I basically wrote my part on the fly, and ad-libbed a lot of it. I haven’t watched it because I thought ‘This cannot possibly be any good,’ but the fans actually said it came out pretty good…” It was really a challenge.
Guest – “I’m just curious, what do you think in general of the ability for American animation and Japanese animation to cross over and meet somewhere in the middle?”
Ramsey – “I think there’s plenty. All we did really was a lot of us were really big fans of anime and wanted to bring some of that design sensibility into our characters and the way we were telling the story because it was a weird hybrid kind of movie that we were trying to make so anime seemed like the right fit for a fantasy/magical adventure. I think there’s a lot that’s kind of crept into American movies anyways. Pixar has a lot of influence from Miyazaki…. some of their better storytelling comes from anime and Japanese tradition. I think it’s one of those undercurrents that’s always going to be there… a lot of people are really resistant to it in America (you’re either in one camp or the other). It’s strange but I think the cross pollination is just gonna happen naturally.”
Fun trivia I learned from the Q&A – Blum has a tattoo on his arm that’s the recorded sound wave of the word “Bang” (in particular, the final line Spike says in the last episode of Bebop).
After leaving the event, I started thinking a bit more about how much I would have loved the chance to see Bebop in theaters when it originally aired in 2001. In general, it would be nice if we could get more opportunities to see anime like Bebop on the big screen. I’m always excited to see when anime films are getting a bit more exposure, and especially when they’re included in an art or design series along with major motion pictures hailed as classics and must-see movies.
My question to you – if there was one anime film you could see on the big screen, what would it be? For me, I’d love to get the chance to see Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind show up at one of my local theaters someday. As for Sunday’s event, it inspired me to look into finding more anime screen events.
So, the other bots (and my coworkers and friends) keep sending me all the new promo images from “Thor: The Dark World.” I am sure they all chuckle as they think that one day I will be reduced to a quivering pile of goo, or at the very least a kneeling fangirl. My latest case of the vapors arrived with this image:
Let’s all sit and blink quietly for a few moments, shall we?
I know I’m a broken record on this, but I love love LOVE that Marvel is keeping a lid on the Malekith imagery. Too often in recent years a movie’s high point will be included in all of the nineteen trailers that hit for a blockbuster release. But Thor’s Big Bad remains relatively mysterious. Instead they’ve focused on the action, the secondaries that everyone loves (WHAT UP, Heimdall and Sif!), a little hint of a triangle between Sif, Jane, and Thor (do not want), and of course our favorite Trickster.
Each Friday we will be bringing you weekend-viewing movie picks available for streaming on Netflix! From the popular to the obscure, we will browse Netflix’s Streaming library so you don’t have to, and bring you what we consider to be “Must Watch” selections!
DREDD (aka DREDD 3D)
Directed by Pete Travis, Screenplay by Alex Garland
A long time ago there was a comic book which featured stories about a futuristic dystopian city, ravaged by crime and ruled by all-powerful judges. Then in 1995, Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider did their best to ruin it for everyone. Last year, the franchise was redeemed in a film worthy of its pulp comic and brutally ultra-violent roots. And starting today, it’s available on Netflix for you to put into your instant queue or your brain-hole.
I recommend the latter.
Dredd, which we reviewed when it came out, including interviews with Karl Urban and Alex Garland, drops the origin story route that most comic superhero movies try to deal with, and jump us right into the thick of the story. The main plot revolves around Dredd (Karl Urban) taking on an apprentice Judge (Olivia Thirlby) and an investigation of a murder in the giant Peach Trees housing complex. This pits them against drug kingpin Maw Maw (Lena Headey) and they have to fight their way up the giant building.
For those who have seen The Raid: Redemption this plot may seem familiar. For those who haven’t, I recommend you watch both of these as a violent double feature.
But the real reason to watch here is Karl Urban. He does more with the bottom third of his face and his voice than most actors can do with their whole bodies. Lena Headey has a lot of fan with this bad guy role, too. A scene with her and a mini-gun is especially fun.
For those on the squeamish side, this movie is not for you. This is bloody and brutal. If that’s your particular cup of tea, then I highly recommend you take advantage to watch this over the weekend.
Who knows? If there’s enough viewership, we might just get the sequel Urban and Garland have promised they want to do.
For those who don’t know, The World’s End is the third film in Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost’s self-titled “Cornetto Trilogy.” It rounds off what was started with Shaun of the Dead and carried forward into Hot Fuzz.
The World’s End tells the tale of Gary King (Simon Pegg), who convinces his high school mates to reluctantly take up the challenge of “The Golden Mile.” It’s a pub crawl: 12 pints, 12 pubs, no compromises. Their last big hurrah of high school was to attempt this but never finished it. For Gary, not finishing might have been one of the biggest tragedies of his life.
I don’t want to say much more about the story of the film than that, to be honest. And I’d suggest you stay away from the trailers if you haven’t already seen them.
Just go see this movie.
Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg have once again crafted a screenplay here that is a finely tuned Swiss watch. No one writes screenplays this carefully or deliberately in Hollywood these days. Every set up has a payoff, every moment of the film is carefully charted for maximum comedic effect, and every beat and turn in the story is at once natural, but absurd in a believable way.
It’s remarkable how far this film descends into the absurd, but the writing, directing, and acting is all so good that it never feels as though you’ve lost your grounding or your grip on reality. This is a perfect example of a film that I wish existed in a time where you didn’t need trailers and you didn’t need to give away where the film is going in those trailers. I’d love to see this play out for a person who has no idea what might be coming.
This film is a master class in story structure. Nothing is wasted and every moment is efficient and effective. Each moment in the film propels us to the next effortlessly and reasonably, no matter how absurd the story gets, the next step makes sense.
I know “efficient” and “effective” aren’t words one is looking to hear in a film review, but those are qualities I admire in storytelling. They’re taking ambitious risks and have done all the work to make them come off flawlessly.
Edgar Wright is the sort of filmmaker I hope to be and movies as finely tuned as this make me realize how far I have to go.
It’s important to highlight the cast of this film as well. Simon Pegg takes risks as the unlikable and pathetic Gary King, trapped in his 1990 high school life. Nick Frost gets outside of his normal sphere as well, playing a responsible family man who just wants to get past the sort of life Gary represents. The rest of their gang, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, and Eddie Marsan, are nothing short of brilliant in their character portrayals and comedic timing.
I was also happy to see another James Bond alum in a Cornetto trilogy film. In Hot Fuzz, underrated Bond Timothy Dalton is one of the funniest parts of the film. In The World’s End, former Bond Pierce Brosnan plays the Rope-like Jimmy Stewart professor to Simon Pegg’s student.
I want to see what they’d do with George Lazenby.
While I’d need to see this film again to truly comment on the quantity and quality of the laughs compared to the other films in the Cornetto trilogy, it’s safe to say that this film is in the same league as the first two films. I had a smile on my face the whole time and not a minute went by when I wasn’t laughing. If you enjoyed those, you’re going to enjoy this.
If you didn’t enjoy those films, I’m not even sure why we’re talking.
If you did enjoy all those films, then check back to Big Shiny Robot! over the coming weeks to check out interviews I did at San Diego Comic-Con with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost.
RUMOR: Bradley Cooper Offered the Role of Rocket Raccoon
Filming for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is well under way in London, but we still are missing people for the roles of two central characters, Groot and Rocket Raccoon. Vin Diesel has been dropping strong hints that he may be the voice for Groot, but we really haven’t heard a ton of chatter on who will voice Rocket Raccoon.
Well, that may have changed now as Latino Review is reporting that their “trusty sources out of England” have informed them that Marvel has made an offer to Bradley Cooper to voice Rocket Raccoon.
As always, file this away under rumor, even with Latino Review being a reputable source for these things, nothing is final until we officially hear something from Marvel/Disney.
I like Bradley Cooper, and after coming upon this news I pulled up a few clips of him and closed my eyes while he was talking. Despite how creepy that sounds, I can actually see this being the voice of a Raccoon with an attitude and arsenal of weapons to match. If this proves to be true, I’ll be quite pleased with this.
I honestly think that Groot and Rocket Raccoon are going to steal the show in Guardians of the Galaxy and is probably now my most anticipated Marvel Movie Phase 2 film because, frankly, I just don’t know what to expect!
Sound off with your thoughts of this rumored casting choice, and let us know who you think should voice Rocket Raccoon in the comments below!
You can follow Arse-bot and all the pointless thoughts he puts out into the interwebs on Twitter @Arse_bot
STAR WARS: Why Episode VII Probably ISN’T Getting Pushed to December
There has been a lot made of a rumour coming out of Badass Digest that is saying that Lucasfilm and Disney are close to announcing that Episode VII won’t be a summer release, but will instead be coming out for Christmas 2015.
This story is being reported EVERYWHERE as though it’s a done deal. People are already looking into sub-zero weather sleeping bags for the campout for tickets. Fans are assuming May is dead for Star Wars.
But here’s the problem: There’s no evidence to support it.
Normally, people would look at the available clues and see if there was merit in the rumour, but in this rumour, at this point, there is actually a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
First: when Star Wars: Celebration Anaheim was announced there was this line on the official Star Wars website:
Star Wars Celebration 2015 will be held in Anaheim, California, from April 16-19, 2015. Timed with the release of Star Wars: Episode VII, this promises to be a Star Wars Celebration like no other.
That’s actually an official acknowledgment of the time period Episode VII will be released. Celebrations I-III were all timed a few weeks before the release of Episode I-III and they wouldn’t make mention of it if it wasn’t true. Lucasfilm IS an official source for Star Wars news. That sentence didn’t get included on that website by accident.
So, that’s Disney officially confirming the time frame. And both of these instances are from the last few weeks.
The only company even slightly involved in the production that hasn’t weighed in on it is Bad Robot, and those guys are so sworn to secrecy, I bet they haven’t even told their significant others they’re working on Star Wars, let alone the presumptive release date.
Then, we have Variety reporter Marc Graser tweet that he’s being told from his sources that the December release date story is bunk:
Being told there's no truth to the December release date for #StarWars#Disney
So, the evidence says we’re looking at a May (or at the very least “summer”) 2015 release date for Episode VII.
But evidence isn’t enough to satisfy some and they’re still worried about other things.
One common argument is that May is simply too crowded for Star Wars to make money and they need to move it to December where it’s a safer bet.
Well, according to the calendar, the only film releasing in May 2015 is The Avengers: Age of Ultron, another Disney film, albeit under the Marvel banner. There is enough time in the month to give each film a 2 week window of box office dominance, which is about all any film can ask for these days. That’s a lot longer in movie time than you realize. Think about this: The Wolverine came out three weeks ago and it already feels like an eternity.
But for those saying December is less crowded, what about the three movies that have already staked out that territory (including Kung Fu Panda and Alvin and the Chipmunks.) Sure, those movies won’t do Avengers sized business, but that’s certainly more options than just Avengers. And that season is sure to get even more crowded based on the Oscar-bait films being released in time to qualify and other big blockbusters that always stake out that Christmas release.
There are simply less movies coming out in May 2015 than any other major tentpole month. Just because Disney also owns Avengers doesn’t mean it’s too crowded.
The next big argument is that they simply don’t have the time to make the movie if they’re shooting in January 2014 to get it done in May of 2015.
But that’s not exactly true. Did you know principal photography on A New Hope began on March 22, 1976? Having Abrams start in January 2015 gives him a full 3 month headstart on the job Lucas did that first time out. Sure, the prequels took more time, but they also spent more time in post-production.
But the prequels also fit on the same time schedule. It took three years to make each of the prequels.
As far as I can tell, work on the script for Episode VII, the first step in any mode of pre-production, began in June of 2012. That hits the three year window for a May 2015 release perfectly as well.
Others think that Disney simply doesn’t care that Star Wars movies are traditionally released in May. That may well be true, but they’re the ones giving us all of the indications that it will be.
I’m sorry, but at this point, there’s simply no compelling reason whatsoever to believe that Star Wars is being moved to December 2015.
Sure. It could happen. The sources Badass Digest are citing could be totally right. But looking at the evidence we have, there’s no reason to believe it.
None.
Whatsoever.
Note: I reached out to Lucasfilm for comment on this issue and have not yet received a reply.
Each Friday we will be bringing you weekend-viewing movie picks available for streaming on Netflix! From the popular to the obscure, we will browse Netflix’s Streaming library so you don’t have to, and bring you what we consider to be “Must Watch” selections!
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
Directed by Stewart Hendler
Starring Tom Green, Anna Popplewell, Enisha Brewster, Ayelet Zurer, Masam Holden, and Daniel Cudmore
For years fans of the Halo videogame franchise have been hoping and praying for a live-action feature film, and while an “actual” feature film seems to forever be doomed to remain in development hell, this web series is the next best thing – if not just as good.
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn began first as a web series, but has since been collected into one 90-minute feature film on DVD and Blu-ray, and is now available on Netflix Instant. Forward Unto Dawn follows a young Thomas Lasky as he and other cadets at the Corbulo Academy defend against a Covenant invasion, the events of which directly tie into the Halo 4 videogame.
Senador Kooch reviewed all five episodes of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn as they were released, and you can check those in-depth reviews via the links below. The Good Senador and I also interviewed Frank O’Connor and Daniel Cudmore about the film back when they were first released and you can check those out below as well.
If you are a fan of Halo, then there is no reason for you to not check this film out. The acting is great, the effects are top-notch (especially for a web series), and while the pacing is a little slow at times, when the action comes it is just what Halo fans have been hoping to see in the live-action format. Perhaps this isn’t exactly the full feature film Halo experience that some fans have been hoping for, but with a movie seemingly stuck in development hell, I would be plenty pleased to keep seeing these web series in the mean time – perhaps we can get a full series with full seasons at some point.
You can check out Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn on Netflix Instant right now.
If you’d like to add Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn to your Blu-ray collection, you can purchase it from Amazon here.
You can follow Arse-bot and all the pointless thoughts he puts out into the interwebs on Twitter @Arse_bot
Latino-Review is reporting that they’ve confirmed through three different sources that Ewan McGregor is returning to the Star Wars universe in Episode VII as a force ghost, taking over for Alec Guinness.
For his part, McGregor has said previously that he’d be happy to return if they needed him to a galaxy far, far away.
It wouldn’t be difficult to use make up and digital effects to get McGregor to more closely match Alec Guinness in the classic trilogy.
If this turns out to be true (and certainly take this with a grain of salt, as you do with any rumour), this is the nail in the coffin that they’re tossing out the Expanded Universe. In the books, Obi-wan, for some reason, had to move on to a nether region of the force and never again return in his spirit form.
Thankfully, it sounds as though that would be re-written.
And this also opens the door for Hayden Christensen to return, which I’d love to see. More than anything, I think a scene between Hayden as Anakin’s force ghost and Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker would make me about melt from geek overload.
McGregor has also talked about his interest in a solo film for Kenobi, and I don’t think that would be a bad idea. Sure, a straight adaptation of John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi would be great, but I bet there are a thousand missions Obi-wan could be doing that wouldn’t need to involve his exile on Tatooine.
As with everything labeled rumour, don’t believe it for certain until it’s confirmed. But you can take into account that Latino-review is reliable and Ewan coming back for the part just makes sense. Doubly so on the heels of the Palpatine rumours.
Episode VII starts filming early next year and comes out in the summer of 2015.
