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Visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) may have missed out on an Academy Award for their work on last year's The Avengers, but that doesn't take away from their achievement, which helped Marvel's comic book adaptation become the third highest-grossing movie of all time. ILM has been releasing videos that take fans behind-the-scenes of their work on the movie, starting with a reel of their visual effects material as well as a video describing how the company created a digital New York.
Now, Grantland has unveiled another video from ILM, one that focuses on how the company turned actor Mark Ruffalo into a digital Hulk.
watch the video >> Posted 03.04.13 by Ryan -
Considering the huge success of last year's The Avengers, there are probably few out there who are unfamiliar with Marvel's comic book adaptation, which assembled all of Marvel's individual, cinematic superheroes onto one team. However, what most people probably haven't seen is how effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) created the Academy Award–nominated visual effects of the movie, including the creation of the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier and the computer-generated New York City that Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) flies around in at the start of the movie.
In order to reveal the company's visual effects work (and celebrate the Oscar nod), ILM has released an Avengers reel online. "This reel represents a small fraction of the work created by over 200 ILM artists, scientists, and engineers backed up by a world class production team," said the company of their reel, which transitions from computer sketches to behind-the-scenes shots of the production to the final product.
watch the video >> Posted 01.12.13 by Ryan -
Upon hearing the news that the comic book heroes-turned-Saturday morning cartoon sensation-turned movie franchise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were going to come "from an alien race" in the upcoming Ninja Turtles reboot fans weren't pleased — the popular notion is that the former household pets were transformed by a green ooze. However, Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman has remained steadfastly in favor of the project, urging fans "not to worry" and claiming that the reboot will be true to the "core concept", and "will be a great TMNT film."
"If we learned nothing else from one of my favorite comic book based films, The Avengers, that there's a lot to be said about never forgetting that core concept and core fan-base."
Much has been made online about Eastman comparing Ninja Turtles to The Avengers, which led us to think: "What would happen if the two teams fought each other?" Well, now the time has come inside the imagined cyber octagon that is our Character Cage Match!
check out the teams' strengths and weaknesses before voting >> Posted 12.05.12 by Ryan -
If you've seen The Avengers — and the super-team movie's $617 million domestic take pretty much guarantees that you have — than you know that the Hulk not only steals just about every scene he appears in, but that his presence in the final battle is essential to the team's success. Most of the Avengers had reservations about siding with S.H.I.E.L.D. against Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his alien invasion force at some point during the movie, but none more so than the Hulk's "puny" alter-ego, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who finally joins the team in the eleventh hour.
In anticipation of the release of The Avengers on DVD/Blu-ray next month, Marvel Studios has released a deleted scene from the movie that shows Banner's indecision about "Hulking out" during an extended conversation with the kindly security guard (Harry Dean Stanton) who found him lying in a pile of rubble after falling out of the sky.
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Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) really seemed to click in The Avengers, but apparently the budding bromance was only meant to be a short-lived one. Despite the fact that Stark suggested that Banner swing by Stark Industries, we won't be seeing the Hulk and Iron Man teaming up again in Iron Man 3, Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige told ScreenRant during an interview conducted at the recent San Diego Comic-Con. Though still a highly successful movie, most fans agree that Iron Man 2 suffered under the weight of too many characters and too many continuity strings tying it to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something that Feige does not want to see happen to its sequel.
The trick is to not let it get complicated. If you’re a fan of the comics than you’ll know that continuity in the comics can be really interesting and really fun and it can also start to crush under its own weight. Iron Man 3 is a direct move to prevent that from happening. So it is very much a [co-writer and director] Shane Black Tony Stark story.
more about Iron Man 3 & Thor 2 [POSSIBLE SPOILERS] >> Posted 07.19.12 by BrentJS -
The Hulk has always been a popular character. In publication more or less continuously since the early '60s, the "Jade Giant" has spawned several animated series, video games and, of course, the popular live-action TV movies and series starring Bill Bixby as David Banner (Bruce Banner in the comic books) & Lou Ferrigno as Banner's alter-ego that aired in the '70s and '80s. But, despite the enduring popularity of the character, the Hulk was not a hit with moviegoers — both 2003's The Hulk and 2008's The Incredible Hulk failed to impress at the box office — until his recent appearance in The Avengers. In fact, the Hulk's portrayal in the movie has been such a crowd-pleaser that Marvel is considering a third solo movie for the character.
What's the secret of the Hulk's success in The Avengers? If you've seen the movie, then you know that writer-director Joss Whedon was able to effectively portray the humorous side of a half-ton green man throwing a tantrum — something neither Ang Lee nor Louis Leterrier bothered to explore in The Hulk or The Incredible Hulk — in addition to the terrifying side of so much raw anger and power. But, there's more to it than that, says visual effects supervisor Jeff White. In addition to Whedon making good story choices concerning the Hulk, White said that Whedon's insistence that he be able "to see Mark Ruffalo in the design" of the Hulk, as well as other "good design decisions" such as size, body shape and color, contributed to the character being more believable and helped Hulk "fit in" with the rest of the Avengers.
what's the secret to whedon's Hulk? >> Posted 05.13.12 by BrentJS -
Though Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige recently said The Avengers is devoid of the little hidden references commonly known as "easter eggs" that have populated previous studio releases — "I find that they're distracting. Joss [Whedon, writer-director] finds that they're distracting. Frankly we want Avengers to work as its own movie, as a part one." — there is at least one hidden "cameo" to be found.
In a new featurette titled "The Sound of The Avengers, sound editor Christopher Boyes (King Kong, 2005) explains the effects behind everything from Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) hammer to Cap's (Chris Evans) shield to the Black Widow's (Scarlett Johansson) karate kicks. He also reveals that TV Hulk Lou Ferrigno contributed to the voice of the Hulk in The Avengers.
watch the featurette >> Posted 05.10.12 by BrentJS -
Marvel's The Avengers is already a hit overseas, and isn't going to stop anytime soon. THR reports that the comic book movie adaptation could gross anywhere from $500 to $600 million after its US release this weekend, thereby outpacing all of its previous, individual superhero movies.
With new TV spots arriving on almost a daily basis, the latest is a slightly altered version of a previous spot. Even so, we're not afraid to admit that we're not tiring of watching Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and (especially) the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) tackle Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) army in the movie's promotional footage.
watch the TV spot >> Posted 05.02.12 by Ryan -
Fans are arriving en masse to see "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" assemble in The Avengers — at least, overseas. The movie is already setting records, a trend sure to continue this weekend as it expands to 42 additional foreign markets.
For American audiences, who still have to wait a week, at least there are more character posters released by Mondo, the collectible art arm of Austin's Alamo Drafthouse). Last week, two retro posters of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) were revealed, and MTV has discovered the posters of the other four members — Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Dr. Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) — posted at various sites all over the Internet.
see the posters; Feige talks humor and villains >> Posted 04.26.12 by Ryan -
The Hunger Games director Gary Ross sent studio Lionsgate into scramble-mode when he announced that he wouldn't return to direct the sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Already armed with a script from Academy Award–winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), Lionsgate is still trying to make an August start date for Catching Fire so they can shoot with franchise star Jennifer Lawrence before her schedule gets filled with the X-Men: First Class sequel.
The LA Times reported last week that the studio had compiled a list of seven or eight names to take the director's chair, which reportedly includes David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises), Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, ), and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu (Biutiful, Babel). According to The Playlist, that list also includes directors Bennett Miller (Moneyball) and Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend).
more on a catching fire director >> Posted 04.18.12 by Ryan