-
Director Joe Johnston seemed a curious choice to many fans when he was hired for Marvel Studios' adaptation of Captain America: The First Avenger in 2008. Fans of Rocketeer will point to the 1991 movie as proof that Johnston can handle a genre movie set in the past, but 2010's The Wolfman could be just as quickly pointed to as proof of the opposite. No one is more aware of The Wolfman's shortcomings than Johnston himself, who explained to ComicBookMovie why Captain America will be a different experience.
Captain America gets cosmic >> Posted 01.10.11 by Ryan -
Outside of set pics of Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell on the Manchester location of Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel hasn't released official photos until the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. The photos have plenty to offer fans as they depict Evans (duh) both in costume (cool) and shirtless (oh my), as well as with Atwell's Peggy Carter, Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine, Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. the Red Skull, and photos of soldiers of the criminal organization HYDRA on motorcycles and a HYDRA submarine.
EW's set visit also revealed Evans' initial reticence to accept the role of Captain America, which Evans rejected three times before signing a deal for six Marvel movies.
Evans was scared to be Captain America >> Posted 10.29.10 by Ryan -
With Captain America: The First Avenger amidst production, and The Avengers set to start shooting next February, things are busy for Marvel president of production Kevin Feige. In an interview with Total Film, Feige explained why Marvel's production of Captain America decided to set itself up in London.
Well it’s that two thirds of the film actually takes place in Europe and there are many scenes in and around London. So it just made sense that we film it where the majority of the film takes place. Having been here now for almost two and a half months prepping and twenty-some days into shooting. The history here is pretty impressive. I was at Pinewood yesterday and you walk past pictures of the set of Tim Burton’s original Batman and all the amazing work that [Richard] Donner did on Superman.
What's up with The Avengers? >> Posted 09.08.10 by Ryan -
The title role in Marvel Studios' upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger was highly sought after, including a long list of contenders that ranged from John Krasinski to Dane Cook. Chris Evans eventually landed the role, but recently admitted to MTV that accepting the part "wasn't an easy yes."
Evans explains himself >> Posted 08.13.10 by Ryan -
A new, and most likely final, poster for Watchmen director Zack Snyder's upcoming 3-D flick Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole has been released online. The animated owl movie — from the same studio that made Happy Feet and set for theater release on September 24th — features an impressive cast of Hollywood voices, including Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings), Ryan Kwanten (True Blood), Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Helen Mirren (The Queen).
The group of owls on the poster — each with varying degrees of cuteness — stand next to a piece of owl head armor. A fantasy-world landscape looms in the background, in what looks like a cross between Narnia and Middle Earth. But this is not a Hollywood mash-up. Legend of the Guardians is based on the first three books in the Guardians of Ga'hoole series, penned by Kathryn Lasky in 2003. The story follows a young Barn Owl Soren (voiced by 21's Jim Sturgess), who is snatched by evil owls from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Soren eventually escapes to the island of Ga'hoole and joins other owls in the war against the Academy.
Posted 08.09.10 by reelz -
It must be tough being a publicist for Marvel Studios, having to constantly play catch-up after the studio's partners and employees spill the beans on major announcements. Last year, an employee at Fox, which co-produces the X-Men franchise with Marvel, told MTV that a Deadpool movie would be spinning off of X-Men Origins: Wolverine a week before Marvel's official announcement. And, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau has become notorious for giving up information about his movies through his Twitter account, even being chided for it by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige at the recent Iron Man 2 press junket.
click for all you ever wanted to know about Red Skull >> Posted 05.04.10 by BrentJS -
Comic book fans are notoriously hard to please when it comes to adaptations of their favorite characters in other media. Nearly every time a studio announces the casting of an actor in the role of a classic character, the news is followed by an uproar from the fan community. Sometimes, the fans have it right— Ben Affleck in Daredevil—but other times their knee-jerk reactions are proven to be wrong—Michael Keaton in Batman. As far as current comic book movie casting is concerned, the fan debate is fairly one-sided against the casting of funnyman Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet, while the news that Chris Evans had landed the lead role in The First Avenger: Captain America has been embraced, most likely due to the fact that his turn as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies was one of the few highlights of those flicks. In a set of recent interviews, Captain America director Joe Johnston explained why he almost didn't cast Evans, and why Hugo Weaving will be perfect as the Red Skull.
keep reading >> Posted 04.30.10 by BrentJS -
Marvel may still be searching for the right actor to fill the red, white and blue uniform of the lead role in The First Avenger: Captain America, but they are one step closer to finding their villain. THR reports that Hugo Weaving is in negotiations to play the Red Skull, Captain America's lifelong nemesis and Adolph Hitler's right-hand man. While their battle begins in World War II, Captain America is frozen in ice and Red Skull is suspended in animation and both end up in modern day times to continue their battle. The Red Skull was also the nemesis in the 1990s version of Captain America.
Should the role go to Weaving it would reunite him with The Wolfman director Joe Johnston, and add to his list of on screen villains such as Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy, V in V For Vendetta, and the voice of Megatron in both Transformers movies. Marvel is notoriously frugal with their salaries for actors — at one point almost losing Mickey Rourke for Iron Man 2 and Samuel L. Jackson for all the Marvel movies because the salary was too small — and also require multi-movie commitments, all of which may eventually ruin the negotiations.
At this rate, chances are the decision over Weaving's casting will be answered before a final decision is made on who will play Captain America.
Posted 03.13.10 by Ryan -
Over the past decade or so, Hugo Weaving has created two of the most memorable supporting characters in recent pop-culture. He oozed malice and evil as Agent Smith in The Matrix, and he found just the right blend of benevolence and regality as the elf lord Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In both of those projects, Weaving seemed to have lots of fun diving into the roles.
But apparently, this wasn't the case when he voiced the villain Megatron for Michael Bay's Transformers movies. Weaving recently interviewed with The Age in his native Australia, and the idea of a sequel to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen came up. Weaving's laughed and simply said: "Oh no. They're not making Transformers III, are they?"
Weaving went on to say that he actually knows very little about Bay's movies, and that the voiceover work was mainly just a paycheck for him.
Michael Bay talks to me on the phone. I've never methim. We were doing the voice for the second one and I still hadn't seen the first one. I still didn't really know who the chracters were and I didn't know what anything was. It's a voice job, for sure, and people assume I've spent my life working on it, but I really know so little about it.
Ouch. Well, Bay can refute the critics all he wants, but when Agent Smith-slash-Elrond says your movie isn't interesting, maybe it's true.
Weaving also stars in The Wolfman, which opened last Friday.
Posted 02.16.10 by reelz -
Casting has officially begun on Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of The Hobbit, and Peter Jackson wants to see some of the same faces from his Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In an interview with MTV, Jackson stated that he would like to see Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving return as the elves Galadriel and Elrond, respectively. The story of The Hobbit takes place 60 years before events in Lord of the Rings, and since elves are immortal, Galadriel and Elrond would not have changed much in appearance. The same goes for the wizard Gandalf, and fans are anxious to see Ian McKellen return in that role as well.
There's nothing definitive, however, and Jackson gave an update as to where things stand with Blanchett and Weaving:
We have a process that would start with showing them the script. We're not [beginning] any official process until we have the "official" script that they can read. We already know that McKellen has seen the script, even gotten a copy of his own. So the question now becomes where Jackson, del Toro, et al are in the writing process.... It's two movies, and we've written the first script, which the studio responded well to. And we're now halfway through the second script.
Elrond does make an appearance in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, although Galadriel does not. However, including her does not seem like it would result in excessive artistic license. She is well present in the mythology and could easily be worked in to the story without diverting too much from Tolkien's blueprint.
Posted 12.09.09 by reelz