A while back I wondered this aloud, if you can do such a thing on a Twitter account:
Why wasn’t Claire Forlani a bigger deal?
I thought the British actress was beautiful in “Meet Joe Black” and several other films and wondered what happened to her, besides marrying almost-Wolverine Dougray Scott.
Now I know. Forlani is the striking woman with the impenetrable Scottish accent in the Dewar’s Scotch whisky commercials.
And she apparently still corners the world’s market on cheekbones.
Right before “Thor: The Dark World” opened, I pointed out some of the hidden secrets from the latest Marvel movie and how its first end credit scene – featuring the Collector, a character from next year’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie – set up a narrative thread that could carry Marvel movies through “Avengers 3” in 2018.
Turns out there were other Easter eggs also that I’ve been learning about this week thanks to online postings.
The “Cabin in the Woods” whiteboard was a treasure trove of geeky fun for fans of that movie, and the chalkboard Erik Selvig uses to explain the events of the first “Thor” movie are pretty fun too.
Sharp-eyed fans have pointed out the reference on the chalkboard to the “616 Universe,” the name for the Marvel universe all the comic book characters inhabit. Looks like crazy old Selvig knows it exists.
The board also references – in a portion of the board right behind Selvig – “The Fault,” a “tear in the universe” plot point used in comic book stories featuring The Inhumans, the secretive super-powered race that Marvel is said to be interested in bringing to the big screen.
There’s also reference to “The Crossroads,” taken from a past adventure featuring the Hulk and … Dr. Strange, another Marvel character apparently destined for the big screen.
Here’s one I’m actually kinda more excited about, even if it is a longshot:
That cocoon-type thing is from the first scene in the end credits of “Thor: The Dark World” and is something that’s apparently been collected by … well, the Collector.
It looks suspiciously like this object:
That’s from Fantastic Four 67, and that panel shows FF friend Alicia Masters finding the cocoon of Him, the cosmic being later known as Adam Warlock.
Warlock was a favorite of mine from the comics. He was a foe of Thanos, the smiley bad guy from the end credits of “The Avengers,” the guy who’s apparently destined to play antagonist in future Marvel movies, including “Avengers 3.”
Cool, huh? I’m kind of convinced that nothing happens in these Marvel movies by accident. Maybe they’re just in-jokes to entertain fans. Maybe they’re pointing the way toward future adventures. Either way, it’s fun stuff.
We’ve seen a little bit of director James Gunn’s 2014 Marvel outing “Guardians of the Galaxy,” so we kind of know what to expect.
Granted, we haven’t seen much. Just a half-minute of footage released at Comic Con last year – it’s subsequently popped up online – and a minute of Gunn-directed footage in the middle of the credits of “Thor: The Dark World.”
Yes, the “Thor” footage isn’t from “GOTG.” But Gunn directed it and it features Benecio Del Toro as a “GOTG” character, the Collector. And yes, he’s acting weird. It is Del Toro, and it is a Gunn-directed performance.
So based on what we’ve seen so far and what we hope, what do we want to see next summer?
Action. Based on the Comic Con preview, I don’t think we have to worry about this. The 30 seconds of footage I’ve seen has a ton of fighting and shooting and other good stuff.
Humor, but not too much. All the Marvel movies have their share of humor. The way Gunn is approaching “GOTG,” it looks like it might be the funniest of all the Marvel movies so far. But Gunn has, based on “Slither,” the ability to summon up the dramatic and horrific as well as the funny.
A little bit of weird, but not too much. Okay, so you’ve got Rocket Raccoon, a hard-bitten … raccoon who is an incredible fighter, and you’ve got Groot, an alien that looks like a tree that says only, “I am Groot!” Gunn has to be careful to not push the rest of the movie over the line into total weirdness. I’m a little worried about how Del Toro will come off, but he’s not a central character.
Thanos. We know the Mad Titan is likely to be the Big Bad in “Avengers 3.” But he’s a Guardians antagonist and Gamora, the Zoe Saldana character in “GOTG,” has ties to Thanos. So how about a little Thanos action in “GOTG?”
Ties to the Marvel Universe we know. Considering much of the story is apparently set in another corner of the galaxy, it’s hard to imagine Captain America popping in. But …
Iron Man! Tony Stark’s armored avenger is a member of some incarnations of the Guardians in some comics. Wouldn’t it be fun to see Robert Downey Jr. interact with Rocket Raccoon?
And it would be good preparation for “Avengers 3,” when I think all of these colorful characters are going to be all together for a cosmic blowout.
The highlights of my TV viewing year are the limited runs of “Mad Men” on AMC, “Justified” on FX and “The Walking Dead” on AMC. That’s not to say there aren’t other shows that I’m hooked on.
But they always take a backseat to those three.
This fall, there’s a surprisingly high number of shows that have rapidly become must-see (to coin a phrase) viewing. This doesn’t count “Parks and Recreation,” for example, a charmingly daft sitcom that just keeps chugging along.
Here’s a roundup of what I’m digging right now:
“Sleepy Hollow” – This fantasy adventure series, which has become something of a hit, is one of the greatest pleasures on TV right now. If you haven’t watched the first half of this 13-episode season, go catch up, online or on demand, right now. I’ll wait.
Okay, back? The story of the return of Revolutionary War soldier and spy Ichabod Crane, reborn in modern times more than 200 years after he and the (now) Headless Horseman fought it out on a New York battlefield, is terrific fun. Crane is teamed with a young female cop as they investigate the rebirth of the Horseman, who turns out to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelations.
The show has something for everyone: Fish out of water comedy and commentary, monster of the week, creepy thrills, fun special effects and great chemistry among the cast members.
Tonight’s episode found the 21st century characters explaining to Crane the secret relationship between Thomas Jefferson – one of his contemporaries and heroes – and Sally Hemmings, all the while preparing a snare to trap the Headless Horseman with ultraviolet light. You don’t have to ask. Just go with it.
“The Walking Dead” – I was relieved to see the Governor show up at the end of last night’s episode. I was feeling a little claustrophobic with the flu storyline that’s dominated this season so far. I do love the beefed up roles for many in the cast, including Carol. Was anyone else as surprised as I was about Carol’s exile?
“Agents of SHIELD” – I was looking forward to this Marvel spin-off more than any other series this fall, and I’m not alone in my disappointment at the resulting show. Each episode is an improvement on the last, for the most part, but I can’t be the only one that’s impatient with the character development and over-arching plot. I’m still watching, however.
“The Blacklist” – God help me, but I’m enjoying this series more than “SHIELD.” “The Blacklist,” about a mysterious criminal (James Spader) who comes in from the cold to help the FBI catch other criminals, isn’t quite as looney as “Sleepy Hollow,” but almost. Spader is the main reason to watch as he gives a master class in unsettling but entertaining villainy. I can’t wait to see him as the bad guy in “The Avengers: The Age of Ultron.”
“The Mindy Project” – As fun and kooky as “Parks and Recreation” is, there’s not a more clever sitcom on TV right now than “The Mindy Project,” with Mindy Kaling as a neurotic doc surrounded by neurotic docs in NYC. The second season of the show is even better than the first.
When Marvel released “Thor” in 2011, I doubt that most of us on this side of the screen realized how important the adventures of the Thunder God would become to big-screen Marvel.
I liked “Thor” really pretty well. Maybe not as much as “Iron Man” or “Captain America,” but I thought the movie did a very good job of introducing the more fantastic elements of the Marvel Universe to the moviegoing audience. With “Thor” a success, how far behind could “Dr. Strange” or the cosmic Marvel stories or even the horror-tinged reaches of the Marvel universe be?
As it turns out, Marvel and director James Gunn are making the “Star Wars”-ian “Guardians of the Galaxy” now, for release next year. There’s a connection between “Thor” – spoilers ahead, I’ll warn you before – and “GOTG” but after duty in “The Avengers,” the Asgardian god of thunder returns in “Thor: The Dark World,” which stakes out, even more than the original, the more mystical, more space-bound corner of Marvel.
I won’t go very deep into the plot. Suffice it to say that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to face an enemy (former Doctor Christopher Eccleston) intent on avenging himself on Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Asgard and recapturing the Aether, force of cosmic power not unlike the Tesseract, the mystical Cosmic Cube from “Captain America” and “The Avengers.”
The movie skips from Asgard to London, where Thor is reunited with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and her crew, and to other stops among the Nine Realms.
Director Alan Taylor (“Game of Thrones”) and the screenwriters make this sequel a far grittier – literally and figuratively – story than the original. Asgard has texture and the Dark World itself is a nightmarish landscape. London is the steely blue/gray we’re familiar with in modern-day TV outings like “Sherlock.”
The action is thrilling and the realm-skipping action shows every penny of the production budget.
Hemsworth is so at ease as Thor it’s fun to imagine him playing the part for years to come. Likewise, Tom Hiddleston is such a welcome presence as Thor’s trickster brother Loki that I hope he becomes omnipresent in movies.
“Thor: The Dark World” could feel like just another step in setting up the decade-long Marvel movie plotline, as I talked about in this recent entry. But it doesn’t. It never feels perfunctory. It’s a grand, thrilling adventure in its own right.
Random observations:
Spoiler this line only: What I reported the other day about the two end credits sequences was correct. The first featured Benecio Del Toro as the Collector and sets the stage for “GOTG.” It’s a fun if oddball scene, directed by “GOTG” director James Gunn. It’ll be interesting to see how “GOTG” comes out next year.
Obviously Chris Hemsworth’s contract calls for a minimum of one shirtless scene per “Thor” movie.
Hiddleston gets to play more vulnerable and more multifaceted here than in “Thor” of “The Avengers.” It’s great and unsettling at the same time.
No spoilers here, but I loved the cameo. That’s the advantage of a shared big-screen universe.
‘Thor: The Dark World” marks the eighth movie in the official big-screen Marvel universe. Eighth.
Now you know why anti-comic book crusaders thought there was something unhealthy about the relationship between Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward Dick Grayson.
Thank god they’re taking cold showers.
Those of us who grew up in the 1960s have to be forgiven for occasionally wandering through the world of 2013 and wondering if we’re dreaming.
In the 1960s, comic books and science fiction and horror movies were an almost underground part of the culture, barely more tolerated by adults than eating paste or girlie magazines.
Now, science fiction and fantasy rule TV, from “The Walking Dead” to “Game of Thrones.” Books with sf and fantasy themes like the “Hunger Games” trilogy and the “Harry Potter” books top the best-seller lists.
And at the movies … Marvel’s merry marching movie machine rolls on. The sequel – sequel! – to “Thor” comes out tomorrow. It’s already playing in some theaters. And it’s the latest in a years-long chain of interconnected movies exploring the Marvel universe.
And today Marvel and Netflix announce original series like “Daredevil” and “Luke Cage” are coming, with a “Defenders” team-up series to follow.
If, before “Iron Man” debuted in 2008, anyone thought “The Avengers” was below-the-radar fun only enjoyed by geeks, you can only imagine what a head-snapping development a “Defenders” series would be.
DC is still plugging along with big-screen Batman and Superman movies, but doing impressive work on TV with “Arrow” and other series like “The Flash” still coming.
I sat down and watched an episode of “Arrow” tonight with Green Arrow and Black Canary, for pete’s sake. Tell me who thought that would have been possible a few decades ago.
And the picture above.
On Halloween, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, aboard the International Space Station, dressed up like Superman and took advantage of the lack of gravity to fly around.
I don’t care that he looks more like Lex Luthor. He’s flying like Superman!
It’s a good time to be a fan.
It has been there, right in front of us, since 2011.
Marvel’s long game, its plan for its big-screen universe, through the next several years.
2011 is when “Thor” came out, and figuring prominently into the plot were MacGuffiins – the objects of desire that spark movie plotlines, rare and powerful objects like the Casket of Winters and other arcane weapons in the arsenal of Odin in Asgard.
Marvel gave us another big hint that same summer, as “Captain America” fought the Red Skull to possess the Tesseract, also known as the Cosmic Cube. Another artifact of power. The Tesseract even showed up at the end of “Thor.”
The Tesseract, lost when the Skull’s airship went down in the ocean after Captain America defeated the villain, figured prominently into 2012’s “The Avengers.” In Loki’s hands, the cube opens a portal that allows an army assembled by Thanos, a cosmic villain, to attack Earth.
Thanos. That smiley purple guy who appeared in the mid-credits scene at the end of “The Avengers.”
Now that Marvel has announced that the next “Avengers” adventure, 2015’s “Age of Ultron,” will be about Ultron, the robotic villain, it became clear that Marvel and Joss Whedon didn’t put Thanos at the end of “The Avengers” for no reason. They were, obviously, building to something bigger for the third “Avengers” movie. And they were laying it out for us to see.
Remember, in “The Avengers,” when Nick Fury asks Captain America about the Tesseract, Cap replies, “You should have left it on the bottom of the ocean.”
Okay, so items of great power. Check.
Here’s where we get to the spoilers for “Thor: The Dark World,” which opens this Friday. So don’t continue reading if you don’t want to know. But it’s essential to my theory about Marvel’s long-term plans.
Ready?
There are two end-credits scenes in “Thor: The Dark World.” The latter scene, at the very end, is a nice character moment and establishes that Thor’s relationship with Jane Foster will continue.
But it’s the mid-credits scene that sets up several years worth of Marvel movies.
In that scene, Sif and Volstagg, two of Thor’s cohorts, have possession of the Aether, a powerful MacGuffin that plays into the plot of “Thor: The Dark World.”
Thor and his allies have captured the Aether and, in the end credits, Sif and Volstagg take the Aether to the Collector, a longtime Marvel Comics character played by Benicio Del Toro, who just so happens to play the same character in “Guardians of the Galaxy” the Marvel movie coming in late 2014.
Thor’s allies give the Collector the Aether and note the Tesseract is in Odin’s arsenal.
“It’s too dangerous to have two Infinity Stones in the same place,” they say.
Six Infinity Stones, or gems, are the power source for the Infinity Gauntlet in Marvel comics. It is a tool and a weapon of … Thanos.
After Sif and Volstagg leave, the Collector says the words that set the next several years worth of Marvel movies on their path:
“One down, five more to go,” he says.
In the comics, the Infinity Gems were not artifacts like the Cosmic Cube or Casket of Winters. They were literal stones or gems, albeit with supernatural powers.
Now consider the plot description Marvel released last year when it announced “Guardians of the Galaxy:”
“In the far reaches of space, an unlikely cast of characters including an American pilot and a group of futuristic ex-cons go on the run with a highly coveted object and must join forces to defeat a cosmic force of epic proportions.”
What highly coveted object? Possibly another Infinity Stone?
It now seems apparent that the Marvel movies are pursuing the years-spanning storyline of Thanos trying to acquire the powerful Infinity Stones and the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and other heroes trying to foil his plans … coming to a theater near you in “Avengers 3,” maybe in 2017 or 2018.
In the meantime …
Marvel movie universe mastermind Kevin Feige has been quoted recently as hinting that the company has its movies roughly planned out into 2021 or so. Considering that’s only three years after the third “Avengers” film completes Phase Three of Marvel’s big screen plans, it’s probably not surprising.
Okay, so bonus round: What’s Marvel planning through and post Phase Three?
What could possibly top the showdown with Thanos?
(FYI, I’m not counting the movies based on Marvel characters that the company doesn’t have the rights to for the screen, so there’s no mention of “Spider-Man” or “X-Men” movies here, although those are certain to continue, as likely will “Fantastic Four” films.)
So here’s the rough timetable as we know it so far.
2014: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
2015: “The Avengers: The Age of Ultron,” “Ant-Man.”
2016: Two still-unspecified Marvel films.
2017: One still-unspecified Marvel film, with at least one more likely to come.
2018: The third “Avengers” film maybe, if they continue to turn them out every three years.
Mentioned as likely or possibilities: “Dr. Strange,” “Black Panther.” Possibilities since their rights have reverted to Marvel: “Daredevil” and “The Punisher.”
Also almost certain: “The Inhumans,” about Marvel’s other race of super-powered beings besides “The X-Men.”
Any of these movies would be fine post-Phase Three fare.
And any of them would be appropriate for shoe-horning into the Phase Three build-up to the third “Avengers” movie.
Maybe they’ll turn up in one of those 2016 films, or one in 2017 or 2018.
I don’t know about you, but I’m planning to be there.
“The Norliss Tapes” is one of those TV movies best remembered for its freaky, scary moments.
It seems it scared the hell out of a lot of kids back in the day. I know it made an impression on me.
The movie, which aired in 1973, was pretty clearly inspired by the success of “The Night Stalker” a year earlier. The two movies shared a premise – a writer investigating the undead – and Dan Curtis, the producer of “The Night Stalker,” produced and directed here.
“The Norliss Tapes” is no “Night Stalker,” however. But it’s a pretty good scare-fest.
The story begins with David Norliss, a writer with a contract to write a book exposing phony psychic phenomena, talking to his publisher and sounding bleak. Norliss (played by David Thinnes of “The Invaders” fame) recounts – via audio cassettes – how he found it easy to debunk mystics and psychics … but then he got caught up in the story of Ellen Cort (Angie Dickinson). Cort tells Norliss that she’s been attacked by – and she subsequently shot – a particularly strange intruder in her home: Her late husband Jim.
The storyline plays out not unlike “The Night Stalker,” with seemingly random murders by a supernatural being running counterpoint to the mystery of the apparently resurrected Jim Cort. The plots tie together, of course. As a matter of fact, there’s not a lot of mystery or subtlety, as Cort – freaky eyes and blue skin prominently displayed – is clearly the attacker.
Norliss begins investigating the possibility that Cort – whose body rests peacefully in his family crypt – is getting up and attacking people in the dead of night. And what about that mysterious Egyptian ring Cort was wearing?
Director Curtis was the man behind groundbreaking supernatural TV shows like “Dark Shadows” and “The Night Stalker,” and “The Norliss Tapes” shows that. The movie has a style and a music soundtrack familiar to fans of those shows. Robert Cobert, a Dan Curtis regular creative partner, was the composer of the score here.
Some cast members of “The Night Stalker” even recur here, including Stanley Adams as a witness and Claude Akins as a gruff sheriff who’s only too happy to keep a lid on spooky happenings.
Michelle Carey, a gorgeous 1960s and 1970s actress with a breathy, throaty voice, plays Ellen Cort’s sister and a friend of Norliss.
Keep watching through the end credits: There’s a recapping series of scare scenes, ala “The Night Stalker,” among the credits.
Sure this recurring feature on the blog is Comic Book Odd, but there’s really nothing odd about the history of female characters being treated as punchlines for jokes.
It’s not a surprise, really. Comic books were mostly written and drawn by guys, particularly in the Golden Age and even into the Silver Age. And although girls bought comic books at a much greater rate back then than in later years, boys were still the targeted readers for comic books.
So you have panels like the one above, poking fun at Janet Van Dyne – AKA The Wasp, one of the founding members of The Avengers.
And this one, taking a shot at everybody except Wonder Woman.
Thank goodness the days of treating women as second-class characters in comics is over, huh?
Right?
Keith Roysdon 
keithroysdon 