So this was “Avengers” mastermind Joss Whedon’s reaction to fellow director Edgar Wright’s departure from Marvels “Ant-Man.”
Whedon tweeted this picture last night. Head bowed, he’s holding aloft a Cornetto – the British sweet that gave its name to Wright’s “Cornetto Trilogy,” including “Shaun of the Dead” – like a candle at a vigil.
It’s already been dubbed “The Cornetto of Solidarity.”
Nicely done, Mr. Whedon.
The news today that Edgar Wright would no longer direct “Ant-Man” – but that the movie, set to kick off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Three, immediately following 2015’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” would continue under another director – seemed like a bump in the road that Marvel’s been building since before “Iron Man” came out in 2008.
Maybe a major bump.
It’s possible we’ll find out what “creative differences” occurred between Wright, maker of “Shaun of the Dead,” and Marvel and MCU honcho Kevin Feige. These things happen, but aside from some disgruntlement from writers and directors and Jon Favreau’s departure after “Iron Man 2,” we haven’t seen a lot of discord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As a matter of fact, compared to DC/Warner Bros.’ problems getting its superhero slate booted up, Marvel has had a pretty smooth time of it. Despite the fact that Marvel is somewhat notoriously cheap in its movie-making.
But Wright’s departure, we have to believe, doesn’t come about because of money. There must have been some fundamental disagreement in how “Ant-Man” was going to come out and how it would fit into the MCU.
What’s even stranger is that Feige recently said that Wright – who has been working on “Ant-Man” since 2006, before most people even knew there was an MCU – was integral in how the universe was developed.
Feige said:
“We changed, frankly some of the MCU to accommodate this version of Ant-Man. Knowing what we wanted to do with Edgar and with Ant-Man, going years and years back, helped to dictate what we did with the roster for Avengers the first time. It was a bit of both in terms of his idea for the Ant-Man story influencing the birth of the MCU in the early films leading up to Avengers…”
Since the movie has mostly been cast, with Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd as older and younger Ant-Men Hank Pym and Scott Lang, and the movie was about to start filming soon, it seems unlikely we’ll see major changes in the story. More likely it will be a matter of tone and execution. Wright was going to do his movie his way and Marvel couldn’t abide by that.
I was excited about “Ant-Man” for a couple of reasons. For one, the character is a lynchpin of the comic-book Marvel universe. He was a founder of “The Avengers,” for pete’s sake.
And the apparent plan to use “Ant-Man” to flesh out the mostly unexplored middle years of the MCU – with Douglas as Pym active in flashback scenes in the 1960s or 1970s – was even cooler.
We still might see that all play out.
Or we might not.
“Ant-Man” might be terrific even without Wright. After all, we all hated the thought of Favreau leaving the “Iron Man” series.
We’ll all be lucky if the MCU can continue on smoothly after this bump in the road.
Here’s the latest in our ongoing series about 1970s movie posters.
If you remember, I started throwing a few classic 1970s movie posters out there after the inspiration of the 1970s-style poster for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
I maintain that some of the best movie posters of all time were produced to help market 1970s movies, including drive-in movies.
I still vividly remember seeing “Electra Glide in Blue” at a drive-in movie theater in 1973 with one of my older brothers.
Robert Blake was yet to achieve fame and notoriety as the star of TV’s “Baretta” – not to mention his late-in-life suspicion of murdering his significant other.
Here, Blake – small of stature but always a cocky bastard – plays a motorcycle cop drawn into a murder mystery.
All the early 70s movie touchstones are here, including rock music, “fuzz” vs “hippies,” and a twist ending.
It’s worth a look, and so is the poster.
It gets a bit silly, all the outrage on the Internet.
But then again, people keep saying stupid things.
No matter if they’re fanboys acting like assholes on the topic of female fans or they’re … well, I don’t know how to describe “Man of Steel” screenwriter David S. Goyer, who was all over the web today for really stupid comments he made in a recent interview.
You see, today was supposed to be DC’s big day, announcing the title of that “Man of Steel” sequel coming out – maybe – in a couple of years. It’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” a title so stupid it immediately inspired exactly the opposite reaction that DC must have wanted.
Not only doesn’t the title – really, it’s just too stupid for me to write again – make anyone think that Warner Bros. and DC have their shit together in their efforts to be more like Marvel and create a big-screen universe.
It sounds obvious, even desperate and grasping. I’ve seen it lampooned today as a courtroom drama and Lifetime movie.
Compare that reaction to the Comic Con reveal of “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Fandamonium.
Anyway, Warners and DC might have only just begun regretting their title decision when Goyer, who as writer of most of DC’s very uneven efforts to bring its iconic superheroes to life, was widely quoted for some boneheaded remarks he made in a recent Scriptnotes podcast.
First, Goyer insulted the longtime Marvel hero She-Hulk – who, admittedly, does have a silly name – by noting that she was clearly superhero porn and served only as someone to have sex with the Hulk.
I wonder, did Goyer know before today that the characters of Hulk and She-Hulk were cousins? I’m assuming he does now.
Then Goyer went on to say an incredibly stupid thing that shows just how tone-deaf he is.
In talking about Martian Manhunter, a long-established character made popular on the “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” animated series a few years ago, Goyer made fun of the character and asked how many people had heard of him.
Of course, most of those in attendance had. Probably surprised by this, Goyer then said:
“How many people that raised their hands have ever been laid?”
Really?
In one utterance, Goyer shows his ignorance about Martian Manhunter – a major character from the ONLY truly successful iteration of DC characters in the past decade – and also insults comic book movie fans.
You know, the people who pay to see his movies.
Ross Lincoln summed up Goyer’s attitude nicely on his “The Escapist” blog: Goyer and his partners at Warner Bros. are ashamed they’re making superhero movies.
Think about it. Nolan’s Batman movies, which had some strong points, dwindled to awkward absurdity through Goyer’s scripts. “Man of Steel” was awful. Hell, it couldn’t even see fit to actually call its hero Superman.
It’s sad, really, that three quarters of a century of great characters and stories are squandered in such hands.
We’re all a little Groot, aren’t we?
Marvel released the new trailer for “Guardians of the Galaxy” today and it’s pretty fun.
The trailer gets across that the movie is – aside from an adaptation of the comic series and Marvel’s attempt to branch out into the cosmic superhero realm – sort of a mix of “Star Wars,” “Firefly” (especially with the ragtag band of borderline criminals as heroes) and its own brand of comic adventure.
Fun tough guys.
And Rocket, the space raccoon who’s probably the heart of the movie.
You can find the trailer here, on io9.
“Guardians of the Galaxy” opens Aug. 1.
Those were the days, weren’t they?
80 pages of comic book action for 25 cents.
Even though the “giants” were mostly reprints – many from the Golden Age or early Silver Age – they were many times over our money’s worth.
I’m still not quite sure how “Guardians of the Galaxy” will feel for general moviegoing audiences, but I think that between now and Aug. 1, at least the moviegoing public will know what it is.
There’s a new poster – seen above – and a new trailer coming Monday, I believe.
Right now, “GOTG” is “that space raccoon movie” to some people.
And it’s not a blip on the radar for many people.
For the rest of us, it’s Marvel’s attempt to broaden the Marvel Cinematic Universe the company has been building since “Iron Man” debuted in 2008. Even more so than in “Thor” and the use of the Nine Realms in those movies, “GOTG” is a movie that will play out on a cosmic scale. It’s likely to be as much “Star Wars” as “The Avengers.”
I don’t know a lot about “GOTG” yet, but it’s a pretty sure bet to feature Thanos, the alien bad guy at the end of “The Avengers,” and likely to include a battle over at least one of the Infinity Stones, those powerful artifacts referenced in “Thor: The Dark World.”
And I think all of this is building to a showdown between the Avengers – possibly with the help of the Guardians and others – and Thanos in the third “Avengers” movie.
Right now, though, we’ve got “GOTG” to look forward to. This poster looks familiar enough for those who studied posters for “The Avengers” but also sparks memories of “Star Wars” and other space-faring soap operas.
Which, I think, is what director James Gunn and the Marvel folks want.
So everybody online has already pointed this out, but the release yesterday of a heavily filtered photo of Ben Affleck as Batman from the “Man of Steel” sequel sure looked like Frank Miller’s Dark Knight.
Photo above.
And the original art.
Here’s an ad I remember even if I didn’t have the product it advertised.
The Haunted House Mystery Bank looked cool in the ad and videos I’ve seen online suggested it was indeed cool. You place a penny in a particular spot and the doors open and a ghostly figure comes out and grabs the coin.
The bank was battery operated and made of metal, but I love the ad – which appeared in comics in the 1960s – itself. The artwork is cool and primitive and the copy is appropriately breathless and jokey at the same time.
Online sources indicate this was a “Disney Haunted Mansion” bank, but I’m not sure about that. Check out that ad. No mention of Disney. You’d think they would have marketed the product with the Disney name.
That price, by the way, separated a lot of us out of the possibility of buying this bank. How many kids in the 1960s had six bucks for something from a comic book ad? How many kids had parents who would let their kid send off six bucks?
When “Community” debuted five seasons ago, it looked like it might be just another NBC sitcom. A bunch of friends sit around a study table at a community college and yak at each other? It sounded like another “time porn” sitcom in the tradition of “Friends” or “How I Met Your Mother.”
But the show, in the hands of creator and producer Dan Harmon, quickly distinguished itself.
“Community” proved to be offbeat and hilarious and sometimes poignant and often surreal.
If audiences in 2009 didn’t recognize that and embrace it – or shun it – by the the late-first-season episode, “Modern Warfare,” a half-hour ostensibly about an on-campus paintball war to win priority class registration at Greendale Community College, they likely never would.
The episode was a note-perfect homage to action films – action film cliches, really – that showed just what Harmon and his cast were capable of. From the opening moments, when the campus looks post-apocalyptic after only an hour of paintball war, to the ending, which managed to take a shot at “Glee” and be sentimental at the same time, the episode was soooo good.
Other first season episodes – like “Physical Education,” in which attorney-turned-student Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) plays an epic game of pool with a crusty phys ed teacher – were better, more clever, more laugh-out-loud funny than much of what was on TV at the time.
And while later seasons had their highs and lows, almost every single one had some great episodes. The claymation-like Christmas special. The pillow fort episode. The trampoline episode.
Maybe, just maybe, best of all: “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,” in the second season. That heartfelt, funny, geektastic episode might actually top “Modern Warfare” in my mind. Maybe.
Or maybe “Remedial Chaos Theory,” in which alternate realities and “the darkest timeline” were introduced.
Damn. I don’t know which I love more.
The show faltered in its fourth season, after Harmon – reportedly a difficult genius – was ousted from the show.
This past season, the fifth, showed a good return to form and return to the set by Harmon. It didn’t reach the heights achieved by the show at its best. But little else on TV did.
Since a couple of seasons into the show, when “Community” was threatened with cancelation nearly every season, the idea of “Six Seasons and a Movie” has been the mantra of cast, crew and fans. And a Twitter hashtag.
With todays’ news that NBC had canceled the series, goal is unlikely to be reached.
But I guess it’s possible. Really, the show was too funny, too odd, to have lasted five seasons on a major network anyway. So maybe the unexpected will happen and we’ll see more of Jeff, Britta, Annie, Shirley, Abed, Troy, Dean Pelton and all the rest.
In a timeline that’s not nearly as dark.
keithroysdon 