Hey,

Quoted from text Marvel plans to launch its 2010 film slate with the release of the sequel, Iron Man 2, on April 30, 2010, followed by the launch of Thor on June 4, 2010.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080505/20080505005656.html?.v=1

Marvel announced a Thor movie for June 2010 at it's financial press conference. Norse god superhero? Ehhh... Not a big fan, but he does have a big hammer.

It's also setting the stage for an Avengers movie, people who saw all of Iron Man know what I'm talking about, right? Let the speculation begin.


sheepwalker

Very interesting link, Sheep, for the business-minded.

What really caught my eye was this:

Quoted from Press Release Spider-Man, the Musical:  Opening date to be determined; Julie Taymor director; music & lyrics by U2's Bono and The Edge

Spiderman on Broadway?  With music by U2?  Are they kidding?  That's amazing, if true.  

[Edit:  Jule Taymor, for those who do not recognize the name, was behind the equal-parts-flawed-and-brilliant "Across the Universe" -- and Bono was in that, lending a little cred to the rumor]

Hey,

Quoted from bert Spiderman on Broadway?  With music by U2?  Are they kidding?  That's amazing, if true.

Yeah, good find. I only lightly skimmed it and didn't catch that. Stan Lee's speaking at my school on Thursday and there's going to be a question and answer session, so I may ask him about it, whether or not they are going to adapt any stories in particular... but I'll probably just ask about his Hulk cameo.


sheepwalker  

Thor(Chris Hemsworth), Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Loki(Tom Hiddleston). The film is well into production. Captain American just starting shooting days ago and the Hulk is about to be recast. Anyone else getting excited about an AVENGERS movie?  

Quoted from Nixon Anyone else getting excited about an AVENGERS movie?

I was until they replaced Edward Norton.  I idea of a series finally maintaining continuity really intrigued me.  It was bad enough when they replaced Terrence Howard in Iron Man, but now this?  The whole point was to create a cohesive universe, and now Marvel's crapping all over that.

I don't see the problem with Ed Norton. Marvel said that his acting wasn't good enough?  I say bullshit!

Maybe they're going to retool it like they're doing all the other Marvel movies and want Bruce Banner played by a seventeen year old.  Teen Hulk anyone?


Phil

Quoted from Nixon Thor(Chris Hemsworth), Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Loki(Tom Hiddleston). The film is well into production. Captain American just starting shooting days ago and the Hulk is about to be recast. Anyone else getting excited about an AVENGERS movie?

With cute outfits like those, how could it lose?

Looks like Watchmen costumes, to be honest....


Phil

Quoted from dogglebe Looks like Watchmen costumes, to be honest....

Yeah, but it makes sense in the context of Watchmen.  I assume you're referring to Night Owl.

Nightowl, Ozmandias, even Comedian, a little bit.  Batgirl....


Phil

Yeah, those are some cheesy-lookin' getups.  Hopkins looks like he's chewing the scenery just standing there.  Thor seems like a difficult character to try and bring to the screen in a live action movie.  The animated Hulk v Thor was great, though.

Looking forward to Thor, Captain America and The Avengers.  

I'm sure most folks into these films know by now that Mark Ruffalo has replaced Ed Norton as Bruce Banner (I believe he's signed on for something like five appearances as the character throughout various Marvel flicks).

As for Thor, superherohype.com posted some pics, one featuring a severely buffed Hemsworth as Thor in human clothes and he looked like he could bench press a planet.  I think Kenneth Brannagh may surprise us, considering the guy's a student of Shakespeare and Thor's best comic book adventures whiffed of The Bard to begin with, despite their Norse heritage.

Thor is probably the WORST character ever created.  I find him repugnantly boring.  In fact, I find him so boring I'd rather see back to back Marathons of Golden Girls & Matlock with an encore of The Andy Griffith Show.

His little Two Foot hammer does nothing for me.  His powers, I guess he's the god of Thunder, which to my knowledge would be little more than sound at high decibel, is beyond absurd.

Marvel has played their cards and lost every hand.  They've yet to produce One good superhero product to film.  The Punisher, the Dolph version, is the only flick they've done that was any good and even then it was a bit off key.  The original Captain America flick they had done was alright, definitely had some good ideas and the Red Skull was scary, but it still suffered.

DC needs to step into the mix here.  The Flash is the only superhero I really ever cared about.  Given he was from Missouri and all.  "cough"  Then again, they'd probably use the Wally West Flash and not the ultra cool Barry Allen Flash.  That's how today's society works.  Take the worst case scenario and try to produce it.

Respectfully disagree, Baltis.  I loved Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, Blade 2 and X2: X-Men United -- superior comic-to-film adaptations all, IMO.

I saw the Lundgren Punisher when it first hit VHS back in the early 90s.  I remember sitting in my barracks room with my Army buddies, excited to see a real life Frank Castle bust some heads -- and what we got was a film lower down the scale than even the worst installment of the Roger Corman Bloodfist series.  HIGHLY disappointed by that Punisher flick.  Even the Thomas Jane Punisher was a stinker.  HE was good in it, but the story itself -- boring.  In the comics Punisher may be a tough guy supreme, but his story is the stuff of action thrillers dating back to the Cagney film days.  Tired, old and uninspired.

As for Thor, folks said the same thing about Iron Man.  B-level character, not a Marvel flagship comic by a long shot -- but with a little wit, a lot of heart and some flat out inspired casting, it rose above even the Norton-starring Incredible Hulk, which was basically an hour and a half of melodrama with a twenty minute video game segment tacked on the end.  I think the Thor movie has such potential.  Of course, no way of knowing if it's any good until it comes out so regardless of what anyone says, it's all speculation at this point -- but there's a good chance Thor will turn out to be a winner.

Oh -- and as for DC, I would love to see a Martian Manhunter flick.  I always found him so much more interesting than the brooding Batman or applie pie Superman.  Hell, I'd even go for a Green Arrow movie.  OOH!  BLUE DEVIL!  I think he'd make for a cool superhero flick, considering his origin is that he was a movie special effects artist inadvertently fused into his own high-tech monster suit.  Play it kind of tongue in cheek, pour on the gruesome devil monster who trapped him in the suit to begin with and let the guy go crazy slappin' and flyin' around with that trident stick.  That'd be a kick.

Quoted from Lon I saw the Lundgren Punisher when it first hit VHS back in the early 90s.  I remember sitting in my barracks room with my Army buddies, excited to see a real life Frank Castle bust some heads -- and what we got was a film lower down the scale than even the worst installment of the Roger Corman Bloodfist series.  HIGHLY disappointed by that Punisher flick.  Even the Thomas Jane Punisher was a stinker.  HE was good in it, but the story itself -- boring.  In the comics Punisher may be a tough guy supreme, but his story is the stuff of action thrillers dating back to the Cagney film days.  Tired, old and uninspired.

While, yes, the budget didn't help the film any and Marvel refused to let them use the Logo - There is a lot of good inside Dolph's Punisher.  In fact, one really amazing scene, in which Dolph did a tremendous job --

--
Tommy - I'm gonna kill you.

A storm of emotion and uncertainty, Tommy raises the pistol of his slain father.

Frank - Go ahead... Do it.

Battered, the tribulations of many personal wars are worn upon Frank's body - He tiredly steps towards the shaken adolescent.  He drops to his knees - Now eye to eye.

Frank - Do it.

He guides the pistol in the boys hand and plants it dead between his eyes.

Tense and heated - The moment swells like the end of an Opera.  The boy breaks down - He can't pull the trigger.  He drops the pistol.

Frank gets to his feet, the boy knelt before him cries uncontrollably.

Frank - You're a good boy, Tommy.  Grow up to be a good man.  Because if not, I'll be waiting.
--

I hurriedly, and from memory, wrote this to reflect what I mean by good scene.  Of course it was probably better on paper or in theory -- But Dolph's acting here was superb.

I never thought I would live to see the day when the words "Dolph's acting was superb" would cross my eyes.

Kidding.  Believe it or not, I'm a big Dolph fan.  How cool was he in Johnny Mnemonic?  The Street Preacher -- grungy cyborg zealot with a killer mean streak.  And he was the only good thing about Universal Soldier, not to mention Rocky 4 -- though I must admit even his muscular build wasn't as rock hard as Brigite Nielsen's hair in that movie.  Beside the point.

As I'm sure you know, what you get on the page isn't always what you get on the screen -- and what we got, again in my opinion, was a lifeless, straight-to-cable-quality "actioner" with a better than average cast (Lundgren, Louis Gossett Jr, Jeroene Krabbe, etc).  

Sorry, man, but this is one of those agree to disagree things.  Love Lundgren, but was sorely disappointed by this flick.

Quoted from Lon Sorry, man, but this is one of those agree to disagree things.  Love Lundgren, but was sorely disappointed by this flick.

Gonna hafta' be a deal.  But that's not to say I believe the entire film to be gold, either.  It has major problems and some absolute cheesy stuff going on from time to time.  It's almost as if, at times, they sat around drinking, snorting, and smoking the budget of the film up.  

I think what's most disheartening to me is that the original TV series (THE FLASH w/ John W Ship in it) is better than anything we get from high concept Hollywood.  Paul Dino probably helped a bit, but still... :-/  

Yeah, I remember liking that Flash TV show.  I remember thinking the suit looked especially cool (at the time) and that the speed/blur effects were well done.

But I think in order for a comic film to be successful, they have to do two things:

1.  Honor the character.  Don't look down on him.  Don't change him (too much).  People like specific comic books for specific reasons, and if you monkey with what works for them on the page, it won't work for them on the screen.

2. Tell a good story involving this character.  Doesn't have to be ripped directly from the pages of the comics.  Can be completely original -- so long as you adhere to #1, the sky's the limit.  

The movies I mentioned above, as well as movies such as The Crow, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Superman, Superman II -- follow both these rules.

Others, such as Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Tank Girl, Barb Wire and others, ignore either one or both of these rules.  

And here's the thing about Thor.  In legend, he's the God of Thunder, mightiest son of Odin, who slew the Midgard serpent and deserved to be worshiped.

In the comics, Stan Lee did something very interesting with him.  In the comics, he's a rebellious, brash thug who opposes Odin's will and is cast to earth and entrapped in a mortal body, with all its mortal trappings, and only gets his powers back when striking his mortal walking stick on the ground, summoning to him the power of Thunder.  It's the classic spoiled rich kid scenario -- he pushes his parents patience, gets kicked out of the house and has to call Dad to bail him out when he realizes he can't cope with the real world on his own.  He thereby learns humility and responsibility.  That's where the genius of Stan Lee comes in.  People might look at Thor and think, yeah, yeah, big hammer, wears a cape, speaks in Old English, brags a lot.  But they're totally overlooking the very human traits Lee infused into the character.

Then you have the Thor from the Marvel Ultimates line.  The back story is basically the same -- he pushes Odin to far and is banished to earth.  But in this line of comics, he's still Thor, with all his powers -- only now the general population just think he's basically a delusional, tree-hugging cult leader who, while obviously powerful, is also a total space cadet who claims to be Thor, the God of Thunder, but no one takes the whack-a-loo seriously.  This seems to be the version they're going with for the film, or at least some extent of it.

I think either would be interesting.

Quoted from Lon This seems to be the version they're going with for the film, or at least some extent of it.

Not really. From what I've seen and heard so far, they seem to be going towards more of this concept:

Quoted Text In the comics, Stan Lee did something very interesting with him.  In the comics, he's a rebellious, brash thug who opposes Odin's will and is cast to earth and entrapped in a mortal body, with all its mortal trappings, and only gets his powers back when striking his mortal walking stick on the ground, summoning to him the power of Thunder.  It's the classic spoiled rich kid scenario -- he pushes his parents patience, gets kicked out of the house and has to call Dad to bail him out when he realizes he can't cope with the real world on his own.  He thereby learns humility and responsibility.  That's where the genius of Stan Lee comes in.  People might look at Thor and think, yeah, yeah, big hammer, wears a cape, speaks in Old English, brags a lot.  But they're totally overlooking the very human traits Lee infused into the character.

Also, this was probably the most eloquently written breakdown of the Thor character that I've ever read.