Hector Hammond, Carol Ferris aka Star Sapphire and Sinestro
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed this week that actor Peter Sarsgaard is in talks to play Hector Hammond, the super-brained DC Comics villain in the upcoming Green Lantern movie. Hammond is to be the primary antagonist of Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordan in the film.
Sarsgaard isn’t the only actor set to join Green Lantern though. Blake Lively, best known for her work on the TV series Gossip Girl, has been cast as Jordan’s main squeeze Carol Ferris. The Ferris character later becomes the villainous Star Sapphire in the comics, but Lively probably won’t have to deal with any of that in the film. However, that’s not the end of the Green Lantern casting news; While promoting his new film Edge of Darkness, director Martin Campbell shot down the rumours that Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, Watchmen) was in talks to play Sinestro. Campbell revealed to MTV that Warner Bros. were in fact in negotiations with British actor Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass) to play Hal Jordan’s mentor-turned-nemesis.
I think Strong is spot on for Sinestro. Not only does he have the acting chops to make Sinestro work, but at 6′2 he’s also closer to the physically imposing presence the character has taken in more recent incarnations. Who would you prefer to see as Sinestro? Haley or Strong?
The film stars Ryan Reynolds and is set to start shooting in New Orleans this March. Green Lantern is due in theatres July 17th 2011.
Those of you who have seen The Hangover or are familiar with Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job will recognize the great Zach Galifianakis. The bearded comic is on the verge of becoming a huge star, something we’re all very glad to see.
Being fans of Galifianakis, we’re very happy to announce a free screening of Visioneers, a dystopian dark comedy Galifianakis starred in a few years ago. Galifianakis stars as George, an employee of the Jeffers Corporation; the greatest company in the history of the world. But when some of his coworkers literally start exploding from the stress of their jobs, George begins to question the life he’s chosen.
Presented by the lovely Alana Hamilton and co-presented by Dork Shelf, the free public screening of Visioneers will take place at 8:00 pm on August 6th at Innis Town Hall. This will be followed by a special screening of Zach Galifianakis, Live at the Purple Onion at 9:30 pm.
There will be prizes, and I don’t mean those shoddy gift bags they give out at sneak previews, these are good prizes. So tell all your friends, and we’ll see you on August 6th for Visioneers.
An abandoned air base outside of Leningrad, Russia played host to more than 300 Russian Fallout fans last month. The live-action role players recreated post-apocalyptic world of the 1998 Black Isle video game Fallout 2, complete with Brotherhood of Steel Knights, ghouls and even an issue of Cat’s Paw Magazine.
The time and effort these fans put into creating their costumes and props is absolutely astonishing. I have often derided LARPing in the past —and for good reason— but since I’m a huge fan of the Fallout series I can safely say that this looks like fun.
The site is in Russian, but you can check out some more amazing pictures here.
The Binary Bansai has unearthed a rare hour long interview with Star Wars creator George Lucas from 1971. Filmed hot on the heels of his first feature film THX 1138, the piece entitled George Lucas: Maker of Films features a 27 year old Lucas discussing the movie industry, film theory and his hopes for the future with media theorist Gene Youngblood.
Footage of Lucas at this age is extremely rare; it’s even more rare to see the man who would make Star Wars and Indiana Jones being so candid. You have to give Lucas credit for following through, even in 1971 the guy knew exactly what he wanted: independence from the studio system. Francis Ford Coppola and Lucas tried to achieve this independence with their company American Zoetrope, but the commercial failure of THX 1138 nearly ruined them. The irony of this failure is of course that Coppola was then forced to make a little film called The Godfather to make ends meet.
They also discuss some of Lucas’s early student films, there is so much potential in them. While no one can argue that Lucas has been a visionary and clearly been very successful, you can easily make the case that he never lived up to his potential as a maker of films. He hasn’t made an original film since Star Wars; his greatest success, but probably not his best film. It’s a really fascinating interview, to see where Lucas came from and now to see where he is. But who am I to judge the man, he has made good films (THX 1138, American Graffiti), has his studio independence and has billions of dollars. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the man behind the beard.
Our friend Joel over at local video game site Controller Punch! posted a list of the top 10 reasons the original Quake game ruled. He sold me with the idea that Jesus would be a skilled Quake player.
6. General use of rusty nails as weapons. We’ve got disturbing games out there now like Manhunt and the GTA series and yet none have perfected the disgusting level of perforation provided by two types of Quake nail guns. Jesus was a carpenter. I bet he’d have mad skills at Quake for this reason alone.
The first Quake game from id Software had the distinction of being the first fully 3D first person shooter, and sported one of the most robust multiplayer aspects of any game at the time. It also featured a great little mod called Team Fortress… maybe you have heard of it? It was a truly epic era for PC shooters, from 1996 onward pretty much all I played was Quake, Team Fortress and Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2. Ah, memories.
Variety reported yesterday that a few of the guys behind HBO’s hilarious Eastbound & Down are set to develop a film based on the comic book Hench. Danny McBride, star of Eastbound & Down and the upcoming Land of the Lost is set to star in Hench, a movie about a retired football player who takes up work as a henchman for various supervillains. Shawn Harwell, who writes for the show is set to adapt the Adam Beechen and Mario Bello graphic novel for the big screen.
Now this alone would be cool news, but word came today from CHUD that Danny McBride wants to do more than just a straight adaptation of Hench. The film is being produced by Warner Bros., who also happen to own the rights to the DC Universe. McBride tells CHUD that ideally he wants to set Hench in the DC Universe, using familiar supervillains and possibly even superheroes.
Warner Bros. not like the idea of using the darker DC universe in a film intended to be a comedy. Still, it would be interesting to see a few cameos from famous DC heroes and villains if McBride ends up getting his way.
If you’re not already familiar with Eastbound & Down, I recommend it. Directors Jody Hill and David Gordon Green are behind most episodes and the show also features the talents of Will Ferrell and Craig Robinson. It’s one of the funniest shows on TV right now.
The sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare; one of the most well-rounded console shooters of the past decade, has its first full trailer. I’m not sure if Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is technically Call of Duty 5—I doubt even developer Infinity Ward is entirely sure about that one—but I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us at E3 next week. Hopefully some more info on the multiplayer modes.
EcoComics is a hilarious blog that applies real world economic and political science theories to the universes of Marvel and DC Comics. The site discusses what the economic realities of a world full of superheroes and villains would be. Among the topics discussed are how the recession is affecting comic book characters and the propensity for deranged behaviour afflicting nearly all comic book millionaires. Other topics, like supernatural disaster insurance and labour union relations on New Krypton are also discussed at great length.
In the Marvel Universe, Canada is responsible for creating some of the most deadly super-soldiers in history. Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Kane, and Agent Zero were all deadly assassins who were empowered by Canada’s Weapon X program. This secret division of the Canadian government went to great expense to create nearly unstoppable weapons (and in almost all cases, allow them to escape shortly thereafter). This gives rise to a single question: WHY?
What threat was Canada so afraid of that the government felt the need to constantly produce human death machines?
“Holy Crap, Quebec is getting uppity again, let’s coat another mutant in adamantium!”
One explanation is that Canada needed its own meta-human defenders. This was, of course, the reason why Canada’s own Alpha Flight was formed.
If you enjoy politics/economics and comic books EcoComics is definitely worth the read. Personally, I’d like to read about how economic sanctions against Latveria have adversely effected the government and economy of Doctor Doom’s Eastern European dictatorship.
A new trailer for ‘77 has hit the net. ‘77 (previously known as 5-25-77, the release date of the original Star Wars) is a coming of age story that focuses on a geeky high-school student and aspiring filmmaker named Pat (John Francis Daley of TV’s Freaks and Geeks). Like many people, Pat’s life changed on seeing Star Wars for the first time, something I’m sure all of us dorks can relate to.
The film is partially autobiographical: Pat is based on the director, Patrick Read Johnson (writer and producer of Dragonheart). ‘77 doesn’t yet have a release date or distributor, but should hopefully be hitting the film festival circuit in the coming months.
Using footage from multiple sources YouTube user jaronpitt’s has assembled a very impressive trailer for a non-existent Green Lantern movie starring Firefly star Nathan Fillion.
This is an impressive mashup that gives us an idea of what the actual live-action Green Lantern movie will actually look like.
Director’s Michael Bay and McG have been exchanging words over whose giant robot movie will come out on top this summer: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or Terminator Salvation. At one point McG even challenged Michael Bay to a penis-measuring contest to settle the argument once and for all.
Can’t we all just get along guys? I know this war of words helps build buzz for your respective movies, but if you’d just put aside your egos and made a killer robot movie together we wouldn’t be in this situation. If only a Transforminators movie existed, it might look something like this.
Terminator Salvation wants to be a great film, but it has big shoes to fill. The first two Terminator films were excellent, while the third was mediocre at best. Terminator Salvation aims to right the wrongs of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, bringing the franchise back to the darker more serious tone of the first two. The film has a fairly solid concept: a post-apocalyptic war against robots. The movie even has some great actors who turn out solid performances and the special effects are good. How could you go wrong? Based on my description, you would think this movie has all the makings of a great summer blockbuster: unfortunately this is simply not the case.
Recent Comments