Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Upcoming superheroes, Ellen for Idol, other random stuff

Let's see what tidbits of entertainment news I have this time...

With Iron Man 2 finished (please let it be as awesome as the first!), Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau are considering making Cowboys & Aliens, based on a graphic novel in which warring cowboys and Indians (excuse a debatably un-PC term--it just doesn't sound right to use any other word in that phrase) in the Old West are set upon by aliens when the aliens' spaceship crashes (Variety blog). The script is being rewritten by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci (both co-writers of the recent Star Trek), and Damon Lindeloff (of Lost). The high concept is kind of cool, and the people involved have certainly caught my attention.

Warner Bros. has recruited Guy Ritchie to direct Lobo, a live-action movie based on the DC Comics interstellar bounty hunter (Variety blog). I'm not that familiar with the character, but I'm always keeping an eye out for comic adaptations. Sounds interesting.

Speaking of DC Comics and movies, Warner Bros. has recently taken control of the comic book publisher, creating "DC Entertainment" (Variety). The major restructuring was done in the hopes to turn out more projects--movies, comics, TV shows, games, merchandise--with more characters more efficiently. I don't really have an opinion on this matter--mainly what I care about is if they keep giving us more good movies.

Ellen DeGeneres will be Paula Abdul's replacement as judge on American Idol this coming season (Variety). Why? IMDb had a poll on the decision, and I was very disappointed to find it did not have among its many choices anything resembling my opinion on the matter. I adore Ellen. I timed my lunch break most days back at my previous job so I could walk home and watch her talk show. But one of the things about her that always slightly annoyed me was her love of the reality shows. I do not like most reality shows (So You Think You Can Dance is a notable exception). I do not like American Idol. What is Ellen doing on American Idol? What good can come of this?

Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, and Liv Tyler are signed on to star in "Super", a superhero comedy written and to-be-directed by James Gunn (Variety). From what I can tell, it sounds like it might be a spoof of the superhero genre, rather than a simple comedy with superheroes. We'll see.

A sequel to last summer's Hancock is in the works (Variety). I didn't end up seeing that movie, though my understanding is that it wasn't very good. Oh, why must they make sequels to sucky movies?

Christoph Waltz, who recently caused a lot of buzz with his role in Inglourious Basterds, has signed on as the villain in the Green Hornet movie (Variety). He replaces Nick Cage in the role of Chudnofsky. I haven't seen him in Basterds, but if his performance is a great as everyone says, then hopefully he'll serve the Green Hornet well.

And last (and least?), Universal has recruited Peter Berg (director of Hancock) to direct the Battleship movie that it's doing in partnership with Hasbro (Variety), part of a multi-picture deal with the toy company that I have been casually tracking for no particularly good reason on this blog. The film is a live-action project involving a five-ship naval fleet. I wonder how many of them will sink. The movie is scheduled for a July 2011 release. More depressingly, the Hasbro-Universal Stretch Armstrong movie is scheduled for release in April 2011. Why must they do these things?


Well, that's all for now!

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