Holograms! and more Spider-Man casting

In casting news for the new Spider-Man reboot, Martin Sheen is in final negotiations for the part of Uncle Ben, while Sally Field is in talks to play Aunt May (Cinematical). Already cast are Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, and Rhys Ifans as villain The Lizard. Mary Jane will not be making an appearance in the new movie (EOnline).

As usual, I'm excited by news related to science-fiction technologies becoming simply science. Scientists at the University of Arizona are working on developing holograms--a la "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."--and they're making impressive progress, publishing an article in scientific journal Nature (AZ Daily Star). Recent developments in 3D technology may have eliminated the need for 3D glasses (I am currently only aware of it working on smallish screens, but presumably it could be expanded to larger screens as well), provided that the viewer stands within a certain range from the screen, but this takes it a big step further. Images are in "full parallax", so you can actually see more of an object by moving around; for instance, moving to the right of a head facing forward allows you to see the left side of the head; moving up lets you see the top of the head. Now that is immersion. To create this effect, 16 cameras are used to record an image from all sides. The image requires a screen to appear (so it's not quite like R2-D2's projection of Princess Leia), but because of the true, full 3D images, the screen could be horizontal or vertical. The main problem with the current technology as I see it is that at present, the images can only refresh every 2 seconds. But that's still a huge improvement over three years ago, when the images required minutes to change. It shouldn't be too long before they have the images refreshing fast enough to trick us into seeing movement. Also, three years ago the holograms were in only one color, and now they have three colors.

The project is being pursued simply as a research project, without application as a main focus. But one could definitely imagine such technology being put to use in hospitals (3D brain images?), war rooms (3D battle plans), and video conferencing. And of course in entertainment. Movies and video games could find ways to use the impressive immersion of the hologram. Principle investigator Nasser Peyghambarian predicts that the technology in some form could be available to some customers in five to ten years. I can't wait.

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On a personal note, I have a fellowship application due in the next couple weeks, I have a ton of progress I need to make on my schoolwork, and there's a lot going on with my family life at the moment (grandmother here in Honolulu is sick, my mom is coming out in a week and a half to visit), so basically I'm pretty busy right now. I may not be posting much in the next several weeks. But I'll still be around. Catch you later.

Spider-Man casting, plus a quick update

It still feels a little weird for there to be a Spider-Man reboot in the works so soon after the last successful movie in the franchise, but since I like Spider-Man, I remain interested in its progress. Casting continues on the Spider-Man reboot, adding Rhys Ifans as a villain (Variety, Hitflix). He joins Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, who have been cast as Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. It was not announced which villain Ifans will be playing.

I've been pretty busy lately, which is my excuse for not posting much. The Housemate leaves for Antarctica in under two weeks, and his flurry of preparation has been spilling over to me a bit. Also, my midterm exam is this Friday, I have a talk coming up, a fellowship to apply for, and some serious progress I need to make on my research. And I have a relative visiting town. Anyway, I don't expect this to be my blog's most productive month.

I do, however, plan to post on this year's Blog Action Day, October 15, which has the theme of Water. And even though I am an oceanographer, I will not be talking about the ocean's problems. I started out in environmental engineering as an undergrad, and I took a class specifically on the the issues of clean water and water limitation plaguing the world. Expect some surprising statistics.

To make this post a little more worthwhile, here's something that has nothing to do with anything, but will hopefully make you laugh. Actually, I was reminded of it while preparing for Blog Action Day, so I guess it has something to do with something, but the link between the two probably won't be clear until Friday's post. Anyway, this is one of the funniest things I've ever seen, so I hope you enjoy it!

Robin Williams explains the origin of golf.

Superhero casting and more Hobbit trouble

Things are a little busy with my parents visiting, but I have time to share a few news items, some of which are getting a little old. Most of these are about superhero movie casting, actually.

First, Tommy Lee Jones has joined the cast of Captain America: The First Avenger (Variety). He will be playing U.S. Army Colonel Chester Philips. He joins Chris Evans as Captain America, Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine, as well as Hayley Atwell and Sebastian Stan.

This news is old by now, but Andrew Garfield has been cast as the new Spider-Man (IMDb). He is a relative unknown, though he had roles in Lions for Lambs, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and will soon be seen in The Social Network. Hopefully he'll do well in the role, and the revival of the not long gone franchise will be good.

I'm not freaking out yet, but it looks like The Hobbit might lose Ian McKellen (Studio Briefing). He's an actor with other things to do, particularly some stage shows, and he can't wait around forever for the stalled movie to get moving. The delays in production (tied to MGM's troubles) have already forced planned director Guillermo del Toro to step down. I really hope we don't lose more people.

Lastly, this is a bit of new news. Apparently, Ed Norton will not be joining the cast of The Avengers as the Hulk (Hitflix). The studio said that the decision was not based on money, but it sounded like they weren't satisfied with Norton's willingness to act as a team player. I like Edward Norton, but I can imagine that it can be difficult with so many big names on a team in one movie, especially if many of them had their own starring movies first. We'll have to wait and see who will be replacing him to join the Avengers along with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Golden Globes, Spidey director, and a Push TV show

So Avatar won big at the Golden Globes, taking both Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Director - Motion Picture for James Cameron (who even spoke a bit of Na'vi in his acceptance speech). I was pretty surprised by Avatar's win, but then again, the Golden Globes are sort of a funny award, voted on by something like 86 people, compared to the thousands who vote on Academy Awards and the PGA, DGA, and SAG awards. The Oscars are more likely to follow the various Guild awards than the Golden Globes. On the TV front, Glee was triumphant as the Best TV Show - Musical or Comedy (it is both, after all). It deserved it, and seeing all those cast members on stage made me so happy. If only they'd let them sing themselves off the stage.

In a previous post I reported that the fourth Spider-Man installment with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire had been scrapped and instead a high-school Spider-Man reboot would be made. Now Marc Webb has signed on to direct the reboot (Variety). Webb most recently directed (500) Days of Summer. Not exactly the type of movie I'd watch and say "Wow, this guy should direct Spider-Man!" But that doesn't mean he can't. Maybe he'll make it great, and soon we'll be saying "Tobey who?"

My last little bit of news is that Summit Entertainment, is planning on developing a Push TV show (Variety). One of my earliest posts on this blog (makes me so nostalgic thinking back *sniff*) was about the sci-fi movie Push (not to be confused with a certain movie based on the novel Push by Sapphire). I had read the script a couple years before the movie came out in the theaters, which had the movie geek in me all excited (an inside scoop! or something). They cast Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, and Djimon Hounsou in lead roles--all good choices. The movie wasn't as good as it could have been, but I still enjoyed it. And now they're trying to make it into a TV series. David Hayter, who scripted Watchmen (also not as good as it could have been), is writing the series, which is kind of promising. I wouldn't expect much of the movie caliber cast to return for the TV series if it gets made, though. I am skeptical about the quality of a possible Push TV show, but I am excited at the prospect of the franchise continuing. We'll see how it plays out.

Sci-fi nominees, Avatar's success, and Spidey 4 scrapped

Now for bits of recent entertainment news that have caught my eye...

It was a good year for sci-fi movies. The Producer's Guild of America nominations have been announced, and they include three sci-fi films: Avatar, District 9, and Star Trek. The PGA's decision to follow the Oscars in increasing the number of best picture nominees from 5 to 10 allowed such "non-awards bait" movies as these to pick up nominations. Up also received a PGA nomination. In the recent past, an average of 4 of 5 PGA nominees have also been nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. If that holds true this year, it will be a very abnormal Oscar (space?) race. See all PGA nominees here.

After only three weeks in the theater, James Cameron's Avatar has surpassed Return of the King to become the second highest worldwide grosser of all time (Variety). RotK closed at $1.1 billion, and as of Thursday, January 7, Avatar had grossed $1.14 billion. It now stands second only to Cameron's own Titanic, which took in $1.8 billion at the global box office. Whether or not Avatar can pass Titanic will depend on repeat business, but we can safely say that Cameron knows how to make a lot of money.

Blake Lively has been cast as leading lady Carol Ferris opposite Ryan Reynolds's Hal Jordan in the Green Lantern movie (Variety). At 22, she is 11 years Reynold's junior, and best known for her role in CW series Gossip Girl. An interesting choice.

Paramount is planning ahead, scheduling the release of the untitled Star Trek sequel for June 29, 2012 (Variety). 899 days and counting. Yeah, I'm just a little excited.

And the big news of the day (well, yesterday): The fourth Sam Raimi - Tobey Maguire Spider-Man installment has been called off. It seems director Raimi walked after being unable to agree with the studio over the direction of the story, and Maguire followed (Variety). Columbia Pictures will instead be rebooting the franchise with a James Vanderbilt script featuring a teenage Peter Parker. The first two Maguire Spider-Man movies were great, but after the disappointing third film, I'm not too sad to see the fourth called off.

Edit - Additional bad news for Spidey came out today (1/12): Spider-Man, Turn off the Dark producers are giving customers who bought tickets refunds, since due to production delays the show will not be able to start previews on February 25 as planned (Variety). They haven't called it off entirely, saying that the show will open some time in 2010, but it's not looking good.

Busy J.J., Vol. 3, DAO is sweet, Joss is sweeter

It's been a really long time since my last entertainment news post. I have a bunch of things collected, but I'm going to be brief on all of them (not that my ramblings are usually interesting, anyway). I have that application thing that I should be writing instead...

J.J. Abrams has a new series in the works, a spy action/adventure thriller. The spec script written with Josh Reims was just bought by NBC (Variety). Yay J.J.

NBC's midseason thriller Day One has had its order cut from 13 episodes to a four-hour miniseries (Variety). This isn't a totally bad thing for the makers of Day One; they can still hope to pull a Battlestar Galactica.

This is old news now (it's been soo long since my last news post), but Quentin Tarantino is planning to make a Kill Bill: Vol. 3 (Variety). Isn't Bill already (spoiler alert) dead, though? Eh, whatever, it'll probably be awesome.

I hate reality shows in general (only exception: So You Think You Can Dance). An article in Variety suggests that maybe, finally, they are on the decline. It warms my heart to hear it.

Robert Rodriguez has cast Adrien Brody to star as the alien-hunting mercenary in his reboot of the Predator franchise (Variety blog). Interesting choice. Topher Grace has also been cast in the movie, which leads me to

The Spider-Man spinoff Venom movie will be directed by Gary Ross (Variety blog). It is uncertain whether Topher Grace will be reprising his role as Venom from Spider-Man 3, since the spinoff is starting from the drawing board.

Aline Brosh McKenna (Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses) and Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, X-Men 3) have teamed up for a script, and their pitch was just bought by Paramount (Variety). The movie will be produced by Bad Robot with J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. I am intrigued.

The Warcraft movie has a writer: Robert Rodat, of Saving Private Ryan fame (Variety). Sam Raimi is already signed on to direct.

20th Century Fox has just made a deal with EA to make an animated Spore movie, with Chris Wedge (Ice Age) attached to direct (Variety). Hmm.

Speaking of Spore, much like that game's pre-release promotion, EA has released a downloadable character creator module for Dragon Age Origins, the new BioWare title that will be released on November 3 (Variety blog). I. am. so. psyched. If only it weren't for this proposal/application thing.

And I already said this in a previous post, but it needs to be said again. JOSS WHEDON IS GOING TO DIRECT AN EPISODE OF GLEE (EW Ausiello Files).

Mary Janes, The Hobbit, Mars, and a new NWN MMO

Time for an update on entertainment news that has piqued my interest...

It has been confirmed that Kirsten Dunst will in fact be returning to the role of Mary Jane in Spider-Man 4 (IMDb). Tobey Maguire had already agreed to return for a fourth and fifth installment of the blockbuster franchise, but director Sam Raimi had said Dunst was reluctant to sign on for the threequel sequels. They are still looking for the perfect villain, with producer Todd Black saying "Trust me - people will appreciate who we pick, because it'll be a big part of New York." I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean... the villain will be the Empire State Building? Anyway, the third Spider-Man movie was a tad disappointing, so I hope they can pick it back up and make the fourth one good again.

Speaking of Spider-Man, we mustn't forget about Spider-Man: The Musical (more properly called Spider Man, Turn Off the Dark). Turns out that Evan Rachel Wood is going to star as Mary Jane in the stage musical, after all (IMDb). First there were substantial rumors that Wood (who worked with Spider-Man: The Musical's director Julie Taymor in the movie musical Across the Universe) had been cast, then Taymor denied this saying that she was still working on casting MJ, and now this. Apparently Peter Parker has yet to be cast.

Everyone kind of already assumed that this would happen, but Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, and Ian McKellen have all been confirmed for the cast of The Hobbit, reprising their roles as Elrond, Gollum, and Gandalf, respectively (IMDb). We are still awaiting to hear who will play the titular hobbit Bilbo himself (Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, is too old to come back for the younger prequel role, unlike the other three whose ageless or semi-ageless roles let them get away with it). Here's hoping director Guillermo del Toro finds someone great. I'm a bit anxious waiting.

Wolverine stars Taylor Kitsch (Gambit) and Lynn Collins (Kayla Silverfox) are both set to star in Walt Disney Pictures' John Carter of Mars, a fantasy epic based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs series that began with the novel "The Princess of Mars" in 1911 (Variety). Wall-E writer-director Andrew Stanton will be directing the film as his first live-action pic. The story is about a damaged Civil War veteran named John Carter (Kitsch) who is mysteriously transported to Mars where his interactions with the warring races of the dying planet, which presumably include meeting the Princess of Mars (Collins), help him to rediscover his humanity. I don't know what to think of the casting (I actually haven't seen the Wolverine movie yet), but I have great respect for Stanton (I loved Wall-E) and the period-piece-meets-sci-fi-epic aspect of the project is very intriguing. I'll be watching for this one.

Lastly, in gaming news, recent Atari acquisition Cryptic Studios is working on developing an MMO for Atari property Neverwinter Nights (Variety blog). This is really big news for me. For those who don't know, Cryptic Studios is the company behind (among other games) Champions Online, the game currently in its beta testing stage that recently became the first MMO I had ever played. Neverwinter Nights is a Dungeons & Dragons-based Forgotten Realms-set series of computer RPGs. I played through the single-player campaigns of NWN and its two official expansions as well as NWN2 and one of its expansions. But one of the most distinctive features of the Neverwinter Nights series, which I never took advantage of, was the multiplayer component that allowed players to design their own missions in their own persistent worlds--essentially hosting their own mini-MMOs (would these be called "not-so-massively multiplayer online" games or something?). Anyway, there were plenty of people who did take advantage of this feature, making NWN quite a popular success. The news that a proven MMO developer is planning to create an MMO for Neverwinter Nights is intriguing indeed, though they have a tough road ahead of them, since even MMOs based on strong franchises sometimes fail to catch on. Word is they are hoping for a 2011 release... 'round 'bout the time that BioWare is planning to release The Old Republic (more history for those who aren't gamer geeks: BioWare, which developed the original NWN but not the sequel, will not be involved in the NWN MMO). I'd say I see conflict ahead, but I'm already fairly certain I'd pick TOR if forced to choose. But there's time. We'll see how the NWN MMO develops.

Emmys, Pirates 4, and Spider-Man: The Musical

Well, it's been an interesting week. All sorts of... things... have been happening in the big scary Real World. But what news from the entertainment industry?

The week started off with the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. You may have read that the show was bad (since judging by the numbers you didn't actually watch it yourself). Well, as someone who managed to watch the first half hour, I can tell you that whatever you read was probably accurate. I never had much respect for the nominated reality show hosts, but Sunday night showed me how right I was to withhold my respect. In any case, the only show I watch that won on Sunday was Pushing Daisies, with the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series win for Barry Sonnenfeld. Congrats to him. I guess I've also recently picked up watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, now that I've discovered they put the episodes up on Hulu the day after they air (I don't get Comedy Central). All the excitement of current events has given them more good material than they could have ever hoped for, so the shows have been particularly sharp and entertaining recently. Anyway, they each won an Emmy, so congrats to them, too. I'd given up watching the Emmy telecast, though, before the Daily Show got up there. I think I turned it off shortly after poor Josh Groban sang his misguided theme song medley.

Speaking of really dumb shows, I was pleased to see Hole in the Wall ranked number one on Entertainment Weekly's list of The 10 Dumbest TV Shows of 2008. I have to say that I found the initial trailers for this show hilarious. Seeing clip after clip of people looking in wide-eyed terror at the approaching wall, contorting themselves into some awkward position, then being inevitably swept into the water was surprisingly entertaining. Simple minds, simple pleasures, I guess. Watching Ellen DeGeneres do a version of the game on her show with random audience members or--better yet--guests, was also highly amusing (though not quite as funny as Ellen's new game, "Aw, snap!"). But when I saw part of the actual Hole in the Wall show that Fox tucked in after the season premiere of Fringe, I was not amused at all. I think part of the humor in the game on Ellen's show was the fact that these were poor unsuspecting people who were called out of the audience, plunked in front of the moving wall, and forced to make a valiant effort to keep on their feet. And then it was over, whether they succeeded or not. In the montage of the trailer, the contestants had the same appearance. But in the actual show, you realize that these people wanted to be there. They signed up. They thought they'd be good at it. They actually trash-talk the other team. And then they go and make fools of themselves. And then they do it again. All the while, an audience pumped with more excitement than they have a right to cheers on, and the unnecessary two hosts yell into microphones as if they're having fun. You can be sure I won't be tuning into that show again. The concept of the show is funny (and owed to the original Japanese version) and makes for amusing snapshots. But as an actual TV show? Dumb.

Mid-week, Disney announced their plans for a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment (see Variety article). I'll be the first to say that Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is brilliant. And Curse of the Black Pearl was one of the most pleasant surprises in my cinema-going experience (I mean, I'd actually seen the Country Bears movie, sadly, so I wasn't expecting all that much from a movie based on a Disney ride). But I think I'd be a slightly happier person if the sequels had never been made. Maybe a third sequel will redeem the other two, but more likely, it will just be another bad (though lucrative) idea. In other sequel news, it looks like they're planning to make an I Am Legend prequel with Will Smith reprising his role as Robert Neville. A prequel is smart, since a sequel would have had some difficulties (Gotta love how none of the articles about the prequel announcement care about spoilers. When does a movie lose the privilege of spoiler warnings? After it leaves theaters? After it comes out on DVD?). But I wasn't really a fan of the first movie, so I have doubts as to how good a prequel could be.

And lastly, in case you haven't heard yet, Julie Taymor (Across the Universe, The Lion King Broadway show) is making a musical version of Spider-Man which will be released in 2009. I am reminded of a trivia question from one of those series of trivia/quotes/photos/movie moments that loops on the screen in the movie theater before the movie starts and you realize that you're already out of popcorn. I'd like to tell you the question was about Spider-Man, but I think it was actually about The Hulk:
"Was the Hulk originally a 1) TV show 2) Musical or 3) A comic book?"
Well, first of all, duh! And second, Hulk: The Musical?! The idea of it had me laughing out loud in the theater. And now an accomplished Broadway director is making Spider-Man: The Musical. I have to say, I think Spider-Man is significantly better suited to musical form than the Hulk (though is that saying much?). In fact, I saw Spider-Man Rocks in Universal Studios Hollywood, and it was pretty entertaining. But a short show at a theme park venue is a little different from a full length Broadway show. Well, it could turn out to be embarrassing, but hopefully it will be great. Wish I were living close to New York so I could see it.

Now that I've written this post, I've realized most of the stories are pretty negative. That was not my intention. Oh well. I guess that's just the world I've been living in this past week.

Weekend box office comments - 7/20/08 - Dark Knight

Word on the street is that Dark Knight is set to make a whopping $155 million this weekend, breaking the current record of opening weekend box office sales held by Spider-Man 3 by about $4 million. Dark Knight did have the advantage of hugely favorable reviews and great buzz surrounding the masterful performance of Heath Ledger, but Spider-Man 3 had what seemed to be the more important advantage of a lighter tone (though both are PG-13, Spidey seems more kid-friendly) and two box office uber-champion prequels, as opposed to Dark Knight's one merely hugely successful prequel. Dark Knight had the advantage of debuting in the middle of the summer, when kids aren't worrying about going to school on Monday, but Spidey's early May opening was considered a greater advantage, as the summer kickoff would see little competition and fresh, non-superhero wearied audiences. Just before the weekend the analysts were predicting Dark Knight would come in behind Spidey 3. But it looks like they were wrong (not such a huge surprise). I am very pleased by this result, because Spider-Man 3 was kind of lame. A deserved triumph.

> Update, Monday 7/21/08 3 pm: The official final tally for Batman's opening weekend is an even more impressive $158.3 million. Wow!

One time in college, I had a good-natured Batman vs. Spider-Man argument with a friend. He was on the side of Spider-Man; I was on the side of Batman. His argument included a statement to the effect of "Spider-Man is better because it is an underdog story--Batman isn't at all." At the time, I conceded this, merely pointing out that Bruce Wayne didn't exactly have a peaches and cream childhood either, but we were soon distracted by other things going on at the time. But not long after that, I thought of the following rejoinder, though I never had a chance to bring up the argument again. And I guess that fact still bothers me to this day, since here I am about to present it in my blog:

Yes, Spider-Man is the underdog story, because Peter Parker grew up a poor orphan, makes his living selling pictures of himself to a newspaper, but has acquired this amazing power that he uses to fight crime. Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, while growing up an orphan as well, has always had more money than he could ever use and people fawning over him because of it. But here's the thing: Peter Parker was given superhuman powers when that spider bit him. And, as Uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. With his great power, he has a responsibility to use it to help humanity. Frankly, if I suddenly had a remarkable power that made me perfectly suited to fight crime, I would give it a go. I really think I would, for better or for worse. But look at Bruce Wayne. No spider bit him. He has no powers. He made himself a crime-fighter. If I were in his position, I would maybe feel the need to donate money to good causes and do assorted charity work, but I definitely would not try to fight crime, because I wouldn't see myself as equipped to do so. And in that sense, lacking any superpowers, Batman is the underdog, not the super-agile, web-slinging, spider-sensing Spider-Man.

Anyway, with Dark Knight's triumph over Spider-Man 3--at the box office (read: the general public) as well as with critics--I feel vindicated in regards to this argument with my friend so many years ago over whether the Spider-Man or Batman movies were better. Given the most recent installments... I win.