THE HARD MASTER~!

Yeah, yeah - it sounds like a porn character, I know. But in fact, the Hard Master plays a very important role in the relationship between Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow in the GI Joe mythology - or more precisely, the deterioration of the relatioship. CUE SPOOKY MUSIC! I'd say more but I don't know how spoilery I feel this morning.

Anyways... they cast this dude.



Very stereotypical "ninja master" kinda character. I just can't seem to recall if he looked anything similar to this though.

But if they really want to gain my favor, I want the Blind Master.

We Want Serpentor!

It's been a long, long while since I've covered any GI Joe stuff on here. I stumbled upon something tonight that I thought might be worth sharing.

The producer, Lorenzo di Bonaventura says, "We are in post-production, and it’s looking really good. It’s going to be really fun, and it’s going to be big.”

Uh huh. The "it's going to be big" concerns me a little as it tends to be code for "We cut out a lot of the story but we make things blow up a lot!"

He continues with, "There is going to be two or three really large sequences in it that are really going to blow people away. But I think that, more than anything, what differentiates it from a lot of these big movies is that there are eight or nine very well-drawn characters.”

Hrm. That's one of those statements that sounds good to the hardcore fan but it's also one of those statements that producers/directors nervous about alienating the hardcore fan know to say.

Of course, there's also the usual chitchat about the Snakes/Storm Shadow relationship playing a key role in the movie. I really hope that's legit cause if it's not, the movie will have to succeed without the geeks [and yes, I include myself in that.]

And the final suckup comment?

“I think the core fan base that read the comic book and watched the animated shows are going to feel like we really honored their experience."

Welp. We'll know in about seven months or so.

COOOOOBRAAAAAA!

So, it's been a while since I've lived up to my unofficial title as the unofficial keeper and bearer of all tidings G.I. Joe movie related.

Tonight, I break that slump.

The MTV Movies Blog - a surprisingly decent source of movie scoops - had an article up today talking about Cobra Commander and what we can expect to see out of this notorious villain when he hits the silver screen next year. Here's a few excerpts I found interesting:

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura on CC's origin:

“As we see it, he’s a very twisted character. As the backstory evolves, you discover why his personality [is like that]. I thought what was great in ‘The Dark Knight’ was that Heath kept telling you different stories [about his past] so you never knew what it was, and they were all spooky and crazy. [In our film] you get to see it, and you get to understand what’s happened to this guy.”

Blah. What he kinda fails to see in this comparison is that the fact that we didn't ever find out The Joker's true origin story is what made it so cool. It was that sense of mystery and intrigue that added to the enjoyment of it because we knew he was fucked up - we just didn't know why. The same likely should hold true for Cobra Commander. He's an evil psychopath with an army of terrorists at his disposal - do we really need to know why? Especially since it's going to tie in with this backstory they've created about CC and Duke being former BFFs.

Bonaventura on the voice:

While it won’t exactly match the classic high-pitched wail from the show, the producer says Gordon-Levitt will leave his own vocal stamp on Cobra Commander. “He has an interesting voice. He definitely has a take-off on that. I actually found the voice a little weak in the show…I’m sure I’ll get killed for saying that. I don’t know, it always seemed kind of silly. Hopefully we’re going to be a little more menacing.”

Blah. Okay, okay - the cartoon voice is over the top. It was supposed to be. I get the point of trying to make it more menacing. That's fine. But do you really want to start insulting the source material when most fans already think you're planning to drop a giant deuce right on top of it anyways?

And lastly - and most frightening - the mask:

“We’ll see Cobra Commander in the Cobra mask [but] it will not be like the show,” said di Bonaventura, who also promised they aren’t going to the comics for that one either. “I found some of the [mask] aspects a little KKK for me,” he said, “so we tried to steer away from that image. We thought that might be a little much.”

Blah. This guy's a fucking toolbox. It's too KKK? Are you serious? A blue mask with a cobra symbol on it? By the way, that guy under the mask is a terrorist bent on world domination - not the elimination of Roadblock and Stalker. So, no fabric mask. No helmet mask. They made their own mask is what they're trying to break gently to us.

And that's that. Once again, another set of news about the G.I. Joe movie that I just can't find a way to look positively on. I soooooo hope I'm wrong but I'm worried still.

Random Randomness

Considering I work late tonight, I thought I should probably give you more of a post today than the Carlin thing. So, some random thoughts on some random news over the past few days.

NEWS: G.I. Joe Movie Gets A Subtitle
REACTION: Well, there's two good things about this. To me, a subtitle means it's a high probability that the studio is thinking "franchise" - and I'm hopeful that means they really like the footage they're seeing and think it's going to be a success. The other good thing? The subtitle is "Rise Of Cobra" - which is exactly the kind of thing I want to hear, baby! This is the first piece of news we've had on this movie in a long while [although I expect that to change next month at Comic-Con] and I think it's good news.

NEWS: UFC Fight Night Was Saturday Night
Yeah, it was. But other than the TUF Finale being another surprising win for Amir, nothing on the show really did much for me. Everything just seemed kinda... there. But I did come away from the show with two pieces of insight - 1] Joe Rogan is a loose cannon out there. Knowing how similar Dana is to Vince McMahon, I gotta think Dana's sitting in the back ready to spit nails when he hears Rogan mention Tito Ortiz and Kimbo Slice on his TV show. He used to do the same thing with Pride. It really is fascinating that Dana lets him get away with it.

Oh, the second thing?

Evan Tanner's beard needs its own reality show as it has reached ungodly levels of awesomeness.

NEWS: It's Been One Year Since The Chris Benoit Situation Went Down
REACTION: It's hard to believe it's been a year already. I still can remember exactly how I found out and how absolutely stunned I was. It started with "Chris Benoit is dead" to "His whole family is dead too" and then developed into what we know now. I often joke about people who claim George Lucas "raped their childhood" but if anything, if anyone has ever come close to doing that to me - it's Chris Benoit. He has completely changed the way that a lot of people look at the business that they loved - hell, he's even caused some people to stop watching all together. But of course, that's not even close to the worst part of the whole situation. There's a special place in hell reserved for Chris Benoit.

NEWS: Dodgers Considering Trading Billingsley And Kemp For Sabathia
REACTION: God help me. Here we go again. After I spent all winter paranoid that Coletti was going to do some huge ill-advised desperation move, he managed to play it safe and stay the course for the most part. Now? The rumors are starting again and this time, I'm even more concerned because many believe Coletti's job may be on the line if he can't salvage this season. Don't do it, Ned! Stay the course! Listen to Logan White!

NEWS: First John McCain For President TV Ad Spotted
REACTION: Eh, it didn't do anything for me. Nothing inspiring. Nothing memorable. Just the same ol', same ol' wrapped up in a different package. But then, of course, I'm probably not the target demo for him. I've never voted Republican before and I'm not likely to start now. But since I was watching Deadliest Catch when it came on, I have to wonder exactly who that ad was aimed at. It's going to be an interesting few months leading up to election.

That's it for me! You guys have been great! Don't forget to tip your waitress!

More G.I. Joe Photos + News

As your very unofficial source of G.I. Joe info, I come bearing gifts.

First, the good folks over at Superherohype.com were given the courtesy of a visit to the G.I. Joe set recently . Their initial report is pretty vague but they did drop a few details of interest. Some of the sets they were shown included the MARS lab [can't really go wrong with a weapons-development building], the "interior of the G.I. Joe submarine" [makes sense], an underwater base station [fits with the rumors of an undersea battle at some point in the flick,] and "the remains of the Pit." Aha! So, at some point in the movie, the Pit gets damaged badly. Seems fitting considering the number of times it happened in the comics and cartoon. I'm okay with all that!

The real test?

More pictures. As Samuel L once wisely said, "Hold on to your butts."

Having some HTML troubles so I'll put all my comments at the bottom of the page.




































































































New shot of Storm Shadow. Much, much better, IMO. Still not perfect but he doesn't look like he fell out of a bad anime.

Ahhh, sweet, sweet Baroness. I dig it. I think this one works nicely - but I said that after the first photo of her too. She's the only one they've completely hit on the nail so far - Snakes is very close but the second photo of him scared me a bit.

Destro. Hrmm. Without the mask, it's hard to tell but I think this guy looks just about right for the gig. Slap some wrist rockets on him and let's see how it goes.

Still Metrosexual General Hawk. Egads.

Heavy Duty. Not bad. Not fond of everyone in black leather still but not bad at all. Mr. Eko rules it.

And lastly, Breaker... who looks just fine again except for the black leather.

The G.I. Joe Producer Speaks... INVISIBLE!

A new interview with G.I. Joe movie producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura hit the Interweb today. Let's see if he can soothe some of the butt hurt Joe fans out there... yours truly included.

Here are the highlights:

** When asked about the difference between producing Transformers and G.I. Joe -
"They’re completely different. I mean, to me I don’t look at them as toy properties... I look at them as mythologies. So, G.I. Joe is a really, really in depth mythology... The characters involved and intertwined nature and G.I. Joe it’s very funny how everybody’s very intertwined. It’s very different than in a lot of the comic book mythologies I’ve run into. The lines between good and evil are drawn differently. I think the Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes, it’s a great thing and is Storm Shadow evil? Well, some people think so. I don’t. Is Snake-eyes also righteous in this? I’m not so sure, he’s blaming his buddy for something he may or may not have done, you know, so it’s that interesting duality where the characters live in a world that’s good guys and bad guys but it’s also a gray area."

REACTION: Not a bad answer. He's done some homework at least. And I _really_ hope this means that the Snakes/Stormy/Hard Master storyline will be explored to some extent as the chief conflict between the two.

** When asked the very obvious question on a lot of fans' minds about having too many characters to introduce and flesh out -
"Well, it’s a hard question to answer. We think we’re going to deliver on all the characters. We think the script actually delivers really well and sets up each character. You’re going to understand the back-stories of virtually every major character and then you’re going to understand the roles of the ones you don’t. You may not know everything you know if you’ve read the comic book but you’re going to recognize them if you’ve read the comic book and you’re certainly going to want to know more about them by the end of it which is part of the tease. And there’s some character info that will be new to the comic fans."

REACTION: I don't buy it. There's just no friggin' way to cover that many characters unless they're breaking the two hour mark for the movie by a LOT of screen time. I'm glad they recognize this could be a problem but I just don't think there's a legitimate way to resolve it without a lot of these appearances being just cameos... which I'm fine with to some degree.

** On the level of violence and the rating and target demo and such -
"You know for us, we think the people who grew up with the comic book and the animated show are going to be our core audience. We think that the older audience that identifies with the pre-83 Joe is going to have some education to go through but are going to relate to the title because the values of it are the same. The storytelling is different but if you think about the values, they’re very similar, you know? Integrity, honesty, bravery, courage, you know things like that that I think you just associate with both versions of G.I. Joe. It’s an all audience movie. I mean, there are 2 really strong romances. There are a lot of things in there that’s going to appeal to people. It’s going to be PG-13. Look I’ve been involved with a lot of R-rated movies and a lot of PG-13. You just sort of begin to understand the difference and Stephen Sommers has no intention of making an R-rated movie and it would be silly to do so because you should appeal down to kids."

REACTION: This is all well and good. No one expect G.I. Joe to be like the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, I don't think. It's a war story but largely, it's a comic book war story. I have no issue with this being PG-13. I am curious about the two romances though. It had better be Snakes/Scarlett and Baroness/Destro but I have an itchy suspicion we're going to get hosed on one of those for some romance that didn't exist in the comics or TV show.

** To address the photos of everyone in black leather -
"I would say each character has more than one outfit, by in large, other than of course Snake Eyes, but everybody else has multiple looks. I think our costume designer’s phenomenal and she’s just done a great job in delivering a very varied look. You know, Snake Eyes is a character in black so he would be in black and you know we looked through all the comic books and The Baroness and unless we’re missing something she’s always in black. Every character in the movie is not in black all the way through including - other than Snake Eyes - who has to be in black all the way through. So, you know, there’s multiple looks that for each of those characters that you’ll see them in different color schemes and in different attitudes I’d say."

REACTION: Good answer! If this is true, this eases my mind a bit. Although I really wish the interviewer would have asked about the god-awful Storm Shadow costume. I'm still hoping that's the costume he wears when he goes to a high school dance and slashes some U.S. government official's daughter's throat with a sword. Tell me that scene wouldn't rock your boat!

** When asked to compare the tone of the movie to the comics or TV show -
"That’s an interesting question. I guess it’s definitely a comic book movie and it’s definitely has a great sense of humor, so there’s a lot of humor and a lot of drama and a lot of action. I would say there’s an equal measure of all 3 of those things in the movie."

REACTION: That raises a bit of a red flag to me. The animated show had a ton of humor, for sure, but that's one of the reasons most people didn't like it as well as the comics. If they try to go too funny with this, it'll fall flat and hard.

** THE PIT!
"We built a couple of the levels of The Pit as Stephen has imagined it and Ed Verreaux, our designer, is really gigantic so you couldn’t really build all of it, but so some of it. But we built a full floor of it which is gigantic. I think everybody’s going to be really happy that we took The Pit very seriously and built it to fulfill anybody’s sense of fantasy of what it could be."

REACTION: Surprisingly, I really couldn't give a damn about what The Pit looks like. It's not like X-Men's Danger Room where it's an iconic part of the mythology and has to be done perfectly or people will be up in arms. I mean, I'm sure there are some people that will shit themselves if The Pit doesn't match the diagram that was in one of the old Marvel annuals but I'm not one of them.

** More on Snakes vs Stormy

"We’re really exploring the mythology and we hope that the mythology, if we’re lucky enough to get to a 2^nd film, we want to continue to explore the mythology of the two characters. It’s very rich and this movie explores a lot about how they met at first and how they fell apart. And yes we have shot a fight between the 2 of them and we hope that everybody’s going to agree with us that it’s going to be one of those great battles."

REACTION: Allow me a moment to give a warning that you, Mr. Bonaventura, will never read. If you fuck up this one part of the story, Snakes and Stormy, G.I. Joe fans will never forgive you. It's the one thing you can not afford to blow. You can probably get by with invisible Scarlett... you can probably get by with Destro wearing the mask because of injury... you can probably even get by with metrosexual Hawk... but if you FUBAR Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow's part of the story, you will never recover from it.

And that's that. I probably should've saved this post for tomorrow so I wouldn't have to think of a new topic but... eh, this is what I do for you! This is what I do!

And now you know...

...and knowing is half the battle.

They'll Fight For Freedom Wherever There's Trouble... Invisible Apparently

I tried, guys... you know I tried.

This morning before I start the arduous task of painting our kitchen, I wanted to find some good news about the G.I. Joe movie to share. I feel like I've been in the harbinger of sorrow for that flick for weeks now and it really is/was a movie that I was greatly looking forward to. There had to be some info out there somewhere to make me enthused, right?

Not so much as it turns out.

A site called Firstshowing.net posted their This Is Why You Should Be Excited About the G.I. Joe Movie based off of details from the latest script review. Let's see if I agree.

*** Accelerator Suits - These allow the G.I. Joe squad to "run faster, jump super-high, smash through walls, and shrug off bullets."

Huh? Why, exactly? Did I miss that special edition of G.I. Joe issue #100 where they all became Universal Soldiers with Van Damme and Bill Goldberg? This does not excite me. The Joes were average people with extraordinary abilities. They were not bit by radioactive spiders.

*** Nano-Bombs - A bomb that Cobra Commander is developing that launches a swarm of nanites that eat all non-organic material in the surrounding area including buildings and machinery but none of the people.

I guess this could be kinda cool. It'll be a visually cool scene at least, I'd imagine.

*** Neo-Vipers - A legion of ninja-like super-soldiers that are controlled by Destro that have been enhanced by nanotechnology to not feel any pain or remorse. They were created by a "mad scientist" known as the Doctor. Check out some photos of the old Neo-Viper figures here.

Sigh. Boy, they really like the nano technology stuff, I guess. If the "Doctor" is Dr. Mindbender or Dr. Venom, I lend my tentative support to this plan. Carry on.

*** Destro's Mask - Also created by the same Doctor is a mask made of nanites that Destro wears because his face is disfigured after a fight. This gives Cobra the ability to control his mind.

Boy, they _really_ like the nano technology stuff. I'm SO not enthused by this one. What was wrong with Destro being an international arms dealer who wears the mask out of family tradition because he has a warped sense of honor? Is that really such a difficult character to wrap your brain around? And mind control? Crikey, if you're gonna do mind control - I've got two words for ya - DR. VENOM AND THE FRIGGIN' BRAIN WAVE SCANNER! That might be more than two words.

*** Scarlett's Armor - You've already seen the photo, but apparently that armor allows her to become completely invisible for her missions, or so they say…

Sigh. This is a good thing? Really? I hope on August 9th, 2009, I can eat my words but right now Larry Hama looks like the biggest sell-out ever, brought in to feed the fans lines of crap about how the true fans will enjoy this movie while taking his check to the bank every week and knowing damn well the fans are going to shit a solid gold brick when they see Scarlett turn invisible to fight NANO NINJAS!

Uh oh

There's still a Top Five coming later today but in my unofficial role as the G.I. Joe movie watchdog, I must say...

"Uh oh"

Take a look.


First shot of Marlon Wayans as Ripcord. Where's the camo?! Seriously, I'd be okay with this... maybe... if it didn't get worse. At least I'm looking at the picture and not mocking him immediately. Let's keep going.


First shot of Channing Tatum as Duke. Again, it could be worse. It's not the original costumes for sure. It looks like Fox had a fire sale on the X-Men costumes after KILLING OFF MOST OF THE TEAM and Paramount reaped the benefits. When I joked about the black leather on Scarlett earlier this week, I didn't realize the whole team would be sporting it. The whole team except...
Ohhh my. Dennis Quaid as Hawk looks... well... uhhh... highly metro. What's with the fucking beret? Did someone pick up a Flint action figure and get confused? Where's the flat top, dammit? I'd say, "There's plenty of time to fix it" but apparently Quaid already done shooting so... whew. This image alone is enough to scare me horribly... or scar me... not sure which one.
Yeaaaaaaah. Well, at least they went all-white with the Storm Shadow costume. But where's the mask? And why does it look like he's wearing a trenchcoat?
Now _this_ looks right. She's the one that's supposed to be in skintight black leather! Ahh, I have a feeling her posters will be selling very well next year. Hell, I could probably sell them at Comic-Con this year for a bundle.
"Cover Girl is sporting this year's cutting edge trend in camo. Perfect for skulking in the jungles, sizing up a killshot, jogging on the beach on a misty morning, and cuddling by the fire with that special someone. Note the stylish watch - this girl won't be missing any dates any time soon! Available now on Page 21 of the J Peterman catalog. $89.95"

Larry Hama... take me away!

We've Seen Snakes, Now See Scarlett

EDIT: 4/15, 11 PM - Link went down. Back up now.




The leather costume reminds me a little too much of X-Men. Other than that, I have no complaints.

Thoughts?

GI Joe Vs Transformers

Ahhh, remember the days of yore when Marvel released a GI Joe versus The Transformers miniseries? Good times. And then years later, when both comics had been relaunched by Devil's Due, they repeated it? Not as good of times. Although it did inspire killer statues like...



Anyways... on this very late Sunday night, I thought I'd review a handful of news and rumors about the upcoming GI Joe movie as well as the Transformers sequel [which I can't read much about because my lazy ass still hasn't watched the first one... but I do own it on DVD so I'm one step closer - besides, can it really be any better than Transformers: The Movie where millions of innocent children collectively gasped around the world when Starscream said "shit?"] that have made their way across the Interweb in the past few days.

** DEVASTAAAAATOR!
Rumors are running rampant that the Constructicons will be in the Transformers sequel with the news that set fanboys all atwitter that yes, where the Constructicons go, DEVASTATOR is sure to follow. Now, if only we can get the Dinobots involved.

** "Latino Review reports that Brendan Fraser has filmed what sounds like a cameo as Gung Ho in G.I. Joe, while Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been offered the role of Shipwreck."
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! How many god damn Joes do we need in this flick? Brendan Fraser?!? ENCINO MAN?!?! Have these people even fucking seen a Gung Ho action figure? Gung Ho is all beefy and brawny and asskickingly cool. Brendan Fraser is the guy who pissed himself when he saw the ocean in Blast From The Past [a highly underrated flick where Ms. Silverstone (if you're nasty) is scorching hot]... he is not Gung Ho.



The Rock as Shipwreck? Barring any racially motivated "that's not rights" - I can sorta see it. BUT I DON'T NEED TO! HOW HARD IS THIS MOVIE TO MAKE?! You needed Hawk, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Stalker, and maybe a couple more to start with. Gung Ho would have been fine to add to the group... SIX MONTHS AGO! You don't need the cavalcade of Joes who're going to be on screen too quickly to notice or too shallow to give a shit about. Did no one learn anything from that X-Men 3 rubbish?

** Logo for GI Joe movie goes active
Apparently discovered at a toy show, here you go...



I'm filled with large amounts of indifference. It's not exactly inspiring me to do cartwheels, pull all my toys out of the closet, and support Sgt. Slaughter blindly in all that he does. You know what bugs me about it? It's that fucking star. It reminds me of the scene in LA Story [another criminally underrated movie] where Sarah Jessica Parker [before she was famous] and Steve Martin are on a date. He asks her for her name and she replies it's "Sandy"... or so you think! When Martin replies that it's nice to meet a girl with a normal name unlike all the people with weird names now like Tiffany spelled with a p-h-i or instead of Nancy, it's Nanceen. Sandy replies that her name is SanDeE... with that exact capitalization... and that there's a star at the end. And that my friends, is what I think of the GI Joe movie logo.

It's shiny, fancy, and has a star randomly fucking placed for IMPACT. And yes, the old logo had a star but I'm standing firm in my belief that this star blows ass... you may quote me.

Gah... I thought there was more. That's all I've got!

Back tomorrow with a crazy-ass story about Superman that you do NOT want to miss!

How's that for a teaser?

March Mixtape + Stuff

Firstly, I want to announce that the March Mixtape is going to be delayed for a few days or so. The songs are selected but I REALLY want to do something different with it and I don't have the equipment to do so at the moment. I'm hoping to have that resolved by the weekend.

Now, with that out of the way... some random randomness to get you through the day...

NEWS: Dennis Quaid wraps on GI Joe
REPLY: Well, the interesting thing about that is that the production moved to the Czech Republic where I presume they will shoot action footage. That makes me curious. Does that mean Hawk isn't in any of the battle scenes? If so, that's a unique creative choice. Not bad nor good... just unique. On a side "NEWS", the actor playing Storm Shadow completed his first scenes on set recently. I'm stoked to see him in costume.

NEWS: DODGERS WIN!
REPLY: 1 down, 161 to go. It was a great Opening Day with a great win over the arch-rival Giants but perhaps more entertaining, a tremendous pre-game ceremony with tons and tons of former Dodgers in the house for it. Even a first pitch from Sandy Koufax. Just awesome.

NEWS: Ric Flair retires
REPLY: The last twenty minutes of Raw were perhaps the greatest 20 minutes of Raw ever. It was so emotional, as stirring, as moving of a segment that professional wrestling is capable of. Old friends, old rivals, people inspired by the man, people who aspired to be "the man" - everyone was present for without a doubt the greatest farewell I've ever seen. Even non-wrestling fans should watch those 20 minutes and I defy you to not at least feel a tug on your heartstrings. Thanks for the memories, Ric... one last time.

NEWS: Dolly Parton Night on AI
REPLY: Oh god. I don't think I've ever looked forward less to American Idol.

NEWS: The Ultimate Fighter starts tomorrow night
REPLY: Could be good, could be bad. Ask me Thursday.

That oughta do it for today. Evenin', folks!

Best Laid Plans...

With my head slowly clearing, I was prepared to attempt a longish blog post tonight. Something about the frailty of man as we endeavor to achieve lasting greatness in a cynical, apathetic world.

But then I saw this...



This is the first publicity photo of Ray Park in costume.

No other words needed.

EDIT: A BONUS PHOTO!

Comic Book Movie Roundup

A few Comic Book Movie tidbits for this sorta early Wednesday morning...

NEWS: Justice League movie back on track for '09 release
REACTION: Oh, fuck a duck. I thought the strike had killed this thing but apparently not. The fact that they're already done with their rewrite that they need frightens me because from all indications, it needed a lot more work than that. On a side note on this project, some dude from Mad Max was cast as the Martian Manhunter - don't know if that's good news or not. I'm scared that we might get another X-Men 3 at best or another Batman & Robin at worst.

NEWS: Favreau to helm Avengers?
REACTION: At WonderCon last weekend, Jon Favreau cracked during his Iron Man panel that if the movie does well enough, he might get to direct Marvel's upcoming Avengers movie. See, that news makes me feel ten times more confident in the Avengers movie than in the Justice League... which is totally fucked because I'm much more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy. A JL movie is like a fanboy's wet dream and it looks to be turning into a soaking nightmare while the Avengers movie looks better and better as Marvel smartly builds towards it. I still think they need to do a Captain America solo flick before jumping into the Avengers but hey... that's just my opinion.

NEWS: Deathstroke in The Dark Knight?
REACTION: This rumor got started a couple of weeks ago when at a toy show someone snuck a shot of a Deathstroke toy from the upcoming Dark Knight toy line. The figure design was apparently approved by Nolan himself which made fanboy hearts aflutter. Problem is that with all the rumors regarding the movie, no one ever stumbled upon this one. Today's addition to the rumor is that Anthony Michael Hall is playing Deathstroke which really just sounds like someone making an educated guess to me since AMH has been signed on to the film for a while but no one knows what role he is playing. There was talk earlier that he'd be doing an Edward Nygma cameo to set up a Riddler appearance in the third [or beyond] flick much like the Joker card teaser at the end of Batman Begins. While I dig the Deathstroke character and find it intriguing what could be done in a Nolan Batman world with him, I find this one hard to believe unless it's just an Easter Egg for fans like Mr. Zsasz was in Begins.

NEWS: SHAZAM! is a go
REACTION: During the Get Smart panel, director Peter Segal announced that SHAZAM! would be his next flick. The guy sounds like he "gets" his source material and that can usually produce very cool results. It's an interesting film to tackle and I just hope he doesn't try to get too cute with it. This one will have a very thin line to tread between serious drama and over-the-top. Good luck, sir! Oh, and the best news on this one... The Rock's been approached to play Black Adam which may be the best idea in ages.

As a bonus, I'm tossing in a pic from the new Hulk movie and one from the upcoming Wolverine solo flick as well... enjoy! [NOTE: Hopefully these pics stay up longer than the GI Joe pics that got relocated right after I posted them.]








[MORE NOTES: I decided to go re-find the GI Joe pics for you guys... and I found a new one as well. Enjoy!]

Meet General Hawk - doesn't look quite right to me.


The lovely Baroness


And the not-so-lovely Duke... which won't embed in the post for some weird reason so go check it out HERE