Film News: X-Men 3, Fantastic Four, Hulk 2 (Op/Ed in his own words), Superman 7/14/04

7/14/2004

X-Men 3: X3movie.net has published an interview with designer Guy Dyas, talking about the proposed and aborted danger room sequence in X2 that is hoped to be included in the next film:

"Guy Dyas Talks DANGER ROOM For X3
"There was sadness when we had to eliminate our Danger Room sequence. I had just completed a very unique design for it, which was going to allow Bryan to do all sorts of crazy things with the action, stunts and visual effects. A friend of mind had introduced me to Adam Kubert a few months earlier and together we storyboarded this incredible sequence. We were going to be able to watch Wolverine training in the Danger Room and it was going to blow people's minds away in X2! The set was half built and Hugh Jackman was trained and ready to go when production simply ran out of time.

We cover so much ground in X2, and with the DR, we would have ended up with a three and a half hour movie! Now that the film is completed I actually understand why the Danger Room sequence had to be saved for the next film."

Here's a drawing of the danger room from the comics courtesy of Cerebrosxmen.com:



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Fantastic Four: According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jessica Alba, the only contender NOT blonde (excluding the bad dye job in Sin City) has been selected for the role of Sue Storm, the Invisible WOman, in the upcoming film adaptation...



"Jessica Alba has been cast as the Invisible Girl for 20th Century Fox's upcoming Marvel Comics adaptation "Fantastic Four." Alba, whose features include "Sin City" and "Out of the Blue," beat out stiff competition for the role that included Rachel McAdams and Elizabeth Banks. She joins Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffudd as the adventure-seeking quartet made up of scientist Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Gruffudd); his love interest, Susan Storm/the Invisible Girl (Alba); her brother, Johnny Storm/the Human Torch (Chris Evans); and Reed's best friend, Benjamin Grimm/the Thing (Chiklis). The four develop superpowers when their spaceship is exposed to cosmic radiation."

Most of Alba's fans, I'm sure, would rather that her powers of invisibility extended only to her clothing. See, that was clever. Or was it.



However, Fanboy Planet received a scoop from an unnamed source claiming that Sarah Wynter actually nabbed the role...which could be complete BS...and while it doesn't really matter in the end who's got the right scoop the fastest, etc. this robot sorely wishes this were true. I like Jessica Alba in most projects, but Wynter would have made a GREAT Sue Storm.
Sarah Wynter as Storm


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Hulk 2: Onion has published a great op/ed piece about why no one seems to want to make the Hulk sequel...written, or dictated, by the Hulk himself.
Hulk Op/Ed Piece

An exceprt from the article: "Hulk write great tag lines. 'No make Hulk 2 angry!'"

Great stuff, and good points all around. Long time readers may recall that Hulk was this humble site's maiden review, and it was GOOD, damn you all.

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Superman: Heidi McDonald has posted a surprisingly concise and helpful summary of the current ocurse of WB's Superman development, which was pulled from E Online... and offers some astute commentary on the process. Anyone who loves comics behind-the-scenes stuff who hasn't read her new blog is mad, mad, mad.

Here's the post:

"Is Michael Bay set to direct the troubled SUPERMAN film? With McG bowing out due to a dispute with WB, Bay, a name that's been bandied around for the last few years, is back in the running, but still speculative.

An article on E Online gives a fairly complete picture of the stumbles, starts and stops.

The studio was looking to begin filming late this year. Minus a director, a star and a locked-in budget, a Warners spokeswoman said it was "a little too soon to say for sure" if that schedule would hold.

This is the second time McG has walked away from Superman. In 2002, he was announced as the last son of Krypton's new boss. Later that year, he was out, and Brett Ratner was in.

Ratner walked in 2003 when Warners vetoed his choice for the high-flying hero, Tru Calling's Matthew Bomer.

There has been no word on how far McG came in finding an actor to fill out the blue tights. Some of the most detailed info on McG's vision for the film came from the mouth of Disney Channel star Shia LaBeouf (Even Stevens).

Last week, the plugged-in LaBeouf, 18, blabbed to USA Today that he'd met with McG about playing Daily Planet cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. According to LaBeouf, McG was trying to nab 19-year-old Scarlett Johansson for Daily Planet veteran Lois Lane and fortysomething Johnny Depp for evildoer Lex Luthor.

With McG gone, the Hollywood Reporter intimated the JJ Abrams screenplay--the standard text for the Superman project for about two years now--may follow. The paper noted that "McG's departure...does not tie the studio to the script."

When buzz began building that all was not well between Warners and McG, the talk was fueled, in part, by buzz that things were suddenly chummy between Warners and Michael Bay.
….
According to Hollywood Reporter, the Bay-Superman story heated up July 1 when a Superman logo was spotted for several hours on MichaelBay.com, billed as the director's official Website. To the paper, Bay's camp denied posting the "S," denied direct involvement in the Website (saying it was run by a fan) and denied involvement in the Superman movie.


Hm, A Supes-signal? Hope it doesn't have a mercury battery.

In filmmaking terms, Bay would have to be considered the anti-Raimi. While Spidey's helmer favors long shots, endless close-ups and quirky mise-en-scenes, Bay specializes in the kind of chop socky wham bam fast cut outings that made PEARL HARBOR a film classic. This is the fellow who once boasted that he made a 3 hour movie (ARMAGEDDON) without a single shot that lasted more than five seconds.

Purists can take comfort in the fact that all this Superman chatter is mostly a smokescreen for a skittish WB that dare not pull the trigger on anything that is less than perfect. Superman is the biggest "home grown" franchise in the WB pantheon. The key is making it seem like its in play while the turmoil plays out behind the scenes,

But, in all humbleness, let the Beat offer a suggestion: for SUPERMAN to fly once again, please, please Warners, hire a director who knows and understands the characters (i.e. Raimi, BATMAN BEGINS' Christopher Nolan), not some hot shot who wants a franchise on his resume. That way lies madness."

Follow her daily posts on The Beat!

So says...Wrongrobot!

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