Marvel Announces Lineup Til 2011

With the huge success of Iron Man, Marvel Entertainment has officially announced four other Marvel films after 2009, and had even gone so far as to spill a little bit on each one.

As you all know, we have two other Marvel films coming out this year: The Incredible Hulk in a few months and another Punisher movie much later this year- Punisher: War Zone, which has no connection with the last Punisher flick that came out in 2004.

And then in the summer of 2009, we shall have X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and then nothing after that until now.

Here are the other Marvel Entertainment projects in the works after the summer of 2009:

Iron Man 2. Set for release on 30 April 2010. The first Iron Man made an impressive US$200 million on its opening weekend worldwide. Marvel naturally OK'd its sequel, as soon as the official sales figures came in.

We already know that we'll be seeing more of Gen. Nick Fury and Rhodey (probably as War Machine this time) in the sequel, and that Tony Stark/Iron Man is rumored to be making a cameo in the upcoming Hulk movie. I just wonder how it's all going to play out and tie in with everything else.

The Mighty Thor. Set for release on 04 June 2010. FirstShowing.net actually has an article on Brad Pitt being in the running for the Norse God of Thunder. Nothing official yet, just some online buzz, really.

According to Wikipedia, screenwriter Mark Protosevich (of I am Legend and Poseidon) has been hired to write a script for the live-action Thor film and stated that "It's going to be like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential."

Marvel got Matthew Vaughn (of Stardust, Snatch, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) to direct the project. Currently, he's trying to whittle down the budget to a more manageable amount.

We do know this though: Marvel Studio's David Maisel said that Thor will actually be introduced in Iron Man 2, just before his own movie. Again, it's a great tip guaranteed to fire up the message boards on how it's all going to work out.

The First Avenger: Captain America. Set for release on 06 May 2011. We've seen some really horrendous Captain America movies in the past, so we hope this one turns out to be so much better.

However, there are rumors going around that Matthew McConaughey is being considered for the title role. Oh say it ain't so!

Regardless, here's what we know so far: the Captain America movie will lead directly into The Avengers. According to FirstShowing.net, whoever is cast as Steve Rogers/ Captain America will actually be making two movies at once - since the character will be introduced in the first movie and head straight into The Avengers.

Also, according to Wikipedia, in The Incredible Hulk (coming out in a couple of months), General Ross mentions a World War II program that created a super soldier formula to Emil Blonsky, who leaps at this chance to defeat the Hulk. Viewers see this as a nod to Captain America.

Has anyone confirmed this? Rumor has it that Captain America's shield can be seen in this last Iron Man movie during the scene in which Jarvis is attempting to remove Tony's suit. No idea what the adamantium shield is doing in Stark's workshop, but there's another reason to watch Iron Man all over again.

Finally, The Avengers. Set for release on July 2011, just a couple of months after the Captain America movie. We've been talking about how Marvel would like to tie in all these superheroes for a big-ass movie, given their current direction. With all the right pieces in place, they finally have it. Word is, Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man, wants in on the project.

Now here's more from FirstShowing.net:

Regarding more Hulk movies, Maisel's response was "we definitely plan on continuing." But we all know that depends on how well Edward Norton's reimagining does this June. In addition, Maisel gave this last update, "I can't give any other updates other than to say it's in development and everybody's excited about Spider-Man 4."

So as far as we can tell, we might actually have more Marvel movies coming up, depending on the success of The Incredible Hulk. So mark your calendars, true believers, and troop to the cinemas to support the next few Marvel movies. If the execution on Iron Man was any indication on how Marvel makes their flicks now, then we can all expect more than our money's worth when they hit the box offices.

Pictures from Wikipedia. Care for a trip? Check out the opening themes from the old 60's Marvel Superhero cartoons here on my other blog, "Too Much TV: Renzie on TV".

Cheers, everyone!

Whatever Happened To Michael Biehn?

Just a few days ago, I saw the first Terminator movie and then Aliens for the umpteenth time. Aliens just happens to be one of my favorite flicks of all time, incidentally.

I noticed that Michael Biehn played supporting roles in both movies: as father-of-John Connor, freedom-fighter-from-the-future Kyle Reese in 1984's The Terminator, and as the last Marine standing in Aliens (1986). Wow, it seems James Cameron likes this guy enough to cast him in two movies.

Turns out he was cast in yet another Cameron movie: 1989's The Abyss. Besides those projects he also had several others. He played the role of a Navy SEAL in two other movies (first being The Abyss): in 1990's Navy SEALs, and The Rock from 1996.

Other memorable movies he appeared in were The Seventh Sign (1988) as husband to Demi Moore's character, as Bob Hargrove in the David Caruso/Linda Fiorentino suspense thriller Jade (1995), and as Johnny Ringo in the 1993 Western, Tombstone.

I was just wondering: the dude starred in two of the biggest sci-fi flicks of all time. In fact, 20th Century Fox even lobbied hard to get Biehn nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his performance in The Abyss), but that didn't work out.

In the 80's up to the mid-90's, he might have been able to land more lead roles in action films. But he didn't. At the time, it seemed that you had to be a Sylvester Stallone or an Arnold Schwarzenegger, or maybe even a Bruce Willis to bag the big projects.

I couldn't help but feel that he might have been able to squeeze a little more from his accomplishments- though he managed to star in a few other memorable projects lately. He was in 2002's Clockstoppers, and in the Robert Rodriguez project Grindhouse/Planet Terror (from 2007).

Word is, he's being considered for a role in the upcoming James Cameron project, Avatar. This new sci-fi epic movie is due out on December 2009, and stars (among others) Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Giovanni Ribisi. Supposedly, Michael Biehn entered talks with James Cameron for a possible role in the film, but his involvement is not confirmed.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Renzie Reviews: Serenity (2005)

I don't think this movie ever made regular screening in the Philippines. But at the time, I remember all they hype online across bulletin boards and fansites.

Serenity is a movie set in Joss Whedon's Firefly 'verse, written and directed by the man himself (excellent job, mate!). His pitch: it's a western- just so happens it's set in the future. Firefly also never saw airtime here (at least not on its regular run), and TV.com actually reported it as one of the best sci-fi TV series ever.

So naturally, when I had the chance to pick up a copy of said movie, I told myself that I just had to check this one out.

I wasn't disappointed at all- in fact, it's thoroughly entertaining: witty dialog, great story, excellent character development, good shots and camera work. It was sci-fi, alright, but not cheesy sci-fi (some DO tend to go overboard). It has, in many ways, set the benchmark on how science fiction movies should be done.

The movie was all about Mal and his ragtag crew- the movie had done an excellent job building up the characters in a relatively short time, so that you can't help but root for them, even if you haven't seen Firefly ever before.

I find out later on that the story played out in Serenity happens after all the Firefly episodes. Note to self: gotta pick up the Firefly DVDs. Watch more of the crew of the Serenity.

By the time the movie's done, you would definitely want to get to know the crew of Serenity a little more- a lot more. And chances are, you'll be checking out their entry on Wikipedia, Firefly sites and download wallpapers and images and stuff. At least, that's what I did.

Yes, Serenity made me an instant Firefly fan. Once I had the chance, I got the DVDs to watch them over and over again. On top of the Serenity DVD to end the unfortunately short-lived TV series just nicely.

Thanks, Joss, for a really good story. I'm personally looking forward to your next project.