The word is that we can get a look at the Wolverine, the new Wolverine movie supposedly set in Japan, come 26 July 2013. That’s a long damn wait. However, if they deliver a better move than X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it’ll be worth the wait.

The sad thing is for such a tepid piece of film mediocrity, XOW (just made that acronym up and I love it already) made $373 million USD worldwide on a budget of $85 million. What does that say about audiences in general. If that includes the sales  on DVDs, I guess I somewhat put my cut in, so I guess this is “pot calling the kettle” and all that. Mea culpa. But I dig Wolverine. I wasn’t back there in the beginning, but I was hooked with Frank Miller’s Wolverine mini-series.

And if this new movie set in Japan takes its cues from that story, we might be looking at something pretty darn cool.

My main question is: when the fuck do I get my Planetary movie?

Word on the street is that we can expect a Doctor Strange movie in the near future (as in 2012/13). That’s from Marvel itself. No other information—no director, star, budget, or actual schedule—but apparently it’s coming.

Excuse me while I sit here with minimal excitement. After I get the details, maybe I’ll get excited. Right now, too much can go wrong and Hollywood has shat upon source material too often for me to get hopes up. Still, this movie is likely from Marvel, so perhaps there is reason for optimism?

Nah. I’ll keep my expectations low and be excited if they are exceeded.

I recently got a chance to watch Punisher: War Zone. I was tempted to do so after listening to Patton Oswalt rhapsodize over it on an episode of How Did This Get Made. I have to say, he’s pretty much spot on.

This is an amazingly entertaining movie. It is not a great movie. Nope. But it delivers. Boy, does it deliver. It is a fun movie, an exciting movie, and absolutely the best Punisher movie yet made. This movie seems to get it. This is a comic book movie about a comic book vigilante and it has comic book sensibilities.

It’s also gritty. Frank Castle’s world is dirty and depressing. It is always night and wet. It is also incredibly well shot for what is basically an homage to B-movies wrapped in a violent comic adaptation.

And Ray Stevenson: this man needs much more work. Much. More. Listen, I have a soft spot for him and Kevin McKidd due to HBO’s Rome. Stevenson was outstanding in that. But he’s been outstanding in everything I’ve seen him in, whether he’s supporting—as in Book of Eli—or starring—as in Outpost, which I’ve also reviewed. This is Frank Castle—massive, intimidating, beefy but not pretty-boy cut. And the costume is great, just enough of the comic influence while providing something that looks like it could protect one from a 9mm.

If you like the Punisher comic, found the Dolph Lundgren vehicle appalling, but weren’t totally enthralled by Thomas Jane’s turn, give War Zone a shot. I wish there were a sequel with the same cast and crew coming out way, but that doesn’t look likely.

More information on this movie can be found here.

The Punisher: War Zone episode of How Did This Get Made is here.

My review of Outpost can be found here.

For a while there, it looked like the Wolverine might have been the movie I wanted X-Men Origins: Wolverine to have been. Now, that’s falling apart.

First, the director, Darren Aronofsky, left the project. Then natural disasters and their aftermath scourged Japan, where the Wolverine was to be filmed. Now it looks like Hugh Jackman may be looking for other work until the movie gets back on track.

While we will likely have First Class to keep us going until the Wolverine gets made, the fact that Jackman is going to be involved in another production means that we will likely be waiting two years—optimistically—for the Wolverine to arrive, if it ever does. The sad thing is that maybe what made this movie anticipated will be lost in the interim. All it takes is a mediocre director, or one with a vision at variance with what is in the script to change it into another Origins fiasco.

Please, no.

And to add insult to injury, it looks like the Deadpool movie is languishing as well. Should Green Lantern make money, Ryan Reynolds will likely be back on for the sequel production quickly—with little or no time for Deadpool. And that’s even if a director can be found in the near future.

Things are looking grim. Thanks Hollywood—or the Fates, Satan, whomever—for taking my dreams and drilling them in the pooper.

Marvel seems to be moving forward with a Black Panther movie. At least, they’ve gone so far as to hire a screenwriter. Granted, that’s probably the cheapest of the investments Marvel will have to make, unless they try to low-ball the director and star as well. Still, it shows some level of intent.

I’m not a particular fan of the Black Panther, but I’ve read some stuff with him that is pretty cool. The writer in question, Mark Bailey, is mostly known for documentary work, though he has done at least one other adaptation that might see the screen. There’s no word yet on how Marvel or Mr. Bailey intends to adapt the story of the Black Panther, but the last time there was any serious interest in the character, he was going to be involved in some kind of Indiana Jones/Alan Quatermain-style adventure.

Oh, please, no. That just sounds so stupid.

Granted, that was in the 1990s. Hopefully Hollywood has gotten smarter.

And then I remembered Catwoman, and that shot that idea to shit.

Read the article at Collider.

There’ve been a couple of articles out about Edgar Wright and an Ant-Man movie. First off, good choice for a director. Second off, for all the Ant-Man haters, piss off. If Hank Pym is the problem, make it Scott Lang or even Eric O’Grady to avoid the crap that both the regular stream and Ultimate universe Pym has all over him. It’s a movie, of course, so we could avoid the wife-beating issue (much less prominent in mainstream Marvel vs. Ultimates), but whatever. It doesn’t matter the name of the character, because while it may look very similar to the comics Ant-Man, it’s not going to be that guy.

Why? Well because Mr. Wright indicates his Ant-Man is a bad ass secret agent who happens to also have the shrinking powers. That is pretty cool, and it would be nice if this secret agent were also a science nerd—like Hank Pym—rather than just an amusing jack ass—like Eric O’Grady. I’d also like the character to have the more modern Ant-Man suit and powers, those from the recent (and, of course, cancelled) the Irredeemable Ant-Man.

This movie isn’t even close to production, and who knows if it’ll even get there. The only thing that I would accept sidetracking this project would be an Iron Fist project (or possible a Heroes for Hire with Iron Fist as a main character).

So the official Thor trailer is out. I actually think the leaked Comic Con trailer gave us a better idea of the story, but this one has lots more of the Destroyer, and has Thor actually using Mjolnir.

Yeah, people were ragging on the costumes, how they looked, and the like. For me, it works well enough. Does it look metallic? Not particularly. Do I care? Not particularly. I think they’ve done a good job of presenting the costume as I know it from the comic. I know it was always supposed to be metallic—or partially metallic—but the costume never seemed so in the comics themselves, so I guess I don’t expect that of the movie either.

I mean, we’re talking the Norse gods—we’re going to quibble over the material of their costumes?

Also? There’s an official poster. You may have noticed it above.

See the trailer here.

It’s old news now, but none the less interesting: Disney has talked about creating three TV series based on Marvel properties: the Hulk, Cloak & Dagger, and either the Punisher or the Daughters of the Dragon.

There’s been plenty of ink spilled on the Hulk TV program. Guillermo del Toro has been linked to it, so that’s hopeful. The old TV series was pretty good and really had its moments, but was pretty divorced from the comic book property which spawned it. Hopefully we’ll see something even better. Not being a fan of the comic, I could care less if the show deviates from the plot of the comics, given that I can’t even tell you what the plot of the comic is these days—though I did enjoy Planet Hulk.

For Cloak & Dagger, I read the first year of the series that was spawned by Strange Tales back in the late 80s. It never really struck me as being that interesting. Like most Marvel properties, give it to a great writer, you’ll get something great. I can’t even guess what the TV will bring us.

As for Punisher vs. DotD, for this one, I’d go with Daughters. Yes, more obscure, but the talk is for properties to be broadcast on ABC. DotD strikes me as something that could work on a regular broadcast network while the Punisher needs something with a harder edge, like HBO.

A little bit of casting news for Friday.

There are reports floating around out there—or are they rumours?—that Martin Sheen and Sally Field have been cast in the Spider-man reboot as—who else?—Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

Now this would be quite a casting coup, though—honestly—I think Cliff Robertson has more of the “Uncle Ben” vibe than Martin Sheen. Sheen, to me, has too much Apocalypse Now and West Wing for me to ever think of him as Uncle Ben. He’s too distinct. These days, he just carries too much intrinsic gravitas to be kindly Uncle Ben.

Sally Field as Aunt May I might buy, though for a visual likeness from the comics, Rosemary Harris totally won. I can’t see Sally Field doing the same. Then again, maybe they are going for a younger Aunt May.

What all this means—sadly—is that we’re going to see another origin story, that is unless all the Uncle Ben scenes are flashbacks. For the number of people who will see this movie who don’t know the Spider-man mythology, re-doing the origin is a waste of time. It’s a waste of time that could be used selling us on this new Spider-man. Seriously, I don’t want to see origins of Spider-man, Superman, or Batman ever again.

Someone like Green Lantern, who is a little off the mainstream media radar, okay. He also hasn’t had an origin movie (or two) already. Think of X-Men. That movie showed the origin of Rogue, in a manner of speaking, but it was over quick and the movie got on doing what we wanted it to do.

It’s too bad that this Spider-man reboot can’t do the same.

Y’know, I still haven’t seen the movie Ghost Rider with Nicholas Cage. It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching Mr. Cage chew the scenery, because that can be downright fun sometimes. It’s not that I didn’t want to watch Eva Mendes be all Eva and stuff, ‘cause I’m totally cool with that. It’s not even that I couldn’t care less about the care, because I did actually collect the 90s revival of Ghost Rider for the first year or so. It’s just that I see so few movies, I usually go with the ones that get me jazzed. Hearing about the Ghost Rider movie definitely made me pass.

We already knew a sequel was in the works. It was also pretty commonly accepted that Mr. Cage would be back with a flaming head. Now the word is that the budget has been cut. Cue the shocked gasps . . . actually, instead cue Claude Rains as Captain Renault and his “I am shocked, shocked to find . . .”

And it’s still reportedly getting a budget of $75 million. Wow, hard times. Cage is said to have taken a pay cut from $12 mil to $7 mil to hold onto the role.

Wait. Hold the bus. Nicholas Cage is getting $12 million for a movie? Really?

Wow. Just wow.

The article can be found here.