Friday, April 27, 2007

More "X-Men"? Yes, please

Finally, something that can erase the nightmarish memory of Ratner's "X-3." With "Wolverine" already in the works with Hugh Jackman as the steel-clawed mutant, now comes the inevitable word that "Magneto" will soon follow.

First, the obvious bad news: Since this is the story of how Magneto became Magneto, Sir Ian McKellen will probably only make a brief appearance, if at all. That means some young dude to be named later will land a great role.

The movie will be directed by David Goyer, who along with writing all three "Blade" movies also wrote the script for a little movie some of you may have heard of called "Batman Begins." He also, apparently, has a movie called "The Invisible" coming out in this weekend's pre-"Spider-Man 3" dumping ground. I can solemnly swear to you I won't be going to see it.

The story of Magneto, however, is just cool. Magneto comes to grips with his mutant ability to manipulate metal objects as he and his parents try to survive in Auschwitz. He meets Professor Xavier when the good prof. is a soldier liberating the concentration camp.

Magneto hones his powers by hunting down and killing Nazi war criminals who tortured him, and his lust for vengeance turns Xavier and Magneto into enemies. It's hard for me to see how Goyer could screw up a story this good, but it's certainly been done before.

And, for my money, the world needs more movies about villians. As commenter Jonathan mentioned the other day, a sequel to "Unbreakable" featuring Sam Jackson's Mr. Glass is what the world really needs, but if "Magneto" is all we can get for now, I'll take it.

Ivana Baquero sets English debut

The promising young star of "Pan's Labyrinth," Ivana Baquero, will soon start work on her first English-language film.

Baquero will star in the title role of Gold Circle Films' "The New Daughter." Written by John Travis and based on a short story by horror-thriller writer John Connolly, the story follows a single dad who has moved his two children to a remote farm where a strange mound in the surrounding fields appears to be the key to his daughter's increasingly ominous behavior.

Sounds like it could be more of the generic "horror" that now pollutes our multiplexes or a throwback to the old Stephen King flicks. Here's hoping it moves toward the latter, and young Ms. Baquero gets a winner.

Quentin Tarantino taking on slavery?

According to the great Filmick blog, QT had this to say to London's Telegraph about a 'Southern':

I want to explore something that really hasn't been done. I want to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really deal with because they don't feel they have the right to. But I can deal with it all right, and I'm the guy to do it. So maybe that's the next mountain waiting for me.

Modest much, Quentin? Ego aside, this could be really good or horrendously awful, but if he actually did it I'm sure it at least wouldn't be boring. Somehow, though, I get the feeling this was just him talking out of his posterior in his constant quest for attention. Stay tuned to this one.

Two fun pictures

Here, courtesy of, respectively, Cinempire.com and Iwatchstuff, are two great pictures to get your Friday started with a smile. The first is of Javier Bardem in a scene from the Coen Bros. movie "No Country for Old Men," which will be in competition at this year's Cannes fest.

The second is apparently a picture of Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in a scene from Todd Haynes' upcoming "I'm Not There." If you tell me you could tell that by looking at the pic, I'm not sure I can believe you, because I thought it had to be a still from "Don't Look Back." This flick is just gonna be wild.



The origins of Hot Fuzz?

According to Filmick, this clip from British TV starring Bill Bailey and Simon Pegg was directed by Edgar Wright. Though the video is of understandably horrendous quality, you can definitely see the origins of Nicholas Angel in Pegg's hilarious pursuit of a missing piece of luggage. Enjoy!

15 comments:

NickDean said...

I could probably go back through your blog to find the answer, but what made "X-3" nightmarish for you?

kookie said...

According to IMDB they don't yet have a lead for 'Magneto', but I hope they can find someone even just half as awesome as Ian McKellen...and that is a tall order.

Reel Fanatic said...

There were a lot of things that I just didn't like about "X-3," nickdean, but my main beef was that they tried to cram in way too many storylines, and not following through on them .. I was particularly annoyed with how the flick treated the Dark Phoenix storyline, since it's so important to the comics ... Perhaps "nightmarish" was a bit too strong a word, but for these and other reasons it was one of my least favorite movies of 2006

Anonymous said...

Wicked pictures!

Lori said...

Hey Keith - well, I'm glad to hear that Goyer will be helming the Magneto flick. I have a lot more faith in him to do the story justice...just please, no more Ratner.

As for the recast, to be honest, I'd actually rather see that than the alternative that I'd heard about...that they would do the flick with McKellen, and do the CG-age-down thing that they did in the beginning of X3. That just looked creepy to me...made Stewart and McKellen look like moving wax museum statues. Or at the very least, a really bad makeup job.

Ben Varkentine said...

Oh, my God. The most frightening seven words in the English language:

"Quentin wants to make an issue film."

Reel Fanatic said...

You're probably right there, Ben ... Even worse, an "issue" film mixed with a spaghetti Western, which is what he seems to be threatening here ... but, like I said, I think he's just talking to hear himself talk here

And you're probably right about the recast, Lori .. I wouldn't even have any doubts if Sir Ian weren't such a tremendous actor

NickDean said...

Ah, cool. Just wondering. And I can know what you mean about the Phoenix storyline and too many plotlines. I thought it was the inferior one of the three, but I dug it. My main beef was the randomness of it all. Like, boom, Cyclops is dead. And we're going to kill Prof. X. too!

Divinity said...

I need someone to do a proper Rogue origin movie. None of this teenage angst crap. Rogue, Mystique, some Marvel Girl and a little Gambit! The world could do with a male superhero who wears pink and fights with playing cards.

Eaglewing said...

Yes, X3 was too much going nowhere. Pick a storyline, and tell it fully. And that whole opening with the CGI de-aging was just creepy as hell to me, so I hope they don't do much of that in a Magneto movie. Recast.

Not sold on Goyer as director, but he has done some good writing, so its wait and see for me. I'm just waiting for them to announce a Wolverine director. I hope they get it right.

As for QT doing a spaghetti Western on slavery, I wouldn't believe anything that comes out of his mouth until somebody is bank rolling it and he's filming with actual actors. Still though, its a scary thought.

And Divinity - I agree with you. I liked the first movie with what they did with Rogue, but then to do next to nothing with her in X2 and a completely out of character and non comic canon decision in X3 was criminal. They should of had her growing more confident and kicking butt with her powers as it progressed, not whatever the hell that was in X3.

Reel Fanatic said...

Not sold on Gambit, Divinity, but the treatment of both Rogue and Mystique in X3 was atrocious .. A movie focusing on the two of them would be pretty damn cool

James Higham said...

The story of Magneto, however, is just cool. Magneto comes to grips with his mutant ability to manipulate metal objects as he and his parents try to survive in Auschwitz.

Pardon?

You must be looking forward to the summer season.

James Higham said...

By the way, Keith, hope you don't mind but I stole your banner just now as you're leading the Blogfocus on Tuesday evening.

Reel Fanatic said...

Not at all, James ... The banner was not my creation, but was made by one of my co-workers ... I would never actually don a rainbow wig unless under extreme duress

Ashok said...

Hey, "Hot Fuzz" got released only last friday and was busy in "EbertFest". Watched it and posted review. Let me know.