Ready or not, Ghost Rider is on the way. Personally, I'm still looking forward to the flick, despite my generally negative attitude and very low expectations. It'll probably be another Elektra, but who knows ... maybe we'll get lucky. And if nothing else, once it is in cinemas I'll be able to stop writing about the sucker. Unless, of course, they start thinking sequels. Nah. Until then, however, I am obligated as your geek beat writer to bring you the latest in Ghost Rider news.
First, the official blog has been updated with a brand new poster. Yes, it is loading in a media player and not an image viewer. That's because it is a lenticular poster. For those of you who've never needed to know the word "lenticular" before now, it means the poster has changing artwork. Weee! It starts with Johnny Blaze's (Nic Cage) face, and turns into the flaming skull. It actually is sorta cool, in a geeky way.
Second, Sony has finally got around to launching a full, official website. It has everything you'd expect from a movie website: character bios, movie trailers, a synopsis, downloadable computer media and little online games. Seriously, I want to meet the guy (or girl) who has Nic Cage as Ghost Rider buddy icon. If you're really that into the Rider, wouldn't you probably want a classic comic book image of him?
There are probably a good deal of you out there who read this headline and thought to yourself "Who the heck is Pepper Potts?" I'm sure most of the readers who regularly check Cinematical for geek news are familiar with the girl, but for those of you who check it for the other 95% of our content, we'll give you a quick filler. Pepper Potts showed up as Tony Stark's (that's Iron Man) secretary back in the 60s, and had a mad crush on the man for years before eventually marrying* a guy named Happy Hogan, who was both an employee and friend of Stark/Iron Man.
So really, the short answer to the question of "Who is Pepper Potts?" as she relates to cinema is probably "The love interest and main female lead for Jon Favreau'sIron Man flick." This means the part is likely a hot commodity, because superhero flicks are all the rage, and everyone wants in on them these days. Iron Man may not be Spider-Man, but the title certainly carries a fair amount of prestige and has a shot at being quite a successful flick. As the title of this post obviously indicates, Rachel McAdams is rumored to be the lead horse (probably a poorly chosen metaphor) in the race right now. Does she want the part? Who knows. But the part seems to want her, as Latino Review reports she has been offered an exclusive read-through on the script for her immediate attention. Opinions?
*And there's a whole story in their relationship as well.
The folks over at Narnia Fans have a great little interview with Doug Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis. Gresham, for obvious reasons, is rather involved with the making of the Narnia movies, and had a bit to share about the progress of Price Caspian, the second movie in the franchise. According to Gresham, the film is in the late stages of "pre-production," and is inching ever-closer to starting the filming process, which they hope to do in February. Sets are being designed as we speak, and the team is narrowing down the list of possible location choices. As for casting, Gresham says it is in a very "advanced stage," and although Caspian (and others) have not been cast yet, the decisions could happen any time now.
Further, Gresham promises the movie will again be very faithful to the original source material, and discusses the possibility for a few more movies and what order said movies would be filmed in. Essentially, the natural order dictates the filming order. That is to say, they've already started with these kids, so they'll go ahead and film the books which include these kids (excluding Last Battle, presumably). So we're looking at a Dawn Treader film, and likely Silver Chair after that, to follow the Eustace thread. So really, we're getting books 1-4 in the original order, for those of you following along at home. If you own any recent set of Narnia books you may be confused, but that's because the books were rearranged into chronological order eventually. Lewis may have been quite fine with this, but I personally am very glad the movies are being shot in original order, and feel the choice says something about the value of reading the books in that order. If Magician's Nephew was really the best story to introduce the Narnia world with, don't you think the filmmakers would have gone there to start? Yeah, me too.
There's quite a bit more worthwhile and enjoyable information in the interview which we didn't touch on in this post. Go ahead and have a read.
It isn't all that often we hear news about putting music to movies. Usually, there is some form of announcement "composer so and so has been signed for this film," and if it happens to be a big name we all nod appropriately. Then we hear nothing about it again until the movie premieres; after all, our time is all taken up discussing the actors and directors and such. This makes a lot of sense, because we can see the daily progress in many films, but most composers don't bother to share daily updates with the world on the musical end of things. Today is a special day by these standards, because we've got two bits of superhero movie soundtrack related news in one post. Feel the excitement ripple!
First, Marvel's biggest cinematic swinger, Spider-Man. The official blog insists Danny Elfman is indeed working on the score for the film alongside Chris Young, despite people telling us Elfman was a goner. If he's a goner, he's the most productive goner in some time. Meanwhile, DC's biggest slugger (argue about Superman if you want) is apparently in the rock business these days. According to BOF, readers are telling them the rock band Saliva is in the business of pitching songs for the new film. Check out BOF's coverage of the rumors for more detail.
Geek news I found while plotting a weekend of Muppet Christmas goodness:
For those of you who enjoy the "Superman is Jesus" discussion, Bryan Singer goes deep into the symbolism of his Superman Returns flick in a long and in-depth interview over at Superhero Hype. Definitely worth the read.
IESB interviews Nic Cage. Only another month or two before his Ghost Rider flick finally sees the cinematic debut it was supposed to get much earlier. Cage isn't worried.
TFW2005 has an interesting look at the Ratchet model from Michael Bay'sTransformers flick. It looks much like the general theme established by the other images we've seen so far. If you like Bay's stuff on the other bots, you'll like this. If not, it'll give you something else to complain about.
Guillermo Del Toro is still not exactly sure what he's going to be doing with Deadman, although he's certainly going to be involved with the DC comic adaptation on some level or another. Right now, he seems lined up to direct the film, which is really a far better scenario than executive producer or something, but not quite as good a scenario as writer/director. Yeah, I'm a Del Toro fanboy. In my opinion, give the man some money, give him a lot of control, and he'll give you a fantastic movie. It looks as though Del Toro will be doing some script work on the film, however. Recent news from Variety tells us Warner Bros. has brought on a relative newcomer named Gary Dauberman to aid Del Toro in scriptwriting -- not sure if this means he's going to write a script for Del Toro to review, or if he's going to punch up a script written by Del Toro, or if the two are going to become buddies and work elbow to elbow at the writing table.
Will Dauberman be a good addition to the creative team? Who knows. But keep this in mind -- the man earned his spot on the team with a "western zombies" script he put together, not with some cheesy romance or comedy flick. Granted, we have no way of knowing if the script was any good, but at least it is in the right ball park. And I can't imagine Del Toro would have accepted a writing partner if he weren't impressed, right?
Geek news I found while packing spices for a weekend cooking trip:
Oh baby, is there a lot of news about The Punisher's extended DVD at Newsarama. Read it all here, but be warned, if you're a Marvel fan it is going to make you want to shell out some extra bucks for the DVD. I, personally, am very excited to have a look at it.
For those among us who like reading novelizations for their favorite movies, you can pre-order your copy of Spider-Man 3, the movie novelization, at Amazon. The only movie novels I tend to read are the Star Wars ones, but I'm sure the Spidey books are fun, too.
Neat looking storyboards from a deleted X3 scene. Really, they look like a lot of the rest of the movie -- cars flying through the air, people with shocked expressions on their faces, and things breaking into pieces. If I had to title the flick, I would have given it the same subtitle my friends and I bestowed on the X-Men: Legends video games ... X-Men 3: X-Men Break Your Stuff.
Hey, Ghost Rider minimates are coming. These toys promise to "deliver all the action-packed excitement of the film with every 2 inch figure." I know that's supposed to suggest the figures will be packed with action, but I can't help but interpret it to say "there's so little action in this film, we could fit it in two inches."
Although it may not be quite as famous as the Batmobile, the Fantasticar is truly one of the greatest and most well-known rides in comic book-dom, particularly among Marvel geeks. Granted, it has at times looked like a flying bathtub, but it is still one fantastic machine. If you read the Fantastic Four or even just Marvel comics in general, you probably adore the Fantasticar, right? And you were probably more than a bit excited (and nervous) when Tim Story announced he'd be incorporating it into The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Well, True Believers, the moment is upon us, and Tim Story has shared the first official look at the Fantasticar. It doesn't look like a flying bathtub, which is probably for the best. But it does have a very classic, soft look about it -- intentionally so, apparently. Story was quite adamant about keeping the vehicle less aggressive looking than many of the early designs he was presented with. I've got to say, I'm actually impressed with it. Details say it'll fly around 500 mph at 30,000 feet and will feature smaller breakaway vehicles, so somebody is doing a decent job of keeping it comic book accurate. Swing by USA Today and let me know what you think of the picture -- amusingly, Ben Grimm is the only one not shown.
Poor Garth Ennis has been teased, courted and kicked to the curb for years as various directors, actors and studios have expressed interest in his Preacher comic book line from the mid-late nineties, only to ultimately decide they don't actually want it. I've only been writing for Cinematical for a year now and I've already seen it come up at least twice in my tenure alone. For awhile there it looked like a film may have actually been on track (with View Askew set to produce it at one point or another), but back in May a crazy rumor popped up suggesting the project was again dead in the water, and since then we've heard very little from the Preacher camp.
The rumor suggested that while cinema had defeated Garth Ennis yet again, the man was not yet done fighting. Someone at HBO had expressed interest in the project -- but so many people have "expressed interest" in Preacher it hardly seems worth noting anymore. Well today, official news is out, and HBO does want the project. They're putting together a one hour series based on the comics with (*chuckle*) Mark Steven Johnson of Ghost Rider and Daredevil attached to write at least the pilot. So fans, you got denied a movie yet again, but you're staring down the possibility of many, many hours of Preacher in a format which would seem to be a very good fit.
It is no secret for regular readers that I wasn't particularly impressed with Ang Lee's version of The Hulk. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate the flick -- far from it, actually. I found it to be a decent effort with truly inspired moments; I just thought it was lackluster overall. The character of The Hulk has a lot of movie potential, and you've got to credit Ang Lee for trying to go beyond the basic "Hulk Smash!" mentality, but there's only so much character study we want to see on The Hulk before we get antsy for him to start breaking things in cheesy action-movie fashion. Why did we invent action movies if not to showcase characters like Hulk?
Apparently, current Marvel favorite Zak Penn was at one point asked to write up a script treatment for the film which was eventually handed to Lee. Penn's initial draft was rejected in favor of a more introspective piece, but when Marvel realized fans seemed to want more action, they went knocking on Penn's door again. Penn, who has since proved his worth to Marvel by putting together other successful movie scripts, was willing and eager to give it another try. According to Penn, Marvel went back to his original script and said "this is more of the tone we wanted," so he'll be lifting some of his original ideas for his second try.
I'll admit to being initially skeptical of a remake this quickly after an original, but at this point I'm one hundred percent fanboy geeked for a new Hulk film. What are your thoughts on going back to the Zak Penn well?
Geek news I found while pausing from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance:
Want to see Spider-Man 3 before all of your friends? Swing by Charity Folks and be the envy of your entire neighborhood by bidding on two tickets to the world premiere of the third Spidey flick. You'll also get your photo taken with Tobey Mcguire, which you can hang on your wall to make all your friends swoon. That's worth a few thousand dollars, right? (via Comic Book Movie)
Curious about what Neil Gamain's doing about his Stardustmovie? Ask him yourself, at Questions@Stardustmovie.com. He'll answer a whopping five questions a month, so you'd better be persistent if you want to get a response. I recommend sending at least 100 emails per day with the exact same question. He'll love it, I promise.
Marvel has a lot to show you in anticipation of the DVD release of The Invincible Iron Man, their direct-to-DVD animated feature. Is it cartoon? Yes. Is it Marvel? Yes. This probably means it'll be fun to watch.
Alien Experience shares a bit of an update onAlien Versus Predator 2. Here's to hoping it is a vast improvement over the first attempt. But honestly, how can it not be? We could film plush dolls of the various characters in silent black and white and put together a better flick.
Before we get started today, I want to mention the passing of Dave Cockrum this past weekend. Dave was a talented, familiar comic book artist who spent some time working with Superboy and The Legion of Superheroes at DC, and did amazing work on Uncanny and Giant Sized for Marvel. The family asks you not to call, but provides the following email address for those of you who wish to offer condolences: magnetorampant@yahoo.com.
It has been, well, years really, since I last picked up and read any of the Star Wars Extended Universe novels. Admittedly, I'm more than a touch behind, as I stopped reading somewhere in NJO and haven't caught up to anything new since my sophomore year of college. However, when standing in the middle of my study surveying my bookcases for something to occupy my lunch break a week or so back, I found myself picking up the first of Michael J. Stackpole's X-Wing series. As always, I enjoyed it tremendously; perhaps more so because it had been a number of years since I'd last visited. Currently, I'm in the middle of Aaron Allston's Wraith Squadron, and am planning to hit a selection of other New Republic era novels to get my space legs going before diving back into the NJO from Vector Prime. Honestly, the past several years of new Star Wars movies had soured me to the point I'd almost forgotten how much I love this universe. (Please note, there is also a lot of abject crap in the Extended Universe, and probably as many books which should be ignored as there are which should be read. I should know, I own most of them.) so all this rekindled geek literature love, combined with my insane desire for a Jedi game on the Wii, has driven my thoughts towards a galaxy far, far away. As George Lucas and company gear up for their TV series set between eps three and four, I find myself wishing I could control the direction of the franchise. What do I want?
We're not going to spend a lot of time rehashing the basic points of this argument, because we've been over it many times before. Essentially, it boils down to one simple argument: Marvel makes a lot of money on their big title movies, and wants to continue doing so, while actors and studios eventually tire of the increasing commitments. While everyone from Hugh Jackman and Sam Raimi to the parking attendant guy at the Fox Studios lot may think they know for certain the future of their franchises, we all know the truth is very basic: if they feel the monetary benefits are great enough, they will roll out more movies. If they don't, then the movies are done.
So what do Marvel, Fox Studios, and Sony Pictures think about the monetary prospects of more films? Well, according to X-Men Film News, the opinion is different depending on who you ask. Marvel, of course, is hot to sell as much superhero as they possibly can. Times are very good for the company, and their properties are as hot as ever. Nobody knows when the hero movie trend will die down again, and Marvel needs to strike while the iron is hot. Sony, it seems, is in complete agreement, and thoroughly expects to make bazillions of dollars on the third installment of the successful Spider-Man film franchise. This naturally leaves them very open to the possibility of more movies, because hey ... who doesn't like making a bazillion dollars? Fox, on the other hand, wasn't so confident in their third installment, hence the "this is the last film ever" talk from the studio. But then the movie raked in some serious cash, and suddenly Fox might want to reconsider.
Even should Fox decide they are done with Professor X and his gifted youngsters, this won't necessarily mean the end of the X-Men on film. A Marvel insider reminds X-Men Film News that Marvel is aggressively pursuing their own business interests these days, and certainly has plans in place for the team if Fox bails. Tipster says to expect a "pleasant surprise," but what else would an employee say?
Geek news I found while vicariously enjoying video games:
Tobey Maguire, loved by all. See him dressed in black on the new cover of Empire Magazine. Is the Venom suit starting to win support among Spider-fans?
The talented Adam Hughes is apparently in some sort of deal to do costume design work for Watchmen. When exactly this is happening, I'm not sure, but it seems like a good bit of news. Credit SHH for the tipster news.
Want your 300 fix? Swing by the New York Times, waste some time registering for an account, and read their write-up on all the gore that'll be showcased in the film. As are most things associated with 300, it is well worth your time.
BOF always has some news. Today, they tell us The Dark Knight is being prepped at the Leavesden Film Studios near London. Warner Brothers, Batman's daddy, loves this location.
Very little surprises me when it comes to the world of cinema. It isn't that I'm a particularly well-connected fellow, or even particularly aware of the industry outside of my little geek bubble; it is simply that I more or less expect everything to be possible when it comes to this industry. When you realize nothing is off-limits and everything is in-play, it is hard to be caught off guard, right? But every now and then something pokes through my defenses and makes me mutter a serious "what the...?" So bemused was I by this information, I immediately shared it with the only geek friend of mine who was online at the moment, simply to take in his reaction, and it was exactly the same as my own. Ready for this?
Warner Bros. is apparently considering a sequel to V For Vendetta. Weird, right? Without any of the principle cast/crew, they're talking direct-to-DVD. Somehow or another, the studio thinks the world wants a sequel to a movie which features the title character's prominent death scene as a major final plot point. Maybe we can follow the adventures of Evey as she heads off to the next stage in life, or perhaps the plot's events inspired a new man to take up the mask! Or maybe we can have a prequel! Everyone loves prequels, right? Seriously, how on earth is Warners going to spin this one to pull out a fresh plot?
Ready or not, Ghost Rider is on the way. Personally, I'm still looking forward to the flick, despite my generally negative attitude and very low expectations. It'll probably be another Elektra, but who knows ... maybe we'll get lucky. And if nothing else, once it is in cinemas I'll be able to stop writing about the sucker. Unless, of course, they start thinking sequels. Nah. Until then, however, I am obligated as your geek beat writer to bring you the latest in Ghost Rider news. 
There are probably a good deal of you out there who read this headline and thought to yourself "Who the heck is Pepper Potts?" I'm sure most of the readers who regularly check Cinematical for geek news are familiar with the girl, but for those of you who check it for the other 95% of our content, we'll give you a quick filler. Pepper Potts showed up as Tony Stark's (that's Iron Man) secretary back in the 60s, and had a mad crush on the man for years before eventually marrying* a guy named Happy Hogan, who was both an employee and friend of Stark/Iron Man. 
The folks over at 
It isn't all that often we hear news about putting music to movies. Usually, there is some form of announcement "composer so and so has been signed for this film," and if it happens to be a big name we all nod appropriately. Then we hear nothing about it again until the movie premieres; after all, our time is all taken up discussing the actors and directors and such. This makes a lot of sense, because we can see the daily progress in many films, but most composers don't bother to share daily updates with the world on the musical end of things. Today is a special day by these standards, because we've got two bits of superhero movie soundtrack related news in one post. Feel the excitement ripple!
Geek news I found while plotting a weekend of Muppet Christmas goodness:
Guillermo Del Toro is still not exactly sure what he's going to be doing with Deadman, although he's certainly going to be involved with the DC comic adaptation on some level or another. Right now, he seems lined up to direct the film, which is really a far better scenario than executive producer or something, but not quite as good a scenario as writer/director. Yeah, I'm a 
Geek news I found while packing spices for a weekend cooking trip:
Although it may not be quite as famous as the Batmobile, the Fantasticar is truly one of the greatest and most well-known rides in comic book-dom, particularly among Marvel geeks. Granted, it has at times looked like a flying bathtub, but it is still one fantastic machine. If you read the Fantastic Four or even just Marvel comics in general, you probably adore the Fantasticar, right? And you were probably more than a bit excited (and nervous) when 
Poor Garth Ennis has been teased, courted and kicked to the curb for years as various directors, actors and studios have expressed interest in his Preacher comic book line from the mid-late nineties, only to ultimately decide they don't actually want it. I've only been writing for Cinematical for a year now and I've already seen it come up at least twice in my tenure alone. For awhile there it looked like a film may have actually been on track (with View Askew set to produce it at one point or another), but back in May a 
It is no secret for regular readers that I wasn't particularly impressed with 
Geek news I found while pausing from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance:
We're not going to spend a lot of time rehashing the basic points of this argument, because we've been over it many times before. Essentially, it boils down to one simple argument: Marvel makes a lot of money on their big title movies, and wants to continue doing so, while actors and studios eventually tire of the increasing commitments. While everyone from 
Geek news I found while vicariously enjoying video games:
Very little surprises me when it comes to the world of cinema. It isn't that I'm a particularly well-connected fellow, or even particularly aware of the industry outside of my little geek bubble; it is simply that I more or less expect everything to be possible when it comes to this industry. When you realize nothing is off-limits and everything is in-play, it is hard to be caught off guard, right? But every now and then something pokes through my defenses and makes me mutter a serious "what the...?" So bemused was I by this information, I immediately shared it with the only geek friend of mine who was online at the moment, simply to take in his reaction, and it was exactly the same as my own. Ready for this?
