Reverend Jax

I suppose you'll be wanting Godzilla to constantly change scale and his roars to obviously just be q man going"Raaaaawr!" too. Actually, I kinda want to see that movie.

Good news! That movie exists. In fact, dozens of that movie exist.

Edgar Wright has said in the past that Ant Man would be multi-generational and more than one person would don the mantle. Perhaps his movie will be about Scott Lang?

Yeah, but he said that years ago and hasn't mentioned that since, right? Ideas are thrown around and, especially when you have as long a preproduction period as Ant-Man has had, you go through many story ideas. I mean, we were told that the first Captain America movie was going to be half WWII-era and half modern-era. Eventually that got changed to basically a modern-era epilogue. When was the last time he said Pym and Lang would don the mantle in the first movie.

And that's all beside the point. The point is Ultron is not just Pym's invention, they are closely associated to one another. If Ultron is going to be in Avengers 2, does that mean Pym is as well. It seems to me like he basically has to be.

Is Godzuki confirmed?

So, is the plan still to have this Avengers: Age of Ultron movie for May 2015, then Ant-Man afterwards for November 2015? Are they going to introduce Hank Pym in Age of Ultron, or potentially even before, maybe in Captain America: Winter Soldier, along with his peaceful Ultron creations, as a set up? They already have two established super-genius characters in Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (though Banner's not really a robotics guy), so are they just going to make Ultron created by someone other than Pym? Maybe They'll have Pym in Age of Ultron, but not have him don the Ant-Man role during the movie, or maybe only at the very end.

Maybe we'll see something (maybe not exactly what was at SDCC, but some edited version of it) in front of The Wolverine.

Some of the crazy spirits and hybrid animals in Book 2.

So Book 2 will premiere in September.

Trailer!

I highly suggest clicking this trailer into 1080p and watching it on a large screen.

Electro seems like he's about to make a bunch of electricity related puns.

Ten bucks says Electro will sneak up on Spider-Man and electrocute him, then say "Shocked to see me, Spider-Man?"

Well, while more Aang stuff would obviously be welcome, it has been reported that this season will answer a lot of the open question about how the first Avatar came to be, and how the Avatar cycle began, and what the significance of the Spirit World is.

Set your eyes on Wan:

He will be played by Stephen Yuen, known better to most as Glenn on AMC's The Walking Dead, and he will play the first ever Avatar.

So they announced that the first episode of Book 2 called Rebel Spirit (the episode titles in ATLA were usually very explicit and straightforward, but in Korra the episode titles have had a lot more double meanings and been much more thematic and mysterious) will be screened at Comic Con Korra panel tomorrow. I thought they were going to announce the release date as being in September, but if they are screening the season premiere, maybe it'll be even soon, like August.

Hopefully they will release it online soon after. Last year, the first two episodes of Book 1 were released online for free a full 3 weeks before their air date, so let's hope. I really don't want a shitty cam of that Comic Con screening to get out without a clean version, because I know I'm not going to be able to help myself.

You folks are probably familiar with Armond. He's the ultimate shit stirrer, but fun to read, IMO.

Oh, you mean Armond hates-everything-everyone-else-loves-and-loves-everything-everyone-else-hates White?

Any time I see a Paul Anderson movie, I always wonder how the movie would have turned out if the other Paul Anderson had directed it. I occasionally think about how a Wes Anderson directed Boogie Nights would have been. Also, I think about how different the movie Shame would have been if it had been directed by the other Steve McQueen.

It'll pay to see Paul Thomas Anderson's Pacific Rim.

Sure, some directors will draw more folks than others, but few of those directors will make a film without some big names on the bill. In fact, a lot of them use the same actors, therefore creating a very obvious brand. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I think if you dump a certain amount of money into a movie, and you need a big return, no matter who you are, you put a recognizable face or two in there.

Avatar is the obvious exception. That movie didn't have any big-marquee star names. It had people that the average non-movie buff off the street might say he/she recognizes from something, but it was not star power drawing people to that movie.

Yeah, well, a director's name will only draw people who actually know anything about movies. People on message boards are not enough business for a movie that cost over $150 million. The average person on the street doesn't know/give a fuck who GDT is, but maybe would have watched this this if it had Matt Damon in it or something.

There are directors who are themselves now a brand, and who average people on the street will go to the theaters for. Del Toro is not in that club of directors. I think that that group is essentially Spielberg, Cameron, Tarantino, Scorsese, Bay, Nolan and Burton. Any of those guys could develop a concept for a new property (not a sequel, remake or adaptation), put no bankable stars in it, and there's a better than even chance it would makes several hundreds of millions of dollars.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the message Hollywood is taking from Pacific Rim under-performing is "don't think star power and big names are irrelevant." The message I got from the hype for PR was "we spent all out money on production, not $20M for each big name movie star!"

It seem people have no problem going to horror movies without any big name movie stars (that formula also seemed to work because the budgets for horror movies tend to be so small that often a $20M opening weekend means the studio already made back all it's money), but other than horror, if you want it to gross hundreds of millions of dollars, it seems to need big name stars, particularly if it's not an established property (sequel, adaptation or remake). I mean, Hollywood is doing far fewer big budget tent pole movies that are not established properties, but when they do, they usually insist on big name movie stars being attached.

I thought this was a lot of fun, and I don't particularly like Gullermo Del Toro. I've wanted to like this guy's movies for the longest time because he's such a smart dude, but Blade 2 and the Hellboys don't really do it for me.

What about Pan's Labyrinth?

Also, word is WB has been considering that white, blond boring-as-toast actor to play Flash in the Justice League. So was the character written boring, or was the actor boring?

Dr. Dardo?

Jax is a dr. like this guy is a dr.

 

 

 

[Clears throat]

Inevitable forthcoming apology preemptively accepted.

And to answer your other question,

Also wondering if Dr. Dardo ordered the blu ray or DVD of the series?

I actually bought both the DVD and the Bluray. The DVD was only $13.96 and the Bluray was only $18.89 when it first appeared on Amazon (it went up to $23.99 since). I wanted the Bluray obviously, but since I evangelize this series and ATLA a lot and lend out the DVD sets when people show interest, I figured I would pick up the DVD too. And it goes without saying that the art and animation of the original series was so beautiful that if they every remastered it in HD and rereleased it on Bluray, I wouldn't give a second thought to immediately repurchasing all three seasons.

Shit...am I going to have to go see Turbo in theaters in order to see that beautiful teaser on a big screen? I mean, I guess I could just wait a few weeks for Dreamworks' next animated movie, seeing as they put out about 17 of them a year nowadays.

I had heard that they had aged up the characters (I think I heard it was 5 years), and I think it was a really good decision. Anyway, can't wait.

Did anyone get bk1 on DVD or br?

I've ordered it on Amazon, but it hasn't shipped yet, despite having been out since Tuesday.

Seconded, Ly. Especially psyched about Aubrey Plaza. Looks like an interesting cast, and a lot of water tribe types. So I guess Capital City will play a much less significant roll in the setting for bk2.

Interestingly enough, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal was interviewing the co-creators last year right after the Book 1 finale, and before the interview he asked people to tweet him questions for him to ask of them. So I tweeted him like 4 questions and he picked one of them and it was on precisely this topic.

[Dr. Dardo] Will book 2 stay confined to Republic City the way book 1 did?

DiMartino: I would say it’s a mix of both. There’s definitely a significant part in Republic City, but there’s also a little more exploration of some other areas which we won’t tell you about just yet.

[They both laugh, like they're in on some secret joke.]

Konietzko: It’s definitely not as confined, but like Mike said, about half and half.

Well, with San Diego Comic Con next week, people are expecting a premiere date for Book 2 to be announced. Co-creator Bryan Konietzko has confirmed on his Tumblr that there will be a trailer. Here are a few other things that have been announced.

Aubrey Plaza, James Remar, Lisa Edelstein join cast for Book 2

Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Rec will be Eska, a cousin of Korra's and daughter to the chief of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. Aaron Himelstein from Joan of Arcadia plays Desna, Eska's twin borther.

Adrian LaTourelle from Sons of Anarchy will play Unalaq, Korra’s uncle and Eska and Desna's father.

Richard Riehle will be Tenzin's brother Bumi. He was in Office Space.

James Remar from Dexter will assume the role of Tonraq, Korra's father. He had one line in the first episode of Book 1, but he will have a larger role in Book 2 and he has been recast.

Lisa Edelstein (Cutty from House) will play Tenzin's sister Kya.

John Michael Higgins from many Christopher Guest mockumentaries as well as Arrested Development will play Varrick, an eccentric industrialist inspired by Howard Hughes.

Also, there is a soundtrack and art book being released for Book 1 of Korra.

http://youtu.be/ClzRVlMhU2E

I always find it kind of awkward when a long cast is listed where every name but one is prefaced by "Academy Award Winner" or "Academy Award Nominee"

That sounds like a terrible stew recipe. Terrible.