…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Andy Serkis has been speaking about his contributions to Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he and his company The Imaginarium have been assisting with the performance capture for Ultron and The Hulk: “We did some work on Ultron. On the development of Ultron before James Spader came on board. In terms of movement styles: was he gonna be human-like? was he gonna be robot-like? So we worked with a bunch of different people, from body-popping experts to dancers, to this guy called Neil who’s nearly eight feet tall. [For The Hulk], we gave Mark weights, we had voice projections so he could do his Hulk roar. On screen we could have a virtual representation of the low-res avatar of The Hulk, so he could come out and feel that sense of scale. It’s a journey I end up going on with the actors. To find out what they want to get out of it, and and what we can do to help them so it’s still them authoring the role. Initially when you’re asking them to put a grey suit on, they’re not very into the idea. But it’s usually within the first hour, when they can see the result of them being in that suit [on screen] in real-time, they settle in. And then they’ve lost themselves in our world. James in particular – he loved every minute of it…”
…Frank Grillo has confirmed his return as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones for Captain America: Civil War, where he’ll join a cast that so far officially includes Chris Evans (Captain America), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) and MCU newcomer Daniel Bruhl: “[Captain America: The Winter Soldier] was only a taste of what’s to come with the next film, and I couldn’t be more humbled and excited, They just kind of called and said, ‘What kind of shape are you in? We’re going to need a body scan, They scan your body so that whatever you wear fits you like a glove. He’s a badass, he is just vicious. I like the idea that it’s no holds barred. I was 15 pounds bigger when I did Cap 2, and I’ll put another 15 pounds on to do Cap 3. I love the physicality. It changes the way you look; it changes the way you feel. We all know what Crossbones represents in his world, so when they called me and said we gotta do the body scan, I was like ‘Okay!’ “It’s going to be fun. I hear Iron Man is in Captain America 3—he’s got a big role—and the Black Panther. It sounds like this Civil War is going to be pretty interesting.” Indeed it does…
…Despite stating back in 2012 that he had no interest in returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: The First Avenger star Hugo Weaving sounded a little more open to a return as the Red Skull when asked if he could be back for Captain America: Civil War: ““I have absolutely no idea. I haven’t talked to anyone about it, so yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see. No idea at all…”
…During the press tour for the home entertainment release of Guardians of the Galaxy, director James Gunn has spoken about the character of Nebula (Karen Gillan), implying that we’ll be seeing more of her in 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy 2: “I have so many plans for Nebula, in my personal life, and… I love Nebula. I fell in love with the design of Nebula. I cast the role around that design. I fell in love with Karen as a person, who I love, and I love the character of Nebula…. To me, she’s the Boba Fett of the movie, she’s the one that you really dig, she’s the cool one that we need to get more of, and I hope to god that we get a chance to see a lot, lot more of Nebula. She’s a layered character, she’s not good or bad, she has a lot of things she needs to learn…”
…Gunn also took to Facebook this week to comment on the growing trend of the “shared universe” as studios scramble over themselves to replicate the success of the MCU: “Listen, I love big ass shared universes in movies, as well as huge franchises. But I’m a little worried about the numerous shared universes being planned by the studios, without having a strong base film to grow from – or in some cases, NO base film to grow from. Star Wars had the original Star Wars, the Marvel Universe had the original Iron Man, the Dark Knight series had Batman Begins, even movies like Transformers and Twilight – these were movies audiences loved, and the audiences demanded more from these characters. But these days studios are trying to grow trees without a strong seed. Execs and producers and sometimes even directors are focused on the big picture, without perfecting the task directly in front of them – making a great movie. And studios are trying to grow franchises from non-existent films or middling successes. It’s like they aren’t taking audiences into account at all anymore. I know George Lucas, Kevin Feige, John Favreau, etc, had ideas where their films would potentially lead in the face of success. But I don’t think it ever got in the way of making that first movie count as if it was the last, of making it something wonderful that people would love whether it led to other films or not. In short, I think this new business model is flawed. I think filmmakers and studios should be prepared for the big picture, but never, ever let it get in the way of making a single great film. Be a little more experimental and see what works as opposed to trying to force success. And mostly, remember that we as an industry exist to serve the audiences, to communicate with them – they have a voice in what we create as well. We are not here to dictate what they want to see, mostly because that’s simply not possible…”
…Ahead of its two-hour premiere on January 6th on ABC, Marvel has given us more footage from the upcoming Agent Carter TV show by releasing three new TV spots for the Hayley Atwell-headlined series; check them out here and here…
…As Disney’s Marvel Comics adaptation Big Hero 6 passes $200 million at the global box office, a new featurette has arrived online which sees Marvel legend Stan Lee discussing his cameo in the animated superhero movie; watch it here…
…Could the marketing campaign for 20th Century Fox’s The Fantastic Four finally be about to begin? Well, probably not, but we do now have a first official synopsis for the film, which reads: “The Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.”
…In other news from Fox, despite rumours linking Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) and Idris Elba (Thor: The Dark World) to the part, it has been revealed that Oscar Isaac will follow up his turn in next year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens by taking on the role of En Sabah Nur, a.k.a. Apocalypse, in 2016’s X-Men sequel X-Men: Apocalypse. Isaac is the first new addition to a cast that so far includes returning X-Men: Days of Future Past stars James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Evan Peters (Quicksilver) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine)…
…And finally, this week’s superhero-related op-eds on Flickering Myth include Thomas Roach’s Five Actors Who Could Play The Joker, Anghus Houvouras’ Black Panther (or The Unintended Racism of Ignorance), and Simon Columb’s Across the Shared Marvel Universe.
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
