The Marvel/Sony Superhero Movies Thread

[Skitch]

I really dug the first series of Spartacus (haven't seen the rest yet). Not sure if this is a good or bad selection.

[megladon8]

I always got the impression that the "Spartacus" TV series was a very short step away from being softcore porn.

[Skitch]

I always got the impression that the "Spartacus" TV series was a very short step away from being softcore porn.

It wasn't that short a step. Also, XENA.

[Irish]

I always got the impression that the "Spartacus" TV series was a very short step away from being softcore porn.

There's a lot of T&A and it. There's also a lot of cheesy CGI blood. Parts of it are aimed at the prepubescent 300 fan club. But the stories and the characters are damned good. It was an impressive show, albeit one with bargain basement production values.

I think if you enjoy stuff like Game of Thrones or Vikings, you'll like it.

And as Skitch notes: Xena. Good God in heaven, Xena.

[slqrick]

I always got the impression that the "Spartacus" TV series was a very short step away from being softcore porn.

Nothing worse than what you get on Game of Thrones. In fact, I think it actually had a more equal balance of male/female nudity, for whatever that's worth. Like Irish said, the show's characters and story had a lot more depth than you'd think based on the pilot, which I hated. Anyway, it was a fun show, and the showrunners seemed to have a good grasp on creating an interesting story. Still would have liked to see what Goddard would have done.

[number8]

The shortlist for Edgar Wright's replacement is down to three names: Ruben Fleischer, Rawson Thurber, and Adam McKay. I do not like any of those choices.

[Dukefrukem]

Adam McKay??

[Lazlo]

Clearly Kevin Feige is the director of these movies. Step out of his box and they will either put you back in the box or show you the door.

[Watashi]

Talladega Nights > Any Edgar Wright film

[Skitch]

Talladega Nights > Any Edgar Wright film

No.

[Neclord]

David Wain or nobody.

[Sycophant]

I like Adam McKay but I was only interested in this movie as Edgar Wright's passion project and it's hard for me to imagine any new choice could really get me interested again.

[Wryan]

Apparently, Thanos has been cast finally: Josh Brolin.

I like it.

[Dukefrukem]

JOSH BROLIN IS THANOS!!

[Scar]

Talladega Nights > Any Edgar Wright film

[number8]

Woah. Didn't expect a big name like Brolin to be recruited 2 months before release. Considering the hype they've already got, they're not even counting on Brolin's name to help sell the movie. They're just casting him to cast him.

[Ezee E]

How did Rawson Thurber live throughout most of the 2000s? Surely, Dodgeball didn't pay him THAT well to get by on two shorts and a DTV movie.

[Henry Gale]

How did Rawson Thurber live throughout most of the 2000s? Surely, Dodgeball didn't pay him THAT well to get by on two shorts and a DTV movie.

I mean, if he had any significant gross-points/residual deal for Dodgeball (a $20 million movie that made $170 million in theatres, did very well on DVD and still airs on TV all the time a decade later) then he could've made more money from that than we might initially assume, but I feel like he's the type of guy who's probably has a bunch of quiet development deal with studios over the years that built up a good enough relationships with them despite no directorial projects for him emerging from them, and he likely just directs commercials and other things in the meantime. I mean, even directors like Fincher, Aronofsky, Jonathan Glazer, Joe Wright, David Gordon Green, Peter Berg and Jon Favreau direct commercials all the time. I can only imagine someone like Thurber would take similar work if he could get it.

Looks like he's now the frontrunner for this, by the way. [EDIT: Ok, maybe it's McKay]

[Henry Gale]

Woah. Didn't expect a big name like Brolin to be recruited 2 months before release. Considering the hype they've already got, they're not even counting on Brolin's name to help sell the movie. They're just casting him to cast him.

Yeah, I almost feel like it could've been an even cooler thing to keep under wraps, give no credit to him and then reveal once everyone had seen it.

Certainly an interesting choice though. I wonder how much of the decision was split between Gunn, Marvel and Whedon (if he is expected to do Avengers 3).

[Dead & Messed Up]

I mean, if he had any significant gross-points/residual deal for Dodgeball (a $20 million movie that made $170 million in theatres, did very well on DVD and still airs on TV all the time a decade later) then he could've made more money from that than we might initially assume, but I feel like he's the type of guy who's probably has a bunch of quiet development deal with studios over the years that built up a good enough relationships with them despite no directorial projects for him emerging from them, and he likely just directs commercials and other things in the meantime. I mean, even directors like Fincher, Aronofsky, Jonathan Glazer, Joe Wright, David Gordon Green, Peter Berg and Jon Favreau direct commercials all the time. I can only imagine someone like Thurber would take similar work if he could get it.

Truth. I'd also not be surprised if he did some uncredit script work and sat in on punch-up sessions with other writers.

It is weird, though, that he hasn't tried to top the scatterbrained idiotic charm of Dodgeball, a film I make no apologies for enjoying. That first wrench joke is a sight gag for the ages.

[Henry Gale]

Truth. I'd also not be surprised if he did some uncredit script work and sat in on punch-up sessions with other writers.

It is weird, though, that he hasn't tried to top the scatterbrained idiotic charm of Dodgeball, a film I make no apologies for enjoying. That first wrench joke is a sight gag for the ages.

Oh, when I was 13/14, I'm pretty sure I thought it was the funniest movie I'd ever seen in a theatre. And maybe it really, somehow, chronologically was at that point. I mean, I'm pretty sure I even saw it twice in its opening week. And then many, many times at home...

Re-watching it a year or two ago, it's absolutely no longer that, but it still holds up better than it should, particularly because of what you allude to with just how well it does its physical comedy. The stuff that stays the freshest though, the stuff I almost forgot about, is just how many less show-off-y and perfectly absurd moments casually tossed in that keep it so varied and delightfully chugging along, even if the borderline-dramatic turn the story takes with the championship near the end is so weird considering the looniness of just about everything else in it. Not to mention that Lance Armstrong cameo / third-act inspirational pep talk now has a lot of layers it didn't back then.

Either way, a movie where the surface-level running gag is simply finding various ways of characters being hit in the crotch with dodgeballs (I mean, the marketing revelled in every possible "balls" pun as if they were getting away with murder) shouldn't be as enjoyable as it is. But there's the undeniable energy and zippy feel of it, the pretty great pace of its jokes, and most of all the cast, with Stiller, Tudyk, Jason Bateman and Rip Torn all doing the sort of work I wish they did more often.

I waited for Thurber to follow it up for years, but twasn't meant to be.

I then never saw We're The Millers, and I'm not sure I should.

[number8]

McKay got the job.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, I guess IMDB doesn't post commercial work done. That'd make sense.

McKay's the best out of the three. Glad he got it.

[Henry Gale]

I love McKay, but I feel like I would be more excited about this if he was coming off of any of his movies other than Anchorman 2.

It is a bit odd to think that this project, having such creative issues and a production in flux, will probably have a more direct script-to-screen translation than what most of his movies do, but I feel that ability to improvise on the fly might have been a major factor in his hiring too. Plus he's worked with that Rudd guy a few times (and Pena, in different capacities with Ferrell).

Still, I don't think there are any directors I could've been as content with as Wright, especially since he's been the big catalyst behind the movie even existing for so long. But this is now the movie, and it will be Adam McKay doing something without Ferrell for the very first time, and kinda getting a step closer to doing something simultaneously more action-oriented and winkingly straight-laced like his project of Garth Ennis' The Boys that's still yet to come to fruition (which he wanted Simon Pegg for... Hmm... these comedy universes keep bumping into each other). He's wanted to do something starkly unlike his previous work for a while, so I don't think anyone should expect him to suddenly make this more consciously comedic in a way that's specifically in his established style just because it's what he's known how to do.

Bottom line, I can't say I'm not curious now. I can never say no to a new McKay movie, but it definitely still sucks that we had to lose a new Edgar Wright one in the process.

[Watashi]

And now McKay no longer has the job.

Like Wright, he also pulled out.

This is doomed. Just pull the plug. There is no demand for an Ant-Man movie.