Iron Man 2 Casting Rumour - Mickey Rourke And Sam Rockwell As Villains?

Both Variety and Hollywood Reporter have news on the Iron Man 2 movie. Supposedly both Mickey Rourke And Sam Rockwell have been cast in, as yet unconfirmed roles. We know that they'll both be villains at least and the word is that Rourke may be Crimson Dynamo or Whiplash and Rockwell may be Justin Hammer.

100% confirmation is what we're waiting for but both these casting decisions seem sound to me. Rockwell is usually great in his roles (let's forget Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy) and Rourke is getting his credentials pumped back up again from the reviews of his most recent movie 'The Wrestler' so we're looking at a great sequel... I can't express how excited I am for the Marvel movies coming out in the next few years!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Teaser Poster

Over at Yahoo the first teaser poster for the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie has gone up. There's some online debate over whether the image is of the actual character of 'The Fallen' or whether it's 'Jetfire' but I'm going with the 1st one until it's proven otherwise. I already know that Jetfire is a Decepticon that turns good at the end of the movie to join (literally) with 'Optimus Prime', so the evil this poster exudes it definitely 'The Fallen' to me...

New Toy Trains 'Star Wars' Fans To Use The Force!

Well, it actually uses brain waves but we'd all like to pretend you're honing your Force skills!

The following is an exert from USA Today:

The Force Trainer (expected to be priced at $90 to $100) comes with a headset that uses brain waves to allow players to manipulate a sphere within a clear 10-inch-tall training tower, analogous to Yoda and Luke Skywalker's abilities in the Star Wars films.

No, you're not tapping into some "all-powerful force controlling everything," as Han Solo said in the movies. But you are reaching out with mind power via one of the first mass-market brain-to-computer products. "It's been a fantasy everyone has had, using The Force," says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing.

Mind-control games may be the coming thing: Mattel plans to demonstrate a Mind Flex game (also due this fall), which uses brain-wave activity to move a ball through a tabletop obstacle course, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday.

In the Force Trainer, a wireless headset reads your brain activity, in a simplified version of EEG medical tests, and the circuitry translates it to physical action. If you focus well enough, the training sphere, which looks like a ping-pong ball, will rise in the tower.

A state of deep concentration is needed to achieve a Force-full effect. "When you concentrate, it activates the training remote," says Frank Adler of toymaker Uncle Milton Industries, which is creating the Trainer. "There is a flow of air that will move the (ball). You can actually feel like you are in a zone."

Star Wars sound effects and audio clips emitted from the base unit "cue you in to progress to the next level (from Padawan to Jedi) or when to move the sphere up or down to keep challenging yourself," Adler says.

"Until today, EEG technology has been designed for rigorous medical and clinical applications with little regard to price (and) ease of use," says Greg Hyver of NeuroSky, which developed the brain-wave technology for both games. "We are putting this exciting technology into everyone's living room."

I'm definitely putting this on my X-mas 2009 list!!!
Thanks to my mate Nads for bringing this to my attention.

Smallville Gets Better...

WARNING: SMALLVILLE EPISODE SPOILER BELOW.

Below is a trailer for the next episode of Smallville season 8 which is due to air in the US on the 15th of Jan. Not only do we get Doomsday (he looks pretty good doesn't he?!) but we also have Braniac (in Chloe), The Legion of Superheroes (3 of them at least), Martian Manhunter (looking a bit worse for wear) and the Persuader (future gimp boy!). Season 8 has been one of my favourite so far, I hope it keeps its momentum until the end of the series!

Episode Synopsis for 'Legion':

DC COMICS’ LEGION OF SUPERHEROES ARRIVE IN SMALLVILLE FROM THE FUTURE TO HELP CLARK STOP BRAINIAC AND THE PERSUADER — The aftermath of Doomsday’s (Sam Witwer) attack on Chloe (Allison Mack) and Jimmy’s (Aaron Ashmore) wedding leaves Clark (Tom Welling) in shock, but before he can search for the kidnapped Chloe, The Persuader (guest star Fraser Aithceson) appears and attacks him. Rokk (guest star Ryan Kennedy), Imra (guest star Alexz Johnson) and Garth (guest star Calum Worthy), also known as The Legion, step in from the future to help vanquish the Persuader and the group realizes Brainiac has taken over Chloe once again. Meanwhile, up at the Fortress, Chloe, as Brainiac, informs Davis he is Doomsday and was created to kill “the other Kryptonian” and destroy the world. Glen Winter directed the episode written by Geoff Johns.

Trailer:

BBC Chooses New Dr. Who...

The following is taken straight from the Reuters News website:

The BBC has chosen a relative unknown, Matt Smith, to take over the role of Doctor Who in the long-running science fiction television series.

The actor will be the 11th timelord in 45 years to travel across the universe in the Tardis time-ship and at 26, the youngest.

He will replace David Tennant who leaves at the end of this year and make his debut next year.

The BBC revealed the identity of the new Dr. Who on a special edition of "Doctor Who Confidential" that was broadcast on Saturday.

Smith has appeared on television, in films and on stage. He is best known for a role in the BBC adaptation of Phillip Pullman's "The Ruby In The Smoke."

"I'm just so excited about the journey that is in front of me," Smith said in a statement. "The challenge for me is to do justice to the show's illustrious past, my predecessors and most importantly to those who watch it. I really cannot wait."

Lead writer and executive producer, BAFTA-award winning writer Steven Moffat, who is taking over from Russell T. Davies, said it took a special actor to play the doctor, a role first filled in 1963 by William Hartnell.

Over the years the role has also been played by Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, and Christopher Eccleston.

"You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe," said Moffat.

"As soon as Matt walked through the door and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man."

Article End.

To tell you the truth I'm not a happy camper about this decision but then I was soooooo wrong about David Tennant and even Catherine Tate when I thought they'd be rubbish, so let's hope I'm wrong again and Matt blows us away as the new Doctor.

Upcoming Movie To Look Out For - Outlander

Oh dear lord, what will they come up with next? 'Outlander' is a 2009 movie that stares Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Ron Perlman (Yay!) and John Hurt, among others, in a sci-fi movie that has a strange but intriguing premise. During the reign of the Vikings, Kainan (Caviezel), a man from a far-off world, crash lands on Earth, bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. Though both man and monster are seeking revenge for violence committed against them, Kainan leads the alliance to kill the Moorwen by fusing his advanced technology with the Viking's Iron Age weaponry...

Futuristic sci-fi with Vikings... Has this been done before? I don't believe it has, although there have been movies with similar premises. Can't wait to see what this one's like!

Here's the trailer.

Upcoming Movie To Look Out For - Surrogates

Starring Bruce Willis, Rosamund Pike, Ving Rhames and Radha Mitchell, among many others, 'Surrogates' is a 2009 movie (which I hadn't even heard of until today) about and FBI agent (Willis) who is investigating a murder in a futuristic world where humanity only interacts with the outside world via sensory feedback from robot avatars called Surrogates.

It's set to be a great sci-fi action film, a la I-Robot, and will join other robot themed movies in 09 including the much awaited Transformers 2 and Terminator 4.

Brucie may be coming up to his mid 50's but he's still an action hero people want to see on screen!

Morbius For Spidey 4?

Sam Raimi has been quoted as saying that he'd like Dr. Michael Morbius to be a villain for Spidey in the upcoming Spider-Man 4 movie. "I like it in the Marvel comics when Spider-Man fights Morbius, he's really cool. A vampire! I like the combination of superhero plus supernatural".

The director of the Evil Dead trilogy and upcoming Drag Me To Hell movie is no newcomer to horror and as Morbius is actually a scientifically created vampire (albeit accidental) he would fit right into Spider-Man without it being too much of a stretch for the storyline.

Morbius isn't a confirmed addition to the newest movie but he's the most likely candidate next to The Lizard and possibly The Vulture. Me, I just wanna see Black Cat make an appearance!

New Products @Forbiddenplanet.co.uk

Hot Toys have done some incredible 1/6th scale figures in their time, some of which I proudly own, but I was particularly impressed that they'd picked up the Predator license and will be releasing three original movie figures; Dutch, Billy and the Predator himself. Each figure comes with a huge array of accessories like weapons, clothing and even a cigar for Dutch (Arnold) and the likenesses are incredible, as they always are with Hot Toys figures. Expensive but worth every penny if you're a collector like me!

Predator
RRP £199.99 FPI Price £169.99
Save: 15% off

Billy
RRP £179.99 FPI Price £149.99
Save: 17% off

Dutch
RRP £199.99 FPI Price £169.99
Save: 15% off

Urban Myths Topcow Pilot Season Comic Rocks!

As I've said many times before I love coming across something randomly on the internet. I can't remember how I came across this a couple of days back but I was really happy that I did.

Urban Myths is a fantastic comic book created by writer Jay Faerber and drawn by Jorge Molina which was entered in the 'Pilot Season' contest this year and came in 3rd. Pilot Season 2008 was a contest run by Top Cow Comics, an imprint of Image Comics, in which six different standalone books were created and voted upon by comic book fans. The premise of the contest was that the two books that received the most votes at the end of the process would be given a six issue mini-series. Unfortunately as Urban Myths came in 3rd it didn't get the chance to be printed and that's a travesty as it really does rock.

The Premise of the initial comic:

Imagine a world in which Minotaurs are police officers and a Cyclopes is a street thug – welcome to the world of Urban Myths. The story features a private investigator named Jack Kaklamanis, but everyone calls him Jack Medusa based on the “good looks” he inherited from his mom. Jack wears a metal mask around as to not turn everyone to stone and is investigating a girl who has come up missing. Jack finds out that she has put herself in a coma and gone to Hades to find her father who passed away. Jack must follow her to Hades and deal with all of the downfalls of crossing the River Styx and facing old foes that you yourself had killed.

Visit the bringbackjack.blogspot.com site which gives you all the details of the would-be comic and also acts as an online petition to get the production rolling with Top Cow regardless of the fact that it failed to come in the top two slots for the competition.

If you get a spare few minutes read the whole first issue of the comic online at Newsrama, it really is worth your time!

Here are a few snaps of the comic itself. I want to read this Top Cow, make it so!

Judge Dredd Remake On It's Way?

DNA Films (of Sunshine and 28 Weeks Later) has green lit another Judge Dredd project. Apparently the film will be something of a re-imagining, going all the way back to the 2000 AD comics that Sylvester Stallone's 1995 film was based on as well. The news comes from the official 2000 AD forums, where Jason Kingsley left this message for fans: "We can't give away too many details at this point, but we're looking forward to working with DNA Films to bring Judge Dredd back to the big screen."

I'm a fan of the original Stallone movie so I'm looking forward to this new one. I am d'LAW!

Bruce Boxleitner Returning for Tron 2

Comingsoon.net have learned that Bruce Boxleitner, who played Tron in the original Tron movie, will return for Tr2n (Tron 2). Details on his role were not revealed, except that he is currently shooting and joins fellow original cast member Jeff Bridges along with new girls Olivia Wilde, and Beau Garrett in the "next chapter" of the Tron adventure. Boxleitner is now 58 years old and is better known as President John Sherridan in the sci-fi series Babylon 5 and recently for a small roll in the ever popular Heroes.

New Products @Forbiddenplanet.co.uk

Some great new products have gone up on www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk recently. These are some of the best.

Marvel Mighty Muggs - X-Men
Sabertooth
Phoenix
Logan
Cyclops

£9.99 Each

Star Wars Clone Wars - Captain Rex Monument 1:1 Scale Statue


RRP £1,299.99 FPI Price £979.99
Save: 25% off

G.I. Joe Mighty Muggs Wave 2

Baroness
Destro

£9.99 Each

Transformers Mighty Muggs Wave 2 - Grimlock

£9.99

Star Trek Original Series Classic Captain's Chair 1:1 Replica


RRP £1,999.99 FPI Price £1,499.99
Save: 25% off

Women of the DC Universe - Supergirl Bust


RRP £49.99 FPI Price £39.99
Save: 20% off

Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen New Pics And Info

This months edition of Empire magazine has some juicy information on the new Transformers sequel 'Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen'. 3 of their pics are below along with some other shots that have popped up on the web this week. I can't wait for this movie! Only about 7 months to go...

News:

*Bay and LaBeouf confirm the Fallen is a separate character. The Fallen was described by Bay as "Apocalyptic"
*Egyptian hieroglyphics, turn out to be depictions of Transformers who visited Earth before the pyramids were built.
*Bay claims Megatron is not coming back and the tank is just a new toy.
*Around 40 robots.
*Budget is $200 million.
*Ramon Rodriguez is the one holding on for dear life to a pole while cars are flung.
*Devastator appears at the pyramid, he's probably 50 feet tall because that's the height of the camera crane they used on location.

New Trailer - Crank 2

Jason Statham is one of my favourite action stars at the moment but I have to admit that Crank wasn't one of his best movies. OK so it was supposed to be crazy, kind of like Speed with a human instead of a bus, and the ending was just too ludicrous to be true but the movie studios obviously thought it was worthy of a sequel as Crank 2 is imminent!

Here's the trailer:

New Trailer - Streetfighter: The Legend Of Chun Li

This Japanese trailer for Streetfighter: The Legend Of Chun Li has recently popped up online and has received some mixed reviews from numerous sights and blogs. Personally I think it looks pretty bad and not unlike the numerous game-to-movie adaptations from the last 20 years that have all flopped. I'm not a big fan of Kristin Kreuk but I am a Streetfighter fan so we'll see just how good or bad this movie is very soon.

Happy New Year!!!

It may be a bit late in the day but Happy New Year!

I'll be blogging again by the weekend and will have a good few posts to put up so pop back on Saturday for updates.

Here's to 2009!

Merry Chrsitmas And A Happy New Year!

Only about half an hour to go until it's officially Christmas here so I thought I'd say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! Have a great few days, eat lots, drink lots and be very merry. I hope Santa brings you everything you wished for.

If you don't see a post from me before the 1st of Jan HAPPY 2009!!!

Monsters vs Aliens - New Trailer

A new trailer for Monsters vs Aliens, I'm liking this movie more and more!

A Couple Of Silly Videos...

It's an hour away from Christmas and I thought I'd bring some silly cheer by posting two funny videos I came across this week. The first is a kind of 'what if there was a live action Thundercats movie with some pretty famous faces' and the second is an enjoyable vid featuring Link from the Zelda games singing to Queen's 'We are the champions'. They made me smile anyway.

Thundercats

Singing Link

LoZ: We are the Champions - watch more gamer videos

New Trailer - Night At The Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Here's the current trailer for Night At The Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. I know there's a lot of people out there that couldn't give a crap about this movie but like I said before it's good family entertainment and although this sequel looks like a re-hash of the first, in a bigger museum and with a few more characters, it's still going to have a certain charm that my kids, missus and I enjoy.

Iron Man II - Casting Rumour

I should have posted this 5 days ago but I've been way too busy with X-mas and all!

Anyway ew.com seems to have some spies that have learned that: "John Cho has been cast as the Mandarin in Jon Favreau's follow-up to the gold-plated blockbuster. Cho, having appeared as both Harold and Sulu, will make the Asian geek trifecta with this role as the power-ring-wearing, power-mad villain. Other horribly placed sources tell us that Tommy Chong is being eyed to play the Mandarin's father, who claims to be the real genius responsible for the weaponeering success of Howard Stark, Tony's beloved dad".

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Cho fan, I've liked him since his American Pie "MILF" chanting scenes and the first Harold and Kumar movie rocked but playing the Mandarin? I get that Marvel are booting these movies from scratch and every character will be younger and less well travelled than we know them from the comics, but to tell you the truth I'd much prefer to see someone older like James Hong as the Mandarin than the far younger Cho... Oh well, let's hope that rumour fades out quickly!

James Hong - A better choice for the Mandarin? Yeah he's getting old, but he's awesome and who could forget David Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China?!

Casting Rumour For Captain America? My choices included.

The web is currently ablaze with angry fans over an American radio show interview with American Gladiator Titan a.k.a Mike O'Hearn and his claims that he has not only had auditions for the role of Conan in the upcoming remake but also for Captain America... It's not unbelievable that they'd be looking for someone of O'Hearn's stature for Conan, although he's more He-Man looking than Conan to me, but to think Marvel Studios would even entertain the thought that he'd suit the role of Cap is beyond my understanding and really verges on being a big steaming pile of BS. Nothing against the guy, it's just that he's not a veteran actor like the other recent Marvel movie choices and he's way too big for Cap. We'll see how that rumour turns out. In the meantime I thought I'd post up some of my personal choices for the role of the First Avenger that my colleagues and I were discussing at work the other day. None of them are 100% perfect but they're good choices for one reason or another. First though you have to consider these casting rules that I think are worth noting:

1) He is not far off in age to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) so having an actor who is too young isn’t feasible.
2) He is tall, well built, blonde hair and blue eyes. Having someone who isn’t naturally this way will ruin the film.
3) He is a World War II hardened veteran and needs to be a natural leader of men who soldiers will follow into battle and we can believe completely on screen.
4) Captain America is not just a character/ hero he’s an American icon, he needs to exude natural charisma and strength and needs to fit his costume perfectly.
5) He needs to be a serious role with no jokes. This guy is a soldier through and through and has seen his friends and comrades die around him in horrific ways and has fought in the worst possible conditions imaginable. Iron Man could afford humour, Cap can’t.
6) You'll need to believe Cap could take on the Hulk by himself with no fear and the very good possibility of winning the fight with only his bare hands/ shield.

OK here goes... In no particular order.

Viggo Mortenson: He has the age, the hardened looks and the screen presence for a more refined Cap, a leader of men as in LOTR.

Ryan Reynolds: Almost perfect for any superhero role (and about to star as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine) Reynolds would be great and has the physicality for the role but would Marvel cast him again? Unlikely. I'd rather see him as DC's The Flash!

Matthew McConaughey: My number one choice apart from his natural Texan accent. He’d need to lose his cockyness and bravado a little too. Sahara sold me on his action hero status.

Eric Bana: I’m not a big fan of his but he has the stature and the looks, just needs to improve his acting skills slightly and forget all about the first Hulk!

Channing Tatum: Almost perfect but too young (about to star as Duke in G.I. Joe).

Adam Baldwin: He has a huge sci-fi fan following and has the age, build and military aura that could suit Cap well.

Chris Evans: Too young but a good replacement for Ryan Reynolds as he has the body and the physical presence. Problem being that he's also Marvel's Human Torch from Fantastic Four.

Aaron Eckhart: I'm trying to think of a reason Aaron isn't perfect for the role of Cap and I can't think of one. OK so he's been Two-Face in Dark Knight, but he's a great actor and definitely looks the part...

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry Dies Aged 76

The very sad news came to me this morning that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, widow of Gene and known to fans as Nurse Chapel, the original Number One, Lwaxana Troi, and of course the voice of just about every Federation computer in every show and movie, has passed away at age 76. She had been fighting leukemia for some years, evidently, and unfortunately died of complications from the disease early yesterday morning in California.

Majel will be fondly remembered by Star Trek fans forever for her work, which will—fittingly, one might say—end with the upcoming reboot of the franchise, in which she one last time performed the voice of the Enterprise computer. She had reportedly just completed her voiceover work on the movie when she passed away.

It's a huge blow to the sci-fi world, R.I.P Majel...

Visit Roddenberry.com for more info.