Random Round-Up 07

1. Wow - I am really behind. I'd never heard of Mr. PotatoMash, but I guess the site's been around for a while now. I would never have the patience to do something like this but it is fun to look at...

Spudboy

2. Here's a funny clip of Edward Norton promoting The Incredible Hulk (sort of) on Jimmy Kimmel Live:

See, Ed has a sense of humor! People think he's a scarily serious dude - and he usually is - but anyone who would do Death to Smoochy (which, unfortunately, I actually saw) has to have some teensy kernel of humor somewhere in their body.

3. From EW.com: Coldplay Talk Viva la Vida

4. How many posts have I already had on Lifetime ruining Project Runway? I've lost count, but here's whatever-that-number-is+1: PR Will Get a 'Face-lift' on Lifetime

5. Your daily dose o' Bale... yes, I know you're excited. Me, too! :o) (Hey - you'll live. And since neither he nor Ewan has a movie coming out until 2009 you can look forward to a hot men drought coming up in no time.) These are scans of the July issue of Arena (from Singapore - you can thank me for the international postage I'm saving you later), courtesy of christian-bale.org:

Movie Morsels 13 - The Incredible Hulk, Wanted

Neither of these movie blurbs are particularly fascinating but they do revolve around hot men so I can't let them down - I must post! :o)

First, the Hulk. Here's a Moviefone Unscripted segment with Liv, Edward and the director (some French guy).

And here is the new TV spot (in case you have a TiVo/DVR like me and have yet to see it!):

Now, Tony Stark's cameo was supposed to be a secret - a very poorly kept secret amongst those of use in the blogosphere (I knew and I'm not even a comic book 'geek!'), but a secret nonetheless. Obviously, Marvel is sweating the Hulk's box office prospects and decided to dump the cameo in the first 2 seconds of the ad. Will this pique moviegoers' interest and cause more peeps to flood the first Hulk screenings? Well, according to EW.com, the answer is yes. Then again, TunaFlix says not so much.

I tend to side with TunaFlix. People in the know either: (1) were already planning to see it (they're comic book fans - that's why they're in the know!) so Tony Stark doesn't make a difference; or (2) know that it really is a 10 minute cameo and that 10 out of 114 minutes does not an Iron Man make. In other words, they won't be expecting a huge Tony Stark/Hulk storyline and are okay with it. People not in the know, however, run the risk of now thinking that Tony Stark is going to be, like, the Hulk's friend or something and feature prominently in the movie. These are the people that might fall into the commercial's trap, I don't know. Would they spend money on a movie they weren't going to see because all of a sudden they think Tony Stark is in it? I really liked Iron Man but even I wouldn't be persuaded to do that... the first Hulk really was that bad. If people are dumb enough to think that Iron Man is starring in not one but two summer movies this year then, well, I guess they deserve to be duped out of their 10 bucks. I will consider it a deserved donation to Edward's career.

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I really have no intention of seeing Wanted. Yeah, it has James McAvoy, who's a cutie, and Robert loves Morgan Freeman so I'm sure I could talk him into it... but it seems kind of dumb. Sorry James. Still, I may find myself aimless one Saturday night in the future and wander into a showing, who knows? I will consider it a deserved donation to James' career, I guess. :o)

This article is over a year old - it's actually to promote another movie, in fact - but I guess because he mentions Wanted in it, it's suddenly resurfaced. I'd never read it before and James is awfully cute (and funny!) in it, so I thought I'd pass it along... see if I can make any converts out of you.

CS: You're going to have a lot of action in that film I guess.
McAvoy: Yeah, kinda, and they want me to do as much as I can anyway. There's a lot of free running and Parkour and all that kind of stuff. A lot of driving and guns and all that kinda rubbish. But it's quite important for me because the reason I wanted to play this character in "Wanted" was because it still adheres to what I believe in, that heroes shouldn't always be perfect. We shouldn't always have the six-foot-five, chiseled-jawed, good-looking guy. That's why it's so good that Spider-Man is somebody like Tobey Maguire, and that's why I took this role. They wanted someone geeky. I screen-tested for the movie over a year ago and they never gave me the part. Then, it was about seven months later when they went, "Look, we've been trying to find someone who's muscle-y who looks good and all that, but it just didn't work with someone like that so they said, "Could you come and do it?" They basically just said, "You're the runt of the litter and that's what makes it work" so yeah, and that's why I like it. So while I'm doing all this physical work, it's important for me to remain small. I'm sure they want me to get all big, but it's important to remain believably geeky.

Oh, and just in case you haven't heard of the movie (entirely possible, even though it comes out in just 2 weeks), here's the trailer:

UPDATE: Here's a much more current piece with James from Complex.com. It's a Q&A with both James and Common (also in Wanted) - on the first page, James has to answer questions about Common and on the second, Common must answer questions about James. I found it quite amusing and I highly recommend it!

Mmmm, Ed Norton

As I mentioned in my last post, Robert and I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall yesterday - and one of the (many, many, many) previews we saw was for The Incredible Hulk. I had seen a preview online many moons ago and it didn't look too bad; this was the same preview and I still contend that the movie doesn't look bad at all. (Edward definitely doesn't look bad... mmm.) I'm not a huge fan of the Hulk's graphics but then again a dude in green prosthetics would look cheesy, too. And bonus: the movie doesn't look anything like the monstrosity (pardon the pun) that was Hulk. I like Eric Bana and that's why I sat through that movie but yikes - it was awful!! This incarnation looks much, much better and even Robert commented that it didn't "look too bad." :o) Ed isn't too keen on fluffy projects so I have to believe that his Hulk will be an above average comic book movie.

Anyhoo, during the preview, Robert asked me a few questions regarding Ed's involvement ("Did he sign up for TIH on purpose?") and I plunged into the long story of the movie's behind-the-scenes drama. (Oh, and yes, Edward did sign up for the movie on purpose - he wrote part of the script and is an uncredited producer.) The story is (sort of) old news, as it's been going on for a while, but since the movie is coming out in June and Robert still hadn't heard any of this, I thought maybe some of you would be interested, too. If not, well, go away... no one's forcing you to read this!! :o)

Where was I? Oh yes - Ed being difficult. Now, he has long had a reputation of being a somewhat difficult person on set but many attribute that to his extreme dedication to his craft. He's sort of like the teacher you heard about in school that was supposed to be really tough - that may have been true for the slackers but for you? Not so much. My point is, yes, he may be difficult to some people but Edward also has a lot of defenders. A lot of the back story and current project status, plus Ed's only official statement re: the ruckus is available here, at EntertainmentWeekly.com. However, since it's a 3-page article, I'll summarize as best I can.

The basic gist of the reported dispute is this: Rumor has it that Ed's been such a jerk about rewrites and reshoots and the final editing of the film that he's effectively wrested it away from the director and is no longer talking to Marvel. Marvel supposedly pushed for an 'action scene, action scene, action scene, plot' approach to the film while Ed wanted a more thoughtful piece evocative of the show he loved as a kid and never the twain shall meet. As a result, the media has long since reported on the reputed bad blood between star and studio which has resulted in some negative publicity for the film. (As if it needed it - it has enough problems trying to shake off Hulk's lingering stink! Many wondered why Marvel would want to attempt doing a Hulk movie again, since the first once flopped so badly, but Marvel contends that the Hulk is the #2 guy (right behind Spiderman) in the Marvel galaxy and he's too awesome to let die). The director has since come out and said that he likes Ed very much and sided with him on the final cut of the film. The director has also said that he was sort of a mediator between Ed and Marvel during the editing dispute and that, had the 'feud' not become public, things could have been settle long ago. The general consensus is that Ed and Marvel are not speaking at this point because things have been blown up to ridiculous proportions and Ed is keenly aware that he's being painted as the pain in the ass. As such, he's trying to keep his head down and stay out of it. It appears the final cut is more to Marvel's taste but the general consensus is that Ed's ultimately OK with that, acknowledging that their cut is more 'commercial' than his.

Hey, I like Ed and I'll drag Robert to see the movie no matter what version makes it to the screen! :o) I am nothing if not a supportive fangirl.