Things are not off to a good start for the Thor sequel.
According to Deadline, Patty Jenkins was set to direct the sequel to the original after Kenneth Branagh decided to pass on it. Now, with a November 15, 2013 release date hanging in the air, Ms. Jenkins has left the production over reported “creative differences.” (Hollywood-speak for she wasn’t getting along with someone.) Reportedly she may move on to another Marvel movie, but it will more than likely will be the first in a series as opposed to a sequel. About the only thing certain at this point is that Chris Hemsworth will be back in Thor 2 in the title role.
This is one of the issues with the new Hollywood model of picking a release date and then working backwards from that goal. If the slightest thing goes wrong, you then have to scramble to try to fix things as you don’t want to lose your locked date. It’s like a 21st century version of a land rush as everyone wants to stake their claim to a weekend and hope that no one else picks it in an attempt to usurp them. Although, in this case, I’d say move it. November is not a month known for comic book film adaptations and November 15 of any year just seems an odd time to release a film like this. Of course, Marvel has already laid claim to two dates in the summer of 2014 already that they haven’t even announced what the films will be yet.
Having finally watched Thor on a recent cross-country flight for business, I have to say it was a far better film than I expected, and probably the best Marvel film since the first Iron Man. (I just watched Captain America on the flight back from England and wasn’t quite as happy with it although I didn’t hate it.) I’m not even a big fan of the comic series and I enjoyed the movie, so I have high hopes for a strong sequel, but this is certainly not the way to get it off of the ground.
It appears that Jack Bauer will once again be taking on terrorists in the near future, but this time it’ll be on the big screen as opposed to being in your family room.
Ever since 24 ended in 2010 there has been talk of a feature film coming along, but when it didn’t immediately happen a lot of people thought the project was dead. According to Deadline, the film is now being fast tracked to match up with Keifer Sutherland‘s schedule that opens up come April. Mark Bomback, who worked on that atrocious Wolverine movie, is currently tweaking the script and is expected to hand it in by the end of the year. Nothing says quality like script tweaking a rushed project.
I would say I was intrigued by how 24 would work as a movie, but we got a taste of that from the TV movie they did, and the answer was, “not well.” Not that the regular show was anything to get that excited to be honest, but a 2-hour movie was just that much worse to be honest. Putting this on the big screen with a bigger budget will lead to it probably looking prettier, but I doubt it’s going to do much to improve the storytelling.
The thing is, no one will probably care. So long as Jack yells “DAMMIT!” a few times and shoots a bunch of terrorists, people will still want to enter the world of CTU.
Apparently nothing can stop the freight train that is the Twilight series.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 took the top spot at the box office for a third weekend in a row with $16.9 million, bringing its domestic total to $247.3 million off of a $110 million dollar budget. Add in its international take and the film has brought in $588.3 million. It looks like splitting the fourth and final book into two movies was the right idea.
Coming in second was The Muppets with a hefty 61.7% drop from their opening weekend. They brought in $11.2 million, but that was somewhat expected with their opening having been a holiday weekend.
Third place went to the Martin Scorsese children’s book adaptation, Hugo. It went into a wider release this weekend which kept its decline down to 32.9% to bring in $7.6 million. This brings its domestic total to $25.1 million with no word yet on what the budget was or how it’s doing internationally. Considering the advertising push I saw for it in England, I’m thinking this may be a film more targeted at the international audience.
Arthur Christmas, may be another film with more of an international play behind it. You couldn’t escape the promotional push on this film over there, and seeing as it’s doing better on the international front, I can see why. It came in fourth this weekend on the domestic front with $7.3 million.
Coming in fifth was Happy Feet Two which may be shaping up to be one of the biggest disappointments of the year. It brought in $6 million this weekend bringing its domestic total to $51.7 million. Seeing as the original did over $41 million its opening weekend, you can see things are not going well here.
The big releases for next weekend are the star-studded New Year’s Eve and the comedy The Sitter. The latter looks especially painful and formulaic.
While I normally don’t do super short posts any more, I’m just too tired to give you a super long post. I’m home, and I have a ton more things to tell you through out the week, so stay tuned for more thoughts.
After my success with finding a Banksy the other day, I decided on my last day in London to go out and find another one that was supposed to be intact. Sadly, it wasn’t in as good as shape.
“Bubble Writer – Tox” as it’s being called is a nod towards street artists Tox who got caught and is now serving four years in prison for his actions. It depicts a young blindfolded boy blowing bubbles to spell out the arrested artist’s tag, and it was quickly put behind perspex when it was discovered. Sadly that wasn’t enough to defend it. (click image for a larger view)
Besides the large tag over “TOX,” there is also black paint now running down the bubble blower. How did that get there? Well, someone made a hole in the protection:
While a lot of folks respect Banksy’s art, it’s still street art, and that means rivals will want to show they’re superior or can one up the others in the area. Despite this one being protected, it joins the ever growing list of defaced works by Banksy, and that’s just sad in my opinion.
As I sit here, my bags are packed and my alarms are set to get me up for a fun-filled 9 hour flight to get back to the states. I leave with a lot of memories and experiences and one very clear theory: London is not ready for the Olympics.
After spending six days in London I am certainly not an expert on the city, but I will say from what I’ve seen, this city’s public transport system can barely handle it’s day to day residents. Add in the number of people coming in for the games and, well, I pretty much predict doom. Tonight while trying to leave Covent Garden after spending a nice evening with some friends who had just returned to town, we had to opt for other stations as the line to get out was out into the street. Imagine a bustling center of tourists, add the games on top … it isn’t going to be fun.
I’m glad I visited now before this city gets crushed.
In the meantime, I leave you with an image of the statue dedicated to the candy, Jelly Babies … because the world needed this to exist.
Long time readers of this blog will know I’m a bit obsessed with street artist Banksy. For whatever reason it didn’t dawn on me until Wednesday, “Sean, you’re in London … where Banksy does the majority of his work …”
A quick Google search later, I found a list fo all his known works and what condition they are currently in on a handy Google Maps listing. I picked the one that seemed the easiest to get to and headed out first thing Thursday morning. Thanks to the wonders of technology it wasn’t that difficult to find and the results are below. (click the image for a much larger view.)
This particular one appears to have shown up over the summer and the building owner has covered it in perspex to protect it from other taggers. It doesn’t really change the work in any way, and I would much rather have it that way then have it easily lost.
After years of admiring his work, getting to finally see one in person was a treat for me, I took a ton of photos to remember it by. There was also some fun in the hunt of finding it, enough so that I’m going out hunting for another one tomorrow.
While I know a lot of folks qualify this as graffiti, even Banksy himself, but I see this as something totally different than some one who just writes their names on things. Banksy, and those like him, are artists, and they just happen to use walls as their canvas. If you have a problem with it … too bad.
As for me, this was one of the highlights of my entire trip.
Things are not off to a good start for the Thor sequel.
It appears that Jack Bauer will once again be taking on terrorists in the near future, but this time it’ll be on the big screen as opposed to being in your family room.
Apparently nothing can stop the freight train that is the 
