Even the Hulk couldn't miss Iron Man's silver screen debut!If you're heading out to your local cineplex this weekend to see Iron Man's big screen debut, you better keep a close eye on your popcorn to make sure a certain Jade Giant doesn't get his hands on it...because in about two hundred theaters across the country fans can see life-size replicas of the incredible Hulk looming over them! And if you have the guts to get close enough to snap a picture with the rampaging Hulk, send it to us and we'll post our favorites right here! How? First, upload your pictures to our Hulk statues Flickr group. Make sure you let us know where you took the pictures, then we'll get in touch and post them here on Marvel.com! Remember, "The Incredible Hulk" hits theaters Friday, June 13! Find a complete listing of theaters currently at risk for some gamma-irradiated collateral damage, and photos taken by Hulk fans, below!
Entertainment Weekly caught up with both Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau after the box office figures for Iron Man started coming in. They asked both about Iron Man 2, coming to theaters on April 30, 2010.
Here's a clip from the Downey Jr. interview, which you can read in full here:
When you were brainstorming with Jon Favreau, what were the elements that you wanted to bring to the next Iron Man movie? There's this idea of Terrence [Howard] putting on a suit and coming back as War Machine, who is pretty iconic in the Iron Man and Marvel universe. Just seeing where it can all go, but grounding it in a very modern mythology. I see it as greatest dysfunctional family story ever told.... In The New York Post a couple days ago, [there was a cartoon] of Iron Man suited up, and he's telling the governor even his super-powers can't get him out of the budget problem. That was what Jon was hoping for and excited to see the most, the idea that Tony Stark and Iron Man can become part of the cultural fabric. When we heard posters were being defaced to promote political or social ideas, he just got such a hoot out of that.
And a bit from the Favreau interview, available in full here.
Will you be involved with the sequel? We've been speaking informally about it, and in concept we would all love to work together again. But I found out about the announcement last night, so it's not something that — we would definitely love to collaborate more with the sequel. There's no formal arrangement yet, but in theory we would all love to see it happen.... There's definitely a lot of ideas that we all have now. This type of movie is based on serialized materials, so it lends itself very easily to [many different sequel possibilities]. There's definitely a level of enthusiasm from myself and the cast to tell more stories.
Iron Man earned an additional $6.9 million on Monday and has pushed its domestic total to $109 million.
I don't know the origins of this but its a pretty cool rendering of War Machine. Is this how he will look in Iron Man 2? Who knows. Enjoy this picture for now.
In this summers The Incredible Hulk, General Ross mentions a World War II program that created a super soldier formula to Emil Blonsky (The Abomination) who leaps at this chance to defeat the Hulk. Viewers see this as a nod to Captain America.
Marvel Entertainment released their first quarter report to its shareholders this morning to coincide with the announcement about the success this past weekend of Marvel Studios' first production Iron Man, which grossed an estimated $104.2 million domestically and over $201 million worldwide. The announcement included an update of Marvel Studios' feature film slate with the already-rumored Iron Man 2 announced for a release on April 30, 2010, followed by three more movies for the summers of '10 and '11. Matthew Vaughn's Thor is set for a release on June 4, 2010, and The First Avenger: Captain America (the working title) will kick off the summer of 2011 on May 6, followed by the highly-anticipated and foreshadowed The Avengers scheduled for July 2011. (Edgar Wright's Ant-Man is also listed as being in development with no release date set.)
In a conference call this morning, Marvel Studios' David Maisel said that Iron Man 2 will be used to introduce Thor. Regarding more "Hulk" movies, Maisel said "We definitely plan on continuing." He added that development continues on Spider-Man 4. "I can't give any other updates other than to say it's in development and everybody's excited about 'Spider-Man 4,'" he said.
With that in mind, one can start expecting a lot more announcements in the coming months about creative teams and casting for those movies including who might direct the Captain America and Avengers movies. (Whomever plays Steve Rogers AKA Captain America presumably will be making two movies at once.)
Screenwriter Mark Protosevich has been hired to write a script for a live-action Thor film and stated that "It's going to be like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential. It's the story of a [sic] Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god. It will be mythic, but also bear the unmistakable qualities of a Marvel movie, an epic fantasy adventure."[48] In addition director Matthew Vaughn is citing Gladiator as an influence of the storyline.[49]
After being impressed with his work on Stardust (2007), Marvel Studios signed Matthew Vaughn to direct [49] in August 2007. Vaughn intends to start filming in late 2008,[50] while he rewrites Protosevich's script in order to bring down the budget to $150 million. Protosevich's first draft had a cost of $300 million to produce.[51]
After the success of Iron Man, Marvel Studios announced Matthew Vaughn's Thor is set for a release on June 4, 2010. Thor himself will cameo first in Iron Man 2, schedule for release on April 30 that year.[52]
We're assuming you saw "Iron Man" this weekend and not just because you're a died in the wool fanboy, but because it looked like most of America went to it.
Box office numbers are out for the Robert Downey, Jr. action flick, and phrases like "9th biggest non-sequel opening ever" and "much like the original 'Spider-Man'" are getting thrown around quite favorably. Overall, the movie took in $201 million internationally, and you can read all about it at:
Philanthropist, inventor...playa. Meet Tony Stark, billionaire playboy and alter-ego to the Armored Avenger, Iron Man. When not smashing Chinese fellas with ring collections and/or other guys in armor, our hero is smashing it out with the kind of hotties only billionaires can bag. Don't believe us? Click the chart below and sit in awe as one man--if he be determined enough--can have sex with the entire Marvel universe.
Every time you kiss Iron Man, you taste Galactus.
Not too many superheroes can lay claim to that kind of fame, and--truth be told--wouldn't want to. But Anthony Edward Stark isn't your average kind of superhero. You can stick shrapnel in his heart, but he'll overcome it, build a suit of armor and steal your girlfriend. Shoot him in the spine and paralyze him? He'll go through grueling physical therapy, learn to walk again and bag your wife. He's rich, he has a mustache and he absolutely will not stop until you're in his bed.
PARK CITY, Utah — William Hurt is a consummate actor and a closet (until now) comic book geek. Both of which explain his excitement in revealing a bit about one surprise scene he shot for this summer's "The Incredible Hulk."
"I have a scene with Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr.," the Oscar-winning actor told MTV News Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. "It's a funky scene."
For those who haven't heard the news, superhero house Marvel Comics is aggressively cross-pollinating its superheroes, most likely in preparation for an eventual "Avengers" movie. That means Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury will make a cameo appearance in May 2's "Iron Man," and ol' metalhead himself will drop into "Hulk." Little has been said about the scene — until now.
"I don't know how it'll work," Hurt admitted, saying it was a thrill to appear as General Thaddeus Ross during Downey's scene. "I know it's weird [to work with a character from another movie], and to know it's a device. We did something; I don't know what that's going to be like [to watch]."
First of all let me state that I am a geek. I am not a nerd. The difference between a geek and a nerd is as follows. Geeks are well versed in subjects not taught in state credited schools. These subjects may include Star Wars, Star Trek, comic books, video games, role playing card games, etc. A nerd on the other hand is someone who is smart in subjects taught in school like math and sh$t. I don't know math and sh#t. But ask me about the difference between Diaclone and Transformers and how Go-Bots is now a part of the Transformers Universe and I just might talk your ear off. Which leads me to one of my other hobbies in this beautiful experience that we call life: Comic Books.
I love comic books. I have been reading comics since 1981 and I will probably be reading comics until the day that I die. So it comes as no surprise as to why I am so damn "geeked" about "The Avenger Initiative."
What is "The Avenger Initiative" you ask? What hole have you been living under the past 48 hours? The Avenger Initiative is what we as comic book geeks dreamed of as little kids while reading "Secret Wars" and "Crisis On Infinite Earths" except this time it is not in a comic book (well actually, there is The Avengers Initiative in the post Civil War Marvel Universe but i am not talking about that). For the first time ever in live action form, we are finally going to see Superhero movies cross over with one another the same way comics have cross overs.
Now what exactly does that mean? Well, let me give you an example. imagine your watching the live action Transformers movie But instead of the Tyrese Gibson character and the U.S. Army, you get Roadblock and G.I. Joe. Or how about your watching the Spider-Man movies and then "wham!" some of the X-Men from the movie franchise show up to give Peter Parker some help. Things like this use to happen in the Comics and Cartoons all the time, but for it to happen in a live action? Straight up bananas!
So for those of us who are not living under a rock and went to go see Iron Man this weekend and actually stayed to read all the credits at the end of the movie (geeks have been doing this for years) I am sure you all saw exactly what I am talking about. It was the official confirmation we have all been waiting for ever since we first heard or read that Marvel planed on producing an Avengers movie in which multiple marvel movie franchises would start off as individuals and then come together for the Big Finale. That Big Finale being "The Avengers Movie" set to hit theaters in 2-3 years.
Now for those of you who have not seen Iron Man - GO SEE IT! Trust when I say you wont be disappointed. Stay until the credits role (like I said before, for Geeks this comes natural.)
But if your lazy or broke (Damn Gas Prices) and you just so happened to find a horrible Chinese bootleg Camcorder version of Iron Man off the Internet that cuts off right when the end credits begin then your missed a very very very very very crucial part of the movie. Not only Iron Man but other Marvel movies to come...
The following is that scene I was speaking of. I did not film it but someone did with what looks like a camera phone. How Ironic that Technology is being used during a Tony Stark movie.
SPOILER - DON'T WATCH IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE WHOLE MOVIE!
This right here will conclude my first post. I don't claim to be the best blogger in the world but this movie has gotten me so "geeked" that "I can't feel my face." I plan on tracking as much news as possible related to the upcoming movies that eventually lead to the Avengers flick so let's make the next 2 ( and 3 or 4 ) years a nice one.
