"What if Batman was the Joker?"; Tony Scott Directed "Nemesis" Coming?

The title of the blog post is from the actual publicity for the comic book. What comic book? Mark Millar's Nemesis. What if someone as smart and with as much wealth and power as Bruce Wayne didn't become Batman, but rather the Joker?! Scary thought. Well that's exactly the concept behind Nemesis, a revenge tale brought to life in a dark, mute tone.

Today /slashfilm, via Bleeding Cool and Deadline are reporting the movie will soon be directed by Tony Scott (Man on Fire, Taking of Pelham 1,2,3, Unstoppable). Fox has the rights to the movie and supposedly they're moving head quickly on the project. I love the comic book, I only have the first of four issues and I think it's brilliant. There's a lot of over-the-top action in the comic book, and it's a different kind of over-the-top than Kick-Ass, involving presidents, planes, explosions, etc. Plus, Mark Millar knows what he's doing.

Don't know who Mark Millar is? Don't read too many comics? He's the man responsible for awesome comic book-to-movie translations such as Wanted and Kick-Ass. The man can write a comic book, that's for sure! His style of writing is almost as if it's meant to be translated into feature films. I have no doubt Nemesis will be a good movie, especially if done correctly by someone of Tony Scott's expertise. I'll post if it becomes official. This is some pretty cool news.

X-Men First Class get's a director and a release date

Matthew Vaughn director of Kick-Ass, has been tapped to take on the X-Men. In a prequel of sorts, X-Men First Class will focus on the first class at Professor Xavier's school for the gifted.

Based on the first 8 issues of the 2006 comic books, the line up of mutants include the following: Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey and Professor X.

I think Fox is planning on creating a totally new franchise independent of the first trilogy of X-Men films. I say this because the studio is already planning a fourth film in the 2000-2006 franchise.

I've already told you how much I enjoyed Vaughn's Kick-Ass; so I love this move by Fox. I can't wait to see Vaughn's take on the X-Men. I don't think it will take itself as seriously as the Hugh Jackman starring franchise, and I don't think it should. This is a younger group of heroes who haven't come into their own yet.

The studio also announced the movie would be released next year! That's right, June 2011 is the tentative release date. What do you guys think about the news?

The picture above was provided by Deviant Art, and created by "Apollorising". Check out the artist's other work here.

Tony: Kick-Ass review

Sorry for the delay everyone, but I've been a bit busy with the family business to be online blogging. So here it is, the Return of the King... my review of the comic-book film, Kick-Ass.

I know at this point I'm being redundant but, our blog is more about opinion than plot. Let's get right into what I liked and didn't like about the movie... let me give you a heads up, my likes far outweigh my dislikes!

What I liked:
The Concept/Story
The story is simple, but enticing. It tells the story of a kid who chooses to dress up as a superhero and fight crime against a Mob boss. Craziness ensues when the superhero (Kick-Ass) is joined by Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz). Like I said, the story is simple, very funny, and kept the audience engaged for the entire movie. I loved the pace of the film. It only slowed down to build up the characters, which is great. The rest of the time the movie moved forward very well. 

The Characters
Ho-ly moly! Hit Girl is one of the best, most bad ass characters in the history of cinema, and she's only 11 years old!!! That's right, Chloë Grace Moretz is only 11 years old calling people names that I'VE never used before. Nicolas Cage is awesome in this movie! He has to be tough, weird, a little creepy, but loving to his daughter, amazing job. Finally a movie OTHER than National Treasure where he does well. There is a scene between Cage and Moretz that is one I will never forget, just a hint... it involves him training her using a gun! I wont say anything else because it will give away the hilarity of the situation.

Now when it comes to Kick-Ass himself, great casting and a great job by Aaron Johnson. The rest of the cast is rounded out with some great performances... the mob boss played by Mark Strong, Red Mist played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Kick-Ass's real world friends played by Clark Duke and Evan Peters.

The Action
The action is great. The violence is over the top, but I think it has to be. You're trying to make us believe an 11 year old can kill 30 guys in a run down the hall, why not be over the top? Guns, check. Knives, check. Swords, check. There is nothing missing from the action in this film. Pay attention to an action scene that involves Nicolas Cage that feels like one long cut up and down a two story building, just fantastic!

What I didn't like:
Screen Time
Not really a complaint so much as wishing. I wish Nicolas Cage was in the movie more! Yeah, I never thought I'd say that either! Cage is so good as this character! I know this section is about what I didn't like, but I really really liked the movie. There's nothing else I could think of!

Go see this movie! And be ready for a ride. You'll laugh, you'll cheer and you'll clap your way through the movie. It's the most fun I've had at a movie since Iron Man two years ago; I mean it!

What the heck happened to Clash of the Titans this weekend?

Good afternoon everyone. I came online to check the box office results and was BLOWN away by what I saw. Let's break it down a bit.

Number 1 this week, How to Train Your Dragon. WHAT?!?! It just all of a sudden leap froged a few spots to number one? I saw the film, and loved it, absolutely loved it. It was action, adventure, dragons, the whole nine. It was performing pretty steadily at the box office, but just couldn't grab the number spot, until this week. (NOTE: That might change as of tomorrow because the race between the first and second place movies was so close).

Number 2 went to a new-comer, Kick Ass. In all my estimations, I thought this movie was going to open number 1, and it stay may do so tomorrow. The movie has been getting great reviews, has a funny story line, and has a great cast. In fact, 13 year old actress Chloe Moretz is getting a lot of attention for her role as "Hit-Girl". Must be all that swearing and killing she's doing in the movie.

Number 3, Date Night. Just like this week, last weeks box office winner came down to the wire. Date Night looked like they had the top spot until Monday morning. They were battling it out with Clash of the Titans for number 1. So to see it drop to three isn't necessarily a bad thing, just surprising. Surprising because "Dragon" has been out for awhile now, and to see it take a leap above a movie that's been out for 10 days, that's crazy.

Number 4, also a newcomer, Death at a Funeral. Not a huge surprise; the movie landed where I think it was supposed to. I think it will do about the same number for the weeks coming up.

Number 5, surprise of the week, Clash of the Titans. What the heck? It was first place last week and drops to fifth place this week? Wha, who, ha, how? Well, after 2 seconds of thinking about it, I figured out why it dropped; BECAUSE THE MOVIE SUCKED. It took the movie crowds a few weeks to see it, but they finally came to their senses. There are a few other factors involved in the drop.

First is the fact that Kick-Ass and Death at a Funeral both came out this week. Kick-Ass especially demanded more screens at theaters. This gave "Titans" less screens, and less of a battle against the other movies in the top five.

Second is the fact that "Titans" was an abomination in 3D. So what do you think the theaters did? Including Valencia, CA... theater owners opted to use their 3D screens for "Dragon" rather than "Titans". This obviously boasted the ticket sales of one apposed to the other.

I guess, the overall theme of this rambling post is this; we're not going to pay for lame 3D movies anymore. These studios need to understand that the movie-going public will not just buy 3D tickets anymore, JUST to buy 3D tickets. The movie has to be shot in 3D, not just converted in post-production. Movies like "Dragon" that utilize the technology to better tell their story is the way to do it; rather than using it as a gimmick for kicks.

This blogger made a promise to himself never to see another 3D movie that was converted in post-production. This happened after the debacle that was Alice in Wonderland. No comment.

Quickie: Kick-Ass trailer

I'm not sure I like this as much as the other blogs online do... the movie is based on a comic book series; a pretty series and compelling one at that. The trailer makes it look a lot different... check it out: