Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Anthony Mackie reveals his approach to his Captain America: The Winter Soldier character, while Idris Elba says Heimdall the Gatekeeper has a story in Thor: The Dark World. Pacific Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham explains how the tie-in graphic novel fits in. Plus hints about Under The Dome from the show's stars. Spoilers now!
Top image from Elysium.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Hurt Locker's Anthony Mackie offers some thoughts on his role as The Falcon:
"[He's] a really smart guy who went through major military training and becomes a tactical leader, he’s not some guy that fell into this. The most important thing I got from everybody at Marvel about the Falcon was the need to show that he’s a very righteous, man-forward kind of guy. He would do anything to protect the man next to him and to protect his country. That’s the integrity of the character and the integrity of the man and that that’s what I have focused on.... The biggest thing for me, the most exciting thing for me, is to come out on Halloween and see all the little black kids dressed up like the Falcon. There are so many parts of our society that are not catered to or represented fully and this will give a new generation of our society someone to look up to and identify with. That’s why I am so intensely focused on bringing the character to life in a special way."
Thor: The Dark World
Idris Elba says that Heimdall will have his own story in the sequel:
“It’s a really interesting version of Thor. The director has gone for a really interesting perspective on the world that Thor comes from. But I am there, manning the gate. There is a story for Heimdall. I think it will be interesting to see what happens from the first film to this film – it’s a really interesting development.”
[SciFiNow]
Man of Steel 2
When asked if General Zod's body could be discovered and used by someone like Lex Luthor, screenwriter David S. Goyer discusses his approach to leaving material available for later:
I can neither confirm nor deny. But I will say that I did intentionally leave some loose ends, not as sequel bait, but just because I thought they were interesting. I don't know if anyone that's viewed the film has picked up on this yet, but when Clark goes into the scout ship, which sort of becomes the Fortress of Solitude, you see four cryogenic sarcophagi for the crew that piloted that ship 18,000 or 20,000 years ago. There's a shot there - and, it's funny, at one point Zack took it out, but I cried "Uncle!", and he put it back in. But you see there are four pods: three of them have skeletons in them, but one is open and there is no skeleton. Zack had missed it the first time he read the script. I pointed it out to him, and he was like, "Okay, that's interesting. That's an interesting loose end."
Justice League
In the same interview, David S. Goyer discusses how the roster of a Justice League movie would be different from the heroes in The Avengers:
You can't force it. The DC characters are different than the Marvel characters. They've been around much longer, particularly the big three: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The Marvel characters that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko came up with, they came along, in some cases, thirty years later. The DC characters are deeper archetypes, and those Marvel characters were in reaction to these archetypes. My grandmother is ninety-six, and she has an emotional attachment to Superman. She doesn't have any attachment to Spider-Man or Iron Man. They have to be treated in a different way, particularly the big three. Done right, like Chris [Nolan] did with the Batman films, they can reach an even bigger audience. But I also think there are more pitfalls because people have more preexisting expectations.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
It's been rumored but completely unconfirmed that British actress Felicity Jones would play Felicia Hardy, alias Black Cat, in the sequel. Jones herself may now have confirmed that casting detail after being asked the textbook trap question of whether she was "looking forward to everyone seeing [her] as Black Cat." The video of her rather confused response is below, in case you feel like doing some fine-level analysis of nervous stammering. [/Film]
Elysium
Director Neill Blomkamp explains why product placement has a role in his hard sci-fi epic, in which the incomprehensibly vast divide between rich and poor has led to the wealthy spending their days in what are essentially orbiting pleasure palaces:
“This film has been an oddity in the product-placement world because I am not looking for any money from the brands we are using. I really want them because I [can] make the film better... If you had a bunch of rich people living up there, they would have the equivalent of Ferraris and Bugattis that they fly around with. Basically, what I wanted to do was make a Bugatti that’s 150 years in the future, and those don’t come with wheels. The GT-R is one of the coolest high-performance cars for sale out there now. I wanted to make the GT-R the Earth’s version of a high-performance car.”
[/Film]
Pacific Rim
Here's the latest TV spot.
Here's an intriguing passage from an interview with screenwriter Travis Beacham, in which he discusses how some of the key revelations in the tie-in graphic novel crop up in the movie itself:
There’s also this beautiful moment in the graphic novel where the doctor, Caitlin Lightcap, figures out almost by accident that you need at least two minds to run a jaeger. That seems like such an important concept to the entire story. Do we have a similar moment in the movie, like this is your “Eureka” moment? Or is it just sort of alluded to in the backstory once we start the movie?
It’s a given once you get into the movie, but it is… That idea is critical to this story and the movie. I always feel like there just wouldn’t be a Pacific Rim without that idea. Like that idea is sort of at the heart of the entire world of Pacific Rim. I think I would still be walking around vaguely hoping somebody would make a giant monster versus robot movie if I hadn’t realized there were two pilots.
There’s an almost ethereal place when those two people meet in their minds. Is there a visual representation of that or is that similar to what we see in the film?
We don’t make much of it in the film. I think in the first draft there was a bit more stuff that took place like that, that head space, but I think ultimately for a first movie it was decided not to spend much time there or play around with it that much. It would be kind of a third buy for the audience to make in a big movie. I think we are going to get into that later, definitely if there are further incarnations of the story. That’s definitely part of the mythology we want to explore a bit more. With the graphic novel or hopefully sequels or that sort of thing. There is one part in the movie that really deals with it and it may by my favorite sequence I’ve ever seen Guillermo direct. I love, love this one bit in the movie. It’s where memories drift and I think it’s just really well done.
There's more at the link. [/Film]
World War Z
Here's a clip. [Coming Soon]
Doctor Who
Jamie Payne, who directed this season's "Hide" and has a number of credits on shows ranging from Ashes to Ashes to Da Vinci's Demons, will handle directing duties for this year's Christmas special, otherwise known as Matt Smith's final episode and the 11th Doctor's regeneration story. [Blogtor Who]
Under the Dome
Breaking Bad's Dean Norris discusses his new, villainous role as Big Jim Rennie in the upcoming CBS summer series:
Big Jim, he's a great character. He loves his town, but I think he's probably, at some level, psychopathic. He likes to be in charge. Stephen King told me I was Dick Cheney. [Big Jim's] reading Winston Churchill's biography in the story ... And everybody else is freaked out by the dome and Big Jim seems to be like, "Wow, my time has come.” He's fun because ... he's the only one that interacts with every other character. They have their own things, the groupings and people that interact, but Big Jim interacts with all of them and he interacts differently with all of them because he has a different personality ... He's lizard-like in his strategy; he's amoral. I don’t know if he's immoral, but he's amoral. He's a "The ends justify the means, keep the trains running," kind of guy. And it really comes out with his poor son, who has his own issues, and you can see why. He has a dad like me. We have this hug in the first episode and we talked about how it's maybe the first time he's ever hugged his son. It's a real awkward kind of thing and poor Junior's always waiting for his dad to say “I love you,” and his dad always says, "Toughen up, pussy.” He's that kind of guy. But it seems like he's the most evil or mean when he is with his son, because everybody else he's kind of charming with.
It sounds like Big Jim relishes the opportunities presented by being trapped under the dome, so what's his motivation at the beginning of the season? [The producers] have arced the show as "faith," "fear," and "fascism." And I think Big Jim's the fascism part. But he starts, early on, to co-opt people. He gets Barbie [Mike Vogel] on his side and he does it by complimenting them. “Man, we really need a guy like you to help keep the order.” He's not pounding anybody over the head. And Linda [Natalie Martinez], the deputy, he's very fatherly to her and trying to get everyone on his side. Right now, I think he sees this as an opportunity to start getting his ducks in order, at least start taking charge and getting people on his side. He's always talking to the townspeople and telling them, “Hey, listen to me. If we all work together, everything's going to be fine. I'm the guy.”
Check out the link for more. [Huffington Post]
And here are some thoughts from costar Mike Vogel on his own character Barbie:
Barbie is a great guy. I love him. He's a former Special Forces operator. He's gotten out of the military and since then, he's done a bunch of odd jobs, trying to find his spot and where he fits in. He finds himself basically collecting debts for a bookie and nine times out of 10, it's a nonviolent ordeal. He's not a heavy that's going around thumping on people, breaking kneecaps, [saying,] "Pay up. Pay up." Normally, everyone's willing. But he finds himself in some situations where he has to defend himself, which is sort of the catalyst which brings him into this town and he happens to find himself here when this event happens... So he finds himself stuck in a position of having had to defend himself after a rather nefarious deed and stuck in a small town where word travels fast and everyone knows everyone. There's a lot of stuff swirling in the first couple episodes, and what I like about the show is, judging by the opening of the show, someone might say, "Oh, Barbie, bad guy — Big Jim [played by Dean Norris], good guy." But that's not at all the case. And I enjoy that it takes time for everything to unravel here and that everything that you see is not what you're getting.
American Horror Story: Coven
The third season is reportedly looking to cast two characters, "a male college student who's a jerk and a charming Asian doctor named David Zhong." [SpoilerTV]
Teen Wolf
Here's a promo for the next episode, "Unleashed."
Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.