New Iron Man 3 villain revaled

News sources (including this one) report that Ashley Hamilton has been cast in "Iron Man 3" as the supervillain Firepower.

Based on this image, I suspect he'll be getting an upgrade for the movie.

Hector Hammond outed as GL movie villain

io9 reports that Tim Robbins has been added to the cast of the Green Lantern movie as the disapproving father of Hector Hammond. Details in the link as to how Hammond Senior and Junior figure into the plot. Let's just say it doesn't involve strange meteors with mutagenic powers.

Normally, I'd be glad to see Hammond get the big screen treatment. He has a classic sci-fi psionic villain look with his giant head and atrophied body. He's kind of like DC's MODOK, but less freakish and without the cool chair; Hammond also predates MODOK by about a decade or so. Hammond seemed to be severely under-utilized at DC for years, which always struck me as bizarre. Here was a natural diamond in the rough character, a character who could have been a serious threat but was instead stuck in a chair in prison for most of the 70s and 80s. Not the most visually dynamic character, I suppose. Still, I recall when the Superman animated series was in full swing, one of the writers (I think) said it was tough to get a decent rogues gallery for the Man of Steel. My first thought was that they should've borrowed Hector Hammond, and introduced him as a competitor of Lex Luthor who seemed to have a knack for developing tech which Luthor only had on his drawing boards. It would've been revealed later that he had a mutagenic meteor which gave him psychic powers which gave him an edge over Lex and Superman. Ah well. Maybe I'll use the idea as a story for some of my own characters...

The Power of SHAZAM!!

...once again stymies Hollywood! Topless Robot has their own take.

John August has a telling quote:

I chatted with one of the "Shazam!" producers, Michael E. Uslan, and he told me even then that any Captain Marvel movie's great challenge would be answering one question: If you were a little kid who could turn into an all-powerful, handsome adult, why on Earth would you ever change back?

Wow. It sounds like someone in Hollywood had a rotten childhood and can't imagine why they'd go through being a youngster all over again. The Howling Curmudgeons offer their own take on Mr. Uslan's reasoning.

To me, Captain Marvel is an easy concept: a young decent optimistic kid, powerless in his normal circumstances, changes into a decent, optimistic superhero (think Christoper Reeve's Superman) to have adventures and to stop bad guys adults seem powerless to stop. There could be a bit of satire (as in Jeff Smith's version) showing adults as kind of... dopey or blind or too willing to give up their power to think for themselves or living in fear to do the right thing. Plus it could be about using imagination, which seems to be a thing stamped out of "normal" adults. These are not themes foreign to Hollywood movies, it's just that trying to apply them while trying to duplicate or surpass the success of "The Dark Knight" may not produce a movie most people will want to watch.

A good Captain Marvel movie would be closer in spirit and tone to something released by Pixar, something with heart and adventure. It's tough imagining "The Incredibles" or "Up" in a "Dark Knight" mold but I think that's the weird knot that's keeping the movie from being made.

...but will there be a sequel?

Roger Ebert layeth down the smack, but still claims it was better than Transformers 2.

You know what bugged me most about the previews (which made me wish ill upon the movie) for G.I.Joe? How they went 9/11 on the Eiffel Tower.

I swear.

Ouch!! It's brutal!

Optimus Prime takes one to the nads!

A Slytherin kid, if ever I saw one...

Via Popeater.

'Harry Potter' star Jamie Waylett was arrested after police found eight bags of marijuana in his car and more plants of the drug being grown at his mother's house.

For making potions, I'm sure...

It's just all sorts of wrong, it is...

It's like Catwoman wrong. Or maybe Italian Spider-Man wrong.

You judge.

Warning: Geek Stuff!

This from IGN.COM: Sam Raimi offers up who he'd like to see as the villain in Spider-Man 4.

Which is funny.

Because back in the day, Morbius was matched up with the Lizard and Man-Wolf, both of whom have made appearances in their unaltered identities of Curt Connors and John Jameson Jr., respectively. Maybe the multiple villains idea was such a hit at the studio that they want to try their hand at it again? Only this time with more classic (read: pre-Venom) villains.

Whee! More action figures!

Sequel-itis!

Word from Blog@Newsarama that M. Night Shyamalan is mulling a sequel to Unbreakable. I used to think that it would have been cool if Bruce Willis' character from "Unbreakable" teamed up with the kid from "Sixth Sense" as they work together to solve a mystery (maybe involving Mr. Glass and the aliens from "Signs"?). Holy World's Finest! I dunno. I wonder if maybe Shyamalan is running a bit dry lately. Of course, my idea is little more than and update of "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman", so who am I to judge?