Who could replace Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man?

Iron Man 3 has flown into the second biggest opening weekend ever spot right behind The Avengers movie of last year. There have been rumblings about Robert Downey Jr being ready to hang up the helmet and leave Tony Stark in his past but now Kevin Feige has stepped up to claim that there will most certainly be an Iron Man 4 with or without RDJ.

People seem to be suggesting that as RDJ's contract with Marvel has just expired, that he is now putting all this talk about leaving Iron Man behind out into the world just so that he can re-negotiate a better contract for himself going forward. Equally, Kevin Feige could be speaking out about Iron Man 4 just so that he can scare RDJ into running back for another whopping paycheck. Feige even mentioned that he can see Iron Man going on until Iron Man 10 or 20 and that he could last as long as James Bond, hinting at many changes to the man behind the mask.

Pepper ponders replacement

But all this talk is most likely bluster. Marvel wants RDJ. RDJ most likely wants another minimum $50 million pay day. Frankly the thought of anyone being paid that kind of money makes me vomit in my mouth a little bit. And the thought of somebody being greedy enough to want to bargain for more money makes me even sicker.

I understand that RDJ seems pretty damn essential to Iron Man 4 right now and I'm sure his agent will be negotiating hard with Marvel seeing as to the fans of the films, RDJ IS Tony Stark. If Iron Man makes obscene money in cinemas then a RDJ is a big reason for that and should be paid accordingly. But I heard he was paid $50 million for Avengers and something similar for Iron Man 3 and those are just disgusting figures. Call me a Commie but I don't think anyone in this world deserves that much money, especially when you consider how many people are starving across the world.

So with that in mind, if RDJ is really trying to scrounge more money from Marvel, then I think no matter how much you like Iron Man and RDJ, we need to seek out a replacement. If there really is to be an Iron Man 4 and RDJ won't commit, who do you think could step into RDJ's shoes?

I personally hope they get Shane Black to direct again but admittedly I would find it very hard to replace RDJ. It needs to be someone with a layer of likeable arrogance and I'm sure that's not that easy to find. What do you think?

What can fans expect from Marvel’s The Mandarin in Iron Man 3? (NO SPOILERS!)

The Mandarin appears in Iron Man 3 as the main villain opposite Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark. A familiar face from the comics, The Mandarin has often been called the archenemy of Iron Man but what will Oscar winner Ben Kingsley bring to the character?

Read my Iron Man 3 review here.

The Mandarin has traditionally been of Chinese descent and primarily uses ten power rings on his fingers to blast and beam his foes into oblivion. These magic rings were forged from alien technology of a crashed spaceship. However new Iron Man 3 director Shane Black has confirmed that though Ben Kingsley’s incarnation of the villain does indeed have fingers full of jewellery; they will not be magic, from space or capable of shooting flames or ice and any other substances. For that matter he is no longer Chinese either so fan boys expecting a very literal interpretation of the character of the comic should think again.

Martial arts skills

Despite this, The Mandarin should be a force to be reckoned with. In the comics he is a genius scientist and has martial arts skills of superhuman levels. Whether the approaching 70 year old Kingsley will be able to handle complex and incredible fight scenes without the need for a great deal of computer generated trickery is open to debate. However Marvel superhero films are full of spectacular effects and a showdown between The Mandarin and Iron Man could be created through immense amounts of digital rendering. Expect at least one fight

Genius scientist

The Mandarin is also known for being an intellectual genius in the field of science. With the addition of Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, there could be the potential for a team up to take down Iron Man. Killian is the man behind Extremis, a super soldier serum that could unleash of an army of superhuman villains against Stark and his alter ego. The Mandarin is likely to be involved with such a nefarious plan and two scientists would make a perfect fit for each other and a credible threat to our hero.

Anti-American Iconography

Both Kingsley and writer/director Shane Black have hastened to appease those expecting magic fire shooting rings by promising an altogether more sinister and crucially more real version of The Mandarin. An assortment of anti-American iconography, The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 uses media manipulation to cause terror. He hacks phones, broadcasting networks, has an Bin Laden style beard and sends anti American videos out with jihad style logos on them. He has the appearance of an American nightmare come to reality and works hard to promote this image to the world.

With the crew of Iron Man 3 reportedly applauding Kingsley on his last day on the set of shooting the film, what we can certainly look forward to is an outstanding performance from Sir Kingsley.  Just because The Mandarin is not everything you had expected from the comics, does not mean he cannot be iconic and memorable villain for the Iron Man franchise.

What do you think about Ben Kingsley’s appearance as Iron Man’s latest nemesis?

Iron Man 3 Review at Filmoria

Today is the day the embargo was lifted on Iron Man 3 reviews so even though I got to go to a special screening a whole week ago, I wasn't able to share my review until today.

Iron Man 3 Review at Filmoria

Not only did I get to see the film a week early, but writer and director Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pearce also showed up to introduce the screening. They both seemed very eager for us all to like the film and kept reminding everyone that it takes a lot of time and effort to make these films.

Patrick Samuel from Static Mass took this photo

Being cynical old me, I expected it to be a bomb due to their desperate pleas. If you want to know how I felt about the film after seeing it, you'll just have to head on over to Filmoria to read the review. Check out the trailer below if you haven't already seen it a hundred times!

Iron Man 3, Bernie and 21 & Over

I have three more preview screenings lined up over the next fortnight; Iron Man 3, Bernie and 21 & Over. April is turning into a very busy month for film screenings. I already had Evil Dead, Olympus Has Fallen and The Look of Love in the bag but now I have three more to add to the list.

While I'm not the biggest comic book lover in the world; Iron Man, Batman and Hellboy are definitely my three favourite comic book characters and Robert Downey Jr has been consistently charming and funny in the last two Iron Man films. The addition of Shane Black on writing and directing duties is the biggest draw though. Shane Black has written some brilliantly witty and action packed scripts and his directorial debut with Downey Jr starring was the wonderful Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That film made me fall almost completely in love with Downey Jr and is a huge reason for his successful comeback surely. If only it had done the same for Val Kilmer.

Also that Superbowl spot for Iron Man 3 that just featured a bunch of people falling out of a plane with Iron Man deciding what to do next was pure marketing genius. THAT's how to get me interested in a film (without showing me too much of the story)! I hope Kingsley is as epic as he looks! Here is the Superbowl spot if you haven't seen it, plus the full trailer:





Bernie re-teams director Richard Linklater with Jack Black after the success of School of Rock. I'm looking forward to seeing this as I've got a lot of love for Linklater and it looks pretty quirky, fun and with an interesting and slightly different role for Black than normal. Still, it's really just filler until Before Midnight gets here! I sure hope that nice Mr Matthew McConaughey is playing a slightly more pleasant character than in Killer Joe though! Check out the trailer below:



Finally there is 21 & Over which looks pretty funny but I wouldn't be surprised if all the best bits are in the trailer. I guess it could potentially be this generation's Ferris Bueller. Or it could just be a horrible mess full of crass stereotyping. I want to hope its as fun as the trailer looks in places. Check it out:



Any of these take your fancy?

The Many Methods of Movie Marketing: Part 1

The first of three (maybe four parts) that will cover all the different methods of movie marketing. This is mainly for my film students who are looking at the relationship between film producers and audiences. First we looked at how producers get information from audiences and now we move on to how producers give information to audiences.

The Hollywood studios are renowned for ploughing huge amounts of money into film production. Increasingly however, they are spending up to half their budgets on marketing the films in order to increase the chance of having a successful opening weekend. Independent, British and world cinema films are often also picked up by Hollywood distributors if there is ‘crossover’ potential. These distributors then spend large amounts of money marketing the films in the hope that they will play to mainstream audiences. However some films do not have the marketing budget to spend on selling the film and have to rely on other techniques to make themselves known to the audience.

The most commonly used forms of advertising in the movie world are posters and trailers. These reach a huge audience as the producers of the films pay to have their print advertising featuring large still images in prominent places such as bus stops and tube stations. This targets commuters with disposable income who live in major cities and elsewhere. Posters can be teasers, theatrical or character based. A teaser poster is released far in advance of the release of the film and is likely to include some kind of iconic image that will be recognisable to fans and will get them excited up to a year before the release of the film. The Iron Man 3 poster for example does not even feature the title of the film and only the release is stated at the bottom. It is deliberately telling very little about the film and just making fans aware that the film is on the way. 

Theatrical posters often have a number of characters on them and some hint at genre conventions for example the poster for Prometheus had characters running from an exploding spaceship signalling who the stars are, and that the film will contain action, special effects and science fiction elements. Some films, particularly sequels where the characters are already well known have individual posters for each character. The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels did this with many different character posters, each featuring one of the stars of the film and introducing new villains.

Trailers are perhaps the most effective method of movie marketing as these can give the target audience a really clear sense of what the film will be like with moving image clips, music, special effects, stars, dialogue, music all in a 1-3 minute package. Teaser trailers have the same purpose as teaser posters, to get the fans excited early. Theatrical trailers have more about the story and characters and often in many people’s opinions give far too much away about the story or reveal too many of the best jokes in the case of comedies; the 21 Jump Street trailer for example. 

An increasing phenomenon recently is the preview to the trailer. Some of the biggest blockbusters such as Prometheus and Total Recall have a short clip released that announces that the trailer will be released in a few days’ time. This is for hard core fans to get them to spread the word that a trailer is on the way and to get them talking on the internet about it. The Prometheus trailer preview featured director Ridley Scott talking about the film. 

Teaser trailers are about a minute long and reveal little about the plot. The Star Trek Into Darkness teaser trailer introduces the villain and dazzles with special effects whereas the Man of Steel teaser sets out the more realistic tone and different direction that the new Superman will be taking. Trailers used to be only seen in cinemas before a film but now can be watched in a huge variety of ways.

Part 2 on media advertising, internet marketing and promotional tie ins coming soon!

Superheroes must die!

Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe it’s just because I never liked comics. But is it me or are there just way too many superhero movies these days?

I confess I’ve never read comics. I read books or I watch films. Reading with pictures just ain’t the same as it was when I was a kid. I tried. I read one graphic novel, generally considered a classic… ‘Watchmen’ and guess what… I much preferred the film! The ‘novel’ was long, complicated and for me, just not very engaging.

So what blockbusters have we got to look forward to this summer? Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, Captain America: The First Avenger. All superhero flavoured, comic book madness. Give me Transformers 3 over this lot anytime.

The thing is I too get excited by all the hype surrounding these films. I read the features in the magazines, I gawp at the trailers and I even go and see a fair few of them expecting to get my mind blown and face melted.

Unfortunately time and again I’m disappointed. I blame X-men. Like so many others back in 2000, I went along to see it at the cinema because the critics were raving. Bryan Singer was directing. He made ‘The Usual Suspects’. Surely it would be good. But I felt nothing. The action and big climax were too filled with ridiculous looking special effects. The costumes were kind of cool and the cast were top quality but the film was totally unmemorable (to me). It goes in my eyes and gets crapped straight back out, barely registering on my brain.

As a kid I’d enjoyed Tim Burton’s Batman films and the Superman series but I think even then I preferred the Batman TV show with Adam West. This brings me to an exception. The Christopher Nolan Batman films have registered on my brain. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Bruce Wayne throw his wallet away to discover what it was like to have nothing. I loved Heath Ledger as the Joker and truly believe that even if he hadn’t died people would still be banging on about that performance. Great films… great director. Real adult themes and a distinct lack of ridiculous looking special effects.

There’s too damn many for me to go through all the comic book movies of the last ten years. Some critics have argued that we (mainly America) needed these fantastical heroes to save us from a post-9/11 depression. Most people just see these movies making bags full of money for greedy studios who can’t believe their luck! Stories that have already been written. The visuals storyboarded. Characters already created and fans already waiting. Fantastical super powers that can now be created with CGI. Easy money!

Don’t get me wrong… some of these characters are interesting. Iron Man and Hellboy were particularly enjoyable due to their funny and likeable main characters. Kick-Ass and Super give us hip new spins on the superhero genre. But for every cool character there’s always going to be a fair few Daredevil, Elektra, or Ghost Riders.

Now the studios are even starting to reboot the franchises that are barely a decade old. X-men, Spiderman and Superman are all getting a fresh coat of CGI and the paint has hardly dried on the last batch. Seriously do we really need another lot ALREADY???

These comic book/superhero blockbusters aren’t even taking over the top tens of highest grossing films of the summers. In 2002, only Batman Begins and Fantastic Four made it. In 2003 only X-men 3 and Superman Returns made it. But then in 2004 and 2005, the top spots were filled by Spiderman 3, Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Bringing it right up to date… in 2009, only the Wolverine spin off film hit the top 10 highest grosser list and in 2010, Iron Man 2 beat competition from original works like Inception and Despicable Me.

If you love comics and you love the movies and I’ve offended you to your very core, then I’m very sorry. But look at the blockbusters I got to devour as a kid in the 80s. Aliens, Back to the Future, The Terminator, E.T., Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Beverly Hills Cop. And the 90s… Titanic, The Matrix, Speed, Forrest Gump, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Toy Story! Give me these beauties any day over the next buffed up pretty boy in tights and a screaming damsel girl next door.

So despite the pretty trailers for the coming summer’s superhero antics, I’m going to vote with my wallet. If YOU want to see more originality or even just more sequels to interesting, exciting, not overdosed on silly special effects movies, then don’t be lured by the trailers! Remember you’ve seen it all before! You’ll forget it in a week (if not less).