Rosario Dawson Signs Exclusive TV Contract with Marvel and Netflix
It's no secret that we're huge fans of Marvel's Daredevil, with dear old Alex Katz bluntly stating the series is "Marvel's best [and] most important work." While re-watching the season finale late last week, my friends and I noted just how perfect the casting is from Vincent D'Onofrio's pitch perfect Wilson Fisk to Charlie Cox's noble Matt Murdock to even Elden Henson's Foggy Nelson (BASH BROTHERS!). One surprising highlight was Rosario Dawson's turn as Claire Temple, a trained nurse who tends to Daredevil's injuries. While she only appeared in a handful of episodes, Dawson added extra pizazz and slight star power to the show.
It only makes sense, then, that Marvel and Netflix would want to bring the talented actress back for more. Over the weekend, Deadline announced that Dawson will be returning for the second season of Marvel's Daredevil. What's more, she's entering an exclusive TV contract that opens up the possibilities for her to appear in Netflix and Marvel's other upcoming shows.
Nobody will ever complain about Rosario Dawson getting more screen time, and it helps that her Marvel character is not only intriguing, but can easily fit into the other upcoming series. Marvel's Daredevil Season 2 is slated for a 2016 return, so it won't be too long until we get to revisit Claire's healing powers.
[via /Film]
List of Rumored Spider-Man Directors Released
Spider-Man has always been a humorous character known as much for his wit as his abilities and personal motto. However, despite five films and two actors, the Spider-Man films didn't capture this pivotal aspect of the character. When Marvel Cinematic Universe mastermind Kevin Feige announced future Spider-Man films would be co-handled by Marvel Studios, he made it very apparent that the character's sense of humor would be a focal point for the films.
With the next Spider-Man film scheduled for a 2017 release, Marvel and Sony are rumored to be closing in on a director within the month. Yesterday, a purported shortlist of serious contenders for the director's chair was released, featuring directors known for their comedies.
The list includes Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies), Ted Melfi (St. Vincent), Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre), and John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein (Horrible Bosses 2, Vacation). Of the rumored names, Daley and Goldstein are my personal favorites due to their script work on Horrible Bosses, Horrible Bosses 2, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. However, the most interesting name is Hess, whose work post-Nacho Libre has been lacking. Neither of the rumored directors have much experience with action films, although Levine's Warm Bodies did feature some minor action scenes.
It's likely that a director will be announced around the same time the next Spider-Man/Peter Parker is cast, so expect a lot of Spider-Man-related news over the next month!
[via /Film]
[Review] Avengers: Age Of Ultron
The Avengers was not just the movie which brought Marvel's cinematic universe heroes together on-screen for the first time, but also the one which found a consistent tone and philosophy for the series going forward. Looking back at the earliest movies in the canon, it's no surprise that despite their financial success, they tend to be all over the place in terms of tone and direction, heavy on formula but uncertain where to pitch their flag between the campy humour of comic book movies past and the heavy drama of Christopher Nolan's hugely successful Batman movies for DC.
It was at the hands of experienced comics writer Joss Whedon that Marvel found a sense of fun and self-awareness to bridge the disconnect between building a straight-faced fictional reality and the wisecracking, elaborately costumed protagonists populating it. As DC struggles to make fans care about its efforts to build a universe of its own defined by tortured heroes and depressingly over-filtered visuals, Marvel has gone from strength to strength on the back of Whedon's simple but appealing philosophy of keeping the characters relatable and the tone light. It's unfortunate, then, that Age Of Ultron does not mark Whedon once again taking the Marvel cinematic universe movies to new heights, but instead proves that even the most successful philosophy will struggle when weighed down by repetitive storytelling.
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The Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Director: Joss Whedon
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: May 1st, 2015
The Avengers' success may have solidified the Marvel universe, but also allowed some core problems to go overlooked. It was and remains a blockbuster done right, hitting a near-perfect balance between large-scale action, pinpoint character writing (compare, for instance, Whedon's Black Widow to her nondescript 'strong woman' portrayal in Iron Man 2) and humour. After taking $1.5bn at the box office worldwide, it's no surprise Marvel sought to replicate its success as closely as possible going forward. While this meant movies more ambitious in their scope and tonally unified throughout the series, it also too often reduced their narratives to a single, over-used formula. It boggles the mind to try and tally how many Macguffin-oriented plots, fake deaths, identikit character arcs and city-levelling finales have occurred in the four movies since the first Avengers, let alone those which were toying with the same ideas beforehand.
Age Of Ultron never looked likely to break that formula, but starts at a lively enough pace with a big set-piece as our eponymous heroes storm a HYDRA outpost in Eastern Europe. It gets us quickly into the swing of things, and Whedon is gifted enough with the off-handed zingers that the personalities of each individual hero are asserted without needing to pause for breath. What the team discovers also neatly lays down a potential dividing line between them based on how they perceive their ongoing role in defending the planet. Ultron presents a rare villain whose world-ending ambitions are rooted in a distinct way of thinking, one that can be clearly traced back to some of the decisions which led to his creation. It also allows him to recruit the Maximoff twins, whose supernatural powers bring another new kind of threat to the Marvel universe. So far, so good. Nothing groundbreaking, but tight, fun and brisk.
That promising start begins to falter once the heroes are given their first glimpse of the psychological manipulations of Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, in a set of sequences geared exclusively towards setting up future movies. This recalls the worst of Iron Man 2's indulgences in using its time to promote future movies rather than creating a worthwhile experience in the present. It also leads into a mid-point lull where Whedon, having so effortlessly integrated character and plot up to that point, grinds the movie to a halt for the sake of Capital Letter Character Development that not only retreads the same steps as previous movies, but almost entirely through static conversations taking place in the most blandly clichéd location imaginable. With the movie coming in at a laboured 140mins, it's hard to imagine how no-one thought to discard, at the very least, two vapid romantic subplots which clog up the pacing and never feel like anything other than writer-enforced indulgences.
In addition to the contrived writing, Whedon's biggest obstacle in making his characters relatable is the same as that which makes his action sequences feel so insubstantial. Iron Man 3 got a lot wrong, but one thing it understood, and The Avengers didn't, is that there needs to be a palpable sense of risk for its action to be any more meaningful than empty spectacle. As in the first Avengers, Whedon's heroes never take so much as a scratch, so their musings on death and loss come across as entirely hollow. The absence of danger means the action relies entirely on a sense of awe to remain entertaining, yet the CGI-heavy nature of each encounter renders each increasingly interchangeable and wearying, culminating in a climax lifted almost verbatim from the first Avengers, only replacing aliens with robots and Loki's wormhole generator for a Big Deadly Button.
Of the new ingredients, James Spader's voice work keeps Ultron interesting for longer than the character has any right to be, given how quickly the script abandons his initial existential angst in favour of generic supervillainhood and a subplot which ignores a key facet of his interconnected nature to facilitate the creation of The Vision. Vision himself feels entirely superfluous, showing no particularly noteworthy abilities beyond those already on offer from Iron Man and Thor, despite being at least visually striking and sharing an enjoyable exchange with Thor about the merits of a well-balanced hammer. Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch fares better than Aaron Taylor-Johnson's bland Quicksilver, if only for presenting a different kind of threat than punching or zapping. Once they are actually put to work, however, it is again difficult to discern what they bring to the table which one of the existing heroes could not have provided with minor adjustment.
Strip away the bombast and superfluous additions and it is the core cast which just about keeps the movie going even while the messy direction and clunky pacing are compounding around them. Downey Jr gives one of his stronger recent performances as Tony Stark, while Scarlett Johansson continues to layer pain into Black Widow's snark. Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo are underserved with worthwhile material, but make the most of what they have. Jeremy Renner has the opposite problem, enjoying plenty of screentime, but most of it among the movie's most insufferable. That he manages to make the character likeable regardless is testament to the small notes of empathy and stoicism he finds in his character's interactions with others. A handful of cameos from the supporting cast of the individual hero movies, such as Don Cheadle's Rhodey, also make very welcome reminders of each hero's existence beyond the confines of the Avengers team.
If you are, unlike me, an avid comic book reader, the appeal of another two hours of watching these characters bounce off each other, verbally and physically, may be enough to make Age Of Ultron another worthwhile entry in Marvel's cinematic universe canon. No matter where you are coming from, though, it is difficult to imagine anyone seeing this as anything more than a case of returns diminished by repetition and playing safe, at worst an unnecessary stepping stone en route to the real showdown in Infinity War. Whedon remains quick of wit and matched by a terrific cast, but where the first Avengers gave Marvel a newfound confidence going forward on screen, Ultron is less a shot in the arm than a warning of how complacency can dull even the most vibrant pleasures into formulaic endurance tests.
[Trailer] Marvel's Daredevil
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Netflix has had a fair share of good luck lately. As the service continues to experiment with both original programming and picking up failed TV pilots (like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), it seems everything is heading in a positive direction. As Marvel prepares to launch Phase Three of their film slate (beginning with Avengers: Age of Ultron in May), they're also planning to dominate the small screen with a series of four Netflix Originals starting with Daredevil.
With this first trailer, it looks like we can expect a full 13 episodes of origin story. But while it plays generic, it's visually interesting. Charlie Cox fits into Matt Murdock well, Vincent D'Onofrio has the Kingpin look down (He'll never be as intimidating as the late Michael Clarke Duncan, however), and I'm actually digging the pre-devil Daredevil costume. It's simple, streamlined, and makes a lot of sense. I can only hope the series itself follows suit.
Marvel's Daredevil premieres on Netflix April 10th.
[This Week In TV] Parks & Recreation, Agent Carter, Victoria's Secret Swim Special
This Week in TV is a weekly feature reviewing the best, worst and most interesting episodes of television from the past seven days. The plan is to cover a wide variety of shows, but not always the same ones each week, so let us know in the comments which ones you’d particularly like to read about. This week sees the series finale of Parks & Recreation, Agent Carter reach the end of its eight-episode run, and Victoria's Secret draping semi-naked women across our televisions just because it can.
Parks & Recreation - "One Last Ride"
The outpouring of grief in certain corners of the internet over Parks & Rec's final farewell would seem disproportionate on the surface for a show which never did especially well in the ratings and whose output varied in quality over its final few seasons. It wouldn't be the first show to be lauded by a small but passionate internet fanbase - one need only look to Chuck or Community for shows whose very survival depended on it - but Parks seems to have struck a more personal and emotional chord with its fanbase than almost any other show to have gone before. The most passionate tributes to 30 Rock, for instance, came from women inspired by Tina Fey giving her sex a real voice in the television comedy landscape and, through her magnificent alter-ego, Liz Lemon, permission to be every bit as ridiculous as the men around her. Parks & Rec wasn't shy about its feminist leanings, but its audience seems to reach far beyond those narrow parameters: whether men or women, fans or critics, feminist or apolitical, even the Indiana tourist board, it seemed that no matter where you looked, love for the show was all around.
While I can hardly pretend to speak for such a wide variety of people, my personal feeling is that the intense passion so many felt for the show most likely grew out of one of its simplest, but most gently powerful characteristics: it was a show which, at its core, was kind. Leslie Knope may have overcome no shortage of cartoon villains during her time in Pawnee - Tammy II and Councilman Jamm being among the most memorable - but her greatest triumphs were rooted in empathy and understanding. Fiercely competitive and ambitious though Leslie was, her willingness to listen and make the right choices stood her apart at a time when the TV landscape was dominated by comedy born out of cynicism and drama portraying tortured anti-heroes navigating bleak ethical landscapes.
Parks & Rec was a beacon of light, embodied first and foremost by Leslie but enhanced by the affectionate and well-meaning doofuses she called her friends and colleagues, each representing their own corner of American life. In Ron f**kin' Swanson, she found her closest friend in a man seemingly her polar opposite: a gruff, anti-social conservative whose keenest interest in big government was trying to sabotage it at every opportunity, all while cultivating TV's greatest moustache. From Ann, April and Andy came the voices of youth trying to find their place in the world (or in Chris Pratt's place, the galaxy); Tom and Donna were livewire portrayals of people from underrepresented races making the American Dream their own; Ben was a positive voice for nerddom, Chris for the high-achievers. Pawnee was a place where everyone was welcome. Well, except Mark Brendanawicz.
As for the finale itself? Well, as has been the trend over the past few seasons, it got the sentiment right even if the pacing and humour were sometimes a little lacking. The structure, Six Feet Under inflected, meant the story moved in fits and starts and the eponymous 'last ride' never felt like much of a struggle or an achievement for any of the characters. However, as a farewell to this wonderful cast of characters, it did right by all of them, perhaps none moreso than in leaving Ron canoeing serenely across a vast lake, having found total contentment. April got one last piece of wonderful Leslie advice, Ann and Chris made a brief but charming return, and there was one last, magnificent dig at a public library. In short, it offered an hour-long encapsulation of everything which made Parks special to so many, and no-one could ask for much more than that.
Agent Carter - "Valediction"
Another feminist show to take its bow this week was Marvel's Agent Carter, which, like Parks, has enjoyed some critical acclaim even while never quite becoming as much of a ratings hit as expected. The show took a while to find its feet, leaning too heavily at first on some eye-rollingly unsubtle representations of post-war discrimination, and plotting which worked passably well for individual episodes but struggled to establish a compelling or coherent bigger picture.
What kept it on track throughout was the performance of Hayley Atwell, at times single-handedly dragging the show forward through sheer force of charisma. While Peggy's characterisation on the page was never really extended beyond a hyper-competent woman fighting for a place in a world of powerful but ignorant men, Atwell filled in the details with effortless grace, bringing humour and suggesting a sympathetic heart beating beneath her charaacter's closed exterior. While the show's one-note feminism offered more crowd-pleasing than nuance, Atwell's transformation of Peggy into someone more fully developed than your stereotypical 'strong woman' was instrumental in drawing the audience onto her side and making each of her triumphs truly gratifying.
A shame, then, that 'Valediction' took much of the finale of Peggy's own show out of her hands and repositioned it to revolve around - yes - a powerful but ignorant man. Howard Stark may be one of the most important supporting characters in Marvel's canon, but making him the centrepiece of Agent Carter's serialised plotline detracted from the series' central feminist message and at the final hurdle, diminished its core strength - Atwell's Carter. It didn't help that Stark is, like most of the men in the show, a rather one-dimension buffoon. Dominic Cooper played the role as written, but the performance was still a grating one, with everything from the syrupy accent to the smug grin making the character more than a little unbearable across a full episode.
Still, while nowhere near as exciting as the penultimate episode, 'Snafu', 'Valediction' was a solidly enjoyable hour despite its self-inflicted obstacles. It improved markedly once Peggy started to take charge of proceedings: while Dottie needed more time to fully register as a villain, her fight with Peggy was decent value and should the series return, she will be a very welcome part of it. Peggy talking Howard down from attacking New York also gave a satisfying pay-off to her mouring of Steve Rogers, with Atwell, of course, nailing every emotional beat. Agent Carter may still only be a good show when it has all the ingredients to be a sensational one, but in Atwell it has a genuine star whom it would be very sad not to see return for a second run.
Victoria's Secret Swim Special
It's a hard life being a television critic. Sometimes you just have to sit down, steel yourself, and watch a full hour of the world's hottest models prance about in miniscule bikinis on gorgeous tropical beaches for review, because, well, it's your damn job. No, no, don't feel the need to send letters of thanks. These are the sacrifices we make; extensive rewinding, pausing and all.
So, the Swim Special. In a gripping narrative, the Angels turn up in Puerto Rico to shoot photos for the Victoria Secret swimsuit catalogue, with the dramatic stakes terrifyingly high as each model competes to claim the much sought-after cover. Lily Aldridge, owner of a body so celestial you'd think planets would revolve around it, is up first, proving herself a master of understatement by describing the shoot as 'epic' and 'legendary'. Truly, hers is a task Heracles would wilt to face, having to overcome crippling vertigo by climbing a small ladder onto a moderately sized boulder. Brave Lily is for this applauded by the crew with the joy traditionally reserved for a returning war hero. Meanwhile, the eternally chipper Behati Prinsloo is busy derping about in town, pretending to take photographs before meeting up with her Puerto Rican chum, Joan Smalls, to try out some local dancing. Compelling stuff indeed, but not exactly showing the kind of dedication required to bag a prestigious *cough* cover. Having recovered from her traumatic experience on the boulder, Lily Aldridge heads off to do an underwater shoot with Alessandra Ambrosio. Alessandra has done these before, but Lily hasn't and, once again, is utterly terrified. However, in a stunning twist, bad weather forces them to head back to land, where Lily gets to roll around in the surf instead. Triumphant music emphasizes the scale of her success.
Next, we check in with Candice Swanepoel, who has dominated the swimsuit catalogue cover for the past few years. Photographer Russell James, barely able to hide his smugness at having a much better job than you, describes her shoot as 'illegal'. No-one's entirely sure what this means, but fortunately there are no arrests. However, just as everyone's settling in, villains Maroon 5 turn up and their devastating show of corporate rock mediocrity kills all known boners dead. The Angels recover from this disaster with meditation and yoga, achieving zen enlightenment courtesy of VS' line in overpriced exercise gear. Adriana Lima and Joan Smalls then muck about with a pony for a bit, before the girls head into town for a night of celebration with Colombian crooner, Juanes. Unlike Maroon 5, he actually has an audience, who dance the night away amid domino-playing natives. With everyone else presumably ferociously hung over, Jasmine Tookes turns up briefly as a distraction before promptly disappearing again. Having recovered from their night of drink, drugs and dominos, the final four - Prinsloo, Aldridge, Swanepoel and Ambrosio, decked out in Top Gun sunglasses - engage in a decisive volleyball competition. TO THE DEATH. Or maybe not. Anyway, there's disappointingly little match action and most of the drama is relayed through the camera focusing at length on the scoreboard, which may set a new standard for streamlined sports coverage.
Underdogs Behati and Lily beat the odds to emerge victorious, followed by much celebration and spooning. Or maybe I dreamt that last part. Anyway, Lily's victory speech to the other girls couldn't be any more patronising if she tried ("You're great sports and you look beautiful.") and she chest-bumps Behati, which almost made me go blind. Alessandra says she'll look back on all this one day as 'an incredible time in her life', which seems a bit pessimistic. Little does she know but there's to be no happy ending: Maroon 5 return and the Angels dance with contractually obligated enthusiasm to their bland warblings. Amusingly, no-one else bothered to show up. Adam Levine gets a kiss from his wife, Behati, and it's all very disheartening. Overall, a downbeat ending sours an otherwise nerve-janglingly dramatic television event that doesn't quite come together as whole, but hardly matters since most of its target audience will probably have watched it in periods of no more than four minutes at a time anyway. Also, I think Lily Aldridge owns my soul now.
Spider-Man Officially Joining Marvel Cinematic Universe
It finally happened. After the Sony hacks took place a few months ago, it appeared that a lot of the leaked emails and information would be dead in the water. One such negotiation involved Sony and Disney coming to terms so Spider-Man could appear in official Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
Per the press release Marvel released, the "new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU)." Afterwards, a Sony Pictures installment will release on July 28, 2017 co-produced by MCU's main behind-the-scenes man, Kevin Feige, and Amy Pascal, former Sony head who faced a lot of criticism following the aforementioned Sony hacks. More importantly, the two "will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger." In addition, the release also states that "Marvel and Sony Pictures are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films."
What's interesting to note is that Andrew Garfield is probably out per the release's specific notation of a "new Spider-Man" appearing. Marvel has also adjusted their upcoming release schedule, fitting the upcoming Spider-Man film for July 2017, pushing Thor: Ragnarok to November 2017, Black Panther to July 2018, Captain Marvel to November 2018, and Inhumans to July 2019.
It's an exciting time for superhero film fans, especially those of us who are avid Spider-Man fans that have waited for exactly this moment. With Feige helping oversee the direction of the Spider-Man films, we can finally have the proper Spider-Man film we haven't seen on the big screen yet. Furthermore, the collaboration between Sony and Marvel could open up doors for FOX to negotiate some type of dual deal with Disney and Sony to have their characters (X-Men and Fantastic Four) appear altogether.
Make mine Marvel!
[via Marvel]
16th Century-Imagined Superheroes by Photographer Sacha Goldberger
Photos by Sacha Goldberger
In the last few decades, we've seen superheroes be transformed and remade continually, but until now, we've never quite seen them like this. Photographer Sacha Goldberger has created a series of 16th Century-looking superheroes at a special art exhibition in Paris titled "Super Flemish". Through a compilation of make up artistry, design, and lighting, each character is photographed to look like an Elizabethan-era painted portrait, and it's as realistic as you can get.
To name a few, the portraits include characters from DC, Marvel, and Star Wars, and it took an entire crew to portray each one. Outside of the hair and makeup artists, casting directors were even hired to book models that closely resembled the Hollywood actors that played each superhero in recent films. The detail-oriented project proved to be a success, and they are all creatively entertaining.
Take a look at the following portraits, and find more of Goldberger's full portfolio here and on his Facebook page.
[Via ComicBook.com]
Marvel's Phase Three Films Announced and Dated
And just like that, the lid has been blown wide open on Marvel Studios' future slate of films. We already knew about Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man releasing next year, but now the full slate of films through the first half of 2019 have been announced during a special Marvel Films event earlier today. The films run concurrent with the films that were rumored to be announced awhile back. The full list is as follows:
- Captain America 3 is now Captain America: Civil War - May 6, 2016
- Doctor Strange - November 4, 2016
- Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - May 5, 2017
- Thor: Ragnarok - July 28, 2017
- Black Panther - November 3, 2017
- Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 - May 4, 2018
- Captain Marvel - July 6, 2018
- Inhumans - November 2, 2018
- Avengers: Infinity War Part II - May 3, 2019
The biggest surprises (outside of the aforementioned rumored leak) are the Black Panther and Captain Marvel films, as well as the lack of a Hulk standalone film. Everything else looks to be keeping in line with Marvel's normal strategy of releasing two films a year (with 2017 being an exception). There's still wiggle room for a surprise announcement (Spider-Man joining the fray, mayhaps?), but this looks to be what'll be emptying our wallets at the box office over the next five years. Are you ready?
[via /Film]
