Is Eva Longoria being cast in the Avengers Movie?

It seems that the Desperate Housewives star is being cast in the 2011 Avengers Movie as she was seen carrying Avengers comic books prior to leaving the Marvel Studios. Word is she’ll be playing the wasp or people are just thinking too much on this and that she really just went to the studio to get comics for her husband Tony to read while waiting for the start of the NBA season (duh!). Speculate away.

Source: Flawed Hollywood

Superman Begins: Ideas for the New Superman Movie pt. 1

2008 was a big year for comic-based films. Not only did we see the success of the Movie the Dark Knight, we’ve also seen the great offerings from Marvel in Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk. Marvel definitely showed their rival a thing or two on how to make films out of their properties and it seems that Warner Bros. is learning from it and already started to rethink their film strategy. One of the outcomes of that meeting is the decision to reboot the Superman Film Franchise.

Following the direction of the Dark Knight, DC/Warner is planning to make the universe for the new Superman a bit darker. It seems that they weren’t happy with the response they got from Superman Returns and decided to start a clean slate. I personally think it’s a great idea to reboot it but that just leads us to more questions such as how do you make Superman appealing in this day and age.

STORY. Well, the first thing that they’ve to look for is a great material or story to start with. It’s a given that a lot of people will watched a Superman movie regardless of the story but a Superman movie with great story will definitely attract new audiences (that’s the power of a good word of mouth from a satisfied customer) and will ensure that the film franchise will have strong legs to last for 3-6 movies.

Great stories come from great writers and the best place to start when looking for a great writer for a comic-based film is no other than the comic industry itself. DC/Warner did a great job by getting a writer who understands both medium (film & comics) in David Goyer. And what would a great comic writer assigned to write the origin for a character in a film based on comics do,  he would based the story of the film on the greatest story written in comics for that character which just happens to be the origin story of that character in Batman’s case. The Batman Begins writing team did a great job by loosely basing it on the Batman: Year One comic by Frank Miller. There are a ton of great stories in comics for DC characters just lying around, waiting to be used and it would be wise to use them. There’s definitely no need to re-invent the wheel in this case-use successful and great storylines from comics and adapt them into films and stop coming up with new stories which might not get a great reception from the audience.

The same thing can be done for the Superman franchise, the first thing to do is to select a great writer who knows his comic book stuff and knows his way around in film production. Fortunately, there are two comic book writers who fit the bill – Geoff Johns and Mark Millar.

Geoff Johns is the current writer of the long running Superman title Action Comics and he’s doing one heck of a job. To those of you not reading it, now would be the perfect time to start. Geoff’s storyline on Brainiac would be great if adapted to a movie (here’s a preview of part 1 of the Brainiac story) – I’m sure a lot of people share my opinion of not wanting to see another Superman movie with Lex Luthor as the villain. Just a side note, I can’t help but mention that the Superman drawn by Action Comics penciller, Gary Frank, is eerily similar to Christopher Reeves. Also, Geoff used to be the assistant of Richard Donner, director famous for the Superman Movies (what a coincidence) and had some experience writing in film/television as well (Blade series, Justice League Unlimited, Naughty or Nice and Smallville). Geoff’s stories show all the things we’ve come to love with the character and he’s great in crafting new storylines out of the old stories as well. If you want a writer who can effectively show you all the elements you loved from the character of Superman, then Geoff’s definitely your best bet.

If you want something unconventional or unique to start with your Superman Film Franchise, Enter Mark Millar. Mark Millar was the writer of the mega successful Marvel event Civil War and the recently produced into film short series, Wanted. Wanted 2 is already being planned and Kick-Ass, another comic series written by Millar, is already being produced into film right now. If there’s any writer who has shown the most passion in rebooting the Superman franchise (prior to the official reboot announcement) in the last few years, it is Mark Millar. Mark Millar has publicly proclaim his desire to do a Superman Movie and even went as far as to confess that doing a Superman Movie is probably his main mission in life. Millar even shares that he has an idea for a Superman Trilogy epic for 10 years now and was pitching it to Warner even prior to Superman Returns. So what’s stopping Warner from getting a writer who can breathe in new life to the Superman franchise and who is definitely passionate on doing it? Well, Mark Millar is currently on contract with Marvel, DC’s rival company. So unless Millar finishes his contract to Marvel or decide to sign with DC, Warner won’t even consider him.

So it looks like Geoff Johns is the best person for this job afterall. So to the executives of DC/Warner, please do yourself and the fans a favor and bring Geoff Johns in the Superman Films. I’m sure you won’t regret it. Well, that’s it for part 1, join me again for part 2 as we complete the cast of the Superman franchise including the director for the movie.

Bridge to Terabithia – Alternate Ending

Yesterday, I finally got around to watching the Bridge to Terabithia DVD which has been lying in my collections for more than a year now. To be honest, I don’t know anything about the movie, never knew that it was an adaptation of a novel and I just assumed that it’s just the typical fantasy movie for kids as it was afterall produced by Disney.

CAUTION: the following lines may contain some spoilers from the film, so please stop reading it in case you haven’t seen it yet.

While I was watching it, I immediately realized how wrong my initial assumption was as the movie is more than just the standard stuff being released under the same genre. In fact it has a lot of substance in it and would probably be a favorite film for teachers to assign to their students for a reaction paper (film review).

THE STORY: Anyway, the story revolves around the life of a misunderstood yet artistically-talented kid (Jess) and how she found his perfect friend in the character of a newly-transferred, tomboyish student named Leslie. Leslie, whose parents are both writers, is a great writer in her own right and the two kids click together naturally due to both of them having artistic inclination and love for adventures. In the film, Leslie encourages Jess to always keep a wide open mind (which he did) and which eventually allowed them to enter their imaginary world of Terabithia.

Everyday after school, they would swing across the river using a rope and have their adventures in Terabithia. You can definitely feel the joy and fun that both kids have with each and every adventure they share, thanks to the great performance of Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb. The film actually shows the type of bond that the two friends had developed and how completely synchronized their imaginations are. I can already imagine the number of great stories these two kids can produce if  they are to collaborate in the future. Talk about great synergy, their friendship also allowed each of them to overcome challenges which are seemingly impossible on their own such as getting back and later on befriending  the school bully, Jess’ overcoming his fear of the bullies and lending a hand to help their music teacher which he has a big crush on (Zooey Deschanel).

One morning, Jess got a call from his music teacher inviting him to go on a trip to the art musuem. Before they left for the art musuem, Jess thought about inviting his friend Leslie to join them but eventually decided to go on alone with his teacher which again he has a huge crush on. Jess had great fun in the musuem and went home in high spirits. As with all stories, when things seem to be looking all sunny and bright – better be prepared as the dark and gloomy part is just around the corner. Jess got home and was welcomed by the sight of his family crying (they thought Jess was dead and his body missing) who gave him the sad news that his friend Leslie has just died while crossing the river. It seems that the rope they used to cross the river snapped, Leslie hit her head on something and eventually drowned. Jess was immediately overcome by guilt and sadness after hearing the news.

The story ended with Jess building a bridge to cross the river and had her sister join her to re-live their (Leslie and Jess’s) adventures with Jesse as King and his siter as Princess of Terabithia.

CRITICAL RECEPTION: I looked around the internet and it seems that the film was well received and actually got unexpectedly good outcome in the box office charts. The film also received a lot of good reviews and actually benefited from good word of mouth from those who had seen it.

There were a lot of complaints though, mostly from parents who are not familiar with the story coming in, who had difficulty from stopping their crying children after the movie. I, for one, was shocked on the film’s ending as I keep telling myself (near the end) that no way is Disney going to end the movie with the girl dead. I’m so sure they’ll pull something in the end to make it a happy ending – which never came.

I completely understand what the film (or the novel) was trying to go for with this kind of ending – that there are some things in life which can’t be explained but we just have to go on living our lives and be happy – but I do feel that this is just too much for kid’s to handle. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t teach kids the realities of life but it’s just that what happened to Leslie was just too heavy (sad) and the time allocated to it is too sudden and short for kids to understand. It’s been quite common that the endings and sometimes the core stories of films which were adapted from books are changed to better suit the audience and I was just surprised that Disney still went for this type of ending, considering the age of their targeted audience.

ALTERNATE ENDING:

Right after I watched the movie, I searched the internet for an alternate ending of this movie and there seems to be none. With all extras that DVD nowadays try to include in their package, an alternate ending is a very common addition (even movies like I am Legend has it), you would think that Disney would try to include an alternate ending for this movie (which it so badly needs) but nothing’s there. So what I did was just try to come up with my own alternate ending for the movie.

ALTERNATE ENDING (1)

A very obvious loophole which could have been used as the Deus Ex Machina or the big reveal in the ending was to show that Leslie was just trapped in the other side right after the rope snapped. Her parents never found the body and just assumed she drowned in the river and died. Some might claim that this is lame since the first thing that the people will look for her is on the other side but again this is a fantasy movie and not CSI and you could always reason out that the forest was so big that they missed her during their search or that she passed out and fell asleep in their hideout and didn’t hear the rescuers calling her name.

ALTERNATE ENDING (2)

Right after Jess and his sister have crossed the newly-built bridge, they could have shown that Leslie was in there together with all the characters in Terabithia welcoming the two and she continues to be part of their adventures even if it’s just in Jess and his sister’s imaginations. This is an ending that would definitely make the kids happier and wouldn’t take too much away from the original source.

Anyways, hope these two alternate endings help other people who felt that the movie is lacking something. If not, please don’t let these things affect your enjoyment of the movie. In closing, the Bridge of Terabithia is a great movie-not your typical kid’s fantasy movie-but it would be great if the parents know what to expect in it before having their kids watch it.