Entertainment Weekly came away with the exclusive first images of the armor suit for Iron Man. In the past, Director Jon Favreau alluded that more than one suit will worn by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). The original comic storyline had Stark going through different versions/styles of the suit, improving it each time until he settled on the classic red and yellow. This is supposedly the final suit Tony Stark will choose.

Personally, I think it looks pretty cool, but cool looks won’t matter if Iron Man doesn’t move and fight well. This is going to be tough for the FX team. Maybe go for a happy medium between Robocop’s movements and the Terminator in human mode ala Arnold?

Check out Entertainment Weekly’s article here.
Check out the history of Iron Man here.

The Hollywood Reporter disclosed that two projects with big names attached are currently being shopped around Hollywood. However, bidding isn’t as hot as expected because of the high budget estimations for both. Ringing in at a budget of $120 million (before marketing costs) is an untitled Leonardo DiCaprio-Michael Mann collaboration with franchise talk buzzing around it. The story is a Hollywood murder mystery with DiCaprio playing a studio fixer. John Logan wrote the script. With such high costs and Mann’s reputation for going over budget, New Line is the only one to bid so far. We may not be seeing this film unless the budget drops $20 million.

The other project is Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lovely Bones with a projected $80 million budget. The Lovely Bones is from a novel about a teenage girl who is raped and murdered and then watches from Heaven as her friends and family continue their lives. Even with such a high budget for that type of story, Warner Bros. Pictures, Sony, Dreamworks, and Universal are duking it out for the project.

Read more about the potential deals here.
Read more about the original novel of The Lovely Bones here.

No, Frank Miller isn’t remaking the 1998 Robert Deniro film. He’s bringing his 1980’s original comic series to the big screen ala Sin City and 300. The six-issue series followed a disgraced samarai warrior from the 13th Century who is reborn in the 21st Century to battle a demon from his past. Ronin came after Miller’s run with Daredevil and Wolverine but before his ground-breaking Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Though not as popular as Miller’s other work, it is no surprise that Warner Bros. Pictures has greenlit the project after the huge success of 300 and Sin City. The highly anticipated Sin City 2 is ready to begin production in June with the original cast and crew returning. Ronin wil be shot in the same green-screen style of his other films at a budget around $65 million. A script is currently being written.

Read more about the project here.
Read more about the original comic series here.

On July 24th, The Monster Squad is finally being released by Lionsgate in a 2-Disc 20th Anniversary Edition. It hit movie theaters way back in 1987, but has only been available on DVD through bootleg copies. The story centers on Dracula and his cronies coming to a small town with evil plans leading to a group of boys, called The Monster Squad, to try and stop them.

This movie, The Goonies, and The Lost Boys were some of my favorites of the time. The FX for Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Gill Man, and The Mummy were done by Stan Winston of Terminator, Aliens, Jurassic Park fame. The screenplay was co-written by Shane Black, the creator/screenwriter of the Lethal Weapon series. DVD EXTRAS: Feature Commentary, Deleted and Extended Scenes, a Cast Reunion and other Featurettes.

Read more about the release at DVD Empire, Shock Till You Drop, and Joblo.com.
Check out the original trailer here.

“Quite clearly, the planet is dying, and we are dying on it”, Darren Aronofsky, as quoted in The Guardian.

The fascination with man’s existential awareness, and the attendant psychological burden, weaves it’s way through every Aronofsky film in some fashion. Painfully conscious of their own impending demise, Aronofsky’s dark anit-heros are pulled towards their fate; sometimes while kicking and screaming, sometimes propelled by their own force of will, but always forward. Aronofsky plans to return to that theme once again in an examination of another character who finds himself caught up in the anxiety of life and death, the biblical Noah. It’s not surprising that Aronofsky would find the genesis tale of unwanted heroism, holocaust and rebirth a tempting subject to explore. The director has had an attraction for the tale since youth when he won a poetry award at the age of 13 for a poem about the flood from Noah’s perspective. About his heavy take on Noah, Aronofsky says, “Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk…There was some real survivor’s guilt going on there. He’s a dark, complicated character”.

How will film goer’s react to the director’s latest project? Foregoing any fundamentalist religious fervor, film fans have always divided themselves into two distinct groups – those who worship Aronofsky’s brooding visions, and those who find his works over-indulgent and emotionally cold. No doubt his interpretation of God’s first Armageddon will create the same strong reactions.