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Joss Whedon Trolls ‘Star Wars’ Fans, Talks Wasp In ‘Avengers’

In our pre-Mayan apocalypse era, when you want to ensure that whatever you say is disseminated far and wide faster than the time it takes to tweet ‘DID YOU SEE THIS ###$$!!!’ the best advice is to master the subtle art of trolling with useful facts. Case in point: Joss Whedon , who screened The Avengers and afterward, sat for one of Jeff Goldsmith’s Q&As Tuesday night at the Director’s Guild of America in Hollywood. During a discussion that also included some tantalizing non-reveals about elements that almost, but didn’t make it into The Avengers , he decided to troll the entire universe by insisting that Star Wars: A New Hope is better than The Empire Strikes Back . Kind of! Slashfilm was on the scene and reports this comment: “I still believe that even though The Empire Strikes Back is better in innumerable ways than Star Wars , Star Wars wins,” Whedon said, “because you can’t end a movie with Han frozen in carbonite. That’s not a movie, it’s an episode.” Okay, after putting my fist back down and unclenching it, I see his point. Empire began what has become the most troubling aspect* of Hollywood’s obsession with trilogies; a stand alone first installment, with two subsequent films that work better as a duo rather than taken individually. A true trilogy ought to either feature three films that either work as stand alone stories linked by a common theme, or two cliffhangers in a row with resolution coming in the third movie. Empire , and to a lesser extent Jedi , manage the trick with some subtlety, but there’s a short line between them and Matrix Reloaded / Revolutions . And we must never forget Matrix Reloaded , lest we repeat the mistakes of the past. Anyway, those comments came during a circumspect discussion of how he envisions the Avengers franchise, and should probably be taken to mean that we won’t be getting an Avengers ‘trilogy.’ Good news, that, because instead we’re getting the crazy experiment that is the Marvel movie universe. Slashfilm ‘s recap is worth a full read, particularly because it includes more confirmation that the inclusion of the Wasp was indeed considered in the event ScarJo wasn’t available — interesting in light of recent rumors that Lizzy Caplan , who stars with Jesse Bradford in the Marvel short Item 47 , is a potential candidate to play the diminutive mutant. Read the whole thing here . * Second most troubling: claiming that three thematically unrelated sequels constitute a trilogy I AM LOOKING AT YOU DIE HARD . [ Source: Slashfilm ] Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow him on twitter (@rossalincoln). Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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Joss Whedon Trolls ‘Star Wars’ Fans, Talks Wasp In ‘Avengers’

‘Pain & Gain’ Trailer: Michael Bay Pumps Iron, Hero Shots Into Bizarre True Crime Tale

If you loathe Transformers – Michael Bay but have a soft spot for the Bay who made not one, but two Bad Boys es, then the first trailer for his true crime pic Pain & Gain is going to push all the right buttons: Beefy macho men, fast cars, a slick Miami setting, Mark Wahlberg hitting that Dirk Diggler sweet spot of dumb overconfidence, and everyone’s favorite muscleman, The Rock… it’s enough to make the truly disturbing real life saga of a gang of bodybuilding thugs-turned-killers who bungled their way through unspeakable acts of torture and murder into a feelgood American Dream antihero tale! Wahlberg stars as real life ringleader Daniel Lugo, a small time Florida dreamer/ short shorts enthusiast who tapped his workout buddies to pull the most inept — and, don’t get it twisted, unforgivably violent — extortion attempt in recent history. Things didn’t turn out so well for the Sun Gym gang, and things certainly didn’t shake out in slo-motion hero shots and hilarious sound bite quips for their victims. The trailer is CSI Miami -slick and stuffed with all the usual Bay signatures that made him the commercially successful bombast-specialist auteur that he is, but I can’t help but wonder if, after making relatable Lugo & Co.’s yearning for more, and glorifying the bromantic shenanigans that unfold as they cook up a scheme to steal money from Monk, Bay will flip the table on his audience and shine a harsher light on the crimes that put these “heroes” on death row in real life. Since this is Michael Freaking Bay we’re talking about here, I have no idea what to expect on the moral ambiguity tip, but best case scenario, this could be his most mature and complex look at modern machismo yet. (Maybe that’s not saying much.) Pain & Gain is based on Miami New Times writer Pete Collins’ fascinating report on the Sun Gym gang and the Fargo -esque trajectory of their eventual downfall and arrest. The full saga is a must-read: Find it archived here . Pain & Gain hits theaters April 26. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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‘Pain & Gain’ Trailer: Michael Bay Pumps Iron, Hero Shots Into Bizarre True Crime Tale

James Franco Says He’s Likely Not In ‘Planet Of The Apes’ Sequel

James Franco said he is unlikely to return to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes following the exit of the sequel’s director Rupert Wyatt . “I was going to be a small part of the next one,” he told MTV. “There was a moment when Rupert Wyatt was going to direct the second one. A lot of the human characters that were in the first movie were dead in the sequel that Rupert was going to direct…” Franco said there was an opening for his character to make a return to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes , but changes at the Fox studio made it unlikely he’ll reprise his role. “There was one scene, between Caesar and my character, maybe even just like on a video that was left behind,” said Franco, adding, “but then a lot of things happened, like [former Fox co-chairman] Tom Rothman who was a big part of the first movie, left. Now Rupert’s not a part of it so I don’t know. My guess is I won’t be in it. Nobody’s talked to me since Rupert left.” Not that James Franco is in need of things to do. At the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, two of his co-directorial efforts, kink , a documentary about fetish website kink.com and Interior. Leather Bar , described as the “lost 40 minutes from ‘Cruising’ as a starting point to a broader exploration of sexual and creative freedom,” will debut. He is also starring in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s Lovelace at the festival (this will be quite a racy Sundance for Franco apparently). And a quick look at his IMDb page lists about a dozen projects in various stages of completion. And just to keep things interesting, Franco recently signed with a small Minnesota publisher to debut a collection of his poetry set for April 2014. According to The Guardian poetry editor Jeffrey Shotts described Franco’s written work as a “series of portraits of American successes and failures from within Hollywood … But they are also smart and highly aware notes of caution of what can happen when the filmed self becomes fixed and duplicated, while the ongoing self must continue living and watching.” Franco published his first poetry, Strongest of the Litter earlier this fall. [Sources: Digital Spy , MTV , The Guardian ]

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James Franco Says He’s Likely Not In ‘Planet Of The Apes’ Sequel

The Masters: Movieline Critic Alison Willmore’s Top 10 Films of 2012

This was a terrific year for movies. I don’t know that I have more to say about it as a whole than that, because 2012 was such a varied year in cinema, too. We saw procedurals,  Zero Dark Thirty  and  Lincoln ,  that dug into the immense work behind known moments in history; movies about the movies, like  Holy Motors  and The Cabin in the Woods ,  and sensory creations like  Beasts of the Southern Wild and  The Master ,  with their very different protagonists who each seem, at times, tuned into a clearer sense of the universe. This year also saw the continued fade-out of celluloid and the push for new cinematic experiences with the 48fps of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , the 3D wizardry of  Life of Pi and the prosthetic and make-up-aided gender and ethnicity crossing-casting of  Cloud Atlas . But my biggest pleasures in the theater this year tended to be the old-fashioned type: from a luscious 70mm screening of  The Master  at the Ziegfeld Theater  in New York to the throwback sensibility at the center of  Rust and Bone.  Then again, it’s contemporary technology that allowed my number-one pick to be shot and smuggled to its Cannes premiere inside a cake. Film is changing, sure, but there’s no arguing its vividly alive. 10. Dark Horse “I know that life has been unfair to you because it has given you every possible advantage,” man-child Abe (Jordan Gelber) is told in a dream sequence, a perfect encapsulation of an existence spent in paralyzing, frustrated inadequacy. Both he and his eventual reluctant fiancée Miranda ( Selma Blair ) are in their thirties and living with their parents in New Jersey, crushed by their inability to prove themselves to be as special in adulthood as they’d always been as children. Todd Solondz doesn’t mock his ridiculous, defensive and unhappy protagonist with the same mercilessness that he used to skewer his back catalog of memorable losers, but he doesn’t allow Abe to be lovable or cuddly either. He’s inherited a dissatisfaction that has kept him caught between entitlement and self-loathing, and stands alone as a marvelously drawn and tragic figure of toxic ingrained American aspirations. 9. The Cabin in the Woods It’s an ingeniously geeky and loving deconstruction of the horror genre. It’s a meta-critique of what we want from slasher flicks and why we enjoy them. It’s a reworking of and an explanation for the silliest recurring habits of scary movie victims, and it’s also, somehow, a workplace comedy. Mostly, though, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s clever, clever film was maybe the best time you could have had in cineplexes this year. It was rewarding both as a reference-laden (bloody) valentine to hardcore film fans and a rollicking standalone feature that offered up far-from-disposable characters and an elaborate high-tech system to explain why they ended up running from baddies in the woods.

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The Masters: Movieline Critic Alison Willmore’s Top 10 Films of 2012