The Avengers will officially assemble again. Disney announced the obvious today: following a record-shattering opening weekend , the superhero blockbuster will come out with a sequel at an undetermined date in the future. In related, even less obvious news, Kim Kardashian likes money. ” The Avengers isn’t just a film,” said Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger to CNBC. “It’s a franchise from our perspective. Obviously, it was helped a lot by the success of the Iron Man movies and of Tho r and Captain America . From The Avengers we get a chance to make Thor 2 and Captain America 2 and
Speculation has swirled for a while now about whether or not Fox and Ridley Scott would pursue a PG-13 rating for its blockbuster hopeful Prometheus , which, if previews and disgusting animated GIFs are any indication, has plenty of raw sci-fi terrors to back up an R. But one fan who locked up an advance ticket to the film might have unintentionally solved the ratings puzzle. Collider passes along the accompanying photo, which an IMDB user apparently nabbed in advance over the weekend and passed along with the giddy declaration: “AS PROMISED!! CHECK THE LINK ABOVE, PROMETHEUS IS RATED R!!!!” ZOMG, etc. Sorry, kids! May I suggest Bully ? [ IMDB via Collider ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Avengers probably wouldn’t ever find itself compared to The Cabin in the Woods if the two films hadn’t been released within weeks of each other. As it is, moviegoers have had a virtual feast of familiar tics laid before us by writer-director-geek hero Joss Whedon. My Whedon fatigue is well-documented , so I was pleasantly surprised to find some of his schtick to be the best part of The Avengers . It’s not a straight-up assessment of quality — I liked The Cabin in the Woods better overall than The Avengers – but some of Whedon’s usual crutches worked better under the restrictions of the big-budget blockbuster than they did in the small, indie, meta-horror film, where he could let his id run wild. On the Whedonism scale of distracting to effective, here are four familiar tropes that worked well in The Avengers . [Spoilers ahead, and we’ll all have to agree to disagree on Firefly .] 1. The ragtag group of heroes. This was completely out of Whedon’s control, but completely in his wheelhouse. Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse were all ensemble dramas, making Whedon probably the best possible director to take on this studio-mandated supergroup of superheroes. By now he knows how to juggle characters and storylines – and when to let some drop. (Even though I’m not one of the Firefly faithful, I really enjoyed Serenity precisely because of the restrictions it placed on Whedon; he had to wrap up the Firefly series and still tell a coherent, independent story in under two hours, which forced him to strip away a lot of what I found to be self-indulgent or poorly thought-out on the television show.) The Avengers doesn’t try to give equal time to each of the heroes; it might as well be called Iron Man 2.5 . Thor is there to swing his hammer and drop off the villain from his movie, Hawkeye gets brainwashed before we even know him, and Captain America fades into Tony Stark’s straight man. And you know what? Those are good things. The movie’s already over two hours, I don’t really need subplots for most of the dudes who are lining up their own sequels. And by choosing a few of the Avengers to focus on, Whedon made me more invested in what happened to Stark and Black Widow and the Hulk during the course of the movie. 2. The poignant death of the supporting characters. From Tara and Joyce Summers to Wesley and Wash, Whedon’s pretty ruthless about killing off the nice, sweet supporting characters. Poor Agent Coulson never had a chance. Yes, the guy has had a target on his back since his first appearance in Iron Man turned him into a multi-movie flunky, but his actual death in The Avengers was probably the movie’s biggest surprise. Whedon played it very effectively – it was a rare moment of emotion amid the sky-monsters and damaged buildings and Tom Hiddleston’s distracting horned helmet, and I believed in Coulson’s death much more than the movie ever made me believe that Iron Man would actually have to sacrifice himself to save Manhattan. 3. Topping the platonic ideal of the action-movie quip. From Buffy on, Whedon has perfected the sly, self-referential one-liner tossed amid the carnage and choreographed fight scenes. Which is great, if increasingly unremarkable now that most action movies star snarky, Han Solo-wannabes who never let a fight to the death get in the way of their quips. As always, Tony Stark is more than happy to oblige in The Avengers , and gets off some particularly memorable meta-comments about Thor’s “Shakespeare in the Park” superhero garb. But Whedon’s humor worked for me a little bit more here than it did in Cabin in the Woods – it was less distracting, or maybe just more welcome in the face of the tedious Blockbuster Special Effects. I especially liked the visual humor he wrung out of the Hulk, who responds to victory by punching Thor and meets Loki’s threats by banging him around like a piece of pizza dough. A few days after seeing The Avengers , I don’t remember a lot of the dialogue, but I do remember those images. 4. Women who sometimes get to do things. I was not very impressed with the women of Cabin in the Woods , but The Avengers was definitely a step back towards Buffy and Zoe and the other women Whedon allows to be more than onlookers and love interests. True, The Avengers won’t pass the Bechdel test , and poor Cobie Smulders might as well have been wearing an “Exposition Girl” nametag. But Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts makes a big impression in a few minutes of screen time, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much Scarlett Johannson’s Black Widow gets to do, especially considering her rather dismal introduction in Iron Man 2 . She gets an action scene or two, she’s shown using her diplomacy and wits to recruit the Hulk and figure out the villain’s plan, and while her loyalty to Hawkeye helps develop her character, she’s not reduced to the anxious girlfriend – in fact, her conversation with Loki cleverly subverts that trope. According to Adam Rogers’ great Whedon profile in Wired , Marvel actually considered dropping Black Widow from the film at one point; Whedon not only fought for her to stay so that the superheroes’ base didn’t turn into a “gay cruise,” he made her into one of his three main protagonists. Which is appreciated by all of us girls who don’t need to ask our boyfriends when The Avengers comes out. Maria Aspan is a writer living in New York whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Reuters and American Banker. She Tweets and Tumbls .
Director calls first film ‘an extraordinary experience’ — but he also tells MTV News he needs to rest for ’17 years in a cave.’ By Kara Warner Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. in “The Avengers” Photo: Marvel Studios Now that “Marvel’s The Avengers” has taken in oodles and oodles of cash during its opening weekend here in the U.S., it’s time to talk about the sequel, of course! There will likely need to be some serious discussions about scheduling, but given the fact that Marvel already has plans for a slew of other superhero-related sequels like “Iron Man 3” , “Captain America 2” and “Thor 2,” another “Avengers” can’t be too far away, can it? MTV News put the question to the first film’s mastermind, Joss Whedon, by asking for his thoughts on returning to helm a second chapter of the film. Whedon provided some insightful commentary about his experience, along with some artful dodgery. “You know, it was an extraordinary experience,” Whedon said. “The actors gave me so much, Marvel gave me so much trust. And [when] I said, ‘Well, if I was going to do this [movie], I’d like to do this,’ that’s the movie I made,” he explained of his satisfaction with the creative freedom he was afforded with the film. “And they only ever moved it forward and collaborated and supported me. And I gotta tell you, that’s unusual from a studio.” So we’ll take that positive and diplomatic response as “I will have to think about it”? Similarly, when we ran into Whedon at the film’s world premiere in Los Angeles, we tried to get more specific and asked him how many days of vacation he’d need before he’d be able to think about a sequel. “Seventeen years in a tiny cave,” Whedon said with a smile. “In Tibet.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Marvel’s The Avengers.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos Get Psyched For ‘Avengers’ ‘The Avengers’ Take On Tribeca Film Festival MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Avengers’
Looks like there may be a few bugs in the newest version of the iOS. People have complained that Siri rarely does what you actually want and that she can have a difficult time with nuances of different languages. We had no idea Siri was a closet racist, however, until just now. In a parody from Funny or Die, the virtual iPhone assistant offers advice to an African-American gentleman based solely on racial stereotypes. Racist Siri This is the second funniest spoof on the iPhone after last winter’s nuclear marital Siri argument . When in doubt … call your parole officer. Other than that … swag, swag, swag, swag, swag.
Octomom’s first day as a porn star is in the books. The beleaguered, bankrupt mom of 14 completed her first day of XXX shooting at a porn mansion in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley Thursday, and it went well! Octo (real name Nadya Suleman) is starring in a new film in which she will be pleasuring herself … since she refuses to do porn involving other human beings. She was nervous at first, but got the hang of it. Before the shoot, producers decided it would be a good idea to screen some porno flicks for the clearly nervous Nadya as an educational tool of sorts. When it was time for Octomom to get down to business, TMZ reports that she was a pro . A source even said, “She was a natural. She looked great!!” Yay! No word on how much she’s making for the masturbation movie, but she may need to film a bunch of sequels to pay off at least $500,000 in debt . [Photo: WENN.com]
And… we have a new box office champion. The Avengers earned a mind-boggling $200.3 million on Friday and Saturday, blowing past Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ($169.2 million) for the biggest opening weekend in Hollywood history. The Avengers Super Bowl Commercial Backed by incredibly positive reviews – as well as successful quasi prequels such as Iron Man and last summer’s Captain America – The Avengers raked in $80.5 million on Friday and is on pace for a record Sunday, as well. “It’s not playing like just a superhero film,” says Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive vice president of distribution. “It’s playing like a huge, accessible-to-everyone, all-quadrant picture.” The film currently has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, an A+ from CineScore and is already ranked number-31 on IMDb’s user-ranked Top 250 Movies list. Here is your look at the top five films from the weekend: The Avengers : $200.3 million Think Like a Man : $8.0 million The Hunger Games : $5.7 million The Lucky One : $5.5 million The Pirates! Band of Misfits : $5.4 million
Just when you think you’ve had enough of this week’s Avengers hype , along comes perhaps the most irresistible bit of culture to date around the Marvel blockbuster: “Begin by outlining the cookie in your base color. (If you were starting with The Hulk, outline the entire shape in green. Color in your outline with green icing and cover the entire cookie. You can actually use a paintbrush to ‘paint’ your cookie.) Give the base a few minutes to dry and choose your next color. For The Hulk’s hair, outline his hairline in black and proceed to fill in with black icing. You can continue to draw features in and watch your character come to life.” Take that , Jollibee ! Find more kind of awesome Avengers party tips (DIY comic-book placemats!) here . [via Ricky Eisen ]
Given Mark Ruffalo ’s reported six-picture deal with Marvel Studios to portray mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner and his rage monster alter ego The Hulk in multiple movies after this week’s The Avengers – and considering how well his take on the iconic comic book character plays, both as Banner and the beast — it seems safe to say that the indie veteran’s first superhero outing won’t be his last. But before The Avengers director Joss Whedon came calling, Ruffalo admits he wasn’t so sure he could pull off such a task. “I didn’t have the confidence to do it,” he told Movieline, “and no one was coming to me with those kinds of parts.” Making Ruffalo’s task even more Herculean in the superhero super-team up The Avengers is the fact that two entirely different recent attempts at a Hulk movie precede his (Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk and Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk ). But Ruffalo’s approach was two-fold: First, he saw his Hulk as a progression from predecessors Eric Bana and Edward Norton, one who’s recruited into Nick Fury’s Avengers Initiative (alongside Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye) after years spent harnessing the monster within. And second: Thanks to motion capture technology, he got to actually play The Hulk. Ruffalo spoke with Movieline about the potentially life-changing decision to take on The Avengers , how far his Banner has come in accepting his gift/curse, why he coined the phrase “ boy soup ” in relation to co-star Scarlett Johansson, and which of his superhero co-stars possess the greatest skills… in Dance Dance Revolution . It’s neat to see you all together, and it seems like whenever any of the cast is asked to name their favorite moment from shooting, it’s one of the group scenes when everyone was together. I totally agree. My favorite scenes are when we were all together, and then I have to say working with [Robert] Downey in those scenes was really a joy and a pleasure. He’s one of my heroes and it was just very satisfying to be doing Banner to his Stark, it was very cool. Most of your castmates had already experienced what it’s like to don the superhero suit, but this was your first. What do you feel a role like this offered you in contrast to the kinds of films you’d previously done? What does a movie like The Avengers do for your career? You know, I think it opens up another audience to me that I haven’t ever played to before, and I think it’s going to give me a visibility that I probably haven’t had before, which is a little scary to me. But also it’s going to help me make other movies, little movies that I like to make, as well. What part of the experience do you find scary? I move pretty freely throughout the world without being recognized… Really? I can go around pretty freely – I get recognized but for the most part I can disappear, and I’m afraid that’s going to get a lot harder after this. And that’s fine; that’s part of what I do. But I’m also excited to just be kind of in another realm that’s new to me, that’s challenging to me. And that’s been pretty cool to crack. Did you have any desire to make this sort of mainstream move earlier in your career, and for whatever reasons you didn’t? No, I didn’t really have any interest. And I didn’t really have the confidence to do it, I don’t think. I just didn’t see myself in that, and no one was coming to me with those kinds of parts. No one thought of that for whatever reason. So somewhere along the way, you got more confident and someone had the brilliant idea to cast you in a role like this. Yes, thank you Joss Whedon! [Laughs] I was surprised when it came but I feel like I’m a little like Banner. I’m like, OK – that sounds appealing to me, but can I pull it off? Will I destroy things? I spent a lot of time talking with Joss about how to make it work and why he thought I would be the right person for it. That all made sense to me. Even within this expansive swath of comic book lore and this group of characters, The Hulk has an especially interesting history with movie audiences given the two previous standalone Hulk movies, for starters, not to mention the T.V. show… Which was a big, important part of this one. What was your approach to the role, even just knowing that audiences had not so long ago seen Eric Bana and Ed Norton take a crack at it? I had a lot of reservations about it because of that, obviously, and I’m a big fan of both of those actors and respect the hell out of them, and really admire what they did with those parts – each of them. But I also liked the idea that this is kind of the progression of those movies – it’s Banner, who’s been on the run for a long time. At the end of the last movie we see him almost able to control this thing; at least he can control not turning into it. He spent two years on the road not turning into The Hulk. He’s older now, he went to India where there’s such intense suffering that his problems are all of a sudden dwarfed in the face of the real human misery happening in those slums. And this is not an origin story. He’s a bit farther along from the start. Right. He’s older, and at some point I think you get tired of running from yourself. I think he’s at that moment where he’s like, ‘This is who I am, this is who I’m going to be, I’m going to die one day’ – maybe he won’t [Laughs] – but am I going to keep running from the inevitable, or am I going to turn and face it? And that’s kind of where we are, and I think that’s a nice progression from the other Hulks and the other Banners. There’s an idea that maybe Banner can impress his will onto the monster and get him to do stuff for good instead of just destroy. He goes back and this becomes his family, the thing he’s never been able to have. So I was reticent about it but at the same time I saw an enormous opportunity with the technology as well, because my problem with the Hulks was that once you got into the Hulk, it just felt like a different movie. It just didn’t feel like that same creature, you know? So it was really important for me to do the motion capture and to play the Hulk as well as Banner. I probably wouldn’t have done it if I couldn’t do both of them, and as an actor that was the really exciting thing for me and the thing that made me say, well, this is how I’ll be different – I’ll actually get to play The Hulk as well. So all of my fear and trepidation about moving forward was quelled by actually getting to do Hulk. In recent years, motion capture acting has emerged much more prominently into the conversation – the acting element, the idea that it’s as much an art and not merely the work of animators. Totally. And it’s a collaboration. It’s like playing in a band, it’s like a whole group of people and you’re all working together and the final outcome is greater than the parts on their own. I loved working with the guys at ILM. I think we’re all rejoicing in the way The Hulk turned out. All of a sudden I started realizing, God, what you can do! The imagination’s the limit. Now we’re no longer, as actors, fighting against prosthetics to have a performance come through. Now every facial expression can be manifested without being blocked by a prosthetic or by make-up, so once you get over being in a little ridiculous leotard and looking like this [points to photo of himself during shoot, clad in skin-tight motion capture suit]you can actually have a really great time and do some really cool, totally out-there things. To listen to the audience in my screening, Hulk went over so well in Avengers that it seems that a Hulk spin-off movie would do quite well… I would hope so! But they have a lot of other movies that they’re making. [Laughs] They have three already in the works. I’d be totally open to it, but I think that’s a long way away. Earlier today you mentioned it, so please explain the story behind Scarlett Johansson’s “boy soup.” [Laughs] We all walked into a party and all the stunt men were in a hot tub together, trying to get Scarlett to jump in with them, and I looked over at her and I thought it looked like she was making boy soup, standing over them laughing! And that was where the boy soup came from. Jeremy Renner also outed the cast as having had a Dance Dance Revolution party together. I was there! I almost can’t believe that’s real, it sounds so surreal. It was hilarious! So settle this for me: Which Avenger was the best at Dance Dance Revolution ? [Giggling, Ruffalo pauses.] It’s a tie between [Chris] Evans and [Jeremy] Renner, I would say. And there you have it, folks! Enjoy that mental image. The Avengers hits theaters May 4. Read Stephanie Zacharek’s review here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
It wasn’t exactly what anyone would call a best-kept secret, but nevertheless, the rumors of Dave Grohl’s directing debut are officially confirmed: The Nirvana drummer/Foo Fighters frontman has been hard at work on Sound City , a documentary chronicling the life, times and exploits of the eponymous San Fernando Valley studio where scores of classic albums by the likes of Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Guns and Roses, Metallica and Nirvana itself have been recorded over the past 40 years. Read on for Grohl’s handwritten description of the project, a short video teaser and more details via Grohl’s Roswell Films outlet. And then there’s the teaser, which has been around for a while now, but still: Finally, the press release from Roswell Films, the movie-production offshot of the Foo Fighters Roswell Records: (May 1, 2012, Los Angeles, CA) – Confirming widely circulated rumors, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Nirvana announced today that he will direct and produce a feature Documentary film, SOUND CITY about the infamous recording studio in Van Nuys, California. The film was conceived by Grohl after purchasing the legendary Neve 8028 recording console from Sound City Studios last year. The console, built in 1972, is considered by many to be the crown jewel of analog recording equipment, having recorded such artists as Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, Guns and Roses, Fear, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and countless other musical legends over the past 40 years. Through interviews with the artists and producers that created decades of musical history at Sound City, the film will showcase the amazing history of the studio, focus on the albums recorded there that went on to change the world, discuss the human element of music in an age of technology, and feature performances from many of the artists that called it “home”. Grohl’s personal connection to Sound City began with the 1991 recording of Nirvana’s breakthrough album, Nevermind . Selling over 30 million copies worldwide, Nevermind changed the entire musical landscape and forever altered the course of Dave Grohl’s life. Roswell Films, a division of the Roswell Records label that releases Foo Fighters music, will distribute the film. Key personnel involved with the film include Producer/Director Dave Grohl; Editor Paul Crowder ( Dogtown & Z Boys, Once In a Lifetime, Riding Giants ); and Writer Mark Monroe ( The Cove, Once In a Lifetime, The Tillman Story ). The film is also being produced in conjunction with Jim Rota, John Ramsay, and Therapy studios. Speaking to both the art of music and the art of filmmaking, Grohl crafted the letter below to share his vision for the film. Information and future announcements related to the film can be found at www.soundcitymovie.com Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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