Superheropalooza (For Stacy)

For those of you not named Stacy who are confused by the title of today’s blog, allow me to enlighten you. Stacy has been a regular listener to the Big Wake Up Call, featuring me and Ryan Gatenby, pretty much since I started doing it. When she realized that we had ins with a couple of film companies and were getting news before most anyone else she started emailing often. It seems she’s a bit of a superhero fan. So, today, I’ll try and sate some of her curiosity. I started to do this earlier this week but got sidetracked by an unusual discovery. If you search Google for cosplay you only get white and Asian people. You have to specifically look for black or brown or whatever people if you want to see any diversity. The same held true for almost every people related search. When I wrote about that a strange thing happened. No one, not one person, “liked” it on Facebook, but 65 of them shared it. The same thing happened on Twitter. I guess if you like something like that the Google police will come and take you away. It’s the only explanation I can see.

Moving on.

Let’s start with Avengers: Age of Ultron. As of this writing there are fifteen different trailers out. There may be more by the time you’re done reading this. Do you need a stand alone clip of Hawkeye & Quicksilver? Here you go. Or War Machine? Or a photographic essay of the characters in costume? Gotcha covered. How about a trilogy of trailers that feature Ultron? We’ve got that too. Or maybe you’re wondering what happened to the naked black woman in the first trailer. It was a dream sequence and it didn’t make the final cut. I have no idea why they’re releasing so much material this close to the film’s opening. It isn’t like anyone was going to ignore it.

Another eagerly anticipated film, Batman -vs- Superman: Dawn of Justice, just had its trailer leaked. Click here to watch it with Spanish subtitles. It has my favorite tag line so far; “Tell me, do you bleed? You will.” Yes, that’s Batman talking to Superman. The imagery is interesting. It shows Superman being worshiped as a god and then things clearly go south on him. It doesn’t show any of the other characters but you get the vibe that all is not happy in Metropolis or Gotham. Of course Supes was probably responsible for the death of a couple million people in his last fight so you can see why there might be some tension. Also, just for laughs, it appears that this film will have a Robin and a dead Robin. Specifically Jena Malone will play the character of Carrie Kelly, the Robin from the Dark Knight Returns comic book & cartoon. The dead Robin is rumored to be Jason Todd, a Robin who was killed by the Joker but came back as The Red Hood. Who’s playing him is still unclear.

In a related Justice League note, Warner dumped the director of the Wonder Woman movie before a frame was shot. Michelle McLarin, the old director, wanted to give Wonder Woman a tiger sidekick. Cool if she’s He Man or something. Not so hot otherwise. The new director is Patty Jenkins. That’s an inspired choice if you ask me. The new movie looks as though it will use the DC 52 version of the character which will give her all sorts of fun family problems. Even without a tiger.

In other Justice League news, Gods and Monsters, a cartoon re-imagining of the Justice League mythos, is coming out soon.

“Journey to a divergent reality where the Justice League protects the planet — but answers to no one but themselves. Employing methods of intimidation and fear, this Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman deal brute force in the name of justice. In this alternate universe, Superman was not raised by the Kents in Smallville, the Caped Crusader is not Bruce Wayne, and Wonder Woman is not an Amazon warrior of Themyscira. When a group of famed scientists experience untimely “accidents,” a government task force follows the trail of clues to the Justice League — but is there a more powerful player operating from the shadows? It’s a high stakes game of intrigue, mystery and action that asks the question: How do you serve justice to those above the law?”

The trailer looks pretty cool.

Another film that has fans drooling on their keyboards is Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Somehow they managed to release their trailer before it got leaked. They also were able to control the release of images and models that will be in the film. Good news for fans is that it appears as though J.J. Abrams is just going to pretend the prequels never happened. Thank God for that. The plot of this movie starts thirty years after Return of the Jedi and brings back familiar faces and introduces new ones. Also, they’re going as light on the CGI as they can. That little round robot from the first trailer is called BB-8 and he’s a remote controlled puppet. If you click the previous link you can watch video of him beeping trash at R2-D2.

In other space news CBS is looking to have a new Star Trek series out next year in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the original.

Some movie snippets to keep you frothing; Lynda Carter may appear in the new Wonder Woman movie. As it sits now she would be Wonder Woman’s mom. Olivia Munn will be portraying Psylocke in the new X-Men: Apocalypse movie. As a devoted cosplayer herself you can expect there to be lots of revealing spandex in her costume. There will be, yet another, Michael Myers vs Jason Vorhees movie coming out next year. In the same movie it’s been confirmed that Ben Hardy will portray Archangel and double up as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Deadpool, currently filming in Canada, is eschewing the whole secrecy approach to film-making and is, instead, inviting fans to come out and watch them shoot. Given the fact that fans are the whole reason this thing’s getting made in the first place I think that’s a cool idea.

Also coming out is a film called Ex Machina which concerns the nature of sentience. It’s a theme that’s been done to death but this one seems to promise sex and booze. Might be worth a gander. Jurassic Park will be hitting theaters on June 12th and they’ve taken time out of their busy day to release a thirty second trailer. That’s rarely a good sign. Another film that’s in production, The Leviathan, has a three minute proof of concept trailer online and it’s freaking awesome. I never once thought of death dealing space whales but I’m glad someone did.

I’ll take a look at the TV universes tomorrow.

WHAM! BAM! THANK YOU SPACEMAN! (William A. Levey, 1975) (NSFW) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

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