DAREDEVIL Loses A Showrunner But Gains A Matt Murdock

You guys, Marvel had a rough Memorial Day weekend.

It all started on Friday, right as I was walking into the theater to see Days Of Future Past, when word broke that Edgar Wright was walking away from the looooooong gestating Ant-Man feature that was scheduled to kick off Marvel's Phase Three.  After a lot of ugly rumors and speculation, it appears (according to the usually reliable folks at Latino Review) that the Powers That Be at Disney and Marvel had suddenly balked at the idea of making a movie with a criminal as the protagonist, even if that criminal is lovable goofball Paul Rudd.  So they ordered up a page one rewrite of the script courtesy of a couple of their in-house guys including Eric Pearson, the guy guy responsible for most of Marvel's increasingly fun series of One Shot shorts.  The script came back a few weeks later and apparently it was an abomination, so much so that Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish felt they had no choice but to leave the project.  This, obviously, blows.

The very next morning came another bombshell: the Daredevil series that Marvel had been cooking up for Netflix had apparently lost Drew Goddard as its showrunner, ostensibly so that he could focus on piecing together the increasingly ill-conceived Sinister Six movie for Sony.  He's been replaced by Stephen S. DeKnight, another member of the Joss Whedon School of TV Making who oversaw the last few seasons of Starz's Spartacus series, which was extremely popular among people who accidentally subscribed to Starz.  Goddard, who will still end up receiving a vestigial credit on the finished series, actually left weeks ago, but once the Wright news broke, the floodgates of information opened up brought unto Kevin Feige a raging headache as the internet rushed to declare this double whammy of bad press as the harbinger of 40 years of Marvel darkness.

Word has it that Goddard may have been clashing with Marvel over casting the show's lead, and while we may never know who he had his sights on (I've seen some suggestions that it was Joel Edgerton, a possibility almost too awesome to have been real) we now know who Marvel has anointed as the one true Matt Murdock: Charlie Cox, he of the giant forehead pictured above.  Cox was the lead of Matthew Vaughn's Stardust, a movie that my wife is exceedingly fond of and which I only vaguely recall watching one time.  I do remember that Claire Danes played a literal falling star and Robert DeNiro was a transvestite airship pirate, yet somehow I feel like neither of those two things were nearly as awesome as they sound in print.  More recently Cox played the Irish hitman/valet who loved up Kelly MacDonald on HBO's Boardwalk Empire and I will admit both that I quite liked him in that role and that I didn't realize he was also that Stardust guy until 20 minutes ago.

Obviously it's troubling that Marvel seems to be bleeding creative talent out its ears, but it seems a tad early to be going all Chicken Little on Feige and friends just yet.  Daredevil will proceed and probably end up being somewhere this side of adequate, while really anything could still happen with Ant-Man.  I think it's just as likely that Marvel announces a new director in the next three weeks as it is that Marvel announces that they're scrapping the project all together.  Mostly I just feel bad for Wright and Goddard, two unique voices who have now both lost out on the opportunity to realize some serious personal passion projects.

Here's hoping that this time next year doesn't find Paul Rudd shrugging his way through a late-night press tour and Charlie Cox assuring us, "It'll be better than that Ben Affleck one!"

Podcast Episode 16: Bryan Singer Saves The X-MEN By Burning Down The House

(SPOILERS ensue.)

The X-Men gave birth to the modern era of comic book superhero blockbusters.  It might be easy to forget that considering the franchise immediately went on a decade long decline into not just mediocrity but outright terribleness.  The tide turned three years ago with Matthew Vaughn's excellent X-Men: First Class, which shifted the action back to 1962 in order to tell the story of how a charming young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) first met with the angry Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and curated a team of young mutants to prevent World War III.  But that movie played fasts and loose with the established continuity of all the previous X-films set in the modern era.  Did these younger incarnations represent a cleansing of the palate, a clean slate from which to re-introduce beloved characters in a brand new universe?  Or was this a still a prequel to Bryan Singer's original films?

Days Of Future Past has an answer to that question, and the answer is both.  And neither.

Bryan Singer returns to the franchise for the first time since X2, and he's brought a handful of familiar faces with him to tell one of the all-time classic X-Men stories in which a member of the team (originally Kitty Pryde, but here it's Wolverine because Hugh Jackman) travels back in time to prevent a post-apocalyptic future from coming to pass. That means that Singer (and the audience) gets to have its cake and eat it too, using X1-3 and the two Wolverine standalones as the backstory for this distant hellscape and making the whole movie about trying to erase all of those movies from existence. That's kind of a brilliant way to course correct when you think about it, simply turning into the skid and saying, "Man, we killed and declawed (literally) everyone's favorite characters and left the franchise in a terrible place. So let's just embrace that and turn the world into a complete genocidal horrorshow so that we can undo the whole thing in a way that might make everyone happy again."

It's mostly effective because it feels like the proper sendoff that those characters never really got, both from an emotional and storytelling perspective.  With the exception of the seemingly ageless Hugh Jackman, I expect this is the last time we'll ever see any of those original X-Men cast members returning to these roles.  (Although I'd be psyched if they could ever find a reason bring in Stewart and McKellan again, especially since both Magnetos never get to share a scene together here.)  And that's the way it should be.  It's time to let a new generation of talent bring those characters to life, and I'm psyched at the prospect of seeing a young Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Gambit and Jean Grey join the fold.  It remains to be seen exactly how that's going to be executed, as the end of Days Of Future Past firmly establishes most of these characters as alive and well in 2023.  In a way that actually feels limiting, as it means we can't meet a teenage Cyclops in the next film (set in the 80s) because that would make James Marsden 58 years old at the end of DOFP.

That's why I say this film both is and isn't a total reboot.  Yes, we've thrown out 95% of what's come before First Class and Days Of Future Past, but by giving us even just a fleeting glimpse of what the future holds for Professor X and friends and by tying that future back to a group of actors that we're likely to never see again, we're left with a destination for these characters and stories that will likely exist only to torture continuity nerds like me. As for how Fox plans to handle the bevy of potential spin-offs, I simply have no idea. 

In Episode 16 of our podcast, Bart, Jamie and I discuss all of this as well as the moral turpitude of Bolliver Trask and how Bingbing Fan is most definitely not Saoirse Ronan, along with Gareth Edwards's entrance into the Star Wars family and Edgar Wright's departure from Marvel's upcoming Ant-Man.  Enjoy!

ANT-MAN Will Proceed sans Edgar Wright

Well this can't be good.

Marvel Studios and Edgar Wright just issued a joint statement detailing Wright's departure from the upcoming Ant-Man, citing "differences in their vision for the film."  That's fairly baffling considering that Wright has been developing the project for many years now, dating all the way back to Phase One.  You'd think that Marvel should have known the score by now, so I can't help be curious as to the nature if their apparent disagreement. Did they think Wright was gonna make the movie too awesome?  Cuz that seems like a legitimate fear. 

The silver lining is that Marvel isn't pushing the release date, meaning most of the major moving pieces will remain in place.  That includes the script by Wright and Attack The Block director Joe Cornish (although I'm sure it'll get tweaked a bit depending on who takes over) and the cast, which includes Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Patrick Wilson and Michael Douglas. Still, this totally stings. Wright seemed totally in line with the collection of singular creative voices Marvel had heretofore assembled to bring their characters to life, guys like Joss Whedon, James Gunn, Shane Black and the Russo brothers. What's more, it would have continued the effort to make each of these heroes exist in the same universe while maintaining their own distinct tones and story types.  I was REALLY looking forward to an Edgar Wright Marvel comedy. 

So who steps in now?  Ant-Man is supposed to kick off Phase Three following Age Of Ultron, so Marvel doesn't exactly have a lot of time to fuck around here.  Matthew Vaughn looks available. How about James Bobin?  Is it too much to hope that Marvel will back up a pair of Brinks trucks in front of the respective houses of Phil Lord and Chris Miller?

JURASSIC WORLD Could Make All My Dreams Come True

Jurassic World, the latest installment in the long dormant dino-franchise, is currently filming under the direction of Colin Trevorrow, whose Safety Not Garunteed I quite liked!  We know the cast includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jake Johnson, Judy Greer, Omar Sy, Vincent D'Onofrio and that kid with the potato gun from Iron Man 3. The action will go down at a fully operational dinosaur theme park, something I didn't even realize I wanted to see until someone said it out loud.  But will it just be another round of dinosaurs breaking out of their pens and chomping on terrified tourists?  JoBlo says not so much.

Let's backtrack for a minute.  Back in 2007 there was a script floating around for a proposed Jurassic Park 4 written by William Monahan (The Departed) and exploitation master John Sayles.  I never actually got a copy of it, but I read a few descriptions and they were, quite frankly, so absolutely bonkers insane that I couldn't believe it was an actual project that an actual studio was actually developing.  The story took place in a world where dinosaur attacks were taking place with increasing frequency around the world, so a soldier of fortune hooks up with a squadron of dino/human hybrids who can talk and shoot guns and together they embark on a mission to eradicate the world's remaining dinosaur population.  It's basically The Dirty Dozen with talking dinosaurs.

There is no amount of money I would not pay in order to see that movie.

I may have been denied the exquisite joy of dino-commandos, but it sounds like Trevorrow's going to get me pretty close.  According to JoBlo, Jurassic World will feature a new dinosaur cooked up in the lab din order to entice new customers to the park.  This is something that has never before existed in nature, a combination T-Rex/raptor/snake/cuttlefish.  I am downright tickled at the idea that I might hear people exclaiming the word "cuttlefish" in fear and panic multiple times in one movie.

But wait, it gets better!  Chris Pratt's character is supposedly a dinosaur trainer of some kind, a guy who leads a group of "good dinos" who have to hunt down this new beastie and protect the humans.  How exactly does one train a dinosaur?  Mind control tech?  Pheromones?  Maybe they have little artificial voice boxes like Darwin the dolphin on Seaquest!  Or maybe Chris Pratt can speak raptor!

Could I really be this lucky?  We'll find out when Burt Macklin: Dinosaur Trainer hits theaters in June of 2015.

Batman/Superman Gets A Terrible Title That We Can All Promptly Ignore

In 2016, Batman is gonna sue the shit out Superman.

While I kind of dig that logo, the official title has left me and the rest of the internet asking a resounding, "What the fuck?"  They might as well have just gone with Untitled Batman/Superman Movie or Hey Guys, Justice League Is Up Next. 

The "v" over "vs" is weird but I'll get over it.  But Dawn of Justice?  Could that possibly be any more meaningless and generic?  I'm a firm believer in the Patton Oswalt rule of movie titling, namely that a title should be evocative enough to create a little mini-movie in your head.  (His perfect example?  Texas Chainsaw Massacre.)  Dawn Of Justice sounds like they literally picked words at random out of a hat.  Besides, I'd argue that this movie didn't really need a subtitle in the first place. Batman vs Superman is really all you need to put the asses in the seats. 

In the end it doesn't really matter. We're all just gonna keep calling it Batman vs Superman anyway because Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice is just too many words for an American audience to fathom and instantly conjures up images of the Dark Knight giving an impassioned and emotional testimony at some kind of custody hearing.  Or perhaps Bruce Wayne is taking Kal-El to court over all that property damage at the end of Man Of Steel.  

Harvey Dent could be his lawyer!  

First Look At Ryan Gosling's Weird Ass Directorial Debut LOST RIVER

The Cannes Film Festival is currently underway in France and we're already hearing all sorts of interesting buzz from a few highly anticipated films.  Grace Of Monoco starring Nicole Kidman was apparently a huge bust while everybody is raving about Steve Carrell and Channing Tatum in Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher.  Get ready for a million "That's what she said" jokes come Oscar season.

Somewhere in the middle ground lies Lost River (formerly How To Catch A Monster), the first film directed by walking meme generator Ryan Gosling.  The film was reportedly met by a mix of applause and boos. Cannes audiences are notorious for having extremely vocal and I really think we should follow their example.  Look forward to hearing me boo the shit out of Transformers: Age Of ExSTINKtion this summer.

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, here's a fairly cryptic first look teaser.  It features moody cinematography, burning things, and a gold sequined Doctor Who screaming about his muscly muscles.

You've gotta give Gosling credit for not taking the easy road.  As a darling of the internet and basically the most attractive man alive, he could be churning out a romantic comedy or two or year and making piles of Fuck You Money in the process.  Instead Gosling's repeatedly chosen to work with artistic and challenging filmmakers like Nicolas Winding Refn and Derek Cianfrance; the guy's got an odd streak a mile wide and thankfully he's chosen to embrace it.  All that being said, it's little wonder that a movie this bizarre would sharply divide audiences and I quite frankly cannot wait to see it.

Once it hit theaters, I expect Tumblr to promptly implode.

Start Your Week Off Right With The New Trailer For GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Captain America: The Winter Soldier kicked off the summer in grand style.  Now it looks almost certain that Guardians Of The Galaxy will serve as the appropriately kickass bookend and close the summer out with a goddamn bang.

Every look at James Gunn's entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks even more preposterously fun than the one before it.  Seriously, I still can't believe that I live in a world where an outer space adventure movie starring Chris Pratt, a foul-mouthed raccoon and a walking tree-person voiced by Vin Diesel is allowed to exist, let alone be bankrolled by a major studio to the tune of $150 million.  And make no mistake, every single penny looks to be up on screen.  It feels like the entire movie takes place in one those richly detailed worlds that Guillermo del Toro leaves dangling in the margins of his movies, places like the Bone Slums of Pacific Rim or the Troll Market of Hellboy 2.  Are we really gonna get a planet shaped like a giant skull?  Fuck yeah.

I'm sure there are those out there who will complain that they still don't know what this movie is actually about.  Those people are dumb people.  If rocket boots, space prisons, John C. Reilly: Intergalactic Beat Cop and an upright raccoon with a giant laser gun hoisted up on his shoulder while scratching his crotch doesn't put your ass in the theater, you're barking up the wrong Groot.

As a bonus, here's a poster that should be hanging in dorm rooms all across the country this fall.  Don't let me down, college kids.