The box-office bonanza Marvel reaped from Iron Man hasn’t changed the studio’s plans for its upcoming film slate, says company president Kevin Feige.
“But it has certainly reinforced it,” Feige adds with a satisfied laugh.
What’s in the works for Marvel’s ambitious schedule of in-house productions:
PHOTO: AP
IRON MAN 2
Release date: April 30, 2010
PHOTO: AP
The skinny: The day after Iron Man’s US$98 million opening weekend, Marvel not only announced plans for a sequel — it pegged a release date less than two years away.
Director Jon Favreau had an idea for a trilogy as he was making Iron Man, hoping that the third film would be the much talked-about Avengers featuring numerous characters from the Marvel Comics world. (See below.) Favreau isn’t officially signed for these films, but to say that there’s mutual interest in him continuing would be an understatement.
As far as plot lines, it’s a safe bet that Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury character, seen after the closing credits of Iron Man, will figure prominently.
It’s also safe to say that Tony Stark’s happy ending will be short-lived. Superheroes tend to lead emotionally complicated lives, and Stark has alcoholism in his past.
“If you ask me, the next one is about what do you do with the rest of your life once you’ve completely changed,” Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr says. “You’ve created this thing which has the power to take life. Essentially you have been made into a god ... and a human being who metaphorically has been made into a god is not going to turn out so well.”
“I think the drinking and all that stuff would be a good way to confront his age, to confront his doubts, to confront the fact that maybe Pepper gets a boyfriend,” Downey adds, referring to Stark’s Gal Friday love interest, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).
Lose Pepper to another guy? That would turn a guy to the bottle.
THOR
Release date: June 4, 2010
The skinny: Based on the Norse god of the same name, Thor is basically an arrogant bastard cast down to Earth to learn humility.
Like John Henry, he also swings a mean hammer.
Screenwriter Mark Protosevich says the film will be a story of a god “realizing his true potential,” transforming from an “Old Testament god into a New Testament god.”
“Thor will be something of an origin story in that it will introduce the character to the mainstream audience,” Feige says.
“It will be very unique. It will be about finding compassion.”
Matthew Vaughan (Stardust) will direct. Marvel will introduce Thor with a cameo in Iron Man 2.
CAPTAIN AMERICA
Release date: May 6, 2011
The skinny: The true red-white-and-blue Cap will stay in the time period he was created for and remains most comfortable in — World War II. Following the class storyline, sickly Steve Rogers will turn into a super-soldier via a serum, fighting Nazis and winning hearts for freedom.
Feige was quick to quash rumors that Matthew McConaughey would play the good Captain. So stop sobbing into your pillows, geeks.
THE AVENGERS
Release date: July, 2011
The skinny: Not much known, just that it will be Party Central for the Marvel universe with Iron Man, Captain Avenger, Nick Fury, Thor and Ant Man fighting foes no one superhero could withstand. Marvel vet Zak Penn (X-Men movies, The Incredible Hulk) will write.
“I can’t think of any other movies where the characters and stories will cross on the level like we’ll do with these,” Feige says.
“Having the characters under one roof makes it possible.”
When 17-year-old Lin Shih (林石) crossed the Taiwan Strait in 1746 with a group of settlers, he could hardly have known the magnitude of wealth and influence his family would later amass on the island, or that one day tourists would be walking through the home of his descendants in central Taiwan. He might also have been surprised to see the family home located in Wufeng District (霧峰) of Taichung, as Lin initially settled further north in what is now Dali District (大里). However, after the Qing executed him for his alleged participation in the Lin Shuang-Wen Rebellion (林爽文事件), his grandsons were
A jumbo operation is moving 20 elephants across the breadth of India to the mammoth private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest man, adjoining a sprawling oil refinery. The elephants have been “freed from the exploitative logging industry,” according to the Vantara Animal Rescue Centre, run by Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sheer scale of the self-declared “world’s biggest wild animal rescue center” has raised eyebrows — including more than 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, according to
They were four years old, 15 or only seven months when they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and Ravensbruck. Some were born there. Somehow they survived, began their lives again and had children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren themselves. Now in the evening of their lives, some 40 survivors of the Nazi camps tell their story as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the death camps. In 15 countries, from Israel to Poland, Russia to Argentina, Canada to South Africa, they spoke of victory over absolute evil. Some spoke publicly for the first
I am kneeling quite awkwardly on a cushion in a yoga studio in London’s Shoreditch on an unseasonably chilly Wednesday and wondering when exactly will be the optimum time to rearrange my legs. I have an ice-cold mango and passion fruit kombucha beside me and an agonising case of pins and needles. The solution to pins and needles, I learned a few years ago, is to directly confront the agony: pull your legs out from underneath you, bend your toes up as high as they can reach, and yes, it will hurt far more initially, but then the pain subsides.
RSS