Henry Cavill: How Superhero Movies Are Saving Hollywood

TIME MAGAZINE
Eric Dodds @doddsef  12:37 PM ET



It’s hard to believe that not long ago, the movie industry wasn’t completely dominated by superhero franchises. Big-budget blockbusters have always received the most attention and the largest audiences, but as recently as 10 or 15 years ago, the form wasn’t a sea of mutants and masked crime-fighters. These days, it seems like studios think they need a superhero franchise just to keep up with the competition (when Sony rebooted Spider-Man in 2012, many believed they did so to avoid losing the rights to the character). Warner Bros. did little to dispel that notion on Sunday night, confirming that a Justice League film had been greenlit for a likely release in either 2017 or 2018.

The movie, which would be the second sequel to last summer’s Man of Steel (the tentatively titled Superman vs. Batman is slated for 2016), will feature Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg and, undoubtedly, countless others (Matt Damon?!). It’s merely the latest development in the ongoing arms race between Warner, Marvel (The Avengers), Sony (Spider-Man) and Fox (X-Men). After the enormous success of The Avengers in 2012, it became apparent that one titular superhero wouldn’t be sufficient for record-breaking box office draws — and studios were likely further emboldened by the warm critical reception that Joss Whedon’s star-studded film received.


READ MORE HERE: http://time.com/79410/justice-league-superhero-universe/

Tom Hardy: Tom Hardy, Leonardo DiCaprio, And Tobey Maguire To Produce Film About Animal Trafficking (CINEMA BLEND)

Author: Eric Eisenberg

Tom Hardy, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Tobey Maguire are pooling together their collective Hollywood influence to make a film about the serious issue of international animal-trafficking. The project, initially thought up by Hardy, is being developed as a Traffic-style multi-plotted tale that will examine how animals are tortured and abused all across the globe.

According to THR, Hardy was initially inspired by Special Forces operatives who traveled to South Africa and other nations as anti-poaching fighters. The trade says that the film will have a wide scope, looking at everything from "the ground war on poachers in the African savanna to how animal material ends up in the fashion houses of Paris." It's unknown at this time if any of the three actors will appear in the movie themselves, but they will serve as producers. Warner Bros. has agreed to house the project and the search is currently on for a writer.

READ MORE: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Tom-Hardy-Leonardo-DiCaprio-Tobey-Maguire-Produce-Film-About-Animal-Trafficking-32677.html

Christian Bale, Tom Hardy: David Letterman Reviews The Dark Knight Rises: “I Loved It” By: Scott Johnson on July 13, 2012 (POSSIBLE SPOILER IN THE VIDEO)

Letterman said, “What a deal this thing is. Well, you know what, I’ll tell you in all honesty. I went to the movie, and it’s two hours and forty-five minutes. So two hours and forty-five minutes, that says bring survival gear, and I went in there, and the thing flies by. I was amazed at how quickly it goes by, and that’s the sign of a great movie.” Looking at Hathaway, Letterman also added, “You were fantastic. The cat-suit was fantastic, and I loved it. I loved it!”

What did Letterman think about The Dark Knight Rises in comparison to The Amazing Spider-Man? Letterman said, “Well, earlier in the summer I saw the Spider-Man movie, and I liked that also. But in the Spider-Man movie, halfway through there’s a giant lizard.” Letterman continued, “But there’s a giant lizard, they’re chasing in Spider-Man, and it’s in 3D. But you see, in my mind, I know there aren’t giant lizards. So when the giant lizard arrives, I’m less interested in the movie. In the Batman movie, it’s just sinister people. I know they exist. So you got that going for you as well.”

DAVID LETTERMAN POSSIBLE SPOILER FOR BATMAN ENDING


READ MORE: http://comicbook.com/blog/2012/07/13/david-letterman-reviews-the-dark-knight-rises-i-loved-it/

David Tennant: Spurious Awards Of The Week (SFX)

David Tennant was left reeling at an image of BBC Formula One presenter Jake Humphrey as a spog, wearing a superhero t-shirt: “You’re doing a Spider-Man thing in a Superman costume!” he spluttered, once again confirming his geek cred.

Read more: http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/03/11/spurious-awards-of-the-week-26/

Rhys Ifans from "Notting Hill"

 

I’ve been a fan of Rhys Ifans since watching him steal scenes from Hugh Grant in “Notting Hill,” and (as an imported Euro-kicker) in “The Replacements.”


He’s done period pieces (“Vanity Fair,” “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”) and comedies, straight dramas (Enduring Love,” with Daniel Craig, is his best) and big budget films.

He had a small but crucial role, as Luna Lovegood’s journalist dad in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” But his immersion in big budget blockbusters came from the film we will see him in next year. Ifans, 44, is Dr. Curt Connors, “The Lizard,” in “The Amazing Spider Man.” He’s the main villain.

“I dipped my toe into ‘Harry Potter,’ but I put my whole body into ‘Spider-Man.’ It was a thrill to work with Marc Webb [ of "(500) Days of Summer). He's like Roland Emmerich (his "Anonymous" director, famed for spectacles like "Independence Day" and "2012"). He's doing blockbusters, but he has an 'indie' heart, an indie character-oriented sensibility.

"That was a very telling thing on the set. We knew it would be action-packed and epic and all that. But Marc made sure that the human dynamic was paramount, and that’s going to elevate the film possibly to a place that the other [ Spider Man] films got to.”

Like everyone else, Ifans was blown away by Emmerich’s painstaking and spare-no-expense efforts to recreate Elizabethan England for “Anonymous.”

“Often period films have budgets that keep us from seeing London in full. There are several helicopter-like shots which Roland, the master of CGI, made sure our film has. It liberates the film to see that. I really got a sense of London, a very old city that becomes a character in the film, as it was in Elizabethan times.


“Roland does paint with a big brush. But what separates him from blockbuster film contemporaries is his attention to the emotional dynamics between characters. It’s FORENSIC. Very detailed. In his films, the strand you see running across these huge canvases, through these huge universes he creates is that they’re populated by very real human relationships. That’s the ace in his deck of cards.”
One oddball question I posed to Ifans was the connection between playing an artist in the shadows — he is Edward De Vere, whom “Anonymous” says is the “true author” of Shakespeare’s plays — and the last thing we heard him in, as narrator of “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” the documentary about underground artist Banksy.

“It’s purely by chance, that. But there is high irony in that I guess Banksy is that rare artist working today in near total anonymity is Banksy. Perhaps there was some sort of subliminal marriage there that I made.”

“Anonymous” opens Oct. 28, nationwide. More from