excel1

Chris Nolan proves his genius yet again, discovering Glenn Powell in The Dark Knight Rises. 😎 But serious, Sweeney is 100x hotter than he is. She is...blessed.

Blunt is great with a very one-note character here. It's hardly Oscar stuff though, she is barely in the movie.

It's been this way for some time, tbh. See Joaquin Phoenix as Joker, Margot Robbie as Barbie, The Rock as Black Adam, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga as country singers, etc. Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn may legitimately be the most impactful comic book casting since Nicholson as Joker way back when. She is going to bring an insane amount of hype that already high profile film.

Over the years, a lot of them have actually been confirmed. Hartnett has been confirmed by a ton of people including Ratner, who also confirmed Bomer. Fraser, Paul Walker, and Ashton Kutcher all confirmed it themselves. There is a screenshot of Cavill's test out there. The reporting in general is pretty accurate. Anthony Hopkins was signed as Jor-el throughout, Brett Ratner and the studio both viewed Josh Hartnett as their first choice in 2002, which was the 2nd time he was offered the role (the first being for BvS earlier in 2002), he rejects, the studio moved on Ashton Kutcher and Paul Walker, also reject it, Ratner and co. again approach Hartnett with the infamous mega offer, he rejects, they do not want to offer the same contract to Kutcher or Walker, studio pushed Brendan Fraser while Ratner wants Matt Bomer, can't agree, Ratner quits, McG comes in, casts Robert Downey Jr as Lex Luthor and zeros in on Henry Cavill and Jared Padalecki for the lead role. Film falls apart shortly thereafter.

Why would anyone ever doubt my memory with superman film stuff? http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/14721 ^March 14th, 2003 Plus: https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/matt-bomer-says-he-wouldve-been-superman-in-brett-ratners-unmade-version-written-by-j-j-abrams-262250/ https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/08/matt-bomer-superman-brett-ratner https://www.eonline.com/news/356563/matt-bomer-the-real-reason-he-never-played-superman-no-it-s-not-because-he-s-gay https://geektyrant.com/news/matt-bomer-says-he-was-cast-as-superman-in-brett-ratners-superman-flyby

That is pretty much how it was 2002-2003. When Routh was finally cast in 2004, it shut everyone up because he looked the part, had a great vibe throughout the filming process, and nobody knew a thing about him.

Veteran of SuperHeroHype too and followed the development of the project which became Superman Returns closely from day 1 way back in 2002 when it first started off as Batman vs Superman and moved into solo film s. Smallville helped reinvigorate interest in the character but it was obvious from the JJ Abrams script onward that they would casting someone else as Superman in their feature film. There were absolutely some fans who initially wanted Tom Welling as Superman but they died down quickly when it was clear that the studio was going a different direction. Welling was in a couple of films ala Cheaper by the Dozen and The Fog remake but they clearly wanted someone who FILM audiences knew. Mind you, fanboys were impossible to please back then. There was no consensus candidate for Superman as there had been for Batman where 90% of fanboys #1 pick was Christian Bale prior to his casting. If there was any unity, it was against certain people. Josh Hartnett was clearly the studio and medias first choice but he made it clear early on it wasn't his thing, and at that point we got into some really crazy territory. See below for my memories of fan reactions on the web: "Josh Hartnett? Did you not see Pearl Harbor? The wooden teeny bopper pretty boy can't play a serious role. He would be great for the trailer, terrible for the movie. Why is Hollywood trying so hard to make us like him?" "Ashton Kutcher? Kelso is the absolute last person who would be Superman!! So goofy, the guy works in stoner comedies and nothing else, he is better served continuing to work with MTV on Punkd than playing a serious superhero" "Paul Walker?! He makes Josh Hartnett and Ashton Kutcher look like Marlon Brando! And he is blonde!" "Brendan Fraser? Would have been awesome 10 years ago, now he is old and looked puffy in Mummy 2" "Jude Law could do it, but he would need to grow 6 inches, add 40 sounds of muscles, wear a wig, and change his accent. Other than that, yeah he could do it" "Matt Bomer? Who?"

Efron as Iron Claw is better than any other performance this year. Murphy is especially overrated

Iron Claw is the best film I have seen this year. I am genuinely stunned at how effective it was.

Where is Wonka heading?

The big problem with multiverse stuff is nobody can trust what they're watching to not be retconned. All of the Peter and MJ development from 3 Spider-man films goes out the window, for example. It's ridiculous. It's all a big confusing joke. Marvel is really just proving how on-point Nolan was for insisting his series was just one iteration of Batman that must have a beginning and end so that audiences trust what they're watching throughout the series.

I think it is clear multiverse live action films, NWH aside, have been very confusing. Keep it simple, cast Josh Hartnett as Dr. Doom, and go back to the roots.

I am so confused. I doo not know the details of this but he is obviously not the first person in recent memory to have assault charges, am I missing something here?

I would argue Wonka opens to ~60% of that number, at best, if WOM ands reviews were more muted. Glowing praise makes huge difference for this type of film.

Wonka looking at huge WOM legs over next few weeks. Its multiplier through January will be massive.

Wonka 2 is going to be huge. WB really did win 2023.

TLJ would have seen a dramatically better reception with just a handful of tiny edits. Lose the absurd clip of Luke about to kill young Kylo, use whatever means necessary to have Leia be the one who sacrifices herself to save the fleet, and make it clear that Luke is alive at the end of the film. After it proved so divisive, how on Earth Disney didn't realize that they couldn't end with the next film is beyond me. They needed a course correction film before the ending.

The "WB December" commercial was a great touch. Wonka, Aqua, and Purple are going to combine for a lot of money.

Domestic is going to be real tough to predict. The slew of strong headline it is receiving will help significantly.

Yeah no idea where this will end up, holidays + elite word of mouth + wide open market = optimal combination

WOM phenom incoming.

Unlike Aquabro 2, Superman: Legacy will have a large curiosity as the launch of a new series. Beyond that, Gunn simply has to make a high quality film. There is no other way to put it. It has to be a mid 80s or better RT score type of critical reception. Of course, if one wants SL to possibly truly breakout from day 1, yes a visual reinvention of sorts akin to Batman 1989 or TDK's version of The Joker might be needed to catch everyones attention. Everything about it just has to scream "Fresh and modern!".

Watch this movie end up with 85% RT score.

The word of mouth is tremendous and the market is basically wide open, tough to say where this ends up but its going to play well for the next 6 or 7 weeks.

The way too long delays for Aquabro 2, The Batman 2 and Joker 2 say hi. They better not make mistake with Barbie 2.