It was only a year ago we all raided theaters to see the opening weekend of The Avengers. Now another year has passed and the next Avengers film is opening with Iron Man 3. And Star Wars uber-fans will be getting together to celebrate May the Fourth–Galactic Star Wars Day. And everyone who reads comic books will be taking friends to their local comic book store for all kinds of parties around the globe for Free Comic Book Day.
We’ve chatted about Free Comic Book Day before here at borg.com. It’s always fun and the best stores will even have cake for those not enticed enough by the free comic books. If you haven’t browsed a comic book store recently check out this link for a comic book store near you. Also check out the Free Comic Book Day website for more details of events being held in every state like comic book writers and artists attending to autograph books and create sketches for fans.
Here are covers to some key titles to keep a look out for:
Get there early as not all titles may be available in quantities for everyone to get what they are after, especially The Walking Dead issue. (Someone save me a Grimm please?)
At the 12:01 a.m. IMAX premiere screening of Marvel’s Iron Man 3, on May 3, 2013, IMAX will be giving away limited edition Mondo Iron Man 3 prints. The artwork, created by Detective Comics and Green Arrow: Year One comic book artist Jock, is a collaboration between Marvel Studios, IMAX, and Mondo, the Austin, Texas-based limited edition poster company. According to Walt Disney Studios, owner of the Marvel properties, the Iron Man 3 print will be the last entry in the IMAX 12:01 poster series–a series that began in 2012 with alternate poster concepts to promote the films. No idea what a Mondo poster is? They are only released in limited editions and tend to sell out fast, and are created by a myriad of artists. Here is the Iron Man 3 poster to be given away in this last IMAX 12:01 giveaway:
Prior IMAX 12:01 posters have been created for Oz: The Great and Powerful, The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, Real Steel, John Carter of Mars, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Amazing Spider-man, The Avengers, Frankenweenie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Prometheus. One of the best of these fantasy/sci-fi throwback designs was created for Oblivion:
The movie studios are releasing multiple trailers for coming attractions these days and this week we’re featuring four new previews from movies that already released previews that we’ve featured here at borg.com.
First up is for our pick as the most awaited movie this year. We’ve seen a few trailers already but beginning this week–finally–is the sequel to 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, G.I. Joe: Retaliation with Bruce Willis as Joe Colton, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Ray Park. We could watch this newest preview featuring Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes over and over. Is this some new kind of parkour?
G.I. Joe: Retaliation begins this Thursday, March 28, 2013.
Next up is a flick we’ve seen previewed over and over–Iron Man 3. It has a fun new movie poster, too (above). The international preview is pretty long as previews go and reveals more footage of Ben Kingsley’s villain Mandarin than previously released. Compared to the first Iron Man film and Robert Downey, Jr.’s role as Tony Stark in The Avengers, Iron Man 2 was a pretty weak entry in the Marvel superhero universe. So our expectations are in check. But this sequel is expected to unveil nearly every version of the Iron Man armor from the Marvel Comics archive, so this could be a lot of fun. Here’s one of two new previews:
Iron Men drones? Where can we get one? Here’s the shorter TV ad also just released:
Although this year the Super Bowl didn’t seem to net any ads as awesome as this great Star Wars themed ad or Ferris Bueller ad from last year’s Super Bowl, we did get to see the movie studios try to find the best way to cram a two-hour movie into the time it takes to forget what show you’ve been watching. All of the six previewed movies have already released full-length trailers. So did the studios succeed in convincing you to see their newest release? Did any ad get you to order advance tickets for any coming attractions? Here are the movie trailer commercials straight from the 2013 Super Bowl.
First up, Universal Studios shelled out some big bucks for a full 60-second spot for the May 24, 2013 release of the sixth entry in the Fast & Furious franchise. If none of the past versions of the road race series interested you then maybe a team-up of Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel will.
It all looks like… a lot of car chasing, but it doesn’t look like it is promising audiences to be anything else so we’re betting “what you see is what you get” with Fast & Furious 6.
They’re five months away, but that isn’t stopping the movie studios from giving us a sneak peek at next summer’s anticipated hit movies.
First up, Iron Man 3 is scheduled to be released on May 3, 2013. Marvel Studios have already released several images of new Iron Man suits and Robert Downey, Jr. reprising his role as Tony Stark, including the new patriot armor shown above. Here is the teaser poster showing Downey and the pantheon of Iron Man armor:
Next, Star Trek Into Darkness is scheduled to be released on May 17, 2013. Despite its clunky title, the Star Trek 2009 cast returns this time to face Benedict Cumberbatch as a yet-to-be-disclosed villain, which early press indicated might be Khan but seems more likely to be Gary Mitchell from the original TV series. In this poster we see Cumberbatch in a pose similar to the teaser poster featuring the back of Shinzon for Star Trek Nemesis. It’s similarity to this past summer’s Dark Knight Rises teaser poster with the silhouette of a bat mimicked here with the Star Trek delta shield, also lends some credence to those who believe JJ Abrams may be taking some queues from Christopher Nolan’s Batman series:
Is it me, or does Tony Stark have more supersuits than any other superhero? Robert Downey, Jr. returns next spring with the fourth movie featuring Iron Man, Iron Man 3, with the new Iron Man armor we previewed here this past summer from Comic-Con in San Diego.
You wouldn’t think you could go wrong with Downey playing Stark in another movie, but all you have to do is think back and remember Iron Man 2, possibly the weakest of the Avengers films so far. Yet the first Iron Man and The Avengers were brilliant. Why can’t they just stop everything and work on The Avengers 2? Check out the first trailer released hours ago for Iron Man 3:
A bit of buzz from Comic-Con this year was the release of the Man of Steel trailer at the Warner Brothers panel. The following week it was announced the trailer would appear before The Dark Knight Rises at screenings across the country.
Set to hit theaters next year, Man of Steel has a relatively obscure lead actor as Superman, Henry Cavill (The Tudors doesn’t count), but the rest of the cast will be familiar to everyone: Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, and Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.
So here is the trailer that premiered with The Dark Knight Rises:
I found it pretty underwhelming and I couldn’t figure out why people were so excited from the Comic-Con panel. All you really see of Superman is this flight at the end:
And we see this guy working Alaska fishing boats. I doubt this is to be Krypto:
So what’s the real story?
Turns out they actually showed a longer trailer at Comic-Con. It included peeks at Crowe, Costner, Adams, a scene with Superman being taken prisoner–what appears to be a remake of Superman 2 with Christopher Reeve, including a new General Zod.
Following up on what was an intentional sequel to Superman 2 with Superman Returns–a really good film with Superman played awesomely by Brandon Routh–now we have a random remake of Superman 2? Umm… why? And why pick a British actor to play one of the biggest truly American roles–the kid from Smallville, Kansas? Not a big deal, but maybe it’s time they let an American actor play James Bond?
So if you want to pretend you were at the San Diego premiere of the other trailer, check this out. Not great quality, but at least you can get a hint of why the folks at SDCC 2012 were more excited than the crowd watching the trailer that appeared before The Dark Knight Rises this past weekend.
BTW I don’t know who shot this footage… just ran across it on YouTube. I actually had a better link but it got pulled and I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets pulled, too. It doesn’t look all that stellar, but you can’t really judge it because of the quality. BUT I can see where there may be some cool things happening here.
Man of Steel has a June 14, 2013 release date.
And since we’re talking SDCC 2012 and superhero movies, Marvel Comics announced release dates and logos for these new Marvel flicks:
Release dates:
· May 3, 2013 — Iron Man 3
· November 8, 2013 — Thor: The Dark World
· April 4, 2014 — Captain America: The Winter Soldier
· August 1, 2014 — Guardians of the Galaxy
No date yet for Ant-Man, but don’t you wish they’d score Simon Pegg for the role of Hank Pym?
It’s no secret that I am a fan of Green Arrow, and in advance of watching the preview to the new CW Network series Arrow and seeing the actors on their panel, I gawked at the new Green Arrow suit at the DC Comics booth at the San Diego Comic-Con. The nicely polished display cases made it difficult to get great photos because of reflections. I tried with two cameras but ultimately perfect shots would have only been available after the crowd dispersed after hours. But, for the benefit of any cosplayers, here is what I was able to get:
The Green Arrow suit was designed by Academy Award winning costume designer Colleen Atwood. The costume features a great choice for the shade of green and a combination of both fine suedes and more rugged, practical fabrics.
Close-up detail on hood of new Arrow costume.
Detail of bow carvings and boot from Arrow suit.
Detail of arm darts on new Arrow suit.
Deathstroke villain mask from new Arrow series.
Also at the DC Comics booth were Watchmen costumes, presumably advertising DC Comics’ current summer series Before Watchmen. They showcased two costumes, the Comedian, and Nite Owl’s polar suit. Both of these were worn by the actors in the Watchmen movie:
Warner Brothers featured some new costumes from the coming Superman reboot movie, Man of Steel. Here is the hero suit from the movie:
Far across the convention center, I spoke with Joe Maddalena about his TV series Hollywood Treasure, which I enjoy watching for all the various props and costumes and owners that unearth them. He had several costumes and props on display, including Marlon Brando’s costume as Jor-El from the original Superman film and one of Johnny Depp’s suits from Edward Scissorhands:
Profiles in History also had some screen-worn Star Wars costumes on display, including this Snowtrooper helmet from The Empire Strikes Back and a Stormtrooper helmet and rifle from the original Star Wars.
The Snowtrooper helmet in particular illustrates how time is not always kind to materials used for productions, never intended to survive much beyond the studio shoot.
Profiles in History also showcased a nice Wolverine costume from the X-Men films, worn on-screen by Hugh Jackman:
The guys from The Prop Store in London had a great booth again this year, attended by staff from both their London and L.A. offices. The focus piece at their booth was this classic spacesuit from the original Ridley Scott movie Alien:
Finally, across the aisle from the Alex Ross art display was the giant display of Iron Man suits from Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and The Avengers.
All of this led up to the later reveal of the new Iron Man suit to be featured in Iron Man 3.
Definitely impressive displays this year of screen-used costumes–something there for everyone.
