Tuesday, 16 May 2017
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Sir Patrick Stewart Boldly Goes Under the Sword
Captain's log: let it be known his name is Sir Patrick Stewart now.
The thespian best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, earned a major promotion today, after Queen Elizabeth II officially made him a knight in a ceremony at Buckingman Palace.
The 69-year-old Stewart earned his title for doing more than dealing with Klingons and the Borg.
Considered one of Britain's greatest stage actors of his generation, Stewart is a core member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which he joined when he was 26. He has appeared in more than 60 productions and like many of his legendary forebears at the company, the residency helped launch an enterprising career in TV and movies.
"It was an unlooked-for honor but as I grew up as a child, falling in love with the theatre and Shakespeare, my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness," said Stewart.
"The knights of the theater represented to me not only the pinnacle of the profession but the esteem in which the profession was held. And now to find myself, to my astonishment, in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me."
Which is saying a lot, considering his Emmy and Tony Award nominations and such acclaimed roles stateside as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies and the leads in the TV movies A Christmas Carol and Moby Dick.
Keep going boldly, Sir Patrick!
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
One Title to Rule Them All: Peter Jackson, Patrick Stewart Get Knighted
From: E!
Call it the Return of the Queen.
In a host of end-of-year honors, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson and Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart were both feted with knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
Jackson, the mastermind behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its final entry, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won the most Oscars ever, called the honor given out by the monarch and New Zealand's head of state an "incredible moment."
''I didn't think anything would surpass the 2004 Academy Awards, but I was wrong," the humbled helmer said in a written statement.
Must have the precious!
Jackson just finished up the script to a two-part prequel of The Hobbit that Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro is directing and he's producing, which is expected to start shooting early next year. His latest flick, The Lovely Bones, was just released in the U.S. to mixed reviews.After starting out directing low-budget horror films and working his way up Hollywood's ranks, Jackson was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 for making the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings.
His achievement in adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's famed fantasy novels helped make the independent British Commonwealth a prime destination for film production and special effects thanks to his Weta Workshop and Weta Digital facilities in New Zealand's capitol of Wellington.
Those units are currently hard at work on Jackson's latest big-screen foray, a trilogy of films based on Tintin, the popular Belgian boy detective comic strip, which he's doing with Steven Spielberg.
Meanwhile the stately 69-year-old Stewart topped the list of Britons named honorary knights, ensuring forever more he will be known as "Sir Patrick."
After forging a successful career in British theater as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as on such acclaimed TV series as I Claudius, the thesp went to Hollywood and gained a whole new (primarily geek) following portraying Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its accompanying movies.
Aside from his famous bald pate, Stewart is also known for taking on the role of Charles Xavier in the blockbuster X-Men movies as well as starring in his one-man stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol as well as playing Scrooge in a TV version of the classic story.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Hideo Kojima's Castlevania
Monday, 15 June 2009
Hamlet Filming Underway
Written by: Christian Cawley
He's not quite post-Who as yet - there's more than likely a lot of publicity to come in the backend of 2010 - but David Tennant is certainly moving in with his career. Although he is doing it by popping back to Hamlet.
David Tennant as HamletIt seems that recording of the recent RSC production is underway, something that will likely utilise either an already built set for another production of the play or a stripped down set with the focus on the actors performance.
David Tennant, Patrick Stewart and almost all of the original principal cast are involved at the semi-secret location which is being recorded for posterity and will more than likely quickly appear in the classrooms of GCSE pupils across the country within the next few years as a means of bypassing the stuffy costumes and ornate language of Shakespeare and showing the Bard's work as performed by one of the most famous actors in the country.
It's a genius idea - one that is likely to result in one of the highest selling educational DVDs of all time.
Stewart Praises Star Trek Movie
Former Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Patrick Stewart has praised director Jj Abrams for successfully resurrecting the franchise - insisting he "loved" the new movie.
Abrams brought the sci-fi franchise back to cinemas this year with Star Trek, a prequel to the original 1960s TV show, featuring a new cast of young actors.
Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series for seven years and brought his character to the big screen in four spin-off films, including 2002's Star Trek Nemesis.
And the British star insists he is delighted the original show has been resurrected once again and is full of praise for Chris Pine, who portrays a young Captain James T. Kirk in the new movie.
He says, "He's brilliant, charming, funny and utterly delightful."
And Stewart is adamant he is not bitter about movie bosses' decision to leave him out of the new movie, adding, "I loved it. It was a very odd experience to be in the cinema watching a Star Trek movie that I wasn't in. With the exception of Leonard Nimoy, I didn't know any of the cast but it's still Star Trek. I got a great kick out of it."
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Will Wolverine appear in X-Men: First Class? | Filmonic
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One of the main reasons I am looking forward to X-Men: First Class is due to the prospect of having an X-Men film revolve around the X-Men and not Wolverine. Sure, he’s a cool character and Hugh Jackman is great in the role, but the bastard hogged all the screen time in the trilogy and other characters had to suffer in order for him to shine (Cyclops and Storm mainly). So with Wolverine on course to getting his own trilogy, it may finally be time for an actual X-Men film with X-Men: First Class, which will focus on young versions of Cyclops, Jean, Beast and Storm (among other’s yet to be confirmed) as they undertake their first year at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
However, with X-Men Origins: Wolverine making big money this past weekend, mainly due to Hugh Jackman and people’s interest in Wolverine, would Fox ever consider making an X-Men film without an appearance from the clawed one?
From MTV:
A cameo would actually be quite cool, considering there would be little or no interaction between Wolverine and the characters he meet for the first time in X-Men 1. From X-Men Origins: Wolverine it is hinted that First Class would takes place after those events, so it could work. However, if Wolverine end’s up on-screen for more than 20 seconds I’ll showcase some berserk rage of my own.“Do you think Wolverine will be in the ‘X-Men: First Class’ movie?” I asked Jackman, expecting to hear a simple “no” or “no comment.”
“I don’t know,” he responded with a grin, leaving the door open. “You’re asking good questions. You’ve done your research.”
“I’ve got nothing to do with that movie, they don’t need me,” Jackman cautioned, then cryptically added, “…as a producer.”
Which brings up a good point: Although the “producer” in Jackman is already working hard to make a Wolverine spin-off sequel, it seems likely that the “actor” in him wants to leave the door open to guest appearances in the movies of other mutants.
“I haven’t even read the script,” he tried to explain of “First Class,” but once again added honestly: “But, we’ll see.”
Finally, I thought I’d give Hugh one more shot at a stronger confirmation or denial, so I asked if he’d be willing to do a small cameo in “First Class,” along the same lines of what Patrick Stewart did in his film. “Yeah,” Jackman grinned, escaping while he could. “You have done your research.”
Friday, 24 April 2009
New X-Men Origins: Wolverine TV Spot
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The folks over at Facebook have premiered a new TV spot for 20th Century Fox's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which opens in theaters on May 1. Check out the clip here.
The clip is essentially a re-cut of scenes already shown in previous trailers and clips, but does add an interesting narrative voice over from Patrick Stewart.
Hugh Jackman reprises the role that made him a superstar—as the fierce fighting machine who possesses amazing healing powers, retractable claws and a primal fury. Leading up to the events of X-Men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story of Wolverine's epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe whose appearances in the film series have long been anticipated.
Directed by Gavin Hood, the prequel stars Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Will.i.am, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, Daniel Henney and Lynn Collins.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
New internet trailer for Wolverine | Filmonic
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A new and most likely final trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine has appeared online, and I feel like I have seen it before…oh wait I have. The trailer is a shiny HD version of the Comic Con trailer from July last year. It was our very first look at Wolverine but we only got to see it via crappy camera footage as it was never released online. That is until now. Watch below!
In other Wolverine news a TV spot featuring a voice-over from Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier) has been playing. It’s cool to see Fox trying to connect the X-Men films.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Lauren Shuler Donner wants X-Men: First Class to become a franchise | Filmonic
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In February Josh Schwartz said that he was just getting started on writing X-Men: First Class, so we didn’t expect to hear much at this stage of development, however, promotion for X-Men Origins: Wolverine is gearing up and people behind the X-Men franchise are starting to talk. Lauren Shuler Donner has produced all the X-Men films, including Wolverine, and revealed on Fox Movie Channel’s Life after Film School that she hoped X-Men: First Class becomes a whole new X-Men franchise. She also revealed which characters will be involved.
From Comics Continuum:
“It is the first class of Xavier’s school, way back when, so it’s young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that’ll be really fun,” Donner said. “I think (the plan) is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world.
“And hopefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up.”
She also acknowledged that a Magneto movie remains in development.
I’m glad we finally know which characters the film will revolve around, as there was speculation that it could focus on a whole new bunch of characters. While we will be seeing young versions of Cyclops, Jean and Beast, we have already seen young versions of Iceman and Angel in the trilogy, so the famous original line-up probably won’t happen. There is also the fact that a young Cyclops appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so the chances are X-Men: First Class will take place after Wolverine, and Tim Pocock (who plays young Cyclops) could have a good few years ahead of him, unless they recast for whatever reason.
They will obviously involve other characters, including some we have seen before. We could see a young Storm (we caught a glimpse of a toddler-looking Storm in the first Wolverine trailer, however Lauren Shuler Donner said that the scene won’t make the final cut. This could be so that it doesn’t screw up continuity if they plan on adding a young Storm in X-Men: First Class). As it will be the first class of Xavier’s school Patrick Stewart may end up returning, unless they recast Xavier like they did with William Stryker. I hope they don’t though. I’d like to think that Patrick Stewart will be the man that links the X-Men franchise together on-screen.
I’m happy that Fox have chosen Josh Schwartz (The O.C, Chuck) as writer. If you’re going to make a movie about young adults, you might as well get the guy who knows how to write them well. Fanboys may want people like Christopher Nolan (the current fanboy God after The Dark Knight) to write and direct their favourite superhero’s, but writing for young mutants with young mutant problems might not be one of their strengths. I am eager to find out who ends up directing this. As long as it’s not Brett Ratner i’ll be happy.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Patrick Stewart's X-rated kisses
Patrick Stewart loved working on 'X-Men' - because he got to kiss his female co-stars every day.
The 68-year-old actor favourite part about working on the superhero trilogy was being surrounded by beautiful women, including Halle Berry, every day.
He said: "Filming 'X-Men' was amazing. Can you imagine what it was like starting your day walking into the make-up room and giving a good morning kiss to Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn and Anna Paquin, can you imagine how good that felt?"
[More]
Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup talk about Waiting for Godot
Stewart left that performance in Bristol determined that one day he would play Vladimir and, half a century later, the man known to millions of TV viewers as Star Trek's Captain Jean-Luc Picard finally fulfils that ambition by appearing in Waiting for Godot, with Ian McKellen as Estragon.
Stewart scoops third Olivier award
Patrick Stewart has scooped his third Olivier award for his role as the scheming Claudius in Hamlet.
Already a winner of two Oliviers in previous years, the X-Men and Star Trek star completed a hat trick for his part in the Royal Shakespeare Company production, which starred Doctor Who's David Tennant in the title role. Stewart secured Best Performance in a Supporting Role.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Waiting for a turn in spotlight
TWO budding actors have been given the chance of a lifetime after winning the opportunity to star on-stage alongside a pair of acting legends.
Callum Souter and Jonathan Aitken, both 11, have been selected by producers of the classic play Waiting For Godot to fill the role of "the boy".
It means the youngsters will be performing alongside two of the biggest names in theatre, Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, when the show comes to the King's Theatre later this year.
[MORE]
Monday, 14 July 2008
X-Men star becomes real professor
Hollywood star Patrick Stewart, who plays Professor Xavier in the X-Men science fiction films, has had a real-life professorship given to him.
The actor was taking on the new role of Professor of Performing Arts at Huddersfield University, where he is chancellor, in a ceremony on Monday.
He was also leading 400 students in the university's inaugural graduate procession through the town centre.
Stewart said of his professorship: "I'm truly honoured to receive this title."
The Huddersfield-born actor, who was installed as the university's chancellor in November 2004, said: "The university is an outstanding educational institution, one that I am extremely proud to be associated with, and I look forward to continuing to work with the staff and students."
Vice-chancellor Professor Bob Cryan said: "We are delighted that Patrick was able to attend today and lead our first procession through Huddersfield, which was a great honour for the university and the town."
This year 6,000 students will graduate from the University of Huddersfield, with 63 achieving degrees in drama.
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Stewart & Fishburne Compete For Prestigious Tony Award
Patrick Stewart and Laurence Fishburne will go head-to-head for the Best Actor award at the annual Tony Awards in New York next month. The ceremony will see stage actors, directors and performances compete for America's annual top theatre awards, which will be hosted by Whoopi Goldberg on June 7 at the famous Radio City Music Hall. Stewart and Fishburne have been nominated alongside British actors Ben Daniels, Mark Rylance and Rufus Sewell. The female leads battling it out for Best Stage Actress include Eve Best, Deanna Dunagan, Kate Fleetwood, S. Epatha Merkerson and Amy Morton. The coveted Best Play Award nominations are August: Osage County, Rock N Roll, The Seafarer and The 39 Steps. Musical favorites Grease and Gypsy are also up in the Best Musical Revival category along with South Pacific and Sunday In The Park With George, and Shakespeare's Macbeth and comedy Boeing-Boeing will be competing for the Best Play Revival award. Nominees for Best Musical include In The Heights, Passing Strange, Xanadu and Cry-Baby - the latter two based on the films of the same name.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Patrick Stewart rules 'Macbeth'
By Charles McNulty.
Patrick Stewart rules the updated production.NEW YORK -- Patrick Stewart's suave performance in the Chichester Festival Theatre production of "Macbeth," which opened Tuesday at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway, can be scored a triumph, but it comes with a few provisos.
Hardly anyone ever gets this most tempting of Shakespearean roles right. By comparison, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear -- tough as they are to pull off -- are more amenable to partial successes. When actors fail in these parts, they tend to fail upward.
The Scottish play, on the other hand, can really be hellish for its leading man. Don't believe me? Ask Kelsey Grammer, Alec Baldwin, Christopher Plummer or any of the other big name Macbeths of the last couple of decades and you'll find out why theater people say the tragedy is cursed.
The play requires a kind of cinematic facility of its director, who must agilely negotiate between close-ups and special effects. Rupert Goold's staging may ride roughshod over the text's subtler psychology, yet it spectacularly captures the moral inversion of a society in which a celebrated military hero can rapidly transform into a fiendish butcher.
The production clocks in at just under three hours, but business is briskly transacted. The upside is that audience members aren't given many opportunities to check their watches; the downside is that there's not always sufficient space for the protagonist's moments of fleeting circumspection.
This is "Macbeth" as arty action movie, beautifully spoken by a cast that seems relatively at home in the modernist whirlwind Goold has conjured. And Stewart, a veteran of Shakespeare as well as sci-fi blockbusters such as the "Star Trek" and "X-Men" franchises, looks like he was born for this sort of adventurous approach to the Bard of Avon.
The setting is a sleekly industrial kitchen. Tougher to pin down is the era, which suggests some crazy mishmash of Stalin's Russia and a timeless Great Britain (more England than Scotland, if the accents are any gauge).
Thankfully, the update doesn't make a mockery of the tale. The set (designed with diabolical flexibility by Anthony Ward, who's also responsible for the costumes) is liberally splattered with gore, as expected. But much of the violence is conveyed through Lorna Heavey's chillingly real video projections of wide-ranging military madness.
The nightmare may have occult trappings, but its horror is only too human. To that end, the three weird sisters are introduced as triage nurses, delighting in the battlefield carnage they'd like to see continue even after peace threatens to put the kibosh on their fun.
Technology's role.
The multimedia treatment of the combat scenes plays out like a thriller in an intensive care unit. Yes, the directorial strokes can be overdone (even the witches grow gimmicky), but the use of technology heightens suspense to the breaking point, and few productions have made the connection between state-sanctioned war and individual homicide so scarily vivid.
The central culinary metaphor is an attempt to reveal what happens when public and private appetites are permitted to run riot. Macbeth slowly decants red wine as he scrutinizes his capacity for committing regicide. Later, he fixes himself a neat little sandwich, chopping and spreading with devilish panache while ordering paranoid hits on Banquo (an accomplished Martin Turner) and his son, Fleance (Emmett White).
Lady Macbeth (Kate Fleetwood, overwrought yet lucid) fetches a cake in honor of Duncan's royal visit in the manner of a terrorist gleefully patting a knapsack freshly packed with explosives. When that troubling young Fleance tries to help himself to a leftover slice, Macbeth whisks the dessert back into the fridge -- the sweets aren't for everyone.
For all the production's scenic ingenuity, however, the old challenge of "Macbeth" remains unsolved -- how are you supposed to stay sympathetically engaged with a hero whose journey is from valor to serial killing?
The Aristotelian emotions of pity and fear aren't easily won, and it's not clear that Goold is even hunting after anything vaguely cathartic. His focus is moral rather than emotional, which in some respects is quite refreshing but still a line of attack that prevents us from registering the enormous loss in Macbeth's debasement.
The banquet scene, where a guilty Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost, is repeated before and after intermission, with different levels of corporeal horror. But the self-conscious flashiness of the replay eclipses any insight into Macbeth's submerged conscience. And the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy, inspired by the death of Lady Macbeth, is somewhat blunted by the fact their marital bond seems purely lustful.
Haunting portrayals.
Obviously our feelings aren't shut out entirely. But the most haunting aspects of the work -- the vast discrepancy in age between Stewart's Macbeth and Fleetwood's much younger Lady Macbeth or the image of a neighborly Lady Macduff (Rachel Ticotin) and her doomed brood of children -- are more embodied than played.
Still, Stewart's skillfulness is mesmerizing even if it isn't devastating. But there's no denying the nuclear glow he bestows on the figure's faltering humanity. And even more impressive, he possesses the quality that is indispensable to any portrayal of Macbeth -- the glamorous aura of the chosen one. After all, it's proximity to greatness that urges the character to overleap what is permissibly civilized.
Stewart comes close to achieving something extraordinary, and for a play with so many perplexities in performance, that is an exceptional credit in an already exceptional career.
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Macbeth to Offer Final Dress Rehearsal as Benefit for Actors Fund; Previews Begin March 29
By Adam Hetrick
The Broadway revival of Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart will offer theatregoers the chance to catch its final dress rehearsal as a benefit performance for the Actors Fund of America
The March 28 final dress rehearsal, originally scheduled as the first day of previews, is currently on sale as a benefit for the non-profit organization. Select orchestra and front-mezzanine seats, priced $100, are available by visiting www.actorsfund.org.
Macbeth, which arrives on Broadway following an acclaimed engagement in the West End and a current BAM run, will now officially begin previews March 29 with an opening on April 8 at the Lyceum Theatre. The limited engagement will run through May 24.
Stewart stars in the title role of Shakespeare's bloody drama with a British cast that includes Kate Fleetwood (Lady Macbeth), Paul Shelley (Duncan), Scott Handy (Malcolm), Ben Carpenter (Donalbain), Martin Turner (Banquo), Michael Feast (Macduff), Mark Rawlings (Lennox), Tim Treloar (Ross), Bill Nash (Angus), Christopher Knott (Old Seyward), Oliver Birch (Lady Macbeth's servant), Christopher Patrick Nolan (Seyton), Hywel John (Bloody Sergeant), Suzanne Burden (Lady Macduff), Polly Frame, Niamh McGrady and Sophie Hunter (Witches).
Macbeth features direction by Rupert Goold and is set in a "subterranean kitchen that serves as a military hospital in a timeless and nameless country." The production's West End engagement recently won two Olivier Awards: Best Lighting Design and Best Director for Rupert Goold.
The design team for Macbeth comprises Anthony Ward (production design), Howard Harrison (lighting design), Adam Cork (composition and sound design), Lorna Heavey (video and projection design), Georgina Lamb (movement director) and Terry King (fight director).
Patrick Stewart starred in the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker. His additional stage credits include A Christmas Carol, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, The Tempest as well as recent turns in the RSC's Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest, which was also directed by Goold. Stewart is well known for his screen work as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek" as well as his performances in the "X-Men" movies. Stewart is slated to return to the RSC stage as Claudius in Hamlet later this year.
The Broadway engagement is produced by Duncan C. Weldon & Paul Elliott, Jeffrey Archer, Bill Ballard, Terri and Timothy Childs, Rodger Hess, David Mirvish, Adriana Mnuchin and Emanuel Azenberg with BAM.
Macbeth will play the following schedule at the Lyceum: weeks beginning March 31, April 14, April 28, May 12: Tuesday-Saturday at 8 PM, Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 PM; weeks beginning April 7, April 21, May 5: Tuesday-Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 8 PM, Sunday at 3 PM; and week beginning May 19: Tuesday-Saturday at 8 PM, Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM.
Tickets, priced $50-$100, are currently available to AmEx card-holders by phoning (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.Telecharge.com. Tickets go on sale to the general public March 22.
The Lyceum Theatre is located at 149 West 45th Street in Manhattan.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Weekly Ketchup: Wolverine gets more mutants.
by Greg Dean Schmitz
WOLVERINE AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS
X-Men Origins: Wolverine lit up the movie news sites nearly every day this week, as a large ensemble cast was trickled out in dribbles and spurts. What we're left with a week later is a cast that looks more and more like the movie should be called Weapon X or even X-Men 4, as it includes nearly every character ever connected in the X-Comics in any way to Weapon Plus or the Weapon X program, and a few that weren't. Where to start? Well, first off, there is Danny Huston, who will be playing the younger version of Stryker (Brian Cox) from the second movie (keep in mind that in the comics, Stryker wasn't even involved with Weapon X). And then, there are the many, many Weapon X characters: Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber, replacing Tyler Mane with someone who is more "actor" than "wrestler/stuntman"), Silver Sable (Lynn Collins), John "Kestrel" Wraith (Will I. Am of the Black Eyed Peas) and Agent Zero (AKA Maverick) (Daniel Henney). Not part of Weapon X (traditionally) but also included in the cast are Gambit (Taylor Kitsch from TV's Friday Night Lights) and "Barnell" (Dominic Monaghan, who played Charlie on Lost, and also played a recurring midget in a few movies back in the early 2000s. I KEED.).
The confusing thing about Monaghan's character of "Barnell" is that the trades are saying that he has electricity powers, but the only Barnell in the Marvel universe is a mutant named Beak, who is a sad sack with the physical features of a bird (beak, chicken feet, feathers all over, the whole thing), without the expected ability to actually, you know, FLY. Beak is miserable and very sympathetic in a "zero to hero" way that Monaghan would be perfect for (let me admit right up front that Beak is one of my favorite new X-characters introduced in the last 10 years). So, why they're saying he's got a completely different M.O. is mildly bizarre. If they're going to fake us out, you have to wonder why they would bother using the "Barnell" name. And, oh, yeah, there are also rumors that an extra has been seen sporting a huge fat suit as The Blob.
With all these potential enemies (or team mates of a sort) being announced, Wolverine's biggest threat was also announced this week, in the form of the daughter of that "Achey Breaky Heart" guy, and the unstoppable juggernaut that is The Hannah Montana Movie. If her B.O. beats Wolverine's B.O. on the 5/1/09 weekend, it will be a sort of generational milestone, I suspect. I would give Hannah Montana her own story, but ummm... I don't really have much to say. I've seen commercials for the TV show, and it appears to be about a teenage girl who is secretly a Britney Spears type pop star. And it's very popular with girls who were born after I received my Masters Degree. Oh hey, look, I actually did write a paragraph about Hannah Montana. So... NEXT!
WOULD YOU RATHER BE REMEMBERED AS EBENEZER SCROOGE, OR FRASIER CRANE?
Comedy director David Zucker (whose filmography started with Airplane! and most recently includes Scary Movie 3 & Scary Movie 4) has set his particular style of movie satire on tackling the Christmas genre, apparently, with plans of doing a modernized, Americanized adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, called An American Carol. Kelsey Grammer starred in a TV version a few years back as Ebenezer Scrooge, and so he's been picked by Zucker to star in this version as well. I'm sort of reminded of how many times Patrick Stewart has played Scrooge (in a 1999 TV movie, and in several stage versions), and to this movie's detriment (before it's even made), of how great Stewart was as Scrooge. I'm pretty sure Patrick Stewart probably would not have signed on for Zucker's movie, so... yay for Frasier.
