Sci-Fi Movies Monday: Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Hobbit, Iron Man, New Moon, GI Joe + more

This week’s genre news brings lots of activity in the world of comic book movies, with an agressive line-up coming from DC, and lots of updates on Green Hornet, Green Lantern, Ghost Rider, Iron Man and more. Also the first reviews of GI Joe are in, and it might not suck. We also have the latest images and videos, including photos of Hobbiton being constructed. 

GENRE MOVIE NEWS FOR THE WEEK

DC Comics Pushing Forward With Film (and TV) Projects
After last year’s smash hit "The Dark Knight" DC Comics has more adaptations in the works than at any other point since Warner Bros. acquired the company in 1969. The Hollywood Reporter has a rundown of some that are on the front burner:

— "The Losers," an action-adventure drama starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, begins principal photography this week in Puerto Rico.

— "Jonah Hex," a supernatural Western starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich, recently wrapped production in Louisiana.

— "The Green Lantern," Warners’ next big superhero tentpole, is set to star Ryan Reynolds after a long search.

— Fox has picked up the TV series "Human Target," starring Mark Valley, for the fall.

— And, in a rare example of a film project that has ventured off the Warners reservation, DC has set up "Red," a spy thriller to star Bruce Willis, at Summit.

Also mentioned in the article is that DC Comics has quietly hired three of its best DC writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line.  It’s unknown what projects Morrison and Wolfman are working on but Johns just recently submitted a new treatment for "The Flash".  Also in the pipeline is "Aquaman" which will be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way company; "Bizarro Superman" from writers David Howard and Robert Gordon ("Galaxy Quest") a sequel to "Constantine" and two concurrent "Green Arrow" projects: an origin story and a prison-set one titled "Shazam" and "Super Max", respectively.  On top of all that, the WB is still looking to develop another Superman and then there’s also a sequel to "The Dark Knight" on tap, although that’s a long ways away given that director Christoper Nolan is currently working on his next movie, "Inception".

Hobbiton Being Rebuilt; Peter Jackson Denies Hobbit Casting at Comic-Con
The re-building of Hobbiton for the filming of "The Hobbit" (and its sequel) has begun. TheOneRing.net has received word — and pictures — that planting of hedgerows and fruit trees has begun and that an extension to the path that passes in front of Bag End has been marked out.  Check out some images below [more can be found atTheOneRing.net]:

In other news, executive producer/writer Peter Jackson has denied to Empire Magazine that casting for the film will be announced at Comic-Con (a rumor reported by the LA Times’Hero Complex blog):

"No, we won’t be announcing Bilbo for a little while. We’re starting to think about casting, but we’re knee-deep in the script right now. And when we do go to actors, they’re probably going to ask to see a script, so we’re powering ahead with getting the first draft done."]

The two ‘Hobbit’
films are scheduled for release in December 2011 and December 2012.

Principal Photography on Iron Man 2 Wraps + First Look at Black Widow
Jon Favreau tweeted Saturday night that principal photography on "Iron Man 2" has wrapped.  In other news, Entertainment Weekly’s latest issue features the upcoming sequel film and includes our first look at Scarlett Johannson as the Black Widow.  Speaking of the Black Widow, Marvel Comics took the  opportunityto announce a new limited series comic based on the character called "Black Widow: Deadly Origin".  The four-issue miniseries is due in November and features art by Tom Raney (check out an image below).  Other images and a set video also follow below.

First look at Scarlett Johannson (Black Widow) plus new shot of RDJ (Tony Stark) [EW and ComingSoon.net]

EW Cover + New shot of RDJ and Gwyenth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) [/Film and ComingSoon.net]

Scans: First look at Don Cheadle (Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes) and Sam Rockwell (Justin Hammer) [viaComingSoon.net]

Video of the green screen set at Sepulveda Dam [Jon Favreau]

Seth Rogen on Green Hornet: It’s All Good
Seth Rogen wanted to set the record straight in regards to the upcoming "Green Hornet" project, which he co-wrote and stars in. Speaking to reporters on Saturday at a press junket for his latest film "Funny People", Rogen wanted to assure everyone that building of sets continues and the film is still on track for its July 9, 2010 release date .  Rogen also confirmed that Stephen Chow (who was originally tapped to direct and was signed to star as sidekick Kato) has indeed dropped out of the project:

"It’s going great," Rogen said. "In my head, we lost Stephen Chow in April, so it’s something I’ve had a lot of time to wrap my head around."

Rogen explained that the news of Chow’s departure made the rounds only lately, but added that he and the filmmakers have known about it for a while and are already actively pursuing new Katos. "To me we haven’t had a Kato since April, and we’re looking," he said. "We’re kind of in the same boat we were in beforehand."

Rogen also discussed the type of movie
he hopes to make:

"You know, we’re not trying to make what they would probably consider to be a 100 percent safe version of a movie like this," Rogen said. "We like to push the envelope in some directions. We like to do things that we find interesting and new and original. You bring Michel Gondry into the equation, and that opens up a whole new bag of worms."

Ain’t It Cool News was also at the press junket and got Rogen to elaborate further on the Kato casting:

 We are reading many, many people from all over the globe, and it is a wild adventure. We’re just looking everywhere, honestly. We’re looking at people who are really famous overseas, and we’re looking at people who are completely unknown. We’re looking at people who are American. We’re looking at people who are martial arts experts. We’re also looking at people who don’t do any martial arts, and who do Broadway and are actors. We know what we want. And there’s some wiggle room. We’re the type of writers who can easily adapt the roles to whoever is playing it. We’ve done that on every movie we’ve ever written. But we know how we want the relationships to work, and so someone needs to fill that general role. It’s been really interesting, I can say that. You meet these people, and you’re like, "You are clearly famous in Korea! I can see from 100 feet away that you are the most famous person in whatever country you’re from!" (Laughs) And I just feel bad that we make them read with us.

Green Lantern Movie Will Introduce New Green Lantern
"Green Lantern" co-writer Marc Guggenheim revealed toMTV that the upcoming film will introduce a new Green Lantern:

Beyond the lead actor, however, a "Green Lantern" movie offers a unique chance at casting a wide range of roles — a massive, universe-spanning police force full of characters, in fact. While Guggenheim wouldn’t comment on whether we’ll see fan-favorite Green Lanterns like Kilowog or (my personal favorite) Ch’p, he did reveal that one new Green Lantern would be created specifically for the film.

"One of our rules has been: ‘Don’t create a new Lantern when a pre-existing one from the comic books would work just as well,’" he said. "There’s only one Lantern who we’ve decided to completely create from scratch, but there’s a very specific reason why we’ve made that decision."

In other news, last week "Iron Man 2" director Jon Favreautweeted that "Green Lantern visited the set."  It’s unclear if this was a reference to the newly cast Ryan Reynolds and if it had anything to do with shooting a scene for the film.

Harry Potter Breaks Worldwide Box Office Record
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" grossed$159.7 million during its five-day opening week, second all-time for a movie premiering at midweek (after "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen").  But the bigger tally came from the film’s worldwide cume which hit $396.7 million ($237 million overseas in 54 countries).  That beats the prior worldwide record held by 2007’s "Spider-Man 3" which grossed $381.7 million in its opening weekend worldwide.  In other ‘Potter’ news, and spoilers follow so beware, director David Yates revealed to MTV why he decided to alter the film’s ending:

“We had [the funeral] in the script at one point and it was a really strange experience,” he revealed. “But after the courtyard scene and Dumbledore’s died, it felt like going to the funeral just felt like we were suffering from ending-itis. It felt like another end…In a book you can enjoy that journey but in the rhythm of a darkened cinema, it felt like the right place to end,” he explained.

You can watch a video of Yates discussing cutting out elements from the film below:

Rounding out the rest of this week’s ‘Potter’ coverage, Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) discusses what his role will be in the seventh and eighth films in an interview withSCI FI Wire and his role in the current film withAICN, while Bill Nighy talks about his role as Magic Rufus Scrimgeour in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I and II" in an interview withSCI FI Wire.

Nicholas Cage Wants to Reboot Ghost Rider
Nicholas Cage doesn’t just want to do a second "Ghost Rider" film, the star tellsMTV that he would like to re-conceive the property and take it in a "whole other direction". Cage elaborates a bit and says he would like for it be "much less of a Western and more of a international story".  You can watch the interview below.

New Moon Updates + First Casting for Eclipse
Media outlets visited the set of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" back in May and their reports are now surfacing on the internet.  Here are some highlights courtesyRotten Tomatoes andHitFix:

• Alexandre Desplat is currently working on the movie’s score. It may include hints at Carter Burwell’s original "Twilight" theme, but will sound different.
• A couple of new scenes from the film will be shown during the "New Moon" Comic-Con panel on Thursday, July 23.
• The movie within a movie, "Facepunch," will only be heard — not seen.
• He’s met with David Slade and expects the filmmaker’s vision for "Eclipse" to be different than what he’s doing with "New Moon," but with the same actors and visual effects team.
• [Director Chris] Weitz needs to turn the film in by Oct. 30 to strike prints or if not, they are in "big trouble" to make the release date.

In other "Twilight" news, The Hollywood Reporter’sRisky Biz Blog reports on the first casting for the third film in the franchise, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse".  The site reports that unknown Australian actor Xavier Samuel has been hired to play the role of:

…"newborn vampire" named Rile, a good-looking college student who joins the plot of villain Victoria to murder protagonist Bella (Kirsten).  Riley is corrupted by Victoria, for whom he has an inexplicable weakness.

And finally,Hollywood.com has a list of the "15 things [they] Learned About Robert Patterson on the ‘New Moon’ set" andStar Shine Magazine [viaNewMoonMovie.org] has an interview with ‘New Moon’ star Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Hale) where he talks a bit about his latest films, including ‘New Moon’ and "The Last Airbender".

First look at Bella and Jacob [LA Times]

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Reviews Are In; Better Than Expected?
Some new reviews for the Stephen Sommers’ "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" have come out and it looks like the film may not be quite as bad as many were expecting, or dreading:

Collider

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” is not the train wreck you’re expecting.

In fact, some of the film is quite good. While many of you won’t believe me till you see it with your own eyes on August 7th, last night I got into a research screening of director Stephen Sommers “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” at the Bridge Theater in Los Angeles and came away liking what I saw.

My one sentence: It’s the cartoon come to life.

Latino Review (reader review)

But after seeing the movie tonight all I can say is HOLY SHIT! – this movie blew away my expectations. It’s a really good movie. It’s a ton of fun and a great ride. And much closer to the GI JOE I remember than I was expecting. The audience was really into it throughout and they applauded at the end. As we walked out of the theater you could hear how excited people were about having seen the movie. I can honestly say that it’s one of the most entertaining and fun summer movies I have seen.

Ain’t It Cool (reader review)

I’ve been familiar with G.I. Joe since I was a kid. I remember the cartoon, the silly PSAs and, of course, the toys. However, I was never a die hard fan or anything like that. After seeing the trailers, and realizing it looked pretty much nothing like the G.I.Joe I remember, I wasn’t expecting much. So, with that said, here’s the short version: It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the train wreck I expected. Also, it was more enjoyable than Transformers 2.

(reader review–a little less positive)

Hey Harry, just got back from a pre-screening of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and definitely have mixed feelings regarding the movie.

…I don’t have the view that Stephen Sommers has "raped my childhood" but I can say that the children in the screening were having a blast, and without a doubt were pushing their parents to buy whatever action figure for the character they most identified with. I realize that the marketing behind the movies now are all about merchandising (thank you Space Balls) and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra should do well. The movie reflected the high tech gadgetry of the cartoon but was surprisingly violent as there are many on screen deaths.

Not everyone was as pleasantly surprised by the film though.  Here’s a snippet from ComicBookMovie.com:

This movie isn’t as bad as you thought it will be. No, it’s actually a lot worse.

Okay, here is the main thing you need to know about "G.I. JOE." If you are, or ever have been, a fan of the cartoon, the comics, or the toys, which all basically tie together, then this live-action version will ruin any fond memory that you have of that history. I repeat, it WILL RUIN ANY FOND MEMORY!!!! And I mean FOREVER! You will see and hear things that you can’t un-see or un-hear. You will be scarred!!

This movie is so dumb, far-fetched, asinine, horribly acted, with unbelievably bad CGI. I couldn’t believe how much money that they spent on that piece of sh-t! And with all of that money, it STILL looks like crap!!

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" hits theaters next Friday, August 7th.

New clip [io9]

NEW IMAGES

2012 [EW]

9 [EW andio9–more atBuzznet andMTV]

Concept art [io9]

Alice in Wonderland [EW and Empire]

The Box

Movie poster [Richard Kelly]

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs [IGN–one more atEW]

The Fantastic Mr. Fox [Film Sactu viaSCI FI Wire]

Jennifer’s Body [more atIGN]

Kick-Ass [EW]

Comic-Con exclusive poster [AICN]

The Last Airbender

First look at Jackson Rathbone (Sokka) [New Moon Movie viaSCI FI Wire]

Pandorum [EW]

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

First official shot of Jake Gyllenhaal [EW]

Thirst [EW]

Trick ‘r Treat

Blu-ray/DVD Art [AICN]

Under the Mountain

Movie poster [/Film]

Zombieland [EW]

 Movie poster [ShockTillYouDrop]

NEW VIDEOS

9

Clip

A Christmas Carol

International (Italy) trailer

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Clip

Despicable Me

Trailer

Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief

Trailer

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

Video Blog #10

Under the Mountain

International (Australia) trailer

Where the Wild Things Are

Early Disney test footage [Monsters and Rockets viaSCI FI Wire]

CASTING BITES

• William Dafoe has joined the cast of Disney’s "John Carter of Mars".  Dafoe will play Tars Tarkas, the leader of the Thark race.  Production on the film is scheduled to begin in early 2010. [THR]
• Robert Rodriguez begins production on "Machete" July 29th — he’s teaming with Ethan Maniquis to co-direct — and the project has added Michelle Rodriguez, Jonah Hill, and perhaps most surprisingly, Robert DeNiro.  DeNiro will play Senator McLaughlin, while Rodriguez and Hill will play characters called Luz and Julio, respectively… [Bloody-Disgusting]
• …Meanwhile another actor rumored to be joining the film is Steven Segal. [The Playlist]
• Tricia Helfer ("Battlestar Galactica") will voice Boodikka in "Green Lantern: First Flight", the next DC Universe animated original movie (hitting DVD on July
  21st). [SCI FI Wire]
• The cast of WB’s adaptation of the Vertigo comic series "The Losers" has been revealed.  Check out the full list at First Showing.
• Sean Bean ("The Lord of the Rings") has landed the lead role in "Game of Thrones", HBO’s adaptation of the George R.R. Martin fantasy-book series.  Tom McCarthy is directing, with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss executive producing.  Weiss also wrote the screenplay. Bean will play Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark. [THR]
• Gerard Butler ("300") will voice the dragon Stoick the Vast in DreamWorks Animations’ upcoming "How to Train Your Dragon".  The film is based on the Cressida Cowel book about a young Viking who befriends a dragon instead of slaying him. [SCI FI Wire]

MOVIE BITES

• "District 9" executive producer Peter Jackson talks about the upcoming sci-fi film in a new interview with NZ Herald. [via io9]
• Paramount’s adaptation of Max Brooks’ best-selling novel "World War Z" is getting a new screenwriter.  Mathew Michael Carnahan has been brought on board to write the screenplay.  The project was previously being scripted by J. Michael Stracynski ("Babylon 5"). [Fangoria]
• Instead of screening a trailer of "Kick-Ass" at Comic-Con next week, director Matthew Vaughn has revealed that he’ll be showcasing some scenes from the film: "There will be at least four scenes from the first act… then a minute’s montage of what’s going to happen in the next two acts…" [MTV]
• David Permut and Steve Lee Jones will produce "Discipline", a theatrical version of Paco Ahlegren’s sci-fi adventure novel. [Variety]
• John Debney will compose Jon Favreau’s "Iron Man 2".  This marks the third time that Debney and Favreau have collaborated together — "Elf" (2003) and "Zathura: A Space Adventure" (2005) being the other two. [AICN]
• The third annual Comic-Con Zombiewalk, brought to you by Columbia Pictures’ "Zombieland", will take place this Thursday, July 23rd @ 7:30pm in downtown San Diego. [Zombie Walk: San Diego]
• Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way have hired Rand Ravich ("The Astronaut’s Wife") to write a script for a film based on the classic sci-fi TV series "The Twilight Zone". [Variety]
• Cung Le talks about the upcoming sci-fi film "Pandorum" in a new interview with Shock Till You Drop.
• Producer Joel Silver has revealed that a script for a big-screen version of the DC Comic series "Lobo" is
  complete: "Lobo is one I’m very excited about maybe doing one day, hopefully soon," Silver said. "I think we can do it. We’ve got a script we like." [SCI FI Wire]
• Twins Allen and Albert Hughes ("From Hell") talk about their return to film in directing Denzel Washington in the post-apocalyptic sci-fi film "Book of Eli"… [LA Times]
• …Meanwhile artist Chris Weston, who created storyboards and concept art for the feature, also created the following Comic-Con movie poster. [Bleeding Cool]

• Stuart Beattie explains why he thinks his version of a big-screen adaptation of the Microsoft Xbox video game "Halo" will work. [SCI FI Wire]
• Beattie also spoke about directing the upcoming "Tomorrow, When the War Began", an adaptation of the Australian series of books.  Beattie wrote the script and will make his directorial debut with the project. [SCI FI Wire]
• And lastly, Beattie discussed yet another project he has
  his hands in — "Tarzan": "It’s not your traditional Tarzan," Beattie said, adding "It’s your Pirates of the Caribbean kind of Tarzan. It’s fun. It’s how a Tarzan movie should be. It’s just, because Tarzan’s been done so many times, you can’t just do the standard retelling of Tarzan again, because everyone knows that story. If you’re going to do Tarzan, you’ve got to do it different than it’s ever been done." [SCI FI Wire]
• Summit Entertainment has tapped Jeff Wadlow to direct "Arena", a sci-fi action film revolving around a group of modern-day soldiers transported to a shifting landscape, where they are forced to face off against the best warriors from different eras in gladiatorial battle. [THR]
• Darren Aronofsky wants to direct his passion project "Black Swan", a supernatural drama with star Natalie Portman, but if he does he may have to forego working on MGM’s upcoming reboot of "Robocop". [Risky Biz Blog]
• Universal Pictures has changed the name of their adaptation of Darren Shan’s novel "Cirque du Freak" to "The Vampire’s Assistant" and moved its release to October 23, 2009. [Shock Till You Drop]
• Fredrik Bond has been chosen to direct "Hack/Slash", Rogue’s adaptation of the horror comic book. [THR]
• DreamWorks Animation have decided against releasing a anaglyph (3-D with the red/blue glasses) version of "Monsters vs. Aliens" on DVD/Blu-ray.  The film was geared around the Real-D 3-D process and they were not happy with how the anaglyph version looked. [Home Media Magazine via MarketSaw]
• Poor reviews be damned, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" has already passed $700 million worldwide and is moving in on $750M (it’s currently at $746.9M). It’s well ahead of "Transformers" in domestic gross (363.9M vs. $319.3M) and will soon pass the original in foreign gross (383.1M vs. $389.0M). [BOM]
• Speaking of giant robots…Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven, Richard Suckle and Steve Alexander have acquired the film rights to "Voltron". [Risky Biz Blog]
• "Pandorum" has received an R-rating by the MPAA, while Spike Jonze’s "Where The Wild Things Are" has received a PG-rating for "mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language". [Rope of Silicon]
• Interested in finding out what’s in the roughly 24-minutes of additional footage in Zack Snyder’s Director’s Cut of "Watchmen"?  Check out a rundown of all the extra scenes at CHUD.
• Summit Entertainment screened some clips of their upcoming animated feature "Astro Boy" for press. SCI FI Wire and io9 provide their respective analysis of what was shown here and here.
• Remember all that talk a few months back about Mark Millar having an idea for an epic three-picture "Superman" film series?  Well Millar has finally revealed who he had in mind to take on the project and it’s not that surprising: Matthew Vaughn (who’s directing an adaptation of Millar’s "Kick-Ass").  “They spoke to me and Matthew last year and we were obviously very interested as the love is there and the potential is enormous. But we’re not involved in Superman at this stage.” [TimesOnline]
• …Bill Nighy, who voices a character in "Astro Boy" as well as another animated feature called "Rango" discusses the two roles in a new interview with SCI FI Wire.
• "Moon" director Duncan Jones talks about his film in new interview with /Film.  You can watch the interview below.

MISC IMAGES

The End (Comic Book)

Teaser [Marvel]

Green Lantern

Fan art of Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern [FanArtExhibit via/Film]

Jennifer’s Body [Comic Book]

First look [more at Shock Till You Drop]

MISC BITES

• "Spider-Man: "Turn Off The Dark" director Julie Taymore revealed that the name of the upcoming musical was conceived by U2’s Bono, the musical’s songwriter: "It was a story that he heard about a child who would say to his daddy, he was sleeping, and instead of saying ‘turn on the light,’ he would say ‘turn off the dark.’" [LA Times]
• An authentic Ecto-1 from "Ghostbusters" was put on eBay but failed to be sold.  The bid price went up to $45,100 through 32 bids but that failed to reach its reserve price. [eBay]
• Oh the irony.  Copies of George Orwell’s "Animal Farm" and "1984" were electronically deleted from hundreds of Amazon Kindle devices.  Apparently the e-books were not authorized to be on the devices — even though they were paid for by users — and the publisher wanted them removed not just from the site but from the users’ Kindle devices as well to which Amazon obliged. The company, however, now says that in the event a similar situation happens again, they would not automatically remove purchased copies of Kindle books. [New York Times]
• The child-hood home of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel has just undergone a $70,000 renovation paid for by fans. [Wall Street Journal]

Follow Russ on his blog:YourEntertainment Now and on Twitter: Twitter.com/YourEntNow.