Hard to believe it’s already that time but the countdown has begun for the release on DVD and Blu-ray of this summer’s biggest hit Iron Man 2. The film may have gotten 90% of the geeks across the globe excited in theaters, but the special features on the Blu-ray are sure to get that last 10%.

The big combo pack will be the Blu-ray edition, of course, and should be chock-full of features and extras to keep you entertained. Check out a complete list of the features below, and be sure to grab Iron Man 2 on Blu-ray and DVD September 28th.

Disc 1 (Blu-ray):

• Feature film with optional commentary by Jon Favreau (HD)
• S.H.I.E.L.D. Data Vault (HD)— Extend your knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with high-level clearance into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s digital data vault. Interact with select scenes from the movie that include new layers of graphics and insider information. View case files, dossiers, S.H.I.E.L.D. training films, tech details and more.
• Previsualization and Animatics (HD)

Continue Reading →

Wait, you mean to tell me that this was a holiday weekend?  You certainly wouldn’t know it from the box office, which had its worst Memorial weekend showing in ten years.  Remember when Memorial weekend signaled the beginning of the summer movie season?  Studios usually unveiled a surefire hit to serve as a harbinger of the season.

This weekend, a holdover (Shrek Forever After) beat out two newbies, Sex and the City 2, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.  This is rather unusual for a holiday weekend, so let’s take a closer look at what may have happened, based on Sunday’s totals.

At the time of this writing, Shrek had collected about $43.3 Million, while SATC 2 made about $32 Million (this does not count the Thursday totals for the movie.) Meanwhile, Prince of Persia made about $30 Million.  So, the two new entries almost exactly split the vote, so to speak. Between the two of them, they made over $60 Million.  However, they were targeted to complete opposite demographics, while Shrek still appealed to families this weekend.  It should be noted that Shrek is still playing at almost 1,000 more theaters than any other movies this week.

SATC 2 cost less to make ($100M), so it will probably be fine over the upcoming weeks, but Prince of Persia had a hefty price tag of $200 Million, and it will have an uphill battle to win back its budget, not to mention that the appeal of Jake Gyllenhaal as an action hero comes into question.

At any rate, I think most of us expected SATC 2 and Prince of Persia to make $50 or $60 Million each. Yikes.

Iron Man 2 came in in third place with $16 Million, bringing its cumulative to $274 Million after four weeks in release.  Robin Hood managed to rake in another $10 Million, and now stands at $83 Million, but that is still a long, long way from its reported budget of close to $200 Million, though foreign ticket sales are helping cushion the blow.

Letters to Juliet continues to quietly perform well.  Now in its 3rd week, the film only dropped 34%, and has made over $36 Million in three weeks. The big loser this weekend was MacGruber, which plummeted 63% from its already less than stellar opening weekend, and only made $1.4 Million.

Next week we have Splice, Get Him to the Greek, and Marmaduke.  Talk about counter-programming!

Though Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 is pretty far in the back of our collective minds by now, it’s still worth it when we come across an impressive fan film that pays homage to the multi-million dollar movie franchise. And really, who doesn’t love baby versions of your favorite characters?

It worked at a TV series for The Muppets, and even a (mildly) successful comic series for The X-Men. Now, it’s Tony Stark’s turn, as we introduce Iron Baby.

The concept is pretty straightforward. Super-genius baby who develops a suit to take down bad guys (in this case, evil Easter bunnies). The thing worth watching the video for is the CG work. The film was done by Patrick Boivin, with graphics done by the French company STROB.

Check out Iron Baby after the jump, which stars Boivin’s daughter. It’s pretty amusing, and quite visually impressive. Only one question remains at this point: How soon before Nickelodeon picks it up?

Continue Reading →

Normally $71 Million sounds like a pretty good haul, but despite making that over the weekend, Shrek Forever After was widely considered a box office disappointment, compared to its predecessors.  In 2007, Shrek 3 made over $121 Million on its opening weekend, a cool $50 Million over this total.

Consider that the 3D ticket prices were much higher for Shrek 4, and it seems that not near as many people were clamoring to see the final chapter of the fairy tale franchise.  It also opened on a staggering 4,300 screens, which is a full thousand more than most tent-pole movies get, so lack of accessibility certainly wasn’t the issue.

However, word of mouth by exiting audience members is good (cinemascore of A, according to Entertainment Weekly), and the kiddos will be out of school in the next few weeks.  The family demographic will likely provide Shrek 4 with a long run at the box office, similar to How to Train Your Dragon. The movie will need to have that very thing happen to earn back its reported $165 Million budget.

Coming in at a very strong second place was Iron Man 2, earning a robust $26.6 Million in its third week in release. Not too shabby.  Robin Hood earned another $18.7 Million, bringing its two-week total to $66 Million. The film still is performing better overseas, so it should earn back its whopping $200 million budget.

Continue Reading →

While this is definitely a cool idea, it should be noted that this piece of news is most definitely a rumor as of now and should be treated as such.

With all eyes still on Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 as it continues to make money at the worldwide box office, most Marvel fans are already ready for more from the cinematic universe. We’ve got Thor on the way next and then Joe Johnston’s Captain America. But after that, everything leads to Joss Whedon’s The Avengers in 2012.

We’ve heard we’ll see just about every Marvel character in The Avengers the company currently has the film rights to including The Hulk, Thor, Cap, Iron Man, Ant Man, and Hawkeye. Now we’re getting word that the main villains of the film could be the alien race The Skrulls.

The highlight of this insider scoop (DISCLAIMER: which has not been confirmed by the studio itself) is that the shape-changing alien race the Skrulls are being used as the main antagonists for The Avengers. Not only that, but the Skrulls will ‘brainwash’ and use the Hulk in a similar fashion Loki did in the comics.

Don’t expect a full on alien invasion, though; that will have to wait for a sequel. The Skrulls’ role will be largely clandestine, similar to the way S.H.I.E.L.D. operates.

Continue Reading →

Iron Man 2 made mincemeat of the competition this weekend, decisively beating rival Robin Hood.  Dropping off 59% from its opening weekend, Iron Man made about $53 Million, easily beating  the Ridley Scott helmed movie, which made around $37 Million over the weekend.

Robin Hood has been rumored to have a budget around $200 Million, so that sub-par opening might be disappointing to Universal, but the good news for Universal is that the film is performing well overseas, which will most likely cushion the blow of the somewhat soft American opening. Robin Hood made over $74 Million in foreign markets, and seems to be getting a warmer reception.

Letters to Juliet didn’t benefit from  counter-programming as much as I would have thought. With all the testosterone at the multiplex, I thought women would eat up the romantic offering. It had a decent take ($13.7 Million), but apparently women didn’t have a strong need to see it.  Incidentally, most critics I spoke with were pleasantly surprised by the movie, and found Vanessa Redgrave delightful in it.

Queen Latifah’s latest offering, Just Wright, was not able to muster much interest, and brought in $8.5 Million for fourth place.  How to Train Your Dragon continues to hang out in the top five, and made another $5 Million over the weekend.

Though the movie has been out for a week now, we wanted to make sure the majority of you saw Iron Man 2 before we posted anything else that could potentially spoil the movie. And then there’s this video.

For those of you you remember the trailer very well and saw the film, you might recall the scene where Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) kisses RDJ’s helmet and throws it off the back of a cargo plane wasn’t actually in the film. We also know how much RDJ and the rest of the cast ad-libbed while shooting.

CollegeHumor put together a great compilation of animated “alternate takes” that also didn’t make it into the film. It isn’t completely out of the question that some of these outtakes were actually shot.

They’re all pretty amusing, especially the potential to see a sequel titled Mask-O. Check out the animated clip after the jump, and you can still catch the rest of the movie (without the scene) in theaters and IMAX everywhere.

Continue Reading →

Whatever your feelings about director Jon Favreau’s work on the recent Iron Man 2 (for the record both Matt and I enjoyed it but didn’t love it) he’s moving forward with his next project. Not surprisingly, it will also be an adaptation of a comic book. In this case, that would be the comic Cowboys & Aliens written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley.

We’ve brought you info on this film previously, including some casting and script news, and now thanks to DreamWorks Pictures, we can bring you the official synopsis for the film, which is being adapted by scribes Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof and stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell and Noah Ringer:

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Continue Reading →

This week on The Flickcast Chris is back and the duo get right to it with a whole bunch of new topics. Some of these topics include the success and relative merits of Iron Man 2, Captain America in 3D rumors, Logan Lermann potentially as the new Spider-Man, J.J. Abrams upcoming sci-fi thriller Super 8, other upcoming 3D titles and Betty White hosting Saturday Night Live.

The boys also made some picks again this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Legion and Chris pick of the Mel Gibson film Edge of Darkness.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

As we’ve done with the last two episodes we’re pleased to bring you a preview of the next episode of the Iron Man Extremis motion comic. The episode, which will be available at Apple’s iTunes Store today, continues the Warren Ellis written story of a military-sponsored nanotechnology called “Extremis” that Tony Stark must take to save his own life.

It’s an interesting take on Iron Man as we explore Stark’s character and his guilt over creating weapons and being one himself. I’m enjoying it and if you haven’t checked it out, you should — especially if you’re a fan of Iron Man.

And, as we agree to do to bring you these little video treats, here’s the scoop on the video from Marvel’s own virtual lips:

Experience Iron Man in a whole new way – IRON MAN: EXTREMIS Motion Comic. From the story by Warren Ellis & Adi Granov, this incredible epic blends seamless motion, dynamic voice acting, and stunning special effects, bringing to life the story that redefined Iron Man for the 21st Century. Now you can get a sneak peek at the third episode of this breathtaking visual breakthrough in motion comics! IRON MAN EXTREMIS episode 3 goes on-sale Wednesday, May 12th!

Check out the preview of Iron Man: Extremis after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Many, many moons ago I recall waiting with a bunch of my geeky and not-so-geeky high school pals in a never-ending line around the block for the  highly-anticipated 12:01 showing of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It was a showing at our local theater, before the days of stadium seating and online ticketing. I remember that the film held a certain magic in the hours before it started.

Energy was buzzing all around us. While waiting, my friends and I played poker, tossed a football, answered trivia from boys dressed as Jedi Knights, and talked about which starship would win in a battle. Anyone who goes to Comic-Con’s geekest panel of them all, “Starship Smackdown”, knows the Millennium Falcon has been taken out of the running for winning one too many times.

But, I digress. There was excitement, magic, and a new hope that this film would be great. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. As were many others that day.

As I waited for my friend to arrive at the 12:01 Arclight Hollywood Dome showing of Iron Man 2, I recalled those days with a bit of nostalgia. As I looked around the theater, I realized the movie-going experience had evolved.

Continue Reading →

Here you are Marvel fans, all the great comics, trades and whatnot coming out from your favorite publisher this week. Of course, there’s lots of Iron Man related comics such as Black Widow #2 and a host of actual Iron Man Titles. We’re also interested in the new Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis, Siege #4, Hulk #22 and the latest The Marvels Project.

Remember, comics go on sale this Wednesday so get to your nearest comics store early for best selection. Don’t know where your nearest comic store is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Comics On-Sale:
AGENTS OF ATLAS MGC #1
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #631
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #631 HEROIC AGE VARIANT
ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1
ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1 FOILOGRAM VARIANT
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #35 (S)
BLACK WIDOW #2 (HA)
BLACK WIDOW #2 HANS VARIANT (HA)
BLACK WIDOW #2 HEROIC AGE VARIANT (HA)
DAREDEVIL: CAGE MATCH #1
DARK AVENGERS #16 (S)
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #893
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #893 HEROIC AGE VARIANT

Continue Reading →