Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Poster, Joss Talks "The Avengers: Age of Ultron"

 A really cool looking poster has dropped for Joss Whedon's superhero team up sequel "The Avengers: Age of Ultron".

A look at the credits reveals that  Anthony Mackie is poised to reprise the role Harlem crime fighter FalconHayley Attwell (Peggy Carter), and Stellan Skarsgard (Erik Selvig) are also in the sequel.

The sequel DOES NOT follow the Age of Ultron comics storyline--in which the big bad Ultron was created by Hank Pym who becomes Ant-Man. James Spader will both voice Ultron, and he'll have to do some kind of motion-capture as well--This news puts to rest the most popular theory suggesting that Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr,) robot butler J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany) operating system from the Iron Man Films would turn into the villain.

Marvel vets RDJ, Chris Evans Chris Hemsworth Scarlett Johansson Samuel L. Jackson Jeremy Renner Mark Ruffalo, Clark Gregg and Cobie Smulders are all back Two time Iron Man co-star Don Cheadle is involved this time out according to USA Today. Bettany will appear on screen as The Vision an android created by Ultron as a weapon to be used against the Avengers. Vision can fire beams of radiation and turn invisible--the character ultimately turned the tables on Ultron and became an Avengers member himself.

TV's Hulk Lou Ferrigno has confirmed that he'll return to do the voice of the big guy in the sequel. Ferrigno has said four words as the character so far - "Hulk Smash" in 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" and "Puny God" in "The Avengers".

Thomas Kretschmann has landed the role of 2nd bad guy Baron von Strucker. In the comics, the seemingly immortal Strucker is one of the leaders of Hydra, and an enemy of both S.H.I.E.L.D and The Avengers He seemingly beat out rumored candidates Marton Csokas and Dougray Scott who were being considered for the BvS role. The character will have Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and her twin brother Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) apparently working for him in the sequel (American Horror Story favorite Evan Peters plays a different incarnation of the speedy superhero in Bryan Singer's "X-Men: Days of Future Past"--in a very cool sequence in the film). Korean actress  will play a bad gal role. Mo-Cap genius Andy Serkis character is rumored by Schmoes Know to be that of Ulysses Klaw- a character who will be much more  important in the "Black Panther" solo flick.

 Idris Elba who plays Heimdall in the Thor films, confirmed to The Telegraph that he and fellow Thor star Tom Hiddleston [Loki] will both appear in the pic

Radar Online has an unidentified source that claims that RDJ was campaigning to get his pals Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster a role in the movie.

 Latino Review has posted what appears to be details about the film's opening 15-20 minutes (SPOILERS).

Post-production on the 'Avengers 2' continues to meet a release date of May 1, 2015


In a recent interview with Empire, Whedon has revealed that Spader's Ultron will have some limitations of his abilities on screen as opposed to the robot seen in the comic:

"The powers in comic books - they're always like, 'And then I can reverse the polarity of your ions!' - well, we have to ground things a lot more. With Ultron, we have to make him slightly less omnipotent because he'd win. Bottom line. Also, having weaknesses and needs and foibles and alliances and actually caring what people think of him, all these things, are what make him a character and not just a tidal wave. A movie about a tidal wave can be great, but it's different than a conflict between one side and the other. When Ultron speaks, he has a point. He is really not on top of the fact that the point he's making has nothing to do with the fact that he's banoonoos. And that he hates the Avengers for bringing him into this world, and he can't really articulate that or even understand how much he hates humanity. He thinks he's all that. That guy is very fun to write. He combines all the iconic stuff. The powers he has are slightly different - he can control certain things, he's not just firing repulsors."

Fleshing out Ultron's personality is also a big reason Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have been incorporated into the film. Whedon talks about the delicate balancing act in terms of having so many characters in the movie:

"They have an origin but it's largely described. They're already good to go by the time we're up and running. You don't want to fall into Spider-Man 3 territory - and I say that as a guy who actually thinks pretty well of that movie, there's some great stuff in that movie - but there comes a point where you're overloaded with front story, backstory, origin story and it becomes very hard to juggle. My instinct is always, 'Don't put in more, work with what you have.' But I insisted on putting in more in this movie because I felt I needed more villains. I needed someone for Ultron to talk to, and I need more trouble for the Avengers. As powerful as Ultron is, if he builds more Ultrons, they're Ultrons. There's no reason for him to ever to talk to them because they're him. 'I need you to - I KNOW! I AM TOTALLY YOU! I DID IT EARLIER! I know that because I am also me.' That's not a good conversation. Actually, it sounded pretty good there. I think I'm onto something."

Whedon spoke with Empire about altering the origins of Ultron and says the fan reaction to it has been intense, but there's a good reason for the change with former Ant-Man director Edgar Wright a contributing factor:

"Of all the heat I've ever taken, not having Hank Pym was one of the bigger things. But the fact of the matter was, Edgar had him first and by virtue of what Edgar was doing, there was no way for me to use him in this. Ultron needs to be the brainchild of the Avengers, and in the world of the Avengers and the MCU , Tony Stark is that guy. Banner has elements of that guy - we don't really think of him as being as irresponsible as Tony Stark, but the motherf--ker tested gamma radiation on himself, with really terrible, way-worse-than-Tony-Stark results. It didn't make sense to introduce a third scientist, a third sciencetician, to do that. It was hard for me, because I grew up on the comics, to dump that, but at the end of the day, it's a more interesting relationship between Tony and Ultron if Tony was once like, 'You know what would be a really great idea?'They’re doing what they always do – which is jump in headfirst, and then go, 'Sorry, world!' But you have to make it their responsibility without just making it their fault."

No comments: