Many people who tuned in to watch the 67th annual Golden Globes this past weekend noticed that Robert Downey Jr. (who won the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role as Sherlock Holmes) was sporting the very specifically shaped goatee of his famous superhero character Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man.

Now it is completely plausible that he just likes that particular style of facial hair and it has nothing to do with any movie, although it is not a look he had back in December when he was promoting Sherlock Holmes. It is also possible that he may simply need to be in character for promotional work on Iron Man 2 and perhaps for some reshoots on the film, although Paramount has denied any speculation of reshoots on Iron Man 2.

However, seeing as though these Marvel films of Thor, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and the proposed Captain America movie, are all meant to tie together as the main characters are set to appear in The Avengers movie, it is a real possibility that Tony Stark will make an appearance in Thor, just as he did at the end of The Incredible Hulk. Fueling this speculation is the fact that Clark Gregg, who plays SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson in the Iron Man films, was today confirmed to be reprising his role in Thor.

Knowing that Samuel L. Jackson was already set to appear in Thor as Nick Fury, and now Clark Gregg will join him, it is perfectly reasonable to speculate that Iron Man himself will also make an appearance.

During a recent press conference Jean-Claude Van Damme was asked why he allegedly turned down a role in Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming action extravaganza The Expendables, and he had this to say:

So there you have it, JCVD’s side of the story. Like many fans, I still think he should have taken a role in The Expendables regardless of the situation.

Written by, directed by, and starring Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables features Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Gary Daniels, with expected cameo appearances by Bruce Willis and the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Expendables is set for release on August 13 2010 and is definitely one of the most anticipated films of the year.

The Fast and the Furious is a franchise that I just don’t care for. Four movies about street racing and not one good car chase! Anyway, Vin Diesel has updated his Facebook page (is he the only person in the entertainment industry who provides updates via Facebook instead of Twitter?) and has stated:

If 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’ was chapter one, what writer Chris Morgan just delivered is Chapter 2 and chapter 3.

I have never been submitted a two story saga from a studio before… it is very exciting, and shows a commitment level that is hard not to respond to.

Excited about the sexy locations the filming of this saga would take us… this novel like story, that has twists and unexpected turns that is authentic, truthful and challenging to the characters.

P.s. Working through the weekend, will have updates later in the week on our others projects.

Truly your voice is being heard in ways one couldn’t have imagined.

Gracias.

Wow! I cannot believe this dull series is so financially successful that two more films are actually going to go ahead.

The guys over at Collider recently interviewed producer Mike De Luca and had some questions about the Metal Gear Solid movie he is attached to. When asked about the project, he responded by saying:

“I don’t think it’s going to move forward because I got the sense that there may not be enough of a coordinated will at this point on the side of certain parties to see a movie get made.”

Judging by what he followed that statement up with, it would seem as though by “certain parties” he was referring to the game’s owners:

“[T]he video game companies are very protective of their property and there are certain things a studio requires freedom-wise to market and distribute a movie effectively in a global marketplace and sometimes getting those two things to match up is really hard. And in the case of Metal Gear Solid, the agendas just….not because the parties weren’t amicable, it was just kind of impossible to get the agendas to match up.”

Even though video game-to-film adaptations don’t have a good track record, out of all the video game properties available Metal Gear is definitely one of the few that can be easily adapted into a good film series as the entire thing is basically a very long playable movie. However, it appears as though Konami are just being very protective of their prized video game series and understandably do not want to see it get the same treatment so many other games have suffered.

With a bunch of films based on best-selling video games set for release over the next few years, including Prince of Persia, Gears of War, and World of Warcraft, there is a very high probability that they will be followed by other video game-to-film adaptations, such as Halo, and if some of these are adapted properly then maybe Konami will have more faith in a Metal Gear movie and this project could pick back up.

A little while ago is was revealed that the release date for Resident Evil: Afterlife would be pushed back to January 2011 so that more time can be taken in post-production for the movie to be released in 3D. Even though the change was officially confirmed by Screen Gems, star of the franchise and Hollywood’s go-to girl for superwomen characters, Milla Jovovich (Ultraviolet, The Fifth Element) disputed the release date, stating:

“RE Afterlife IS NOT officially pushed. There have been talks of pushing it as they [are] not sure they can have it ready by July. We [are] trying as hard as we can to still meet the summer deadline though, so for the moment its still on for August.”

Well it seems as though Milla was correct for the most part as ShockTillYouDrop have discovered that the release date for the fourth movie in the live-action Resident Evil film franchise will now be released on September 10 2010.

Directed by Milla Jovovich’s husband Paul W.S. Anderson (Death Race, Alien vs. Predator), who has written and produced all of the films in the series thus far, Afterlife will be the second Resident Evil movie Anderson has directed along with the original film. Personally I do not care if this fourth Resident Evil movie is released half a year earlier than previously expected as I wasn’t looking forward to it anyway. Whilst I do not think the Resident Evil movies are even remotely close to the worst video game-to-film adaptations which have been made, they are certainly not good.

Resident Evil: Afterlife picks up where the third film left off. Since the events of Resident Evil: Extinction, Alice has been roaming the world searching for any remaining survivors. As she enters the ruined Los Angeles, she stumbles onto a prison surrounded by zombies. She then teams up with a group of survivors who had been hiding in Los Angeles since the T-virus outbreak and helps them break out other survivors held within the jail which include Claire’s brother Chris Redfield.

A new extended trailer for Hu Mei’s upcoming biopic Confucius starring Chow Yun-Fat as the titular philosopher has appeared online. This production has caused a lot of controversy in China as the casting of action hero Chow Yun-Fat as Confucius had people fearing the film would contain inappropriate levels of action.

Further controversy arose when it was discovered the film would portray Confucius as being romantically attracted to the concubine Nanzi (played by Zhou Xun). This even led to a man who claims he is a direct descendant of Confucius suing the makers of the film to have several scenes deleted that involve the love story.
Well the full-length trailer is finally here and it mostly contains battle scenes and a hinted at romantic sub-plot between Confucius and Nanzi! Check it out.

In what is quite possibly one of the most disturbing movie related stories of recent memory, Bloody Disgusting are reporting that MTV are currently in talks to acquire the rights to turn George A. Romero’s classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead into a TV series. This is just wrong on so many levels.

Dawn of the Dead is basically the equivalent of The Godfather in regards to zombie movies and my personal favorite from the sub-genre; I am of course referring to Romero’s 1978 original and NOT Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake. Now even though MTV was cool a long, long time ago it has now been reduced to what is in my opinion the absolute worst set of channels on TV, bar none. All MTV seem to have played throughout the last decade is mass-marketed, unoriginal, garbage pop songs (including all that fake rock and hip-hop they play), and these awful, tween centric reality TV shows about spoiled rich kids that only appeal to the lowest common denominator.

There is absolutely no way that MTV will make even a mediocre TV series from Dawn of the Dead, let alone anything that will be worth watching. MTV should keep their greedy, corporate, mainstream hands away from this classic film’s name and just produce their own separate zombie TV series for twelve year old girls that does not have “… of the Dead” anywhere in the title. I really hope this is something which does not materialize.

Martial arts fantasy True Legend is an upcoming film I’m very much looking forward to and a new trailer for it has appeared online.

The film is directed by Yuen Woo-Ping who is most famously known for his extensive work as the martial arts choreographer for such films as The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Once Upon a Time in China. However, Master Yuen Woo-Ping is also a very capable film director having made numerous fantastic martial arts films like Iron Monkey, Jet Li’s Twin Warriors, and of course the Jackie Chan classic Drunken Master.

Written by To Chi-Long, who also wrote Jet Li’s Fearless, True Legend marks Yuen Woo-Ping’s return to directing feature-length films as he has not done so since 1996 with Iron Monkey 2. Watch the new trailer for True Legend below.

The film is a psychological mystery drama set in Hong Kong, the movie tells the story of Su, a great wealthy man living during the Qing Dynasty, trained as a warrior that was betrayed by his adopted brother. Su’s hunger for revenge has tragic consequences, but he is given a chance for redemption when he wakes up to his real self in the fight for his son’s life.

True Legend stars Vincent Zhao (Once Upon a Time in China IV and V), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), Zhou Xun (Painted Skin), Andy On (Fatal Contact), Jay Chou (of Michel Gondry’s upcoming Green Hornet movie), and the late David Carradine (Kill Bill).

About a month ago rumours began to make the rounds (thanks to CHUD) that Zombieland writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, were in talks to write X-Men spin-off movie Deadpool. Well it turns out that there was a lot of truth to those rumours as Variety have today announced the writing duo have officially been hired by Fox to move forward with the project.

When these rumours first surfaced I, like many people, thought that these guys would be a good choice to pen Deadpool purely based on their screenplay for Zombieland, which was one of my favourite films of 2009. Zombieland blended action with comedy brilliantly, and also had great control over the timing whenever the fourth wall was broken by Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) to interact with the audience, much like Deadpool would have to do in his own movie.

Now even though I am still not thrilled about Ryan Reynolds being cast as both Deadpool and the Green Lantern, having previously likened that to seeing Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) playing Superman or Christian Bale (Batman) playing Captain America, the casting of Deadpool is not even close to being my biggest problem with this proposed spin-off movie. In order for this movie to work in any way, shape, or form it has to outright ignore all four X-Men movies, in particular the complete disaster that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine which was the introduction of Wade Wilson, AKA the Merc with a Mouth, AKA Deadpool, to the big screen. Deadpool has to be made as a completely separate franchise to the X-Men if it is to work, and as such just further reinforces the idea that the character should be recast. I am not anti-Ryan Reynolds, I think he did a good job as Wade Wilson in the early stages of Wolverine before the character was butchered by that film’s plot (which Reynolds was clearly disappointed by when he was doing interviews to promote the movie), and Reynolds was directly referenced in the comics as being a likeness of Deadpool. So even though I think he is a good choice for the part, the fact that he is also playing the Green Lantern and the idea that the Deadpool movie should have nothing to do with the X-Men film franchise logically leads me to conclude that another actor should take over the role.

The Tekken movie has been completed for a little while now and lack of activity, including finding a distributor in the USA, has made many people think that this will be just another terrible video game adaptation. Something has finally emerged from the production in the form of its first official poster.

The film follows Jin Kazama (Jon Foo) in his attempts to rid himself of the devil which plagues his soul and confronting his father, Kazuya Mishima (Ian Anthony Dale) and his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa).

In the year of 2039, after World Wars destroy much of civilization as we know it, the remaining territories are no longer run by governments, but by corporations; the mightiest of which is the Mishima Zaibatsu. In order to keep the masses down, Mishima sponsors the King of Iron Fist Tournament, or Tekken, in which fighters battle until one is left standing, who in turn will receive a lifetime of stardom and wealth. We are introduced to this violent world through the eyes of Jin Kazama who enters the tournament in order to avenge the death of his mother that he blames upon the Mishima Zaibatsu’s most powerful and controlling chairman – Heihachi Mishima. He knows that the only way to get close enough to Mishima to kill him is to win the tournament, but in doing so, he begins to uncover his own past and inner demons as well as exposing a dark underbelly to Tekken that threatens the very existence of humanity.

Although most video games (especially those based on fighting games) are usually dreadful, there are some positives about this adaptation of Tekken: it has retained its R-rating; the amazingly talented Cyril Raffaelli (District 13, District 13: Ultimatum) was the fight choreographer; some amazing martial artists are included within the cast such as John Foo in the lead role of Jin Kazama, Cung Le as Marshall Law, Gary Daniels as Bryan Fury, and Lateef Crowder as Eddy Gordo; some good casting decisions were also made in the form of Luke Goss (Blade II) as Steve Fox, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat) as Heihachi Mishima, and Nathan Jones (Fearless) as Craig Marduk (who the character was actually modeled after for the video games).

However, it should be noted that there are also reasons aplenty for fans of the series to be worried about this film. It has been directed by Dwight H. Little, who although is a prolific TV director, has a feature film resume that is not particularly impressive with efforts such as the Brandon Lee movie Rapid Fire and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, both of which were also written by Tekken’s scriptwriter Alan B. McElroy. To make matters even worse, McElroy is responsible for writting two of the worst action films ever made in The Marine and Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.

Tekken is due to be released on March 6 2010 in Japan, is set for a straight-to-DVD/Blu-ray release on April 5 in the UK, but is currently not set for any type of release in the USA. That in itself is a very bad sign that the film could be as terrible as Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which by the looks of things may not be the worst film based on a fighting game to be made once The King of Fighters movie is released.

Two years after Peter Chan’s award-winning Chinese/Hong Kong epic The Warlords, starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro, was released in Asia a new trailer has appeared in anticipation of the film’s 2010 US release.

Anybody who enjoys Chinese war epics is sure to like this film, which contains some of the most magnificently shot battle sequences ever seen. The Warlords is unlike Wuxia films such as Hero (staring Jet Li) and House of Flying Daggers (staring Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) as it ditches fantasy martial arts in favor of intense, realistic violence. Watch the trailer below.

Plot: A heroic tale of three blood brothers and their struggle in the midst of war and political upheaval. It is based on “The Assassination of Ma” a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) story about the killing of general Ma Xinyi.

Although previously released in many countries (including the UK), The Warlords is set for its US release on April 2 2010.

A flurry of trailers have recently appeared online including several official US trailers for foreign films which have previously been released elsewhere, and now 2009 French action film District 13: Ultimatum has followed suit.

A sequel to 2004′s highly successful District 13, French filmmaking legend Luc Besson returns as writer/producer, as do the first film’s stars David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli. For those unfamiliar with the acting duo, David Belle is the primary founder of Parkour (which is heavily featured in both District 13 films) and Cyril Raffaelli is an incredible martial artist and stuntman who is also a Parkour practitioner/traceur. Patrick Alessandrin took over directing duties for the sequel from Pierre Morel, who directed the first District 13 movie, as Morel has been busy with his follow up films Taken (starring Liam Nesson) and the upcoming From Paris with Love (starring John Travolta).

District 13: Ultimatum is not a particularly well-made film but much like its predecessor is extremely entertaining from an action standpoint, which is something that cannot be said for most action movies which have been made in Hollywood over this past decade. Watch the official US trailer for District 13: Ultimatum.

Damien and Leito return to District 13 on a mission to bring peace to the troubled sector that is controlled by five different gang bosses, before the city’s secret services take drastic measures to solve the problem.

District 13: Ultimatum is scheduled for a limited release in the US on April 5 2010..

French movie website, EuropaCorp have released two new teaser trailers for Pierre Morel’s upcoming action film From Paris with Love, starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

There are a number of films being released in 2010 which I am very much looking forward to, and this is definitely one of them. Although I am a fan of John Travolta, the main reason I want to watch this film is because of the director/producer partnership of Pierre Morel and Luc Besson. The duo have previously made District 13 and Taken, and although both movies were weak in certain areas, they were two of the most entertaining action films of the past decade. Whilst the action genre in Hollywood has suffered greatly in recent times as the major studios have pushed for watered-down, family friendly action movies, these two French filmmakers have helped fill the void for entertaining, balls to the wall, action mayhem the likes of which we used to see from Hollywood a long time ago.

Synopsis: A young embassy worker, Richard Stevens (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and an FBI special agent, Charlie Wax (John Travolta), cross paths while working on a high-risk mission in Paris.

Watch the new teaser trailers now below or view the theatrical trailer that we’ve previously posted here.

From Paris with Love is set for release on February 5 2010 in the USA, February 25 in Australia, and March 5 in the UK.

Adapted from the 1985 BBC TV series of the same name, Edge of Darkness is easily one of my most anticipated films of 2010 and a new TV spot for it has just been released.

Even though I think Mel Gibson is an amazingly talented director, I am also a fan of his work as an actor. That is why I am glad to see him returning in front of the camera in Martin Campbell’s remake of Edge of Darkness. Gibson will play the lead role of homicide detective Thomas Craven, who is investigating the death of his activist daughter (played by Bojana Novakovic). Joining Gibson and Novakovic are Ray Winstone (The Departed), Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Shawn Roberts (I Love You Beth Cooper), and Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire).

Although I do not like the fact that so many Hollywood produced films over this past decade have been remakes, I am looking forward to Edge of Darkness, and not just because of Mel Gibson’s involvement. Prolific action-thriller director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale) was also the director of the original acclaimed BBC six-part series back in 1985, so of course he is the perfect person to helm this big-budget remake.

Edge of Darkness is set for release on January 29 2010 in both the USA and the UK. Check out the new TV spot below.

A new trailer for Louis Leterrier’s remake of Clash of the Titans is now online. It is basically an extended version of the previous trailer and as such contains more footage of the Titans. Unfortunately it still has that terrible song from The Used playing throughout which completely ruins any classic theatrical feel the film might otherwise have. Hopefully Craig Armstrong and Matt Bellamy (Muse) have created a score which is more inline with the tone the film should have.

This remake stars Sam Worthington as the hero Perseus, Liam Neeson as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades, Izabella Miko as Athena, Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, Jason Flemyng as Calibos, and Gemma Arterton as Io. With Mads Mikkelsen, Danny Huston, and Pete Postlethwaite also among the supporting cast I have to question why Gemma Arterton was cast alongside so many good actors. Her skills as an actress have looked suspect in everything I have seen her in and she is likely to be the weak link in this cast.

The Clash of the Titans remake is set for release on March 26 2010 in both the USA and the UK. Watch the trailer below or head over to Apple to view in HD.

Ever since it was revealed last week that Mel Gibson will be shooting a new film next year, rumors have been spreading across the Internet as to what the film will actually be about, with many people suggesting that it may possibly be the story of Jesus Arriaga due to a location being revealed as Ignacio Allende prison in Mexico.

Variety have now revealed that Gibson’s film will in fact be an epic Viking period drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film will be written by Oscar winner William Monahan, who adapted The Departed (starring DiCaprio) and Edge of Darkness (starring Gibson). Gibson will produce alongside Tim Headington (the natural resources billionaire who has recently started producing movies) and Graham King, who has produced numerous films starring DiCaprio over the past decade, as well as Mel Gibson’s upcoming Edge of Darkness.

Obviously the location in Mexico is for an entirely different project, which has now been revealed as “How I Spent My Summer Vacation“. Mel Gibson will be starring in that, but not directing. That job is set for assistant director Adrian Grunberg (Apocalypto, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) to make his full directorial debut.

Apart from revealing that Mel Gibson’s Viking epic will start shooting in autumn 2010, no other details were divulged. King simply stated the following:

“This will be an awe-inspiring story, created with some of the industry’s finest cinematic talent, and I am just over the moon to be making this film with Mel, Leo and Bill.”

All I know is that I was excited last week when I found out Mel Gibson will be directing another film, and with this new information my excitement has just increased tenfold. I cannot wait for this one.

There has been a lot of speculation in recent months that Spider-Man 4 may feature The Lizard, Vulture, and Black Cat, as its villains. MovieLine is today claiming that they have an inside tip telling them that Vulture will be one of the film’s two villains, but The Lizard and Black Cat will not be appearing, although Felicia Hardy (who is Black Cat’s alter ego) will be in the film as a new villain named The Vulturess. They claim that this new villain/Felicia Hardy will be played by Anne Hathaway (Brokeback Mountain, Get Smart) and that John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons, Burn After Reading) will play Vulture.

Personally I have never been a big fan of the Vulture character and think that there are many better villains to choose from for the next movie, and furthermore I cannot believe this new rumor of Black Cat being turned into The Vulturess is true, and if it is then the people responsible for it simply do not have a clue what they are doing. Black Cat is basically Spider-Man’s equivalent of Batman’s Catwoman, so to rewrite her as a new villain, who is still the alter ego of Felicia Hardy, is just ridiculous. If they truly want to go with a Vulture and Vulturess villain duo then a completely new character who is not Felicia Hardy should be written in. If I am not a fan of Vulture then I assume you can have a good guess as to what I think of two Vulture characters appearing as Spider-Man’s new enemies!

As a big fan of the comics, I can honestly say that I have not enjoyed Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie series thus far, and it only seems as if things are going to get worse. Rather than another dreadful movie following on from the disaster that was Spider-Man 3, I would prefer to see no new films in the series for a while and when the time is right a completely new film independent of this series should be made.

Governor Fidel Herrera of Veracruz, Mexico, has today announced that part of the famous Ignacio Allende prison will be emptied in January 2010, because:

“A grand production will be filmed there with our friend, the actor and producer Mel Gibson.”

Although it was reported that Gibson visited the prison in April 2008, there has been no information released as to what this film will actually be about. Internet speculation suggests that it could quite possibly center on political prisoner Jesus Arriaga simply because he is the most well known inmate of the prison.

“Jesús Arriaga, better known as “Chucho el Roto,” was held at Fort San Juan de Ulúa where he died. It is not known if he died of natural causes, as a result of a fight with other prisoners or by other means. Chucho was a Robin Hood figure who lived during the 19th century. He stole from the rich and gave to the poor, inspiring songs and poetry such as the verses penned by Rafeal de Zayas Enriquez. Chucho was arrested in Querétaro after a jewelry store heist. He was sent to the Belen Prison in Mexico City, then to Veracruz. He was also renowned as a seducer of women, especially those who were rich and lonely. Most of his targets were jewelry shops, pawnshops and the homes of the wealthy.”

To be honest, it doesn’t matter what this film will be about because Mel Gibson is one of the best filmmakers working today so whatever he makes I’ll watch. The only downside to this report is that if Gibson is going to be busy shooting his own movie then it reduces the chance that he will reprise his role in George Miller’s fourth Mad Max film. Hopefully the films’ schedules to not clash with each other.

Anybody who remembers Clarence showing Alabama the first issue of Spider-Man in True Romance, recalls Bill explaining Superman’s critique on the human race to The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 2, or was aware that the Silver Surfer argument in Crimson Tide is courtesy of an uncredited Quentin Tarantino rewrite, should know that QT is somewhat of a comic book fan. Tarantino has now told MTV that Inglourious Basterds was heavily influenced by Marvel Comics’ Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos.

Aside from the one scene he directed in Sin City, I’ve often wondered why this great director has not taken the opportunity to direct a comic book based film in an era where superheroes have dominated the box office. There have been so many bad comic book films made by directors who do not appreciate the source material they are working from, that I would like to see more directors who are fans (like Tarantino and Kevin Smith) take on some of these adaptations.

During the previously mentioned interview with MTV, Quentin Tarantino revealed why he has not opted to make a comic book film thus far and that he turned down the opportunity to direct the Green Lantern. He states:

“I was offered the ‘Green Lantern’. Not since it’s been a script, but just like, ‘Hey we own the ‘Green Lantern.’ Would you like it?’” He goes on to say: “So there’s a little part of me that’s like, wow, if I was in my 20s, this would be the genre I’d want to specialize in. But they weren’t making them then, or at least not the right ones. But there also is an aspect where I’ve kind of outgrown that a little bit.”

QT has often said that he does not want to adapt works which are not his own for the big screen, and although this includes existing comic books, he says that he would consider making a superhero film if it was an original idea of his.

“I’m a writer. I’d want to use my imagination and not have to fight with geeks’ memories of how this character should be and, ‘Oh, I cast an actor as opposed to a bodybuilder’ or it’s not as good as the way [DC Comics artist] Neal Adams drew him.’ If I were to do something like that, I would want the fun of coming up with the superhero myself.”

Quentin has previously gone on record to show his admiration for M. Night Shyamalan’s brilliant original superhero movie Unbreakable, and earlier this year he claimed that it is one of his twenty favorite films of the past seventeen years.

An original superhero film by Quentin Tarantino is something I would love to see (even though The Bride was practically a superhero), so hopefully this is a project that one day materializes. Maybe QT will draw some inspiration from Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass when it is released next year as even Vaughn himself has described the film as Tarantino-esque.

Talented British actor Tom Hardy (RocknRolla, Bronson) has taken part in an interview with MTV where he spoke about George Miller’s upcoming fourth installment of his iconic Mad Max series, currently known as Fury Road.

Before any questions were even asked, Hardy wanted to state that he has still not officially been cast as Mad Max:

“George (Miller) hasn’t actually confirmed that. It’s strongly coming in my direction. I would be preparing for that role.”

Now whilst I’m a fan of Tom Hardy, this statement still gives me a glimmer of hope that Mel Gibson himself may yet return to play the role which he made so iconic. As a huge fan of the Mad Max trilogy I trust creator George Miller to deliver an excellent fourth movie, however there are just some characters in cinematic history that have been portrayed so perfectly by an actor that it is difficult to accept a different person playing the part. Unfortunately for Hardy, “Mad” Max Rockatansky is one of those iconic characters and at 53 years of age I do not believe Mel Gibson is too old to reprise his role, especially seeing as how the main action pieces of the films are based around vehicles and not that much on actual physical combat.

The iconic status of the character is something that Hardy is fully aware of, and even he acknowledges that Mel Gibson is Mad Max:

“The Mad Max figure is a big figure, and I have to get my head around that. I would have to pick up where Mel left off, but in all honesty, it would be ridiculous to pick up where Mel left off. He is Mad Max. I have to bring something entirely different and new to the stage. If I get offered it and George really wants to go with me, then George will tell me exactly what he wants to do and we’ll work together on the floor to create what it is that he wants to achieve. And I hope I can get that done for him.”

Hardy then stated that his audition was not actually for Max and that George Miller has not even spoken to him about the character, but should he officially get the part he believes the two can do it justice:

“The audition process had nothing to do with Max and nothing to do with the story or the script. It was unorthodox to the point where actually I could have been auditioning for anything. It was an anonymous read. [Miller and I] haven’t actually gotten into the conversation at all about Max.” He goes on to say: “If there’s anybody who can create a Mad Max with me playing the character, it’s going to be George “” it’s his baby.”

I do agree with Hardy in that series creator George Miller is definitely the man to re-create the character if need be, but I would love for nothing more than to see Mel Gibson return as Mad Max.