• Lionsgate has hired Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain (Outlander, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) to rework the script for Conan. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Sahara) had written earlier drafts. For some reason, the “2009″ on that teaser poster seems a little hopeful. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Tropic Thunder stands a good chance of ending The Dark Knight‘s reign at the top of the box office. [Variety]
• Speaking of Tropic Thunder, and The Dark Knight, Robert Downey Jr. — aka Tony Stark — offers his assessment of the Batman sequel: “I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved The Prestige but didn’t understand The Dark Knight. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so f–king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? F-ck DC comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.” [Moviehole]
• Universal Pictures has picked up the film rights to Robert Jordan’s bestselling fantasy series The Wheel of Time. [Variety]
• “10 Comics Creators We Wish Would Make Movies Instead of Frank Miller.” [io9]
August 13th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Wow, Robert Downey Jr. is very “on message,” to use a political term. I’m not sure if this is his actual opinion or if he’s playing up the rivalry for a bit of fun. Either way, it’s entertaining.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Hopefully Downey’s comments will a) get him some death threats like the WSJ guy and b) get an Iron Man boycott going!
August 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I love RDJ. He is so good on screen, I’d watch him taking a crap for 2 hours. After reading those comments? I think I’d have his child.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Sounds like RDJr is back on the sauce.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Mike Allred did make a movie, and it was an atrocious piece of crap.
August 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Wow… I like Downey, and I enjoyed the hell out of Iron Man, but TDK made it it look like a little kid’s movie. I’m a little puzzled by his “screw anything that’s smart” take. That’s like people who vote for their leaders by deciding a candidate is somehow “too smart” to take office, and opt instead for the guy they think they’d rather have a beer with, no matter how uneducated or big a yokel that guy might be. Sorry, but I WANT my elected leaders to be smarter than I am… They’re supposed to be dealing with the big issues. Issues that affect millions of lives. I want an intelligent, thoughful person who will use his/her brains while serving the public interest.
Getting back on topic, I like a good action flick too… But if it’s something that can engage my mind for 2+ hours, so much the better. Why be critical of something that’s exciting AND intelligent?
Maybe Downey’s just having some fun here, maybe he’s jealous of TDK’s successm or maybe he honestly didn’t get it. I dunno. I just know that TDK raised the bar for all the comic films that follow, including Iron Man 2. Good luck, Robert.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Maybe Mark Millar can explain it to him.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Remember: the world hates smart people. Until they need us to fix their computers or invent a car that gets 100 MPG. And then they still hate us.
P.S. to the blog admin: WP-SpamFree is still blocking comments if you take more than a few minutes to actually hit Submit. Like, say, if you open some of the links in tabs, read them, then come back here to comment. Please consider a smarter anti-spam plugin.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
We should point out that it’s not DC Comics that made the film. Yes, we wish that DC could control the films the way Marvel does now, but if RDJ doesn’t like it, it’s only Nolan’s fault.
And I can respect an opinion of “I don’t like this film” or even “this film makes no sense” a lot more than “it’s too smart for me.”
August 13th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I’d have to say context is important with RDJ’s comments, and we’re certainly not getting the context here. So, I’ll just imagine it’s Tony Stark saying it and thus he’s merely poking at the ‘rivalry’.
And the blog is screwing up the ability to make comments even if you don’t wait a few minutes, and it’s doing it at random.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
RDJr probably didn’t dig the movie and expressed it in a jokey, hyperbolic way (i.e., Kevin Smith’s comments on Tim Burton a couple years back). No harm, no foul.
August 14th, 2008 at 7:34 am
RDJ is the man
August 14th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I just hope Christian Bale doesn’t punch out RDJjr’s mom for this
August 15th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Come on… Christian Bale only punches his own mom.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:22 am
it’s funny that Robert Downey Jr. said the Dark Knight is too sophisticated when he himself tends to sound so sophisticated