Last year, CG designer Jared Krichevsky created a life-like Dr. Zoidberg from “Futurama” — which was a far cry from the rounded, monochrome 2-D character.
The Professor
This time, he’s added to his “Futurama” repertoire, creating more characters from the cult cartoon ,as if they existed in real life.
Zoidburg
Lrrr of the Planet Omicron Persei 8.
Leela and Fry
Nibbler
Kif
Morbo
Have Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch been tentatively confirmed for ‘The Avengers 2′?
Last week we learned that Joss Whedon was eager to cast a brother-sister pairing in The Avengers 2 FOLLOW . Of course, speculation immediately emerged which suggested it would be none-other than Magneto’s kids, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Now, it seems an unnamed source has emerged to confirm these rumors. They told EW magazine:
A source confirms to EW that the twin characters Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will be joining The Avengers 2, which Whedon hinted at recently when he said he was writing a brother-sister duo into the movie. Feige maintains a poker face on that scoop, saying only: “I’m not confirming or denying. The draft could change six months from now”.
Now, their possible inclusion in The Avengers 2 does throw up some pretty interesting questions, especially over the characters rights that certain studios own. Although Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have long-standing links to The Avengers, they are also intimately linked to the X-Men franchise owned by Fox. Could this be the first example of a cross-studio character? Marvel boss Kevin Feige told SuperHero Hype:
We both have them. There’s a specific arrangement with those two characters that would allow us to use them with Avengers, but not discuss or reference their mutant or Magneto-related lineage. They can use them as mutants and as Magneto’s relatives, but cannot have anything to do with The Avengers.
There has been whispers on the wind that some studios may endeavor to create a shared universe between all the major comic book studios. However, could this be the first step towards it? Is this even a desirable thing? Let me know what you think below.
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By:
Seanbaby May 01, 2013
Most superheroes are as intelligent as they are powerful. Tony Stark invented a way to fly in an iron suit, Peter Parker invented a way to shoot webs, and Batman invented a way to make half-nude child endangerment awesome. Even The Incredible Hulk, whose whole thing is being dumb, spends most of his day as a nuclear physicist.
I’ve scoured the Golden and Silver Ages to find heroes who aren’t as bright. And to be clear, I don’t mean that their powers are stupid. I mean, yes, a couple of them are, but this isn’t a list of suicidal fools trying to fight crime with fall-offable arms or a belt buckle full of their favorite bees. These are simply the least intelligent characters in the history of nerd fiction.
#5. Thor
Thor has been living on Earth for over five decades and he still talks like he’s trying to get fired from a Dungeons & Dragons copywriting job. But Thor’s idiocy isn’t limited to his bumbling confusion over our strange Midgard customs. He also doesn’t quite get how physics work. For instance, most viewers agreed that when Thor swung his hammer at the squishy ordinary human Captain America in the Avengers movie, he shouldn’t have expected him to live. You can always tell when he’s gotten lucky because some woman didn’t show up at work and Thor’s pelvis is lightly misted in human remains.
Let’s take a moment to remember everyone we lost in Thor tantrums who didn’t have a super cool American flag shield.
That absurd situation was actually very true to the comics. When the Avengers unthawed Captain America’s frozen body, the very first thing Thor did was try to kill him with his hammer. And they were in a submarine!
“BAH! THE GOD OF THUNDER NEITHER KNOWS NOR CARES WHAT THESE WORDS ‘HULL BREACH’ MEAN!”
Thor has the distinction of being the only super hero who screams his secret identity at the top of his lungs while he’s in public.
And it’s not as if the mortal guise of Doctor Don Blake was any more clever when he was changing back into Thor…
“You must be the new resident. Welcome to Bellevue! Through here is our break room where you can hear one of our surgeons secretly exploding into The Mighty Thor. Do your best to pretend like you don’t notice. Oh, but if you’re closer than 20 feet when he starts doing it, drop the act and just run.”
In the ’60s, Thor couldn’t exactly fly. What he did instead was throw his hammer really hard and let himself get dragged through the sky by the wrist strap. This made him more of an impending disaster than a flying man. If you drew a face on a mortar shell, it and Thor would land at their location with the exact same level of heroism.
Aww, that was nice of that evil fella on the horse.
Thor had a serious problem spotting tricks. Which is strange since he spent most of his time around criminals and his half brother was the actual God of Deceit and Mischief. Still, he stumbled into every trap anyone ever set for him and lived in a near constant state of outrage and surprise. It’s probably why he was both immortal and had to wear a helmet.
You might be thinking that Thor only seemed stupid because 40 or 50 years ago that’s simply how comic books were written. You’re right. They were sort of targeted at children and the Comics Code Authority almost legally required them to be retarded. And yet when Thor got an all new series in the late ’90s, his very first adventure was stopping a bank robbery. It was being held up by a maniac claiming to be his god buddy Heimdall trapped in a human body. There were some holes in his story, and the officers on the scene assured Thor that, no, this was just an escaped mental patient. You won’t believe the twist ending!
The escaped mental patient wasn’t magically Thor’s old friend THE WHOLE TIME!
#4. Invisible Girl
When the Fantastic Four went into space, the three men gained amazing super powers and the girl gained the ability to disappear. That’s kind of a tough ability to use for anything heroic, but this was fifty years ago. In a 1961 man’s imagination, the most amazing thing a girl could do was shut up and go away. But Sue Storm’s power to vanish was anything but useless. For instance, if she was called into action in the middle of a hair appointment, it was great at protecting her vanity.
Ow, hey! More like Invisible BITCH.
It took Sue a long time to master her powers, mostly because of her crippling idiocy. She would try to vanish while people already had ahold of her, and at least once a fight she was discovered by a clever criminal who figured Invisible Girl must be located somewhere near a non-invisible object she was carrying. To make matters worse, her helpless stupidity combined with her inability to block your view of the TV was extremely appealing to super villains. They almost universally switched their plans from World Domination to Wedding Then Rape when they met her.
“OH, IF ONLY I HAD A POWER THAT COULD HELP ME AVOID SITUATIONS LIKE THESE!”
Dorks today know Sue Storm as an accomplished fighter and biologist who can project unbreakable force fields. Well, she didn’t have those for the first two years of her adventuring. It cannot be overstated how pointless this woman was for years and years of Fantastic Four comics. There was an issue where the team actually broke the fourth wall to address the overwhelming number of letters asking why they let this dingbat anywhere near danger or science. Their criticism seemed harsh, especially when this is the kind of detective work she brought to the table:
“OHH, ALL THIS THINKING ABOUT SEARCHING MAKES ME WANT TO EAT… OH, BUT MY THIGHS! I MUSN’T!”
Her powers might have been worse than useless. She constantly, and I mean in every issue, forgot whether or not she was invisible. As you might imagine, this could be very dangerous.
At least a cop arrived on the scene to agree that was pretty god damn stupid.
Obviously, that was a one time deal. After all, what kind of moron would invisibly wander into traffic a second time?
Are you fucking kidding me, Susan!?
Damn. That should have worked.
So to be clear: after a dozen adventures involving no dogs where literally every non-dog enemy found her, she’s decided the one thing holding Invisible Girl back is that dogs can find her. Now here’s where it gets crazy. She has theorized that somewhere out there is some perfect combination of scents that will make her untraceable to dogs. That shows a fundamental misunderstanding of… well, everything. It’s the kind of thing a grown woman should only say if she’s trying to qualify for a coloring contest.
I want to be clear on something. This wasn’t foreshadowing for some kind of daring smell-related rescue later in the issue. This was just a glimpse into what this fucking idiot does all day and it was never mentioned again! She was playing in perfume 
to trick dogs! Ineffectively!! And she thought she was doing science!!! Plus, the Fantastic Four doesn’t have dogs– she must have brought these poor animals in for this “experiment” alone. Now imagine what her husband, the world’s leading physicist and researcher, will think when she tries to explain why she has a room full of dog corpses and smells like she was fingered by 3000 grandmothers in a chemical toilet. He won’t even have the vocabulary to understand what this stupid bitch is saying to him. Which may explain why he talks to her like this:
“OHH, REED! SOMETIMES I FORGET I’M A WOMAN BEFORE I SPEAK!”
Maybe it’s because she was written exclusively by men, but The Invisible Girl’s most useful ability was how she could somehow stop and realize how irrational her womanly hormones made her.
“OH, I SHOULDN’T COMPLAIN– THE STICK HE USES TO QUIET ME IS WELL WITHIN GENTLEMANLY STANDARDS.”
So yes, she was stupid, but she was not incapable of learning. After years of being easily spotted, kidnapped, and forced into marriage, she started to realize that she wasn’t very good at this. In fact, sobbing about the hopelessness of each of the Fantastic Four’s situationss became her unofficial battle cry. I’ve collected some of these inspirational and heroic moments from Susan Storm. Please enjoy:
" width="610" height="904" class="size-full wp-image-694" /> On the top right, that’s the Molecule Man. He could control MOLECULES. To completely defeat the Invisible Girl, he threw newspapers at her and watched her low self esteem do the rest.I honestly had to stop myself from posting more examples of Invisible Girl being stupid. If you can’t get enough, I’ll add them to my Twitter throughout the day.
#3. Bullet Man
In 1940, Jim Barr wanted to be a police officer. Unfortunately he couldn’t shoot, run, or think, so they rejected him. That’s when he got a great idea– he should invent a serum that cures crime! As you can tell, most of Jim’s ideas were a random series of unrelated words that meant nothing. His entrance form for the police academy said, “Crime not is always my porp. Forever Jim, age milk.”
“AND THESE PUPPETS I’VE DEVISED CURE LONELINESS!”
When Jim finished his “crime cure,” it didn’t turn out to be something you injected into criminals to make them nice. It was something you drank to make your body capable of punching crime. It also made Jim into a genius, so he invented a gravity hat. He knew this wasn’t enough, so he went a step further and salvaged a costume that would “strike fear to evil-doers.” Let’s see what terrifying outfit that super brain came up with:
Is evil really afraid of that? Because he looks like an underage dildo trying to sneak into a gay aviators bar.
The dumbest thing about Bulletman wasn’t that he thought he cured crime by drinking a potion that helped inspire hatmaking. It was that the only thing he ever did to combat evil was punch, and his punches did nothing.
" width="474" height="332" class="size-full wp-image-697" /> Sometimes his foes would simply leave after a punch…
" width="610" height="296" class="size-full wp-image-698" /> …but the traditional Bulletman fighting technique was to take a few shots to the face then hit him with furniture. Here’s another example:
" width="610" height="215" class="size-full wp-image-699" /> “IF ONLY MY CRIME CURE-ENHANCED PUNCHES WERE AS EFFECTIVE AS ORDINARY FURNITURE!”He soon picked up a sidekick named Bulletgirl. She had the exact same capabilities as Bulletman yet with weaker punches and less pants. Bulletgirl was so certain to get knocked unconscious and captured that she left five days of cat food out every time she went crimefighting.
" width="610" height="253" class="size-full wp-image-700" /> “OOHHH! I STRUCK LIKE AN ANGRY BIRD BEATING OFF BEASTS OF PREY AND IT STILL HAD NO EFFECT!”Bulletman’s secret identity of Jim Barr was a closely guarded secret. There were a couple problems with this. First, his bulletproof helmet didn’t cover his face. Second, Bulletgirl had a tendency to scream his real name all the time and for any reason. Now, if you were to combine those two issues with his pointless punches and weakness to thrown furniture… well, it’s almost too awful to think about:
" width="610" height="563" class="size-full wp-image-701" /> “HEY, SUSAN FUCKING KENT. STOP… SAYING… MY SECRET IDENTITY NAME.”When you’re weak enough to be defeated by any tiny table corner and you’re stupid enough to think you cured crime by developing the world’s pussiest punch, it’s important to pick your battles. This was Bulletman’s best talent. Not a single villain he fought had any powers, and most of them had legitimate physical ailments. It’s with great pleasure I present to you Bulletman’s deadliest battle with his most fiendish foe– an overweight elderly man.
Sorry, that went from 0 to rapey faster than anyone could have expected.
Mid-fight banter is important for a superhero. Take every opportunity to deliver one-liners to entertain your reader and disarm your opponent. For instance, if your opponent hammers you in your junk, that is the perfect time to firmly think “??” to yourself.
After surviving so many of Bulletman’s famously impotent punches, you’re probably wondering how they ever defeated this obese but otherwise non-notable menace. Brace yourself for the thrilling surprise ending. No, I mean it. Brace yourself:
" width="610" height="826" class="size-full wp-image-704" /> “YOU TRIPPED ON MY GIRLFRIEND’S HAT, YOU FAT DICK! THAT’S HOW I CURE CRIME! BULLET! MAAAAANNNN!!!!!”#2. Mary Marvel
aptain Marvel was a little boy who could become a super hero by screaming “Shazam!” It was unapologetic wish-fulfillment directed at young readers. Still, Fawcett Comics was worried dumber children were having trouble relating to the character, so they created Captain Marvel Jr, a little boy who transformed into a little boy, perfect for readers with less elastic imaginations. Then they added the Lieutenant Marvels, three hillbilly Shazams to make their illiterate readers happy. Finally, they came up with the idea of a rabbit version -Hoppy the Marvel Bunny- for readers who were shitty assholes. Oh, I almost forgot– after all that, they came up with this weird idea of making a girl one. Handicapped kids got their own Barbie before girls got their own Shazam.
The ’40s shouldn’t have expected much from a teenage girl who, by my count, was a seventh rate Shazam knockoff, but what they got fell short of all expectations. Mary Marvel had three working brain cells and two of them died trying to figure out a sanitary napkin. Her enemies were usually cranky teenagers with no powers who routinely eluded her by throwing something in her eye and walking away while she fussed.
" width="384" height="302" class="size-full wp-image-706" /> She also might gossip with herself about you as you make your escape.
" width="610" height="252" class="size-full wp-image-707" /> “GOOD GRIEF! I WAS LOOKING FOR A MOON-FACED BIRD MONSTER MAN IN AN ORANGE COAT WHO DIDN’T HAVE A HAT. HOLY MOLEY, ALMOST.”Disguises haunted Mary Marvel’s entire career. A change of slacks or a well placed hat would throw her right off your trail. If you punched a puppy with your left hand and waved to Mary Marvel with your other, she’d apologize and ask you if you saw anyone run by left-handedly. She died a virgin because every time one of her beaus changed clothes she mistook it for a first date.
" width="610" height="594" class="size-full wp-image-708" /> “GOOD GRIEF! I WAS LOOKING FOR A WOMAN WHO DIDN’T JUST CHANGE HER CLOTHES IN FRONT OF ALL THESE PEOPLE. HOLEY MOLEY, ALMOST.”
The Wire alum Lawrence Gilliard Jr. has joined the fourth season of AMC’s The Walking Dead as a series regular.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed he’ll play Bob Stookey, who in the acclaimed comic series was an alcoholic Woodbury resident and former Army medic who saved the life of The Governor after he was tortured by Michonne (the news was first reported by iDigitalTimes). Given the changes to the storyline in the television adaptation, it’s unclear what role the charming, self-deprecating loner will play.
Gilliard, who’s appeared on Fright Night Lights, Army Wives and Southland, is best known for his portrayal of D’Angelo Barksdale on HBO’s The Wire. Fellow alum Chad Coleman joined The Walking Dead last year as Tyreese.
His casting follows news earlier this month that Coleman, Sonequa Martin-Green and Emily Kinney have been promoted to series regulars for the fourth season, which premieres in October.
Both Batman and Iron Man have enjoyed an extreme amount of success over the past few years, from the Dark Knight trilogy, to Iron Man and even The Avengers these may be the two biggest names in the super hero world right now. But, both men didn’t actually have super powers themselves but rely on their gear/gadgets to fight crime. Ever wondered how much these suits and gadgets actually cost?
With this info-graphic, which calculates the cost of each of these heroes equipment all the way down to even the price of there lairs and cars, you can finally know the answer to that question!
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All of us Star Wars fans are incredibly excited to see what awaits us in this new Star Wars trilogy that will give us Episodes 7, 8 and 9 of George Lucas’ epic story. Today, MarketSaw is reporting some details of those films, and one of the main things revealed is that Luke Skywalker will be a primary focus of these movies! MarketSaw has a very solid inside source feeding them this information. It was the same source that revealed earlier this year that episodes 7, 8 and 9 were coming so it’s hard not to believe what is being reported here. What I’m trying to say is, that this is a solid source, and I believe it.
Here’s what their source says:
Disney now has the power to make STAR WARS films, and everything else in the Lucasfilm archives. The movies I told you about are indeed the primary focus. Luke Skywalker is a primary focus, as are many of the original trilogy cast. Disney also realised that George Lucas and STAR WARS are one and the same, so George will certainly have a voice on any angle taken, in fact I believe it’s one of many stipulations. However he will no longer have creative control, and as I said before George was already looking at other creative talents to bring his canon to life back before Disney and Lucasfilm really started negotiating (or at least to the best of my knowledge)…
So not only will Luke Skywalker be a part of the trilogy, but so will many of the original cast! Holy crap, that’s awesome! It makes a lot more sense now that Lucas met with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fischer back in August to tell them about the new trilogy. The source goes on…
“Way back when I told you about the new movie trilogy planned, I never explained to you that they were being rewritten from previously secret drafts from way back during the making of the original trilogy. The main problem was the age of the cast, and the tone of the story. Now I do believe that Walt Disney intend on playing to the cultural significance of that original trilogy. You will see a tone more in line with the original trilogy, and specifically featuring that cast, if everything shakes out as intended. Which it will, I promise you.
Damn, this guy is making promises now! The source must be incredibly close to the production. I love that the new trilogy will have more of the same tone of the orignal films. The source then gives an update on the TV series Star Wars Underworld, most of this info we already knew, but the fact that it’s still going to move forward is promising.
You can expect to hear more news on the live action TV show in the near future, as the scripts already written will be absorbed in some way into a TV format. The nature of the show and the technical requirements needed to meet a TV budget and schedule are pretty ambitious. Basically they are 45 minute long feature films. With concepts that are very ambitious and the fact that it focuses on characters that are not known and are completely different to what people may have in mind about a STARWARS TV show. This was the problem at the time, and I am pretty sure this is still a problem. At least on the live action front. I am told that soon there will be some kind of material released relating to shot footage and tests on that concept. So look out for that.
The next part of the emails goes into some details about the possible stroyline. I guess you could say there are spoilers here, but I know you all want to know anyway. The next part of the e-mail starts off with A NEW DAWN in bold letters… could this be the title of Episode VII? Are you ready for this…
A NEW DAWN.
I don’t believe the empire was completely destroyed by the end of Return of the Jedi.
Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, C3PO and R2D2 are I am assured to feature prominently in the new trilogy, as was always the idea. Apparently some have already been approached. Quite a while back too to my understanding. Hamill is a certainty.
Holy shit. Want some more? This next part tells us about a new character!
There are two trilogies planned, all following an original overview by Lucas, which was always planned as a multi generational saga. Movies 10 – 12 are from my understanding about the offspring of the Skywalkers, set many years later with the surviving cast playing much older versions of themselves and featuring a female protagonist named Skywalker. This is something that I understand is being discussed as the latest trilogy may end up being an amalgamation of the two using themes and ideas from both, but still keeping the general story, also allowing for continuity of cast.
I remember hearing back in the day about the series possibly going to twelve chapters, looks like that plan is still in motion! The source goes on to talk about how the film will be released, and reveals that we can expect to see restored prints of the original trilogy, before Lucas statred making changes!
The movies from what I understand will adopt the Harry Potter model, and will be aggressively brought to the forefront of popular entertainment once again with consistent installments. This is just for starters though, especially for those who hold the original trilogy in high regard, they should be happy. You can expect lovingly restored prints of the original trilogy to surface in the near future. That’s a no brainer. I along with the rest of the world want those movies in their original glory. Disney are all over that, believe me.
Amazing! I don’t know about you but I’m swelling with excitement over all of this news right now! There are also directors names already being thrown around, want to know who they are? Of course you do! A lot of our speculation is right in line with what Disney is looking at…
From my understanding the movies that follow will be far more in line with the original trilogy in regards to tone and method, and from the few names I have heard being banded around I am very excited, as they are all choices that I think people will get behind.
- Steven Spielberg, who may actually get to direct his episode of STARWARS after all.
- Neil Blomkamp, District 9, Elysium.
- Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men, Gravity (which is a masterpiece by the way) When I was told this name, I said that’s the guy.
- Matthew Vaughn. Kick Ass, First Class.
- Darren Arnofsky, The Fountain, Noah. (very popular candidate) and has been for a while.
- Joss Whedon. Serenity, The Avengers. That could work as Joss is currently overseeing Marvels next onslaught under the Disney Banner, but don’t hold your breath for a directing gig for many years down the line. He may well have his part to play though
So very exciting times ahead if you are a STARWARS fan, and especially if you are an original trilogy fan.
Watch this space.
And that’s it. So what do you think about this epic Star Wars movie news! Are you ready for the new dawn of Star Wars to begin! I can’t freakin’ wait! Hit us up with your thoughts!
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Not too long ago, many people believed Facebook was the Next Big Thing in gaming. Developers debated it — sometimes ferociously — at conventions, while venture capitalists couldn’t fund the companies making those games fast enough.
But over the past few months, the air seems to have been let out of Facebook’s tires. Major publishers are withdrawing their support. Pop culture breakouts like Farmville are far and few between. Most damningly, players seem to have moved on to other diversions.
EA is the most notable recent company to back away from the platform. Earlier this week, the publisher announced plans to wind down The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society and seemingly is shutting down its Playfish division, which it paid $300 million for less than four years ago.
The EA pullback comes as Zynga, long the standard-bearer for the social gaming platform, has been slowly shifting its focus away from Facebook games and more toward the mobile and real-money gambling fields. That’s especially worthy of note, since at one point, 15 percent of all of Facebook’s revenue came from Zynga’s games (and 90 percent of Zynga’s came from Facebook). Zynga has itself been plagued with issues over the past year, including the exodus of several top-level executives, a CEO voted one of the worst of 2012 and dismal stock performance.
Facebook, for its part, says gaming has never been healthier on its platform. In a conversation with Gamasutra, Tera Randall, Facebook’s technology communications manager, said game installs are up 75 percent compared to a year ago and that more than 250 million Facebook users are currently playing games on the social network each month (compared to 235 million last October)
The biggest game on Facebook these days is Candy Crush Saga, which boasts over 10 million monthly average users, according to AppData. That success, though, comes with something of an asterisk.
Candy Crush Saga got its start on Facebook, but it really began to soar in popularity when it hit mobile devices. Thanks to a tight integration with Facebook, however – players are frequently encouraged to ask for additional lives from their friends — the social network still can technically count those people as users.
Using those sorts of technicalities to demonstrate a gaming stronghold is a far cry from 2010, when Will Wright, creator of The Sims, predicted social gaming could eventually make up one-quarter of the video game industry.
So why haven’t there been any real Facebook-exclusive gaming breakouts lately? There are a number of reasons, but the biggest is the explosion of the mobile market. As apps continue to expand, most people don’t have time to play games on their phone and on Facebook — and they’ve opted to go with the mobile option. As a result, pretty much any popular Facebook game has a dedicated app these days as well, eliminating the need to go through a middleman.
But another critical aspect is that the viral nature of Facebook gaming has lost its luster. Two years ago, timelines were filled with updates and requests from Mafia Wars and Farmville, but the volume became so high, many viewed the posts as spam and began to resent them.
“Part of the problem with Facebook games and the idea of social and viral notification is that you’re basically trying to push out your gameplay to people you don’t know,” says Billy Pidgeon, an independent market research analyst. “That’s not really going to fly. For social games to work, it’s going to have to be designed to work with people you know. It needs to be a tighter circle to work properly.”
And since it’s harder to have a real breakout hit on Facebook, fewer and fewer publishers are willing to take the risk. While the games are much cheaper to create than traditional console titles, they still have to recoup their investment. And as people spend more time on mobile than the Web, that’s getting harder.
Still, few game makers are ready to completely give up on Facebook as a gaming destination. The launch of Facebook Home could reignite interest in the category, and it’s still possible the company will find the magic formula to reengage players in a big way.
“Facebook could still be a platform for games, but they’ve lost a lot of opportunity,” says Pidgeon. “Facebook now is talking up games as if it’s a big part of their strategy, but it has to be run properly.”
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SMOKE! SAY IT ISN’T SO?!!
I guess there have been a number of incidents involving people who dress in costumes and “perform” on and around Times Square in return for donations. A Cookie Monster who may have shoved a two year old boy when his mother didn’t pay up for a photo quickly enough. An anti-semitic Elmo. You know.
Well, New York City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. certainly does and he has introduced legislation that would either ban costumed characters in New York City or see them heavily regulated. Such as getting official permission from the people who own the rights to the characters.
Yeah, so that’s going to happen.
But furthermore, what does this mean for the New York Comic Con?
It may take place inside the Javits Center, but people have to get there and half the fun is traveling on the subway or walking down 12th Avenue all dolled up.
And what if the law itself were passed in the Marvel Universe? Eric Moran, this one’s for you.
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by Nick Romano
It’s always a bit of a shocker to hear what some actors are willing to endure in the name of “authentic performances,” whether it’s chopping off all their hair, sitting in a makeup chair for hours on end, or, in extreme cases, submitting to unorthodox dieting habits.
Movie transformations have recently come back to the forefront in light of films like ‘Les Miserables,’ ‘Cloud Atlas‘ and ‘Looper.’ While Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman have both admitted to extreme dieting habits to convey the physical embodiment of death, others, like Tom Hanks and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, have succumbed to hours upon hours of costume and makeup work.
Despite some of the un-glamorous techniques, these movie transformations have astounded audiences all over the world and earned some of the performers the highest of honors. Here’s a look back at 13 mind-blowing actor transformations in film.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, ‘THE DALLAS BUYERS CLUB’
Matthew McConaughey‘s transformation from ‘Magic Mike‘ stud to the frail character in ‘The Dallas Buyers Club‘ is the most astounding one from recent memory. In the true-to-life film, he plays Ron Woodroof, a Texan straight man diagnosed with AIDS and who, in response to the failing effects of the only AIDS medication available at the time, started an underground non-toxic drug ring.
Back in July of 2012, McConaughey sat down with Larry King to discuss the role, at which time he revealed he essentially starved himself, forcing his body to feed off itself. “I’ve lost about 15 pounds, I’ve gotta lose about 15 more,” he said. “I should not look healthy by the time I’m done doing this.” You can see more pictures of Matthew McConaughey on the set of ‘The Dallas Buyers Club
CHRISTIAN BALE, ‘THE MACHINIST’
Before Christian Bale became the buff version of himself for Batman in Christopher Nolan‘s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, he was at his slimmest for the lead role in 2004′s ‘The Machinist.’ In it, he portrayed a man on the brink of insanity as a result of his year-long insomnia, and though he was not required to drop a ton of weight, Bale felt the role called for someone who physically appeared to be on the brink of death. He previously stated:
I lost about a third of my body weight and went down to about 121 pounds. I didn’t really know how else to do it. I just thought my character should look as though he was on the brink of death, but I didn’t set out to actually get as skinny as I did. I just found that I was somewhat more successful at it than I’d imagined.
ANNE HATHAWAY, ‘LES MISERABLES’
2012 was a great year for Anne Hathaway — she starred in the coveted role of Catwoman in ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ and in Tom Hooper’s ‘Les Miserables‘ film adaptation as Fantine. However, it was also the year she lost all her hair and dropped a ton of weight.
Hathaway actually chopped off her locks in the ‘Les Miz’ scene we’ve seen countless times in all the various trailers. Over the course of her press tour, she recollected how she’d lock herself in the bathroom and cry in front of the mirror to get use to the emotional scenes from the film. In addition, she drastically starved herself to in order to look like she was dying. But so far it’s paying off as she’s already won a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for her performance.
ROONEY MARA, ‘THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO’
Rooney Mara beat out a pool of actresses including Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson to snag the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in the US film version of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.’ It was a fresh start for the actress, who not only left behind her previous resume of minor roles, but also her curly long hair and classic cookie-cutter looks.
With an edgier on-screen style and a take-no-prisoners persona, she became the girl in the spotlight — not just in the movie itself, but also in public. All of sudden, Mara was the girl who wore high-end couture and black bangs on the red carpet, and graced the covers of fashion magazines. According to ‘GWTDT’ costume designer Trish Summerville, “[Mara] absorbed pieces of Lisbeth, but made it into her own style.”
HUGH WEAVING, ‘CLOUD ATLAS’
Like his co-stars Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving portrayed multiple characters in ‘Cloud Atlas,’ and two of them we coud barely tell were him — that of Old Georgie and Nurse Noakes.
Those of you who’ve seen ‘Cloud Atlas’ know that these characters were separated by time. Old Georgie is the imaginary, devilish creature Hanks’ post-apocalyptic character had conversations with, while Nurse Noakes ran the Aurora House Hotel and took sadistic pleasure in tormenting certain patients. The makeup process took upwards of four hours for each look, and Weaving would, admittedly, nod off at times.
CHARLIZE THERON, ‘MONSTER’
One of the most note-worthy transformations was Charlize Theron‘s portrayal of serial killer and former prostitute Aileen Wuornos in ‘Monster,’ which won her an Oscar for Best Actress. Prior to this role, Theron was athletic and had to put on weight, on top of masking her face with makeup and prosthetic teeth.
“I think I’ve tried most of my career to transform myself into characters. This was just more extreme,” she’s previously stated about the role. “I had about three months to gain weight. We never discussed it like, ‘I’m gonna put on 30 pounds,’ because I wasn’t trying to look fat. It wasn’t that hard. I just didn’t say ‘no’ to Krispy Kreme doughnuts or anything that was full of cream. I also gave up exercising.”
TOM CRUISE, ‘TROPIC THUNDER’
One could argue the biggest surprise in ‘Tropic Thunder’ was Robert Downey Jr.‘s blackface, but Tom Cruise got just as much attention for his out-of-the-norm portrayal of the foul-mouthed movie mogul, Les Grossman. His only previous semi-comedic role was a cameo in ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember,’ so you can imagine our surprise to see him take on that role. Wait, what are we talking about? You saw it, you know.
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, ‘LOOPER’
After Joseph Gordon-Levitt became a hit with ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and for all intents and purposes was our new Robin Boy Wonder, he starred in a little time-travel flick known as ‘Looper.’ Loopers are these sci-fi assassins who are waiting in a past time period to take out their targets sent to them from the future. Mr. Levitt played the younger self of Bruce Willis‘ Joe, who is sent back in time as Levitt’s next target, which if performed would “close the loop.”
We interviewed director Rian Johnson a while back, and in regards to this transformation, he said, “We decided to do physical prosthetics and we just adjusted a few features, but really the thing that gives the illusion that they look alike is Joe’s performance, I think — his mannerisms, his voice, the way he carries himself.”
ASHTON KUTCHER, ‘JOBS’
Take off the beanie, trim the beard, cut the long hair, make him look presentable, and you begin to see why Ashton Kutcher was a great fit for the role of Steve Jobs in ‘jOBS.’ Based on the life of the late Apple co-founder, the film chronicles his journey with his partner Steve Wozniak from building computers in their garages to the launch of the first iPod in 2001.
Although this wasn’t the most elaborate movie transformation, Steve Jobs’ death was a major moment for our culture, and to see him getting honored on the big screen is emotional in itself. “When he showed up, it sent a ripple of shock throughout the set,” said Josh Gad, who portrays Wozniak in the ‘jOBS.’ “Everyone was like, ‘We’re in the presence of Jobs. Let’s go do this.’ It was literally like being in the room with the creator of Apple. This is one of those roles that’s the perfect fit.”
And if you think Ashton Kutcher doesn’t really look like Steve Jobs, take a look below:
REBECCA ROMIJN, ‘X-MEN’ TRILOGY
Rebecca Romijn is by far one of the sexiest women on the planet and will forever be known as a geek goddess for her role in the ‘X-Men‘ franchise. Throughout the trilogy, kickstarted by Bryan Singer, Romijn played the slippery and deadly hench-woman of Magneto, Mystique, a mutant capable of shapeshifting into any person she laid eyes on.
Being that the popular comic book character is blue, this role required extensive makeup work. Said special makeup designer Gordon Smith:
The makeup is a very, very difficult thing for Rebecca to go through. It started out as a 10-hour makeup, then we got it down to a six-and-a-half-hour makeup on ['X-Men'], and on ['X2'] we’ve gotten it down to four-and-a-half hours. There are four girls working on her full time with no real break, and then when she’s done, she’s being touched up all day long.
‘PROMETHEUS’ ENGINEERS
A couple of actors and stuntmen portrayed the various Engineers we saw in ‘Prometheus,’ and their monolithic presence went on to spawn a variety of incredible cosplay. Ian Whyte was one of them, portraying the “Last Engineer.”
Funny story: remember Madame Olympe Maxime from ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’? Hagrid’s love interest? Well, Whyte was inside that costume when the camera panned to full-body shots. Some other cool tid bits, he also portrayed one of the ‘Predator’ aliens in ‘AVPR: Aliens vs. Predators — Requiem,’ and Gregor Clegane and one of the White Walkers in ‘Game of Thrones.’
HEATH LEDGER, ‘THE DARK KNIGHT’
Although ‘Batman Begins’ garnered Christopher Nolan some box office praise, it wasn’t until Heath Ledger‘s performance as the Joker in ‘The Dark Knight‘ that everyone else seemed to get on board. While the makeup work was truly phenomenal, it was Ledger’s portrayal of this sadistic character that brought life to the comic book villain.
The movie was made all the more effective premiering after the untimely death of Ledger. It seemed only fitting for the Academy Awards to honor him with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2009, which was accepted by his father, mother and sister.
ERIC STOLTZ, ‘MASK’
When people think of the most famous movie transformations of all-time, a few immediately pop into mind — Theron in ‘Monster’ and Christian Bale in ‘The Machinist,’ perhaps — and Eric Stoltz role in the 1985 film ‘Mask’ would definitely make the cut. Starring alongside Cher, Sam Elliott and Estelle Getty, Stoltz played the role of Roy L. “Rocky” Dennis, a teen with a major skull deformity.
In order to create the “mask,” makeup designer Michael Westmore merged together three pieces of foam latex, which was then applied with a blend of makeup and a set of fake dentures for an added effect. All the hard work paid off when the film won an Oscar for Best Makeup Design.
The above left photo is of Stoltz in the 1982 film ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High,’ just a few years before he debuted his ‘Mask’ performance on the big screen.
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