By
The Editor
July 20, 2009 - 10:21
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’S 2ND ANNUAL COMIC-CON PREVIEW ISSUE FEATURING THE CAST OF IRON MAN 2
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY GOES INSIDE THE MAKING OF IRON MAN 2 AND HAS EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOKS AT MORE THAN A DOZEN OTHER HOT PROJECTS HITTING COMIC-CON THIS MONTH
Entertainment Weekly’s second annual Comic-Con preview package features Iron Man 2 on the cover, and inside it’s jam-packed with exclusive first looks at highly anticipated TV shows and movies. After Iron Man blasted Robert Downey Jr. back to stardom, the superhero returns to the big screen to battle new villain Mickey Rourke, size up Scarlett Johansson, and prove the first time wasn’t a fluke. The success of Iron Man (which opened at $99 million and went on to take in $318 million) caught many people by surprise, and now four months later, Downey is no longer the underdog. “There are a lot more invisible eyes on us now,” he says.
When Marvel Studios first announced the sequel, no one was sure what the movie would be about. Downey, director Jon Favreau, screenwriter Justin Theroux, and the rest of the creative team struck upon the idea of introducing two very different foes for Stark. On one side is Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a fast-talking weapons manufacturer who fancies himself the next Tony Stark; on the other, Vanko, who, while incarcerated in a Russian prison, creates his own battle-suit, which shoots devastating, whip-like beams. Hammer and Whiplash join forces to take Downey’s character Tony Stark down. Rourke, for his part, wanted to instill some lightness into the role of the heavy. “I told Favreau, ‘I don’t want to just play him as a one-dimensional p----,’” Rourke says. “He let me have a cockatoo, who I talk to and get drunk with while I’m making my suit.”
Just as the deals were being hammered out, Terrence Howard – who had played Stark’s best friend – fell out of the sequel in a public salary dispute. The role was re-cast, with Don Cheadle stepping in. “We had to make some tough deals,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says. “When they got public, you go, ‘That sucks. OK, you want a peek behind the curtain? Here you are!’” Says Cheadle, “Terrence and I couldn’t be more different. We address it head-on in the movie in one exchange. We’re not trying to fool people.”(Cheadle admits he didn’t know much about Marvel’s superhero before the first movie came out: “I always thought Iron Man was a robot.”)
Adding more flesh and blood to the new movie, Scarlett Johansson joined the cast as Stark’s mysterious new assistant, Natasha, who has an alter ego of her own, Black Widow. That introduction inevitably sparks romantic tension between Stark and former assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who’s been promoted to CEO of Stark Industries. “The men want it to be, like, ‘Ooh, the girls are fighting over Tony,’ but it’s not as standard as that,” says Paltrow. “There’s a weird male catfight fantasy.” Downey doesn’t disagree: “Our signature as a superhero franchise is that we’re horny. Not, like, can’t-bring-your-kids horny, but just…horny.”
With these new ingredients, the question remains whether Iron Man 2 will soar like the first film or show signs of rust when it hits theaters next May 7. “People are going to be more critical,” says Downey. “That’s their prerogative….In a way, there’s no way to win, except to win. Big.” (Cover Story, Page 24)
Link to story on EW.com: http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/this-weeks-cover-iron-man-2.html
PLUS: COMIC-CON PREVIEW 2009
This week’s Entertainment Weekly offers an exclusive sneak peek at Alice in Wonderland, Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Sherlock Holmes, Jennifer’s Body, District 9, The CW’s Vampire Diaries, and other cool projects hitting the great geekfest this month. (Cover Story Package
WHY TRUE BLOOD IS HBO’S MOST TALKED-ABOUT HIT IN YEARS
With sex, violence, and some very hot vampires – it is no wonder True Blood is HBO’s most talked-about hit in years. Sunday’s airings averaged 3.7 million viewers (up 85 percent from last season), and the audience rises to 5.2 million when you factor in the 11 p.m. repeat, which is impressive for a show that looked undead on arrival.
The show’s lead vampire, sensitive soul Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) is trying to keep his human spitfire of a girlfriend, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), from getting slaughtered. But just when it seems like the battle is about to rage, it’s time for the set to go on lunch break. At midnight. “I work at night,” says Moyer. “Our vampires are not like the Twilight vampires, those p-----s who can go around during the day.”
First met by critical pans, the over-the-top, supernatural True Blood was a jarring surprise for fans of Alan Ball’s earthbound American Beauty and Emmy-winning Six Feet Under. Not that Ball cared. “I don’t read anything that’s written about my work. It just seems incredibly narcissistic,” he insists.
Ball says True Blood is “more of a watercooler show than Six Feet Under ever was.” It is also less of a downer. “After American Beauty and Six Feet Under, I’d done a lot of contemplating mortality and the beauty of existence and blah, blah, blah,” he says. “And I didn’t really want to do something like that again.” But if the 52-year-old writer was just trying to lighten up, why go back to the cemetery? “When I was 13 years old I was in a car accident with my sister who was driving the car. It was her 22nd birthday and she died,” he explains. “She died in front of me. She died all over me. [Death] stuck its big old ugly face in my face, and life changed….That’s why death seems to be a theme that appears in all my stuff.”
Another similarity between the two shows is sex. “Vampires are sex,” says Ball, whose actors spend a stunning amount of time in the buff. “I wouldn’t have signed up for it if I wasn’t game,” says Paquin. “I just never really grew up in a culture or household where [nudity] was a big deal.” Besides, she adds, “on the show, even when I’m dressed I’m not really wearing that much.”
And if Sookie and Bill’s sex scenes seem enthusiastic, it’s because Moyer and Paquin have been an offscreen couple since they finished the pilot. All the better for the show, says Moyer: “HBO is getting more bang for their buck, if you like.”
The kinkiest character, though, is fan favorite Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), a gay drug dealer and born hustler. “I didn’t think I was going to get [the part], really, because I was just doing such wild stuff,” Ellis recalls of his audition. “I cracked open my legs and threw my crotch in Alan’s face.”
And Ball has even bigger shocks planned for season 3 – but before he can get into next season’s bloodbath, he has to finish cleaning up after this one. “I don’t think it’s quite as big a body count as last season,” he muses. “I can think of seven right off the bat. No, eight. Yeah, Bon Temps is a tough place to survive.” (Feature, Page 36)
WANT MORE?
First Look – Jake Gyllenhaal’s swordplay in Persia. “I’m tired of taking myself so seriously…it’s nice when a stuntman turns to you and is like, ‘actors don’t normally do this,” said Gyllenhaal…Mad Men’s new man. Fringe’s Jared Harris joins the cast and says, “The men are handsome, and the women are fantastically sexy.” …Selena Gomez charms in Wizards TV movie. (Page 9)
News + Notes – Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow and her fellow female directors are making waves in showbiz. “She has the ability to make a gripping, balls-out movie that also has characters who are humanistic and complicated,” The Hurt Locker’s screenwriter, Mark Boal, says of Bigelow…Ryan Reynolds is Green Lantern. “There’s no rule that says you can’t play two different characters in two different comic-book universes,” Reynolds said…Bruno doesn’t live up to the hype…The style of Harry Potter’s Emma Watson…Monitor…Hit List…Insider (Page 13)
GET THE DAILY ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP ON EW.COM
Gallery: 20 All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture – Along with their villainous counterparts, the good guys are the undisputed kings and queens of our favorite entertainments. Check out this gallery where EW ranks the best of the good, from Alias’s Sydney Bristow to To Kill a Mockingbird’s Atticus Finch.
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20209564_20209584_20268279,00.html
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Read EW critic Lisa Schwarzbaum’s review of the latest installment in the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The movie received an A- grade that was well deserved given that “the filmmakers have found a way to refresh our eyes and enhance our appreciation for this rich, amazing creation,” according to Schwarzbaum.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20209564_20209587_20291190,00.html
President Obama's All-Star Game Pitch: Dad jeans on display– EW’s PopWatch blog’s Tanner Stransky analyzes the jeans President Obama wore to the MLB All-Star game, and provides a video clip for readers to watch as well. Did you notice his “Dad jeans” too?
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/president-barack-obama-all-star-game-pitch.html
ComicBookBin
