First things first. The Kickstarter fund raising campaign for Theater Hopper: Year Three. You know the drill. I really, really, REALLY need your support! We have less than a month to raise $2,000, so please pledge today!
As an extra incentive, I am giving away my DVD copy of Monsters, Inc. along with some custom artwork to one lucky person once we cross the $1,500 milestone and right now we’re $50 away from that goal! That means if you pledge $50 right now, you have a 1 in 40 chance of winning! Those are good odds!
If you would like to see what the finished artwork looks like, check out this update I posted on the Kickstarter campaign site. I also threw a camera over my shoulder and shot a time-lapse video of me creating the artwork. So, if nothing else, you can spend a couple of minutes watching that. I threw in some very relevant, very peppy music with the video to help keep you entertained!
Again, I can’t stress this enough, I REALLY need your support on this book. Even if it’s a dollar. If everyone who visits the site each day pledged one dollar, we’d have this campaign in the bag. Please pledge today!
Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog!
Yesterday, Paramount Pictures released the teaser poster and four publicity stills for Iron Man 2. If you haven’t seen them yet, let me get out of your way so you can take a look.
Niiiiiiiiice.
I’m loving this teaser poster. It’s such an improvement over the teaser poster for the original Iron Man. Which, if you remember, kept much of the armor in shadow to whet our appetites for what we would see on screen.
Well, now we have a pretty good idea what the armor looks like from the first movie, so why not put it front and center in glorious color on the second one?
Oh, what’s this? You’ve brought a friend? He’s a little bit shy, isn’t he? We’re only going to get to see the side of his face? That’s okay! I know who you are, War Machine, you rascal!
I can’t tell you how excited I am to see War Machine on the poster for this movie. It let’s you know right off the bat how prominently the character will be utilized in the second film. That’s good news for die-hard Iron Man fans like myself. I just hope the focus stays in that realm. Because, frankly, I’m a little worried that they might be packing too much into the sequel.
Between Scartlet Johansen as Black Widow, Mickey Rourke as Whiplash and Sam Rockwell as Tony Stark’s business rival Justin Hammer, I hope there is enough time left over for a big throw down between Iron Man and War Machine. This, of course, before the eventual team-up that takes down the big bad guy.
As a director, I think Jon Favreau has a pretty keen sense of what fans want to see. I’m optimistic. But Sam Ramii knocked it out of the park with Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 before the major let down that was Spider-Man 3. So anything is possible.
Paramount releasing these images now lends strong support to the rumor that the teaser trailer for Iron Man 2 will appear in front of Sherlock Holmes when the movie is released December 25. Things will be crazy for me around that time since the baby will be born on the 10th. But I’m hoping maybe Cami and I can leave the kids with grandma and grandpa for a couple of hours so we can sneak out to see it.
If we manage to do so, my next concern will not be succumbing to a lack of sleep in a darkened theater!
Speaking of the baby, as I said, she’ll be here in a little over a week. Obviously, we’re over the moon about it. Originally, the idea was that I would take all of December off to give us time to prepare and then (of course) attend to the baby once she’s born.
I have a bunch of guest strips ready to go, but I think I’m going to put off posting them for just a little while longer. We’re pretty much ready to go on the home front and it makes more sense to build in a little extra time off after she arrives. So look for those guest strips in the next couple of weeks!
In the meantime, let’s talk about Iron Man 2! Are you guys as excited for this film as I am? Since the movie doesn’t come out until May 7, how long do you think you’ll be able to tolerate the marketing push before going insane? Does anyone have the number for a psychologist that can help with unhealthy obsessions?
DISCUSS!
The new Iron Man 2 teaser poster is online!
With War Machine...
WAARRRRRR MACHIIIIINEE!
What was THAT?
Nerdgasm.
An amusing article I found search for the poster.
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/12/01/war-machine-and-the-iron-man-2-movie-poster-where-have-we-seen-this-before/
I’m very excited for both Sherlock Holmes and Iron Man 2. I really can’t wait to see IM2, if it’s half as good as the first one, I’ll be happy. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to blow the first one out of the water. We’ll just have to wait and see.
And Matt, that link is hilarious!
I’m excited for both these movies also. I thank the Lord every day that Robert Downey Jr. survived the 80s so he could play these roles. I’m super psyched about War Machine, too. I share your worry that they’re trying to pack too much into the sequel, so I hope that they budget enough time to showcase everyone and still, you know, have a story.
As for the strip, I love Cami’s expression in the last panel. “Ladida, par for the course.” And congrats on the new baby!
I know I can’t wait for May, it is going to be one awesome month for me, especially starting off with IM2. It’s only 5 more months, we can all survive right? It has yet to be determined how I feel about Don Cheadle playing Rhodes but we will see. Anyways a little article that was on yahoo this morning regarding IM2. http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-war-machine-revealed.html
I can’t wait for the movie as I am a huge Iron Man fan. 5 months is a long time hopefully we will all survive without any major incidents of “nerd rage”
I’m surprised we got through that posting without a mention of the actress who’s playing Black Widow. Then again with a little one of your own on the way I can see how you’ve got other things on your mind.
Congratulations and best of luck.
I completely nerded out over that poster yesterday. Then, when I told my wife, she asked, “Who’s War Machine?” I believe I glared at her.
I’m still a bit leary of Don Cheadle taking over for Terrence Howard. Honestly, I think Cheadle will be the better Rhodes of the two, but I still hate sequel-character-turnovers.
That’s a very minor concern, though. Iron Man 2 will probably be a midnight screening for me (I only allow myself a couple of those a year).
Pete,
For the sake of consistency, I would have liked to seen Howard continue in the role. But I think Cheadle is going to bring good intensity to the role. Howard seems too laid back to play a guy called “War Machine,” y’know?
I mean, Cheadle can do the cool cat routine. But I think he can summon some anger for it.
I had my doubts about Scarlett playing Black Widow (did you see her in The Spirit? ugh…), but it’s looking like she’s at least nailed the look of the character.
I’m seriously stoked for Iron Man 2, not just because I loved the first film, but also because last summer was a terrible summer for blockbuster flicks, and I can’t wait to see one that’ll at least be well made.
I’m excited to see this. One of the best things about being born in early May is that I have a ready made gift idea built into that first weekend.
It’s ridiculous, but the thing that has me so damn psyched is that they gave Widow her little wrist blaster things. Love it!
I don’t want to let the movie get over-hyped for me, but yes I’m very excited for it.
There came a point with the original Iron Man, that I had to go into “lockdown” to prevent ruining too much of the movie for me. And I *NEVER* do that for movies anymore.
With the expectations set so high for IM2, I think protecting myself will be that much more difficult.
I haven’t read the comics but why would they fight if they were buddies in the first movie? I hope this isn’t a stupid question.
Sorry Tom but I’m with Avi with this one. I doubt that outside maybe a sparring match or training montage that we’ll see Rhode’s war machine fight Iron Man. Unless it’s a stolen plan/copycat War Machine.
My prediction is that early to mid way it’s all Iron Man until he gets knocked out / captured / whatever and Pepper, Widow, or Jarvis gets Rhodes into War Machine to rescue Stark. Then they team up to put the smack down on what put Iron Man out of commission in the first place.
But it’s a comic book movie so it’s possible. Half of all comic book stories are heroes fighting over “misunderstandings”.
Honestly, I’m more excited for Sherlock Holmes than I am Iron Man 2, bu I’m a literary nerd more than a comic book nerd. I’m sure excitement will increase as May approaches, but seeing that I’m getting married in May, I doubt I’ll have time to see it until later.
Actually, if you read the article that Bryan posted, you’ll see the line, “In the film, Rhodes takes the silver Iron Man suit to Stark’s rival, Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell), who outfits it with an array of weapons, including a machine gun turret on the shoulder.”
I’m pretty sure, Rhodes taking the armor to Justin Hammer will be enough to ignite the feud between he and Stark. I’m expecting a full-on throw-down between Iron Man and War Machine. And I don’t know that they’ll reconcile in this film. We may be looking at a story arch quite similar to Peter and Harry, except hopefully without Rhodes dying in Iron Man 3.
If you recall from the first movie, Rhodey insisted Tony “get his mind right” about manufacturing weapons for the military.
As Allan pointed out, Rhodey taking the Mark II suit to Hammer is something I read about in a script outline. So it makes sense conflict would arise from that.
My question is, where does Rhodey get a power source for his suit?
Like TallScotch, said, superheroes get in fights over misunderstandings all the time. It throws a bone to the geeks who always ask the “Who would win in a fight…” question.