HeroDistrict

The massive marketing campaign for Captain America: The First Avenger has been put in motion, and with the release of the movie just around the corner, it is time to bring out the big guns. In this case, the big guns refer to Conan O’Brien airing an exclusive Captain America clip on his show. This video doesn’t need much introduction, but I will say this: Oh, it looks gooood!

Alright, obviously that is not a scene from the upcoming Captain America movie. Chris Evans is far more handsome than that oversized helmet wearing impostor. The sad thing is that that was a clip from an actual Captain America movie. Back in 1990, before Marvel knew anything about budgets, or marketing, or making halfway decent movies, they put out a Captain America movie starring Matt Salinger. You might be wondering who Matt Salinger is, which just goes to show you the quality of that Captain America movie. Perhaps the saddest part is that Salinger’s Wikipedia page says he is perhaps best known for his role as Captain America. If you have learned nothing else from this post, know that that clip from Conan was from an actual movie, and Matt Salinger is an actual person.

Oh, Matt Salinger. You poor bastard.

I’ve got some good news, some bad news, and then the silver lining. How about the good news first? Thor 2 is a go! The God of Thunder (and sculpted abs) will return July 26^th, 2013. He will be following everyone’s favorite recovering alcoholic with the release of Iron Man 3 in early May. Thor was a lot of fun, and I’m damn excited to see Chris Hemsworth start smashing things again. His career seems to be flourishing. He’ll be in some Snow White movie alongside that insufferable brat from Twilight, and has even locked in a new action franchise called Shadow Runner. I’m assuming the rest of the flawless cast will return, since Marvel tends to sign on actors for their entire lives. Or possibly even longer.

Now that I’ve softened you up with some good news, it’s time for the bad. Kenneth Branagh won’t be coming back to direct. That’s a shame, because his love for the character was infectious and he made a very solid movie. Still, the breakup looks fairly amicable. There are even rumors that he will serve as producer. Based on his interviews, my best guess is that he didn’t want to immediately jump into another life consuming film project.

The silver lining? Branagh did an excellent job building this world and finding a perfect cast. Now someone can build on that foundation and take it to the next level. I want Peter Jackson to direct, although I say that about every movie ever made. Plus, he’s filming the Hobbit. How about Danny Boyle? Normally I wouldn’t expect involvement from a relatively artsy Academy Award Winner, but the man has also created not one, but two movies about super-fast flesh eating zombies. That’s 100% unfiltered nightmare fuel. With such a talent for powerful visuals and high concepts (like sprinting zombies), he could do something wild. He’s even worked with Branagh before! Probably won’t happen, but it could be pretty cool, right?

The vast majority of people who saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine came away from it shaking their heads. Things from mind erasing bullets to attempting to ruin Deadpool all made comic book fans pretty unhappy. It also seemed as though fate itself was disappointed by this movie, and conspired against Fox in their attempts to get a sequel made. This sequel, The Wolverine, has had numerous problems already. The Wolverine is set in Japan, and I’m sure you all know about the earthquake that hit over there. As if that devastation wasn’t enough, The Wolverine also lost its director, Darren Aronofsky. This was especially tough as he was one of the few things that was really getting people excited about this movie.

Him and Hugh Jackman’s pecs.

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty tough road so far, but Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, would like to assure you that The Wolverine is good to go. In a recent interview, Jackman said that The Wolverine was set to start filming in October and be released around that time next year. While no announcements have been made yet, that not so far off filming schedule suggests that a new director has been found and that The Wolverine is back on track. This could be something to look forward to, as a movie about Wolverine’s dealings with Japanese crime families and fighting ninjas definitely sounds entertaining.

This scene better be in The Wolverine.

I like the character Wolverine, but I’m not sure how excited I am for this movies even with its potential ninja action. Marvel has been putting out some awesome movies this summer, but they have been done by Marvel Studios. Fox, the studio behind The Wolverine, has had success in the past with X-Men titles, but have definitely been faltering as of late. Hopefully they can turn things around with this one and make something as entertaining as their first X-Men movies.

Guillermo del Toro recently gave a bit of good news to FearNet, mainly that the Hulk television show he will be producing is moving forward in production. Specifically, del Toro said he has turned in some outlines and rewrites to ABC, so we could be seeing the green goliath on the small screen in the not too distant future. What still remains a mystery is what del Toro’s vision for the Hulk will be. He is a creative guy, so I expect some sort of re-imagining of the famous character.

Hopefully television Hulk is more successful than his movie counterparts.

While the fact del Toro has turned in some outlines to ABC is promising, getting Hulk on the air is no sure thing. Perhaps you remember all the recent hype around a certain Wonder Woman show that DC was working on. There was a good amount of publicity surrounding that show, yet the pilot was never picked up. Hopefully we won’t be seeing the same thing with the Hulk TV show. Guillermo del Toro has done some great work in the past, but too much re-imagining of the character could drive current fans of the Hulk away. Still, I am always one to see more comic book content in different media, so I am looking forward to seeing where this goes, and what sort of cameo Lou Ferrigno gets.

Lou Ferrigno guest stars as Hulk’s weird uncle.

A lot of us spend a good amount of our time daydreaming. Specifically, we daydream about being superheroes. Not really the whole getting blasted by super villains part, just the swinging around the city, lifting heavy objects, and generally saving redheaded supermodels who tell us how good our buns look in spandex. That would be the life.

Yeah, that’s a good look for me.

The only problem is none of us really have an idea on how to become a superhero, or even fit into some spandex. Luckily, as with most things, the internet has the answer. Some enterprising individual has put together a handy dandy infographic detailing the various ways that you can become a superhero. I think I will be taking the cosmic rays route. Which one of these ways to get super powers do you prefer?

Bad guys are perfect. They have depth, mystery, and are exemplars of being human and dangerous. Evildoers, ne’er-do-wells, nemeses, and the villains of comics serve their purpose perfectly. They are the supporting character foils to the heroes, and the antithesis to the just and right in the world; to be wonderfully blunt, they are more important than the hero. There would be no story and no hero if the villain did not rear his (or her) fantastically gruesome head to terrorize some population of sorts. Grendel had Beowulf, Moby Dick had Ahab, and the Nazi’s had everyone else. In Captain America: The First Avenger, Mr. Weaving gets to bring to life the most vile and obviously evil character (other than Hitler), and does so wearing a red mask that would make Jim Carrey proud. As Red Skull, he dons his guise as a villain and allows the viewers to have something to hate, and someone for the Hero to contend against

Hugo Weaving is perfect. He plays supporting roles, and he plays evil as good as Kevin Spacey can play good and evil. He is the strongest actor of the movies he is in, and does so quietly and without the audience even noticing. Accordingly, Ryan Reynolds, Robert Downer Jr., and Chris Evans are the perfect fit for the lead/Hero roles of just about any superhero franchise, and that includes playing off of each other in the big screen version of Wonder Woman. But a movie earns its praise from the supporting roles (read: Harry Potter), and is defined by the secondary actors who are overlooked for the flashier, more grandiose (and chiseled) leading men. The titan of these supporting actors, the 6th man of the year, is Hugo Weaving.

Puritan? Nay, anarchist.

Best known as the antagonist of the Matrix and the man behind the Guy Fawkes mask in V for Vendetta (a protagonist, yes, but he did kill people and was stoically unapproachable. He can very easily be categorized as an anti-hero, or an anarchist, fun, bad guy) Mr. Weaving brings his creaky voice, Boo Radley face, and formidable talent in Captain America: The First Avenger. Yet again, he is hiding behind a mask in a supporting role, and yet again I can only expect him to carry more than half of this movie on his tired shoulders. V for Vendetta was a huge surprise and is still wonderful to watch at least once a year in early November; not to mention get jazzed about writing a mission statement about the dishonesty in the world. The writing and overall style of the film is wonderful, but how often can you find an actor willing to play opposite Natalie Portman and not show his face? Despite him being very prominent throughout the film he is still secondary to anyone with moving facial features. But he is still able to somehow combine voice and body language to bring charisma and depth to flat mask. The Matrix was another huge surprise hit, but without sagacious Larry Fishburne, meth head wanna be Carrie-Anne Moss and HW, Keanu would have remained in the 8th circle of acting hell with Joey Lawrence, David Schwimmer, and Vin Diesel. Plus, his face is only half masked behind shades in this one. It is his vileness and complete dependency upon fighting Neo and Morpheus that drives the movie forward and allows for the hero to ultimately triumph.

He is the complete team player, and as Red Skull he will no doubt bring something frightening and real to the table. The scene in the Matrix when he is licking the sweat off of Morpheus’ head, belaboring him for the codes to Zion, is sickening to the viewer, but it is pitiful, too. He is able to do it all, and do it for the good of the movie. He is the reason a movie does well, and if Captain America is able to deliver like I hope it does, it won’t be because of Chris Evans.

I think we can all agree that Marvel has hit it out of the park with their summer movies of 2011. Thor was awesome, as expected, with Tom Hiddleston proving that he is the perfect trickster god, Loki. Somewhat surprisingly, X-Men: First Class was also good. In fact, it could be described as really damn good. I will admit that I have never been a huge fan of Magneto, but I have all kinds of respect for him after seeing Michael Fassbender play the role to perfection. With only one more movie left this summer, will Captain America make it a perfect 3 for 3? Judging by the just released theatrical trailer, yes, Captain America: The First Avenger will keep Marvel’s streak of awesome movies going.

First off, Hugo Weaving has about three seconds of air time as the Red Skull in this trailer and he already looks like the perfect villain. I think it’s the eyebrows. Second, scrawny little Chris Evans/Steve Rogers is an adorable little fellow. Third, it always surprises me just how large he got for this role. Alright, that’s enough numbering for now. We can all agree that things are looking positive for Cap and Marvel, which is good since he is such an iconic character, and we don’t want to pay $15 to be bored by a movie. The wait for Captain America is under a month now, but if you are looking to wait on seeing it until you’ve read a review, HeroDistrict has you covered.

HeroDistrict: The #3 Source for Hot Girls Dressed as Captain America

Captain America: The First Avenger will be premiering July 22nd. You might recognize that date as being right smack in the middle of the San Diego Comic Con, which I will be attending along with fellow handsome HeroDistrict writer, Billy. We will be bringing you updates from SDCC along with a review of Captain America: The First Avenger after the midnight showing and our attempts to pick up booth babes. If there are any parts of SDCC that you would like HeroDistrict to try and cover, let us know in the comments.

AMC is quickly becoming my favorite television network, simply because they know what their fans want to see. In this case, it is another look at The Walking Dead season 2. Just to make sure we know that they have actually been working on a season 2, AMC has released behind the scenes footage of the first day of filming. Don’t worry, there’s nothing spoiler-y in this video clip, but it is good to see the gang back together again. As usual, Glenn steals the show with his awesomeness.

Alright, maybe I lied. I am assuming that last part of the clip shows how The Walking Dead will become a sitcom where Glenn uses his adorable awkwardness to land the zombie of his dreams. I guess that big twist is spoiled now. We also learn that the star studded life of an actor involves eating sandwiches under cars on 90 degree days. On a more serious note, I love how excited the cast and crew seem to be on the first day of filming, 90 degree weather or not. I think if they’re excited about season 2, we are going to love what they do. Now we just have to wait until AMC releases some more tidbits to keep us satisfied. Oh, how they’ve spoiled us.

You might have seen Green Lantern this past weekend, and if you’re anything like the critics or mainstream audiences, you probably hated it. Despite a $100+ million marketing campaign, the latest superhero escapade only grossed $53 million this weekend. Not quite the numbers Warners/DC wanted for its “Iron Man”. With poor reviews and two sure fire blockbusters soon to be released, I don’t see a Brightest Day on the horizon for Hal Jordan.

Why Couldn’t You Just Make Deadpool?!?

So what does this mean for the DC Universe on film? Nothing good, sadly. This was their test run, to see if something other than Batman or Superman could achieve cinematic glory. Green Lantern was the go-to choice because of its rich history and recent success in comics. If anyone could work, it would be him. And it’s a shame, because Green Lantern COULD have made for such an epic sci-fi story. I guess when they were busy constantly comparing it to Star Wars, they were talking about Episode I.

Now, Green Lantern does have hope for a sequel. Mostly because the same writing team has been chipping away at it for the better part of a year and planned it as a trilogy. Unless it picks up the pace though, I can’t see Warners pumping in another $300 million for something less than stellar. And this clearly doesn’t bode well for the Flash movie either. Despite well over a decade of work, no one has been able to get a working script. The current writing team for the scarlet speedster is the same that worked on Green Lantern. When the only two future productions are made by the same (terrible) writing team, something is very wrong.

It’s all this guy’s fault.  All his fault.

Net result? Expect plenty more Batman and Superman. I wouldn’t be shocked if DC swiftly reboots Bats once Nolan is done with his trilogy, and they’re probably desperate for Superman to succeed. They need new franchises with Harry Potter ending, and the most sure fire success is to go back to their two icons. So if you’re waiting for that Aquaman movie, don’t hold your breath.

Thor and X-Men: First Class have set a pretty high standard for Marvel movies this summer, but the summer isn’t over yet. Comic book fans still have the Captain America: The First Avenger movie to look forward to, and Marvel has started to up the promotion for it. Sure, the movie posters and trailers have been nice, and have certainly gotten me more excited for the movie, but there is something else that has been floating around the internet that has gotten me unbelievably pumped up for this movie. Apparently a picture of the all new redesigned Captain America costume has been leaked, and I love it.

What I love about this costume is how American it is. It is so American I can only describe it as ‘Merican. That guy wearing it, who I can only assume is Chris Evans, really has the heroic physique we have come to expect from our superheroes. I am assuming this was taken on set during a war scene judging by the bodies strewn about behind Captain ‘Merica. The only thing that makes me worry is the blatant product placement. Still, my money is on Captain ‘Merica: The First Redneck Avenger to be one of the most entertaining movies we see all year.