Movie Make-out

In addition to Rachel McAdams being signed to star in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (filming starts next month!) as Arthur Conan Doyle’s only interesting female character Irene Adler, Hollywood Reporter is also saying that Jude Law will be RDJ’s Watson and Mark Strong will play Holmes’ nemesis, Blackwood. I don’t know enough about Strong to be excited about him, and I have to admit that I often get Jude Law confused with Ewan McGregor (when he cleans up, that is). Still, good casting choices, methinks.

The more I re-read the Sherlock Holmes short stories, the more I appreciate them. I’m in the middle of reading “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” on Bibliomania, and there are a few of the stories there that are about Holmes’ earliest cases, when he was fresh out of college or even when he was in college (”The Gloria Scott,” “The Musgrave Ritual”) and I have to admit that turning a tale like those into a movie might not be a bad idea.

Still, RDJ will have to go a very long way towards replacing Jeremy Brett as being the ultimate Holmes for me, God rest his soul.

Related Posts: No shit? Robert Downey Jr. is Sherlock?; also, is Favreau on Iron Man 2 finally? (updated)

According to Variety, actor-director Kenneth Branagh is “in talks” to direct Marvel’s Thor, replacing Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake), who had been previously attached (until earlier this year). The Variety article seems to indicate that The Cell and I Am Legend screenwriter Mark Protosevitch’s widely praised script is being kept.

Definitely a surprise choice, but Branagh certainly has the experience with elevated dialogue, having directed a slew of Shakespeare adaptations. He most recently directed Sleuth, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law. Marvel Studios is aiming for a 2010 release for Thor.

UPDATE: Coming Soon has provided us with updated release dates for five upcoming Marvel Studios productions, which are now all on Paramount’s distribution schedule (tentatively, of course, since none of these are filming yet, and most of them don’t even have scripts).

The films included in the deal are Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010), Thor (July 16, 2010), The First Avenger: Captain America (May 6, 2011), and The Avengers (July 15, 2011). The agreement also includes Iron Man 3, though no release date was included for that film.

Another long-gestating Marvel Studios production, Ant Man, doesn’t appear to be part of the deal, but it hasn’t been included with these titles in previous announcements, either. This doesn’t mean it’s definitely not happening before The Avengers comes out — only that it is, perhaps, at the mercy of other forces, such as Edgar Wright’s interest level. Spider-Man 4 & 5, and the various X-Men spin-off movies are, of course, all set up at other production companies (Sony and Twentieth Century Fox, respectively) and not affected by this deal, either.

Related Post: As if Iron Man wasn’t awesome enough (updated)

While several people were watching the U.S. presidential debate Friday or just going about their regular business, actor Paul Newman died as a result of his bout with lung cancer at his home in Connecticut.

One of the things I always respected about Newman as an actor was that he seemed to be the “real deal.” Though several people make fun of Method acting, you can’t argue with the results (Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice). My personal favorite Newman roles include his turn as Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Henry Gondorff in The Sting.

Newman is survived by his wife Joanne Woodward (also an excellent actor in her own right) and five children. A really nice tribute with video clips and interviews is at the NY Times.

A new, full trailer for Superman Returns and Usual Suspects director Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise is online at Yahoo! Movies, and yeah, I know, everybody hates Tom Cruise except for me, but this look very exciting. Cruise, of course, plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer involved in an assassination plot against Adolf Hitler.

I suppose it’s really neither here nor there that nobody in this film is even pretending to have a German accent, since they wouldn’t have been speaking English in any case, but… it’s just weird. I think I’ll be able to get over it for two hours, though.

After changing release dates a lot, Valkyrie is set to hit theaters on December 26. It’s odd how this and Revolutionary Road are opening on the Friday, December 26th. Even with Bedtime Stories, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Hurricane Season, Marley & Me, and The Spirit all opening on Christmas, you’d think they would want the extra day’s gross, especially considering Christmas is one of the biggest movie-going days of the year.

Readers of Black Hole will immediately recognize Charles Burns’ drawing style among the footage from the trailer for the new animated horror/thriller anthology, Fear(s) of the Dark. Burns and five other “comic and graphic artists” — Burns, Blutch, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Richard McGuire” contribute to the flick:

from a besotted student whose girlfriend is weirdly ardent in her affections, to a Japanese schoolgirl menaced by a long-dead samurai, and a pack of hounds on a bloodthirsty rampage, Fear(s) has a story strand to trouble every sleep — not to mention a stunning range of animation styles. Shot in shimmering black and white, the six intertwined tales create an unprecedented epic where phobias and nightmares come to life and reveal Fear at its most naked and intense.

I love Burns’ art, but the CG technique looks stiff on his segment in a way that most of the others do not. In any case, this looks like a good, fun, spooky flick. Theaters will go Dark on October 24, 2008, just in time for Halloween. Now you know what to see instead of Saw V.