Mickey Rourke isn’t known for keeping his opinions and criticisms to himself, and while promoting Immortals the actor spoke about his disappointment of Whiplash becoming “a one-dimensional bad guy” in Iron Man 2, and said most of his performance ended up on the cutting room floor.

From Crave Online:

It’s like when I did Ivan Vanko in Iron Man, I fought… You know, I explained to Justin Theroux, to the writer, and to [Jon] Favreau that I wanted to bring some other layers and colors, not just make this Russian a complete murderous revenging bad guy. And they allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the [people] at Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up the floor.

Well, you know, it is f**king too bad, but it’s their loss. If they want to make mindless comic book movies, then I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to have to care so much and work so hard, and then fight them for intelligent reasoning, and just because they’re calling the shots they… You know, I didn’t work for three months on the accent and all the adjustments and go to Russia just so I could end up on the floor. Because that can make somebody say at the end of the day, oh f**k ‘em, I’m just going to mail it in. But I’m not that kind of guy. I’m never going to mail it in.

Rourke may have a point as Red Skull was a bit one-dimensional in Captain America: The First Avenger, although saying that Loki was a great villain in Thor, so Marvel seems to be hit and miss in the villain dimension department.

Rourke appears to be in a critical mood as of late. He was set to shoot Seven Psychopaths with Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken for Oscar-winning writer and director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), but in an interview with Movieline Rourke called the director a “jerkoff” and, when asked if he was still in the movie, said “he can go play with himself.” I take it that’s a no, then.

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Jon Favreau continues to prove himself as an excellent director with Cowboys & Aliens, a movie that is a good summer flick that ends up being not quite as good as the sum of its parts. It’s got a ton of energy, the cast is solid, and the effects are great, so even though the final product is missing that extra “spark,” it’s still a serviceable summer crowd-pleaser.

Favreau and his massive writing squad (Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Otsby) are clearly passionate fans of the western genre, and their love for the material comes through on screen. The director takes a modern approach to framing vintage character archetypes, and his history of fantastic visual effects from the Iron Man films serves him well yet again. This is much more western than sci-fi, and that’s to the film’s benefit; the characters take this alien invasion seriously, and there’s no joking tone or winking at the camera. It’s a big world, full of similar vistas, gorges, and sweeping plains that you might find in an old John Ford movie. Favreau also battled the studio when they wanted the movie shot in 3D; he held his ground and shot it on film to capture the texture of those classic westerns that came before.

Daniel Craig is stoic, rugged, and dirty throughout – in other words, he makes a great cowboy. Taking a page from Eastwood’s playbook, he lets his actions do most of the talking; his wandering amnesiac is a total badass, reminiscent (in attitude) of Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in Tombstone. Harrison Ford gives one of his most inspired performances in years as the ridiculously-named Woodrow Dolarhyde, a hardass father with a good heart. The supporting cast does a good job, but ultimately their parts seb a bit undeserving of their talents. Guys like Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Paul Dano, and Walton Goggins have earned a bit more than what they were given here.

The alien design is pretty by-the-numbers (although better than the atrocious designs in Battle: Los Angeles), and their excuse for invading is laughably bad. Olivia Wilde’s exposition gets a bit dreary at times, but it’s evened out by some memorable chase sequences across stark scenery via land, air, and sea. The climax also features some memorable shots, including one in particular that was clearly influenced by Neill Blomkamp’s District 9.

Listen, I liked this movie. It won’t be among my favorites of the year or anything, but the structure and predictability is exactly the kind of “turn off your brain” entertainment that most people go to the movies for in the first place. It’s well put-together, Favreau puts some style in it, and Craig and Ford go toe-to-toe in entertaining roles. But I still can’t shake the feeling that it was too predictable, the script suffers from its familiarity, and ultimately the movie just ends up coming up short. For summer fluff, Cowboys & Aliens is fine. Looking for anything more? Keep searchin’, cowboy. Until next time…

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It’s common for actors to speak highly of their upcoming films, but when it’s a Bond film directed by Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition, Jarhead) you can generally believe the hype.

While being interviewed by Cowboys and Aliens director Jon Favreau Daniel Craig gave his thoughts on reading the Bond 23 script, working with Mendes, and explained why we haven’t seen as many gadgets in his films.

Watch the discussion below:

Earlier this month we heard that Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem had all signed on, and with filming set to begin later this year we will be getting more casting confirmations soon.

Bond 23 will be released October 2012.

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We’ve had a number of trailers and TV spots for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens over the past few months, and Universal will no doubt be releasing a few more as we enter July.

Today sees the release of the third trailer, which contains even more awesome looking footage. Cowboys & Aliens is a fairly unknown property compared to other movies being released next month so I can understand why Universal would want to push the marketing. I just hope they follow the Super 8 route by not revealing the mystery before its release.

You can watch the trailer below:

In the movie cowboy Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Cowboys & Aliens also stars Olivia Wilde as elusive traveller Ella and Harrison Ford as Colonel Dolarhyde, and will be released July 29th 2011

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Jon Favreau may have decided against sitting in the Iron Man 3 directors chair to work on a Magic Kingdom movie for Disney, but that doesn’t mean he’s left the franchise behind entirely.

While at the Hero Complex Film Festival over the weekend both Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. took part in a Q & A session where they discussed the Iron Man films, and Favreau said he hopes to help out new director Shane Black with the third film.

Transcribed by /Film:

I love the franchise and I’m a big fan of Shane’s as well so hopefully I can be helpful because I want to see this thing grow and transform. And actually, when it finally landed on Shane, it was like, ‘All right, that’s gonna be something interesting.’ Especially because it’s gonna be so difficult for whoever does that one because although it’s Iron Man 3, the whole Avengers thing…I guess in comics you can say that it’s an individual storyline and you can break it off into a group. But in movies, it’s hard not to take into consideration what just happened. What are you gonna say? ‘They all just lost their cell phones and you can’t get help?’ So it’s going to take a lot of ingenuity to make it make sense to a mainstream film audience as well as a comic book audience.

Favreau and Downey Jr. also joked about the actor/director returning to play Tony Stark’s bodyguard, friend and chauffeur, Happy Hogan.

Downey Jr: Here’s the first thing I want to say. The most difficult part of making Iron Man 3 is going to be negotiating Jon Favreau’s acting deal.

Favreau: If The Freak isn’t in it, I’m not doing it. If Happy Hogan doesn’t turn into The Freak, I’m not doing it. Here’s what happens to Happy Hogan, he marries Pepper Potts…

Downey Jr: Wait a minute, you want both?

Favreau: I want a love scene with Pepper Potts with my shirt on and I want to transform into The Freak.

Shane Black, who directed Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and was behind the scripts for Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout, recently said Iron Man 3 will be more like a Tom Clancy-thriller, with Iron Man fighting real world villains, and will not feature any other heroes from the Marvel Universe.

Marvel and Disney have set a May 3rd 2013 release date for the third film, which means Robert Downey Jr. will be suiting up for the fourth time sometime in 2012. The actor is currently filming The Avengers.

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At the Spike Guys Choice Awards on Friday Universal Pictures released a new extended sneak peek from director Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. The trailer contains some new footage, including more from Sam Rockwell which is always welcomed.

Watch below:

In the movie cowboy Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Cowboys & Aliens stars Olivia Wilde as elusive traveller Ella and Harrison Ford as Colonel Dolarhyde, and will be released July 29th 2011

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Universal have released the second full trailer for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. It’s a lot like the previous trailer, just with more plot details, more of Olivia Wilde, and more footage of the aliens attacking (we don’t actually see the aliens, that’ll probably be something they save for the movie itself).

You can watch the trailer below: (Is that an alien hand we see at 1:58?)

From the trailer it looks like Favreau has delivered another fun movie, but it’ll be interesting to see how general audiences respond to this. It’s not a well known property, but has a strong cast. It could go either way.

In the movie cowboy Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has no memory of his past, and stumbles into the desert town of Absolution in 1800s Arizona with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. As the gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against an invading alien force.

Cowboys & Aliens stars Olivia Wilde as elusive traveller Ella and Harrison Ford as Colonel Dolarhyde, and will be released July 29th 2011

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Cowboys & Aliens director Jon Favreau today sent out a tweet informing his followers that the full 2 minute 30 second trailer for Cowboys & Aliens will premiere on American Idol Thursday night, and will then be posted online at Apple.

Last week at WonderCon Favreau said he was trying to “preserve a sense of mystery” in this film by not showing any aliens in the trailers, but “it’s very hard to convince people from a marketing background that that’s that best thing to do”. Personally I don’t mind waiting until July to see the aliens, but if Universal’s marketing department has their way we could be getting a glimpse of them later this week.

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Last week news was swirling that Shane Black, who directed Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and was behind the scripts for Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout, was in contention to direct Iron Man 3. Now Deadline reports that Black is “in final negotiations” with Marvel to direct, so it looks pretty much like a done deal.

Jon Favreau departed the Iron Man franchise last year to direct Magic Kingdom for Disney. Favreau said he wanted to “blow people away, which is easier to do with a project that isn’t loaded with built-in expectations.” Now Shane Black will have to deliver on those expectations, while also doing his own thing in the process. Black is first and foremost a writer, but according to Deadline it’s not clear whether he’ll be writing the Iron Man 3 script as well as directing.

Marvel and Disney have set a May 3rd 2013 release date for the sequel, which means Robert Downey Jr. will be suiting up for the fourth time sometime in 2012. The actor will start filming The Avengers in May.

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Following Jon Favreau’s departure from the Iron Man franchise Marvel has been busy seeking out potential directors for Iron Man 3. Whoever it is will need approval from Robert Downey Jr. first, unless of course Downey suggests one himself.

From Heat Vision:

Shane Black is in contention to direct Iron Man 3 for Marvel Studios.

The writer/director has powwowed with Marvel execs about his take on the third installment in the blockbuster franchise. As of now he is being considered for the directing job, but the assumption is that if he gets the gig, he would also write a draft.

Insiders said that Black’s involvement is far from a sure thing, and that other filmmakers were being looked at.

Black directed Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and was behind the scripts for Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. His work and relationship with Downey Jr. suggests he would be a great fit for Iron Man 3, although i’m intrigued as to which other directors are also talking with Marvel.

Marvel and Disney have set a May 3rd 2013 release date for the sequel, which means Robert Downey Jr. will be suiting up for the fourth time sometime in 2012. The actor will start filming The Avengers in May.

Read similar posts to Shane Black in contention to direct Iron Man 3 at Filmonic