TadanobuAsano Tagged Articles at Cinematical
'Thor' Finds His Warriors Three!
Filed under: Casting », Paramount », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
The ranks of Asgard are just about full! Marvel Studios reports that the Warriors Three will be joining Thor in all of his frosty battles, and as usual, Kenneth Branagh has done a bang up job with the casting. Stuart Townsend, Tadanobu Asano, and Ray Stevenson have joined the cast as Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg, respectively. The official announcement comes on the heels of Zachary Levi revealing to USA Weekend that he had been cast as Fandral, but was forced to drop out due to an extended Chuck workload. While I feel for Levi, I'm actually very pleased that Townsend has stepped in, as I find him to be a bit more Errol Flynnish than Levi. (Though pulling up his Google Images reveals a guy who looks a lot more dashing than Chuck Bartowski. Wow. I might have to eat my words on that.) I'm anxious to see the once-and-never Aragorn get another shot at the fantasy genre, and prove himself to be dashing.
I'm not familiar with Asano's work beyond Mongol, but he turned in a very charismatic performance, and I'm always thrilled to see casting directors look to countries other than Northern Europe. But my heart really couldn't beat any faster than it is at Stevenson's casting. He'll be perfect, and it's awesome to see him get another shot at the Marvel Universe since it doesn't look like we'll ever see him return as Frank Castle. Filming begins in January 2010, and from there it'll just be one big geeky countdown.
Review: Mongol
Filed under: Foreign Language », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews », New in Theaters »

In an early scene in Iron Man, one of the evil terrorists makes a speech about Genghis Khan, explaining how impressive it was that he managed to take over so much of the world given the technological drawbacks of his time. That one moment says a lot more about the real Genghis Khan than the entire, bloated 126 minutes of Mongol. Directed by Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains), Mongol does a lot of "sweeping." It moves from sweeping vistas to sweeping battles and when it stops sweeping, it really has no idea what to do; it merely waits for the next opportunity to sweep. In one scene, our hero, Temudjin (Tadanobu Asano), returns to his family after some time in captivity, and he has brought his new bride with him. Bodrov films a quiet dinner scene inside a tent, but he's so impatient and restless over such an "ordinary" scene that the dialogue mainly consists of, "isn't it great to have Temudjin home again?" The film can't wait to get back outside and start sweeping again.









