the mighty thor Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've gotten excited over teaser trailers without any footage. I've even gotten excited over teaser posters with nothing more than a title (and the words "coming soon") on them. But I never thought I'd get excited over a mere title graphic alone -- no trailer, no poster, no nothing, save for a logo and a release year. Well, that's what just happened. I got all giddy over a post on MTV Movies Blog featuring a bunch of new logos for the next four Marvel Studios release. There's Iron Man II, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers, all written in mostly familiar fonts (if you're a comic book reader, that is).

The logos were unveiled at the New York Licensing Expo, from which we've also seen new promotional materials from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, from Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins and from Where the Wild Things Are. This latest image may not be as exciting as those, but if you grew up with any of these titles, you may still be as excited as I am by seeing their logos. I'm pretty glad they didn't go with the arched, red, white and blue striped logo for Captain America, and I really hope they stick with the plain old Roman numerals for Iron Man II and avoid any subtitle or alternate title. Also, The Avengers logo is just how I remember it.

Two complaints, though, coming from an old, old Thor reader: first, I much preferred the original Thor logo, with the torn-paper look; second, I wish Marvel would rethink their avoidance of "The Mighty" part before the character's name. After all, look what happened with the simply titled Hulk. Are we to assume the first Thor will be a disappointment and we can then look forward to a reboot titled The Mighty Thor?

So, will we be seeing this compilation of logos as a four-in-one teaser poster in theaters soon?

As if he didn't have enough to do, what with all the films he's signed on to and with all the goodwill he's involved in with partner Angelina Jolie and, most importantly, with twins on the way, Brad Pitt will be co-designing a hotel and resort to be built in Dubai. According to Bloomberg, the actor will be a consultant with L.A. architecture firm Graft LLC, which is designing the 800-room hotel-resort for developer Zabeel Properties. Pitt said in a statement: "Acting is my career; architecture is my passion." He also noted that the hotel will feature environmentally friendly architecture, and will also "embrace [his] career in entertainment," whatever that means. Pitt has already been associated with Graft, which is working with the actor on plans to rebuild a Katrina-devastated neighborhood in New Orleans with 150 environmentally friendly homes.

I was never aware of Pitt's interest in architecture (apparently he's a huge admirer of the work of Charles Rennie MacKintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright and is even friends with Frank Gehry), but if Marvel Studios is still interested in the actor for the role of The Mighty Thor, they might want to alter their plans and focus the superhero film on temporary- Thor-replacement-turned-independent-superhero Thunderstrike, whose alter ego is an architect named Eric Masterson. And Marvel might want to also remind Pitt that Dubai is also the future location of a Marvel theme park, too. Surely there could be some sort of tie-in with the planned hotel-resort.

[via Curbed]

According to the LA Times today, 20th Century Fox is already prepping a solo spin-off for the Silver Surfer. The Marvel character features in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, opening this weekend, and Fox is apparently hoping that pic performs well enough to give the Surfer his own movie, because the studio has hired comic book writer/screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski to pen the thing. Straczynski has written for a number of Marvel titles, including the new series Silver Surfer: Requiem, he created the sci-fi series Babylon 5 and he recently delivered scripts for The Changeling, to be directed by Clint Eastwood, and the zombie adaptation World War Z. The LA Times article claims the Silver Surfer movie would be darker in tone than the new Fantastic Four sequel, possibly in response to fan criticisms of the sequel's PG rating. I've never actually read the Silver Surfer comics, so I'm not sure how dark is appropriate for the character, but I'll always take a more grown-up comic adaptation than something geared toward young children.

More exciting for me is the news, also mentioned in the LA Times piece, that Thor may soon have a director. Unlike the Surfer comics, The Mighty Thor was a title I followed for years, and so far the closest thing I've had to seeing the hero/god on the big screen is his 'cameo' in Adventures in Babysitting (and I doubt he'll be in the remake). Supposedly Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn is in negotiations to helm the comic adaptation, which was greenlit last summer and which has a script by Mark Protosevich (Poseidon). I'm not a huge fan of Vaughn's directorial style and I was happy when he dropped out of X-Men: The Last Stand (though now I think he'd have done better), but I'm willing to give him a chance with Thor. I think his style may actually be appropriate for the god of thunder. Besides, we've so far only seen one film from him; his next, Stardust, arrives in August.

[via JoBlo and Moviehole]