Brandon Inada's Blog

Stumbled across some new posters and pics from the upcoming Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie The Forbidden Kingdom:

I like the look of these posters, (Here’s a link to the poster that features both of these martial arts legends.) and, of course, there’s nary a sign of Michael Angarano, the American kid stuck in ancient China who’s undoubtedly the real “hero” of the film.

Smart marketing, but I digress. 

There’s something else I’d like to draw your attention to in regards to these two posters: the captions below the title.

Now, “The Silent Monk” isn’t terribly exciting.  Early on in the film’s development, Jet Li’s character didn’t have a name listed on imdb (the Internet Movie Database) and was referred to exclusively by the moniker, “The Silent Monk.”

 (A familiar pose to all the Jet Li fans.)

What is intriguing, though, is Jackie Chan’s caption.

“The Drunken Immortal.”

Now we’re on to something here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thus far, I’m not terribly impressed with the way this summer’s Hulk looks to be shaping up. 

I love Ed Norton as Bruce Banner, and I’m pretty stoked about what looks to be a significant increase in the amount of action we’ll be witnessing.  Still, something about that first trailer just doesn’t do it for me.

Regardless, Empire magazine’s online site has a feature with 11 stills taken from the teaser trailer along with commentary by the movie’s director, Louis Leterrier (a French director best known for his work on The Transporter film and its sequel).

In his comments, the director talks candidly about the look of both the Hulk and the Hulk’s nemesis, the Abomination, and addresses fans’ concerns (myself included) about the final shots shown in the trailer.

It’s a fascinating read. 

Here’s the link to the article: Hulk Smash!

Given the relatively short amount of time between now and the film’s release, I’m just glad to hear Leterrier intends to release another trailer before Hulk‘s June 13th opening day.

You know, I am genuinely excited about this summer’s upcoming Iron Man film. 

Here are a few cool pics I hadn’t seen before on the Yahoo! Movies site (here’s the link):

Love the look and feel of the design work for this movie.  Very slick. 

I can’t wait to see Iron Man go one-on-one with this great big mechanical beastie.

Speaking of which,…

I don’t really consider this a spoiler since a similar shot appears in the latest trailer (you can watch it here) for the film.

I love the way Iron Man looks in the pic above.  If that’s not a practical effect, i.e. an actor in a suit, then I for one am impressed with the CGI work shown in this shot. 

(Sucks for the two trapped in the car…)

See you in line opening day!

Here’s another one:

Looking good so far…

I really hope the look of the rest of the Joes ends up being as faithful to the source material.

To see what I mean, click here to view my earlier post with a sweet pic that shows just how close the movie Snake Eyes’ costume design comes to the actual look of the character.

And really, how sweet would it be if the live-action Cobra Commander ends up looking something like this?

(Click on the pic for the full-sized version.) 

Pretty sweet.

Alright, I’ll admit it - Snake Eyes looks pretty good in the above pic. 

This pic actually has me somewhat excited about the upcoming G.I.Joe live-action film.

I haven’t been super thrilled with the casting thus far (you can read my earlier post about the somewhat unusual casting choice for Duke here.  For those of you too lazy to read the article, the actor’s name rhymes with Manning Gatum…), but Ray Park is sort of the go-to-guy in Hollywood for these martial arts-intensive roles, and when it comes down to it, Snake Eyes a) doesn’t talk, and b) doesn’t remove his mask (except on rare occasions, and even then only in the comic books) so I’m fine with it. 

(That may not actually be him in the suit, but Ray Park’s definitely been cast as Snake Eyes.)

Obviously, there’s still plenty of time between now and the day the movie releases, and while the pic above is proof that the production is headed in the right direction, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the powers-that-be end up screwing this project up royally.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…