"Sin City 2", "Iron Man" Casting News for Sequels

Rosario Dawson will return for Sin City 2. Last week saw casting news for two comic-based movie sequels: Sin City 2 and Iron Man 3. Co-director Robert Rodriguez confirmed to MTV Movie News last week that he'd spoken to Mickey Rourke and Rosario Dawson about reprising their roles in the Sin City sequel, which is slated to start shooting this summer. Rodriguez said that he and fellow director (and comic scribe) Frank Miller would cast the non-recurring roles in the next couple of months.
Meanwhile Iron Man 3 has added a cast member: Guy Pearce will play Aldrich Killian, according to Variety. Pearce will appear in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, premiering in June. Iron Man 3 will premiere the first weekend of May next year, May 4, 2013

Marvel to Shoot "Iron Man 3" in China

Disney and its Marvel Studios unit announced that it will co-produce Iron Man 3 in China with the DMG Group. Yes producing films in China is cheaper, but the real reason behind this announcement is that Disney and Marvel want a share of the growing Chinese market. China has a tough import quota on foreign films with typically fewer than 40 per year allowed in Chinese theaters. But for films that are chosen, exposure in Chinese theaters can provide a big boost to the bottom line. James Cameron’s Titanic 3D has already made twice as much ($88 million) in China as it has here, and last year’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon took in a solid $145 million in China, 18% of the film’s overseas earnings.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the DMG Group has excellent ties with the Chinese government run State Film Agency, connections that can help with production and with getting the final product into Chinese theaters. DMG will help Disney and Marvel “localize” the film so that its content resonates with Chinese audiences. For example Iron Man 3 will feature Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley in the role of the film's chief villain. Many observers speculated originally that Kingsley might play the notorious Iron Man villain, the Mandarin, but if that is the case, it likely won’t be the original “Cold War” version of the character who worked closely with China’s communist government as he battled Tony Stark.

If Kingsley does play the Mandarin, which appears less likely now (though not necessarily impossible), it will present the screenwriters with the problem of how to frame a Chinese villain in a movie about a western superhero that the studio is hoping will have a major appeal to Chinese audiences.

Whedon's Hulk is Different

One interesting change to The Avengers lineup is the way in which director Joss Whedon has treated the character of Bruce Banner/The Hulk. There was little or no physical resemblance between the most famous Banner/Hulk combination, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, who played the bifurcated character in the popular long-running Hulk television series. Even in the modern Hulk movies Eric Bana and Edward Norton morphed into to giant CGI characters with few physically characteristics tying them to the actors playing Banner, but Whedon has kept his Hulk reasonably-sized with a heavy resemblance to actor Mark Ruffalo.


Mark RuffaloFor The Avengers Whedon not only secured the services of a top flight actor to play Bruce Banner in Mark Ruffalo, he was determined to make his Hulk look and move like a greatly expanded version of Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, though Whedon also made sure that his Hulk was never more than 8 and half-feet tall. One of the most recent stills released by Marvel Studios indicates that Whedon has definitely succeeded in making his Hulk resemble Ruffalo.

Whedon used motion-capture technology with Ruffalo to make sure that his Hulk and Bruce Banner moved in the same way, and he decided to make the characters resemble each other as much as possible as Whedon told Comic Book Movie: “Very early on we decided to build the Hulk's face off of Mark's, not just in terms of what he was going to do movement-wise in playing the character, but also the actual physicality of it, including the bone structure and contours of the eyes and mouth. We really wanted to bridge the gap between the characters so that when he turns into the Hulk, you go, 'Oh my God, that's Bruce Banner! Only he is big and green and very angry!”

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Ben Kingsley in "Iron Man 3"

Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley is in negotiations to play the role of the chief villain in Iron Man 3. Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man and Shane Black will direct the third Iron Man film, which will be in theaters on May 3rd, 2013. The fact that Marvel Studios can regularly land actors of Ben Kingsley’s caliber provides additional evidence (if any is needed) that the once despised genre of comic book movies can now attract top talent on both sides of the camera.

The Hollywood Reporter speculates that Kingsley might play the classic Iron Man villain, the Mandarin, but that character was created in 1963 during the height of the Cold War and before mainland China became a major market for Hollywood movies. If the Mandarin does appear in Iron Man 3, his character is likely to be modified in order to make him more acceptable to the increasingly important overseas audiences.