McDonald's Serves 1st Ever Gundam Happy Meals in Japan

The McDonald's restaurant chain will begin selling its first ever Gundam Happy Meals in Japan on May 18. Sold as Happy Sets in Japan, the meals will include one of eight Gundam Try-Age cards.


The cards will feature mecha from the Mobile Suit Gundam AGE and Mobile Suit Gundam UC anime series as well as other Gundam franchise titles. The trading card arcade game Gundam Try-Age debuted in Japan last July.

Viz Media partnered with McDonald's to release toys inspired by the Naruto television anime and manga series in Latin America in 2010. McDonald's also offered Astroboy film and Bakugan Battle Brawlers toys in the United States in 2009. Previous anime-themed Happy Set prizes in Japan have included Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunsō) figures and exclusive Tamagotchi! anime DVDs.

Sayonara 'Battle Angel Alita'

The long-running saga of director James Cameron’s adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita manga may be over. Cameron told The New York Times: "Last year I basically disbanded my production company's development arm. So I am not interested in developing anything. I’m in the Avatar business. Period. That’s it. I’m making Avatar 2, Avatar 3, maybe Avatar 4."

There was a time when Battle Angel Alita appeared to be right around the corner, but now the prospects of seeing a Cameron-helmed adaptation of the saga of a female cyborg who is rescued from the scrap heap and becomes a world class bounty hunter appear to be very dim indeed.

"Tron: Uprising" Cartoon Debut Set

'Tron: Uprising' Cartoon Debut Set

Disney XD has announced plans for the launch of its new CGI cartoon series Tron: Uprising, which will debut on the cable channel on Thursday, June 7th at 9pm (Et, PT), its regular timeslot going forward. Prior to the launch, on Friday May 18th (at 9:30 pm) and again on Monday May 21st (at 7 pm) the Disney XD network will present Tron: Uprising, Beck’s Beginning, a 30 minute prelude to the Tron: Uprising series, the events of which take place between the original Disney Tron movie in 1982 and the recent feature film Tron: Legacy, which was released in 2010. Disney also released a new trailer for the show that is both visually stunning and highly intriguing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE7qsfQQGGs&feature=player_embedded

The Tron: Uprising cartoon features an all-star vocal cast that includes Elijah Wood, Bruce Boxleitner, Mandy Moore, Lance Henriksen, Reginald Vel Johnson, Paul Rubens (aka PeeWee Herman), and Tricia Helfer.


Disney XD is making the introductory Tron: Uprising, Beck’s Beginning episode available to view in a number of Internet venues starting on May 11th at Disney XD on Demand, which will be followed on May 12th by its release on the Disney XD Facebook page, and then starting on May 13th, it will be available as a free download from iTunes.

"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.