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FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer Pics

Hitting theatres on June 15th is the sequel to the FF movie, which received mixed reviews by critics and fans. I really enjoyed the movie and am looking forward to the next installment. A fansite, F4movies.com, has posted a large number of set and promo photos from various sources. Vancouver stood in for Shanghai in the film and having been to Vancouver a number of times, I enjoyed trying to recognize the sites that were used.

You can get more info about the film from their official MySpace page. For non-comic book fans, the Silver Surfer character is a bit complicated to understand so this Wikipedia entry might come in handy.

Spider-Man 3: Beginning of the End?

Spider-Man 3 enjoyed its world premiere in Tokyo last night amid speculation it could turn out to be the last in the superhero franchise.

Director Sam Raimi would reportedly rather direct the planned adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit instead of continuing with the Spider-Man franchise. Peter Jackson, who directed the highly successful film versions of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, had been set to film the book as a prequel to those movies but he fell out with studio New Line over profits from the LOTR series last year.

Maguire has also been coy about whether this is his final Spider-Man movie. "I feel like this film is kind of a natural conclusion to a lot of stuff that's happened in the first two movies."

Maguire added that he's open to donning the Spider-Man suit again "if a story presents itself, if we come up with something we feel deserves to be told. I'm not going to make them just because they've been successful."

Spider-Man 3 opens to general audiences May 1 in Japan and May 4 globally.

Norton in new Hulk film

In a move that might just be enough to get me interested in the sequel, Marvel Studios has cast Edward Norton as the Hulk's alter-ego nuclear physicist Dr. Bruce Banner. Norton takes over the role from Eric Bana. The storyline will reportedly see Banner, who is on the run from the US military, try to cure himself of the condition that turns him into the giant green monster.

The latest movie is expected to be more in tune with the comic book series than 2003's 'Hulk', which was directed by Ang Lee. Louis Leterrier, who has worked on 'The Transporter', will direct, while Zak Penn – who wrote the 'X-Men' sequels – is working up the script. Filming is due to begin this summer, with a scheduled release of June 2008.

Get Smart

So, in the never-ending quest to rehash content, Hollywood has decided to take a stab at turning the Get Smart TV show into a film. I'm of mixed feelings on the matter. I can't say that I didn't watch and enjoy the show as a kid but by the same token I'm not overly interested in revisiting the characters or material. Nor am I interested in watching someone unsuited to the role bumble through. I still have not watched Steve Martin in The Pink Panther and I simply will not. No one is going to top Peter Sellers in that role. My major gripe is that there's a long history of horrible Hollywood remakes of old TV series, like The Honeymooners, Bewitched, Dukes of Hazaard, etc. You would hope they would learn to leave well enough alone.

However, with the Get Smart film, the casting of Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart could be a saving grace. He has the right look and the comedic skill to pull off the chracter. Anne Hathaway has been cast as Max's sexy sidekick Agent 99 but many Internet sites are complaining that her chracter has been ruined. These complaints are based on leaked versions of what is likely an early shooting script. The early script has Agent 99 in more of a bimbo role rather than the intelligent, capable foil for Max's incompetence. I think it's a case of wait and see. The script may change and we will not know what the final product is like until it hit theatres.

Get Smart began in Los Angeles on March 21, 2007, and will continue in and around Los Angeles, with future location filming taking place in Washington, D.C. and Montreal. The movie is currently due out in the summer of 2008.