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Until laser pistols are invented — or trebuchets come back in fashion — bullets will remain the uncreative weapon of choice for individuals in regrettable situations everywhere. More »
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Murder for hire doesn't have to be sexy, but it's just more fun that way. And the best assassins are almost always sexy, using their sexual allure to confuse their prey and delight everyone else. More »
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In space, nobody can hear you freestyle. But that hasn't stopped some of hip-hop's greatest legends from appearing in some classic science fiction and fantasy movies. From battling killer sharks to fighting off ghosts on Mars, some of our favorite rappers have also become some of our favorite SF heroes. More »
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Find out why Mark Millar's comic book Wanted really should have had singing mice and a pumpkin coach. More »
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Is Wanted's super secret assassin Fox being downgraded into a lip-biting self-conscious teen? Rumors are circulating that Stewart will be replacing Jolie as Wanted 2's superslick assassin co-star. Bear in mind that a sequel still hasn't been officially confirmed. [E!] More »
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Sure, there are tons of "take me to your leader" movies on the horizon, but the news that the hyper-stylish Timur Bekmambetov is saddling up to produce The Darkest Hour is good indeed. More »
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There's a fiery new Iron Man 2 poster, plus James Cameron hints at Avatar leftovers that could appear in Avatar 2. Writers talk The Boys and Wanted 2 movies. Plus Doctor Who, Lost, Fringe, Scott Pilgrim, FlashForward, V and Caprica. More »
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He may be better known for superhero blockbusters set in the familiar surroundings of the US, but for his next movie (and directorial debut), Kick-Ass' Mark Millar is planning to bring everything home to his native Scotland. More »
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Two bits of awesome news! First there will be no contrived Wanted sequel, thanks to Angelina Jolie. Instead she's going to star in Gravity from Children Of Men director Alfonso Cuarón. Which is definitely the second bit of good news. More »
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Wanted and Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar has unveiled his latest Marvel Comics creation, and between the high concept and promotional image released, it's as if he's daring DC to think about legal action. Ballsy or insane? You be the judge. More »
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In case recent stories have you worried that Wanted and Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar has given up his dream of a Superman movie trilogy, never fear: He's claiming that it was a joke that got taken too seriously. More »
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You may think that 9 is all about ragdolls surviving the end of the world — but actually it's about the people you deal with every day, says producer Timur Bekmambetov. Plus your first look at his Russian superhero film! More »
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So Wanted ended with a pretty final resolution for Angelina Jolie's character. But she's supposedly coming back for the sequel. We asked director Timur Bekmambetov how she could return, and his answer was as simple as curving a bullet. Spoilers... More »
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It had to happen: Voltron is getting a live-action big-budget remake, courtesy of the producers who brought you Get Smart, Wanted and The Dark Knight — with a focus on being Transformers, but with added human spirit. Be very afraid. More »
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Apparently, "spoilerphobia" is a medical condition. Cure yourself with an early G.I. Joe review, Green Lantern script talk, and Angelina Jolie's rumored return in Wanted 2. Plus Christopher Nolan's Inception, Lost, Time Traveler's Wife, John Carter, BSG, Eureka and Supernatural. More »
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The writer of Wanted and artist of Watchmen are aiming to create an all-new comic sometime next year, raising the hopes of fanboys and movie producers across the world. But will it be worth it? More »
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A follow-up to an ultraviolent comic book movie being written by a former Winnie the Pooh writer from an idea by the creator of Fast and Furious? Wanted 2 sounds like must-see car-crash cinemagoing. More »
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This week's comics are all about the Boom! By that, I don't mean that they're more explosive than usual, just that one particular publisher is bringing the goods, while everyone else slacks off a little. More »
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Looking to do the deed with that hot alien, demon, or super-assassin, but not sure about the risks? We list scifi's deadliest sexual encounters to ensure that your next orgasm won't be your last. More »
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Holiday shopping used to be a terrifying proposition, until the DVD box set came along. DVDs are pretty much always the best presents for anyone who likes watching stuff. And this holiday season sees a particularly awesome bounty of new releases, including complete TV series box sets and remastered classics. Here are the 20 recent DVD releases that are the best bets for holiday presents, including clips of DVD extras. More »
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Some days a mere spoiler warning isn't enough for our shameless unveiling of forbidden knowledge. Today is one such day, thanks to a Lost set report that sees your "WTF" and raises you one "holy polar bear on a stick." Also, the latest Battlestar Galactica clue is so bizarro, it's like they're nuking Earth all over again. Also, find out about Smallville's endgame and Doctor Who's next storyline. And what to expect (maybe) in Wanted 2. Plus spoilers for Avatar, 2012, Caprica, Heroes, Dollhouse, Chuck, Supernatural, True Blood and Kyle XY. More »
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Wanted screenwriter Chris Morgan is already working on the script for a sequel to the superpowered assassin movie, he tells MTV. And no, the lack of a second volume in Mark Millar's graphic novel series that the first movie was (loosely) based on doesn't pose any problem at all. The only real problem, it turns out, comes from a random act of sabotage by Angelina Jolie. Spoilers for the first movie ahead. More »
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For years now, Wanted and Kick Ass writer Mark Millar has talked about his epic idea for a relaunch of the Superman franchise - whether it be comic or movie. Now, finally, he's started talking specifics about how he'd save Superman from the movie scrapheap. And we're not exactly convinced. Does anyone really want to see a Superman version of The Godfather movies? More »
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An amoral slacker who's going nowhere in life becomes the heir to a supervillain's mantle. Sound familiar? It's not just the plot of Wanted, Mark Millar's bleak graphic novel about a world run by supervillains. It's also the basis of Villains, a 2007 graphic novel from Viper Comics that you've probably never heard of. And now Villains is getting made into a movie about a supervillain apprentice. In other words, we may finally get a movie that lives up to the spirit of Wanted. More »
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Click to viewSome of the coolest characters in science fiction sport bad-ass tattoos that signify membership in a secret society. And if you're a futuristic assassin, there's nothing like having some ink on your face to set you apart from the regular tough guys. It's amazing how much character development movies and TV shows manage to cram into a little ink. In fact, it's high time we took a look at the many black and blue markings across our favorites characters' faces, backs, arms and bodies. More »
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His Wanted broke box office records when it was released, and the upcoming Kick-Ass is one of the most buzzed-about movies of next year already. In addition, his Marvel Comics work is being used as the basis for Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and The Avengers. Is there anything that can stand in the way of Mark Millar taking over cinema in the same way that he's taken over comic books? Apparently, the answer is yes, if potential trouble surrounding a movie version of his latest book comes to fruition. More »
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Questions are still swirling around how much Nicholas Cage's sudden attack of squeamishness will tone down the violence in the movie version of Mark "Wanted" Millar's superhero splatterthon Kick-Ass. But at least we know one thing now: he'll have a killer porn-stache. TheBadAndTheUgly posted some pics of Cage looking appropriately sleazy, and Millar posted a blog entry where he exulted about a particularly violent and un-fatherly scene he saw Cage shooting. More »
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In case you were searching for some kind of preview for 2011's planned Avengers movie and all the Marvel Studios releases beyond that, the announcement that Wanted and Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar is returning to Marvel's Ultimate imprint to write a series called Ultimate Avengers should give you exactly the road map to the future that you've been looking for. More »
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This just in: Authorities in the UK found the movie adaptation of the comic Wanted to be "condon[ing] violence by glorifying or glamorising the use of guns," while at the same time failing to be offensive to the general public. That's the result of an investigation into the promotional posters for the movie by the British Advertising Standards Authority, following complaints from various UK citizens about the posters. But how did they swerve around the subject of star Angelina Jolie's sex appeal? More »
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After the surprise success of this summer's Wanted movie, you may think that creator Mark Millar is already hard at work on a sequel to the story of why it's much cooler to be an assassin than just an average schmoe. And you'd be right... kind of. As Millar explains, while he is working on Wanted 2, it's not something that anyone should expect to see in their local comic store. More »
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Why are people still so crazed over Heath Ledger's Joker after a month in theaters? Maybe because he's the first villain we've seen in ages who didn't kind of lick. The problem of villain suckage is endemic in heroic narratives, where villains get redeemed, become sympathetic, or lose their menace too easily. We've got a 7-point diagnosis for villain anemia, plus a "unified theory" of how to make villains awesome, and why they matter. Spoilers for recent movies, and upcoming TV, below. We already talked about the problems of saggy villains back in February, particularly with reference to the show Heroes, which has only gotten more and more worrying since then. The show's next chapter is called "Villains," but the producers and stars keep saying, over and over, that it's really about "confronting the villain inside our heroes." Dude, the true villain is within. Right there, under your navel. Really. Just stare a bit harder, and you'll see it. Not to mention the persistent reports that we'll be seeing the "softer side of Sylar" this season. I love Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but it's similarly villain-deprived. There's one bad Terminator chasing our friends, and he's spent hours and hours searching for John Connor and getting easily thrown off the scent. We need less of Cromartie wandering into boys' locker rooms, and more scenes like the one where he trashes 100 FBI agents. I'm hoping the addition of Shirley Manson as a human villain will give T:SCC a nice extra bit of oomph in the villain department, replacing the standard Eastern-European gangsters who have been the show's human baddies so far. And think about this summer's other big action movies: they almost all had weak villains. Iron Man? Jeff Bridges was great, but he was more like Tony Stark's corrupt older bro for most of the movie, and then he suddenly developed a sense of menace towards the end. Wanted? Morgan Freeman was Obi-Wan for most of the film, until suddenly it turned out he wasn't really doing the magic loom's will. Incredible Hulk? Tim Roth was like the Wile E. Coyote who keeps chasing the Hulk's Road-Runner, until he finally gets eaten by his own Acme Hulk-busting gizmos. None of those villains had a plan, a clue, an idea, a vision. They were just there to provide a big climactic fight for the end of each movie. At least we didn't have any Spider-Man 3-style villain clusterfucks this year. How villains lose their shit: 1) They get redeemed. Like Sylar, supposedly. Or, I suspect, like Ben on Lost, who's already becoming a much more sympathetic character. (Although he still has the immoral psycho edge, as when he's willing to kill everyone on the freighter to get revenge on Keamy.) The ultimate example of a redeemed villain who loses his mystique is Darth Vader, whose redemption at the end of Return Of The Jedi presaged his whoah-TMI over-explanation in the prequels, which brings us to... 2) Too much information. Even Doctor Who's archetypal nasty, the Master, isn't immune. He went around killing and wreaking havoc for 30 years without any explanation other than "he's a sick fuck." But "he's a sick fuck" wasn't enough for writer Russell T. Davies, who had to give the Master an origin story that explained how he became evil. It was the weakest point of an otherwise great story. Sometimes, knowing why the villain is a psycho isn't the point. The best part of TDK's Joker is the fact that he keeps telling different origin stories, all of them completely fishy. 3) They become analogs of real-life nasties. It's just way too easy to make your villain just like Bill Gates, or Dick Cheney, or Hillary Clinton, or Ahmadinejad or whoever. (I almost wrote "Hillary Klingon," which I would pay to see.) In a few rare cases, it can make villains creepier — as in the plethora of Margaret Thatcher monsters coming out of England in the 1980s — but most of the time, it's just a cheap shortcut. 4) We see too much of their world. James Callis, who plays Gaius Baltar, said recently that he thought bleak space-opera Battlestar Galactica made a mistake by letting us inside the Cylons' Baseships and showing us their internecine bickering and weird internal decor sense. We stopped thinking of them as the implacable masterminds of human genocide, and started thinking of them more as The Real World: Baseship. 5) Too many defeats. This is one of the things that went wrong with the Borg. (The other one being the ridiculous "Borg Queen" which I think comes under the heading of "seeing too much of their world.") When we first meet the Borg, they're so unbeatable, Captain Picard basically has to beg Q to get the Enterprise away from them. And then the good guys defeat the Borg once, against tremendous odds. After that, every victory gets easier and easier, until finally Captain Janeway is reducing the entire Borg collective to rubble with a few well-placed kicks. 6) Too many victories. This is why I'm somewhat startled that the movie version of the Joker has so much power: he's a dillweed in the comics. The comic-book Joker is a victim of his own success. Where do you go after you've killed Robin and destroyed Batgirl in the same year? Away, that's where. The Joker should have been retired in the comics after "A Death In The Family" and "The Killing Joke," and in fact he did disappear for a year or two. But it was too tempting to keep bringing him back, and he's stuck being a has-been villain who can never top his best (worst) year, which was 20 years ago now. I've read hundreds of Joker comics published since 1988, and none has left much of an impression. 7) The villain that's a reflection of the hero. This is really where Iron Man and Incredible Hulk fail. (Someone emailed us about this a few months ago, and I'm afraid I can't remember who now.) You have a guy in super-powered metal armor? Who should he fight, if not another guy in super-powered metal armor that's a knock-off of his own? A big green guy? Let's create another big green guy from his blood and make them fight. A unified theory of villainy: We need good villains, for the health of our society. Good villains make great stories. A truly chilling villain makes the hero seem more important because the stakes are important, and the hero's actions matter. More than that, a really good escapist narrative deals with our personal and social anxieties at a right angle, letting us fantasize about being able to crush them with big metal ray-blast-shooting fists. In real life, we're making endless compromises with the forces that want to mangle us into bone origami. But in our science fictional daydreams, those forces are actually too evil to compromise with. And as a result the heroes we identify with have no choice but to fight to their last breaths. You can't dicker with a giant robot that wants to destroy the world, you just can't. We need that outlet in our heroic stories. Also, one of the biggest factors in debasing our national discourse is the fact that our leaders and pundits persist in trying to turn arguments into good vs. evil, when they're usually more like shades of gray. It actually doesn't help that our escapist fantasies, which should be about good vs. evil, take on that shades-of-gray ambiguity. If Sylar's really not such a bad guy, then maybe John McCain — who really isn't a bad guy, just someone you may disagree with — is more like Sylar than we thought. See how this works? More nuance in our fictional battles actually facilitates less nuance in our real-life disputes. The best villains are political, but only at the level of allegory. See above, about not making Dick Cheney your movie's villain. A good villain has some kind of political message, but it's subtler and woven into the storyline's subtext. It's not so much, A=B, and much more a subversive undercurrent. Look at Terry Gilliam's Brazil: Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan don't turn up in that movie at all, but the vision of a repressive, shallow society (which is the film's real villain) is threaded through with critiques of the materialism and militarism of the Reagan and Thatcher regimes. Kill all the writers. (Except me, please. Kthx.) Actors are the best friend of villains, and writers are often their worst enemy. I've lost count of how many interviews I've read with actors where they said something about how much fun it is to play a really nasty villain. They love to be monstrous — sometimes a bit too much, in a few cases I can think of. Writers, meanwhile, are always trying to be clever. Sometimes by committing one of the sins we mentioned above, redeeming or explaining their villains with too much shading and fancy detail work. But sometimes, they fall into the trap of being too post-modern, with the ironic "spin" on villainy that takes away a lot of the menace. Say what you like about Joss Whedon: his villains almost always have real darkness and threat, even when they're being funny or cute. (Possible exception: the nerd trio in Buffy season six.) Okay, so maybe you need writers. But they need to be fitted with one of those collar thingies that doesn't let them turn their heads, so they can think in a straight line and create villains who are unrelenting and cruel. The kind of ruthless monster who would put writers in a no-head-turning collar in the first place. Just a thought. More »
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Sometimes you just want to escape into a heroic universe of wish fulfillment, with just the right kind of angst. And let's face it, some heroes do a better job of hitting your escapism sweet spots than others. We've put together a chart comparing the great action heroes, and seeing which ones hit most of the sweet spots of escapism. The categories in the chart should be pretty self-explanatory. But here's some explanation anyway: We love our heroes to be super rich, and to have an excuse for self-pity. If your fabulously wealthy parents got killed in front of you when you're a kid, so much the better. (Seriously, a tragic past seems to be a crucial ingredient for many escapist heroes, because it lets you project all your own real-life pain onto your hero, even as you're imagining rising about that pain and becoming a mega-adventurer. ) And it makes us happy when our heroes have two or more devoted acolytes/sidekicks, who follow almost without question, and awesome gadgets. Superhuman powers means what it says. "Gets laid" doesn't just mean your hero hooked up one time. "Marked for greatness" requires slightly more explanation. If your hero is the subject of a prophecy (like Starbuck), or is "the One" like Neo, then he/she is marked for greatness. Captain Kirk wasn't marked for greatness on the original Star Trek TV show, but we have a strong suspicion that the new Trek movie, by revisiting his origins, will show that he was marked for great things from the beginning. "Not tied down" doesn't just mean being single: it means that you get to roam around having adventures. And at the end of an adventure, you jump in your spaceship and zoom off to the next adventure somewhere else. Captain Kirk wasn't tied down, but Captain Sisko was. "Becomes a god or king" means your character ends up with a lot of people looking up to him/her. The Hulk, for example, is destined either to become a ruler, the Maestro, or the last survivor of Earth. Captain Kirk becomes an admiral, but more importantly he becomes a legend in his own time. The Doctor becomes the last of the Time Lords, and gets called a god a lot. Neo turns into the blind buddha Jesus monster, or something. More »
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Following on from the record-breaking opening this weekend, is Wanted creator Mark Millar about to get the chance to fulfill his dreams and revamp Superman "for the 21st century"? That seems to be what he's claiming, and not for the first time. More »
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More signs that the end of days is nigh: the bendy-bullet, killing-machine movie Wanted is rumored to become a full-fledged trilogy. And boozy has-been superhero Hancock may get yet another chance to sully the screen with some terrible plot devices. Click through to find out who's back, and who's still dead, in the next pointless installments. With spoilers. More »
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In two of this summer's biggest action movies, the hero's mentor turns out to be a lying, manipulative sack of villainy. And nobody in the audience is surprised, because it's a scifi fact of life: mentors lie to you. They feed you half-truths ("Darth Vader killed your dad") and outright lies, to get you to follow their agenda. That's just what mentors do. But the good news is, studying the deceitful ways of scifi mentors can help you to deal with your misleading mentros in real life. Spoilers ahead. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5020640&view=rss&microfeed=true More proof that environmental collapse is the new apocalypse: Wanted scribes Michael Brandt and Derek Haas have just sold a movie script called All Creatures Great And Small to Sony and producer Neal Moritz. In the future, after the fossil fuels dry up, humans retreat inside walled forts, to defend ourselves against savage, super-evolved animals. Like super-bears and super-lions. (And fearsome super-kangaroos?) It's a fun Jurassic Park-type story, says Brandt: "Because of people's inability to quench their thirst for oil and consumption of resources, we basically ruin the planet, and the planet fights back... And part of that is the quick evolution of many of the animals." [Hollywood Reporter] More »
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Wanted is on-course to be one of the most successful R-rated movies ever: Its opening weekend was the most successful June opening for an R-rated movie, and the sixth-most successful R-rated opening in history. Now the original comic book's creator Mark Millar is talking about what to expect from the future of the Fraternity in light of the movie's success. More »
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While some critics may bemoan Timur Bekmambetov's movie adaptation of Wanted a beautifully-filmed piece of misogyny, they're apparently unaware that the movie's casual hatred and disdain for women is simply a more targeted version of the contempt that the original comic had for its own readers. Under the jump, two of the greatest, most over-the-top, pages of ending any comic has ever had. Potential spoilers, so be warned. More »
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Wanted is one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen, but also one of the most beautifully filmed. And its scream of strangulated middle-class frustration will lodge in your mind afterwards. Wanted, which opens tonight, is like a John Woo remake of Falling Down, the story of a shlubby white-collar worker who finally, violently, breaks free. Spoilers follow. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5018607&view=rss&microfeed=true Wanted comic book writer, Mark Millar, has been told to prepare for Wanted 2. He spilled the information on his message board: "Wanted 2 already being planned and they've asked me how I can develop some of the other stuff from the book into the sequel." If they keep making Wanted the creators are eventually going to have to figure out how to bring to life the fecal monster, in a realistic manner.[Millar World via Mania] More »
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