Chris Hemsworth or Brad Pitt ... do I *have* to choose?!

Yes, Aricia, you have to choose, because unless we're talking about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which is a very special case, you can only have ONE actor playing the same part in he same movie at the same time! (Well, Doctor Who can be played by up to five actors at once, but only when there's a temporal screw-up and the universe is about to collapse. So that doesn't count. Right.)

And The Mighty Thor is the part to end all parts ... and it went to another emerging Aussie, a lad by the name of Chris Hemsworth:


Part of me (and a large part -- which isn't fair to Chris. But still, see below) wants to say, "Durnitall, I wish they'd twisted Brad Pitt's arm a bit harder, or maybe offered him some more money."

But the fact is, that's rather a daft thing to be saying in any case, because before I saw The Fellowship of the Ring, I was saying, "Viggo who? Orlando what--?" And a week before Avatar a lot of us, self included, were saying, "Sam, who-d'you-say?"

So to speak, give the lad a chance for goshsakes, because ... well, pictures speak louder than words, so let me clam up and show you a few!






And you have to admit ... if you couldn't get Brad ... about which, whimper, but they couldn't, obviously, for reasons undisclosed. Maybe Brad is too sleep deprived with all those babies running amok in the house? And just maybe he's had quite enough of living in the gym, pumping enough iron to build the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and eating like a rabbit while he does it! Don't be fooled, kids -- that's what it takes to get the ripped physique. It don't happen in nature, only in the gym where the salad bar is your only comfort. Gak. Where did I put my Mars Bar?

As I was saying, if you couldn't get Brad, get someone who'd easily pass for Brad in dim light, and especially if he can act as well. And it turns out, the lad can! The official trailer is playing across the www right now, so check this out: (click on the little icon to PLAY FULL SCREEN ... it looks great that way...)



So don't be deterred by the Bradlessness of The Mighty Thor, because I have a feeling the Aussie assault on Hollywood is about to continue with a vengeance. The late Heath Ledger, plus Hugh Jackman, Sam Worthington, Eric Bana, and before them it was Russel Crow, Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, and these are just the mega-stars. There's also hosts of slightly-lesser stars without whom movies just wouldn't be the same. In recent years, Sam Worthington in particular has impressed the heck out of me. He was brilliant in Terminator Salvation, and it was so cool to actually hear him in Clash of the Titans, where they let him "do" it in his own voice. Yes!! Go Aussie!! [Waves flag till somebody throws beer cans]

So I do expect to be well and truly impressed by Chris Hemsworth in this one, and I think that after May 11 you'll have a hard time visualizing anyone else in the part. Still, though, I can help thinking back on Brad Pitt in Troy, and I know I've said elsewhere on this blog that Achilles looked more like Thor than Thor does! Would I kid you? You want the evidence? Here you go:



From the trailer, it seems to me that Marvell is gifting The Mighty Thor with all due gravitas, and this is great. The one thing that had concerned me was that the project would get trivialized in the translation to the big screen. Needn't have worried, and after Iron Man, it was probably never something to waste worries on. Roll on May 6!

Hugh Jackman v. Shane Warne ... ah! Now, that's cricket!

A great treat for anyone who's into cricket, and following Hugh Jackman ... or into Hugh Jackman and following the cricket...



...and boy, can Hugh handle a cricket bat! In fact, given the absolute collapse of the Aussie batting side in this Boxing Day Test match, one wants to say the selectors need to bribe Shane Warne to come out of retirement and save the day, and also hire Hugh Jackman to replace one of the pretty useless Aussie batsmen.

Merry Christmas, cricket fans!

Mad Max 4: not coming soon to a theater anywhere near you

Mad Max 4 ... and it's not good news. With the movie delayed yet again, all cst announcements (or predictions, or inspired guesses) made in the past are void. If you check Sam Worthington's page at IMDB.com, you won't see a mention of Mad Max 4 there. [AG sighs heavily]

The reason for the current delay: Climate Change-1, Max Rockatansky-0.

Seriously. This ran on the ABC in October, and they were not joshing you:

Filming of George Miller's fourth Mad Max, Fury Road, has been postponed for a second time.

Production is now expected to begin in Broken Hill in 2012.

Accommodation provider Hugh Gough says he received an email from Kennedy Miller

Productions at the weekend informing him filming would not start in February as planned.

Mr Gough says no reason was given for the delay.

This is the second time the film has been delayed. In July, Kennedy Miller Productions said unseasonal rains had made Broken Hill too fertile.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/11/3034506.htm

If I had to make an inspired guess, I'd say Kennedy Miller will have to shoot around Sam Worthington's schedule ... no longer do you just give out your orders about when you want to shoot. He's a busy boy and a mega-star. That'll push the scheduling for the movie around -- and there's no guarantee you can get him in any case.

Also, you wait for Mama Nature to turn the Broken Hill region back into an iron oxide desert, if you want Mad Max to look like, well, like Mad Max. No good filming there, if it looks like Ireland! See what climate change is doing, and how real it is? Sheesh. Can't even make a movie without being sabotaged by fields of flowers in a region that oughtta look like the planet Mars.

Breaking into song for a second, "You must remember this..."





And it's a real pity the delays have caused the cast to evaporate, because I could really believe Sam Worthington in this part...




Back to the drawing board. Patience is a virtue ... I guess. Well, poop.

Sam Worthington and Mad Max 4 ... wowzer!

Mad Max ... Sam Worthington ... say them in the same breath and then indulge yourself in a pleasant little shiver. Oooooooh, yes!

I know, I know, I've been silent as the tomb on this blog for more than a year, but my life went berserk. Crazy. Insane. It's only now that I can start to think about posting here again ... and what should come along right at the crucial moment? Try this:

June 9, on the Perth Now website:

Mad Max to hit road again, Sam Worthington tipped for lead

Here's the teaser for the feature, and a link to get you through to the rest of it:

THIRTY years after the original, Mad Max 4: Fury Road will kickstart the local movie industry - with WA star Sam Worthington tipped for the lead role.

THE original Mad Max put the Australian film industry on the map and launched the career of one of our most recognised actors, Mel Gibson.

Thirty years on and Mad Max 4: Fury Road is about to restart the local movie industry, being filmed entirely in Sydney and Outback NSW.

The Daily Telegraph reports that work on the film will start immediately, injecting tens of millions of dollars into the economy and creating more than 500 jobs.

Here's your link to the rest!

If you're wondering why this would show up on Perth Now ... well, after AVATAR and TERMINATOR 4 you might be assuming that Sam Worthington is an American star. Not true. He was born in England and came out to Aus -- Western Australia, the capital of which is Perth! -- as a wee little kid.

Having been too busy to blog for a loooong time, I've missed blogging about Iron Man and Avatar and Inkheart, and so much more. But you knew I'd be back, and -- better late than never, here I am. I'm going to be playing catch-up for ages. It's going to be all kinds of fun...

So, let's have some more Sam Worthington pictures before I leave you for today...

Oscar and Hugh: not such an odd couple

With the Oscars 2009 show being a piece of history now (in other words, it was yesterday...) folks downunder are wondering what response was gleaned by Hugh Jackman -- who's only the second Aussie ever invited to host the show.

Turns out, Hugh's been gathering mixed reviews -- and I shouldn't think it bothers him one jot, because while critics appear to have NOT likes him, audiences loved him. And that's what a performer cares about. (Which is probably also how he's feeling about Australia, which has been, and still is, absolutely delighting home-grown viewers all over our rural zones, even though city slicker crictics in the hearts of major metropolises like New York, London and so forth didn't reckon it was worth the celluloid it was printed on! Go figure. Me? I reckon it's audiences that count. God knows, they're the ones who didn't get free bloody tickets!)

Here's some interesting reading on the topic:

Will Hugh Jackman get Oscars call back? Was he Billy Crystal?
Liveblogging the Oscars: Stopping the Show
Kudos!!!!

Kewl, eh, what?!

So let's have some pictures while we're here!





Now, that's what I call candy for the visual cortex.

Orlando Bloom: sympathy for Australia, too

If you thought you recognized Orlando Bloom on TV downunder the other day ... you were right. He's been in Aus to spend Valentine's Day with his partner (fiancee??) Miranda Kerr, but celebs across the board were swept up into the Australia Unites telethon, raising funds for the victims of the Victorian Bushfires.

Here's a bit more on the event: Orlando Bloom joins Miranda Kerr for Australia Unites telethon ... and it was a great success. About twenty million in AUD was raised.

Orlie's new movie is called Sympathy for Delicious -- about a paralysed DJ who investigates the realms of faith healing and "gets more than he bargained for." This one's got me interested -- and, in it, he looks like this:

You have to admit, this one has big possibilities! Something different, new and a change for an actor who's done more historicals than any other actor since Charlton Heston and Stewart Granger! Nice one.

Just a couple more pictures, then -- can I twist your arm here? What's that? "Stop being a berk, AG and post the pictures?!" Message received and understood. Urk. So:

"Australia" rakes in the big bucks after all

You've probably heard that the recent movie Australia was Hugh Jackman's and Nicole Kidman's all-time flop. Right? The pundits could have spoken way too soon!

Here's a choice quote from the feature article on The Australian:

"Luhrmann's romantic epic starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman has been pilloried since its November premiere, with Kidman particularly enduring vituperative reviews from columnists and commentators for what is a solid performance.

Yet despite the slings and arrows, Australia is set to become the second highest grossing Australian film in history (in unadjusted figures) in this country, second to Crocodile Dundee, and the fifth highest grossing Australian film worldwide (behind Happy Feet, Crocodile Dundee I and II and Babe).

"If the industry sees this as a failure, send us more failures," says Peter Howard, who runs cinemas in the NSW towns of Taree and Tuncurry.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25004481-15803,00.html

Read the whole thing -- go on! Turns out, the movie did poorly in North America, and frankly there's no surprise there: there's no Americans in it, and American audiences are so focused on American actors and accents, this alone would do in the movie.

(D'you know, whe Mad Max was released over there, they overdubbed Mel Gibson ... with an American voice speaking US slang! He was an Aussie at the time, if you remember. 21 years old. And still sane. I know about the Mad Max soundtrack for a fact. I've seen it -- or do I meant heard it?)

Anyway -- down here in Aus, Australia still screening in the rural communities, and doing, uh, quite nicely. The problem is that if a movie "fails" in the continental USA, it's said to be a failure per se ... which (like the old song sez) ain't necessarily so.

Cool news, this!