Tag: Ray Park

‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Snake Eyes, Jinx, And Roadblock Character Profile Videos Released

by Shawn Madden

Last week we saw three character profile videos released for Jon Chu’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and Paramount has unveiled another three. This time around the action-packed videos focuse on the Joe’s Snake Eyes, Jinx and Roadblock.

 

 

 

In this sequel, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy, Cobra, they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. The film stars D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, RZA, Ray Stevenson, Channing Tatum with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson. Directed by Jon M. Chu, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick based on Hasbro’s G.I. Joe® characters.

 

G.I. Joe: Retaliation strikes on March 29th, 2013

Why We Need An ‘Iron Fist’ Movie Next

by Shawn Madden

Ever since the success of ‘The Avengers’ Marvel Studios have been hard at work on their next projects and even giving us small hints at it. The most exciting of these to me comes from a quote from Kevin Fiege:

“And, we’ve got a lot of other characters we’re prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts…”

After reading that line right there any and every Marvel fan knew who he was talking about…Danny Rand aka Iron Fist. And this wasn’t the first time we had heard about them developing a Iron Fist movie. There has been talks as far as back as 2000 regarding making this film. Ray Park had been signed on to play with Kirk Wong (‘The Big Hit’) set to direct from a script written by John Turman. Production delays began from the start and pushed back all the way to 2003. Steve Carr (‘Next Friday’) replayed Kirk Wong as director and once again the film was placed on hold all the way until 2007. No news or talks about the movie surfaced again until 2009 when Marvel Studios first announced they were working on “creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties”.

The time wasn’t right then when comic movies were just filler but I think the time is right now. Comic book movies have become the summer blockbusters. They break records and fill seats better than most movies and I think we need a splash of something different. And I think that different would be an Iron Fist movie. A superhero movie that wouldn’t so much rely on gadgets or super powers but hand to hand combat…with super powers mixed in of course. And hey if you don’t trust me…Damon Lindelof agrees that it would make a cool movie.

Ed Brubaker and Matt Fractions run on The Immortal Iron Fist (which Brubaker won  an Eisner for in 2008) would be a great basis for a movie. You throw in a great cast with a good leading man, a good martial arts/action director and then slap that Marvel logo (after ‘The Avengers’ that logo alone is going to be a money maker for films) and you have the potential for making a great film that can be loved by not only comic fans but the general movie going audience.

So, who could handle a lead role in an Iron Fist film? I’ve picked four actors that I feel could definitely pull it off. But feel free to comment in the box below if you have some ideas of your own.

Ryan Phillipe

Ryan Gosling

Garrett Hedlund

Charlie Hunnam

I chose these actors due to their age range, knowledge in the department and drawing power. We need a good lead role that isn’t too huge but isn’t a nobody at the same time.

In order to keep the comic book movies coming we need to keep the movies and ideas fresh and keep the audiences Filling seats. We have yet to explore “the world of martial arts” and as not just a comic fan but a movie fan I can see this being something that will spark interest in the masses. As much as I would love to see ‘Ant-Man’ or ‘Guardians Of the Galaxy’ hit the screen over the next two years…my choice for the next Marvel project goes to Danny Rand…aka The Immortal Iron Fist.

The Real Story On The ‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ Date Change

by Shawn Madden

So, a few days back I reported on ‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ being pushed back and it looks like there’s more than meets the eye here. Wait… wrong franchise. Moving along. We were all told it was so that they could go 3D to pull in a higher international gross. But from the get go there was plenty of people not buying it. Most were positive it was due to ‘Battleship’ sinking and a fear that they would not be able to compete with ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ coming out four days later. Some speculated it was to try and pull in Joseph Gordon Levitt after realizing that once ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ hits… well he’s going to be bigger than he already is.

Well… according to Deadline you were all wrong. Apparently after test screenings Paramount realized they had made some mistakes. Primarily… killing off Channing Tatum. Yeah… they killed him off. Crying fan boys on the internet ACTUALLY got something they wanted and guess what? It turned out bad. Who would’ve thought? Tatum wasn’t a star at all when ‘GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra’ came out. But after he became a ladies favorite with ‘The Vow’ and had one of the most successful comedies of the year with ’21 Jump Street’ they realized a mistake had been made. It became even more apparent when test audiences commented that the relationship between Tatum and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was a “bright spot”.

Sources stated that Jon Chu was “shell shocked” over the release date move. As was Hollywood due to all the money spent on marketing the flick for that date being plastered all over.

Will this affect people going to see it? Probably not. Can this possibly improve the film? I think so. I actually like Channing Tatum (I’m sure now the fan boys shall unite and burn me at the stake) And Ray Park seemed very confident in this movie when I spoke with him at Wondercon. So… lets hope for the best. And look… it just means you can go see ‘Prometheus’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘Ted’ five more times.

‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ strikes March 29, 2013

(UPDATE) GI Joe: Retaliation ReShoots Confirmed

by Shawn Madden

Well, looks like there is more to GI Joe being pushed back than originally reported:

According to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s tweet here it looks like they will actually be shooting new scenes for 3D rather than opting for a simple post film, 3D conversion.

Originally it was Jon Chu who chose to not shoot the film in 3D due to the budget.

[Per: The Hollywood reporter]

THR: How was it decided not to shoot the film in 3D?

Jon M. Chu: There was a point where we were talking about it when I first came. It seemed like a natural thing, but I told them, “I know 3D. This is what we need. If we’re going to do 3D, we’re going to do it right.” It had a certain price tag to it, and I was like, if you guys are down I’m down, but I do need more time to do it right. And they were about to do it but they cut it just a little bit short, and [I said,] “if you guys are going to cut it short there is no point. Let’s make a movie — let’s go for it and we’ll go all out. And we shot on film, super-35, and I thought this may be one of the last times I get to shoot on film, and it was actually kind of freeing. I mean, I love 3D and I think there is a lot you can do with it, but there is something to be said about just not waiting for anything. You’re just going. We shot so much film. I mean I think we shot 1.2 million feet of film.

Yesterdays announcement disappointed and let down numbers of fans that were looking forward to the original release date next month. The announcement also led to plenty of speculation as to why the film was being pushed back nearly a year. Some critics even stating Paramount had other motives beyond the 3D. The most interesting of the rumors being that Paramount is using the additional time to actively pursue Joseph Gordon-Levitt to return as Cobra Commander. While I see this being highly unlikely…you never can rule anything out these days. But I don’t see it happening.

GI Joe: Retaliation hits theatres March 29, 2013. Well… hopefully.

How to Take a Punch in the Stomach: Gilmore Interviews Ray Park

by Gilmore

Ray Park is one of the most skilled martial artists in the entertainment industry today. Even with his British accent, his designer t-shirt, and his youthful enthusiasm about everything he does: most people know him as Darth Maul. For those of you who don’t know he was in a little movie called Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He was arguably the best part of the movie. He was also Toad in the X-Men movie.


Most recently, though, he has been cast as the black ninja (and always the hardest toy to find in stores) known as Snake Eyes in the upcoming GI Joe live action movie. When I bring it up, he lights up like a kid who wore that toy’s joints out as much as you and I did:

One of the reasons I always wanted to play Snake Eyes is because I played as him when I was a kid. Star Wars fans and the fans I’ve met at conventions have said “You’d be the best Snake Eyes ever if they did a GI Joe movie!” So when I heard they were actually going to do it I did everything possible to try and get in a meeting or try and get an audition cause I wanted to do it for myself, I wanted to do it for the fans and I wanted to do it for my cousins and all my nephews and my kids. It’s great to be here and to be able to tell those stories.

So that was your favorite GI Joe character?

That and Storm Shadow, believe it or not. I actually liked Storm Shadow a lot because whenever you saw a ninja movie with a white ninja or a red ninja. He always looked different…and I like Snake Eyes because he was different as well. He was a commando. He reminded me of the British special forces – the SAS. That’s why I like that kind of stuff.

I’ve always been fascinated by anything special forces, you know? Anything that’s military, or warrior or…really just anything to do with weapons. Especially traditional weapons. I loved [them] as a kid.

When did you actually start actually playing with weapons? Well not “playing” with weapons, but training with them?

When I was 7. That was the first time I started to get into martial arts. And I got into martial arts purely because I saw Star Wars and I was blown away by the lightsabers and my dad introduced me to Bruce Lee and kung fu movies and I’m like, “I didn’t know it was all special effects”. I thought it was really real [at the time]. So I wanted to do what the guys were doing in the films, so I thought, “how am I going to do that?” – through martial arts. So that’s why I got into martial arts.

So you got into martial arts specifically to be in film.

Yeah.

Sweet.

Well I got into martial arts to do what the guys were doing in film and when I got to about 13 or 14, I realized – I want to be an Arnold Schwarzenegger, I want to be like Van Damme and Rocky. I want to be like Rambo.

Van Damme, eh? What’s your favorite Van Damme movie?

Actually, No Retreat, No Surrernder was my favorite one to see because he was a bad guy and that inspired me as a kid to train a lot and work a lot on my skills.

Fighting skills or acting skills?

On my martial arts skills. Acting? I really hadn’t even thought about acting school then. I just wanted to do my martial arts in movies. I had to do drama at school, but I never went to any special or specific acting school.

Just Martial Arts training, then. Nice. So did you ever get into any fights as a kid? Have you ever been in any actual fights?

Not really, I try and walk away from them. The more you do martial arts, the less you actually have to use it, which is great.

A lot of kids, like when I did karate when I was little (I stopped because i was too fat) are just into it because of the ass-kicking. I started doing karate at that age because of Kickboxer.

[excited] Oh yeah, actually! Bloodsport was one of my favorite movies as well!

Remember in Kickboxer when they get those sticky gloves and rub them in glass instead of using gloves for the last fight? How bad ass is that?

You know what I loved about Kickboxer? It was the guy who trained him in the forest. I always wanted that.

So, I did that with Daniel the other day [Daniel Logan – who was standing a few feet away from us. You might know him as young Boba Fett from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones]. He was in my trailer and I had the medicine ball. I was trying to teach him, because Daniel trains with me every now and then. I was trying to teach him how to breathe. I said “look, you can take a blow and you can take it well if you breathe properly.” So I got a medicine ball and at first he wasn’t gettin it and I said “look, you’ve got to just concentrate on your breathing.”

I said “throw it at me. Just do it.”

Then I started thinking about Kickboxer in that scene when that guy was up in the trees and he drops the coconut on him – and we [started] doing that the other day as conditioning. It was more about the breathing, rather than the actual ball hitting him in the stomach. I wanted to just teach him a little bit more about breathing for sport.

How do you breathe if you’re going to get hit in the stomach?

Well, hopefully you’ll know it’s coming [we both laugh]. But most of the time, you don’t really know it’s coming, so the best way to prepare for that is probably just to not get hit in the stomach.

That’s probably good advice, I think.

Yeah, just avoid it and don’t get into any situation where you know you’re going to get hit in the stomach. Or anywhere you think that might happen to you. At all [laughs]

What I always do when I think someone is going to hit me in the stomach is I flex. Is that right? Will that kill me?

You know, sometimes flexing can do more damage than good if you’re not breathing properly. If you push your stomach down and tighten it in – pull it in -[while] flexing at the same time, [then] there’s a lot of pulling and tugging that actually makes your stomach a lot harder. It also lowers your center of gravity. But you don’t need to know that, right?…

[both laugh]Oh yes, well, of course! So, growing up as a GI Joe fan – is this movie staying true? Will it make all the GI Joe fans who played with all the toys, read all the comics and watched the cartoons as kids (or full grown adults) happy?

Oh definitely. Yeah, definitely. You should be big time excited. I’m excited and I’m on set. The sets are unbelievable! The costumes, the wardrobe, the look is unbelievable and it’s such a nice, fun set to be on. I mean, I’m lucky – I’m playing Snake Eyes! I get to live out [the character] that I’ve been playing since I was a kid and now I get to actually be Snake Eyes! It’s just bizarre. I feel very lucky.

And you also got to wield the coolest lightsaber in the Star Wars universe.

I’m very very lucky. They’re all coming around. My childhood dreams. I’m grateful to my parents and my martial arts teachers and anyone that’s been in my life that has actually had the patience to help me and to guide me. Even if it was a small bit here and there, I’ve taken that, and I’ve learned a good lesson from it.

You’ve played one of the coolest new Star Wars characters, an X-Men character, and now Snake Eyes. What’s your dream character? If you could play any character ever, which one would you play?

It’s funny, I always said I wanted to be Batman. It’s funny because I grew up with Batman and the Hulk when I was a kid. Thinking about it now, though, I would love to play Danny Rand – Iron Fist. I’d love to do that. Even though I’m supposed to be doing it – I would love to actually get to do it [laughs], because it’s a traditional story. My dad used to read the comics, so I’d also like to do it for my father. So I’ve become a fan of Iron Fist. I would love to do it because the fans have really supported me in it and I’d love to do it for the fans as well.

What I really want, though? I’d love to do a movie where I goof off – but I use my martial arts skills as well. Not like Jackie Chan, but [I’d like to] do something stupid and be funny.

So like a Rush Hour?…Or…[both laugh]

Something…more…different than that.

Like early Jim Carrey?

Yeah! Yeah!

So do you want your own Ace Ventura?

Well, not so much like an Ace Ventura, but…I’d like to do a period piece where I’m a circus performer or something like that. Where it’s got a lot of comedy and romance and boyish charm. I want to do something different. I love doing movies where it involves wardrobe of a [different] time. You can really get to sink your teeth into those and have a good time.

Right now, Snake Eyes is my favorite character, though. I mean, I’m more excited about that than I was about Darth Maul and I’m really lucky to be able to say I’m Darth Maul and now I’m going to be able to play Snake Eyes. It’s my first good guy role. Ever. I get to be a good guy.

And now kids won’t be scared of you when they see you at conventions. When their parents show them who you were [speaking about Darth Maul and Toad] and then they just kind of run away.

Yeah, it’s really hard for the kids to put two and two together sometimes unless they get to see the behind the scenes and stuff. I mean, I wouldn’t want to know who the guy [who played these characters] was at all!

When I found out who the guy was on Nightmare on Elm Street I wasn’t scared anymore. I got to see what his personality was like – the real person – and it all went away.

That character scared me to death. That was the worst movie I could have ever seen as a kid. I couldn’t sleep at night. That scared me the most.

What scared you about it so much?

Well, just, the character! The fact that he could come out of the bed at any point and just take you away! Just because you were dreamin!

Then when I saw the behind the scenes and they did an interview with Robert Englund, I wasn’t scared anymore. Then I could sleep. Before that, though, it really scared me. It really did scare the pants right off me.

Any other messages for the Geekscapists? Anything you’re working on?

There’re some other things…There’s a piece called The Descendants – Joey Andrade and Dark Horse are putting something together. We shot a trailer and the comic is already out there. I’m looking forward to doing that.

There’s also a good friend of mine, Kevin VanHook. We’re doing Aries: God of War, which is another story of Jason and the Argonauts – there’s a period piece!

What’re you playing in that?

I’m playing Phileas. He’s Jason’s best friend, and, of course, he’s an awesome swordsman as well. It’s a good script cause Kevin knows how to write a good story and make it fun. He’s a friend of mine and I like working with friends and good people, but…I just feel really blessed because, well…Snake Eyes. I can’t believe it.

Well we’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled for that.

Thanks! I want to say thanks to the fans as well for all the support. I wouldn’t be at any of these conventions I go to or anywhere if it wasn’t for the fans. It really means a lot.

Well thanks to you for kicking some ass, my good man.

Thank you!