One of the most charming aspects of Captain America: Civil War was the relationship between Tony Stark and Peter Parker, the Avengers’ youngest, spunkiest recruit. It”ll be fun to see their friendship blossom in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and a new featurette delves a little deeper into their hilarious mentor-mentee dynamic.
The prevailing message of the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming has been that of novelty. This will be a fresh take on the Peter Parker mythos, making him younger than ever, sticking him in the treacherous social minefield of high school, and assigning him a lovably bratty irreverence more in-step with the comic-book original. Plus, Aunt May is young and hot now! But while Marvel and Sony’s advertising has gone to great lengths to assure audiences that this will not be their father’s Spider-Man (and it definitely won’t be the Andrew Garfield one we’re all psychologically working to repress), there is one respect in which this production is business as usual.
Yes, Robert Downey, Jr. is definitely going to play Doctor Dolittle, the veterinarian who can talk to animals. Sure, fine, cool. And for those of you who are interested, there’s some good news: you won’t have to wait as long to see it, since the release date of the film has been pushed up a month to accommodate for Star Wars: Episode 9.
No bubble can last forever — it must eventually pop, as is the nature of bubbles. Marvel has built a vast media empire on the strength of such stars as Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Hemsworth, but no actor would be content with playing and re-playing the same role forever. All good (and obscenely lucrative) things must come to an end, and Evans has begun the long and painful process of consciously uncoupling from Captain America’s star-spangled shield and cowl. But a new quote from the actor suggests that he may not be the first big name to make a departure from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Near the end of every year, Forbes releases their rankings of the top actors in Hollywood based on their box-office value and earnings (along with a list of the most overpaid actors, which is always interesting). This year, Scarlett Johansson tops the list of the highest-grossing actors in Hollywood, followed closely by Marvel co-stars Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., who tied for second place. What makes Johansson’s ranking even more notable, however, is her earnings — while RDJr. placed ninth on this year’s list of the highest-paid actors with $33 million, Johansson ranked third on the actress list with $25 million.
For decades, Robert Downey Sr. has been cherished as a key figure in the American film underground, directing unabashedly countercultural pictures during the ’60s and ’70s, and carrying right on through to the present day. (Most famous of all was 1969’s Putney Swope, a razor-sharp satire of advertising and race on Madison Avenue that billed itself as the “Truth and Soul Movie.”) Downey’s showbiz background got his good-lookin’ son into the industry from a young age, but a new item from TheWrap today indicates that Junior will soon join the real family business and take the director’s chair for the very first time.
With the advent of technological helpmates like Siri and Alexa, it’s probably not long before we’re all living in a version of reality that feels a lot like Spike Jonze’s Her — or Iron Man, if you’re Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook founder has been working to build his own A.I. system similar to Tony Stark’s Jarvis, and now that he’s ready to give it a voice, one Marvel star is eager to provide his services.