Summer time!

It’s officially the (very early) start of the summer holidays for me. How can you tell?
* The weather’s been bloody hot and generally awesome in Paris. I predict it will be less awesome when Earth will melt due to global warming.
* Friday was my last day at university –all that stress about the exams is now gone, gone, gone. I have two months left until my departure for New Zealand, which is just fine.
* The presidential elections will spoil it all for me though, because of the non-choice we’ve been given –and the chance of seeing Sarkozy winning over Ségo is very likely indeed. It scares the hell out of me -that’s democracy for you. 
* The summer season kicks in, as Spider-Man 3 is release in TWO DAYS (scary!). Look out for my review then! All the cast was in Paris on Friday evening; as a dutiful stalker, I waited three hours there to glimpse at the castmembers. We didn’t see the film -which is out in a few days anyways, but we had a helluva lot of fun…
Most of all though, I got to talk to Sam Raimi and James Franco. Well, it wasn’t proper talk; more along the lines of me gushing and blushing and stuttering about how much I loved them. I still cannot believe the kindness in Sam’s eyes, he was so happy to be here, he seemed genuinely pleased when I thanked him for his work on the first two films; and he graciously answered “My pleasure” when I thanked him for being there -you could tell he was being grateful to us for showing up! It must have lasted about ten seconds, this encounter… but there it was, nonetherless, the genius who gave us wonderful movies, who understands the Spider-Man universe, who’s such an accomplished director; there he was, thanking me for thanking him… It all sounds preposterous. And as silly as it is, it meant a lot to me, getting to see him.
And then of course, there was James. What can I say? He looks every bit as handsome in real life than onscreen, if not WAY more. He has this incredibly gorgeous smile, and he was so responsive, despite touring the world for the last week. I managed to tell him how much I loved him in… Tristan + Isolde. I know. He stood right there, and I said I thought he was really great in it. Yup. My brain froze, okay? I was just so mesmerized by his presence that I couldn’t think of anything else to say. He’s a supporting role in Spidey while he has the starring role in this film, so there you go. He looked startled at first, but then flashed this beautiful smile at me and thanked me. I gushed and was utterly paralyzed. I went weak in the knees, and my heart probably missed a few beats… But you know what? I did love him as Tristan; the film wasn’t exactly great, but he pulled it off and his chemistry with Sophia Myles worked really well.
In any case, we had a fantastic evening –got a glimpse of the others as well, Tobey and Kirsten obviously (who didn’t come all the way to where we were standing), and Thomas Haden Church, too (”Academy-Award nominee” Thomas Haden Church, I should say). Tobey looked so much more handsome than onscreen, he was very elegant and comfortable to be there, unlike what I’d thought. He was also taller than what we’d imagine… All in all, a very memorable, quite intense, evening, that’s for sure. It felt like an entire whole other world, I daresay, the media circus, the screaming fans. It’s utterly insane, sort of sad and fun at the same time. I wouldn’t really know how to put into words.

* Okay, now that you’ve got my full account (and I do apologise for the bits of fangirling), let’s go through the pics of the promotional tour, shall we? After the Rome premiere, the Spidey team split –with Tobey, Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church and Rosemary Harris on one hand; Sam Raimi, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco on the other.
Picture credits: same as the previous post –1, 2 and 3 + 4.

In Berlin, on Wednesday:

Topher Grace, Rosemary Harris, Tobey Maguire and Thomas Haden Church

Meanwhile, in Madrid:

Kirsten Dunst and James Franco attending the photocall; later that evening, with producer Laura Ziskin and Sam Raimi

On Thursday evening…

Tobey at the Moscow premiere; Sam, Kirsten and James at the Stockholm premiere

…and on Friday, in Paris, the jolly cast reunited!

At the Grand Rex, in France!!

Phew. They’re back in the US now, with several late shows scheduled for the cast, and then the big NYC premiere. You know, I understand you Darky, when you say that there’s too much publicity for this film ^^ There really is a HUGE amount of money in this tour, more than I’ve seen for any film so far. I reckon the studios finally learnt the importance of foreign markets. But I still predict a $100+ million opening weekend for our friendly neighbour at the domestic box-office, and a worlwide tally of at least $900 million. At least…

* Empire has posted their final review on the film, and gives it three stars out of five. That’s not a good sign at all, and it falls short of their expectations. 

Still smart, still exciting and still action-packed. It’s just a shame to note that, after promising greatness, all Spider-Man 3 delivers is satisfaction. Read more

There’s still a very positive buzz from early critics –as evidently seen here. FYI, Spider-Man had scored 90% and Spider-Man 2, 93%, of positive critics…

* According to Variety, David S. Goyer (who?) will direct Magneto, the first of two X-Men spin-offs, for Twentieth Century Fox. Haha, poor guy. All I can say to him is: Good luck. And DON’T seek directorial advices from Brett Ratner. Also: don’t allow the producers to fuck you over as they did for Bryan. The weird thing is that Wolverine is scheduled to be released in 2008, a year earlier than Magneto (scheduled for 2009), and still has no director. Obviously, Bryan would be the ideal candidate but 1- he’s got a trillion projects going on right now, 2- Fox would rather go bankrupt than hiring him, 3- he’s way too good for them anyways. If Bryan goes back to working with Fox, I split my wrists open. Not for real, but the mental equivalent.

* Speaking of which (how odd is it that I keep coming back to Bryan and/or Supes all the time), I’ve spent my day reading a thread over at Television Without Pity’s Smallville forum, called ‘Silver Screen Supes‘. That’s 131 pages! Yeah, I know. My days are sad, thank you. Anyway, I love TWoP, members posting  there are usually both very straightforward and intelligent. They’re also known to be quite picky and snarky (this being Television Without Pity). On this particular show, they also happen to be huge Superman geeks (they do watch Smallville then…). It was funny going from the first rumours of casting, to the announcement of Brandon Routh as Superman (which made the fanboys very angry); the costume, which of course was the subject of much complaning; the trailers… and finally, the tremendously positive reviews when the film was finally released. I’ve always been quite anxious of how both the fans and the general public recieved Superman Returns, but I can definitely say that, at the small-scale of this forum packed with fans, the response was overwhelmingly positive. I particularly loved that everyone seemed to believe in Bryan. Most of the members would simply post, “I give Singer the benefit of the doubt”, which was, thankfully, enough to get them to the theaters. They also seem to hate X-Men 3 and Pirates of the Carribean: Dead’s Man Crap as much as I did. Best quotes:

As soon as the WB logo came on, a guy in the left side of the theater yelled “It’s a Bird!” Guy from the right yelled “It’s a plane!” And then a girl in the middle yelled “It’s Superman!!!” Following this was the whole room erupting in cheers. All three were totally on cue with their lines.

[Superman Returns]’s imagery is downright lyrical, and its sheer beauty is something to behold. Although character, plot, and other soft stuff is what makes or breaks any film, the CGI is important in a big superhero movie. Despite a few very brief glitches, the effects are extremely well-done. More importantly, the cinematographer is a god among men who does some amazing work with lighting that elevates the look substantially above the average summer blockbuster. In the midst of a subdued world full of soft light and heavy shadows that never succumbs to the temptation to go noir, the brightly colored costume subtlely paints Superman as a beacon of light in a drab world, and does a lot to sell the uniformly enthusiastic response of the world to the news of his return.

“Singer is the true God of comic book movies.”

Haha. Hearting the fanboy love right there… And on the other films:

Even if Singer had stuck with X-Men, this summer was never set in stone as a release date. They pushed the May 2006 date specifically to spite him. After Singer moved on to Superman Returns, they offered X3 to Joss Whedon, who turned it down due to FOX’s time constraints. He wasn’t even asking for as much time as Singer, just a few extra months. Basically, they would have let a brain dead monkey direct this movie if it was the only director they could get to meet their release date.

“I even went to go see X3 opening weekend, even though I was spoiled on it and knew my favorite character would die right at the fucking beginning of the movie. (Still bitter on that one. And really, nothing prepared me for just how much they would fuck up the characters.)’”

“I disagree. Dead Man’s Chest. . now that was a snooze fest. Unscary villians, sword fight, chase, sword fight, unscary monster, chase, who is that guy?, why is he here?, she likes who now??? sword fight, chase. . . .Zzz. . .Zzz. . . Zzzz. . . unbelievable ending. . . “Hey aren’t you dead?” “Yes. . I’m sure, I saw you die!. . . .ah shit this is just stupid. . .and man do I have to PEE!”"

Note to self: have to stop reading about Bryan on the Internet. It’s already bad enough as it is! I’ll just set my sights on Christopher Nolan and Paul Greengrass then, since both of them are shooting right now. I cannot believe The Bourne Ultimatum is still shooting while its release date is only months away! Apparently, they were back in London and will also be in Madrid for a few days. I wonder if Paul’s editing the film while he’s shooting it? Surely he’s talented enough to be multi-tasking… And of course, The Dark Knight is currently shooting in Chicago. But Cillian Murphy is not credited in the cast (yet), which is a real shame. I would love to see Dr. Jonathan Crane coming back for a scare or two, especially since he survived the first film, of course… Even a cameo would be lovely!

And I’ve just realised I talked about every superhero in film right now. How bad is this?

[Edit] *Cleolinda had posted two new parodies! Is Christmas coming early?!
300 in Fifteen Minutes
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Fifteen Minutes
Enjoy!