FILM: Upcoming comicbook movies

I was really hoping that Timothy Olyphant's Hitman was going to be killer. Alas, I'm having Jason Bourne withdrawals. But if this comic faltered, what are the chances that the next few adaptations will do any better? Here are few that'll hit the screen within the year:

Wanted (March 28)

Trained assassins + Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy = some damn good action.

Iron Man (May 2)

Authentic costumes, the hilarious Robert Downey Jr., and the ridiculously chill-inducing phrase "I. Am. Iron Man."

Speed Racer (May 9)

The Wachowski brothers got Emile Hirsch to sell his indie soul, and they were equally persuasive towards Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, and Scott Porter ("Friday Nights Lights"). This film will surely make Fast and the Furious look like a $.99 crap heap.

Incredible Hulk (June 13)

Taking another whack at a failed franchise is risky. Getting Louis Leterrier, the director of Transporter 2 and Unleashed, and Edward Norton, as co-writer with Zak Penn (screenwriter of X-men 2, X-men 3, and Elektra) will make for an interesting press junket.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (July 11)
There's a war between the mythical world and ours and Hellboy's gotta round up his freak show to save the world.


Here are a few interesting comics that'll be adapted in the future:

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (June 2009)
Who'd ever thought that someday John Connor would be Batman. That's right, Christian Bale will be playing the older version of John in this 4th installment of the franchise. I don't even know how to feel about that. I think maybe actors should get just one franchise every 20 years...and I don't know, stick to ones that don't suck. McG ("Chuck" and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle) may be directing, but the same writers from T3 are writing and that doesn't bode well for Bale's career.

G.I. Joe (August 2009)
Sienna Miller signed on to play the film's female lead, a baroness and femme fatale skilled in espionage. Watching Miller play a bad ass should be an interesting change of pace, especially since Stephen Sommers (Mummy Returns and Van Helsing) will be directing.

The Surrogates (2010)
Bruce Willis plays a cop who's investigating a series of murders. The twist is that humans in this period of time live vicariously through surrogate robots--you know, kind of like we do now on the Internet--and never go outside. So technically he's investigating the murders of surrogates, which I hope is a warning that the real people will be murdered soon and he has to leave his isolation to save them. Directing is Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3), so at least the robots will look cool.