For a seasoned Hollywood vet like Mark Ruffalo, you’d think his directorial debut would be a cinch.
“My first day I came to my trailer, walked through the door, and literally had a panic attack,” he said of his start on Sympathy for Delicious, out on DVD and Blu-ray Disc Aug. 23rd. “Who did I think I was? I told myself to just act like I knew what I was doing.”
It may have been an understandable reaction considering the subject material. Based on the real-life experiences of Christopher Thornton (Welcome to California, Pretty Persuasion), living as a paraplegic in the world of faith healing, Sympathy follows Thornton as a DJ who’s gifted with the power to heal — everyone but himself.
“No matter how depressing it got, which it did many times, there was something worth staying for,” Ruffalo said.
Thornton, who considers Ruffalo his best friend, gave Ruffalo’s work a big thumbs up, especially considering the amount of challenges involved with the shoot.
“What was very difficult was we had to shoot the film in 23 days,” he said. “The exhaustion was the hardest part.”
Thornton said Ruffalo handled the religious undertones of the film well, treating it respectfully.
“He’s a brilliant director in that sense,” said Thornton, who also wrote the script. “It’s not a religious movie, it just has religious people in it. I wanted it to be as truthful as it could be.”
Ruffalo would like to test his directing chops again, but “not both [acting and directing] at the same time,” he said smiling.
The film also stars Ruffalo, Juliette Lewis, Orlando Bloom and Laura Linney, and for the home entertainment release Maya includes a behind-the-story featurette with Ruffalo and Thornton, an audio commentary with Bloom and Ruffalo, and deleted scenes. The Blu-ray also includes a photo gallery. (Source)
Think you know Mark Ruffalo? What is his favourite movie? The actor makes the ‘big reveal’ to www.nextmovie.com
“I’d probably say On the Waterfront. It’s [Marlon] Brando at… his all-time best. It’s Elia Kazan, who is one of the all-time great directors. And it’s just the perfect mix of great storytelling, social commentary and great acting. It’s political and still relevant.
“Those themes are still happening today. It’s universal. Coming from the theater, to tell those kind of stories in film, is what’s really exciting to me.”
Mark Ruffalo is currently filming 2012′s “The Avengers,” in which he plays Bruce Banner (aka The Hulk). “Sympathy for Delicious,” his directorial debut, opened in theaters April 29.
Director Joss Whedon remained busy on the set of The Avengers but Marvel Studios Co-President Kevin Feige helped fan more excitement for the superheroes adventure (if that’s even possible) talking about next summer’s blockbuster with Film Journal.
“We’re making a big crossover event that brings all of these characters together to face something incredible and epic,” Feige told Film Journal.
As far as maintaining some sort of balance amongst all the Marvel characters, Feige credited Whedon for being an expert at telling ensemble stories thanks to his experience with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“We’re in the fifth week of production on The Avengers and all of the actors have been very impressed with him. They all carry their own movies and I think everyone was worried about who would get the short end of the stick. But no one does because they’re all there servicing the larger story. The stuff we’ve shot is cutting together spectacularly and it’s just the character interactions that we’ve done so far. We haven’t shot much of the action sequences yet. I think the end result is going to feel very, very satisfying.”
“Thor” star Chris Hemsworth continued to work alongside Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Tony Stark and Iron Man in the big-budget “The Avengers” with Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Chris Evans (Captain America) and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) among others.
Look for The Avengers in theaters May 4, 2012. (Source)
Joss Whedon’s The Avengers has been in production since this past April but not many photos have been leaked from the set thus far. Based on Marvel’s The Avengers, the greatest superheroes will unite under this banner on screen for the first time in this film.
According to MovieWeb, someone managed to snap a few shots of a Humvee and truck on its way to the set with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo emblazoned on the sides. Take a look at the images below.
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Fan may be disappointed to hear that the Avengers are not expected to reassemble in Hall H at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con in July.
The official word from Marvel Studios is that their team will sit out the Hollywood previews in the 6,000-seat hall, where fans, bloggers and journalists from around the world come to see filmmakers and stars introduce and promote their upcoming spectacle movies.
The leadership at Marvel Studios is also quick to point out that sitting out Hall H is not synonymous with sitting out Comic-Con, which runs July 21-24; the studio will have a major presence on the convention showroom floor (one Marvel source cryptically said that the booth plan will be as attention-grabbing as last year’s Hall H panel), and there’s talk of a promotional event beyond the walls of the San Diego Convention Center, which might suggest a Captain America: The First Avenger promotion, premiere or special screening.
The internet has been ablaze since it was publicized that Samuel L. Jackson had his The Avengers shooting script stolen and later sold on the black market. Samuel L. Jackson has come forward to talk about how the theft actually occurred, and how he was scolded by Walt Disney and Marvel Studios for letting this happen.
This is what Samuel L. Jackson had to say about the notorious incident.
“When they sent me the new version of the script, I was shooting a film in Toronto (Canada) and my assistant copied it from the email (and printed it) in the office somewhere. And by the time we got to Albuquerque someone had stolen the script out of the printer and put it online for sale. I didn’t know printers had memories. And apparently my assistant didn’t either. Marvel/Disney kind of got really upset about it. It caused a minor storm of investigation. They sent a team of investigators to Canada. They were trying to find (track down) the IP address of the person that put it online. It was crazy.”
No one has been arrested in the theft of Samuel L. Jackson’s script. Neither Marvel nor Disney have ever made any official comments in regards to this infamous incident.
The Avengers comes to theaters May 4th, 2012 and stars Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston. The film is directed by Joss Whedon. (Source)
The promotional teaser poster was replaced with a high quality version, thanks of Comic Book Movie via JeremyLRenner.com. Check it:
Via his official Twitter account, Mark provided fans with an interesting … and informative update regarding The Hulk in the highly anticipated Avengers film.
@Mruff221 I have to inform the world that the Hulk may be completely bare assed in this Avengers. I feel like a two dollar whore during fleet week. Retweet.
