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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

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'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

#Tom Hiddleston #Loki #Disney+#interview

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batmannotes · 3 years

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The Batman: The Complete Series Review

The fully-remastered The Batman: The Complete Series is now available on Blu-ray for the very first time. All 65-episode are included in this newly released box set.

The series premiered on September 11, 2004 on Kids’ WB before eventually shifting to Cartoon Network for subsequent seasons. The Batman: The Complete Series follows 20-something-year-old Bruce Wayne’s early adventures as he balances his daytime persona as a bachelor billionaire with his nighttime guise as a caped crimefighter.

At first I was a bit hesitant accepting this cartoon; after all it wasn't Batman: The Animated Series, which for me was the definitive Batman. I also wasn't sold on the new look of the villains. But after I let my cape down and gave the series a chance, it started to surprise me. The animation itself had an amazing color palette which was used exquisitely for scenery and backdrops. The stories themself were a little less serious than, Batman: TAS, but that played in its favor through the course of 5 seasons. It also gave us a look at some of Batman's rogues not used in Batman: TAS like Black Mask.

The first couple of seasons of the show were a bit of a departure from the traditional Caped Crusader, no Commissioner Gordon, Robin or Batgirl . Fast forward to season 4 and all of the perviously mentioned characters were in place, making it the strongest season thus far. At the start of season 4 was the episode titled, 'A Matter of Family', which guest starred Kevin Conroy voicing Dick Grayson's father, John. It was exceptional retelling of Robin's origin story.

The 5th and final season push limits of awesomeness even further, as THE BATMAN added guest Justice League appearances by Superman, Green Arrow, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Martian Manhunter. This season had a spectacular two part episode finale that seemed to set up a new Justice League series. Unfortunately we didn't get that or even a season six of THE BATMAN, as the series was cancelled.

The Batman: The Complete Series – Special Features

Blu-ray+Digital

The Dark Dynasty Continues (New Featurette) – Explore the relationship between The Batman and his allies as he evolves from mysterious vigilante to the World’s Greatest Detective.

Joining Forces: The Batman's Legendary Team-Ups (Featurette) – How the series’ producers adapted the DC “Team-Up-Tales” approach from the comic books to the screen.

The Batman Junior Detective Challenge (Quiz) – Alfred tests your detective skills with The Batman: The Complete Series challenge.

The Batman Junior Detective Exam: Level 2 (Quiz) – Pass The Batman test of knowledge with the level 2 exam.

Building Batman (Featurette) – Detective Ellen Yin investigates The Batman's true identity.

Gotham PD Case Files (Featurette) – Highly confidential profiles of The Batman's most dastardly foes.

New Look, New Direction, New Knight (Featurette) – Go behind the scenes to explore the development of The Batman television series.

The Batman: Season 3 Unmasked (Featurette) – Supervising Producer Duane Capizzi talks about the animated series.

The Batman: Season 4 Unmasked (Featurette) – A behind the scenes look into the making of Season 4.

VERDICT:

If you've never check the series out, you should definitely give it a chance, it's one of the hidden gems in the DC Universe. In my opinion THE BATMAN is far superior to most of the latest offerings from Warner Bros. Animation. The newly released HD transfer to Blu-ray makes the box set that much more appealing and with 65 episodes to enjoy, you can binge watch for quite a long time. There's a lot to love about this series once you get used to the irregular designs of Batman rogues. Seasons 4 and 5 are exceptional and left me with an appetite for more of this animated fun. It's a series that doesn't take itself overly serious, but that's one of its many alluring features.

Available now at Amazon. Direct link here.

Warner Bros. provided a copy of The Batman: The Complete Series for review which did not affect this reviewer's analysis of the product.

#batman #blu-ray #review #the batman

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hapalopus · 5 years

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Things that actually happened in Ben 10:

Ben’s cousins are called Gwen and Ken. The only one to ever comment on this is Kevin, son of Devin, father of Devlin, who has no right to make fun of other people’s names.

Other than Ben 10, there’s Gwen 10 and Kevin 11, as well as at least 10 alternate versions of Ben himself, including Ben 23, Bad Ben, Mad Ben, RAT Ben, Nega Ben, two different versions of Ben 10000, and, unfortunately for him, No Watch Ben.

The writers love to play around with time travel, but to avoid paradoxes they have a character called Professor Paradox who just wipes everyone’s memories after every time travel

Ben once gave birth to roughly 10 moths

The entire universe and everything in it was destroyed, except for Ben who had to rebuild it from scratch to the best of his ability. No one remembers this except Ben and it was just a filler episode.

The universe destruction-and-rebuilding basically happened to explain any inconsistencies and design changes in the following seasons

There’s an alien called ‘The Worst’ whose only ability in combat is that he’s indestructible. He still feels all the pain, he just can’t die

When Kevin was 16 he wanted a special motor for his car, but to get it he had to best an alien princess in combat and marry her, so the mad lad just.... did it.... to get a motor...

Kevin, my beautiful, beautiful himbo, can assemble an alien gun in less than 10 seconds, but doesn’t know what TNT is.

There’s an order of medieval knights who captured an alien dragon cartographer and tried for 1000 years to kill him until he finally escaped

The Omnitrix fucked up, so Rath (the tiger alien) is naked for 13 seasons, before they finally fix it

I could honestly write a post like this just about Rath... His species are called Appoplexians (which is supposed to mean ‘overcome with rage’ but happens to also mean ‘internal bleeding’). Instead of shaking hands when they meet, they engage in a wrestling match until one has established dominance. They believe any problem can be solved by hitting it or "hitting it a lot". They’re beautifully dumb.

There’s a planet called Anur Transyl where vampire, werewolf, ghost, zombie, frankenstein’s monster, and mummy aliens all live together

“The world’s largest rubber-band ball” is actually a prison for electric aliens

One of the recurring villains is a rogue veterinarian who uses his education to create mutant hamsters, frogs, and parakeets.

There are at least three in-universe tv shows about Ben and his aliens

Ben’s grandpa has fucked at least two aliens, one of which is a lizard

X-Men like mutant humans exist. It’s just a thing. One of them is a giant crocodile.

Pluto was destroyed as a throwaway joke in season 5, so it just doesn’t exist in their universe anymore

Ben is addicted to smoothies and he once drank a meat smoothie.

A lot of cryptids and mysteries are real, including Krakken, Mole People, Chupacabra, the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil, the Bermuda Triangle, and Yeti. Sasquatch also exists, somewhat, but he’s an electric alien. Most of these are never addressed.

Ben’s canon wife only fell in love with him because one of his aliens is a werewolf and she’s a furry

#ben 10 #might expand this when i've finished omniverse because hoo boy a lot of stuff happens here #1k #10k

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samdeancass · 3 years

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Permanent

Requested by: Anonymous

Pairing: Kevin x reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff

Characters: Kevin, Y/N, Gwen, Ben

Words: 1080

Description: When the Omnitrix is destroyed, Kevin isn’t turned back to normal which is what everybody had hoped. Instead, he’s stuck permanently mutated and he decides to quit the team.

A flash of green light engulfed the room after the Omnitrix was destroyed. Ben looked down at the floor in sadness as the one thing that made him important was destroyed. Gwen walked towards him and placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “It'll be alright, Ben. Besides, your life can finally go back to normal. Ben looked at his cousin with complete sadness in his eyes. “But I never wanted my life to go back to normal, Gwen. I liked it just the way it was.” Both Ben and Gwen stared downwards at the ashes that was once the omnitrix.

You stood up from your place at the side of the room and noticed that movement was coming from underneath a pile of rubble at the side of you. Instinctively, you placed your hand on the holster of your plumber-issued gun and cautiously walked towards it. You didn’t know whether it was a rogue alien that you hadn’t quite managed to kill, but you didn’t want to take any chances.

As you walked closer and closer towards it, you could hear stifled mumbles coming from the rubble. Confused, you removed your hand from your gun and bent down to try and lift some of the fallen rocks. With all of your strength, you managed to heave the biggest one out of the way, but there was more rocks underneath. “Ben, Gwen. I need your help moving these rocks. Somethings stuck underneath it all.”

They both ran over and set to work of removing the debris. After a few minutes, enough rocks were moved to be able to see whatever was making the noise. “Kevin!” You began to scramble over the rocks towards him, desperate to get to his side. You checked him over for any obvious injuries before wrapping your arms around him, keeping him close.

“Did-did it work?” You looked at him straight in the eyes and shook your head. “I’m so sorry, babe. It hasn’t, but there’s nothing wrong with the way you look. It shows everybody that your special.” You gave him a teary smile but all you got in return was a look mixed with frustration and guilt. He stood up out of the rubble and began making his way towards the exit.

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Gwen ran after him and spun him around. “I can’t be around here anymore, knowing that Ben destroyed the Omnitrix for nothing. I’m going, I’m quitting the team.” Gasps filled the room as the last few words escaped his mouth. Again, Kevin began walking towards the exit, but Gwen stopped him.

“What?! You have to go because things didn’t go your way! You don’t just give up, Kev! Ben saved the world destroying the Omnnitrix, curing you was just something we hoped for, hoped that would work. You’re supposed to be a hero, but You’ll be a coward if you walk away!”

Kevin stormed back over to Gwen, his finger pointing in her chest. “Don’t you ever call me a coward! I’ve risked my life time and time again for you and your cousin! You don’t understand what it’s like to look like this, like a freak! This was my last shot at feeling like myself again, the way I used to be. I am not giving up! Don’t ever say that!”

Gwen opened her mouth to retort back but she was stopped by you stepping forward, Ben slightly behind you. You stepped in front of Gwen and took Kevin’s hands in yours. Ben placed his hands on Gwen’s shoulders and gently led her away to the side of the room to give the two of you some privacy.

You smiled up at Kevin but he turned away from you, ashamed of the way he looked. You let go of one of his hands and placed it under his chin, turning his head to meet yours. “Kev, open your eyes. Please.” With a sad gasp of air, he opened his eyes and looked down at you. “There he is, my handsome man.”

A small smile cracked onto Kevin’s face at the cute nickname you had given him, but it soon faded when his worrying thoughts entered his mind once again. “I’m not anymore though, Y/N. I mean, look at me! I’m a monster! You don’t deserve to be with somebody who looks like I do. The omnitrix, it was my last chance at finally becoming the man you deserve to be with, and now that that’s gone, there’s nothing I can do to change myself, to be a better hero; for you and the world.”

A stray tear feel down his cheek and he let go of your hands to walk away. However, you ran in front of Kevin and stood on your tiptoes, smashing your lips against his. “I don’t care about the way you look. You’re perfect to me, just the way you are. Your looks will never change the way I feel about you. Inside here..” You placed your hand flat against his chest. “Is a heart full of gold. You are the most caring, loving and heroic man I know. You are not a monster, Kevin. Please don’t think that you are. I love you with all my heart. Please don’t leave us, don’t leave me.” Tears were streaming down your face at the thought of living your life without him.

Kevin engulfed you into his chest and placed a gentle kiss to the top of your head. “Alright, baby, alright. I won’t go. I love you too much to leave you behind, to live my life without you.” You leaned up and placed a gentle kiss to his lips. “Thank you and I promise, I’m going to spend every day making sure you know how much you mean to me, no matter how you look.”

Kevin smiled and placed a kiss on your cheek, wrapping his hands around your waist. You leaned into his touch and you both turned to walk towards Ben and Gwen. Gwen was smiling with delight at the thought of her best friend staying with them, but Ben was covering his eyes. “C’mon guys, is there any need for so much smushy stuff.”

Gwen rolled her eyes at her cousin and elbowed him in the ribs before grabbing him by the ear and leading him out of the building. You and Kevin laughed before taking each others hands and following the Tennysons back home, where you all belonged.

#kevin levin #kevin levin x reader #kevin levin imagine #kevin levin fanfiction #kevin x reader #ben tennyson #gwen tennyson #ben 10 #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 series

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brokehorrorfan · 3 years

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The Batman: The Complete Series will be released on Blu-ray (with Digital) on February 1 via Warner Bros. The animated TV series aired for five seasons, first on Kids' WB then Cartoon Network, between 2004 and 2008.

Update: The releases have been pushed back to March 1 “in order to enhance the visibility of the box set in retail outlets.”

It stars Rino Romano as Batman, Evan Sabara as Robin, Danielle Judovits as Batgirl, Kevin Michael Richardson as the Joker, Ming-Na Wen as Ellen Yin, Tom Kenny as The Penguin, Clancy Brown as Mr. Freeze, Alastair Duncan as Alfred, Gina Gershon as Catwoman, Jason Marsden as Firefly, Steve Harris as Ethan Bennett, Mitch Pileggi as Commissioner Gordon, and Adam West as Mayor Grange.

Brandon Vietti, Seung Eun Kim, Christopher Berkeley, Anthony Chun, Sam Liu, Vinton Heuck, Matt Youngberg, and John Fang direct. Michael Goguen and Duane Capizzi developed the show and served as supervising producers.

The six-disc set contains all 65 episodes remastered in high definition. Special features are listed below.

Special features:

The Dark Dynasty Continues – Explore the relationship between The Batman and his allies as he evolves from mysterious vigilante to the World’s Greatest Detective (new)

Joining Forces: The Batman's Legendary Team-Ups – How the series’ producers adapted the DC “Team-Up-Tales” approach from the comic books to the screen

Building Batman – Detective Ellen Yin investigates The Batman's true identity

New Look, New Direction, New Knight (Featurette) – Go behind the scenes to explore the development of The Batman television series

The Batman: Season 3 Unmasked – Supervising producer Duane Capizzi talks about the making of Season 3

The Batman: Season 4 Unmasked – A behind the scenes look into the making of Season 4

Gotham PD Case Files – Confidential profiles of The Batman's most dastardly foes

The Batman Junior Detective Challenge quiz

The Batman Junior Detective Exam: Level 2 quiz

The Batman follows 20-something-year-old Bruce Wayne’s early adventures as he balances his daytime persona as a bachelor billionaire with his nighttime guise as a caped crimefighter. Along the way, Batman is joined by allies Robin and Batgirl as they combat Gotham City’s Rogues’ Gallery, including updated versions of his familiar foes as well as a bevy of rarely seen villains like Killer Moth and The Everywhere Man. Join one of the most complex and intriguing character in comic book history for action-packed super heroic adventures that test the limits of this legendary character's extraordinary physical prowess and super-sleuthing skills.

Pre-order The Batman: The Complete Series.

#the batman #batman #batman the animated series #dc comics #bruce wayne #dvd #gift #kevin michael richardson #ming na wen #tom kenny #clancy brown #gina gershon #jason marsden #mitch pileggi #adam west

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jerryb2 · 3 years

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A couple months ago now, I picked up this book at a local Half-Price Books. As you can of course see, it’s the Star Wars art portfolio of Dave Dorman. As I (then, erroneously) made reference to in a recent post, Dorman was a prolific watercolor artist for Star Wars media back in the 1990′s.

This book, published in 1996, showcases his art up to that point in his career. Some of his most well-known art can be found in the Dark Empire comic:

This book is really interesting, not least because it shows some of Dorman’s rough sketches & layouts, but also a few of the body models that he employed.

Look at this guy: 🤭

Dorman also did a number of the single-issue covers for the Tales of the Jedi comic series by Tom Veitch & Kevin J. Anderson. Though unfortunately, if you happen to own the trade paperbacks of Tales, you really don’t see very much of it, save for a brief cover gallery at the end. However, the most easily recognizable piece of art from this series is undoubtedly this painting of Ulic Qel-Droma:

And just a side note here; this art also went on to be featured as the cover of the Tales of the Jedi Companion in the old Star Wars RPG from West End Games:

Weirdly, the same day that I found this book showcasing Dorman’s art, I found these at another HPB: full cast audio dramas of both Dark Empire & Tales of the Jedi on cassette tapes, all of them featuring this exact cover art. 😵

Now, the more eagle-eyed among you have probably picked up on the fact that there are several things missing here. For one, there’s no Empire’s End. That’s not due to HPB not having that one on the shelf or me not being able to find it, that’s just because it doesn’t exist*. 😐 The same goes for the rest of Tales of the Jedi, though it’s a bit more forgivable there, since these were released back in 1995 and the story didn’t, for reals, conclude until 1999.

*Okay, technically the audio drama of Empire’s End does exist, but it’s only available in the CD special edition re-release of the audio drama - are you kidding me? 😑

And to boot, in classic Star Wars in the 90′s fashion, both of these stories have been abridged to absolute shit. 😩 But I digress....

When I found these, they were all still factory sealed, so I had the distinct pleasure of popping them open for the first time in 26 years. That was really wonderful. 🙂 Look, I’ll probably never listen to these, and probably not for the reason you think. Believe it or not, I do have a working cassette player, but I just can’t say that I care all that much. They’re an oddity, and a really neat piece of Star Wars history, but for now, I think they’ll just live on my bookshelf.

Since finding this artbook, I’ve really gained a ton of respect and admiration for Dave Dorman as an artist, and as a Star Wars fan. And this is just scratching the surface; he did the covers for the Rogue Squadron comic series by Michael A. Stackpole, as well as the Dark Forces: Jedi Knight game tie-in (which isn’t mentioned in this book, since it only came out 1998!) and the covers for all of the Young Jedi Knights books.

The man is a true legend, and his art has served to take readers to that galaxy far, far away for decades now. ❤

Next up in the art-appreciation posts: Drew Struzan 😉

#star wars #art #collection #dave dorman #dark empire #tales of the jedi #rogue squadron #dark forces #young jedi knights

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captainadwen · 2 years

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Summer 2022 Book Read List

Because I accidentally checked out 30 odd books from the library and then had to commit. Here’s a list of the one’s I’m reading, updated as I go. Order is chronological rather than a ranking.

1-3. The Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie [Finished] [Big Rec]

4. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Graham Higgins [Finished]

5. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman [Finished]

6. Sheherazade Goes West by Fatema Mernissi

7. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher, narrated by Patricia Santomasso

8. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin [Finished]

9. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin [Finished] [Big Rec]

10. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

11. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison [Finished] [Big Rec]

12. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir [Finished]

13. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

14. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

15. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar [Finished] [Rec]

16. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, narrated by Amara Jasper

17. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Tatiana Maslany

18. She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan [Finished] [Big Rec]

Honorary Mentions (aka: not started in Summer):

The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien, narrated by Andy Serkis [Finished]

Catching Fire: Special Edition by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Tatiana Maslany [Finished]

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R. Free

#book recs #dandelion this ones for u lmao #it would probably be better as weekly round ups #however #a lot of these books spill out week after week #maybe that fine too?#hmm #reading #reading list

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thesaltofcarthage · 3 years

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Loki takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

from Entertainment Weekly

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

By Chancellor Agard May 20, 2021

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

��The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

Additional reporting by Jessica Derschowitz

#loki #loki series #tom hiddleston #entertainment weekly

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gorogues · 4 years

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Spoilers for comics in June!

You can see the solicits in full at CBR.

As heard last week, there’ll be a Hartley story in DC’s LGBT anthology!!

DC PRIDE #1 written by James Tynion IV, Mariko Tamaki, Steve Orlando, Vita Ayala, Nicole Maines, Danny Lore, Sam Johns, Sina Grace, and Andrew Wheeler art by KLAUS JANSON, AMY REEDER, STEPHEN BYRNE, TRUNG LÊ NGUYEN, LUCIANo VECCHIO, LISA STERLE, RACHAEL STOTT, RO STEIN, TED BRANDT, SKYLAR PATRIDGE, AND MORE! cover by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Tamra Bonvillain Pride card stock variant cover by JEN BARTEL ON SALE 6/8/2021 $9.99 US | 80 PAGES | Prestige | DC DC celebrates Pride Month with nine all-new stories starring fan-favorite LGBTQIA+ characters Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Midnighter, Extraño, Batwoman, Aqualad, Alan Scott, Obsidian, Future State Flash, Renee Montoya, Pied Piper, and many more! This anthology will also feature: —The thrilling introduction of new hero DREAMER in the DCU (as seen on The CW’s Supergirl)! —A pinup gallery with art by Travis Moore, Kris Anka, Kevin Wada, Sophie Campbell, Nick Robles, and more! —Six exciting new profiles of DCTV’s LGBTQIA+ characters and the actors who play them!

Some TPBs involving Rogues that month -- mostly Digger, for the upcoming Suicide Squad movie, but also the DCeased: Unkillables collection.

THE SUICIDE SQUAD CASE FILES 2 TP written by John Ostrander, Paul Dini, Alan Grant, Dan Jurgens, Len Wein, Gail Simone, and more! art by Ed Benes, Dave Gibbons, Dan Jurgens, Luke McDonnell, Norm Breyfogle, and more! ON SALE 7/27/2021 $19.99 US | 224 PAGES | FC | DC 6 5/8' x 10 3/16' ISBN: 9781779511560 James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad film gathers the weirdest and wildest cast of characters in superhero movie history—from Squad veterans like Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang to the downright peculiar Savant and the Javelin, and more. Discover the legacy of the film’s eclectic characters in this second of two collections featuring their stories from throughout DC history! The Suicide Squad Case Files 2 features debuts and key appearances of Captain Boomerang, Rick Flag, the Ratcatcher, Savant, Javelin, Blackguard, and Harley Quinn, the Mistress of Mayhem herself. This volume collects their stories from Batman:Harley Quinn #1, Birds of Prey #58, Booster Gold #1, Detective Comics #585, Green Lantern #174, Secret Origins #14, and Suicide Squad #44.

SUICIDE SQUAD: THEIR GREATEST SHOTS TP written by Various art by Various ON SALE 7/13/2021 $12.99 US | 200 PAGES | FC | DC 6 5/8' x 10 3/16' ISBN: 9781779510730 The ultimate graphic novel companion to the high-octane, highly anticipated Suicide Squad movie coming in 2021! Featuring everyone’s favorite DC antiheroes--from Harley Quinn to Captain Boomerang--this collection is sure to thrill any fan seeking more high-stakes black-ops missions where no one is safe! Ranging from classic adventures by John Ostrander to contemporary tales with art by Jim Lee--all the comics heavy hitters who’ve shaped the Squad are featured in this collection! Collects Suicide Squad #10 (1987), Suicide Squad #15 (2012), Suicide Squad #22 (2013), Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1 (2016), Suicide Squad #16 (2017), Suicide Squad #20 (2017), Suicide Squad #47 (2018), and Suicide Squad Special: War Crimes #1 (2016).

DCEASED: UNKILLABLES TP written by Tom Taylor art by Karl Mostert cover by Howard Porter ON SALE 7/13/2021 $17.99 US | 144 PAGES | FC | DC 6 5/8' x 10 3/16' ISBN: 9781779505965 Discover what the villains of the DC Universe did during the events of DCeased! From the hit series DCeased comes a villain’s story about survival during the zombie apocalypse! Vandal Savage hasn’t lived for thousands of years without being prepared. Seconds after the Anti-Life virus breaks out, he has already made contact and begun to assemble a team of people to help him ride out the end of the world. Some of the world’s greatest mercenaries and fighters are brought to his side, all tasked to protect Savage. All Vandal can offer them is survival. Collects DCeased: Unkillables #1-3.

It doesn’t seem like there will be any Rogues in that month’s Flash issues, but just in case...

THE FLASH #771 written by Jeremy Adams art by Brandon Peterson, Fernando Pasarin, Bryan Hitch and Scott Kollins, Kevin Maguire cover by Brandon Peterson card stock variant cover by Brett Booth ON SALE 6/15/2021 $3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC card stock variant cover $4.99 US| FC | DC The Legion of Doom, Teen Titans Academy, Max Mercury’s Wild West origins, and more! Wally West’s leaps from speedster to speedster throughout time draws to a close as he begins to realize why he’s been sent on his quest by the Speed Force and what might be behind it. But with one last stop before he’s allowed to go home, will this journey break Wally forever or return him to glory?

THE FLASH 2021 ANNUAL #1 written by Jeremy Adams art by Brandon Peterson and Fernando Pasarin cover by Brandon Peterson card stock variant cover by Brett Booth ON SALE 6/29/2021 $5.99 US | 48 PAGES | FC | DC card stock variant cover $6.99 US | FC | DC The lightning-fast and action-packed “Surge” story line races to its conclusion as Wally West returns to the present day with a new perspective on the past and a reinvigorated desire to take back the mantle of the Flash. With one last hurdle to leap, Wally puts the past behind him, but he’ll need to propel himself further and faster than ever before to do it.

#Pied Piper #Captain Boomerang #Captain Cold #the Flash #spoilers: comics #solicits #Midnighter #Apollo #Batwoman #Bane #Cheetah #Deadshot #Deathstroke

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raimispiderman · 3 years

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From the booklet which comes with the Spider-Man Trilogy Limited Edition Collection blu-ray!

This talks about the making of Spider-Man 3, here’s the bit about the first Spider-Man movie and here’s the bit about Spider-Man 2.

Click for a transcript:

OLD FRIENDS… AND NEW FACES

“The heart of the Spider-Man films has always been the depth of the characters and their interconnected lives. Peter’s love of Mary Jane Watson and his friendship with Harry Osborn have always been the richest parts of our stories,” said director Sam Raimi.

In Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker faces his biggest challenge to date – and the greatest battle of all is the battle within himself.

“We wanted to explore the darker side of Peter’s character,” said producer Laura Ziskin. “When his suit turns black, it enhances and emphasizes characteristics that are already in the host. In this case, it makes him stronger and quicker, but also more prideful and aggressive.”

“When I read the script I was really excited about the different direction we were going with Peter Parker and the other characters and storylines,” said Tobey Maguire, who returned to the role of Peter Parker. “We are covering a lot of new ground here, with a fresh take on the story while maintaining the continuity of the characters from the previous two films.”

In Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man takes on two classic villains: Sandman, who first made his appearance in the fourth issue of “The Amazing Spider-Man” and Venom, one of the comic book’s most memorable villains.

“Marvel comic books – and especially the Spider-Man books – have always had a great bunch of villains to choose from,” noted Raimi. “So many great Marvel artists and writers developed these characters. It was a very easy task to pick up these wonderful tales and images and develop our story from them.”

Thomas Haden Church played Flint Marko, a man haunted by the mistakes of his past, who is caught in a physics experiment gone wrong. “I consider it an honor, really,” said Church, an Academy Award nominee for his role in Sideway, on joining the franchise. “The Spider-Man films stand tall in the pantheon of superhero movies. Many are called, few are chosen, and I’m proud to be one of the few.”

“Flint Marko becomes Sandman when he stumbles into a radioactive test site where they’re performing a molecular fusion experiment and he accidentally becomes fused with sand,” Church added. “As a result, he can change his shape and adapt to his environment. He can be 10, 30, 80 feet tall. He can form giant sand fists, hammers, a mace. He can shift into a sand tornado, or sift into sand. He is as malevolent and menacing as any villain can be.”

Church spent over a year preparing for the role, with a physical training and diet regimen which led to his gaining about 20 pounds of muscle before shooting began. “In the comic book, Sandman was a bulky-muscled guy – he looked like a guy out of the WWF,” said the actor, “For the movie, we decided on a leaner look – street hardened, like Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront.”

Topher Grace joined the cast as Eddie Brock, a character in some ways similar to Peter Parker, who transforms into Venom – Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis. “When I was first talking about the movie, Sam asked me if I knew what ‘arch-nemesis’ meant. I thought it meant a huge villain, but Sam pointed out that it really means a villain who has the same powers and abilities as the hero, but uses them for evil,” said Grace. “Sam has gone to great lengths to make this character Spider-Man’s equal and opposite. You might say that Eddie is the guy that Peter would have been if he didn’t have the good fortune of having Aunt May and Uncle Ben to bring him up.”

Grace, a self-described “skinny guy,” put on about 15 to 20 pounds for the role, working out during the several months before shooting began. During pre-production, Grace was subjected to body scans and motion capture data analysis for use by the costume and visual effects departments.

“They were doing a scan of my body, and someone mentioned that the scan would be really helpful for making my action figure. My action figure!” recalled Grace. “It hadn’t even occurred to me that I would become an action figure! It was very exciting.”

“The Spider-Man books have probably the greatest rogues’ gallery of any superhero comic – there are so many memorable villains throughout the books,” said executive producer and Marvel’s president of production Kevin Feige. “With the villains in Spider-Man 3, we wanted to continue the tradition – following the Green Goblin and Doc Ock – of presenting villains that not only provide spectacle and a physical challenge to Spider-Man’s abilities, but characters that are multi-layered and conflicted.”

“At the beginning of Spider-Man 3, we find Peter Parker pretty much where we left him at the end of the second Spider-Man story,” said director Sam Raimi. “He is coming to terms with what it means to be a hero and the sacrifices he has to make to do the right thing. Peter has never had anyone look up to him as someone they admire. Certainly, he’s never had anyone cheer for him before. This has an unexpected effect on Peter: it stirs up his prideful self. This is the beginning of a movement toward his dark side in this film.”

That dark side is brought to the forefront when he comes into contact with a black substance that attaches itself to Peter’s Spider-Man suit. When the substance turns his suit black, he finds he has greater strength and agility than ever before… but also the substance brings out his pride and his vengefulness. “In the climax, Peter has to put aside his prideful self. He must put aside his desire for vengeance,” Raimi continues. “He has to learn that we are all sinners and that none of us can hold ourselves above another. In this story, he has to learn forgiveness.”

Another fan favorite, Gwen Stacy, made her film debut in Spider-Man 3. Well known to fans of the comic books, Gwen made her first appearance in December 1965 “The Amazing Spider-Man #31” and quickly became Peter Parker’s first love. Bryce Dallas Howard took on the role. Despite the differences between the comic book and screen versions of her character, Howard was able to use the comic book as inspiration in bringing Gwen Stacy to life. “There was a very deep relationship built into the comic books – that became my foundation,” said the actress. “This a person who, had things been different, could have been a good mate for him. Because her father is a police captain, she’s accustomed to someone leaving and putting his life in jeopardy every day and loving him unconditionally. I was able to build on that, to play the character that was written in the comic book.”

“It’s wonderful to bring new actors into the series because, although you have an existing set of rules and storylines you want to adhere to, at the same time you need to shake it up, bringing new voices and energies to the film that we haven’t experiences before, “noted Raimi. “It gives the audience a new experience, with the characters they love, but with a new energy dynamic, with those new faces on screen with them.”

“In terms of logistics and scope, Spider-Man 3 is by far the largest of the three films,” said Ziskin. “Sam has really upped the ante for this film, in terms of action sequences and visual effects involving Sandman and Venom, so it is a gigantic endeavor, with over 1,000 people working towards that goal.”

During production, Raimi relied on key members of his filmmaking team to bring to life before the cameras as much of Peter Parker’s story as possible. “Whenever it’s safe and practical, I like to capture the action in camera,” said Raimi. “Visual effects are an amazing tool for action that human beings can’t do – but if a human being can do it, let’s do it.”

The talented team of stuntmen was ready, but so was the cast. Bryce Dallas Howard, especially, surprised the filmmakers by being game for anything they could throw at her. At one point, the actress found herself hanging from a harness.

After performing several portions of the sequence on soundstages in Los Angeles, Howard was eager to get in the harness again to fly with Spider-Man over Sixth Avenue. “What’s so great about movies is you get to really experience these crazy, crazy stunts, things that you would never emerge from alive in real life,” says Howard. “I knew I would be 100% safe because Sam and the stunt team really protect the actors. So I tried to do as many things as possible, because it’s really fun and a great adrenaline rush!”

Thomas Haden Church was also up to the challenge – in fact, even more so. Whether it was being yanked five feet in the air so he could do a face-plant in the mud, or being chased (and caught) by dogs, or dangling off the side of a set, or falling onto train tracks, or having his face smashed into a pane of Plexiglas, the actor found himself bruised and battered repeatedly, but was ready for anything. According to producer Grant Curtis, “It wasn’t intentional, but it seemed sometimes like if any actor was required to get beat up in any way, Thomas was always drawing that short straw.”

Two members of the production team that played key roles in ensuring that these action sequences were both as safe and as spectacular as possible were special effects supervisor John R. Frazier (who previously served in the same capacity on the first two Spider-Man films) and second unit director Dan Bradley (a veteran of Spider-Man 2). “Working with Sam is like going back to school,” said Frazier. “You have that moment where you say, ‘Oh, this is going to be really, really hard, but a lot of fun.’ It’s not unusual for me to be on a movie like Spider-Man 3 for nine months, from the beginning planning stages through production.”

One scene that highlights their work is the Subway Drain portion of an elaborate fight sequence between Spider-Man and Sandman. Raimi worked closely with Frazier, Bradley and visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk on the sequence, in which Sandman is blasted by the force of a burst water pipe and, quite literally, goes down the drain. Sam wanted Sandman to melt away, in essence, during this sequence.

“This is the largest water gag for one shot I’ve ever done for a film,” recalled Frazier, who had previously supervised the special effects for Poseidon. “We used 50,000 gallons of water, shooting out of a pipe which blasted the rear of the set fifty feet away. When you see this sequence, the water appears to be a six-foot-thick column of water; however, we made the center of the pipe hollow, and used a restrictor plate to control the size of the column of water. The water is recirculated using pumps, which are able to pump 3,000 gallons a minute. We can fill both tanks in about five minutes, so that we are ready for another take.”

The sequence was covered using eight cameras, according to Stokdyk. “This sequence is where Spider-Man discovers Sandman’s weakness – water. We had to put a CG Sandman in here because the velocity of the water is too great to have Thomas Haden Church or a stuntman perform portions of the sequence. Water is a huge challenge for visual effects, especially on a large scale, so our goal here was to seamlessly integrate the elements for the sequence between practical and CG.”

Bradley and Frazier’s work is also on display in an action sequence during a bank heist, in which a security guard (played by none other than producer Grant Curtis) falls victim to Sandman’s wreath. “As a producer, Grant is uniquely qualified for guarding money,” laughed Bradley, “so Sam typecast him and invited him to spend a lot of time on set being buried underneath tons of sand as one of the armored car guards.”

Apprehensive as he might have been about performing the stunt, Curtis says that it would have been pointless to argue. “I’ve worked with Sam for ten years, so I know that once a decision’s been made, he’s going to get his way,” he said.

The sequence begins spectacularly, when Sandman smashes into the top of the armored call with his fist – which, in reality, Frazier’s team made of polyurethane foam. It was eight feet tall, six feet wide, and weighed over 500 pounds. Then, debris – sand – came flying at Curtis. “On the first take, I anticipated the crash and reacted too early,” he remembered. After an adjustment, he nailed the second take.

At the end of the sequence, the guard is buried in sand. To film the scene, the armored car was lifted and tilted at a 50-degree angle so that the sand could be dumped in and fill the car but with a fraction of the pressure on Curtis. The producer soon found himself beneath 4,000 pounds of ground corncob – the filmmakers’ ingenious substitute for sand.

The idea of using ground corncob as a double for sand did not come immediately to the filmmakers. The first man charged with investigating what kind of sand would make Sandman or solving any number of other costuming challenges, Acheson’s motto was: when in doubt, go back to the original text. “We derive our inspiration, as always, from the comic,” he said. “Sandman is one of those remarkable characters who can change shape, dissolve, disappear, grow, or become mud or concrete. We designed various stages and different scales of Sandman’s evolution, working with wonderful sculptors to create maquettes, small statues of Sandman in his various appearances.”

As much as Sandman required each of the departments to step up their game, so, too, did Venom – Spider-Man’s equal and opposite. Acheson and his team created various stages of Venom’s look, working with Raimi to create a tension in the sculpting of the suit. “It was important to Sam and to James that we keep the suit really sharp and aggressive, as with the tendrils that crawl across Venom’s face at points,” said head specialty costumer Shownee Smith, whose company Frontline Design worked under Acheson’s direction to manufacture the specialty costumes for the film.

For scenes where Brock transitions into Venom, Grace spent an hour being placed into the suit, which added between 120 and 140 pounds to his weight. The actor then spent an additional four and a half hours in makeup for the addition of appliances, including special sets of teeth worn by Grace to give the character the illusion of a larger, more menacing mouth. The filmmakers also attached monofilament to the skin on Grace’s face so that they could pull and distort the character as he makes his transformation.

“At one point while shooting the transition scenes, I thought, ‘What have I signed up for?!’” Grace laughed. “I had black goo poured all over me, wires attached to my face that people with fishing poles were pulling up, and other people below me were pulling down… When you see my character in pain, well, there wasn’t a whole lot of acting required.”

Also interacting with each of the departments was production designer J. Michael Riva, the member of the team responsible for bringing Raimi’s stylish vision to life. Riva was especially proud of his work in cresting the construction site that serves as the arena for the film’s final battle. “Making a construction site doesn’t sound very difficult, but if you have only eight weeks to design and build, it’s practically impossible,” he said. “We used over 20 tons of steel, 100 welders, and 200 carpenters working around the clock, seven days a week to get it done! But we all did it.”

The set took six weeks to complete, using tons of steel from a cancelled building project. A construction elevator, complete with operator, transported cast and crew to the various levels of the elaborate set. For the extensive lighting and electrical needs required for the sequence, a labyrinth of connections was designed and installed 80 feet above the stage floor, using over four miles of electrical cable. By the time the set was ready for shooting, Stage 27 was outfitted with approximately 21,000 amps, enough power to service over 200 homes.

“The great thing about a construction site is that it’s a very dangerous place. First, besides the implied height of the set, you have a lot of steel and rebar lying around at such a site. You can always rely on Sam to see opportunities and come up with an effective way to use these set elements to enhance the danger in a scene,” said Riva. “Second, it was an open structure, pretending to be 50 stories high, open on all sides. It offered Sam a jungle gym of possibilities to web up and down, to do a chase all over the face of the steel structure. The higher they go fighting their way up the building, the more the danger and tensions increase. It’s a long way to fall if you’re not Spider-Man!”

For visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk – the man charged with bringing the visual effects to the screen – those words were the beginning of a two-year process to develop the technology that would make Spider-Man 3 the most visually stunning film in the series so far. “When we began the pre-production process, the computer programs had not yet been developed which could achieve the look of Sandman and his capabilities that Sam wanted to see,” recalled producer Grant Curtis. “However, Scott Stokdyk and his team created new technology to manipulate every piece of sand on our character. The existing technology allowed management of thousands of particles at once – but to animate Sandman the way Sam wanted to, we would have to be able to render billions of particles. In the end, the new software they wrote required ten man-years to code.”

Stokdyk says that he and his team prepared for the challenge by first observing how sand moves in the real world. “One of the first things we did was to organize a sand shoot with Sam and Bill Pope, the difrector ofg photographer,” Stokdyk continued. “We shot footage of sand every way we would need it – thrown up, thrown against blue screen, over black screen. John Frazier, the special effects supervisor, shot it out of an aero can at a stuntman. Anything we could imagine sand doing in the film, we shot.”

“There’s a character the, emoting, but it’s just a pile of sand,” said Stotdyk. “If we’ve pulled together enough grains of sand to make feel something, then we’ve pulled it off.”

In the end, the artists were all extremely proud of their creation. “Sony Pictures Imageworks delivered on Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, but for Spider-Man 3 it changed the industry standard,” said Curtis.

Sandman, of course, was not the only character that posed a considerable challenge for Spencer Cook; animating the black-suited Spider-Man required subtle changed to reflect the character’s more aggressive personality, “He’ll move a little quicker here and there, hunch his shoulders a little more, put his elbows up a little higher when he’s stuck to a wall. We tried to find poses that the classic Spider-Man would not do – where the red-suited Spider-Man was graceful and elegant in his motions, black-suited Spider-Man is more blunt, rough, and reckless.”

In creating Venom, Stokdyk notes that the character has at least three different stages. First, of course, is the initial transformation, in which Topher Grace’s skin is pulled away from his body and tendrils of goo cross his face until they completely envelop him. “As he gets angrier, he turns into more of a monster, more of a beast,” Stokdyk noted. First, he becomes a kind of double for Spider-Man, played by Grace. By the very end of the film, he becomes an entirely CG character – the classic Venom from the comic books, with a menacing, unhinged jaw and a full mouth of very sharp teeth. “Everything is alive on ‘comic-book Venom,’” Stokdyk continued. “The challenge was to make a character that was monsterous, very detailed, very kinetic – but not delicate. Despite all the detail, he’s still menacing.

Stokdyk was also determined to break new ground in terms of live-action integration with the visual effects. The supervisor was on hand during production so that he could be ready to take the ball as soon as the scenes were filmed. “It was important to Sam and me to incorporate as much live-action into the CG as possible,” he said. “The typical reason a shot is animated is because a person can’t do all of it. We wanted to find a way to have an actor or stunt person do part of the action, and synthesize the rest. The goal was to find a balance between keeping the shot real and making it exciting and cinematic.”

One dramatic example of this idea comes early in the film, as Peter Parker finds himself ambushed by the New Goblin – his friend, Harry Osborn. “It was Sam’s idea to show Peter fighting as Peter not as Spider-Man,” said producer Avi Arad. “It’s a terrific amount, because it brings home what a personal battle this is for Peter when you can see his face.”

Tobey Maguire and James Franco completed much of the aerial stunt sequence themselves, doing wire work suspended high above the stage floor. “Tobey is really handy with stunt situations, and he picks it up really quickly,” said stunt coordinator Scott Rogers. “James is also terrific – he’s got a great attitude. Both actors are used to the type of physicality required for their roles, and they excelled.”

For Stokdyk, achieving such great heights would not have been possible without the contribution from his team at Sony Pictures Imageworks, assembling, in the end, between 200 and 250 people to complete more than 900 effects shots. “You live and die by your team,” said Stokdyk. “They were always ready to respond, always on their toes. That’s bit of the process of working with Sam, you have to be flexible and ready to deliver.”

“When developing this third installment, we asked ourselves, ‘What does this young man still have to learn?’” said director Sam Raimi. “We placed him in situations where he’d be forced to confront his absences of character – obstacles that, in previous stories, he might not have been able to surmount. In this way, he would either be defeated or grow into the heroic person who might be capable of overcoming these obstacles. As the depth of our characters grow, they become richer human beings and can achieve more than in the previous films.”

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