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It’s been a slow 7-8 days on the entertainment front other than the few headlines that emerged last week, but here are a few items of notice that appeared over the weekend: (side-note: you’ll all be proud of me, as I pulled the trigger on a couple of the Hellboy library editions on Friday. I’d never read word one of those comics before, so it’s been quite the treat!)

– We’ve reported on it a few times, but yesterday, the team behind the planned documentary on George Miller‘s Justice League: Mortal released a number of pieces of concept art from the film and while none of it ever actually got used, it’s a neat peek at what might have been:

Ladies & Gentlemen – your King of Atlantis. #Aquaman#JusticeLeagueMortal#MillersJusticeLeagueMortal Lets go viral! pic.twitter.com/7zIh4jx2U2

— Miller’s JL – Doco (@JLdoco) May 30, 2015

Princess Diana flies through Themyscira #MillersjusticeLeagueMortal#JusticeLeagueMortal#Wonderwomanpic.twitter.com/LobU5m6pwB — Miller’s JL – Doco (@JLdoco) May 29, 2015

“I am Mars’ sole survivor. There is a reason for that.” – J’onn J’onzz – The Martian Manhunter. #JusticeLeagueMortal pic.twitter.com/myHMjdiukz

— Miller’s JL – Doco (@JLdoco) May 31, 2015

Princess Diana of Themyscira – or as you may know her #WonderWoman – #justiceLeagueMortal #MillersJusticeLeagueMortal pic.twitter.com/GT4ldjCzBr

— Miller’s JL – Doco (@JLdoco) May 30, 2015

Comics Artist Steve Scroce, who worked on the film, also shared some storyboards featuring a battle between Superman and Wonder Woman, which you can see a sample of below:

– THR reports that Sony is still screen-testing potential Spider-Man actors in Atlanta, where Captain America: Civil War is filming and the new Peter Parker is expected to debut. Despite earlier reports that Asa Butterfield had locked down the role, it seems that its still wide-open to a few possibilities, including: Charlie Rowe (Red Band Society), Matthew Lintz (Pixels), Charlie Plummer (Boardwalk Empire), Judah Lewis (Demolition), and the previously reported Tom Holland and Butterfield.

Apparently, we’ll have an answer as to who will be filling the role by this week.

– This is totally not comics related, though they do make comics of Game of Thrones, so perhaps it’s slightly on-topic. But last night’s episode of the HBO series was incredible, and probably one of the best episodes of the entire run. One little trivia note that I quite enjoyed was a cameo appearance by Atlanta based metal act Mastodon, of whom co-showrunner D.B. Weiss is a big fan. Here’s a picture of some of the members in a scene that’s probably a little spoilery, so I’ll leave a gap…

In a previous life, I played in a band that had a practice space in the same building as Mastodon, it was amazing getting to hear them play during the week as I walked by their door.

Funny enough, this isn’t the first time musicians have appeared on Game of Thrones, in Season 3, Coldplay drummer Will Champion appeared during the infamous “Red Wedding”.

And Icelandic art-rockers Sigur Rós showed up in Season 4 during King Joffrey’s equally attention grabbing wedding:

I’m really hoping for an appearance by The National in Season 6.

The director of "Juno" and "Up in the Air" will make an animated feature based on the Caldecott-winning children's book.

George Miller‘s Mad Max: Fury Road has been a nice moderate hit, accumulating 95 million over the past 11 days, with word of mouth continuing to be strong and rightfully so.

One of the big social discussion points I’ve seen floating around since its release are articles with titles like: “We could have had a George Miller Justice League!”, and it’s true, the auteur behind the Mad Max series was indeed in place to direct the big DC team-up, entitled Justice League: Mortal, that would have seen release just a year after Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight.

Even a few of his cast members from that film appear in Fury Road such as Megan Gale who was signed up for Wonder Woman, and Hugh Keays-Byrne who was intended to play Martian Manhunter. The rest of the cast, which included Armie Hammer (Batman), Common (Green Lantern), Adam Brody (The Flash), DJ Cotrona (Superman), Jay Baruchel (Max Lord), and Santiago Cabrera (Aquaman) contained varying levels of inspiration and exasperation. A number of factors have been cited for why the film wasn’t able to beat Marvel’s The Avengers to the box office, including Nolan not wanting competing, unconnected Dark Knights on the big screen at the same time, a rising budget, and the writer’s strike of 2007-2008.

The biggest problem though? The script just wasn’t very good. At least not the draft I read, which was presumably the final one before production was scrapped. It was basically The OMAC Project combined with Tower of Babel combined with Crisis on Infinite Earths #8, along with an ill-advised fast food plot and some strikingly bad dialogue. This thing would have likely killed your Justice League dreams quicker than you could say “Ryan Reynolds‘ Green Lantern“.

But, much like the documentary feature that will cover the disastrous production cycle that marked Tim Burton‘s Superman Lives, another team is looking to do the same for Justice League: Mortal.

Australian director Ryan Unicomb, along with producers Aaron Cater and Steven Caldwell, are aiming to cover what might have been with a documentary entitled, appropriately enough, Miller’s Justice League: Mortal. According to Unicomb, they have investors in place already and may turn to crowdfunding as well.

The filmmaker briefly spoke with Inside Film about the project:

We wanted to get the story out there to help us to gauge interest. I have always been fascinated with project, which would be in the same vein as 2013’s Jodorowsky’s Dune and this year’s The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?

There’s no current timetable for release, and they’ve yet to approach Miller about the project. Hopefully they’ll be able to secure his participation, as I’m sure the story behind this initial Justice League attempt would prove fascinating.

Warner Bros, for their part, will be finally releasing a Justice League film in 2017, directed by Zack Snyder.

Oh my…

That’s a decent way to start a review, right? After walking out of tonight’s screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, I had so much built up energy inside of me, I literally had to jump around outside of the theater. Quite a few critics have been hailing George Miller‘s return to his seminal franchise as a “masterpiece”. As far as movies that live and die on their action spectacle go, you can consider me one of the converted.

This fourth entry in a series that hasn’t seen a new film in 30 years is basically a reboot, though you could also see it as a sequel to Beyond Thunderdome in a sort of James Bond sense. Tom Hardy steps into the role originally inhabited by Mel Gibson, and his version of Max Rockatansky basically picks up where his predecessor left off. The world has continued to devolve into a hellish landscape in a way that would make George Romero jealous, but any newcomer to Miller’s post-apocalyptic fever dream will find themselves easily able to grasp the central details: Max is a former cop whose family was murdered, and he now wanders this scorched earth attempting to survive. Max gets caught by the minions of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a sort of steampunk Darth Vader/Papal-figure, who is treated like a savior by his men and farms women for their wombs and breast milk. While Max is imprisoned, Joe’s leading lady, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) makes a break for it with his prized concubines, which sets off a chain of events that finds Max, Furiosa, the neurotic yet redeemable Nux (Nicholas Hoult), and a set of kick-ass ladies (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton) on a wild chase as they attempt to lose Joe’s rolling army in dusty desert.

Allow me to emphasize the word chase, as this activity is what makes up literally 99% of Fury Road‘s running time. This is a film that is pretty thin on plot, but bustling with sheer momentum, action set-pieces, intricate design work, and the most rocking score I’ve heard in a film of this type in some time. Through the mostly desert surface, Max and company are pursued by white painted men with explosive muskets, pirates with spiked cars, mercenaries wearing clothes made of bullets, and of course Joe himself. On display is literally every deathrace cliche reinvented for the screen and taken to the next logical extreme. It’s a film so high octane, that Miller even speeds up the action, and envelops it in biting humor, in a move reminiscent of the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet; and it goes to show that Miller, even at 70, is a filmmaker is still willing to learn and adapt to new influences. Mad Max: Fury Road feels like the work of a much younger and hungrier director, and his collaboration with comics giant Brendan McCarthy (who both co-wrote the screenplay and provided much of the design work, and boy does it ever show!) may have done much to reinvigorate Miller post-films like Happy Feet.

However, despite the onslaught of Michael Bay style pyrotechnics, Miller still takes the time to give focus to the character dynamics of this rag-tag bunch that’s formed by circumstance. Rather than cardboard cut-outs, each character feels like a fully-fleshed individual via sparse dialogue and taut performances. The script is the definition of “show, don’t tell”, as exposition is kept to an absolute minimum. Perhaps the biggest and most welcome surprise is that Max isn’t even really the star of the show, though Hardy is quite good in the role, as that honor goes to Furiosa. Theron’s shaved head, mechanically-armed warrior may very well be the closest thing we’ve had to a new Ripley, and I think you can easily argue that this is Theron’s Aliens. I doubt she’ll be up for Oscar consideration, as this is  the kind of film that voters almost never go for (Sigourney Weaver‘s nomination came when the field for actresses was relatively slim), but I would wholeheartedly support a Best Actress campaign in this case. She’s that good.

This added focus on Furiosa also underscores an important point; it’s one of the most feminist action films in recent memory. Fury Road centers on a group of women taking their own agency and pushing against patriarchal rule. While this franchise has always had an undercurrent of pacifist themes, Miller has laser-focused his message, to a point where one interaction at the midway point of the film ends up stating the obvious: this is what happens when old white men run the world unchecked. That may rankle some feathers in the audience, but this is an action movie that isn’t just empty spectacle or aiming for the lowest common denominator. This is a motion picture that’s actually about something with a strong point of view, and that’s worth standing up and applauding for. It’s basically the film equivalent of an album by The Clash dropping in the middle of a sea of bad arena rock.

Mad Max: Fury Road began filming in 2012, and had to undergo reshoots in 2013 (and this of course follows the 25 years of development hell that the film underwent just to get to there). We often take issue with productions that have to undergo that dreaded process, but Mad Max: Fury Road is a diamond of an exception and proves that as an audience, it behooves us to trust in auteur vision, especially in the action arena which so sorely needs it. Much like Bong Joon-ho‘s Snowpiercer last year, Miller paves the way for what these films should look like and the level of care that needs to go into them. This effort proves that, sometimes, you really can go home again.

To every other movie releasing this Summer: good luck!

Mad Max: Fury Road is right around the corner and based on the below trailer (that Heidi so kindly posted about previously), it looks like George Miller may very well prove that you can actually go home again:

But if that doesn’t convince you, here are three more reasons why you should plunk down money for a ticket to see this fourth film featuring everyone’s favorite post-apocalyptic road warrior:

1.) It’s co-written by Brendan McCarthy

Yep, that Brendan McCarthy, the artist and co-creator of comics like Zaucer of Zilk, Rogan Gosh, and Skin. Given that he and Peter Milligan‘s wonderful comic Freakwave was inspired by Miller’s Mad Max 2, it’s fitting that the two creators would eventually collaborate in this way. Additionally, McCarthy designed a number of the characters and vehicles that will feature in the new film.

2.) The first trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will premiere before it

Though you’ll probably see it here first, given how trailers pop up online before they make it to the big screen, it’s been confirmed that our first REAL look at what Zack Snyder and co. have been up to in a project that’s been rather shrouded in secrecy, beyond the official cast photos we’ve seen. Additionally, Junkie XL (who scored Mad Max: Fury Road) and Hans Zimmer have written new music for the trailer, as a bit of a preview for their scoring collaboration in the Man of Steel sequel.

3.) Tom Hardy is already signed up for three sequels

In a recent interview with Esquire, the new Mad Max, Tom Hardy, stated that he’s already contracted for three more films in the series provided it does well enough at the box office to warrant further desert adventures. Apparently, Miller already had plans in place to shoot the sequel to Fury Road, entitled Mad Max: Furiosa back to back with the about to be released film. That didn’t end up happening, but a screenplay is already in place. Who wouldn’t want more George Miller madness gracing our cinemas every few years?

Mad Max: Fury Road opens on May 15th and much like Snowpiercer and Dredd before it, it may very well be the action movie that we’re all still talking about months from now.

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Historical lexicographer Elizabeth Knowles introduces her new book, How to Read a Word, which aims to introduce anyone with an interest in language to the pleasures of researching word histories. In this interview filmed by George Miller of Podularity in the library here at Oxford University Press in the UK she suggests some resources and techniques to get you started. Click here to read more by Elizabeth Knowles, and check back tomorrow for some of her One Minute Word Histories.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Armie Hammer is a giant, beautiful human. Now that we have that out of the way, it’s very obvious — after his scene-stealing turn as the rowing Winklevoss twins in THE SOCIAL NETWORK — that he would make a swell giant, beautiful Kryptonian. However, as he blabs in an interview with Vulture, at 24 he’s too young for the upcoming Zack Snyder Superman movie which will deal with a more mature 35-40 year old Man of Steel. Given that we’ve seen the original of Superman told so well in the Christopher Reeve versions, an older I-know-what-I’m-doing Man of Steel might be a good change-up. It’s also more in line with the age of Christian Bale’s Batman. And, it just feels more Curt Swan, y’know.

Hammer also spills on the ill-fated George Miller JLA movie — he was tagged to play Batman — which was literally on the brink of being filmed in Australia when a tax dispute forced Warners to pull the plug. It sounds like a lot of preproduction was completed, and given Miller’s obvious strengths as a director, this might have been pretty cool.

When we were down there on the soundstages, they would take our cell phones from us if they had cameras on them. This was so top secret and so locked down, it was like walking into the Pentagon. It was very, very character-specific. It did have a semblance of a battle-armor feel, but at the same time, because it was so character-specific, it was all made out of the finest materials. Because Batman has such incredible resources, his utility belt was made from the finest Italian leather and highly polished, and the things that would come out of his forearm, they were titanium but wrapped in very fine leather. I mean, it was all really well-done, very utilitarian. This was before Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight had come out, and this was going to be the first movie where Batman would be able to turn his head [in the cowl]. We had the first bat-suit that let the head turn, it just never got the chance to make it onto the screen. …The thing with Justice League is that he created an entire universe, and everything was done. They had pre-vizzed a lot of the special-effects sequences, and we saw some of the fight sequences without even having filmed them yet. There was a giant room that he had turned into the storyboard room — this huge conference room that had floor-to-ceiling storyboards on the walls — and you’d start at one point and just walk around the entire room and by the time you were done, it was frame-for-frame the entire movie. We saw it on paper and we were going to bring it to life, we just never got the chance.