Alternate Realities: Unused Animatics From Iron Man 3, The Avengers Released

Here’s the thing about making movies: there isn’t a screenplay out there that doesn’t go through a half a dozen revisions and rewrites before they get locked down. Sometimes they’re not locked until after principal photography begins.

Which is all well and good for some indie flick made on a Flip Cam, but when it comes to big special effects extravaganzas, the visual effects guys can’t wait for the Suits in Corporate to get tired of giving notes like, “More edgy,” and “Can we get anyone on the planet other than Edward Norton?” They need to start planning stuff out quick, usual with animatics: little flipbook animations of the SFX sequences, done in varying degrees of detail, to give a movie storyboard of what the finished effects shots are gonna look like. And if they do an animatic for a sequence that winds up getting cut or altered? Well, that’s tough luck, Charlie; go to whatever bar Edward Norton’s drinking his sorrows away in so you can whimper to someone who gives a fuck.

But those animatics don’t just disappear… and sometimes, they make their way onto the Internet. Case in point: animator Federico D’Alessandro, who has done work on more than a dozen movies – including, most pertinent to readers of this site, every Marvel Studios movie since Thor, did a bunch of animatics of scenes from Iron Man 3 and The Avengers that didn’t make the final movie… and some of those animatics have made their way to the Web.

Now, I’ve seen plenty of animatics that are, at best, mild curiosities showing only some raw visuals. But these, however, are a little different. All of them include background music and sound effects, some of them have dialogue subtitles laid in, and all of them are just damn cool to watch, to get a sense of what we might have gotten from those two movies… including if The Wasp were part of The Avengers. And you can check them out after the jump.

Demon In A Bottle In A Paper Sack: Iron Man 3 IS Tony Stark’s Alcoholism Story

Editor’s Note: It’s pretty much impossible to discuss the plot of the movie without, you know, spoiling it. So if you want to remain pristine on this, give this editorial a pass until you’ve seen Iron Man 3.

Ever since the news that Iron Man director Jon Favreau had hired Robert Downey Jr. to play Tony Stark in that first movie, there has been an implied promise that, at some point, we would see an adaptation of the classic Demon In A Bottle story arc in one of the Iron Man movies. Sure, Downey was an Academy Award winning actor, but in the early 2000s, he was better known as a reckless drug addict who spent as much time in front of a judge as he did in front of a camera. For good or ill, that history was part of why comic fans got so excited about Downey’s casting as Tony: when the time came to touch on the alcoholism story, it would be fronted by a guy who knew what it was like to lose damn near everything he cared about to substance abuse.

Well, Iron Man 3 is out. It is, as of this writing, the final turn as Tony Stark that Downey is contracted for (although if Kevin Feige has a brain in his Goddamned head, he will offer Downey anything he wants to do Avengers 2, up to and including Stan Lee’s left testicle), and from all advance reports, it was not going to be the Demon In A Bottle story that we’ve been hoping for since 2008 – hell, considering the very first thing we ever see of Tony Stark in any movie is his hand with a Goddamned drink in it, they might as well have promised it to us.

Well, having seen the flick, I can tell you that director Shane Black has excised almost all references to Tony’s drinking… and yet you should make no mistake: this is Tony’s long-awaited alcoholism story. The story fairly reeks of being a first-draft Demon In A Bottle story, with all the overt references to actual, you know, drinking, removed. But if you look for the signs, they’re there… like being around a dude in a nice suit and clean hair, but whose sweat smells faintly of Jack Daniels.

Sensory Overload

Okay, between Free Comic Book Day, Star Wars Day (May The Fourth Be With You! Get it? Is this thing on? Bueller?), the viewing of Iron Man 3, and the celebration of the birthday of one of our contributors (Happy Birthday, Trebuchet! Here’s to being one year closer to death!), we have been flat out all day and likely will be through the remainder of the evening. Thus, this is the end of today’s broadcast day… being as this is being written and published from a two-year-old cell phone.

However, we plan to see Iron Man 3 one more time tomorrow to better be able to review the film here, so watch for that in this space tomorrow. In the meantime, get yourself to a theater and check it out (one-line preliminary review: well worth seeing, but not nearly as exciting as last year’s The Avengers, and the whole thing kinda stinks of where they removed the Demon In A Bottle references that, by rights, should have been there. But a damn fun movie nonetheless), and we will regroup on the morrow.

But until then: see you tomorrow, suckers!

Keeping The Demon In The Bottle: Why Iron Man 3 Isn’t About Stark’s Drinking

Remember how the very first time we saw Tony Stark in Iron Man, he was holding a glass of scotch? And how he brought a portable bar to the weapons test? And how, in Iron Man 2, Tony got drunk, pissed in his own suit in front of God and everybody, and then blew up his own party? And remember how, as a comic book fan (which I presume you are if you came across this Web site), you were excited about all this groundwork being laid to seemingly eventually bring us a movie adaptation of the classic David Michelinie and Bob Layton arc from Iron Man, Demon In A Bottle, from back in 1979?

And do you remember how empowering it was to think that finally the general public would see a superhero that spoke to you – a stumbling, reckless drunk who is able to overcome being unable to perform basic motor tasks while packing a powerful repulsor… and by “repulsor,” I, of course, mean “personal odor”? You remember that feeling? Just me? Hello, is this thing on?

Anyway, whether you were hoping for a reproduction of a classic comic book storyline, or for a kids’ adventure movie that might lead to children pointing at you as you leave a bar and screech, “Iron Man!” rather than “Stranger Danger!”, you ain’t getting it in Iron Man 3, Apparently the corporate overlords at Disney were somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of a superhero movie where the most demanded tie-in action figure was the variant with “Action Vomit!”

T-Minus 27 Days: First Complete Iron Man 3 Scene Released

We are about a month away from the start of summer movie season, and to this day, it feels a little funny to say that this early in April. Back when I was a really little kid, “summer movies” were, well, just movies that came out in the summer, and generally amounted to whatever Disney re-release fronted the double bill at the drive-in theater, where my parents gambled on me falling asleep in the back of the Dodge Aspen early enough for them to get hammered in relative peace and bemoan that they ever decided to have children.

But Jaws, in June 1975, changed all that, with Star Wars moving the start of summer blockbuster season up to Memorial Day. And that’s how it was until Spider-Man moved the magic date up to the first Friday in May back in 2002, and where it has stayed, guaranteeing a huge blockbuster on that day… and a giant pile of expensive shit that Hollywood knows sucks, but is still hoping will lure in enough bored dupes looking for something to do on a Friday night to make back the production investment, the weekend before (hello, Pain & Gain!).

But regardless: the season is coming, and we are, as we have stated in the past, most looking forward to Iron Man 3. Sure, we could spend our early spring looking forward to geek movies like, say, Man of Steel – and make no mistake, we kind of are – but as we have established, this is not our first rodeo. And while the early trailers for Man of Steel look good, we have been burned by a Superman movie made by a director with geek cred starring an unknown before (hello, Superman Returns!), and that one wasn’t even by the poor, deluded schmuck who made Sucker Punch.

So for now, Iron Man 3 is our frontrunner, and since it opens first, on May 3rd, it means we are getting more and more promotional stuff about it. Such as the first complete scene from the movie to be released via Yahoo Screen. It is referred to as “Holiday Greeting,” which is appropriate, because it reminds me of every Christmastime “conversation” I have ever had with my brother. And you can see it after the jump.

New Iron Man 3 Trailer – An Empty Life Or A Meaningful Death?

The newest trailer for Iron Man 3 hit the internet today to hype the UK’s April 25th debut in theaters, while we sad Yanks must wait for our May opening. However, if you’re anything like me, repeated viewings may help stem the long tide between now and then. Or not.

Tony has everything to lose in this new movie: his home, his woman, and, possibly, his life. This trailer gives us some solid glimpses into Ben Kingsley’s villain, the Mandarin, who will attack from the shadows and spur Tony to a very personal revenge:

Does that robe say “Deepened through blood”? Christ. Remember when Kingsley used to be Ghandi? No? Me either at this point.

Take a look at the trailer, after the jump.

Armored Gladiators, And Also Football: Iron Man 3’s Extended Look Trailer

Given that Crisis On Infinite Midlives is based in Boston, it was difficult for us to escape the pervasive malaise that surrounds a Super Bowl that doesn’t include the New England Patriots. Combine the lack of the home team with the fact that co-Editor Amanda and I generally look forward to the Super Bowl only as a bellwether that we are only days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training, and that football enthusiasts were the ones most likely to smack our copies of The Dark Knight Returns our of our hands in the halls of high school (all while guffawing in a manner that implied that high school somehow mattered, and that its social pyramid would go unchanged in the future, and that there wasn’t a chance in hell that someday you’d be gone to fat and earning your keep by rotating the tires on my expensive sports car, right, 1987 starting linebacker Jeff Chander, of 228 North Thompson Avenue?), and we just weren’t all that into the experience.

So here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, we spent the game as an excuse to drink beer and read – Amanda Jim Butcher’s new Dresden Files book Cold Days, and myself Paul Tobin’s prose superhero story (and, ironically, elegy for lost high school relationships) Prepare To Die! – with the game on in the background so we could occasionally look up and marvel that the truly shitty electrical engineering skills at play in a city best known for binge drinking, and at the commercials.

Specifically, we wanted to see the new commercial for and attendant new footage from Iron Man 3, as did every other red blooded comic book fan, both young and old enough to have grown up associating the sound of football pads crashing with the instinct to clench the ol’ buttocks against potential wedgies. And Marvel Studios delivered… albeit using the modern irritation of only showing a bit before teasing the masses to their Facebook page for more visual goodness in exchange for a cheap “like.” And if there’s one thing you don’t want to try with an older geek, it’s playing the sounds of football followed immediately by the command, “Now say that you like it!”

So to hell with the official channels; we have obtained the “extended look” trailer for Iron Man 3, and you can check it out too, right after the jump.

Outsourcing: Iron Man 3 Japanese Trailer Features Some New Footage

I realize that we live in a streaming video world, and that because of the ready availability of streamed movies, many of you no longer buy DVDs. And if that’s the case, you are the worst fucking people on Earth.

Because since DVD and Blu-Ray sales have flatlined in the past few years, the international market has become more important for movie studios than ever. And because of that, the cool genre movies that geeks want to see are opening overseas before we get to see them here (Most recent example? About 25 countries are getting The Hobbit before it opens in the United States). So thanks to you swine who have stopped accumulating movies on physical media for the rotten and unjustifiable reason that streaming is inexpensive and convenient, other countries are getting all the cool shit before us! I hope you’re Goddamned proud of yourselves.

But there is a positive about the whole situation: because those markets are so lucrative, they tend to get trailers with a little more detail and a little more footage than the American versions. We saw it earlier this week with the Star Trek Into Darkness trailer, where the Japanese version had a bit more going on than the American version… and now we’re seeing it with the Japanese version of the Iron Man 3 trailer, which has some previously-unseen footage in it. You can check it out after the jump.

Has He Lost His Mind: Iron Man 3 Trailer Released

So I heard a weird and crazy rumor that that spastic behind the awesome 80s classic film script for Lethal Weapon, the underrated scripts to the 90s movies The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight, and the director behind the vastly underrated 2000s movie Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was maybe gonna do a superhero movie. A rumor to which I put the normal weight one who has drunk a half-quart of whiskey would normally put.

And then I woke up with a crippling headache, and the following further evidence that one with a legally binding addiction should never comment on movie rumors:

Unchained Doggerel: Marvel’s Avengers Vs. X-Men Panel and Quentin Tarantino’s SDCC 2012 Announcement

We’ve seen a lot of cool things at San Diego Comic-Con over the past couple of days, but the Marvel Comic Avengers Vs. X-Men panel held this afternoon wasn’t one of them. Iron Man’s new armor from the upcoming Iron Man 3 movie was, so here it is. Get a good look? Good. Now let’s get back to the bad news.

Avengers Vs. X-Men is Marvel’s marquee summer event for 2012, and we are at about the midpoint of the story, and shit is heating up. We’ve got five X-Men possessed by the Phoenix Force, Hope is being trained by Iron Fist’s sensei to learn to repel the Phoenix, Tony Stark is working with Black Panther to find a way to defeat the Phoenix Force with a combination of science and magic, and Spider-Man is getting at least one of the best moments in a comic set in the 616 universe he’s had in years. So while the event isn’t perfect, there’s a lot of fan excitement around the event and what it has in store for us for the rest of the summer.

So it was with a palpable sense of excitement that we filled the third-biggest room at the San Diego Convention Center at 2:45 this afternoon to discover some tidbits about what the Marvel House of Ideas might have coming up for the fans.

Turns out? It’s hats.