Next week, Vin Diesel returns (along with Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordanna Brewster) to the Fast and the Furious franchise, which he’d abandoned after the first movie (he did have a cameo in part 3). When news first hit that he’d be reprising the role of Dominic Toretto for the fourth installment, simply titled Fast & Furious, most of us saw the actor as returning under a veil of shame. Because he initially departed the series with an inflated ego — and with it unrealistic salary demands — it does seem obvious that Diesel is now only desperately crawling back because his career failed to take off the way he’d hoped it would.
This is quite sad considering not even Steve Guttenberg ever crawled back to the Police Academy movies, nor did Burt Reynolds ever get dragged back for a fourth Smokey and the Bandit. But there have been other shameful returns by stars to franchises they’d previously sat out of (whether the hiatus was of their own choosing or not). Only one of these may have been as desperate as Diesel now appears, but it’s worth looking at four additional actors and actresses who should be very embarrassed of their delayed reprisals.
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There it is, the real thing, Marty McFly’s actual hover board from Back to the Future Part II. Or it’s one of them, at least. The woman staffing the Comic-Con booth full of drool-worthy Hollywood artifacts informed me that the prop department made several hover boards, of which this is only one of several originals. They’ve sold a few before. She seemed confident that the sale would land between the $30,000 to $50,000 estimated cost, if not exceed it.
Sure, it doesn’t actually work as a hover board (my eight-year-old self is still waiting on that one) but it’s still very real, in another way. Comic-Con is truly an adolescent hedonist’s feast, but almost everything is simulated in one way or another. From big-budget Hollywood remakes of classic comics to the scintillating tease of 2-D cleavage displayed on innumerable posters and comic covers, to cutesy bobble-head versions of even the most bad-ass super heroes, it actually came as a surprise to see something genuine. That thing is the real hover board, or at least the real fake one they used in the movie. Oh well.
After the jump, another unattainable Hollywood artifact…
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Indiana Jones’ adventures may be both work-related and dangerous, but you know he’s having fun. And now you can experience some of that fun thanks to Expedia. The travel company has planned ten different vacations inspired by the four Indiana Jones films, including this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, of course, plus the series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. It’s doubtful that you’ll run into any Nazis or booby traps or any other sort of trouble, but considering you’re not Indy, you’re better off as safe as possible.
Expedia has itineraries in nine countries, including the U.S., in which a trip to the Southwest is tied into the Young Indy prologue of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Other vacations related to Last Crusade include Italy (specifically Venice) and Jordan. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles inspired a trip to Mexico, Raiders of the Lost Ark has inspired trips to Peru, Egypt and Nepal, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom inspired trips to India and China, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull inspired a slightly different trip to Peru.
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If the rumors (or are they predictions?) are true that Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones dies at the end of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time George Lucas completed a franchise by killing off a returning character. But would it actually mean the end of the series?
While there has been additional speculation that Shia LaBeouf could continue the franchise as Indy Jr., there is now the possibility that Ford would actually return for a fifth film, if asked. In an interview in USA Today, the actor says he’d consider it, as long as it doesn’t take another 20 years. So, no death for Indy, then?
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