Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment has given the Internerds a lot to think about today. We have already shared a list of crossover movies we’d like to see, while Twitter users suggested other team-ups and battles to the hashtag meme #disneymarvel and other blogs have speculated that one day we could get a Pixar-produced Marvel movie. Not that we really need one of those after The Incredibles, but it could still be a cool thing to see.

Then there are the seriously curious and worried who wonder what will happen to the Marvel attractions at Universal Studios. Will Wolverine and Spider-Man begin walking around Disneyland alongside the classic Disney characters? And will Northstar only be allowed out during the annual Gay Days? Will the Mouse House do any damage to the Marvel movies already in the works or have any adverse effect on the comic book titles?

It will be a while before we know the answer to any of these questions, but the blogosphere was hot today with speculation, so let’s see what some of them had to say specifically on the subject of movies. Check out the film blog responses to the news after the jump:

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The news that Disney is buying Marvel for $4 billion has taken the entertainment industry by surprise. But while the deal itself came out of nowhere, it’s not too shocking that these companies would see the benefit of coming together. They each involve an enormous universe full of characters, stories and, most importantly, licensing opportunities. And at a time when original plot ideas are difficult to come by, this acquisition could mean a surplus of comic book and film synopses based solely on the possibilities of team-ups, battles and other crossovers between the Disney and Marvel worlds.

To give you an idea of where this deal could lead, we’ve come up with ten potential movies that we’d love to see come out of the Disney-Marvel relationship. Check them out after the jump.
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When it was just the Adoption Community protesting the marketing of Orphan, a hackneyed horror flick about yet another evil adoptee, it was merely another minor controversy incited by a select interest group. But now members of the U.S. House and Senate have gotten involved with a letter campaign to Warner Bros. condemning the studio’s seemingly anti-adoption advertisements for and message in the film.

Is this really necessary after so many years and so many stories containing fucked-up orphans? Sure, Hollywood has given us too few Annie types in cinema over the past few decades, but certainly ‘80s television made up for this history with the likes of Diff’rent Strokes, Webster, Small Wonder, My Two Dads, Punky Brewster, et al. And adoptions were on the rise for most of that time, only dropping slightly in recent years, possibly due to the dwindling economy.

That isn’t to say we agree with cinema’s consistent misrepresentation of orphans or adoptees, so to expose the unfair reputation of parentless kids, we take a look at ten types of screwed-up orphans, which potentially keep more people from adopting them. Check out our list of characters and films after the jump:
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Between Jon Favreau Tweeting the making of and USA Today and Entertainment Weekly covering promotional bases in more-traditional ways, we may actually be sick of Iron Man 2 by the time it’s done shooting, let alone by the time it opens next summer. Okay, that’s not at all true, but isn’t it still a bit premature for EW to feature the Iron Man sequel on its magazine cover already? Even with Comic-Con around the corner?

Well, the mag and the production might at least be a little more careful about what is being let out of the figurative poly bag so early in the game. After all, on the day that Paramount releases the first official (and initially blurry) look at Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow the online discussions shouldn’t be focused on Mickey Rourke’s cockatoo. Never mind that not all the reactions to Rourke’s quote in EW aren’t negatively the sort of preemptive backlash studios fear, the distraction from the big sell alone should be cause for slight alarm.

Personally, I’m more excited about the bird than the chick, anyway, seeing as how awesome Rourke was with a little dog sidekick in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Let’s see the rest of the blogosphere’s reactions to Rourke’s new pet after the jump:

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Just as Nikki Finke “TOLDJA” almost four months ago, Oscar-nominee Natalie Portman has been tapped for Marvel’s Thor, in which she’ll play love interest to the Norse god-turned-superhero. No stranger to comic book adaptations nor to reworkings of Scandinavian properties, the actress will play “Jane Foster,” a nurse who becomes Thor’s love interest when the “powerful but arrogant warrior” is banished to Earth by his fellow Asgardians. So far, Portman remains the sole household name cast in the movie, which stars Chris Hemsworth as the title hero, Tom Hiddleston as the villainous Loki and Brian Blessed as Thor’s father, Odin. Fellow Oscar-nominee Kenneth Branagh is directing.

The former child actress follows in the tradition of well-known but questionably talented starlets playing uninteresting love interests in comic book adaptations: Kim Basinger in Batman; Katie Holmes in Batman Begins; Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight; Kirsten Dunst in the Spider-Man movies; and Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man. To me, Portman seems like a cross between the last two actresses. She’s done the “manic pixie dream girl” thing like Dunst, but she’s a little more high class, a la Paltrow. Marvel claims they’re updating the Foster character for the film, which is good considering few comic enthusiasts even know or care much about her, but it still seems likely Portman may actually have less to do in this movie than she did in The Darjeeling Limited (not including the Hotel Chevalier prologue).

Personally, I think Branagh should have hired Maia Brewton for the role, especially now that people are re-watching Parker Lewis Can’t Lose on DVD. Sure, she hasn’t been around in awhile, and it would be stunt casting, but I always prefer stunt casting to bad casting.

Check out some other film blog responses to the casting after the jump:

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One thing you have to love about the fanboys, they’re always a glass-half-full kind of people. Whenever one of their beloved movies gets ripped apart by critics, they point to the box office results with pride. Critics are meaningless, they remind us, because Transformers and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels and the Star Wars prequels made so much money. And now, with their Watchmen having received both mixed reviews and a relatively disappointing opening weekend, they’re still defending its success to the end. Drew McWeeny of HitFix said it best in a Tweet this morning: “Box-office talk is absolute death to me. I just don’t care. It got made. I liked it. I win.”

McWeeny may not exactly be the king of the geeks, but he does inadvertently represent them today. Because whether or not Watchmen has technically underperformed (or “failed” in any way) should not be their concern any more than the negative reviews (or our list of reasons claiming the comic adaptation is unnecessary). But if they are going to use the defense that the box office doesn’t matter, they aren’t allowed to celebrate grosses this summer when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen receives bad reviews yet still has a strong opening.

More on the debate on the topic of Watchmen’s success or failure after the jump.

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Is it that odd to imagine a Waterworld musical on Broadway? After all, Xanadu made it to the big stage, so anything is possible for infamous turkeys like this one. Sure, it looks rather silly in the video below, the way Patrick Warburton and company have made it, but with the right creative team Waterworld could really work as a kitchy cult attraction. Maybe team up two randoms, the way Marvel has with the upcoming Spider-Man show directed by Julie Taymor and featuring music by Bono. Honestly, there seems to be nothing that Broadway producers could announce that’s any more ridiculous than what’s already been done there.

So, terrible movie-turned-musical ideas may continue to be easy gags, and they’re possibly even going to make me laugh, but ultimately I would like to go see Con Air: The Musical (from 30 Rock) and Planet of the Apes: The Musical (from The Simpsons) and musicals made out of Waterworld, The Postman, Battlefield Earth and especially Ishtar. Who would love you, Mariner? I would.

Check out the commercial for Waterworld: The Musical after the jump.

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We got a quick, edgier look at Quarantine before an uneventful visit from the cast of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. And then the real entertainment began, as Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Amber Heard and Evan Goldberg took the stage for inane questions yet plenty of laughs.

Highlights:

- Though Kate Beckinsale is not in the new Underworld prequel, star Rhona Mitra says her skimpy outfit in the movie should keep fans satisfied.

- David Gordon Green apparently directs his actors with commands like, “do it like you’re taking a shit.”

- Coming soon: an episode of The Simpsons written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

- Rogen continues his career playing druggies and drunks with The Green Hornet.

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Even though some of last year’s Comic-Con secrets were leaked to the web ahead of time, the 2007 SDCC was a huge deal as far as revelations go. Whether it was the unveiling of Karen Allen’s involvement in Indiana Jones and the Then-Still-Not-Subtitled Fourth Installment or cast updates for Watchmen and Star Trek or a bit of clarification on what the hell that Cloverfield movie was, Comic-Con 2007 left us super excited and highly anticipatory for the next year of movie releases.

But after a quick glance, the 2008 convention doesn’t seem like it will have as many big announcements. There should be plenty of new footage shown from movies like Watchmen (making its second Comic-Con round) and The Spirit (hopefully there’s some better looking stuff than the most recent trailer gave us), but what secrets are set to be let out of the bag?

Here’s 10 things I hope they reveal over the next few days:

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in Terminator Salvation - If this really happens, I’ll be flabbergasted. But a guy can hope, at least for official word on a cameo. And there’s no better place than Comic-Con for a confirmation to happen. Well, I guess if Warner Bros. could keep it a secret until the movie opens next May, then that would actually be better. But that’s impossible nowadays.
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While much of the Spout team is across the country covering Comic-Con (and what a great job they’re doing), I’m staying home and relaxing. Sure, it looks like a lot of fun out in San Diego, but I bet it can get really stressful, too. I hear yesterday there was a little problem with Hall H collapsing early in the morning. I can do without that kind of excitement.

Maybe this weekend I’ll just lounge around the house in a Batman costume while my brother (who alerted me to the amusing ‘toon above) comes over and hangs out in a Spider-Man costume. Or, should I have said Baman and Piderman? Watch the clip and be inspired to have your own lazy Comic-Con in the privacy of your own home. And if you don’t think it’s the quite same, since you don’t get to attend the panels and what not, just keep checking back to SpoutBlog for all your liveblogged updates. It’ll be just like the real thing. I pwomise.

Over the weekend, Wanted had a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com. It’s since gone down to 81% (at the time of this writing — and with top critics it’s down to 67%), though that’s still pretty good for a movie that initially looked like just another Matrix knockoff.

But will the good reviews make for great box office? Last night, while viewing the latest trailer in a theater with some friends, I mentioned that Wanted was receiving great reviews. Nobody believed me at first, and then they didn’t care; they still thought it looked terrible.

Good reviews rarely help an action movie, and bad reviews rarely deter audiences from seeing them. However, if we look at the top 5 most critically acclaimed action movies, it’s clear that people do often prefer a good action film to a bad one. The next 5, on the other hand…

1. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
   Rotten Tomatoes’ “T-Meter” score: 94% (top critics: 98%)
   All Time Domestic Box Office Rank: #9 ($377 million)
   Sample Critic Quote: “The film event of the millennium.” (Richard Corliss, Time)
   My Analysis: In terms of both reviews and gross, it is possible that, yes, this final LOTR film was the film event of the millennium only three years in. It even won the Oscar for Best Picture, as well as ten other Academy Awards. However, we do have a few hundred years left, and Corliss’ assessment is likely to be challenged one of these centuries.
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In this week’s New York, David Edelstein lists a number of films that significantly represent the Big Apple. Because it’s a celebration of the magazine’s 40th anniversary, though, it only goes back as far as 1968 (the year of Planet of the Apes and Rosemary’s Baby). So, tragically no timely mention of The Naked City, which lost both its director and star recently.

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Yesterday, in response to David Gordon Green’s talent being (presumably) wasted on Pineapple Express, I brought you my picks for the 5 worst directorial sellouts of all time (or, as I should have titled it, 5 Worst Attempts at Mainstream Success). And now, as promised, are my picks for the best, because occasionally a great filmmaker can take a seemingly sellout gig and deliver a masterpiece.

1. (tie) The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974) - Everyone should know that Francis Ford Coppola didn’t want to make the first Godfather film. He wanted to make smaller movies, such as The Conversation, which he was able to make at Paramount only because he directed The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. I prefer the film he wanted to make, but there is no denying his first two Godfather films were worth Coppola’s time and, more importantly, ours. …Read more

After reading the news that Paramount has tapped Sam Raimi to revive the Jack Ryan franchise (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears), I had one thought: who could have predicted this? And then I quickly had another thought: didn’t Paramount already attempt to youngify this character?

Regarding my first thought, I believe the Fark.com subby snarked it best by presuming “Jack Ryan might be wielding a chainsaw in his next film.” Sure, the joke is a bit obvious, and a bit outdated now that Raimi has done three very tame Spider-Man flicks, but the guy did manage to slip a chainsaw in the second (aka the best) installment with that terrific horror-homaging surgery sequence. So, perhaps it’s not even a joke; maybe Ryan will wield a chainsaw. The better — because it’s less plausible — joke would be to speculate that Ryan will be fighting skeletal terrorists (I didn’t say it was the funnier joke).

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