Sunday, April 11, 2010

MOVIE NEWS: The Losers - Cast & Crew Talk About The Prodcution Part 3

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“It’s pretty much a suicide mission."


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Despite their individual and combined skills, The Losers need help to sneak back into the U.S. undetected. That’s where Aisha comes in. Zoë Saldana plays the woman who proves to be either a formidable ally or a dangerous enemy…or both. It’s hard to know whose side she’s really on—other than her own—but Clay is about to learn she usually comes out on top.

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“Aisha appears to them out of nowhere just when the guys think there is no hope for them to get back home,” says Saldana. “She makes them an offer that sounds too good to be true, but it’s also an offer they can’t refuse: she’ll get them back into the country, but then they have to deliver Max. They decide to take her up on it, but there is mistrust from the beginning because they don’t know what this woman is hiding up her sleeve,” the actress smiles.

White, who had been a fan of Saldana’s even before her recent roles in the sci-fi blockbusters “Avatar” and “Star Trek,” recalls, “When we started discussing the role of Aisha, I instantly thought of Zoë. She has remarkable acting chops, but she also has the physicality the role demanded. Aisha is not the lady in distress; quite the contrary, she’s the badass who actually rescues the men. She’s very capable, very strong and very determined, and Zoë brought her own genuine strength to her performance. She also happens to look very much like the character in the comic book, so we were thrilled when she said yes.”

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Joel Silver adds, “Zoë is beautiful and sexy and exciting—all the things Aisha needed to be. We wanted Aisha to be a match for the guys and then some. She’s tough, smart, opinionated and able to mix it up, and everything we expected of the character, Zoë delivered to the role.”

The man who targeted The Losers—and who is now their target—is Max, a shadowy and ruthless government operative, who is now operating by his own set of rules to keep America on top. And if a few billion dollars end up in his pocket along the way, even better.

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Jason Patric, who plays the role of Max, affirms, “He has his own manifesto and a twisted sense of patriotism that I thought was funny and even a little topical today. Max has a bit of a swagger and an overconfidence, which I think he uses to hide the fact that he’s been beaten down in the past. But I just tried to have fun with it.”

“Max was probably the trickiest part to cast,” White asserts. “We wanted to cast against type, and Jason has never played a true bad guy in a movie before. He came in with some great ideas for the role, and I thought he would help me create a unique character who is different from other villains we’ve seen. He brought this quirkiness to his performance that I think really sets it apart.”

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“Jason was terrific,” Foster agrees. “He made Max menacing and eccentric and funny all at the same time. He’s a villain you love to hate.”

As do all self-respecting villains, Max also has a henchman named Wade, because, as Patric says, “Every bad guy should have a thug.”

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Wade is played by Holt McCallany, who offers, “Wade is a former special ops soldier, a very competent guy who has now kind of gone over to the dark side. He took all the skills he learned in the Special Forces and become a soldier of fortune. He’s a guy who’s essentially a mercenary. What makes him dangerous to The Losers is that he knows these guys. He knows their history and what they’re capable of…and what a threat they are.”

Judging by appearances, you can also tell what Wade is capable of. “You know Wade could physically take Max out any time he wanted to,” White allows. “But Max is smart enough and manipulative enough to have Wade following his orders, no matter how outrageous they are. Holt played the character with just the right balance of fear, loathing and respect.”
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COMIC NEWS: Kick-Ass Hardcover (Marvel)

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Before it was all over the media with film trailers and stories of controversy, Kick-Ass was Mark Millar's new collaboration with John Romita, Jr. One of my local comic shops was part of the poster campaign, so I heard about it at the beginning. Published by Marvel's ICON imprint, the comic is a must-read, especially with the film opening this week in the US. Millar and Romita have created a story that's visceral, violent, and fun.

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I've been a fan of this book since I saw the first issue on the shelf at my local comic shop. It's hard to miss, with "KICK-ASS" emblazoned across the cover in bold type, not to mention the hyperbolic statement, "The greatest superhero of all time is finally here!" Kick-Ass might not be the greatest superhero of all time, but the comic is one of the greatest I've read. The story could be about any comic fan who dared to ask what would happen if one of us tried what we read about every week? Most likely our fate would be pretty close to Dave Lizewski; we'd get our asses kicked and wind up in the hospital. But maybe one person would actually do some good or get mixed up with some other hero-types and get more than he bargained for. Therein lies the genius of Kick-Ass. Millar doesn't give us a hero that gets in over his head and triumphs on his own. He almost gets killed. He gets humiliated. He gets saved by a 10-year-old girl.

That brings me to Hit-Girl. She is one of my top 10 favorite characters of all time, and she's a 10-year-old. Most 10-year-olds I know are not what I want to read about when I crack open a comic, but Hit-Girl is. She's funny, she's foul-mouthed, and she can rock blades like Beatrix Kiddo and the Crazy 88 combined. Much of the controversy surrounding the film is attributed to Millar's handling of her character. Critics say it's unhealthy behavior for a kid her age to be engaging in violence and cursing. Well, duh. That's what makes it great reading--not because we want to be like Big Daddy and create a pint-sized assassin, but because it's great commentary on how parents can really damage their kids in the interest of what they think is best for them.

There are so many interesting elements in the story it's hard to mention them all. I loved the family dynamics: Dave and his dad, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy, Chris and his dad. I loved Kick-Ass's rise to fame, and his awful initiation into the world of being a superhero. Dave truly is an Everyman (or more aptly, an Everynerd). Stan Lee used to say that people liked Marvel Comics because they featured real people with real problems. Dave Lizewski certainly fills that bill.

John Romita, Jr.'s art makes the comic. I'm used to his work on Spider-Man, and this is much different. He mastered the art of gore in the pages of Kick-Ass. You can see that in his cover work. One great thing about this series is that there are pages where there's not a lot of dialogue. Romita's action sequences shine in these pages with blood and guts and gore in the very best way. Is it weird to say that he makes violence beautiful? I don't think so. (I also asked myself that question of Kill Bill and Quentin Tarantino, and the answer was no there as well.)

The truth is, this isn't a book for everyone. It's gritty, violent, and irreverent in all the best ways. That being said, it could be a great introduction to comics for that friend you have who loves violent movies and says superhero books don't have a backbone. If you haven't gotten a chance to read this yet, you can pick up a hardcover at your local purveyor of comics and graphic novels, and you can catch it on the big screen this Friday. Trust me, you'll kick yourself if you miss this one.

Stacey Rader
Review Editor
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