How did I miss theses?

This will hopefully become a regular post of various musings and interesting tidbits I've come across over the last week (two weeks, month?). So he's the ones I've come across just over the last few days:

Mad Max

I knew a fourth installment of the Mad Max series was green-lit (probably called Mad Max: Fury Road). What I didn't realize was that UK actor, Tom Hardy is the lead. Hardy was the main villain of the tenth Star Trek film, Nemesis. The poorly edited film butchered not only the main cast's performances, but his as well and it appeared to almost destroy what many believed was a rising star.

1. Let's hope this Mad Max film is good.
2. Let's hope that time has been good to Hardy and that if he still has that promise, that he can capitalize on it.

Heck, based on the last few sequels, I don't expect much, but hey - it's gotta be better than "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome"

Green Lantern

In February I mentioned that they got director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale) attached. Then, back in July they cast Ryan Reynolds as the most well known and probably the most popular Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. Now I've read that the upcoming Green Lantern film will not be an "origin" story. Thank God. I'm sick of these things - where the film never picks up until the final act because the first 3/4ths of it were spent introducing everyone to the "universe." This may backfire, but I'm hoping that it works and could set a sta

When it works, it works - the newest Hulk film was a vast improvement over the 2003 version - which presented the "origin" as an arty montage in during the opening credits instead of spending the entire film setting up the pieces for a sequel that never happened. I personally find that Spider-Man was essentially all build up, with Spider-Man 2 re-hashing the exact same plot points (walking into Spider-Man 2 without any knowledge of the events in the first film is extremely easy). Batman Begins and Iron Man are exceptions, but with the rumors of a "origin" story Superman film in the works, I was worried we couldn't just be introduced mid-stream to someone (a la Batman '89).

Parker Brothers is insane

The toy company, Parker Brothers, and whoever those production companies that bought the rights to their boardgames are morons. Clue at least had established characters that could conceivably be expanded into a whodunit mystery film. Battleship? Monopoly?

What, does the film primarily follow Mr. Moneybags as he gets $15 bank errors in his favor and is consistently thrown in jail only to be released because of lucky dice throws? I'd hate to even look to see if a "Risk" movie is being made...