What the Frankenreiter?!

Oh come on, his last name totally sounds like a curse word. I spoke to professional rad-due and musician Donavon Frankenreiter today about his up and coming performance at the Byron Bay Bluesfest.

Those not familiar with Frankenreiter, he started out as a professional surfer and turned professional musician when he rented a room in Jack Johnson's parents house and the pair bonded. By bonded, I mean became BFF's and in 2004 he released his self-titled debut album on Johnson's label Bushfire Records.

Now, one of the most successful artists in the surf-rock genre, I couldn't resist the opportunity to ask him about Snakes On A Plane. Yes, the awesome, schlocky-riffic, Samuel L. Jackson Snakes On A Plane. In 2006 Frankenreiter wrote a song for the opening sequence titled Lovely Day and featuring Koool G. Here's what he had to say:

"That was great, I had a really great time doing that. It was the first time anyone had asked me to score a piece for a movie and they gave me the scene to watch. It was a lot of fun. I’d like to do more of that. Any type of movie genre would be interesting. It could be instrumental or with lyrics, it could be anything. I love watching films and scoring by getting ideas from that and incorporating what the musical director and producers want."

Look out Danny Elfman, Frankenreiter is coming for youuuuuuuu.

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2 good to be true

The second, more substantial Iron Man 2 trailer went viral yesterday and geekoids the world over reacted with sufficient excitement. My favourite online reactions were:

Mikfly: OMG man... this was AWESOME, my keyboard is destroyed now because I jizzed all over it.

Army Archerd: I would love to play with her golden globes!

hedecline182: Marked as spam no puede ser mas lindo...

666evil6cow666: Marvel I owe your infinity internet, and you owe me a pair of un-jizzed underwear

badmitz : scarJo can throw me down anytimeee

roxxas5: I just had a nerdgasm.

Bless YouTube. But rightly so roxxas5, because while the first trailer had plenty of fire power, I thought it lacked the flamey goodness which made the first film so darn wicked.

The new Iron Man 2 trailer delivers and promises to be just as good as Jon Favreau’s first super hero flick, if not better. Importantly, it dangles the carrot a tad closer than the first trailer by showing the supporting cast, particularly Sam Rockwell, ScarJo and Samuel L. Jackson in a few flashes of juicy screen time.

Now, if only they could wrap up the film with Gwyneth’s head in a box…..

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What a Rourke-us!

If you’re looking for creepy coincidences look no further then my review on The Wrestler posted yesterday where I said Mickey Rourke was as suited for the role of Ram as Robert Downey Jr was for the role of Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Turns out casting directors made a more significant link to Rourke and Iron Man with Variety reporting he has been cast as a villain in Iron Man 2. According to the rag he will play a heavily tattooed bruiser (no surprises there) who is basically a Russian version of Tony Stark complete with his own arms business. Oh, and he’ll battle Iron Man in his own nuclear powered armored suit. The Hollywood Reporter have gone on to suggest the character, who is at the moment unnamed, will be either The Crimson Dynamo or Whiplash as featured in the comic series. Naturally Robert Downey Jr is returning as Tony Stark, Don Cheadle is replacing Terrence Howard as James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, Gwyenth Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts and Samuel L Jackson is playing Nick Fury the super-spy (pictured below). Jackson played Fury in the original Iron Man movie (2008) in a post-credits scene at Tony Stark’s home where he tries to recruit Iron Man to join the Avengers. The casting news that has really got my juices going is Movie Mazzupial favourite Sam Rockwell in the role of Justin Hammer, head of Hammer Industries comic books’ and another of Stark’s main adversaries in Iron Man 2. Seriously, Rourke and Rockwell as foes? Could this movie sound more awesome? Besides The Dark Knight I doubt there has been a cast this diverse and talented for a comic-book adapted movie. The first Iron Man was witty, fun and action packed but not in a hollow Spider-Man kind of way. It was one of my favourite films of `08 and I questioned how they would be able to make a sequel better than the first. Now with the original crew and cast back on board plus the added talents of Rourke, Jackson, Cheadle and Rockwell “wow” pretty much sums up my general response. And who better than Rourke to play a villain? We all know Rockwell is great as a conniving evil-doer (see Charlie’s Angles for further proof) but Rourke has rarely been given the opportunity to play a truly bad dude. Yes, he’s played many a lovable bad guy but I want to see him pure evil darn it! Everyone knows Rourke eats puppies for breakfast with a side of baby seal salad but I can’t wait to see what he can do on screen in this part. With a swashbuckling cast, an awesome predecessor and a 2010 release date, Iron Man 2 is shaping up to be a major blockbuster with meat.

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