During last night’s Superbowl we were treated to a teaser trailer for the upcoming Avengers movie, featuring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Samuel L. Jackson. This is the second trailer for the much-anticipated superhero film, which is out on May 4th. The first trailer made the move look more like a clusterf*ck than a coordinated Justice League. (I’m aware that they’re different comics/superheroes.)

They seem to have nailed down the plot in order to come with this more cohesive trailer featuring more scenes of crap getting blown up. This trailer makes the film look more interesting than it did before, but it also has a unreal video game feel that seems all too familiar and overdone. How many movies have we seen with cars exploding and rolling down the street in a wave?

Some thoughts:
They’re very cleverly focusing on all the key parts of the film: the special effects, the individual superheroes played by well known actors, their work as a team, and the pithy one-liners. My favorite part is at :50 when Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is told by baddie Loki (Tom Hiddleston) that “We have an army” and he quips “We have a Hulk.” We then get to see Mark Ruffalo flying through the air as the most badass Hulk I’ve ever seen. Scarlet Johannson is sexy as Black Widow in that tight catsuit, but I like how they’re balancing out the talent in the film and not trying to push her as the star.

The Avengers could be a huge moneymaker for Disney and Marvel or it could be a spectacular flop. Rumor has it that it cost over $250 million to make. Look at what happened with Green Lantern. Warner Brothers really took a bath on that one. Superhero films are no longer the safest bet.

There’s news that Andrew Garfield as Spiderman is going to make a cameo as cross promotion for the new Spidey film, out this July. Can they make the movie work with this many stars? We’ll see.

Photos via Allmoviephoto

Back in April, Derek Jeter and Minka Kelly broke up after three years together, and now Minka is finally ready is ready to date again. The question is this — who could possibly be a worthy follow up to Mr. 3000? In Touch seems to believe that Minka wants to reunite with her previous ex-boyfriend, Chris Evans, and his waxed-up nips. However, the situation is slightly complicated since Minka broke Chris’s heart (and yes, he probably cried) just to be with Derek, so would Chris even take her back to begin with? Minka’s working on it:

Minka Kelly wants to trade her former boyfriend, New York Yankees star Derek Jeter, for a superhero. Now that Minda’s three-year romance with Derek is over, she’s hoping to rekindle the magic with another ex, Fantastic Four hottie, Chris Evans. Chris, 30, and Minka were getting serious and she ended that romance once she met Derek, but the 31-year-old Charlie’s Angels star regrets that decision. “Minka is trying to get back together with Chris,” a friend says. “She is the type of girl who likes having a boyfriend, and she thinks the second time around will be better with her and Chris.”

The only guy who can outshine Derek Jeter is Chris, Captain America himself, says a pal of Minka’s.

[From In Touch, print edition, October 10, 2011]

Well, of course Minka wants Chris back now that he’s not just some guy that most of us forgot was in Fantastic Four. Lately, his acting career is exploding not only with Captain America and The Avengers but also with random movies like this weekend’s What’s Your Number? He’s a total catch now, and Minka knows it.

Kaiser thinks that Minka and Chris would be hot together, and they might very well be aesthetically pleasing together on a red carpet. Yet I respectfully disagree that Chris should take her back. For one thing, exes usually become exes for very good reasons. For another, Derek Jeter leaves a long shadow — and let’s just say that Chris doesn’t want to have the pleasure of competing against any, uh, allegedly leftover gifts. Let’s just leave it at that.

Photos courtesy of Fame and AllMoviePhoto

The cast of The Avengers covers this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly in a wholly bizarre manner. Robert Downey Jr. (as always) fares well in his Tony Stark persona; Scarlett Johansson wields two guns as Black Widow but appears to be missing her shoulders; Chris Hemsworth looks more like Fabio on the cover of a Harlequin romance novel than Thor; Chris Evans (who, sadly, isn’t flashing his waxed nipples) seems ready to burst into tears; and I’m not exactly sure whether Mark Ruffalo knows that his Bruce Banner character is supposed to be, you know, an angry man. What really trips me out though is the amount of Photoshopping that’s been applied to Jeremy Renner’s face — he looks more like a Hawkeye action figure than the real life counterpart. Such a waste. EW has also released a few tidbits from its cover story:

The whole enterprise is falling apart. Egos, tempers, uneasy alliances and bad attitudes are threatening the group, and failure would be catastrophic. Luckily, we’re talking about the actual team of superheroes in the Marvel Studios movie The Avengers, not the cast and crew. In this week’s issue, EW takes a deep dive into the May 4, 2012 movie that will finally unite Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, and Chris Evans’ Captain America – along with Mark Ruffalo’s The Incredible Hulk, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow — on the big screen. We use the word “unite” loosely. “Just because they’re super heroes doesn’t mean they’re super friends,” says Renner.

It was a different story with the cast and crew: If anything, they got along too well. Far from home on the Albuquerque set, they had little to do except hang out together, maybe hit a Motley Cruë concert, or go dancing with writer-director Joss Whedon, who says he knew “every dance club in Albuquerque.” Whedon was actually counting on a little bit of friction, since there’s so much in the actual story. “I was like, well, if they hate each other, I guess we can use that,” he shrugs. “But they don’t.”

When he wasn’t out dancing, Whedon was obsessively rewriting dialogue. On the Iron Man movies, Downey was notorious for pushing for heat-of-the-moment script punch-ups (or as he puts it: “I dominated like a rabid, horny gorilla”). And even as part of an ensemble in Avengers, he still nudged Whedon to go a little farther in some scenes. The day EW was on set, Whedon (the creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the acclaimed Astonishing X-Men comic book series) was scribbling out new pages of dialogue right before our eyes. Says the director, “There is a weird element of: they handed me one of the biggest movies of all time, and I’m making it up as I go.”

[From Popwatch]

The box office for this movie is going to be phenomenal, and the careers of everyone (except maybe Renner and RDJ, who are already doing quite well in their other acting endeavors) involved will receive a much-needed boost. Mostly though, the actor who will benefit most from The Avengers is Scarlett. Until she signed on (for a relatively measly $400,000 paycheck) as Black Widow in Iron Man 2, her career had turned into a series of failed period dramas, romcoms, and whatever Woody Allen happened to be filming at the time. Now, she’s part of a superhero franchise. Who would have ever thought it was possible?

Now let’s return to gazing upon (Kaiser already brought you an initial batch) some set photos from The Avengers scenes that shot in New York City early this month.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Order up some more therapy sessions for leading man Chris Evans, for his ultimate nightmare has come true; that is, Captain America: The First Avenger has scored an estimated $65.8 million opening weekend and is, therefore, well is on the way to becoming a raging success. So unless the international box office falls through (and it may very well do so; for, as a precautionary measure, Paramount has preemptively retitled the pic as The First Avenger in overseas markets) it looks like there will be probably be a sequel on the way in addition to The Avengers, which is currently filming. Naturally, Chris Evans has not yet accepted the truth of the matter, for he has told Us Weekly that he doesn’t feel like a sex symbol at all because of two reasons: (1) He’s “drowning” in “raging insecurity”; and (2) In his view, fellow Avengers Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr. are far sexier with the latter in particular being “so experienced.” In related news, Jude Law called, and he’s not at all happy that anyone is macking upon his homoerotic Sherlock Holmes chemistry with RDJ.

Also not helping matters in any department are those waxed-up nipples, which (oddly enough) stand a good chance of besting Thor‘s mighty abdominal muscles:

Paramount’s figure would better this summer’s original superhero Thor‘s $65.7M. But I believe we’ll have to wait until Monday’s actuals to decide who is the biggest superhero of the summer since Sunday’s number is just an estimate right now. As a Paramount exec replied to my questioning his number, “Harry Potter fell 16$ last Sunday. We are estimating down 17$. Whether it ends up $65.8M or a little less, it crushed Green Lantern and X-Men: First Class” — both of which were this summer’s superhero movies but made and distributed by different studios (Warner Bros and Fox respectively). Saturday’s take for Captain America of $21.9M was -10% from Friday’s $25.7M North American grosses from 3,715 theaters including around 2,500 showing the movie in 3D. Friday’s take includes $4M midnights from 2,000 locations, better than Thor and Green Lantern as well as prequel/reboot X-Men: First Class. The movie earned an ‘A-’ CinemaScore. (Thor earned a B+). Exit polls showed 43% of the audience was under age 25 vs 57% over age 25 while 64% were male vs 36% female. (Thor was 62% male & 28% under 25.)

From the start, the studio gave a cool retro feel to this World War II actioner about Steve Rogers who transforms from a proverbial 90lb weakling into 6-pack-abs Evans who’s not only easy on the eyes but can act like more than just a pumped-up uber-soldier. “Captain America is the ultimate underdog story,” one of the execs involved told me about positioning. “A physically weak man, who has infinite courage and drive, is transformed into the world’s first avenger.” And there are Nazis to vanquish as well. Cooler still.

Websites that do geek (I don’t) claim Captain America is the more mainstream superhero to make a big screen debut this summer, compared with Thor and Green Lantern. But that duo had far less competition when they opened, and certainly nothing like the Harry Potter finale in theaters. Intro-ing any new superhero is a bitch, but Marvel bitchslaps the competition again and again by doing it deftly. As far back as last October, Captain America was revealed on the cover of EW last year. Chris Evans presented with Thor‘s Chris Hemsworth at last January’s Golden Globes. The Superbowl spot was Twitter’s most talked about movie ad from the game. There was the usual heavy rotation of TV ads for the network season finales and sports playoffs and music shows. To make inroads with flyover country, the campaign made a big deal of the CMA Music Festival which features 750K attendees; 30 country radio stations sponsored fly-ins to celebrate Captain America Night on June 10th. Also to that end, the campaign did military outreach: the film was screened first on 30 U.S. military bases. I always thought that Captain America would attract a lot of patriotic fever because of its “Heroes are made in America” tagline.

[From Deadline]

Meanwhile, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 fell to second place with $48.1 million but still boasts an incredibly impressive $274.2 million domestic total after two weekends, plus it broke all those records last weekend in addition to leaving an incredible literary and cinematic legacy in its wake. I predict that no other future franchise will enjoy such an enduring record of success.

Further down the line, the latest R-rated romcom, Friends with Benefits, earned a lukewarm $18.5 million, meaning that it’s not exactly a disappointment in Hollywood terms and may just earn Mila Kunis some other leading lady roles that are long overdue. Still, I do believe that the picture would have earned at least an extra million if Mila Kunis had not used a butt double. All I’m really saying is that, sure, I’d totally have paid to see Mila’s actual, authentic butt. As far as Justin Timberlake’s butt is concerned, uh, no thanks.

Coming in at fourth and fifth place, respectively speaking, were Transformers: Dark of the Moon with $12 million and Horrible Bosses with $11.7 million. The latter has also accrued an inexplicable $82.4 million domestically. In other words, there will be many more Jennifer Aniston movies. Don’t kill the messenger.

Movie stills courtesy of AllMoviePhoto

Last night was the big LA premiere for Captain America, a film that I kind of want to see. I thought it was going to be bad, but then there was a trailer that actually made it look kind of bad-ass. Plus, I think Chris Evans seems like a nice guy, so I kind of want to support him. I might have to rethink it all, though, just because of how Chris came to the premiere. He wore a suit and tie, which is nice, but he wore these tinted glasses which… remind me of Jack Nicholson. And they remind me of Brad Pitt trying to imitate Jack Nicholson. And they remind me of Robert Downey Jr.’s style pizzazz. Which is to say… Chris isn’t there yet. He’s not big enough for the picket square and the tinted glasses and the Mr. Hollywood vibe.

Speaking of pizzazz… RDJ. HIS SHIRT. He’s so fancy.

Um… Chris’s costar Hayley Atwell is completely gorgeous, isn’t she? Great figure too. She reminds me a little bit of Nigella Lawson.

Here’s Vanessa Hudgens with her short hair. I actually do think this is a great cut for her.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Man, I don’t know what to think about Chris Evans, who is at once a nearly perfect physical specimen (if you’re into that sort of thing) yet so obviously filled with a nearly pathological level of existential anguish that I truly feel for the guy; or, at least, that’s the feeling I got after reading the New York Times interview conducted in preparation for his lead role in Captain America. It turns out that Evans had an exceedingly difficult time accepting this role, so much so that Marvel Studios had to keep offering it to him even after he repeatedly rejected the job. And when Robert Downey Jr. urged the filmmakers to continue their pursuit, Evans finally accepted but then immediately went “into panic mode” and quickly checked himself into therapy. Really:

It may be difficult to summon up sympathy for Mr. Evans, a Massachusetts-born dude’s dude who has brought slyly self-aware performances to films like Cellular, Fantastic Four and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and who has had to navigate Hollywood with little more than his rugged good looks, piercing blue eyes and billowing forearms that threatened to topple the lunch table.

Yet beneath that enviable exterior Mr. Evans is an unexpectedly thoughtful guy — perhaps perilously so. His self-questioning, often humorously self-effacing nature has helped him build a distinctive resum&eacute, but his lead role in Captain America: The First Avenger brings with it a whole new set of existential crises.

“The question is: What’s the endgame?” Mr. Evans said in a characteristic moment of self-analysis. “What’s the goal? If the goal is to be a giant movie star, then yeah, this is a great way to achieve that. That’s not necessarily what I’m trying to achieve.”

In [his] early, high-profile experiences, Mr. Evans said, he found acting to be “a very safe place to play, have fun and not feel judged or scrutinized.” The downside was having to give interviews to promote his work. “I feel fake,” he said. “And then I feel transparent. And I feel the other person can see that I’m fake.”

[D]uring a European junket for a Fantastic Four movie, he said, he became so nervous that he fled a room full of reporters. “No one’s even speaking to me,” he said, “and in a matter of 60 seconds I went from being fine to full meltdown, just stood up and walked offstage.”

When Marvel Studios began casting Captain America in late 2009, it did not initially consider Mr. Evans for the title character, a virtuous World War II hero who eventually finds himself in the present day . . . Yet once the studio set its sights on him, it may have come to wish it had forgotten the actor’s name.

Mr. Evans said he resisted a test audition, for which he would have had to sign a pre-emptive deal for as many as nine Marvel movies, including three Captain America films and three films for The Avengers, about the super group that includes Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk. When Marvel reduced the contract to at most six movies and “sweetened the pot a little bit,” Mr. Evans said no again.

He said his opposition stemmed from a fear of commitment — not just to publicizing a $140 million behemoth like Captain America but also to signing away, potentially, a decade of his life. “In a few years what if I don’t want to act anymore?” he said. “What if I just want to — I don’t know — do something else? The reason I kept saying no is because I was scared. Maybe this is exactly what I had to do. Maybe this is exactly what I had to face.”

Mr. Johnston, who had directed Jurassic Park III and Jumanji, and contributed art design and special effects work to the original Star Wars films and Raiders of the Lost Ark, said Mr. Evans’s moral quandary showed he was perfectly suited to play Captain America and his alter ego, Steve Rogers.

“Steve Rogers is a guy who, at the heart of it, has a very simple mission,” Mr. Johnston said. “He just wants to serve his country and do the right thing. And Chris comes off as basically a really good human being. He can wear his heart on his sleeve when he needs to.”

But have no illusions that anything other than Captain America — and a desire not to bungle the handoff to The Avengers — will be on Mr. Evans’s mind for the next several weeks. If Captain America is a dud, he will be disappointed. And if it succeeds, the next 10 years of his career might be spoken for, and that could be the bigger problem.

“It’s nice job security, but it doesn’t give a whole lot of freedom,” he said. “That’s the compromise, and it’s worth it. These are good problems to be having. It’s not like, poor me, I’m working in the coal mines.”

[From NYT]

In one respect, it’s slightly difficult to feel bad for Evans’ dilemma that ultimately resulted in a six-film contract, which (if things go according to plan) will probably result in enough money to live off for the rest of his life. Still, he’s a mama’s boy and honestly appears to lack confidence in himself which is really refreshing compared to, say, the current young crop of actors (represented by the ridiculously overconfident Kellan Lutz) who have so much self-esteem that it’s disgusting. So yeah, I’ll buy that Chris Evans possessed genuine fear about accepting his Captain America role, and I hope his therapy works wonders in the near future. Because life (especially in Hollywood) really is too short to brood it all away.

On a side note, he totally waxed this sh-t, right? Ouch.

Captain America movie stills courtesy of AllMoviePhoto

I know that some people just have a knee-jerk hatred of Chris Evans. I never had that reaction, but I understand how someone could. I have always had a knee-jerk hatred of John Mayer, Ryan Phillippe, and many others. For a while I actually, actively liked Chris, and thought he was hot. I don’t feel that way about him currently, but I still have a soft spot for him. I think he gets unfairly painted with Chris PINE’s douche brush. Pine is a d-bag – Evans never dated Audrina Patridge, and from what I know, Pine is just kind of a dude’s dude. Anyway, Chris covers the July issue of GQ to promote the soon-to-be-released Captain America… as for the cover shot, it’s an okay photo. I don’t mind the chest hair, but you know my affection for skeevy men. He looks slightly douchey, but I’d still hit it, basically. Here are some highlights from the GQ interview (full piece here):

Chris Evans on getting over his initial reluctance to take on the role of Captain America:
“I said no a bunch, and every time I said no, I woke up the next morning so happy and content. I kept saying no; they kept coming back. And eventually I was like, ‘You know what? This is your biggest fear—this is exactly what you have to do.’ ”

…on his character in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World:
“The character’s supposed to be this horrible actor and a douchebag, and I get the job and so many people were like, ‘You’re perfect, you’re gonna crush it!’ ” he continued with feigned anger. “I was like, So I got this role as an a–hole actor, and you guys think I nailed it? That I’m a natural and that nobody in town can do it better?”

…on how seeing sunsets are the “happiest” times in his life:
“The point is that when I see a sunset or a waterfall or something, for a split second it’s so great, because for a little bit I’m out of my brain, and it’s got nothing to do with me. I’m not trying to figure it out, you know what I mean? And I wonder if I can somehow find a way to maintain that mind stillness.”

[From GQ]

I just skimmed the full article at GQ, and it’s actually a really sweet, funny piece. GQ sent a single woman to interview Chris, and they were flirting with each other like it was a date. He comes across really nice and family-oriented (his mother is quoted extensively, and he introduces the reporter to his mom – you can tell he & his mom are tight, but not in a gross way). He also seems like a surprisingly good date, honestly. Sigh… I think I’m back to liking him.

Cover courtesy of GQ, additional photos by WENN.

I think I’ve already described my love of Chris Evans, and how in the Death Battle of Chris Pine vs. Chris Evans, I’m always going to be Team Evans. Not that Pine and Evans are even aware of this grudge match – I always associate the two of them because I got them confused constantly before I really saw either of them in anything. Anyway, I love Evans, and now I love him even more, thanks to these photos. Evans was cast as Captain America a few months ago, and Entertainment Weekly (via Pajiba) has the “first look” photos. Um… Evans has a really nice body, right? JESUS. Pajiba has the new “plot” for the film, although I think I would probably watch Evans wander around like this for two hours:

The year is 1942, and Steve Rogers is a scrawny lad who desperately wants to fight Nazis for his country but can’t because he’s been deemed physically unfit. His fate — and his physique — is radically transformed when he signs up for Project: Rebirth, a secret military operation that turns wimps into studs using drugs and assorted sci-fi hoo-ha. There’s a love interest (Major Peggy Carter, played Haley Atwell), there’s a sidekick (Bucky Barnes, played by Sebastian Stans), and there’s the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Hitler’s treacherous head of advanced weaponry, whose own plan for world domination involves a magical object known as The Tesseract (comic fans know it better as The Cosmic Cube).

Evans on being cast as Captain America: “At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, ‘If the movie bombs, I’m f—-ed. If the movie hits, I’m f—-ed!’” After declining the part three times, Evans took a meeting with Marvel execs and Johnston and was dazzled by their plans for the movie. He still felt wary about suiting up for Captain America — but then he had an epiphany. “I was just scared,” he says. “I realized my whole decision making process was fear based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear.’” Evans signed a six-picture deal with Marvel to play the character, and he has no regrets: “I can’t believe was almost too chicken to play Captain America.”

[From Entertainment Weekly, via Pajiba]

So… he’s a Super Soldier. Isn’t the United States’ military’s R&D working on super soldier projects right now? So… Captain America is “ripped from the headlines”. I kind of wish it wasn’t a period film, though. It would be interesting to see a modern Captain America. It’s also interesting that Evans turned it down so many times – I thought this was a part lots of young actors wanted? Eh.

EW photos courtesy of Pajiba.

Awhile back, I noticed that Evan Rachel Wood had been named the new face of Gucci “Guilty” – the perfume that is allegedly sexy or something. What I didn’t realize until just a few days ago was that my boy Chris Evans is “the dude” in ERW’s ads. He doesn’t get as much full face time as ERW, but he’s there, and he’s adorable. Once again, I truly wonder what the geniuses over at Gucci were thinking. Sure, I think ERW is pretty, and I think Chris is adorable, but they’re being sold as, like, bombshells. Usually when I see photos of Chris, I think “Aw, cute and funny.” Not “I wonder what his dong smells like.”

Anyway, in addition to the print ads, Gucci hired comic artist-turned-director Frank Miller to shoot an ad. The 30-second spot came out a few weeks ago to little fanfare. But now Miller has released his “director’s cut” of the commercial, and it’s rather… sexy. I like it. Yes, it’s cheesy, especially with ERW’s wooden acting, but it makes me want to see more of Chris, because he’s really sexy and… yes, I now want to know if his dong smells like Gucci Guilty.

See? It’s cute, isn’t it? I was going to go on and on about how Chris needs some work, but he really doesn’t – he was named the new Captain America, and he’s in that Scott Pilgrim movie with Michael Cera, plus a half-dozen other projects. So he’s doing fine. Not he just needs to do a movie I will actually see. But I’ll just content myself with this ad.

Normally, I’m kind of “meh” about Fantastic Four’s Chris Evans. He’s very cute, but he reminds me a little of those douchey jocks I went to high school with. But, as it turns out, Chris Evans has hidden depths. Chris’s younger brother Scott is gay, and Chris has come out big time in support of gay rights in general, and the repeal of Prop 8 specifically.

In his statements, Evans comes across as a very decent and thoughtful guy, and a really smart advocate for gay rights. If you’re like me, and spend your life judging books by their covers, you might take one look at Chris Evans and think he would be on the other side of the gay rights issues. He seems more like the kind of guy who would haze his buddies for being “gay”. Not so much, as it turns out.

Fantastic Four star Chris Evans has recently become a vocal advocate of gay marriage, saying it’s ‘appalling’ that homosexuals in this country aren’t allowed to get married.

The 27 year-old Evans’ indignation was probably ignited after the passing of Proposition 8, which reversed early rulings granting the gay community the right to wed in California.

The actor, whose signature line as the Human Torch is “Flame On!”, has a younger brother Scott who is openly gay. Chris believes that politicians will eventually have to change America’s laws regarding same-sex marriage.

“It’s mind-boggling and appalling that human beings are being denied civil rights in this country,” said Evans. “But time will heal all. I have to believe that in 10 years we won’t be having this conversation. We’ll be having another one, because we’ll always find someone to persecute.”

In addition to both Fantastic Four films, Evans has appeared in Sunshine, The Nanny Diaries, and Street Kings.

[From Radar Online]

I agree with the “in ten years it will be different” idea. The progression of gay rights, I have to believe, will only progress under President Obama and beyond. Just in my three-decade lifetime, I’ve seen homosexuality mocked and ridiculed by mainstream press and politicians, to this point in time where doing so means a huge financial loss. As the mainstream media continues to report, the churches and non-profit organizations who pushed Prop 8 are facing a lot of financial troubles, not to mention ethical and moral questions of inclusion, tolerance and acceptance. It’s good to see Chris Evans join the good fight.

Chris Evans is shown on 10/6/08. Credit: PRPhotos