ANIMATED SHORTS: IRON MAN'S TONY STARK, BEHIND AFRO SAMURAI, AND MORE...

[MattBrady]

MARK WORDEN STEELS HIMSELF FOR AN IRON MAN INTERVIEW
PLUS GONZO, SPIDER RIDERS, VIZ & MORE NEWS

by Steve Fritz

Mark Worden is one of those names one should keep aware of. In the late ‘80s he was a hard working child actor in Canada. Then he got the opportunity of a lifetime.

In 1989, he became part of the Mickey Mouse Club, where he was soon rubbing shoulders with the likes of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilara and Justin Timberlake. When the show wrapped in 1994, he would continue to be a hard working actor, appearing regularly in shows ranging as wide as various Star Trek series, Space: Above & Beyond, NYPD Blue and Space: Above & Beyond. He also became a very popular voice artist, working on animated series like Batman Beyond, Zeta, Static Shock, Teen Titans and Justice League.

Of course, the reason why we’re talking to him is about his recurring role of Iron Man. After being in the first two Ulitmate Avengers direct-to-DVD projects, he will now be flying solo with The Invincible Iron Man, which comes out next Tuesday.

As it turns out, Worden was a pleasant man to talk to. Here’s what he had to say:

Newsarama: You are former member of the Mickey Mouse Club. Are you surprised by the amount of talent that had come out from there, and by that I don’t mean just Britney, Justin and Christina?

Mark Worden:: To be honest, no. I’m not surprised at all. We have to go back to the beginning to Matt Cassella, the casting director of the show. He would go throughout North America scouting for talent for the show.

NRAMA: Yourself included, obviously.

MW: I guess. I came in the third season, when I was just 12 years old. He found me in Toronto.

Everybody who was there had a great passion for performing. We were lucky to put on a different show every day. It was a variety show that did sketch comedy, musicals, and dance. I would say that the list of people who will come out of there has only just begun. I mean there’s also Kerry Russel, Ryan Gosling and a lot more people coming.

NRAMA: Was it good training for you?

MW: Absolutely. As I said it was every single day in front of a live audience. There is no better training than that. We did hundreds of episodes. In television, very few people get that kind of opportunity.

I mean I was one of the few hired who had done theater previously. So I had some experience before having signed on with Disney, but nothing like that. It really gave me a greater understanding of the process. I do look back on it fondly now, although I’ll admit at the time there were moments that were frustrating. But we were teenagers, and being a teenager in regular life is frustrating enough.

NRAMA: One other thing I think many of the readers don’t know is you played Alexander, Worf’s son, on Star Trek.

MW: I was able to play the older version of Alexander when Worf’s son comes back from Earth. That was an incredible experience. I spent a tremendous amount of time learning about prosthetics. It was fascinating.



NRAMA: Did the Mouse Club and Trek help you when it came to voice work?

MW: What I learned was it was all about using your imagination, sweeping the cobwebs out of the back of your mind. When you are doing voice work you are literally inside a vacuum. You are in as quiet a room you can possibly be in, a recording room. You have to create the moment without any outside stimulus except for script in front of you and the director explaining what the visuals were going to be.

NRAMA: Now your voice naturally sounds similar to Tony Stark. Did you have to do much to alter it in the booth?

MW: I don’t alter it that much. There’s an air of sophistication and privilege that I add. He’s a playboy industrialist. That’s great fun playing that type of role. After all, who wouldn’t want to take their helicopter from their private yacht to the office? I think I could handle that.

NRAMA: When did you start on this?

MW: I started doing voice work in Toronto when I was a kid. I’ve been in the business doing voice work for animation when I was nine years old.

NRAMA: For the local studios like Nelvana?

MW: Exactly. I also did voiceovers for commercials.

I also, obviously, didn’t have this voice when I did that work. I had my little kid voice. In fact, when I started with Disney, I remember I still had my kid voice during my first year with them. Then I went home for the summer and that’s when my voice dropped, between my first and second season. Luckily I had been taking operatic training at the Royal Conservatory of Music. I think that really helped me transition to my more grown-up voice. Because of the training I didn’t go through the awkward, cracky phase.

In fact, when I came back to the Mouse Club I was worried because I thought they wouldn’t like my new voice. Fortunately for me, they wanted to keep me anyway. So I went on to do five seasons with them.

NRAMA: Did you do any v.o. work for Disney?

MW: On the show there was always a need for voiceover work. I mean there was always a need right on the lot for films and other stuff, too.

NRAMA: So how did you get the job of Iron Man?

MW: It was an audition like anyone else. I was actually asked to come in and audition for Captain America originally. Craig Kyle believed enough in my talent that he kept bringing me back for other roles. They brought me back to read for Thor, then they pulled out the Iron Man role. They all seemed very pleased with that.

NRAMA: So you started out with Ulitmate Avengers 1, right?

MW: Right.

NRAMA: How have you found working with these guys compared to other animation operations you’ve worked with?

MW: They are a great team. Eric Rollman (Executive Producer) and Jamie Simone (Voice Director) are great guys to work with.

NRAMA: You are also one of the few to work with both Bob Richardson and Frank Paur. How would you compare the two?

MW: That’s difficult to answer. Both guys mainly stayed behind the scenes. I mean I got to meet Frank at the screening and thanked him for the work he did. He seemed really proud of what he had done and I know he worked really hard on it. They pulled it off as far as I can tell.

NRAMA: Did you read your share of comics?

MW: It was not a part of my life when I was younger. I was too busy working and going to school. I definitely enjoy comics now. I loved reading the Ultimates. I actually like them better as graphic novels.

NRAMA: Now this Iron Man is an interesting hybrid. He seems a mix of both the classic and Ultimate version.

MW: Absolutely. I really saw this when a friend of mine gave me The Essential Iron Man. So I got to see his 60s origins and wearing the toaster suit. It showed me that what Frank did was that story line, but updated. I could finally see how they wanted to tell the story.

NRAMA: I would say with the big gray suit they made him look more like a medieval knight than the Iron Man we were used to.

MW: They do talk about that in the film, when they talk about the prophecy of Mandarin.

NRAMA: So how do you feel about the final outcome?

MW: I’m really pleased with it. I hope there’s a strong response to it so we can do more stories.

NRAMA: And you aren’t involved with Dr. Strange, right?

MW: Right.

NRAMA: Any word on future products with them?

MW: That’s still up in the air.

NRAMA: So what are you doing next?

MW: The next thing for me is a DragonLance animated feature film that will be coming later in 2007. It’s going to be through Paramount. Kiefer Sutherland is starring with Lucy Lawless. I play Sturm Brightblade, who’s one of the crew.

NRAMA: So Kiefer’s doing animation again? (NOTE: Kiefer not only did The Wild but was in the anime Dual Matrix.)

MW: Hey…he’s got great pipes man. Hopefully we’ll get him down to Comic Con for that. I sure had fun last year.

GONZO JOURNALISM WITH THE ANIME STUDIO’S VP

All right…I couldn’t resist.

Anyway, I first met Eric Calderon way back when, pushing MTV Animation’s latest projects at a comic book convention in New York City. Our mutual love for the field made it easy for me to learn more of what was going on over there at the time. I’m glad to see he survived there and is now in an even more interesting position with a studio we all should keep our eyes on.

Of course, we had to talk about their most recent success, Afro Samurai, but we managed to touch on a few more subjects while at it. Here’s what went down:

NEWSARAMA: Would you say there’s an overall philosophy on what Gonzo looks for in its producers?

ERIC CALDERON: Yes. There are a couple of different directions on this. First of all, for a Japanese anime studio we do a lot of adaptations of existing properties. That’s typically Japanese comics, the occasional Japanese novel, and video games. That’s pretty standard operating procedure at Gonzo.

The second thing we do which is different from most Japanese studios is look for fusion programming. Fusion programming is defined as anime that will appeal both in Japan, the U.S. and the rest of the world all the same time. It also involves some collaboration with Western partners.

NRAMA: So stylistically, would you say there’s something about what you do that would make the average fan say “That’s Gonzo” without the logo popping up in the beginning?

EC: That’s a good question. It’s difficult because we just produce what we’re passionate about and what we think will work for the business. If it’s a comedy or an action/adventure or whatever, we just go with it. I would say we tend to gravitate towards the kind of male sci-fi/fantasy, but that doesn’t take away from things like comedy or girls anime.

NRAMA: When did you start working there?

EC: I started working there around 2001.

NRAMA: And you’re current position?

EC: I’m the VP of Creative Affairs of the International Division.

NRAMA: Were you the VP right from the get go?

EC: No. I started as sort of in a consultation role. Then I stepped into a creative director role and in about 2 ½ years I became a VP.

NRAMA: Weren’t you in a creative position over at MTV?

EC: I was Director of Creative Development there. So I was in charge of all the pilots, the pitches and such.

NRAMA: How do you find working with Gonzo?

EC: It’s wonderful and it’s difficult. Anime is produced in a completely different way, unlike domestic animation.

You know, you work in animation for 6-7 years like I did, you think you know a thing or two. Then when I started I quickly realized that I had to start from scratch. They had to show me how everything was done and in the process I learned about Japan.

NRAMA: Would you say there’s a guiding force to Gonzo the way there is at Ghibli or Tatsunoko?

EC: Gonzo, like Japanese anime in general, the creator is king. Whoever created the idea really, really drives how the story is written, how it looks. They really have a tremendous amount of power over there. For Gonzo, that’s show by show.

NRAMA: So when did you guys start doing Afro?

EC: I found Afro at the end of 2001. I actually found it as a toy. It was on the wall of a producer’s office. It was kind of an independent art vinyl toy with a limited run and all that.

So I saw it and asked the producer, “what the heck is that?”

The producer told me it was called Afro Samurai and it was created by a friend of his. So I said I wanted to meet that guy. So they did.

NRAMA: So was the manga available at that time?

EC: At that time there was only the toy and a six-page comic that was part of a very small compilation. It only had a circulation of about 1,000. When I saw the comic I said there was something in it. The funny thing was even though there was only the six pages of manga, when I asked the creator, Takashi Okazaki, if he had more, he showed me this timeline that was 1,000 years long.

NRAMA: So the series that’s on Spike is only a blip in this timeline?

EC: Yes, exactly.

NRAMA: So if the audience says so there’s definitely fodder for a lot more.

EC: Yes, there is. The original creator is working on the full comic. In fact, he’s been working on it for three years now. He’s finished about 120-150 out of what’s supposed to be about 300 pages. That’s going to be a much longer story when we go into production.

NRAMA: So was it your idea to approach Samuel L. Jackson about this?

EC: It was pure luck. We produced a pilot about 2002. Then I sat in my home with my Mac laptop and burned about 50 copies. Then I just started giving it to about everyone I knew. One of them was a friend of mine who at the time was working at ICM, and he even wasn’t Sam’s agent. He actually bumped into Samuel when the two were both just walking down the hallways. My friend told him ‘you got to see this. It’s crazy!’

After he saw it, Jackson said ‘this is incredible. I want to play Afro.’ So the agents said he couldn’t as we were still shopping it around. Jackson turned around and said, ‘No. I AM going to be Afro Samurai.’ As soon as the word got back to us, all we could say is ‘Of course. He’s going to be Afro Samurai.’ How could you say no to Samuel L. Jackson?

NRAMA: So I would guess that once you got Jackson it wasn’t too hard to get Ron Perlman or Kelly Hu on board?

EC: Actually, they came quite late. When we first got Sam, that was a great coup. Then we went through a firestorm of different distribution methods, from movie studios to toy manufacturers. I mean animation studios, producers, all kinds of people wanted to attach themselves to us. So we had to sit down and do some real soul searching about what direction we wanted to go and what were the best options.

NRAMA: Wasn’t BET attached to the project?

EC: No. There was never any firm attachment to anyone but Spike. We did have a LOT of offers.

NRAMA: Now from your point of view, everything’s done except the airing. How do feel about it all in retrospect?

EC: It’s incredible. I’ve been working in development now for 14-15 years, and you learn that only two or three times in your life does something turn out this good. We spent $1 million per episode for a TV animated series.

NRAMA: So are you saying you put your money where your mouth is?

EC: Exactly. I mean having Sam Jackson, Kelly Hu, Ron Perlman, and then have RZA do the music, then to see Japanese anime made originally for the U.S., it’s an amazing dream come true. We also will have the soundtrack coming out in a month. There’s a live action movie in development with the producer of Batman. We’ve got a video game in production. There are tons of shirts, toys and other products in the pipeline. It’s just exploding beyond my wildest expectations. Plus the show’s great and the ratings are great.

NRAMA: So what are the ratings on it?

EC: You know, ratings are something I have a hard time understanding.

NRAMA: Yeah. There’s all this micro-fragmentation going on.

EC: Yeah. Check with Spike because every time I try to report them I say them wrong.

NRAMA: One other show I really show I wanted to talk to you about was Samurai 7. First of all, would you say the Kurosawa family was pleased with what Gonzo did?

EC: They were. You know we had the personal approval of Akira Kurosawa’s son, Hisao. They really gave us their blessing once they read the adaptation. When we did Samurai 7 I think there was always three things we had to keep aware of.

The first was we wanted to make this film accessible to a younger audience than the original Seven Samurai. We were making this show for today’s audiences. That would be important in how reverent we would be to the original property. If we were not appealing to today’s audience, and by that I meant not just today’s anime fans, then I think we missed it. The second thing is Gonzo always expects high quality, both from the production values and the story. The third, and probably the most important, was the Kurosawa family. Trying to get all three of them was really difficult. So I think we have the right to be pretty proud of what we did.

NRAMA: When you started adapting it, were you always looking towards this kind of steampunk setting or originally trying to be more loyal to the original feudal Japan?

EC: When the Gonzo team did the development work on Samurai 7, they had to respond to it being one of the most natural stories ever made. So we couldn’t change the core story. What they figured was what they could do was take the core story and adapt it to a different time period. In a way, that’s what we’re good at. It was basically the same approach that was used on Magnificent 7, which was also a successful film.

NRAMA: I think what really got me was even with this futuristic setting, it still felt like a traditional samurai movie.

EC: I think a lot of that had to do with the storytelling. It was always the intention for the film to be traditional Japanese all the way through. We even went so far to have one of Japan’s most famous drumming teams do parts of the soundtrack.

In the meantime, Calderon is working on such Gonzo projects as The Brave Movie and Witchblade. Expect more information in the future.

VIZ ANNOUNCES DIRECT DOWNLOAD SYSTEM & NEW MOVIE

A couple of very interesting announcements have just come out of Viz Entertainment.

Most important, the anime company announced it licensed a Download-to-Own (DTO) and Download-to-Rent (DTR) deal with Nippon TV for the series Death Note. This will allow American fans to directly acquire the series only with a high-speed modem and enough memory to handle it.

The Death Note agreement is the latest in a series of moves by Viz to make anime available on a widespread basis via the web. Earlier this year, the company recently helped launch Toonami Jetstream, a joint venture with Cartoon Network that provides 24/7 broadband service and allows users to watch streamed. The outlet has logged more than 9.5 million video streams since launching on July 14.

Death Note tells the adventures of Light Yagami, an ace student with great prospects but who is bored out of his mind. All of that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue
Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the
authorities send the legendary detective L to investigate, and he is soon hot on the trail of Light, who must now reevaluate his one noble goal.
“We are pleased to team with a leading anime and manga company like VIZ Media to bring the Death Note anime series to eager fans in the United States digitally,” states NTV Spokesperson. “Viz Media understands how the Internet can be used to distribute content. With a built-in fan base already generated by the popularity of the Death Note manga series, we are looking forward to the success of this innovative partnership.”

“With Shueisha’s support and the agreement with NTV to bring Death Note to the American market, we will establish a new benchmark for bringing our audience the content they want when they want it,” says Daniel Marks, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Viz Media. “The success of the Death Note manga has created tremendous anticipation for its anime counterpart and we are committed to delivering the best content through a variety of platforms to our tech savvy fan base."

Viz also announced it will be doing a limited theatrical run on the film The Taste of Tea. It will be shown in the cities of New York, Chicago, Seattle and Portland.

The Taste of Tea is the creation of Katsuhito Ishii, whose past works include Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl, Party Seven, and also worked on Kill Bill: Vol. 1. The film had its international debut at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and won numerous awards at the 2004 Entrevues Film Festival, 2005 Montreal Fantasia Film Festival, 2005 New York Asian Film Festival, 2005 San Francisco Independent Film Festival and the 2005 Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film.

The schedule for the film is as follows:
New York - February 16-22, 2007 The ImaginAsian 239 East 59th St., New York 10022 http://www.theimaginasian.com Chicago - March 2-8, 2007 Facets Cinematheque
1517 West Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614
http://www.facets.org/asticat

Seattle - March 16-22, 2007
Grand Illusion Cinema
1403 NE 50th St., Seattle, WA 98105
http://www.grandillusioncinema.org

Portland - April 6-12, 2007
The Hollywood Theatre
4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland, OR 97212
http://www.hollywoodtheatre.org

SPIDER RIDERS RETURNING THIS WEEKEND

The Kids WB announced last year’s hit summer replacement, Spider Riders, will return to the schedule starting Saturday, January 20. It will kick off with a one-hour block at 11:00 a.m., replacing both Shaolin Showdown and Monster Allergy.

Spider Riders follows the adventures of Hunter Steele, an average boy from Earth who finds himself sucked into the mysterious world of Arachna where he lands in the middle of an epic struggle between good and evil. Hunter finds himself joining an elite team of warriors who ride atop ten-foot tall battle spiders, the Spider Riders. Together with his battle spider Shadow, Hunter seeks to protect the land of Arachna from the evil bug-like Invectids.

For the record, Animated Shorts picked the series as one of its secret vices last summer. Nice to see something like this back for another season.

STARZ GIVES BORAT THE BUNNY TREATMENT

In honor of his winning a Golden Globe Award, the Starz networks announced they have given Sacha Baron Cohen the Bunny treatment.

Just what are the Bunnies you say? The bunnies are a creation of Jennifer Shiman of Angry Alien Productions. Each month, Starz Entertainment presents a new bunny short/parody which also can be seen on Starz On Demand.

As it stands, the Pixar film Cars won the first Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. When asked for comment, a source inside Disney stated the company never comments on winning any awards…unless it’s the Oscar. How uncool is that?

So, we at Animated Shorts therefore highly recommend you go to the Starz sight, where Sacha is deemed cool enough to be given what he deserves by the rabid rodents. Besides, he really made the film Madagascar.

To see for yourself, check out the URL:
http://www.starz.com/features/bunnyc...rat/index.html.

Time to move it…

NEXT COLUMN: The Hellboy DVD will be hitting the racks shortly, so we talk to director Tad Stones about it, with a promise about the upcoming Blood & Iron. We also talked to FUNimation Channel VP Debra Kennedy about how this network plans to take over the world.

[Street Carp]

Iron Man looks pretty good. Nice design for the original suit, too! I'll have to check it out.

(ian)

[Spaz_Monkey]

Aaaargh! Too many words!!!

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

MARK WORDEN STEELS HIMSELF FOR AN IRON MAN INTERVIEW
PLUS GONZO, SPIDER RIDERS, VIZ & MORE NEWS

by Steve Fritz

Mark Worden is one of those names one should keep aware of. In the late ‘80s he was a hard working child actor in Canada. Then he got the opportunity of a lifetime.

Interesting interview.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by Spaz_Monkey

Aaaargh! Too many words!!!

Words=bad.

[JoeGKushner]

The Kids WB announced last year’s hit summer replacement, Spider Riders, will return to the schedule starting Saturday, January 20. It will kick off with a one-hour block at 11:00 a.m., replacing both Shaolin Showdown and Monster Allergy.

No! Not Shaoline Showdown!

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Hey, Steve, is it me or you'd shown us this trailer on a previous occasion? In any case, I'm sure I've watched it before. Pretty good.

[Kolimar]

The Complete List of Marvel Comics Movies

[smitch]

Iron Man looks good! Afro Samurai however, makes me feel disgusting inside. Talk about a loose story with what is laughingly called "dialogue", just to fit together some over the top violence and rap video style titilation. If you don't have a soul, it might be cool.

[thatguytm]

Iron Man is good. Really good. I saw a screener of it a few days ago. WAY better than either of the Ultimate Avengers movies. At least that's what I thought.

[DynamiteKid]

The Invincible Iron Man was enjoyable. For a movie that was roughly 80 minutes, it did a decent job of being an origin story. The climax of the movie was weak, however. The animation is in the same vein of the Ultimate Avengers productions. I didn't care for the use of CGI as the visuals didn't match the cel animation in both appearance and movement. The CGI was surprisingly stiff for a modern day big budget production. On the positive side is that the fuzzy use of shadow and highlights I noticed in the Ultimate Avengers movies are gone, giving IIM a cleaner look. I like the designs for the armours. They're different but not so much so that they're unrecognizable as "Iron Man" armours. I like the grey armour's look the best as I'm a sucker for more bulky designs when it comes to robots/powered armour. I think Mark Worden is a great choice for the character of Iron Man/Tony Stark. I can't imagine anyone else voicing the character. I knew I recognized his voice but it wasn't until I read the interview that I connected his voice to Alexander.

[Forbush Man]

the art is different then the animation i'm used to but it looks good.

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by Spaz_Monkey

Aaaargh! Too many words!!!

Well...you know the old saw...If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, bury them in bul***...
er, words.




-s

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by DynamiteKid

The Invincible Iron Man was enjoyable. For a movie that was roughly 80 minutes, it did a decent job of being an origin story. The climax of the movie was weak, however. The animation is in the same vein of the Ultimate Avengers productions. I didn't care for the use of CGI as the visuals didn't match the cel animation in both appearance and movement. The CGI was surprisingly stiff for a modern day big budget production. On the positive side is that the fuzzy use of shadow and highlights I noticed in the Ultimate Avengers movies are gone, giving IIM a cleaner look. I like the designs for the armours. They're different but not so much so that they're unrecognizable as "Iron Man" armours. I like the grey armour's look the best as I'm a sucker for more bulky designs when it comes to robots/powered armour. I think Mark Worden is a great choice for the character of Iron Man/Tony Stark. I can't imagine anyone else voicing the character. I knew I recognized his voice but it wasn't until I read the interview that I connected his voice to Alexander.

Mainly what you're commenting on is the difference of directors. Bob Richardson is a solid worker, but nothing extraordinary. Frank Paur is extraordinary. I've heard too many other directors praise the sky out of him, particularly the Warner superhero crew. -s

[JLAJRC]

Can't wait to see Iron Man. Also, Afro Samurai ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LunarDaydreamer]

Iron Man looks fab, might order that now (along with Neoin: To Your Other Self V2, V1 of which was fab if you’ve not seen it !)

Another fabulous column and a genuine pleasure to read. Thank you for all your hard work and efforts Steve, much appreciated!

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by LunarDaydreamer

Iron Man looks fab, might order that now (along with Neoin: To Your Other Self V2, V1 of which was fab if you?ve not seen it !)

Another fabulous column and a genuine pleasure to read. Thank you for all your hard work and efforts Steve, much appreciated!

L - Always welcome.

BTW...just out of curiousity, what would you say are the animated shows that are UK produced and get a lot of interest on your side of the Atlantic?

For instance, I'm hearing all these stories about a show on MTV Europe called Popetown and how its tying the Catholic Church's shorts in knots. As a graduate of Archbishop Ryan H.S. for Boys, I really, REALLY want to know more about this show, but MTV Networks over here acts like it doesn't exist.

Info on this and other UK or EU-only shows would be absolutely great. -s