lifestyle SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2015

This photo provided by courtesy Twentieth Century Fox shows, (from left) The Thing, Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm, A screen grab from the 2005 ‘Fantastic Four’ film. Miles Teller as Dr Reed Richards, and Kate Mara as Sue Storm, in a scene from the film, “Fantastic Four.” — AP Hollywood can’t seem to crack Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’

or years, the Fantastic Four immodestly bore the title “The more enjoyable to read than most of them? For those reasons, and relevant to young readers when their work took the indus- Surfer and the Galactus saga - as good a comics arc as Marvel World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” Introduced in 1961, it’s a question that rankles comicbook fans more than most, try by storm. might have produced during that period - the filmmakers fum- Fthe title ushered in the age of Marvel Comics, inaugurat- despite Marvel’s other cinematic triumphs. The Fantastic Four were also notable in that, unlike most bled, compounding errors from the first film as opposed to ing the creative explosion of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack superheroes, they didn’t bother with secret identities. Indeed, cleaning them up and improving them. Kirby, which has been compared in musical terms to John Complicated past the fact that everyone knew who they were - and that they suf- So instead of the “Fantastic Four” movie that Marvel fans Lennon and Paul McCartney during the Beatles’ heyday. Of course, the fact that Fox is distributing the movie speaks fered occasional indignities and intrusions associated with had long anticipated, they had to settle for another disappoint- All of that makes the rather tortured history of the franchise in part to the property’s complicated past, having been fame - was a regular aspect of the stories, and a frequent ment, followed by this eight-year wait to see a reboot that falls on screen, especially given the current ascent of comicbook parceled off (along with X-Men and Spider-Man) during a peri- source of humor. If ever a superhero group seemed well suited short, creatively speaking, for an entirely different list of rea- blockbusters, all the more perplexing - most recently with Fox’s od in the mid-1990s in which Marvel declared bankruptcy. Ill- to the age of TMZ, it’s this one - not that you’d know it from the sons. Some have spoken of “Fantastic Four” as being a cursed reboot “Fantastic Four,” which comes eight years after its last conceived rights deals yielded a low-budget 1994 Roger latest movie, which is heavily rooted in the quartet’s origins. property in terms of its screen life, but that gets at the “what” live-action effort, a sequel subtitled “Rise of the Silver Surfer.” Corman movie that was never released, and a 1978 Saturday- The obvious argument is that Marvel, since taking control without really answering the “why.” What does seem clear is Not only has the project been bludgeoned by critics, but the morning animated series that had to make do without the of its own destiny, has simply done all this better, exhibiting a that barring an unforeseen outpouring of interest from those director, Josh Trank, responded by implying that the studio, Human Torch, since the character had been separately love for and respect toward the source material that, historical- who can’t readily recite the Thing’s battle cry, the ship for this Twentieth Century Fox, was responsible for its failings. optioned for a movie. The replacement, padding out the four- ly, was often lacking. The studio’s interlocking world, its Marvel signature Marvel property appears to have sailed. Whatever the underlying truth, for comicbook fans it raises the some: comic-relief sidekick HERBIE the Robot, which, in terms universe, has become an organic entity that supports and but- While comic books can - and frequently have - hit the reset specter of the bad old days, when studios abused comics by of teeth-gnashing names in comic book and genre circles, was tresses even the lesser titles. Even so, “X-Men” has managed to button, exploring alternate scenarios and universes, when it refusing to take the source material seriously. an early precursor to Jar Jar Binks. Notably, many of the per- flourish without that umbrella. And Fantastic Four possessed a comes to movie franchises that cost more than $100 million to Granted, a lot has changed since then. “The Avengers” ceived hurdles to adapting Fantastic Four have been overcome rich enough array of ancillary characters that it should have produce, there are only so many bites at the apple or trips into assembled and exploded, “Iron Man” took off, even “Guardians elsewhere. had the heft to stand on its own. orbit. Just ask Green Lantern. Because whatever the complicat- of the Galaxy” went into orbit. Yet while the Fantastic Four held Both “X-Men” and “Avengers” demonstrated it was possible ed mix of factors that has hobbled Fantastic Four, the bottom its own against alien races like the Skrulls and the Kree, it has to do movies featuring super-powered teams, after comic- Fumbling filmmakers line is that Hollywood has once again made the “World’s yet to win a battle with Hollywood. So why hasn’t anybody based projects devoted to relative loners like Batman and In hindsight, the crucial breakdown might have come not Greatest Comic Magazine” look perfectly ordinary. — Reuters been able to successfully tackle “Fantastic Four,” which was not Superman. The characters in “X-Men” and “Avengers” also so much with director Tim Story’s 2005 movie, which did just only a groundbreaking comic - predating Spider-Man, the Hulk squabbled and dealt with personal issues, a hallmark of the well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel, but that sec- and a host of Marvel titles that followed - and was arguably a Lee-Kirby collaboration, which as a consequence felt more real ond film. Afforded the opportunity to incorporate the Silver

Cuban-American actor Andy Garcia poses during a photocall where he received the Leopard Club With Dylan cue, Dawes harks back to folk storytelling Award, at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland. — AP ifty years after Bob Dylan went electric, Dawes paid tribute with a cover set. But the Los Angeles Fband has taken a different path itself, moving from a post-punk edge to steady-jamming folk. Dawes headed to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island last month to mark the 50th anniversary of one of rock history’s most iconic moments-when Dylan, dubbed the voice of his generation, stunned the audience by turning on the amps. With frontman Taylor Goldsmith playing Dylan’s original Fender Stratocaster, which was later bought by a collector for nearly $1 million, Dawes put on the terse but historic 1965 set that went electric with the song “Maggie’s Farm.” The Dylan connection was not random. Dawes was chosen in 2013 to open for Dylan on a tour, giving the band a chance to see the legend up close. But that’s not to say the band bonded with him. “It was an epic learning experience just watching Andy Garcia on Hemingway, Dylan’s set every night,” bassist Wylie Gelber told AFP before a recent show in New York’s Central Park. “We The band Dawes, with keyboard player Tay Strathairn (left), guest guitar Duane Bettes (2nd left), never, ever hung out with Dylan. We hung out with and guitar and vocals Taylor Goldsmith (2nd right), and drummer Griffin Goldsmith (right) perform family, directing and Cuba the band-his band is all super sweet-but Dylan, he’s July 27, 2015 in New York’s Central Park.— AFP like a mystical creature. He’s never around. “He just tion, with songs heavy in references to car travel and Don’t End,” heading to an Asheville, North Carolina, hat should be the policy of family. Within that I try to exist creatively.” appears all of a sudden when he goes on stage and the personal nostalgia it engenders. While not reject- studio to record more intricately with Jacquire King, Switzerland towards Cuba now that Garcia is faithful to his past: “I still have the then he disappears. I bumped into him by accident the political situation in Cuba has same idealism that I had when I started in ing the folk label, Gelber said the category was not known for his work with Tom Waits and Kings of Leon. W one time in the hallway, but that was the closest I got,” always fitting for a band that often plays loud and But Gelber said the band realized after feedback from turned? a Swiss journalist asked Andy Garcia wanting to be an actor, in the 1960s, when it he said. at the beginning of a journalists’ group inter- was just in my subconscious. I still feel exactly electric. fans that Dawes was essentially a live band. view in Locarno, where Garcia received the the same way,” he said Friday. Instead, he said, the folk association most likely “When you go track by track often, with us, people Retro folk sound comes to mind as songs tell stories. “Things Happen,” get so caught up in trying to do the cool stuff... When Leopard Club Award Friday night. That got He added: “Whatever you perceive me to After dabbling in a darker post-punk sound, Dawes Andy Garcia going. “The political situation is be right now, I still think I am the same per- the first track, is a genial ode to keeping life’s setbacks you play it all at the same time, your only concern is to emerged in its current form with the 2009 album in perspective, with the chorus: “Let’s make a list of all make sure that the whole thing sounds good,” he said. Cuba has not turned,” Andy Garcia said son I was when I was 12 years old. I have the “North Hills,” renewing the weighty yet down-home politely, but very adamantly. “There is one same interests, I have the same friends, I have the things the world has put you through / Let’s raise a The album’s title track is a wistful take on the imper- feel of folk rockers from the 1960s and 1970s. With the glass to all the people you’re not speaking to.” manence of the good things in life-”late-night drives government, a dictatorship. The Castros are the same dreams, I’ve been blessed that I’ve band’s Los Angeles roots, Dawes has often been still in power. There’s never been a popular been able to achieve my dreams, but I’m still and hot french fries”-and offers the wish, “May all your viewed as reviving the scene associated with the A live feel favorite bands stay together.” The tongue-in-cheek line election in Cuba. Nothing will change in dreaming.” Garcia said he took a long time - Laurel Canyon neighborhood known for legends such Cuba until the Castro regime leaves and the “about seven years” - to break through in In a style reminiscent of the Grateful Dead, Dawes was not a premonition for Dawes. Gelber said that a as Joni Mitchell, The Doors, Jackson Browne and Neil essentially made “All Your Favorite Bands” as a live stu- number of new songs are ready to record once the people are free.” Hollywood. But most Latinos never broke Young. And Garcia expanded on the state of through at all. Winning a best-supporting dio concert, jamming at a studio in Nashville and not incessantly touring band has time. — AFP Dawes’ latest album, “All Your Favorite Bands,” Cuba for another full minute. Later on at the actor Oscar nomination for his performance caring about minor mistakes. The band tried a differ- marks a renewal of the folk rock era’s narrative tradi- presser, at the stately Orsalina Hotel, high as Vincent Mancini in “The Godfather: Part III,” ent approach with its previous album, 2013’s “Stories above a crustal blue Lake Maggiore in the he definitely arrived. The large question, Swiss Alps, Garcia, more relaxed, ionized that asked from various angles, at the Locarno whenever he gave an interview, whatever he interview, was where he could go next. As an spoke about, the only headlines would be actor, Garcia’s career, where he started of about Cuba. playing a cocaine kingpin in Hal Ashby’s 1986 NYC lounge performer That in a way, however, is natural. He left “8 Million Ways To Die,” was crowned as a the island aged five, when his father pre- mobster hothead with Coppola, but now ferred emigration, settling in Miami Beach, to plays the Mator of New York in “Geo” and a hits the century mark sending his children to a state school, he high-profile politician in Ghostbusters III” recalled. But Garcia’s rich Cuban heritage has reflects the empowerment of at least some ost 100-year-olds don’t mark the milestone birthday informed his career and his life. Garcia spent Latinos. with a news conference in a piano bar. Then again, much of the former, at least in its early MIrving Fields isn’t most 100-year-olds. Fields is one of stretches, he remembered at Locarno, bat- Garcia spoke with most passion, and New York City’s oldest lounge performers and still plays piano tling against Latino stereotyping, citing the insight, about his career not just as an actor, four nights a week at Nino’s Tuscany restaurant in Manhattan. famous example of Brian de Palma “The however, but as a fuller-based filmmaker. “My Even though he gets around more slowly than he once did, he Untouchables,” where he was envisioned for interest is making movies not just acting,” he has no plans to stop playing and recording albums. the role of Al Capone’s henchman Frank Nitti, said in Locarno. Some of his filmmaking “I have a brand new one, it’s called ‘100 Years and Still but battled and won to play Italian agent plans turn, maybe inevitably on Cuba. Garcia Tickling the Ivories,” he said at Friday’s gathering organized by George Stone. That battle he won. made his directorial debut with 2005’s “The US Rep Carolyn Maloney. Maloney said Fields, who she called Lost City,” which he presents Saturday at a neighborhood institution, has “an energetic spirit and zeal A family man Locarno, written with Cuba’s most famous for his work.” Fields, best known for an album titled “Bagels In mid-August, Locarno is sweltering in a novelist, silver-witted Guillermo Cabrera and Bongos,” tapped into an interest for Latin music among heat wave, the sun hitting like an anvil. Most Infante, about a night club owner struggling the Jewish community in the 1950s and still takes request for journalists at the interview are dressed as if to keep his business and family together such signature tunes as “Miami Beach Rhumba.” The centenari- they’ve just come in from a rather informal under Castro. “I’ve done many documen- an started performing in New York City in the 1920s. beach. Garcia respectfully wears immaculate- taries, at least half a dozen, on Cachao, Garcia Look up his name on YouTube and you will find a playlist of ly a blue suit, setting off polished black shoes. said. “I find solace in my country’s music, all almost 200 videos of Fields playing music that evokes the He has been married to the same woman for my life.—Reuters feeling of a cocktail party in a sunken lounge room. He said he thirty years. Though that is hardly a world has sold more than 2 million albums. Propped up on his piano record, one journalist remembered with a stool by two cushions, Fields blew out the candles on his certain reverence by at the press conference. Nino Selimas (left)and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, (second from right) present He is a family man. “I wake up in the piano-shaped birthday cake Friday and said, “I can’t believe New York Cityís oldest cabaret singer and piano player Irving Fields a piano shaped birth- morning as a father, not as an actor. My this, am I in heaven.” His simple advice for staying young at day cake during a 100th birthday celebration for him at Nino’s Tuscany restaurant, Friday, responsibilities are first and foremost to my heart: “Love what you do.” — AP Aug. 7, 2015, in New York. — AP