Our weekly round up of all the big news stories from the world of screen superheroes…
The big story this past week was of course the announcement from Disney that Joss Whedon will return to write and direct a sequel to this year’s superhero smash hit The Avengers, which doesn’t really come as much of a surprise considering the near-$1.5 billion box office amassed by Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. As part of Whedon’s deal, he is also set to “contribute creatively” to Phase Two of the MCU and we now have a solid idea of how this second round of features will play out, with 2013’s Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World followed by Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014 and culminating with the release of The Avengers 2 (presumably) in May 2015, with Ant-Man possibly squeezed in beforehand. Whedon’s creative input into these movies could certainly spell good news for the Cinematic Universe as we build to The Avengers 2, providing they don’t all just become trailers for the ‘Main Event’ in 2015…
…Along with The Avengers 2, Whedon is also set to extend the Cinematic Universe beyond the big screen by developing a new live-action Marvel TV series for ABC Television, although no further details about the project were forthcoming. Naturally we can’t expect to see the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans popping up on out TV sets every week, but I wouldn’t bet against some kind of S.H.I.E.L.D.-themed procedural (led by Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill, perhaps?), which could be used to introduce plenty of Marvel’s lesser known characters, as well as the occasional cameo from the big boys as the series goes on (well, providing it doesn’t get cancelled)…
…There is however another possibility, as Guillermo del Toro revealed to Collider earlier in the week that he’d found a writer to help craft his proposed Hulk TV series: “I had one meeting with Marvel after Avengers and we had a very, very good chat. We have a writer that we want to bring on board, a very, very concrete name. I can’t reveal it, but we want to wait for that writer. It’s a writer who is otherwise engaged. So right now we are in a holding pattern until that writer becomes free. Then we’re going to do a new draft of the script…”
…Meanwhile Jeremy Renner will be hoping that The Avengers 2 is a little kinder to his character than the first movie was – if he should make it to the sequel that is, after the actor voiced his displeasure about Hawkeye’s treatment in The Avengers during an interview with the Los Angeles Times: “For 90% of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play. It’s kind of a vacancy. [He’s] not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to him. To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses… I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No… Is [Hawkeye] working for S.H.I.E.L.D. or not? There’s a lot of unanswered questions
…Having lost its grip on the UK box office chart last weekend to Seth MacFarlane’s Ted, The Dark Knight Rises is now set to be surpassed in the North American chart by new releases The Bourne Legacy and The Campaign. Nevertheless, Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film continues its march towards the $1 billion mark at the global box office and has climbed above Men in Black 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hunger Games and Ice Age: Continental Drift these past seven days to become the second-highest grossing release of 2012 with just under $750m by close of play on Thursday. At this rate, it looks set to nudge out The Dark Knight’s $1 billion box office take to become the biggest release of the Batman franchise, and still has a shot of cracking the top ten of the highest-grossing films of all-time, with tenth spot currently occupied by Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace on $1.027 billion…
…While we’re on the subject of The Dark Knight Rises, costume designer Lindy Hemming has spoken about a deleted sequence from the film which would have explored Bane’s (Tom Hardy) backstory in a little more depth: ”The thing that you should have seen during that sequence is [Bane] being injured in his youth. So one of the fundamental things about his costume is that he has this scar from the back injury. Even if he hasn’t got the bulletproof vest on, he still has to wear the waist belt and the braces. In that scene in the prison, where he’s learning to fight the same way Batman learned to fight, he’s wearing an early version of his waist belt. It’s showing support, but it’s not the finished one he eventually wears. He’s also wearing an early version of his gas mask, all glued together… there’s a whole early section for Tom Hardy where he’s fighting and being taunted by people. He’s got chains on him, and he’s standing on a wooden thing while people are attacking him. And in that scene, he’s wearing a much more ragged, primitive version of the mask…”
…Following on from the announcement that Whedon would return for The Avengers 2, it seemed that Warner Bros. had also taken a step closer to bringing their own DC superhero team to the screen when a report from Variety indicated that the studio were set to offer Ben Affleck the director’s chair on Justice League, only for Deadline to call “bullshit” on Variety’s ‘scoop’, stating that Affleck had already passed on the opportunity. And it wasn’t the first time this week that Deadline had dismissed one of Variety’s superhero-related stories – earlier in the week, Deadline had also thrown water over their claims that Marvel Studios had offered 20th Century Fox an extension to their Daredevil contract in exchange for certain characters from the Fantastic Four package, namely Galactus and the Silver Surfer.
…Sticking with Fox’s superhero slate and Fantastic Four and Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer director Tim Story (a.k.a. The Man Who Turned Galactus Into A Cloud) has shared his thought’s on Josh Trank’s proposed reboot in an interview with Black Film: “I knew [the reboot] would happen. It’s inevitable. I was part of a franchise where the guy who’s going to do the next one will do 2 or 3 films and someone else will come in when they reinvent it again. I literally can’t wait to see the next one because you want to see what they do with it. It’s all good. It’s about commerce and the also the industry that we are in. I would like to see ‘The Ultimate Fantastic Four,’ where they use the young kids who don’t go up in space. Reed Richards builds this thing and creates an ultimate universe and that’s how they get their powers. In my opinion, that would be amazing…”
…And finally, Donald Faison (Scrubs) has entered negotiations to join Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, swapping the role of Dr. Turk for that of the masked vigilante Doctor Gravity. Faison will become the latest addition to the cast after John Leguizamo (Spawn) signed on for the role of Javier, bodyguard to Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s Red Mist. Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass), Chloe Grace Moretz (Hit Girl), Nicolas Cage (Big Daddy) and Lyndsy Fonseca (Katie Deauxma) are also confirmed as reprising their roles in addition to Yancy Butler (Witchblade) as the Red Mist’s mother, with Jeff Wadlow (Never Back Down) taking over writing and directing duties Matthew Vaughn. Meanwhile, you can also check out the official Facebook page for Kick-Ass 2 here, which is virtually devoid of content at the moment, save for the first title banner.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen – Available now via Amazon.
