Our weekly round up of all the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Iron Man 3, The Avengers 2, Ant-Man, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool, Justice League, Man of Steel, Superman Lives, Superman: Flyby, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Kick-Ass 2, Arrow, Teen Titans Go!, Superman: Unbound, LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Superheroes Unite, Ultimate Spider-Man and more…
With just under five weeks to go until Iron Man 3 kicks off Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (well, in the UK at least, with North American audiences having to wait an extra week), Disney has released a couple of new promos for the Shane Black-directed superhero sequel – a short TCL exclusive trailer, and an even shorter Kid’s Choice Award teaser and Kids Choice Award TV spot – as well as a new IMAX poster featuring cast members Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Guy Pearce (Aldrich Killian) and Ben Kingsley (The Mandarin). Meanwhile, Guy Pearce spoke to Marvel.com about his character’s motivations and the love triangle between Killian, Pepper Potts and Tony Stark [see here], Gwyneth Paltrow and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige offered up some rather spoilerish details about the film’s first act, AIM’s involvement in the plot, and whether Pepper Potts will suit up alongside Tony Stark [see here], and Feige discussed the climatic battle sequence in Iron Man 3, which will see Tony calling upon an army of Iron Man suits, as well as letting us in on Joss Whedon’s reaction:
“There are a lot of suits in this movie,“ said Feige at a recent press event (via 2 Kids and a Coupon). “While it is both a movie in which he spends quite a bit of time outside of the suit, as you see it’s not working and he’s- and he’s with Ty in Tennessee, by the end of it we reveal that underneath the house, which is now covered with rubble, he’s got dozens and dozens of suits. And once, throughout the course of the movie, and all that rubble gets pulled aside by construction cranes, just when he needs him, he calls them to the rescue and we have what I think is the biggest most action packed finale we’ve had. I showed the film to Joss Whedon, who is our writer-director on The Avengers and who is currently working on The Avengers 2, and he saw the finale of this and he goes, now what am I supposed to do now? What am I going to do in Avengers 2?”
Speaking of The Avengers 2, we know that Whedon is set to expand the roster of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for 2015’s sure-to-be-spectacular sequel, and apparently Chris Hemsworth is keen to see Jean-Claude Van Damme signing on to the cast – at least, according to the Muscles from Brussels himself, with the action icon stating: “I read that Chris Hemsworth (star of Thor and brother of Liam Hemsworth, The Expendables 2) would like me to costar in The Avengers 2 movie! Well, it would be fun to play one of these types of amazing comic book characters again. By the way, I am a big fan of Marvel’s superhero Silver Surfer and also another heroic fictional character known as Doc Savage – the Man of Bronze!” Van Damme does have comic book experience thanks to 1994’s Dark Horse adaptation Timecop, but unless Whedon is a big JCVD fan, I think we can safely file this one under ‘not going to happen’…
…Although Phase Two is yet to get underway, we got a brief taste of Phase Three of the MCU this past week as Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man test reel leaked online; running at just under a minute, the footage sees Ant-Man tackling two armed guards by shifting back and forth in size, which includes him running along the barrel of a gun (in miniature form, obviously). If you haven’t seen the Ant-Man test footage yet, you can watch it here, and be sure to check out the (mostly positive) thoughts of our writing team in the latest Flickering Myth Reaction…
…In other bits and pieces from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Ray Stevenson (Volstagg) have been talking about returning to Asgard for Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World, and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) has revealed that he’s filmed a cameo in the sequel, with speculation suggesting it will be a “date scene” alongside Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster; Maximiliano Hernandez has signed on to reprise the role of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell in Captain America: The Winter Solider, while screen legend Robert Redford is reportedly in negotiations to join the cast of next year’s sequel, which so far includes MCU veterans Chris Evans (Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Toby Jones (Arnim Zola) and Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter) alongside franchise newcomers Emily VanCamp (Sharon Carter), Anthony Mackie (Falcon) and Frank Grillo (Crossbones); Bleeding Cool has reported that prop sculptor Brian Muir – whose work includes Darth Vader’s helmet and the Stormtrooper armor from Star Wars, the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Space Jockey from Alien – is currently working on designs for Guardians of the Galaxy, which is set to shoot at Pinewood this summer; and Nicolas Cage has seemingly put himself in contention for the lead in Doctor Strange, namedropping the Sorcerer Supreme when asked if there were any other superhero characters he’d like to play now that he’s hung up his Ghost Rider leathers…
…It’s been a long time coming, but we’ll get our first look at Hugh Jackman back in action as Logan in The Wolverine with the arrival of the first trailer for the solo X-Men sequel this coming Wednesday. Director James Mangold has promised to deliver a brief teaser (or ‘tweaser’) on Tuesday, and considering the BBFC have slapped a 15 certificate on the trailer, there’s high hopes that we might finally get to see Wolverine unleashing the full extent of his feral rage when Jackman dons the claws for a sixth time in July. To tide us over in the meantime, Mangold, Jackman and Will Yun Lee (Silver Samurai) have been discussing the film’s action sequences, as well as it’s connection to previous instalments in the X-Men franchise; take a look at their comments here…
…Now that he’s got Jack the Giant Slayer out of the way, director Bryan Singer can fully turn his attention to next year’s mutant epic X-Men: Days of Future Past, and during an interview with Bleeding Cool, he elaborated on his comments about “fixing” some of the franchise’s past mistakes: “[X-Men: The Last Stand] was a strange situation for me. I didn’t have anything to do with X-Men 3 or Wolverine except for [Hugh Jackman]. There are parts of X-Men 3… it isn’t what I would have done, but parts of it, I liked. Ellen Page [Kitty Pryde] was something I liked in X-Men 3 and I’m bringing her to Days of Future Past. Certain things are different. There was a lot going on in it and I wasn’t so happy with so many people dying, but then there were some really sweet moments with that kid, the cure kid. I just rewatched all the movies the other day. We had a big screening of every X-Men movie just to remind myself what they are. I don’t go to see my movies. I said I’ll ‘fix a few things’ [with Days of Future Past]. It won’t be its primary function but there will be some fixing. It’s a really cool story, and incidentally, it facilitates all of these characters. They weren’t just thrown in there…”
…The cast of Days of Future Past is certainly bursting at the seams, with the aforementioned Hugh Jackman and Ellen Page joined by fellow X-Men returnees Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Halle Berry (Storm), James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus), not to mention mutant newcomers Fan Bingbing (Iron Man 3), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Omar Sy (The Intouchables) and Booboo Stewart (The Twilight Saga). Expect plenty of X-Men chatter from the enormous cast over the coming weeks and months and James McAvoy and Booboo Stewart have both been at it this week, speaking briefly about the film with I Am Rogue and Clevver Movies respectively…
…Despite the fact that Bryan Singer revealed recently that Mark Millar is yet to have any input on X-Men: Days of Future Past, Millar has offered up more talk about his role as Fox’s Marvel creative consultant: “As a producer on Kick-Ass 2, I’ve not been in LA since Sept when Fox flew me out to sit with the insanely-clever writer Simon Kinberg and the Fox execs to chat X-Men back when Matthew Vaughn was still directing. But Kick-Ass 2 is pretty much done now and so my beady-eye can move back towards the Fox stuff again. There’s a very exciting announcement you guys will hear about over the coming months (if not before), but the most immediate things the office is talking about are Days of Future Past and The Wolverine, both of which I’m absolutely aching to see. I saw the first 10 mins of Jim’s Wolvie when I was out there last September. I’m out again next month and will have the pleasure of seeing a very near final cut too. Days of Future Past is potentially the biggest and most ambitious superhero movie ever made. I’ve seen this coming together in various stages, but now they’re only weeks away from shooting it’s really catching fire. I’ll catch Bry in person before he heads to Montreal next month when I’m seeing Wolvie and we can chat a little more about the Fox grand plan. A very, very exciting time to be into this stuff, especially when you consider that the brilliant Josh Trank has The Fantastic Four lined up for 2015…”
…While Millar is yet to put his stamp on Fox’s X-Men universe, one person who is responsible for a big part of the studio’s next two projects is celebrated X-Men comic book writer Chris Claremont, who is responsible for the source material for both The Wolverine and Days of Future Past. During an interview with ComicBookResources, Claremont discussed his thoughts on both of the adaptations: “The sad reality of Hollywood, especially as it relates to comic books, is that there is never a direct adaptation of source material. I think Watchmen was maybe the only time that that was tried. The Wolverine was a project that the producer, Lauren Shuler Donner, has wanted to do ever since I’ve known her, which is going on better than fifteen years, now. She’s loved the story that Frank Miller and I did and has wanted to bring it to the screen. In the story’s original incarnation, in Christopher McQuarrie’s original screenplay, that was what it was and it was really cool. I mean, I read it; it was good. This is when Darren Aronofsky was going to direct, and then, after last year’s Oscars, he decided he had other things that were more pressing and withdrew from the project. The new director came in wanting to bring his own writing crew on the project, wanting to express his own vision, and it has, as I understand, morphed somewhat considerably from the original story… There was a report online that Bryan Singer was talking about integrating Apocalypse into the Days of Future Past storyline, which would obviously be a significant evolution from the original material. Again, this is the nature of Hollywood, or as it seems to approach Marvel product… The reality of the situation is, these guys are professionals, they’re filmmakers, they presumably know what they’re doing and that’s the way it is. Hopefully the end result will be really good and something that all involved will be proud of…”
…As for the big Fox announcement that Mark Millar is teasing, we can probably rule out the possibility of it being the long-rumoured Deadpool movie, with Ryan Reynolds telling Empire that he can’t see Fox giving the proposed X-Men Origins: Wolverine spin-off the green light any time soon: “I love Deadpool and there is a script that’s in development. But it’s so, so far into the R-rated zone… it’s a nearly NC-17 world and I just don’t know if the studio would ever risk their reputation doing it. We’ve been developing it and we would never wanna do it unless you could it that R-rated way, so…” Reynolds then went on to elaborate on the script, as well as explaining how the solo movie would fit in with Wolverine: “[The Deadpool script has] got a similar tone [to Zombieland], almost. They wrote it and they developed it as well and, you know, it’s sitting there. You could do it for a pittance compared to the modern sort of epic scale superhero movies, but it’s about a guy who knows he’s in a movie and knows he’s in a comic book who is deeply mentally disturbed and hyper violent. And that’s tough to get by a studio… I don’t think you can do [a follow-up to Wolverine], because that character would really sully that whole world. The script is one rewrite away from Deadpool jumping across the desk at the studio executive and attacking him. In the current iteration of the script, it doesn’t address Wolverine – though it does address Deadpool’s appearance in Wolverine. Deadpool was not happy with Deadpool in Wolverine. He has a sort of a WTF!? moment with that…”
…So, it doesn’t seem very likely that we’ll see Ryan Reynolds back as Wade Wilson any time soon, and it would appear that the same can also be said for Hal Jordan, with Reynolds going on to tell Empire that he has no burning ambition to suit up as Green Lantern in Warner Bros.’ Justice League movie: “If you’re going to do a comic book movie in that vein you really have to get them right. Joss Whedon is a guy that just nails it, Christopher Nolan as well. If they were going to do it like that, yeah it would be interesting to do. Working on Green Lantern I saw how difficult it is to make that concept palatable, and how sort of confused it can all be when you don’t really know where you’re going with it or you don’t really know how to access that world that comic book fans have been accessing for decades and falling in love with. So at this point I have very little interest in joining [Justice League], as always a very good script and great director could turn that around…”
…Although Ryan Reynolds has little interest in Justice League, one person who would jump at the chance of returning to a previous character is Adrianne Palicki, who portrayed Wonder Woman in the2011 TV pilot from David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal). “If they wanted me, I would absolutely do [Justice League] in a heartbeat,” Palicki told StarPulse at the London premiere of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, before reiterating her disappointment at the failure of the pilot. “I was devastated. We shot it and it was amazing. I got to wear the uniform, I got to wear the outfit, and it didn’t go. I was completely devastated about it…”
…One name we should expect to see on the credits for Justice League is that of Henry Cavill – assuming of course that Man of Steel turns out to be the hit we’re all expecting it to be. According to HenryCavill.org, the new Superman is set to embark on a three month world tour starting in Japan on March 27th, which will likely see the start of a huge promotional push for the Zack Snyder-directed reboot. Meanwhile, WB has released a new image of Amy Adams as Lois Lane, while the first photo of the full Man of Steel cast assembled together also surfaced this week, with Cavill and Adams joined by Michael Shannon (General Zod), Russell Crowe (Jor-El), Kevin Costner (Jonathan Kent), Diane Lane (Martha Kent), Ayelet Zurer (Lara Lor-Van), Antje Traue (Faora) and Laurence Fishburne (Perry White)…
…In other Superman news, we’ve heard a talk about two of WB’s failed attempts to revive the Man of Steel this past week; first up was Nicolas Cage, speaking about Tim Burton’s aborted 90s reboot Superman Lives: “The fact that Tim and I were pretty far down the road designing [Superman Lives], and I know that with Tim and where I was going to go, we would have done something really special. At least it’s out there in the ether that that could have happened, but we don’t have to make the movie. It’s still interesting to people. I do think that I had the win-win situation, because that character is such a bullseye that you have to hit. He’s one of the most precious icons of our country…”
…Meanwhile, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Wars: Episode VII director J.J. Abrams spoke to Empire about his script for Superman: Flyby, which would have presented a revamped origin story based around a Kryptonian Civil War: “The thing that I tried to emphasise in the story was that if the Kents found this boy, Kal-El, who had the power that he did, he would have most likely killed them both in short order. And the idea that these parents would see – if they were lucky to survive long enough – that they had to immediately begin teaching this kid to limit himself and to not be so fast, not be so strong, not be so powerful. The result of that, psychologically, would be fear of oneself, self-doubt and being ashamed of what you were capable of. Extrapolating that to adulthood became a fascinating psychological profile of someone who was not pretending to be Clark Kent, but who was Clark Kent. Who had become that kind of a character who is not able or willing to accept who he was and what his destiny was. The idea in the movie was that he became Superman because he realised he had to finally own his strength and what he’d always been. I don’t know if that’s what Zack Snyder and Christoper Nolan are doing, but it looks like that’s part of the idea and I could not be more thrilled to see that movie. That to me was always the way to go…”
…If you’ve been following Sony’s upcoming sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, you’ll know that Andrew Garfield’s wall-crawler looks to have his hands full in his second outing. Alongside the confirmed villains Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) are potential bad guys Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) and Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), not to mention the rumoured Black Cat, Venom and The Vulture. So, how do you handle so many super villains? Well, you build a super villain prison, of course – or at least that’s what director Marc Webb has been teasing on Twitter this week, releasing a series of images relating to the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane – including a first look at Colm Feore’s (24, Thor) as-yet-unrevealed character in a distinctly Vulture-esque pose…
…After the arrival of the first red band trailer for Kick-Ass 2 last week, a new behind-the-scenes image of Christopher Mintz-Plasse (The Mother F*cker), Olga Kurkulina (Mother Russia) and Jim Carrey (Colonel Stars and Stripes) has surfaced, while comic book co-creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. have revealed to IFC that they’ll cameo in the film, with Millar portraying a member of the superhero team Justice Forever, and Romita appearing as part of the Mother F*cker’s gang of supervillains, The Toxic Mega-C*nts…
…The CW’s hit superhero series Arrow has promoted another recurring guest star to the regular cast for its second season, with Manu Bennett set to continue in the role of Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke. Meanwhile The CW has released a behind-the-scenes video detailing the stunt choreography in the showdown between Ollie (Stephen Amell) and the Dark Archer (John Barrowman), along with an extended promo for this Wednesday’s episode ‘Salvation’, which introduced a new masked vigilante known as The Savior (Chris Redman). Here’s the official episode description for ‘Salvation’: An angry resident of The Glades who calls himself “The Savior” embarks on a kidnapping and killing spree to punish those he believes have wronged the residents of his neighborhood. To make things worse, he broadcasts these murders online and claims he was inspired by Arrow’s vigilantism. Oliver is horrified by this statement and vows to stop “The Savior,” but his manhunt in intensified after Thea (Willa Holland) comes to him in tears and tells him Roy (guest star Colton Haynes) has been kidnapped. Laurel (Katie Cassidy) is surprised when her father (Paul Blackthorne) starts to believe her mother’s (guest star Alex Kingston) claim that Sara is still alive. Meanwhile, Malcom (John Barrowman) tells Moira (Susanna Thompson) to find the person responsible for his attempted murder…”
…Now that Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series have come to an end, Cartoon Network is stepping up the promotion on this year’s new DC Nation offerings, releasing a first-look promo for the animated comedy Teen Titans Go!, which you can check out here. The new series is described as “a character-driven comedy series focuses on the funny that happens in between saving the world and living together as teenagers without adult supervision” and features the original Teen Titans voice cast of Scott Menville as Robin, Hynden Walch as Starfire, Tara Strong as Raven, Greg Cipes as Beast Boy and Khary Payton as Cyborg. Teen Titans Go! is set to premiere on Tuesday, April 23rd before settling in to a regular Saturday morning slot from April 27th…
…In addition to Teen Titans Go! and Beware the Batman, fans of DC’s animated output have two direct-to-video features to look forward to in the coming months in Superman: Unbound and LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Superheroes Unite. This week DC Entertainment announced that both films screen at WonderCon at the end of this month, along with panel discussions featuring Molly Quinn (Castle), producer/director James Tucker (Batman: The Brave and the Bold), screenwriter Bob Goodman (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) and voice director Andrea Romano (Batman: The Animated Series) for Superman: Unbound and voice actors Troy Baker (Batman: Arkham City), Travis Willingham (The Super Hero Squad Show), Christopher Smith (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe), Charlie Schlatter (Diagnosis Murder) and Laura Bailey (The Super Hero Squad Show) for LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Superheroes Unite. See here for full details of DC Entertainment’s WonderCon plans, along with three new images from Superman: Unbound…
…And finally, a new episode of Ultimate Spider-Man airs on Disney XD’s Marvel Universe block this Sunday, as Spider-Man – or rather ‘Spidah-Man’ – leaves his home town of New York City and heads to Boston in a story by Marvel CCO Joe Quesada; take a look at a clip from the new episode here.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen – Available now via Amazon.co.uk
