Presenting our weekly round-up of the biggest stories from the world of movie superheroes…
We kick things off this week with the rather disappointing news that The Wrestler and Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky has quit The Wolverine, leaving the status of Fox’s latest X-Men spin-off up in the air. The Wrap first broke the story on Thursday, with Aronofsky citing family reasons for his decision, stating that “it became clear that the production of The Wolverine would keep me out of the country for almost a year. I was not comfortable with being away from my family for that length of time.” Sensing more to the story, CinemaBlend quickly followed this up with a post suggesting that Aronofsky had fallen out with the studio over their refusal to meet his demands for total control of the project, which has been written by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and is reportedly based on the character’s classic Japanese story arc. So as it stands now The Wolverine is without a director, meaning it could be some time (if ever) before we see Hugh Jackman laying to rest the ghost of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
While we’re on the subject of the X-Men franchise, X-Men: First Class producer Bryan Singer has been responding to fan questions on the official First Class Facebook page, with highlights including (further) confirmation of the film’s prequel status: “We did our best to maintain continuity with other films. But as sometimes happens for the sake of telling the most compelling story possible, we made a few concessions”. Singer refused to be drawn into discussion about possible sequels, although the Wausau Daily Herald posted an article with January Jones stating that she has a three-picture deal to portray Emma Frost, so unless things really go down the toilet a Second Class is all but assured. The Cold War-era tale is directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass), with Jones joined in the cast by James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Kevin Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Lucas Till, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt, Morgan Lily, Caleb Landry Jones and Zoë Kravitz. In the meantime, if you speak Russian – or just want to see a little more footage from the movie – you might want to check out the new trailer that arrived in Russia earlier this week.
Turning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it seems like an eternity ago that Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright was first announced as developing an Ant-Man feature for Artisan. Since then Wright has went on to direct both Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, while Marvel have released Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 (and have both Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger incoming this year), with Hank Pym nowhere to be seen. It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything on the project but Wright and Ant-Man co-writer Joe Cornish have been promoting their latest comedy Attack the Block at SXSW this past week and surprisingly, talk shifted to the little fella: “It’s true to say we’ve been writing it in some form” said Wright in an interview with The Playlist. “It’s something me and Joe have genuinely been working on for nearly a decade and at some point we’ll finish the script.” Little is known about their plans for Ant-Man, although Wright has previously stated that the film will be an origin story, which explains Hank’s absence from the line-up of The Avengers. However, don’t expect Ant-Man to arrive any time soon – next up on Wright’s slate is the comedy Them, while Simon Pegg has also been dropping hints lately that the Spaced team will reunite next year to complete their Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy.
Even though Ant-Man won’t be making an appearance in 2012 there’ll be plenty of heroes joining up when Joss Whedon assembles The Avengers, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). On paper The Avengers certainly looks to be shaping up into an epic and that was certainly the view of Super director James Gunn at SXSW this week: “Everybody I know who’s read it says it’s by far the best script for a Marvel movie ever”. To further whet our appetites, an open casting call for the film’s shoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico seemed came with the following synopsis and seemed to confirm a lot of recent rumours…
A superhero team called “The Avengers” do battle against two separate alien extraterrestrial humanoid life forms. The Avengers are a superhero team, consisting of a group of Marvel Comics heroes aka “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”. The aliens that The Avengers will fight are called “The Kree” and “Skrulls”. These two extraterrestrial races become embroiled in a war for ages that ultimately makes its way to Earth, and the Avengers unite to intervene with all their power and might combined.
Of course before we get to The Avengers we have a couple of solo movies to look forward to this year; first up is Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, which added a couple of new posters this week featuring Thor (Hemsworth), Odin (Anthony Hopkins), Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), while Chris Hemsworth was keeping tight-lipped to MTV about his thoughts on the final film (and the possibility of Loki popping up in The Avengers). Meanwhile a new image emerged of a bloodied Chris Evans as Super Solider Steve Rogers in Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger, which is also said to be heading back to England in the next few weeks for re-shoots. A worrying sign, or an Avengers cameo perhaps?
Over the last few weeks 20th Century Fox have been making noises about resuming their Daredevil movie franchise, which last graced the screen back in 2003 with Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider) directing Ben Affleck as blind vigilante Matt Murdock. Now comes word from Variety that David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) has been brought in to develop the new film, which is described as less of a reboot than a “continuation of the ‘Daredevil‘ saga.” By pushing forward with development Fox are ensuring that the rights to the character don’t revert back to Marvel, a move they’re also planning with their Fantastic Four franchise. As of yet no writer has been hired to work alongside Slade and – should the movie go ahead – it’s pretty much guaranteed that we’ll be seeing a new actor stepping in as the Man Without Fear. The rumour mill is already going into overdrive with various sites linking pretty much anyone who springs to mind to the part, including the likes of Twilight star Robert Pattinson, Tron: Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund and The A-Team’s Bradley Cooper.
Sticking with the theme of reboots, Spider-Man actor J.K. Simmons has been speaking of his disappointment at Sony’s decision to pass on Sam Raimi’s proposed fourth outing in favour of starting things afresh with Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man. Simmons delivered a fantastic performance as J. Jonah Jameson (he was probably the highlight of the trilogy), which could explain the character’s apparent absence from the latest movie, but he must be the only person in the world who doesn’t feel that the series was in need of a new direction after the disappointment of Spider-Man 3. Meanwhile Martin Sheen, who will be portraying Uncle Ben in Marc Webb’s upcoming reboot, also had some words of praise for co-star Andrew Garfield in an interview with Total Film. The Amazing Spider-Man is set for release in July 2012 and also features Emma Stone, Sally Field, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary and C. Thomas Howell.
Moving on from Marvel (finally!) and it looks as if the rumours linking Kevin Costner to Zack Snyder’s reboot Superman: Man of Steel were on the money as it emerged yesterday that Costner is busy finalising a deal to star as Jonathan Kent, the adoptive father of Henry Cavill’s Kal-El. In a statement, Snyder described his motives for the casting: “Jonathan Kent is the only father figure Clark has ever had… Kevin will be able to communicate the quiet strength of this rural American man who raised the greatest super hero of all time.” Costner joins the cast as the husband of Diane Lane’s Martha Kent (who also spoke briefly to USA Weekend about the film), while Snyder took a moment out of promoting his latest film Sucker Punch to discuss his approach, confirming that – unlike Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns – he will be following the Christopher Nolan / Batman Begins approach of starting things afresh. With filming expected to begin this summer expect plenty more news from the Superman camp in the coming weeks…
Now of course no week would be complete without a visit to Gotham City, and speaking to The Playlist earlier in the week about his latest film Battle: Los Angeles, The Dark Knight star Aaron Eckhart had a few words about the likelihood of Gotham’s District Attorney making an appearance in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sequel. Pushed about any possible involvement in The Dark Knight Rises, Eckhart joked that answering such a question would be “career suicide” before reiterating that “Harvey Dent is dead”. But does that extend to his alter-ego Two-Face? Only time well tell, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see the character crop up in a cameo a la Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow in TDK. However, with Tom Hardy signed on as Bane and Anne Hathaway slipping into the Catsuit – not to mention Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in as-yet-unrevealed roles – it looks as if Christian Bale’s Batman will have his hands full as it is. In further possible casting developments, Variety has reported that young English actress Juno Temple (St Trinian’s, The Other Boleyn Girl) is also in line for a supporting role as “a street smart Gotham girl”.
In other DC-themed news, filming got underway on the pilot for NBC’s Wonder Woman reboot earlier this week and after some set photos of Elizabeth Hurley made their way online EW delivered a first-look at Adrianne Palicki in full WW costume. Considering that they’re supposed to be going for a ‘non-campy take’, that costume sure looks campy, although perhaps fortunately for the producers Palicki’s rack seemed to detract fans’ attention away from the piss poor quality of the design. Comparisons to a porn parody are rife and it really does look like an image you’d see on the box of a cheap fancy dress costume. Palicki and Hurley are joined in the cast for the pilot by Cary Elwes, and if this is anything to go by expect the series to get canned before it gets underway.
Finally, we end things on a sad note this week with the news that Michael Gough, the veteran British actor who appeared as Alfred Pennyworth Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) in addition to Joel Schumacher sequels Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997), has passed away, aged 94. Gough was one of only two actors to feature in each instalment of the series (the other being the late Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon), while he also voiced the character in the BBC Radio dramas Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome and Batman: Knightfall before reprising the role for a series of TV commercials in 2001.
