Our weekly round-up of the big news stories from the world of movie superheroes…
The Disney marketing machine really has gone into overdrive recently, with the studio flooding the internet with all things Avengers as we inch ever closer to release of the epic superhero team-up. Just trying to keep on top of everything is a bit of a headache, but take a deep breath and see if you can wade your way through the following: a new TV spot, which gives us our best look yet at Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) mysterious alien army; some character bios of the team, from the UK Avengers Assemble official website; a series of ‘fun facts’, courtesy of Disney (via ComicBookMovie); a Norton-sponsored behind-the-scenes featurette, including comments from director Joss Whedon; six new behind-the-scenes images at Yahoo Movies!; and a number of interviews including Chris Hemsworth on Thor’s new-look attire, Kevin Feige and Stan Lee on assembling The Avengers and Robert Downey Jr. on whether he missed Iron Man director Jon Favreau. All that, and Disney’s $100m marketing blitz isn’t said to kick in until tomorrow…
…Of course The Avengers isn’t the only movie Marvel have on their slate and this past week has brought some brief updates on three such projects, including the sequels Iron Man 3 and Captain America 2, along with the long-rumoured Ant-Man solo feature from director Edgar Wright. First up was a casting call (via Den of Geek) for the Shane Black-directed Iron Man 3 that appears to confirm the return of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow alongside the previously announced RDJ, Don Cheadle (Rhodey) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), which was then followed by a report on Vulture that Marvel have narrowed down director Joe Johnston’s replacement on the Captain America: The First Avenger sequel to three contenders – George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job) and Anthony and Joe Russo (You, Me and Dupree, Community), with the Russo brothers said to be favourite of Marvel execs. Finally, Kevin Feige has given some hope that Ant-Man will eventually materialise, telling Bleeding Cool that: “It’s somewhere. I’ll just say it’s closer than it’s ever been in its long maybe eight year history, and I usually e-mail Edgar every two or three days and over those eight years its got further away and closer… we are now closer than we’ve ever been. So I hope it will come together shortly…”
…Moving on from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the big news on the Batman front this week was the official (albeit probably accidental) confirmation that Liam Neeson is reprising his role from Batman Begins as Ra’s al Ghul, with the production notes for Wrath of the Titans stating that “Neeson next appears in Peter Berg’s actioner Battleship and he also will be seen in Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated action thriller The Dark Knight Rises.” Neeson immediately moved to try and restore some of the mystery, telling CNN that “I have no idea what the story is about. Nothing. Nothing. Seriously, I’m not sure if I’m still in it. It’s a cameo – let’s put it that way – if it still survives”, but by then the cat was already miles out of the bag and Neeson can now be added to a cast that includes the likes of Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. That we know of, at least. Oh, and you can also throw Cillian Murphy in there too. Probably. Now, how much longer will we have to wait for confirmation that Cotillard is portraying Talia..?
…It’s also been announced that Warner Bros. will be taking The Dark Knight Rises to CinemaCon 2012, where they will be promoting the hugely-anticipated sequel alongside Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and Adam Shankman’s Rock of Ages on April 24th. There’s no word yet on whether any footage will be screened, but the fact that Nolan, Bale and Maggie Gyllenhaal previewed footage from The Dark Knight at CinemaCon back in 2008 should be enough to fill this year’s attendees with plenty of hope…
…Sticking with Batman for the moment and Cartoon Network has made an official announcement about the upcoming CG-animated series Beware the Batman, which is being developed by Glen Murakami (Batman Beyond) and Mitch Watson (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated) and is set to join the DC Nation programming block later this year. Check out some details about the series here…
…And, in one final Batman-related piece, Armie Hammer has taken some time out from filming on Disney’s The Lone Ranger to discuss the aborted Justice League: Mortal feature, which was in development a few years back under Mad Max director George Miller and would have seen Hammer donning the cape and cowl as the Dark Knight: “I hate to say it, but thankfully it didn’t happen because I probably wouldn’t have been ready for anything then… It was amazing as a young actor to even get to experience that kind of a budget. I think that they were talking about, I mean this could be hearsay, who knows, but I think the budget was close to $300 million. I don’t know the specifics, but it was huge, huge to the point where I remember being down in Australia and they were just throwing money around. Just like, ‘Wherever the whole cast wants to go to dinner every night? Sure. Pay with this wad of cash.’ It was extravagant and then to have it all fall apart was a really good reality check. It’s like, ‘Hey, nothing in this business is real. Don’t forget that.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, right, right…'”
…Warner Bros. have unveiled the official logo for the Zack Snyder-directed, Christopher Nolan-produced Superman reboot Man of Steel, which made its way online following the launch of the movie’s new Facebook page. The logo is the first piece of official promotional material to emerge from the film since an early shot of Henry Cavill as Superman was released last August, and while the film isn’t due to hit cinemas until June 2013, its thought that the first teaser trailer will accompany The Dark Knight Rises this July…
…Despite the box office disappointment of Ryan Reynolds’ big screen outing as Hal Jordon in last year’s Green Lantern, it would seem that Warner Bros. are still keen to expand their DC feature film universe beyond the Caped Crusader and the Last Son of Krypton. “I think Warner Bros. is finalizing their strategy of how they want to roll out their DC superheroes and obviously they’ve got Batman in an incredibly great place and Green Lantern, I think, performed okay. I think they probably would have liked it to have done better, but yeah, there is still a whole lot of excitement for the DC universe and I know The Flash is very high on the list,” said Wrath of the Titans screenwriter Dan Mazeua in an interview with blastr. “It’s like anything though, it has to come together with the right cast. It has to come together with the right director and sort of the right moment and so they’re trying to push the rock up the hill… hopefully there will be some news soon, but right now I can’t really say anything else…”
…Following its premiere back in November, Green Lantern: The Animated Series returned to the airwaves in North America this month as part of Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block, and USA Today have posted a behind-the-scenes video that features contributions from voice actors Josh Keaton (Hal Jordan), Kevin Michael Richardson (Kilowog) and Grey DeLisle (Aya)…
…Last week we got our first look at Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow from the CW’s live-action Arrow series, and now we also have our first (unofficial) glimpse of another popular DC character, Dinah Laurel Lance – a.k.a. the Black Canary, with actress Katie Cassidy snapped filming the David Nutter-directed pilot episode alongside Amell’s Oliver Queen in Vancouver this past week. Warning – if you’re expecting fishnets, you’re going to be sorely disappointed…
…Director Marc Webb and star Emma Stone took part in an interview with Popcorn Biz, where they spoke in some depth about Sony’s latest take on Marvel’s web-crawler, The Amazing Spider-Man, while Stark Industries (via ComicBookMovie) got their hands on some low-resolution images of four Japanese posters for the reboot, including character shots of Stone (Gwen Stacy), Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker / Spider-Man) and Rhys Ifans (Dr. Curt Connors / The Lizard)…
…Ahead of its Stateside premiere on Disney XD’s Marvel Universe tomorrow morning, a selection of character bios from Ultimate Spider-Man have made their way online, giving fans a look at the various friends and foes that will be appearing through-out the series. Supervising producers Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle also spoke to Newsrama about their handling of Spider-Man’s latest small screen adventures, while Marvel Animation also released a six-minute sizzle reel that you can check out here…
…As we know, X-Men: The Last Stand screenwriter Simon Kinberg has been tasked with penning the screenplay for Matthew Vaughn’s as yet untitled X-Men: First Class sequel, but it looks as if Vaughn’s regular collaborator Jane Goldman may also be lending a hand, with the First Class scriptwriter telling HeyUGuys that she and Vaughn are actively busy developing the follow-up “among other things.” The sequel to last year’s summer blockbuster will see James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender reprise their roles as Professor X and Magneto, while Fox also have options on other First Class cast members such as Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Álex González, Lucas Till, Jason Flemyng, January Jones and Nicholas Hoult…
…And finally, comic book writer Chris Claremont has revealed some details about a pitch for an X-Men movie to James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment in the early 90s: “Just think about this for a minute: James Cameron’s X-Men. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. That’s what we were playing. So we’re chatting. And at one point Stan Lee looks at Cameron and says, ‘I hear you like Spider-Man.’ Cameron’s eyes lit up. And they start talking. And talking. And talking. About 20 minutes later all the Lightstorm guys and I are looking at each other, and we all know the X-Men deal has just evaporated. Kathryn goes off and writes a screen treatment for X-Men that was eaten alive by all the idiots who have a piece of Spider-Man because Marvel during its evolution has sold off the rights time and time and time again. To Carolco. To Universal. To this to that. To Fox. It was just a nightmare.” Of course, the X-Men and Spider-Man properties finally made their way to the screen in 2000 and 2002 and both were hugely instrumental in the superhero movie boom of the past decade. Had Cameron managed to get either of these off the ground in the 90s, who knows what today’s comic book movie landscape may have been like?
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