…It may have taken seven days longer than Fast & Furious 7 (and five days longer than its 2012 predecessor), but Avengers: Age of Ultron has now crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, spurred on by a record opening day for Marvel in China, and a third week at the top of the UK box office. Age of Ultron becomes the third Marvel Studios release to pass a billion after The Avengers and Iron Man 3, with the MCU now adding the distinction of being the only franchise to have three instalments reach that milestone to its status as the highest-grossing franchise of all time. The film still has some work to do to reach the $1.5 billion of the original Avengers, but should find itself pushing $1.2 billion this weekend, and still has several markets to open in (such as Japan, who got a power ballad-fueled, spoiler-heavy trailer this week, as well as some cheesey as hell posters)…
…If you were wondering how much screen time each Avenger gets in Age of Ultron (and which character suffered the “Hawkeye treatment” the most this time around) then we have the answers for you here, while Flickering Myth’s Anghus Houvouras and Rohan Morbey sat down to discuss the film in the latest Across the Pondcast, asking ‘Was Avengers: Age of Ultron Overrated?’…
…Marvel is already in full swing with production on its first Phase Three offering Captain America: Civil War, and this week has brought us several set photos from the Atlanta shoot, with shots of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) attending a funeral [see here], and Cap, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in action, as well as our first look at a fully suited up Crossbones (Frank Grillo) [see here]…
…With Spider-Man set to make his MCU debut in Captain America Civil War, El Mayimbe and Latino-Review have reported that Ender’s Game star Asa Butterfield as been cast as Peter Parker. This isn’t the first time Latino-Review has claimed that Butterfield has been cast (does repeating the same scoop a few weeks apart counts as a new scoop?), but as yet there’s been no confirmation from Marvel Studios. Either way, with Civil War now deep in production an official announcement is surely coming soon…
…With Ant-Man just a couple of months away from release, we can expect Marvel to soon kick up the promotion on the Peyton Reed-directed franchise launcher, but in the meantime an extended TV spot has arrived online, which offers up the briefest of snippets of new footage from the film; watch it here…
…It seems it’s not only in front of the camera that Marvel is looking to diversify, with reports this week claiming that Ava DuVernay (Selma) is in the frame to become both Marvel’s first African-American director and first female filmmaker. Reports this week have suggested that DuVernay is wanted for either Black Panther or Captain Marvel, both of which are set for release in 2018…
…No sooner had Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s season two finale ‘S.O.S.’ aired [read our review here] than ABC was already turning its attention to the upcoming third season – not to mention the second season of Agent Carter – by releasing official synopses for both shows, which you can read here…
…After celebrating Mother’s Day this past Sunday with a new promotional image from Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds offered up another shot ofthe Merc with a Mouth in in action this week, while the Merc with a Mouth also took a second swing at former Saved By the Bell star Mario Lopez (if you recall, Deadpool previously “attacked” Lopez as he made the announcement that the hotly anticipated spin-off would indeed be R-rated when it lands in February)…
…Deadpool isn’t the only X-Men movie in production, with Bryan Singer currently shooting X-Men: Apocalypse for release in May 2016, and the director posted a mysterious new set photo this week, while a casting call offered up what may be the first synopsis for the film, as well as suggesting – unofficially – that both Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Channing Tatum (Gambit) will appear…
…Having finally received a release date of July 14th last week, full details of the X-Men: Days of Future Past – The Rogue Cut Blu-ray has now been revealed; in addition to the original theatrical version, it will include the all-new extended edition, along with 90 minutes of brand new special features, as well as a sneak peek at Fox’s next Marvel offering Fantastic Four.; you can check out details of all the special features here…
…Fox has announced this week its latest plan to extend the X-Men franchise, hiring Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) to co-write and direct an adaptation of The New Mutants, with producer Simon Kinberg stating that: “We’re so excited to explore this new part of the X-Men universe, and so excited to do it with Josh, who is uniquely suited to tell this story about young characters.” No further details were revealing, but Boone has several projects on his upcoming slate in The Vampire Chronicles and The Stand, so it may be a while before we see the young mutants on the big screen…
…After confirming last month that he’d started working on the script, Tomorrowland director Brad Bird has now revealed that the Pixar sequel The Incredibles 2 is likely to be his next film: “I have a bunch of pages [for the script]. I had a lot of ideas for the original that I didn’t get a chance to use. I have ideas that I wanted to pursue and there wasn’t enough time in The Incredibles. There are new ideas that I have and I think there are enough of those together to make an interesting movie. I’m focussing on getting Tomorrowland out into the world and playing with The Incredibles sandbox again. It feels like [it will be my next movie] to me, yeah…”
…And finally, NBC has given us a first peak at its Heroes revival with three first look images from Heroes Reborn, as well as an official poster and series of cast portraits featuring Jack Coleman, Zachary Levi, Judith Shekoni, Robbie Kay, Henry Zebrowski, Kiki Sukezane, Ryan Guzman, Danika Yarosh, Toru Uchikado, Eve Harlow and Gatlin Green.
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
