Our weekly round up of all the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Batman vs. Superman, Justice League, Gotham, Constantine, Amazon, The Flash, Hourman, Arrow, JLA Adventures, Justice League: War Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man 3, All Hail the King, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Venom, The Sinister Six, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Wolverine versus Sabretooth, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and more…
Well, it’s been another huge week for superhero news, but as always its difficult to decipher between fact and fiction, with several big rumours seemingly shot down just as they were gaining traction. However, we’ll get things underway with some official – and disappointing – news from Warner Bros. that Batman vs. Superman has been pushed back ten months and will now hit on May 6th 2016 – the same day as one of Marvel’s as-yet-unrevealed Phase Three offerings. The announcement followed rumours that Ben Affleck had injured his leg (or maybe his ribs), pushing back the start of principal photography on the Man of Steel sequel to later this year, although the official reason for the delay is to allow “the filmmakers to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story.” So, that’s two years fans will have to go without a DC movie from Warner Bros., and sadly it also means we’ve have to suffer through a few more months of random rumours and wild speculation about who’s been cast as Lex Luthor, or who may or may not be joining the baldy bad guy as a second villain (according to Jason Momoa, he won’t be… but we’ll see). And of course, the delay adds fuel to the rumours that WB plans to shoot the Man of Steel sequel back-to-back with Justice League, or the team-up is actually just cover for DC’s own superhero ensemble. At this point, it’s all conjecture, but I guess we can rule out that Flash movie in 2016…
…On the subject of the Scarlett Speedster, Ryan Maloney has put together an in depth article on Warner Bros.’ efforts to bring the Flash to the screen, exploring the scripts by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Man of Steel), Chris Brancato (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Shawn Levy (Real Steel), David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) and the Green Lantern trio of Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim. Be sure to read it here…
…While the news that Batman won’t be back on the big screen until 2016 is bound to come as a blow to fans, it looks like we’re going to be seeing the return of Bruce Wayne before then. Earlier in the week, Fox revealed that its upcoming Gotham pilot will actually revolve Smallville-style around the Boy Billionaire, as opposed to the previously-rumoured Detective Jim Gordon, and will feature the origins of villains such as The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and Catwoman. “”Batman is in it, as young Bruce Wayne,” said Fox chairman Kevin Reilly. “This is an origin story. This is what I love about it. This is not like some of the things where you’ve bought a franchise, but then you have a bunch of characters no one’s ever heard of, or an offshoot that we make up. This is all of the classic Batman characters, with a young Bruce Wayne, with Detective Gordon before he’s Commissioner Gordon, with the Penguin, with the Riddler, and with the Joker. All of those characters are going to arc and become who they are. I’ve read the script. It’s really good. It’s going to be this operatic soap that has a slightly larger-than-life quality. And we will arc a young Bruce Wayne from a child into the final episode of the series, when he will put on the cape. We’re playing with [the casting of Bruce Wayne] now. He’s a young boy, but my guess would be that he’d be somewhere around 12.” And of course, the rumour mill has been churning, with Latino-Review claiming that Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy) was up for the role of “Commissioner” Gordon, before opting for Harvey Bullock after Logue responded that he was too old to play Detective Gordon in the series…
…And some more positive news for Batman fans – the classic 1960s TV series starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as the Boy Wonder is FINALLY coming to DVD (although not Blu-ray, by all accounts), with a box-set of the complete Batman series due to arrive on shelves this year…
…Gotham wasn’t the only DC show moving forward this week, with NBC giving the green light to go into production on the script for its planned Constantine pilot, which has been been developed by The Mentalist executive producer Daniel Cerone and Warner’s DC go-to-guy David S. Goyer…
…And over at The CW, president Mark Pedowitz admitted that the network has decided against moving forward with the Wonder Woman pilot Amazon – although The CW still has The Flash and Hourman as potential additions to its schedule (which already includes Arrow), with Pedowitz providing an update on both projects during the TCA press tour: “I’m very bullish on the [Flash] show. I think what Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns and Marc Guggenheim did introducing the character on Arrow was great. And because of that, we felt that rather than try to squeeze in a spinoff, let’s make it into a bigger pilot. So if we do launch the series, we’ll launch it with a bang like we launched Arrow… “We’re still waiting for a script [for Hourman]. A lot of [pilot] scripts have not come in yet. We’re waiting for the writers to deliver the scripts. As soon as I can get enough scripts with our development team, we’ll start making the recommendations for pilots.” And as for Arrow, you can check out a promo for this week’s episode ‘Blind Spot’ here (which includes this rather nice shot of Deathstroke in his new attire), as well as a batch of images from the following week’s ‘Tremors’ here, which see Ollie (Stephen Amell) training the now-superpowered Roy Harper (Colton Haynes)…
…On the DC animated front and Warner Home Entertainment has announced a “stealth release” for the all-ages animated movie JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time, which sees the Justice League (Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash, Karate Kid, and Dawnstar) battling the Legion of Doom (Lex Luthor, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, Bizarro, Gorilla Grodd, Black Manta, Toy Man, Captain Cold and Time Trapper). Here’s the cover art and official synopsis: “Get ready for a battle of the ages when the Justice League faces off against its archenemies, the Legion of Doom, in an all-new movie from DC Comics. A mysterious being known as the Time Trapper arises, and a sinister plan led by Lex Luthor sends the Legion of Doom back in time to eliminate Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman before they become super heroes. For Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg, along with teen super heroes Karate Kid and Dawnstar, the stakes have never been higher, the rescue mission never deadlier. So join the fight for the future as the Justice League confronts its ultimate challenge… the threat of having never existed!” JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time is set for release this coming Tuesday, January 21st with a voice cast that includes Dante Basco as Karate Kid, Grey DeLisle as Wonder Woman, Jason Spisak as The Flash, Laura Bailey as Dawnstar, Diedrich Bader as Batman, Jack DeSena as Robin and Liam O’Brien as Aquaman. Meanwhile, JLA Adventures isn’t the only animated DC movie on the horizon, with Justice League: War set to arrive on February 4th, and a new clip has been released which sees Wonder Woman taking on a bunch of parademons; check it out here…
…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and this week has brought official confirmation that we’ll be getting both Hank Pym and Scott Lang as Ant-Man in Edgar Wright’s long-awaited adaptation. No surprise there, especially as Wright teased as much just last week, but one thing that came totally out of the blue was the announcement that Michael Douglas has been cast as Hank Pym, with the previously announced Paul Rudd (Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues) taking on the role of his successor Scott Lang. Douglas wasted little time in explaining the attraction of joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe: “I’ve been dying to do a Marvel picture for so long. The script is really fun, the director is really good. Dylan (the actor’s 13-year-old son) will love it. He’ll have a picture he can see.” And, asked whether he’s signed a multi-picture deal, Douglas responded: “(Marvel) reciprocated well, there are sequels. Who knows..?”
…No sooner has Douglas’ casting been revealed than the rumours started flying, with the generally reliable Variety claiming that Michael Pena (American Hustle) was in early talks for the role of a “tough Latino who has to be ready for a lot of physical play”, with Marvel said to have previously considered several actors ranging from Javier Bardem (Skyfall) to Clifton Collins Jr. (Pacific Rim). Things then started to get a bit murky, with Latino-Review stating that Collins is “the only other main actor signed, aside from Rudd & Douglas” (in which case it makes little sense that Marvel hadn’t announced it), and former AICN writer The Infamous Billy the Kidd claiming the “tough Latino” role in question is a villain named Castillo, who’ll be around in the 60s and is the Cinematic Universe of Fidel Castro. Any truth to either of these? Who the hell knows, but those aren’t the only rumours those two sources have been spinning this week…
…Sticking with Phase Three (presumably), and Latino-Review’s big “scoop” of the week was that Johnny Depp is Marvel’s pick for the role of Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange – a story that was quickly shot down by Deadline, before The Infamous Billy the Kidd decided to jump in with his own take, alleging that Jon Hamm (Mad Men) has actually already signed on for the role of the Sorcerer Supreme… in a film that doesn’t have a director, or a release date, or an official announcement. Considering we’ve only just found out who’s playing Ant-Man – in a film that’s shooting in April for release in July 2015 – it’s pretty hard to take this rumour seriously, but time will obviously tell…
…Michael Douglas isn’t the only new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Joss Whedon adding a second bad guy to The Avengers: Age of Ultron in Thomas Kretschmann (Wanted, Dracula), who’ll join James Spader’s Ultron as the villainous Baron Strucker (a character previously identified by Latino-Review as part of the sequel, in fairness to them). Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson spoke about the hotly-anticipated climax to Phase Two, heaping praise on Whedon’s screenplay for Age of Ultron: “I think the script is dark and it’s dry, it’s got this amazing one-liner, glass-cutting sense of humor. Obviously the script is very cerebral. It doesn’t lose that exciting comic book aspect that people enjoyed in the first film, but it’s smart and it feels like the next installment. It doesn’t feel like a rehashing, it feels like these characters are moving forward, plotlines are moving forward. It’s deep and I think that’s why people really respond to the Marvel universe, because the films are fun and exciting and have all that flashy stuff, but there’s a gravity to them. People can expect that gravity this time around…”
…Before she returns as Black Widow in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Johannson will reunite with Chris Evans for this year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier – which happens to have had its UK release date brought forward a couple of days to March 26th, as well as getting three new international banners – and the actress has spoken about her role in the upcoming Cap sequel and how it differs from her debut in Iron Man 2: “My first Marvel film was Iron Man 2 and then we did The Avengers and then Chris Evans and I did Cap 2, but I think that film, there’s a couple of new characters. The Falcon [played by Anthony Mackie] is a new character in that, and of course Sebastian Stan is kind of continuing his character, obviously he’s playing the Winter Soldier. But these characters really kind of take on something bigger than they’ve ever seen, so I think it’s something that they can’t do without each other. In that sense, we were in it, kind of neck-and-neck, and it’s a bigger responsibility. But then again, even in Avengers, we all play in it, it’s not like, ‘Great, I’ll be booking, like, two days a week and then be eating sandwiches the rest of the week.’ No, it’s on. We all are fighting in it together, we’re all fighting our own battles and our own demons and it’s a lot of dramatic work, and the physical part of it, so the films all have their own challenges, but it’s fun…”
…Vin Diesel took to Facebook earlier this week to post a behind-the-scenes image of himself in the voice booth for Guardians of the Galaxy, while some new promo artwork also surfaced online and director James Gunn offered a few words on the cosmic superhero ensemble, including its tag as a “risky” property for Marvel Studios: “I don’t think it’s the riskiest Marvel property,” Gunn tells Total Film (via CBM). “I think Iron Man was by far the riskiest. It was a film company that didn’t have much, raising money to make a film based on a property that wasn’t that much more well known than Guardians of the Galaxy. So I think it’s not even close to the riskiest Marvel property… For me this movie is about family. It’s about a bunch of people that don’t have a family and they learn to love each other. And I think it’s about giving a shit. I think we live in a world where we’re taught that not giving a shit is the coolest thing, and this is a movie that says it’s really OK to give a shit…We’re Marvel Cosmic, we’re in the outer space of Marvel. I’ve said this before, but I think of The Avengers as The Beatles and the Guardians are The Rolling Stones. That’s how I feel about the group…”
…The nominees for the 86th Academy Awards were revealed this week, with Marvel’s Iron Man 3 the sole superhero movie to feature in this year’s nominations with a nod for Best Visual Effects. Iron Man 3 will contest the award against Gravity, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Lone Ranger and Star Trek Into Darkness, with the winner set to be announced on March 2nd…
…With Thor: The Dark World set to hit Blu-ray next month, Marvel released the first clip from the upcoming One-Shot All Hail the King, which you can watch here. The clip reveals a second Easter egg for Marvel’s upcoming Netflix miniseries; as well as being set in Seagate Prison (tying in with Luke Cage), Scoot McNairy’s (Argo) investigative reporter is called Jackson Norriss, who in the comics happens to be a former S.H.I.E.L.D. associate and – for a brief time – a member of The Defenders. Could Marvel be using the short to sew the seeds for its TV expansion? We’ll find out on February 25th when the Thor sequel hits DVD and Blu-ray…
…After just two episodes since its midseason break, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is taking another break, returning on February 4th with an episode entitled ‘T.R.A.C.K.S.’, guest starring the legendary Stan Lee [watch a promo for the episode here]. Meanwhile, the first of the show’s new additions has been revealed, with Bill Paxton (Aliens, Hatfields & McCoys) set to start a (minimum of a) four episode run from episode 14 as Agent John Garrett, who is described as “a rough-and-tumble former cohort of Agent Coulson [Clark Gregg], with a little bit of attitude and cigar-smoking swagger… When Garrett got his promotion to Level 7, he refused to sit behind a desk and doesn’t like the formalities of S.H.I.E.L.D. He’s going to help Coulson solve some mysteries and is not afraid to rig an explosive or two.” And that’s not all, for the following episode will give us our first super-powered guest appearance from the MCU, with Jaimie Alexander set to reprise the role of Lady Sif from Thor and Thor: The Dark World…
…And it looks like ABC will be adding a second Marvel show to its schedule (assuming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. sticks around for another season), with Reaper creators Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas signing on to act as showrunners on the heavily-rumoured Agent Carter. “We’d be coming on as showrunners and being a part of the series,” states Butters.”We’re very excited to be included in the Marvel family and to be a part of ABC Studios… [The period setting] is one of the things that drew Michele and I to the project, because she’s such a strong, wonderful character if you’ve seen the [Marvel] one-shot and we’re just very happy to be involved.” As for the possibility of Agent Carter making it to series, ABC president Paul Lee seems optimistic: “”In terms of Agent Carter, the script’s come in. It’s a really good script, written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, so that one certainly has a chance to be on the Network…”
…Sony has stepped up promotion for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 by releasing a trio of new posters for the upcoming sequel featuring Andrew Garfield’s wall-crawler and Jamie Foxx’s villain Electro [see here], as well as a batch of images that gives us new shots of Spidey, Electro, Rhino (Paul Giamatti), Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) [see here]. Meanwhile producer Avi Arad has seemingly dismissed the possibility of a Sony / Marvel Studios team-up for a Spider-Man crossover with The Avengers, stating that: “I for one don’t see the value for us in it. I think we’re doing such a good job with the Spider-Man universe. Spider-Man is arguably the number one character in the world. He shouldn’t make a cameo…”
…And as for the Spider-Man universe, we know that Sony intends to expand beyond The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 with spin-offs for Venom and The Sinister Six, and screenwriter Roberto Orci has offered an update on the two movies, revealing that they’re still considering how to tackle the films, seeing as they’ll both be focussing on villains as the protagonists: “That’s the discussion we’re having right now; how exactly do you do that, and how do you do it without betraying the audience and making them all mean? Drew Goddard [The Cabin in the Woods] is going to be writing [The Sinister Six], so it’s kind of his problem. [Laughs.] I’m kidding. We’re all working on each other’s stuff. So we want to be true to it, but there are some anti-heroes in this day and age. There’s been examples of that even on TV – Vic Mackey on The Shield, one of the great anti-heroes of all time. There are ways to milk that story. Audiences have seen everything. They’ve seen all the good guys who never do anything wrong. Is there a story in seeing the other side? That’s the challenge, and that’s the fun. I’m not sure how we’re going to do that yet…”
…It’s been a pretty quiet week for 20th Century Fox’s Marvel projects, although an alleged script leak on X-Men: Days of Future Past has revealed what may be the opening scene from the Bryan Singer-directed sequel, with RadarOnline suggesting that the opening features Booboo Stewart’s Warpath and Binbing Fan’s Blink, who are holed up in an underground mutant refugee camp. Meanwhile, it’s been reported that Josh Trank’s reboot of The Fantastic Four will go into production on March 31st, while a first trailer has arrived online for the upcoming documentary Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four, which delves into the making of the low-budget, unreleased 1994 movie adaptation…
…And finally, wrapping things up this week on the Marvel animated front and a trailer has been released for the latest Marvel Knight Animation motion comic Wolverine versus Sabretooth [see here], while CBR has a clip from this weekend’s episode of Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., which sees Galactus heading to Earth in search of a new Herald in She-Hulk.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen – Available now via Amazon.co.uk
