Our weekly round up of all the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Daredevil, Namor the Sub-Mariner, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, The Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, The Flash, Bananaman and more…
After last week’s news that Marvel Studios and Edgar Wright had parted ways on the long-gestating Ant-Man movie, it seems that Marvel has wasted little time in hunting out a successor to ensure that production on the Phase Three film remains on track ahead of its release next July. Despite rumours linking Marvel co-president Louis D’Esposito (helmer of the Agent Carter One-Shot) to the gig, it seems that leading man Paul Rudd could be set to reunite with his Anchorman and Anchorman 2 director Adam McKay, who has apparently emerged as the studio’s pick from a shortlist that was also said to include Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers). [UPDATE: Well, it looks like the search continues, as McKay has now pulled out of negotiations]. Meanwhile, as Edgar Wright and his former Marvel colleagues James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron) shared their responses to Wright’s departure via social media [see here], it’s been reported that the split came about due to enforced rewrites to the script, which were made without the involvement of Wright and co-writer Joe Cornish…
…After James Gunn took to Facebook this week to deny speculation about Vin Diesel playing Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy [check out an alternative international trailer here], it has now been revealed that Josh Brolin (Men in Black 3, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) has signed on to lend his voice to the Mad Titan, not only in the upcoming cosmic ensemble, but also Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and, presumably, the as-yet-untitled third Avengers movie…
…So, while Thanos will be making an appearance on the big screen this August, he’ll be playing second fiddle to Guardians of the Galaxy’s main villain, Ronan the Accuser, and actor Lee Pace (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) has shared a few thoughts about the Kree warlord: “I’m really excited about this character. I mean he’s nuts. I mean I’ve never played anything like it and I’ve had such a good, it’s one of those things where you don’t know how to approach something like this. This is not Joe MacMillan [from Halt and Catch Fire]. You can’t think, ‘Well, you know, this is my relationship with my father…’ It’s not that. There’s none of that, you now, kind of ‘This is how I would go about dealing with these problems.’ It’s a complete kind of act of imagination. But in the hands of James Gunn, I’m such a fan of his movies. So it’s very much a creation of his and I found my self being like, ‘Alright, let’s do it. You tell me what you’re into here…”
…As Captain America: The Winter Soldier winds down its theatrical run (with $708 million in the bank worldwide), Marvel has announced details of the home entertainment release of the Phase Two solo sequel. The film will hit DVD and Blu-ray here in the UK on August 18th and in the States on September 9th, while the Digital Download will be available from August 1st, coinciding with the cinema release of Guardians of the Galaxy. You can check out cover art and details of the special features here – but be warned, sadly, there’s no new Marvel One-Shot this time around…
…Marvel has found their leading man for Daredevil, the first of Netflix’s five Defenders miniseries, with British actor Charlie Cox (Stardust, Boardwalk Empire) securing the role of Matt Murdock. Cox’s casting came hot on the heels of the news that Drew Goddard has stepped down as showrunner to concentrate on Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man spin-off The Sinister Six, with fellow Buffy the Vampire Slayer veteran Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus) stepping in to replace him; meanwhile we also got our first synopsis for the series, which reads exactly as you’d expect: “Blinded as a young boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, Matt Murdock fights against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as the super hero Daredevil in modern day Hell’s Kitchen, New York City…”
…As he prepares for the second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., fan favourite actor Clark Gregg has expressed his interest Phil Coulson crossing over to the Netflix series, although he’s also ruled out a return to the big screen in next year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron: “I’d be really disappointed if I don’t get to show up in New York for Daredevil, or Iron Fist was a huge favorite of mind in comic books as a kid. I’ve had more than my share so I shouldn’t be greedy, but it would be a huge geekout moment for me if I got to meet Daniel Rand… I don’t think [I’ll be in Age of Ultron]. I think I would have heard about it by now, but I must say as a qualifier, the only way I ever hear about stuff like that is I get a weird phone message with not the right number of numbers on it and somebody says, ‘We need to talk to you…’”
…It seems that Marvel may have reacquired the rights to another of its characters, with reports this week suggesting that Namor the Sub-Mariner is now back at Marvel Studios. The rights to Namor had been held by Universal, who’d seemingly done very little with the property, despite completely unsubstantiated rumours that the studio were looking to put together a movie for release in November 2016. If the rights have reverted to Marvel, that just leaves Spider-Man, X-Men and The Fantastic Four as the only three properties not under their control – although the chances of the studio reacquiring any of those are surely slim to none, unless Disney stumps up the cash, of course…
…Turning to Fox now and Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past has given the studio its biggest ever opening weekend, topping even James Cameron’s Avatar with a whopping $261 million opening around the globe. It’s domestic opening weekend was the second largest for the franchise after 2006′s X-Men: The Last Stand and is the fourth biggest of the year behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million), Godzilla ($93.2 million) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($91.6 million), while it enjoyed a bumper international tale of $171 million, including £9.14 million here in the UK, the biggest opening of 2014 to date. By close of play Thursday, Days of Future Past had pulled in $351 million globally, and despite competition from new releases Maleficent and A Million Ways to Die in the West, it should find itself pushing towards the $450 million mark in its second weekend…
…In other Days of Future Past news, Stan Lee has explained the reason for his absence from the time-travelling sequel [see here], while we’ve also got some concept art showing early designs for both the Past and Future versions of the Sentinels [see here]. And, if you haven’t done so already, you can check out our X-Men: Days of Future Past reviews here and here, as well as Anghus Houvouras’ thoughts on the post-credits scene here, and Anthony Stokes’ opinion piece ‘Why X-Men: Days of Future Past is Getting Too Much Credit’ here…
Continue on to the next page for X-Men: Apocalypse, The Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, The Flash and Bananaman…
