…Over at 20th Century Fox and Kate Mara caused a bit of a stir this week when she was quoted as suggesting that The Fantastic Four would not be based on any previous comic book iteration, although thankfully for fans it seems she was misquoted, and actually said that the movie wouldn’t be based on any existing PLOT, and would instead draw from the entire canon [read what she did / didn’t say here]. Meanwhile, Mara’s co-star Michael B. Jordan also offered up a few words on the reboot: “It is so massive, so many moving parts, so many moving pieces, things are changing every day. The script is evolving, [you make] on set decisions on the fly, things are always constantly changing. Me personally, I block out that extra noise and I focus on the job I have to do. It is an important film for all of us… We’re taking it seriously, taking a lot of risks. I think it’s going to pay off. Josh’s vision is very clear and he knows exactly what he wants, and he gives us room to adapt and to play. That’s what I kind of think sets us apart, is that this is going to be grounded and unconventional. It’s not your typical superhero film, you know, we aren’t looking at this as like, being superheroes. We’re more or less a bunch of kids that had an accident and we have disabilities now that we have to cope with, and try to find a life afterwards – try to be as normal as we can… We’re trying to make it relatable to people as much as we can [with these] larger than life, larger than this world themes. It’s superheroes! You know, not just superheroes. It’s fiction. You’ve got to ground it as much as you can to make [audience members] feel relatable to these characters, no matter what age they are or what time of their life…”
…Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past didn’t last long as the highest-grossing movie of 2014, with Michael Bay’s much-maligned Transformers: Age of Extinction overtaking the mutant superhero sequel after just three weekends on screens. Days of Future Past is currently sitting on $732.3 million, compared to $712.7 million for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and $705.7 million for The Amazing Spider-Man 2…
…That brings us nicely onto Sony’s Spider-Man universe, and after Roberto Orci suggested last week that the studio had jumped the gun announcing 2016 and 2018 release dates for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4, former co-writer (and director of the planned Venom spin-off) Alex Kurtzman has echoed those thoughts, suggesting that plans are very much up in the air with regards to the future of the franchise: “[A date for The Amazing Spider-Man 3] is still in conversation. Everybody is still figuring it out. It’s all up for grabs right now. We’re just trying to figure it out. Venom will come after The Sinister Six, I think is the plan… Everything is still on the table right now. Because it’s a universe outside of the Spider-Man universe, even though it’s connected to it, [Venom and The Sinister Six] have to stand on their own. So we’ll see. We’ll see how it goes…”
…Turning to DC now and despite the fact that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was absent from Warner Bros.’ official schedule for Comic-Con, it was presumed that the studio was simply keeping its big superhero ensemble a surprise. However, further evidence has emerged this week that we’ll not be getting any Batman v Superman goodness in San Diego, with stills photographer Clay Enos responding to a tweet he posted of a “historic photoshoot” by stating that: “We’ve just started filming this thing. I’m as excited as the next guy but my stuff won’t be seen for quite some time. Maybe in 2015. Usually that stuff is made towards the end of filming or just after wrap. I’m excited to have the world see it. All in due time. Now we’re just focused on making it. Don’t get your hopes up for this year’s SDCC. Just sayin’. I’m not being cryptic. We’re filming now. VFX takes another year. BvS is in 2016. Next year’s con should be epic.” So, while we wait for something official, it looks like we’ll have to do with completely unrevealing set photos like these…
…It seems like The Dark Knight Trilogy star Gary Oldman is a little skeptical of Warner Bros.’ plans to reboot Batman with Dawn of Justice, with the actor sharing a few thoughts on the latest incarnation during a promotional interview for his latest film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: “They want to keep it going. Of course they do. But, it’s Superman yeah? Batman and Superman together? We shall see. The thing about Christopher Nolan, there was some grounding of reality to it. In our trilogy, and as fantastical and as big as The Joker was, it was based [on reality]. We could relate to it. But now we’ve got Batman and we’ve got a guy who can fly who’s an alien?! We’ll have to see… It’s got big shoes to fill…”
…Whether we get anything from Batman v Superman or not at Comic-Con, Warner’s various DC television projects will certainly have a huge presence, including the world premiere of the Batman prequel series Gotham, and FOX has paved the way with a SDCC poster [see here], as well as a new trailer [see here], a featurette and a couple of TV spots [see here and here]. Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool posted some images from the pilot episode showing a stand-up comedian who the site speculated could be our first look at The Joker, before going one step further to claim that we’ll be getting a possible future Clown Prince of Crime in every episode of the season as the producers tease the introduction of The Dark Knight’s greatest foe…
…Having been snapped in a set photo from the second episode of The Flash last week, William Sadler (Iron Man 3) took to Twitter to reveal that he’s portraying industrialist Simon Stagg in the Arrow spin-off. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Prison Break star Wentworth Miller has been cast as Leonard Snart, a.k.a. Flash villain Captain Cold, while the CW has also released a rather lengthy synopsis for the series, which goes into depth about Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen and the supporting cast of characters…
…We know from the trailer for The Flash that Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen is set for a guest appearance, but it’s now been confirmed that a big crossover between Arrow and The Flash is set for the eighth episode of both shows, with executive producer Andrew Kreisberg stating that: “Episodes 8 of both shows, Arrow and Flash, are going to be a two-hour crossover event. [Also], in Episode 4, Felicity [Emily Bett Rickards] is going to come to The Flash…”
… In other Arrow news, Tommy Merlyn is returning, albeit in a flashback, with executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealing to TV Guide that Colin Donnell will be reprising his role in the second episode of season three: “Colin Donnell is coming back in Episode 302. Tommy will be in the flashback story. We’ll be telling the story about how Tommy and Oliver just missed each other in Hong Kong. It’s a really amazing story and we’re so excited to have Colin Donnell back. It’s one of the advantages of the storytelling that we do that even when you die in the present day, you can still be alive in the flashbacks. It was something that we had talked about last year and then when we committed to doing the Hong Kong story, we knew we could really make it work…”
…NBC has wasted little time in securing a new female lead for Constantine, with Angelica Celaya (Dallas, Burn Notice) signing on as the Hellblazer regular Zed; meanwhile, John Constantine himself Matt Ryan has spoken about the switch-up, which saw Lucy Griffiths’ character Liv axed after the pilot: “Lucy’s great, but I’ve known Lucy for years. I worked with her before on a TV show called Collision in the U.K. She’s a wonderful actress and she’s fantastic. She did a great job in the pilot. I can see where the guys have gone in terms of the character of Liv is someone who’s more susceptible to John’s manipulations, so maybe then it’s not as hard for John to manipulate her. I think the character of Zed is someone who can maybe take John up on his shit a little bit more, be a little bit more in his face. I can see where they’ve gone creatively with that but obviously, I love Lucy and it’ll be a shame not to work with her…”
…It seems that Daniel Cerone has big plans to use Constantine as a platform to fully explore the occult side of the DC universe, with the producer stating in particular that he’d like to see The Spectre introduced to the show: “The intention is that we have DC’s occult universe open to us and the fact that we had Doctor Fate’s helmet in the pilot is an indication that we’re going to be doing that. We’re introducing another character from the DC universe within the first eight or nine episodes as well… I’m just bringing you in on the early creative discussions. It might happen, it might not. It’s just the point you’re catching us at. Right now, episode five is off on outline. Within the context of episode five, we had a need for a police officer who sees that supernatural evils exist. Right there, okay, that’s an opportunity to introduce a DC character. So we talked to our DC representatives and we’re like what if we make this character Jim Corrigan, who goes on the become The Spectre. For those who don’t know, Jim Corrigan is a police officer who kind of takes the law into his own hands… he ends up dying and is reincarnated as The Spectre. So it’s a perfect opportunity for us, because we can name this character Jim Corrigan and within our story, for the general viewer, that works, because now Constantine has a friend on the force. For the comic book fan, ‘My god, that’s Jim Corrigan!’ And we can get back to that character and can slowly develop that character and who knows, maybe there’s an opportunity in the future to even see the origin story unfold within the framework of our TV series. It creates opportunities and creatively you just have to go in and lay that groundwork in and try and let it unfold naturally. So we’re in the midst of approvals on that, but that’s one idea we’re exploring right now…”
…Some bad news now for any fans hoping that Warner Bros. would combine its DC movie and television universes – and for Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin’s hopes of appearing in Justice League – as DC’s chief creative officer Geoff Johns has revealed that there are no plans to combine big and small screen: “You’ll see a lot of DC universe characters [on The Flash and Arrow]. You won’t see Batman or Superman. We’re on production on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice now. So you’ll see characters like The Atom or Firestorm, but no not Batman or Superman right now [on TV]. “It’s a separate universe than film so that the filmmakers can tell the story that’s best for film, while we explore something different in a different corner of the DC universe. We will not be integrating the film and television universes.” One positive – at least we can finally put the speculation to bed…
…Turning to DC’s animated properties and ahead of its premiere at SDCC, Warner Bros. has released the opening scene to the upcoming direct-to-video feature Batman: Assault on Arkham, which you can watch here. Meanwhile, we’ve also been given a taste of the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie release, the Justice League: War sequel Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, with a first look image of Aquaman accompanied by details of the voice cast, which includes returning Justice League: War stars Jason O’Mara (Batman), Shemar Moore (Cyborg), Christopher Gorham (the Flash) and Sean Astin (Shazam) alongside Matt Lanter (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as Aquaman, Nathan Fillion (Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox) as Green Lantern, Rosario Dawson (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) as Wonder Woman, Jerry O’Connell (The Batman) as Superman, Sam Witwer (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as Orm and Sumalee Montano (Beware the Batman) as Mera…
…Casting on Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Network series Powers is underway, with Susan Heyward (The Following) bagging the female lead of Detective Deena Pilgrim in the adaptation of the Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming comic book series. Also signing on are Max Fowler (The Killing) as Krispin Stockley and Adam Godley (Breaking Bad) as Captain Cross. The show is expected to arrive in December of this year, with David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) directing the first two episodes…
…With Ali Larter ruling out a return for Heroes Reborn, Heroes creator Tim Kring has spoken about the upcoming revival, stating that the primary focus will be on new characters: “It takes place in a post-season 4 universe. So it will tie into some of the ideas that were left dangling. The vast, vast majority are brand new characters, brand new ideas. [Bringing back previous characters is] really only to give a sense of continuity and a tether to the original world. If it was all completely brand new, we’d miss certain elements that need to be there to give you that bridge to cross to something new. I approached Coleman because he was a character who had a spine through the series that allowed you to meet new characters. So he’s a character I wanted to make sure had a little part at the beginning of this thing…”
…And finally, the BBC has announced that the classic 80s kids show SuperTed is set to return to TV screens, with the Welsh teddy bear turned living superhero getting a 21st century revamp for 26 new episodes. SuperTed is the second British superhero due to make a comeback, with fellow 80s cartoon Bananaman also due to hit the big screen for an animated movie next year.
NOTE: With the San Diego Comic-Con getting underway on Thursday, it doesn’t make much sense to post a Week in Spandex on Saturday afternoon, given that it will be completely out of date by the time Marvel Studios leaves Hall H that evening. So, instead I’ll be posting a mini-Week in Spandex late Wednesday / early Thursday, covering all of the pre-convention superhero news, and then a SDCC Week in Spandex Special probably early on Monday morning once the dust has settled…
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.
