…Joss Whedon has announced that principal photography has wrapped on the hotly-anticipated Avengers: Age of Ultron, while the director also took part in an interview this week where he discussed the rivalry between Marvel and DC, as well as touching upon Guardians of the Galaxy and its place within the MCU: “Kevin Feige has a big plan and every now and then, he’ll tell me part of it if he thinks it’s going to affect what I’m doing or if he thinks what I’m doing is going to affect his. But as much as possible, I try to live in my own bubble. Guardians is very much its own thing. They’re not the Guardians of this galaxy; it’s a different one. So, I can sort of keep them at arm’s length, long enough to do my thing and then I’m sure everything is going to get mixed together because it’s Marvel…”
…Ahead of the home-entertainment release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a couple of deleted scenes from the Phase Two movie have arrived online [watch them here], while Marvel has announced that to tie in with the release Captain America: The Winter Soldier Presents The Marvel Exhibition will be running in London next weekend, offering up a look at artwork and items from the Marvel Cinematic Universe [details here]. Meanwhile, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have offered up a few details about the plot for Captain America 3, revealing that it will take place two years after The Winter Soldier and centre on the relationship between Steve Rogers and Bucky, and Anthony Mackie has spoken about whether he’d have any interest in seeing his Sam Wilson taking over the mantle of Captain America, should Marvel decide to follow the current comic book storyline…
…Having long been linked to the role of T’Challa, 42 star Chadwick Boseman has dropped a hint that there could be some truth in the rumours that he’s set to portray the Black Panther, with the actor stating this week that “I don’t know anything about that… until the contract is signed, I don’t know” when asked for his thoughts on the reports…
…Shifting to the small screen side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has enlisted another two recurring guest stars for the upcoming second season, with Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks) set to portray Skye’s father and Henry Simmons (NYPD Blue) signing on as Agent Alphonso “Mac” Mackenzie; meanwhile, we’ve also had our first unofficial look at Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in next year’s Netflix series Daredevil, with a few set photos arriving online which you can check out here and here…
…Over at Fox and in the wake of the leaked Deadpool test footage, screenwriter Rhett Reese – who penned the original script for the spin-off with his writing partner Paul Wernick – has launched a Twitter campaign in an effort to convince the studio to give the go ahead to the film, while potential director Tim Miller has advised fans wanting to see the movie to show “less anger more love. Fans saying how much they love Wade Wilson will win hearts and minds…”
…If you were hoping to pick up the Extended Edition of X-Men: Days of Future Past when the mutant superhero sequel arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in October, then I’m afraid you’re out of luck as Fox’s EVP of Marketing Communications James Finn has revealed that the Director’s Cut won’t be out until some time next year…
…Earlier in the week, Kate Mara (Sue Storm) took to Twitter to announce that filming has wrapped on Fox’s reboot of The Fantastic Four, posting an image of herself and co-stars Miles Teller (Reed Richards), Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm) and Jamie Bell (Ben Grimm) to commemorate the occasion. The news may have come as a surprise to some, given that we’ve had next to nothing in the way of set photos or reports (barring a sculpt of The Thing, which Fox demanded removal of this week), and the fact that filming must have been so close to completion during the San Diego Comic-Con does raise a question as to why the studio didn’t take the opportunity to show the reboot off at the last SDCC before its release next June. Not even a shot of the cast in costume? That’s assuming there are costumes, of course…
…While Warner Bros., Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox seem to have their superhero plans pretty much in place – with of 25 superhero movies set for release between now and 2020 (10 for WB, 10 for Marvel and 5 for Fox) – Sony seems to be struggling to make its mind up over the future of its Spider-Man franchise; last week, it was announced that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been pushed back to 2018, with The Sinister Six plugging the gap in 2016, and now the studio has revealed that a female-led superhero movie will arrive in 2017, with Lisa Joy Nolan (Westworld), the sister-in-law of Christopher Nolan and wife of Jonathan Nolan, set to pen the script (as yet, there’s no indication as to which character this will focus on, but Black Cat has to be a strong possibility given Felicity Jones’ appearance as Felicia Hardy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2). Furthermore, it looks like it could be joined by the solo Venom movie in 2017, although it appears that the spin-off has undergone a change of name to Venom Carnage…
…So, with another Spider-Man movie (at least) four years away, it looks like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 could be the last we’ll be seeing of Andrew Garfield’s wall-crawler for some time (barring appearances / cameos in the spin-offs, of course), and with the sequel gearing up for its home-entertainment release a deleted scene between Peter and Harry (Dane DeHaan) has popped up online, along with an alternative ending which shows Peter’s dad Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) turning up alive to deliver the “with great power…” line to his son; check them out here…
…Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. brought their Kick-Ass story to a conclusion this week with the release of Kick-Ass 3, and Millar spoke about the chances of it making the jump to the big screen, stating that he’s yet to have any talks with Matthew Vaughn: “I can tell you exactly where we’re at,” states Millar. “ I know I told you immediately after we got the first weekend after Kick-Ass came out that we were doing Kick-Ass 2. And Matthew Vaughn had engaged Jeff Wadlow by the following September, but no official announcement was made until the following year. But what you can always do is look at the opening box office to see how much money it’s going to take in and see what the development possibilities will be. With Kick-Ass, it was a no brainer. It was made for $28 million and made $100 million back and then made another $140 million on DVD. So for the money guys, it was a $28 million investment that made $240 million. That’s a slam dunk. You’re getting your sequel. The second one didn’t make as much. It cost a little less at around $24 million, made $61 million and made about $100 million again on DVD and TV rights. It was still profitable. It was by no means The Lone Ranger. But does that mean we’ll make another one again? I don’t know. It’s definitely up in the air, and we’ll just have to see. Matthew is a guy who I trust to make that decision. If he decides he does want to do it, I know he’ll get it done well. And he’s got the movie rights, so it’s ultimately his decision. I speak to Matthew every day, and we haven’t discussed Kick-Ass 3 so who knows? The option is always open...”
…And finally, we’ve posted a few superhero-related op-eds on Flickering Myth this week whcih you might be interesting in checking out. Take a look at Anghus Houvouras’ How Many Phases Before Marvel Has to Hit the Reset Button?, Five Marvel Movies That Guardians of the Galaxy Proves Could Work and Guardians of the Galaxy Isn’t Star Wars, Chris Pratt Shouldn’t Be Indiana Jones, and Other Annoying Fanboy Rubbish, Thomas Roach’s Why A Deadpool Movie Is Doomed to Fail, Will Doctor Strange Become the New Face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?, Why A Female Thor Movie Could Be Sooner Than You Think and Why Too Many Characters in Batman v Superman Is a Bad Idea, and Anthony Stokes’ Criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Rebutted…
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.
