…Prior to the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony seemed confident that it had mapped out the future of its Marvel franchise, announcing spin-offs for The Sinister Six and Venom, as well as 2016 and 2018 release dates for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4. However, it appears that was somewhat ambitious, with screenwriter Roberto Orci revealing that he’s no longer involved with The Amazing Spider-Man 3, as well as stating that Sony is still undecided about how the wall-crawler’s future will play out: “I don’t know what their plans are for that franchise. I don’t ever want to say never, but we have to figure out what their scheduling is in terms of when they want each movie. I’ve read probably as much as anyone else. There’s a love for the Sinister Six, the idea of Venom — there’s an idea of Spider-Man’s going to be one of these characters that’s part of our business. He’s such a popular character. Spider-Man’s not going to go away any time soon. When it all happens and how and all that has yet to be determined…”
…Turning to Warner Bros.’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and this week brought a bizarre rumour suggesting that Kevin Smith (Clerks) had penned a fake script for the DC ensemble as a diversionary tactic for the studio to throw off the scoopers. Smith subsequently denied the rumour, before a Twitter user by the name of Arrogant Alien claimed credit for penning the screenplay. So, no harm done, except to the reputation of El Mayimbe of Latino-Review, who’d rather hilariously been using said script as the source of his recent “scoops”. Now, you’re probably wondering why an Apex Scoop Predator didn’t bother to take the time to verify the authenticity of the script with their ‘other’ WB sources (or at least question the considerable amount of spelling errors, incorrect character names etc.), but what difference does it make when you can just delete the posts and deny everything on Twitter? Anyway, if you’re interested in the fake script, you can read Luke Owen’s breakdown and review here…
…Sticking with the Batman v Superman rumour mill and if Bleeding Cool is to be believed, one part of the fake script that is allegedly on the money is the inclusion of Doomsday, with the site claiming to have spotted designs for the unstoppable monster. As always, this should be taken with a pinch of salt, especially as the report goes on to state somewhat conveniently that the designs “may be purely for promotional efforts to accompany the film, or may not make it to the final cut”. Meanwhile, a new report has surfaced claiming that Ben Affleck’s Batsuit is “steel grey and black. It’s mostly made of foam rubber even though it appears to be ‘cloth.’ It has the muscles built into the suit (which I think is supposed to be “armor” under the ‘cloth’ bodysuit…”
…DC fans hoping that Batman v Superman would feature heavily at this month’s San Diego Comic-Con will be disappointed to hear that the film is absent from Warner Bros.’ official convention schedule, although the studio could of course be keeping it as a surprise, especially if the rumour about a big announcement on a slate of DC movies through to 2018 is genuine. We’ll find out in two weeks. However, Warner Bros.’ various DC projects will have a big presence at Comic-Con, and to commemorate the occasion a bunch of TV Guide magazine covers have been released offering up new promotional images from Arrow, The Flash, Constantine and Gotham; take a look here…
…With cameras starting to roll on the third season of Arrow, a synopsis has been released, giving us a few clues as to what we can expect when the show resumes in October: “In the aftermath of this victory, Season Three opens with Arrow now a hero to the citizens of Starling. Crime is down, people feel safer, and Captain Lance even calls off the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. Basking in his success, Oliver believes he can finally have a private life and asks Felicity out on a date. But the second Oliver takes his eye off the ball, a deadly villain reappears in Starling, forcing Oliver to realize that he can never be Oliver Queen – not as long as the city needs The Arrow.” Meanwhile, this week brought the news that Superman Returns star Brandon Routh is heading back to the DC Universe, albeit as The Atom rather than the Man of Steel, with the actor joining the third season in the role of Ray Palmer…
…The Atom wasn’t the only DC superhero cast this week, with Stephen Amell’s cousin and The Tomorrow People star Robbie Amell joining The Flash as Ronnie Raymond, a.k.a. Firestorm. The upcoming series has just began shooting its second episode, entitled ‘Fastest Man Alive’, and you can take a look at a few set photos featuring Grant Gustin (Barry Allen), Candice Patton (Iris West), Jesse L. Martin (Detective West) and new addition William Sadler (Iron Man 3), whose role is yet-to-be-revealed…
…Over at NBC and it has been revealed that Constantine is changing up its cast, with leading lady Lucy Griffiths (True Blood) having left the show, with “the creators opting to move in a different direction.” Griffiths portrayed the newly-created character of Liv in the pilot epiosde, and it’s said that she will be replaced by Zed, with executive producer Daniel Cerone stating that: “When you put a wide-eyed innocent into that world, she’s just very reactive. The nice thing about Swamp Thing, when he first teamed up with Constantine, was that Swamp Thing had abilities, Swamp Thing had skills. Constantine needed those skills. One of the coolest things about Constantine he doesn’t have any ‘powers.’ He came out of a time with all these superheroes with their garish colors and flashy powers, and he just comes out with a rumpled coat, wearing browns and greys, and he just knows a lot magic and spells, but it’s all knowledge-based. Anything he can do is based in knowledge and his own studying. Zed is actually one of the first women Constantine meets in the comic books, and she has various psychic powers. We felt ultimately she’s going to service the first season better as someone to pair Constantine up with. She can get in his face a little bit and have some of her own realizations and skills and really push him. But if whoever Constantine is working with is constantly on her heels, that just wouldn’t service the show really well…”
…With a premiere date of Monday, September 22nd set for Gotham, FOX has released some new promotional material for its Batman prequel series, with a new TV spot [see here] and ‘Worlds of Gotham’ featurette [see here], while executive producer and pilot director Danny Cannon has spoken about the challenge of following Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, stating that: “It was daunting at first, because you’re following three masterpieces. So I settled with the fact that — what we talked about when we first pitched this was, ’20 years before Batman.’ A world that’s starting to see a corrupt city rotting from the inside. It reminded us of New York in the late ’70s and early ’80s. That was our first meeting, and we kind of spring-boarded off of that. Luckily, that’s uncharted territory. Hopefully in the atmospherics of Gotham we created a romantic, gothic, Dickensian kind of world…”
…On the animated DC front, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has debuted a pair of new images from the upcoming direct-to-video feature Batman: Assault on Arkham featuringing The Joker, Harley Quinn and Black Spider; take a look here…
…Sony has found a director for the first two episodes of its upcoming Powers adaptation in David Slade, whose credits include 30 Days of Night, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Hannibal and Breaking Bad. Based upon the superhero fantasy / police procedural from Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, Powers is set to land on PlayStation Network in December…
And finally, it seems like Guillermo del Toro may have given up hope of the long-rumoured Hellboy 3 ever becoming a reality, with the Pacific Rim director admitting that he’s found it impossible to secure the necessary financing: “Well, you know, we don’t have that movie on the horizon, but the idea for it was to have Hellboy finally come to terms with the fact that his destiny, his inevitable destiny, is to become the beast of the Apocalypse, and having him and Liz face the sort of, that part of his nature, and he has to do it, in order to be able to ironically vanquish the foe that he has to face in the 3rd film. He has to become the best of the Apocalypse to be able to defend humanity, but at the same time he becomes a much darker being. It’s a very interesting ending to the series, but I don’t think it will happen.”
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.
