…Den of Geek got Marvel fans excited this week by claiming that 20th Century Fox had given up the rights to Fantastic Four, and that Marvel’s First Family, Doctor Doom, Galactus and the Silver Surfer were all back at Marvel Studios with a new MCU movie set for release in 2020. However, it only took a matter of hours for the story to be shot down, with Fox debunking the report and confirming that they still plan to push ahead with Fantastic Four 2 despite the box office failure of the reboot…
…The Fantastic Four claims came on the back of the announcement that Marvel Television has teamed up with Fox to produce two X-Men TV series in Hellfire and Legion. Hellfire “follows a young Special Agent who learns that a power-hungry woman with extraordinary abilities is working with a clandestine society of millionaires – known as ‘The Hellfire Club’ – to take over the world”, while Legion “introduces the story of David Haller: Since he was a teenager, David has struggled with mental illness. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he’s confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real.” You can check out more details about both shows at the link above…
…Bryan Singer spoke about X-Men: Apocalypse during an appearance at the San Pedro International Film Festival, stating that: “It cuts a little long. I think it’s gonna be a longer X-Men movie. The X-Men movies, I usually I keep under two hours, but this one I may actually let be a longer movie because it’s sort of a wrap-up of six movies. There’s even an homage at the end. There’s a scene – it’s gonna get spoiled because that decided to use it in the trailer which comes out, like six months, but it’s a really cool trailer – but the [homage] is kind of a wrap up of six movies. So, it might run a little bit long, but it’s not boring.” You can read the rest of Singer’s comments, where he offers up praise for the likes of Michael Fassbender (Magneto), James McAvoy (Professor X), Oscar Isaac (Apocalypse) and Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert), here…
…Moving on to the DC Cinematic Universe and this week brought a new viral video for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice showcasing the LexCorp Lex OS operating system which you can watch here, and be sure to listen to Oli Davis’ special podcast where he discusses how this might impact the film, and the “new threat” facing The Dark Knight and the Man of Steel [see here]. Meanwhile, gamers out there may be interested to know that Batman: Arkham Asylum will be getting a Batman v Superman Batman Skin and Batmobile Pack [see here], and we’ve also got a look at a few of the LEGO sets that will tie in to the big DC ensemble [see here]…
…Comic book movie regular David S. Goyer has been speaking about his aborted script for Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max, which would have seen Oliver Queen framed for murder and sent to a maximum security prison housing many iconic DC villains: “I think it absolutely was [ahead of its time]. I think if that script had come over the transom a couple of years later… It was completely ahead of its time. You know, Marvel was considering doing the Sinister Six and at the time, God, I think this was eight or nine years ago that we wrote a couple of drafts. It certainly was like this oddball project at Warner Bros at the time, they were like – even though the script was good – ‘why would we make a movie about a bunch of villains? That makes no sense’. The executive on it was really visionary, but the higher-ups, none of whom are at Warner Bros any more, just thought at the time, you know, we just want to make Batman and Superman movies. We don’t want to make any other characters. But this is before Marvel had really taken off, before more obscure projects like Guardians Of The Galaxy or Ant-Man or things like that had huge success, before the current gold rush I guess, if you will. It’s natural that eventually someone was going to make a villain movie, so that’s just what happened…”
…Moving on to the small screen and Gotham received a season two sizzle reel at the New York Comic Con [watch it here], as well as the news that Paul Reubens (Batman Returns) will once again be portraying the father of Oswald Cobblepot. Meanwhile also we’ve got a promo for this Monday’s fifth episode ‘Scarification’ which you can watch here, and be sure to check out Martin Carr’s reviews for episode two ‘Knock Knock’ here and episode three ‘The Last Laugh’ here…
…The CW also dropped a NYCC sizzle reel for the second season of The Flash this past weekend [watch it here], while Mark Hamill confirmed that he’ll be reprising the role of The Trickster once again. Be sure to check out Jessie Robertson’s review of this week’s episode ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ here, and we’ve also got promos and images for Tuesday’s third episode ‘Family of Rogues’ [see here and here], as well as a synopsis for the fifth episode ‘The Darkness and the Light’, which sees the introduction of Dr. Light [see here]…
…Arrow also received a NYCC sizzle reel [see here], while we’ve got a review of the second episode ‘The Candidate’ [see here], a promo and images for Wednesday’s ‘Restoration’ [see here] and an official synopsis for episode five ‘Haunted’, which brings Matt Ryan’s John Constantine to Star City [see here]. Meanwhile, Willa Holland has revealed that the original plan for Thea Queen was to see her become Speedy at the end of the first season: “When I signed on for the show, the evolution was coming a lot earlier in the beginning. But the time and trajectory we’ve taken with it and the build for a true reason for her to come to this place has actually been a little bit better for me because it would have been an injustice to just throw her into a suit at the end of season one or two without any, like, putting her through any tests. So from the beginning we totally knew this was going to happen, but it was waiting for it to be done right and it has been. So it’s been quite nice…”
…With Supergirl’s premiere fast approaching, CBS has released a first look image and synopsis for the second episode ‘Stronger Together’ [see here], as well as announcing that Chris Vance (Transporter: The Series) has signed on to play the Kryptonian villain Non in a recurring role. Meanwhile, DC Collectibles has also unveiled its 12.5 inch Supergirl statue, based upon the likeness of Melissa Benoist in the series…
…On the DC animated front, we’ve got the first trailer for the upcoming Batman: Bad Blood straight-to-video feature [watch it here], while Warner Bros. Animation has also released two episodes of DC Super Hero Girls online [see here], as well as announcing the next LEGO DC Comics animated movie, LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Cosmic Clash, which will see the Justice League travelling to the future and teaming up with the Legion of Superheroes to battle Brainiac [see here]…
…In other LEGO-related news, it has been announced that Rosario Dawson (Daredevil) is set to voice Batgirl in the upcoming The LEGO Batman Movie, where she’ll join a cast that includes The LEGO Movie’s Will Arnett as Batman, Michael Cera as Robin and Zach Galifianakis as The Joker…
…Batman executive producer Michael Uslan has announced that he’s teaming up with China’s Huayi Brothers Media to launch a film franchise based upon the Tower Comics series T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. If you’re unfamiliar with the property, it centres on an elite group who work for the United Nations – The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves – who are granted super abilities thanks to a host of hi-tech equipment, which they use to battle threats around the world…
…It looks like Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are set to turn their attention to another Garth Ennis comic book series after Preacher, with the duo currently shopping around a TV adaptation of the acclaimed series The Boys, which follows a CIA squad tasked with monitoring the superhero community and protecting ordinary citizens from the heroes…
…During the New York Comic Con, Crackle debuted a red band trailer for its stop motion animated superhero comedy series SuperMansion, which you can watch here…
…Be sure to check out Tai Freligh’s review of episode four of Heroes Reborn, entitled ‘The Needs of the Many’ here, while you can also watch a promo for this week’s episode ‘Game Over’ here…
…And finally, we’ve posted a couple of superhero-themed op-eds on Flickering Myth this week; be sure to take a look at Pim Razenberg’s ‘Thanos: The Unproven Titan‘ and Neil Calloway’s ‘Spielberg Is Right, Comic Book Movies Are The New Western‘.
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.
