Our weekly round-up of the big news stories from the world of movie superheroes…
After years of anticipation, Marvel’s The Avengers has finally launched it’s attack on the global box-office and with advance ticket sales for the North American release this coming Friday outselling Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger combined, there’s every chance that Joss Whedon’s epic superhero team-up could challenge the record opening weekend of $169.2 million set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 last year. ‘Avengers Assemble‘ opened here in the UK this past Thursday, banking £2.5 million for the third highest opening day behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and if you’re interested, you can take a look my review here [short version: it’s fantastic]. For those of you yet to see the film, there’s a few new TV spots you can watch here, here and here, along with a clip featuring Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) over at Collider.
Moving on to the post-Avengers Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Hemsworth had a few words about Thor 2 director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) and what he expects Taylor to bring to the world of Asgard, while Tom Hiddleston also spoke about next year’s sequel in a brief interview with Empire: “Thor and Loki are defined by each other. Thor’s reason for being in The Avengers is that Loki is on Earth and he has to get him back. What’ll be interesting in Thor 2 is how it takes what happens now as a springboard. Natalie Portman will be back in as Jane Foster and the relationship between Thor and Jane will be extended, expanded and developed… What Chris Hemsworth and I would love is to be allowed to have a moment – maybe not in Thor 2 but at some stage – when Loki is forgiven.”
Before we return to Asgard, Tony Stark will be back for the Shane Black-directed Iron Man 3, and while Scarlett Johansson has confirmed that Black Widow won’t return for the threequel, there has been plenty of casting talk lately, with Guy Pearce (Prometheus), Jessica Chastain (The Help) and Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) all said to be on Marvel’s radar to join the already confirmed Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Ben Kingsley. Pearce is said to have secured the role of geneticist Aldrich Killian with Chastain reportedly in line for a supporting role as a ‘sexy scientist’, while Lau is reportedly a favourite of Iron Man 3’s Chinese investors, where it’s thought that he’d portray a good guy who assists Tony Stark in battling the terrorist villains.
Iron Man 3 will mark Downey Jr.’s fourth outing as the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist (or fifth, if you include his cameo in The Incredible Hulk), and Badass Digest put the question to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige about how they’d handle the actor’s departure from the Cinematic Universe if and when he decides to hang up the armour: “I think Bond is a good example. Let’s put it this way: I hope Downey makes a lot of movies for us as Stark. If and when he doesn’t, and I’m still here making these movies, we don’t take him to Afghanistan and have him wounded again. I think we James Bond it.” So, no reboot… which makes for a refreshing change.
Taking a break from Marvel now and Warner Bros. unveiled some brand new footage from The Dark Knight Rises at CinemaCon earlier in the week. One of the biggest talking points was the fact that Bane’s (Tom Hardy) voice is said to have come across much more clearly than what we’ve previously heard, while the footage itself included shots of Batman (Christian Bale), Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Bane in action, as well as a giant bridge explosion and shots from the battle between Bane’s mercenaries and the Gotham Police Department [ComicBookMovie have collected together some reactions to the footage, which you can read here]. In other news from TDKR camp, Hero Complex caught up with director Christopher Nolan and stars Bale and Morgan Freeman for a few of their thoughts on the hugely-anticipated sequel, while Australia’s Event Cinemas posted a summary of the film, which suggests that the final runtime could clock in at 2 hours 40 minutes. Earlier reports had suggested a two-hour length, but then again a joke about it being four hours was picked up as gospel, so at this point in time it all just seems like random speculation.
And so we come to the third of this year’s big superhero offerings, The Amazing Spider-Man – which, according to rumours, isn’t so amazing after all, at least in the eyes of Sony execs (we might have a better idea ourselves this coming week as a new trailer joins The Dark Knight Rises in playing before The Avengers in North American cinemas). Even if the new film does turn out to make Spider-Man 3 look like a classic, Sony are intent on pushing on with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, hiring Star Trek and Transformers scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to rework a draft by James Vanderbilt, screenwriter of the upcoming reboot (with a little help from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, apparently). Naturally, before we get to the sequel, there is the small matter of the first movie and just to prove they haven’t forgotten about it, Sony have debuted a new international poster for The Amazing Spider-Man, along with a couple of images featuring Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) Meanwhile StarkIndustries (via CBM) got their hands on a shot of Irrfan Khan as the villainous Dr Ratha, who may or may not turn out to be Proto-Goblin.
News Shorts…
…As Marvel Studios, Sony and Warner Bros. prepare to unleash their big guns this summer, Fox CEO Tom Rothman has taken the opportunity to discuss his studio’s plans to capitalise on their owen roster of superheroes, providing short updates on Hugh Jackman’s return in The Wolverine and the sequels to X-Men: First Class and Chronicle, as well as their proposed reboots to Daredevil and Fantastic Four. See what he had to say here…
…Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar has dropped a brief update on the status of Kick-Ass 2 over on the Millarworld Forums: “Kick-Ass 2 films this Summer. I expect there will be an announcement of some sort in the next week. Certainly before Kapow next month for sure… Matthew Vaughn is co-writing and producing, Kick-Ass being a labour of love for him. He selected the perfect director last year and we’re very, very happy. Trust him…he knows what he’s doing…” Although Chloë Grace Moretz is expected to return as Hit Girl, we’re still yet to receive word on whether Aaron Johnson will reprise his role as the titular superhero in the sequel…
…A short promo for the second season of Young Justice has made its way online this week, which focuses on the ‘Invasion’ storyline and gives us our first look at new characters such as Batgirl, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle and Wonder Girl, while producers Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti sat down with CBM to discuss the upcoming story arc. The second season of Young Justice gets underway in the States today (April 28th) on Cartoon Network’s DC Nation…
…And finally, while Marvel fans can now see The Avengers assembling on the big screen (in some countries, at least), for the time being, fans of DC Comics who want to see the Justice League together will have to make do with the upcoming Robot Chicken DC Comics Special, which is set to air on Adult Swim later in the year. The one-off special features the voice talents of Seth Green (Family Guy) as Batman, Robin and Aquaman, Breckin Meyer (Road Trip) as Superman, Nathan Fillion (Firefly) as Green Lantern, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee’s Big Adventure) as The Riddler, Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) as Two-Face, Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2) as Lex Luthor and Megan Fox (Jonah Hex) as Lois Lane. Check out the first image here.
Holy Franchise, Batman! – Now available for pre-order from Amazon.
