Presenting our weekly round-up of all the biggest news stories from the world of movie superheroes…
As the comedian W.C. Fields once said, “Never work with children or animals,” and The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan will have found some truth in that this past week as young actress Joey King revealed what probably constitutes a huge spoiler, if it wasn’t for the fact that just about everyone expected it anyway. “I play young Talia al Ghul,” said King in an interview with My Entertainment World, confirming that the character will make an appearance in the hugely-anticipated sequel. “I can’t give too much away because I promised Mr. Nolan I wouldn’t say anything. There are too many secrets about the character and the movie.” Well, there’s one less now, Joey… So, unless Nolan really surprises everyone and we get to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in drag, I think it’s safe to say we now know the true identity of Marion Cotillard’s ‘Miranda Tate’.
Although Nolan’s big-screen Batman series will come to an end this summer, Warner Bros Animation are busy prepping a return to Gotham City courtesy of executive producer Glen Murakami (Batman Beyond, Justice League, Teen Titans) with the CG-animated series Beware the Batman. Speaking to MovieWeb, actor Kurtwood Smith – a.k.a. Clarence Boddicker – has provided a brief update on the new show, for which he supplies the voice of Jim Gordon. “We’ve just started [the show]. We’ve only recorded two, before Christmas. I like the general thrust of the show. It’s early in the Batman story. Commissioner Gordon isn’t even Commissioner yet, he’s just Lieutenant Gordon. He doesn’t trust Batman, even though they kind of end up helping each other out on an early case. Batman, in a lot of ways, is learning his way, and the relationship between he and Alfred is developing. It’s fun and it’s kind of straight in that regard, as opposed to being campy. I think it’s going to be good, but it won’t be out for at least a year or so.”
Fresh from his success at the Golden Globes last weekend, Luther star Idris Elba told MTV that he’s signed on to reprise his role as Heimdall alongside the Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston in next year’s Marvel sequel Thor 2 – which is now in the hands of director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) – although he was ‘unsure’ if the character would make an appearance in The Avengers this May. In other Avengers-related bits and pieces Tom Hiddleston spoke to Den of Geek about the upcoming superhero team-up during a promotional interview for Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, and co-star Chris Evans also had a few words about the film – and Marvel legend Stan Lee – during a chat with FansShare. Finally, fans may want to check out the unveiling of Hasbro’s Avengers action-figure line, which occured during a liveblog chat on the official Marvel site on Friday afternoon.
Wrapping up the best of the rest…
…As the clock ticks down to the cinema release of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance next month, SFX Magazine got their hands on a few new images from upcoming film, along with some quotes from co-director Brian Taylor [take a look at the highlights over at ComicBookMovie]. Meanwhile Total Film caught up with star Nicolas Cage, who tried to explain how the latest film differs from Mark Steven Johnson’s 2007 original: “I don’t see this as a sequel at all. I see this as Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance. The other movie was Ghost Rider. This movie is Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance.” Thanks for clearing that up for us Nic…
…The Amazing Spider-Man swung into Tokyo this past week as stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were joined by producers Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach for an hour-long press conference to announce the Japanese premiere of the upcoming reboot on June 30th [watch the press conference here]. Elsewhere, director Marc Webb told Collider to expect a second trailer within the next month, with rumours since emerging that it could hit the web on February 9th and may be attached to Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and The Vow in cinemas the following day…
…Last week we heard that Fox were still keen on pushing ahead with their Deadpool feature and now comes a report from The Geek Files claiming that a ‘source’ has confirmed that Ryan Reynolds is still attached to the X-Men Origins: Wolverine spin-off, while the studio plan to push both Deadpool and The Wolverine into production this year…
…Meanwhile X-Men: First Class star Michael Fassbender has been talking to IFC.com about the proposed sequel to last year’s prequel, stating that he’d like to continue exploring the complex relationship between Magneto and James McAvoy’s Professor X: “It’s not just like clear-cut enemies; they’re best friends as well. In the comic books, even after they’ve had this sort of rift, Professor X asks Magneto to come back and look after the students at certain points… I think there’s always that complexity in their relationship and we want to keep that alive as possible, because that’s I think a really interesting thing – the conflict there…”
…On the subject of sequels, it looks as though we could be getting a follow-up to 2008’s Hancock, with director Peter Berg discussing the possibility in brief update to ComicBookMovie: “We’ve been talking about the sequel between us, Will Smith, [producers] Michael Mann and Akiva Goldsman and myself. We’re all interested, but we literally just have trouble getting into the same room at the same time. We did have a series of meetings last year and started to hash out an idea for sequel – and Will Smith actually had the idea – so I think it will happen, it’s just a question of timing…”
…Warner Bros’ Superman reboot Man of Steel has completed filming in Vancouver, with director Zack Snyder and stars such as Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon now heading to Los Angeles for the final leg of principal photography…
…Shifting to the small screen for a moment and The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the CW network are moving forward with the pilot episode of Green Arrow, albeit under the newly-shortened title of Arrow. According to THR, the show “revolves around the hooded super hero, a wealthy playboy by day who secretly saves the city by night using his enhanced arrows” and is described as “a modern retelling of the legendary comics character…”
…Hero Complex caught up with Harold Perrineau to discuss his voice work in the Blade anime series, with the Lost star admitting that he’d be open to stepping into Wesley Snipes’ shoes for a live-action reboot, should the opportunity arise now that the movie rights have reverted back to Marvel Studios: “You know what … I would shave my head and get into the gym tomorrow if they said that I could play Blade. I’d be in the gym pumping iron, doing kung fu… I would love to play Blade live-action. I think the character is ridiculously cool. I’m never going to be as cool as Wesley Snipes was, but I’d give it a shot…”
…And finally, Quentin Tarantino has revealed his favourite movies of 2011 and there’s quite a superhero flavour to his list. X-Men: First Class placed in both his ‘Official Top 11’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ categories, while Captain America: The First Avenger, Green Lantern and The Green Hornet also managed to earn themselves honourable mentions. Guess he’s not a fan of the God of Thunder, then.
Holy Franchise, Batman! – Arriving this June.
