After the major announcement two weeks ago of Sir Anthony Hopkins signing on to Thor as the title character’s father, Odin, we now have most of the principal characters cast, albeit with a few secrets yet to be revealed.

According to Production Weekly’s Twitter postings, the next Marvel Studios solo character film is nearing the start of principal photography and they’ve hammered down the shooting locations. Check out the details below.

Harry Knowles at Ain’t It Cool News put up an interview from a while back on the set of The Wolfman with director Joe Johnston. In the interview they discussed a bunch of his previous works and a bit about Jurassic Park 4 for which he is attached to helm.

This was before it was announced that Johnston would be directing The First Avenger: Captain America so unfortunately, that topic does not come up.

In the interview, the topic of special effects (the right mix of practical and digital) came up and Johnston gave the example of the first Jurassic Park and how it still holds up today as something special in that regard. Shortly thereafter, Harry brought the conversation back to Jurassic Park to ask some questions about the widely speculated fourth installment of the franchise. Joe Johnston of course, directed Jurassic Park 3.

Over the last several months, we’ve heard many industry folk chime in the Marvel Studio’s plan of bringing together their superstar superheroes into one shared project, the most ambitious project in comic book movie history: The Avengers.

From Matthew Vaughn (the original director attached to Thor) admitting his desire to helm The Avengers, Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier’s idea of a four-part series of Avengers films to writer Zak Penn’s fear that the epic team-up project is so complicated that it may “suck.” There’s been plenty of talk from the folks behind the cameras about Marvel’s on-screen future, but what about the characters?

One question for the filmmakers has been to figure out how Jon Favreau’s tech-based Iron Man can work together with the mystical Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor? It’s easy in the comic books, but how will they adapt it into live-action and have it make sense? Marvel comic writer Brian Michael Bendis knows it can work – check out his thoughts on The Avengers after the jump.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, a man who always makes the effort to talk to the fans, held his own Q&A at Big Apple Comic-Con over the weekend. While talking a ton about comics, characters and not being able to talk about the Disney merger, he did address some questions regarding some of the upcoming Marvel superhero movies.

Quesada fielded questions about Spider-Man 4, The First Avenger: Captain America and the new kid-focused cartoon series, Super Hero Squad Show. Read what he had to say after the jump – especially about what he says about the Cap movie!

In a move the reeks of opportunism and greed, Jack Kirby’s Estate (a.k.a. his family) have hired Intellectual Property Lawyer Marc Toberoff to sue Disney/Marvel, Sony, Universal, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures in an attempt to reclaim copyright ownership of the characters their late father Jacob Kurtzberg created. You may know his name better as Jack Kirby and you are most familiar with his iconic and highly popular comic book creations, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and The Silver Surfer.

Thanks to the guys over /Film for sharing this with us and to Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool and Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywod who seem to have gotten the drop on this breaking news. This is not the first lawsuit we’ve seen involving a comic book creator’s estate vs. the current owner and publisher; Just recently we reported and discussed WB/DC’s fight with the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Jerry Schuster over the rights to Superman.

Jon Hamm as Captain America (thanks to Screen Rant reader “stpau1y”)

I really should re-title this post “Who CAN Play Captain America?” Because let’s face it – we here at Screen Rant have been running these speculative pieces for awhile now, fantasy casting our favorite upcoming comic book movies (See: Lobo, Batman 3 or Fantastic Four). And while it’s all in good fun to pretend that we have control over the movie universe, so far most of these castings have primarily been about picking actors we think best correspond to our particular mental images of our favorite heroes.

That is until we arrived at this point, trying to cast the titan, the legend, an American icon and symbol: Captain America, star of Marvel’s upcoming film The First Avenger which will serve as the lead-in to Marvel’s 2011 superhero team event, The Avengers.

The recent Disney/Marvel partnership is still sending ripples out across the blogosphere. How will it affect the current state of comics? What impact will it have on Marvel Studios’ production schedule? So much was already happening at Marvel Studios with their epic slate of upcoming films, now they’ll be capable of exploring new territories as we (hopefully) get to see an expansion of their production capacity thanks to Disney’s vastly superior resources.

In light of the major news surrounding Disney and Marvel, we have for you some pictures of new characters born out of the merger between the two media juggernauts as well as some words about the corporate happenings from Stan Lee, the genius creator behind so many of the comics and characters we know and love today.

OK, so just a few minutes ago Twitter literally exploded with news of a major financial announcement: according to The Associated Press, The Walt Disney Co. will acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc., for $4 billion in cash and stock.

Woah! If you ever wondered how much the Marvel Universe is worth, I think you just found out.

Marvel Studios had a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday by providing fans with one of the most entertaining panels of the event. That presentation was of course, for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, which he delivered to the loyal Hall H residents in full force.

Screen Rant master Vic and I attended the Iron Man 2 panel and were treated to something amazing. But we’ve already talked about that and while you wait for the trailer we saw to eventually come online, you may be wondering what updates there have been for the other more distant films in Marvel’s production queue.

Find the latest on the Avengers team-up film and other Marvel films in development after the jump.

MTV caught up with the new Nick Fury actor, Samuel L. Jackson, at an event for the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s film Do The Right Thing and discussed with him his role in Iron Man 2.

The star actor of seemingly every movie revealed that his role in the sequel to Iron Man will be limited to him pulling strings behind the scenes and not getting directly involved in any sort of combat.

Thor is arguably the toughest character and film to sell out of the upcoming slate of movies in development at Marvel Studios, but it is the one I’m most excited for.

Besides my interest in the character, what really grabs my interest is the man in charge: Kenneth Branagh.

Marvel Studios has made one of the biggest splashes into the film industry in recent years with them become a full-fledged independent studio that finances its own films.

You no doubt have seen the results of this in mainstream media in recent times with the two big summer movies last year, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, and the success that ensued.

Now we have an ever-growing list of films on Marvel’s production slate with talk of expansion to a production capacity of four big budget features a year in the not too distant future.

For now, we’ll have to settle with the massive upcoming origin films for Thor and Captain America, the sequel to last summer’s hit Iron Man, and the eagerly anticipated and almighty team-up film that will bring them all together: Avengers.

The First Avenger: Captain America is one of the four big budget summer blockbusters on Marvel’s official slate of upcoming films. Along with the Iron Man franchise, The Incredible Hulk and Thor, Captain America is getting his own origin film to establish his character in Marvel movie continuity all culminating to the main event: The Avengers.

It’s fantastic timing for Marvel to be doing this with their own fast-growing studio during the era of comic book films, but for Captain America, the timing seemed a little off in terms of lining up with the comics since the character the movie is based on is dead – and has been for over two years.

Well, that’s not going to be the case for long and it’s no coincidence in timing.

If you’re a regular Screen Rant reader, you’ve no doubt seen our extensive coverage of Thor leading up to and including the casting announcements. As we waited eagerly to see director Kenneth Branagh’s choice of who would play the God of Thunder, there was quite a bit of speculation abound as to what candidates were in the running for the role.

Back in March, we reported that the folks behind Thor had narrowed their choices down to six. They included Josh Hartnett, Liam Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Joel Kinnaman and Alexander Skarsgård.

There is a lot of new info about the major Marvel superhero movies floating around the Web right now, and because we at Screen Rant believe in a lifestyle of convenience, we’ve pulled together all the bits and pieces into one cohesive Marvel Movie Update.

If you’ve been wondering what’s the latest with Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America or the much-anticipated grand-slam finale, The Avengers, then be sure to keep on reading. Oh, and not to be left out of the club, we’ve got some quick recaps on what’s going on with  Spider-Man 4.

[UPDATE: Check out the Promo Posters for Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 4!]

It’s an exciting time for film buffs and comic readers alike as we have entered the era of comic book movies with no end in site. Today, we’ve got a little tease to keep that excitement up!

With films based on Marvel’s vast collection of characters and stories being created regularly by a multitude of studios over the years, we saw the genre grow even more with the comic publisher creating its own film production company, Marvel Studios, back in the nineties.

The logos after the jump…

With X-Men Origins: Wolverine a little under three weeks from release, we here at Screen Rant thought an overview of all Marvel properties (and possibilities) might be in order. Though the new independent studio is now producing their own films, solely distributed by Paramount Pictures, there are a number of iconic characters still residing at Hollywood’s other major studios.

Now that the film division of Marvel Entertainment exists, we’ve seen questions around the inter-webs about certain properties and copyrights concerning top-tier Marvel characters. Many readers have been calling for Wolverine to cameo in the expected 2012 film Avengers, but there’s a little problem with that potential geekgasm.

The upcoming Avengers film will see four (or more) Marvel superheroes team-up together including Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. The wheels have already started turning to bring these four heroes together, with the latter two still sans an actor to portray them.

Concentrating on The First Avenger: Captain America – a director has already been signed on in the form of Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III and Hidalgo… ouch…), Narnia writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely nabbed to pen the script, and a release date of July 22nd, 2011 set (pushed back from the original May 6th, 2011 date).

Now, as I said, all we need is an actor to dawn the stars-and-striped suit, and pick up that famous shield. So who could play the Captain? Well, how ’bout G.I. Joe star Channing Tatum?

Yesterday, we found out Marvel had signed deals with Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johannson for big roles in Iron Man 2 (and other pictures including The Avengers for Scarlett).

Today, Marvel gave us another big announcement – this time releasing a revised schedule for their upcoming feature films. The new schedule pushes each of their planned movies back except for Iron Man 2 which is still scheduled to open May 7, 2010.

The last we heard, due to salary negotiation problems, Samuel L. Jackson was no longer going to be playing Nick Fury in movies based on the Marvel Comics universe. His next appearance was to be in Iron Man 2, where he was supposed to have more of a significant role than his brief after-credits cameo in the first film.

Although I don’t consider him irreplaceable, I do like the idea of Jackson as Fury, based on the Marvel “Ultimates” version of the character. Some people are up in arms that Fury isn’t being portrayed as the classic version of the character going back 40 years, but to me he’s a supporting character in the films so it doesn’t bother me.

Samuel Jackson is not happy. Negotiations with Marvel for his continuing role as Nick Fury have broken down due to money issues.

As it stands, Nick Fury has shown up at the end of Iron Man, and there are were plans for his appearance in Iron Man 2, The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers.

Not too long after it was announced that Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer) was going to direct Marvel’s Avengers prequel, The First Avenger: Captain America, it looks like Marvel is taking the next logical step: Securing writers to pen the epic origin story of Steve Rogers.

The scribes currently in negotiations with Marvel Studios are none other than Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, both part of the writing team behind The Chronicles of Narnia films.

Is Captain America going to fantasy camp? Or does Marvel know something about these two guys that we have yet to perceive? Let’s talk about it!

It’s official, folks! Marvel Studios has put out a production update stating a director has been tapped to helm the upcoming corner-piece to Marvel’s Avengers puzzle, The First Avenger: Captain America. So, without further ado, the man bringing us the adventures of the Star-Spangled Avenger will be none other than:

Joe Johnston (???).

No rumors here folks – we’ve got some rock solid, straight from Marvel Studios news regarding the Avengers, Iron Man 2 & 3, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr. and the final word on the the Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard story.

That’s a lot of stuff for one post!

The official plot for Captain America has been released, and it seems it does indeed take place completely during the 1940s, which I think is pretty cool.  I just wish the official title, The First Avenger: Captain America was reversed to Captain America: The First Avenger.

Paramount has sent us updated (and first time) releases dates for the big Marvel Studios movies coming out over the next three years.

Iron Man 2 has been pushed back one week, Thor has been pushed back a month and a half and we have release dates for Captain America and The Avengers movies.

[UPDATE: If you missed the live show, you can download it here or grab it over at /Film.com.]

I thought that today I’d give you more advanced notice (warning?). Tonight I’ll be joining the gang from /Film again for their /FilmCast Live.

You can join in on the show live or download it in a day or two when it’s online (but the live version is MUCH more fun, including flubs and outtakes that won’t be in the final version).

It will start at 7PM PST/10PM EST tonight (Monday, Spetember 8th).

We’ll be discussing the abysmal Nicolas Cage film Bangkok Dangerous, Ghostbusters 3 plus the Batman 3 and crazy Captain America casting rumors.

So if you’re a Screen Rant regular visitor and want to join in on the fun, head on over and give a listen: /FilmCast Live.

I’m sure the movie blogosphere will be on fire for the next day or two over the rumor that Will Smith has been cast as Captain America in the upcoming Marvel superhero movie.

If you’re freaking out about this, don’t get your panties in a bunch.

If you think it’s the coolest idea ever, don’t get too excited.

During an interview with MTV news for the film Miracle at St. Anna (which looks pretty great based on the trailer), actor Derek Luke mentioned Will Smith and Captain America as being connected:

According to Den of Geek, Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier has been letting all the beans spill from Marvel’s bag of tricks concerning the cast of the Avengers movie, as well as the current state of Iron Man 2. Is the Frenchman giving us fact, or just more fiction? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Courtesy of MTV come the logos for the next four superhero movies coming from Marvel Studios. On the left you can see the spiffy graphics for Iron Man 2 (or should I say Iron Man II?) and Thor in 2010, Captain America in 2011 and… The Avengers.

This is as high res a version of the poster as is out there at the moment.

Conspicuous by it’s absence is any mention of Hulk 2. I guess they weren’t feeling confident about how it would do at the box office… we’ll have to see what happens over the next couple of weeks. Also interesting is seeing Thor up there for a 2010 release (which is supposed to be a couple of months after the Iron Man sequel). I say interesting because Jon Favreau thinks there’s not enough time to get Shellhead out the door by early Summer 2010. I don’t know if the script is done for Thor, but with Matthew Vaughn having dropped out there’s still no director picked to helm the Norse god epic.

On the other hand, while Justice League has been tossed about like a rowboat in stormy seas, I have no doubt that The Avengers will make it to the big screen. Marvel has planting the seeds for it in both Iron Man AND The Incredible Hulk and I have no doubt we’ll see hints of it in Thor as well.

Source: MTV