Screen Rant » captain america

Thor Updates: Production Schedule

Rob Keyes — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:51:10 +0000

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.

Filming on Marvel’s “Thor” is scheduled to begin in LA mid-January, then move to Santa Fe, New Mexico from March till late-April.

Not only is it great news that my most anticipated Marvel character film is well on its way, but this means that next summer we’ll likely get a Marvel panel presentation (and footage!) for Thor at San Diego Comic-Con. That’s something that I cannot miss, similar to this year’s awesome Iron Man 2 panel which was easily one of the top presentations of the event.

With all of these great and highly positive Thor announcements over the last several months, I still wonder when we’re going to start seeing that for Thor’s Earthbound buddy, Steve Rogers. We still haven’t heard any casting updates on The First Avenger: Captain America but the film is set to release also in summer, 2011 (Along with other major comic book properties Green Lantern, Spider-Man 4 and possibly another X-Men film).

The last we did hear on the Cap front was from Marvel Chief Joe Quesada who revealed that they have a short “wishlist” of actors they want to portray the star-spangled Avenger. Perhaps we’ll get another major announcement over the holiday season?

The film is helmed by Kenneth Branagh and stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor alongside Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Jaimie Alexander, Colm Feore, and… Stan Lee!

Are you excited knowing that the God of Thunder is coming soon?

Stay tuned for more Thor goodies here at Screen Rant!

Thor opens in theaters May 20, 2011 and I’ll be there. The First Avenger: Captain America is scheduled to open July 22, 2011,

Source: Production Weekly

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Joe Johnston Talks Jurassic Park 4 Story

Rob Keyes — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:32:53 +0000

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.

“Well, there is a great story for the fourth one that I would be interested in getting involved with and it’s nothing like the first three. It sort of takes the franchise off in a completely different direction, which is the only way I would want to get involved.”

Harry then asked if it would be again about a group of folks trying to survive against the dinos and Johnston responded, “We’ve done that and it’s been done three times…”

Following that, Harry emulated the feelings of many fans and said to stay away from the island.

“Why would anybody go back to that island? It was hard enough to figure out the second and third reason for them to go, but it would take it off in a whole other trilogy basically, but when it gets to that level it’s sort of about studios and Steven’s thing and who knows. I think we are at that point where we are due for another one if we are going to do it. They had what four years between them? 1992… 1996 or 1997, and then 2001, so we are past due. I don’t know, but we will see.”

Johnston’s Jurassic Park 3 was sadly was the worst of the trilogy for me and they definitely need to do something new and completely different for it to work or potentially kick-start the franchise with a new set of films.

What do you think about Johnston heading up another Jurassic Park and the Captain America movie? What do you want from Jurassic Park 4?

Universal has no official schedule set for Jurassic Park 4. The Wolfman finally hits theaters February 10, 2010 and The First Avenger: Captain America will hopefully not be delayed and open July 22, 2011.

Source: AICN

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How Iron Man & Thor Can Play Together In The Avengers

Rob Keyes — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:47:26 +0000

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.

Brian Bendis is one of the biggest names in the comics industry and is one of the folks responsible for the creation of the Ultimate Marvel Universe. MTV had a chance to speak to the artist and writer and get his thoughts on The Avengers film.

“My advice is, has been, and will be, that much like the comics, you look at movies like the ‘Oceans’ movies that have all these different flavors, you put the flavors together and you cook ‘em… It absolutely can be done.

Look at ‘The Great Escape’ or other movies that have all these big elements to them, and even elements that don’t seem that they would fit can rub up against each other in a very excellent way… They really can create something you wouldn’t even imagine you had before.”

Bendis explained that by bringing in different types of characters to form unexpected teams or partnerships, you can often get something special and amazing out of it. It’s one of his favorite parts of writing team-up books like New Avengers and he gave an example of the relationship formed between Spider-Man and Luke Cage in the books.

“Having read the ‘Captain America’ movie script and the ‘Thor’ movie scripts and ‘Iron Man 2′ and everything, and seeing them all develop, nothing is more exciting to me than the ‘Avengers’ movie… It’s absolutely going to be something better than— different than—anything we’ve seen before.

I think the challenge is absolutely there… It’s an immense amount of work, but the payoff will be gigantic.”

I hope it all plays out right and everyone wins in the end. They’re really banking on Captain America and Thor’s solo outings not only winning over the fans, but bringing in a hefty profit. They can’t really have a weak link bringing down the team (in more ways than one) but I’m confident that because it’s in the hands of Marvel themselves as opposed to another studio, that we’ll all have our wishes come true.

Click to continue reading about Iron Man 2 cameos and The Avengers…

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Joe Quesada Talks Captain America, Spider-Man 4 & More

Rob Keyes — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:25:01 +0000

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!

Comic Book Resources was in attendance making note of what was said and when the subject of Marvel movies first came up from the series of fan questions, the first topic was that of Spider-Man 4. However, since Sony owns the film rights to Spider-Man and not Marvel Studios, Quesada isn’t too involved and didn’t have much to say on the topic.

“I’m the biggest Sam Raimi fan in the world, so I can pretty much guarantee that it’ll be damn good.”

I wonder what Joe thought of Spider-Man 3…

Next, the questions moved towards something he could talk about and something Marvel and movie fans really want to hear about: The First Avenger: Captain America.

“I’ve seen a couple of outlines and an initial screenplay, and it’s going to rock everyone’s socks off… It’s very unexpected, the kind of movie it is.”

The Marvel headmaster then added that Captain America’s solo film sets up The Avengers in “a fantastic way.” The most interesting thing he revealed however, is that there exists a wish list of actors that they have to play the patriotic hero. That’s a list I want to hear more about and I expect that casting decisions will start having to be made soon.

As for the Super Hero Squad Show, which no doubt appeals to Disney’s desires to acquire a strong hold of the youth demographic, Quesada used his young daughter as an example of someone who could be drawn into the Marvel universe at a young age with this sort of introduction to the characters.

“I think [that approach to attaining new comics readers] will increase the more that Marvel gets into the mainstream.”

So, there you have it. Quesada is very optimistic about the Captain America film and it seems they have some lead actors already in mind – no surprise if we assume The First Avenger: Captain America will not be delayed from its release date a mere two months after Thor (a movie that’s deep into casting with its leads already selected).

Any guesses as to who’s on that list of candidates to play Steve Rogers?

Check out my thoughts on the future of Captain America and my partner in crime, Kofi Outlaw’s piece on who should play Captain America.

All three of the Marvel heroes will have their next films open in theaters in the summer of 2011. The First Avenger: Captain America is scheduled to open July 22, 2011, Thor will strike theaters May 20, 2011 and Spider-Man 4 webs the screens May 5, 2011.

Source: CBR

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Jack Kirby’s Estate Sues Disney/Marvel

Paul Young — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:49:41 +0000

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, 20^th 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.

The Siegel/Shuster heirs have been successful in their legal pursuit to some degree; they now have full access to Superman’s origins with many thanks going to their superstar lawyer (you guessed it) Marc Toberoff. What they are going to do with the just the origins of Superman remains a mystery to me, because after the countless retellings of Superman’s beginnings, I’m pretty sure we weren’t going to see that story again anytime soon.

Back to Jack Kirby: His Estate is currently suing and sending termination of copyrights notifications to each of the big studios that have involvement with any of characters Kirby created. The rest of this article is background information on Jack Kirby and my own observations and opinions. I am not a copyright lawyer, nor do I claim to have extensive background knowledge on U.S. Copyright Laws; so if you see something I misinterpreted, please enlighten me.

This isn’t the first time Kirby and Marvel haven’t seen eye to eye on things. In a very detailed account over at The Comic Journal, Marvel was in a major dispute with Kirby during much of the 80s, regarding his work from the 60s and 70s. At the end of the day (and after Will Eisner got involved), Marvel reluctantly agreed to give Kirby back 1900 pages of his work. That seems like a lot, but it’s actually less than 25% of what Kirby had done.

Kirby was the first illustrator hired when Jerry Iger and Will Eisner formed Eisner & Iger Studios in the 1930s. Until 1978, when the copyright laws were changed, most if not all of the comic creators hired artists under a “work-for-hire arrangement”. In other words: artists didn’t own the rights to whatever they were paid to draw. The same thing is still done today in other business models – electronics and programming are two of the biggest examples.

When a programmer working for Microsoft writes a new program and it turns into the major code behind a new piece of Microsoft software, that programmer doesn’t own the rights to his code. He was paid by Microsoft to write it and has already been fairly compensated for his time and effort. He doesn’t have the right to sue once that program starts making millions of dollars, just because he is jealous.

I don’t claim to know the copyright laws inside and out, but to me it would seem pretty simple: If Jack Kirby was hired under those aforementioned circumstances, then any characters he created should not be his to own. Sure, he will always get “creative credit” for coming up with them in the first place, but it’s not like he thought them up in his garage and then Marvel came along and stole them in the night. From what I understand, Kirby was paid fairly to create those Marvel characters and without the company publishing his work, he would not have gotten them off the ground. Of course the reverse could be (and likely will be) argued – that Kirby created the most iconic characters in Marvel’s repertoire and without him they would have died a slow comic death.

(Head to pg. 2 to help answer the question, “Why Now?”)

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Who Should Play Captain America?

Kofi Outlaw — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:14:15 +0000

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.

Suddenly the issue has become bigger than the actors or what’s been inked into the comic book pages over the years – casting Captain America is like trying to cast someone to play (and represent) the American Flag itself. Taken like that, the decision process requires a whole new set of criteria – and (unfortunately), comes with the burden of a whole lot of politics.

So who is up to the task of playing Cap?

REAL AMERICAN HERO

Captain America cannot go the G.I. Joe route. There will be no scrubbing the word “America” from the title of this film like it’s some dirty word; the Captain will stay American, if for no other reason than the name “Captain World” or “Captain Continents” just sounds silly. While there have been early rumors that the WWII storyline for The First Avenger will feature an international band of heroes who cross paths with Cap (for obvious reasons of international appeal), it has been confirmed that the Star-Spangled Avenger himself will be portrayed just as we remember him on the page.

But who is Cap, really?

Captain America is indisputably a superhero who has transcended the page on which he was created – like Superman, like Batman. But unlike those other two heroes, Cap has achieved iconic status over the last half-Century largely without the aid of the mass media machine (no top-grossing toy lines, feature films, TV shows or video games). Even Cap’s ongoing comic book series was something of a dinosaur by the time I became a fanboy in the late 80s-90s.

No, Captain America has endured in a way that is all but extinct in this modern age where everything is YouTube archived: In people’s hearts and minds, as a symbol, more than a hero – as an ideal, more than a character. Americans who are reading this, I don’t have to tell you just how politically divided our nation has become in The New Millennium; that political civil war has raged so long and violently that at height of the upheaval (2007 leading into the 2008 election) Marvel decided to kill-off Captain America, arguably as a metaphorical declaration that American idealism (everything Cap was and stood for) was dead and gone. Of course soon after that – as is the standard in the comic book biz (and/or a sickly ironic example of the power of Hollywood) – Marvel brought Cap back (see video below). After all, who would want to see blockbuster film about a dead hero? (No disrespect to you, Deadman.)

Now, we could sit here and argue all day about the narrative tricks Marvel pulled to bring Cap back (the gun that assassinated him actually “froze him in time???”); we could debate over whether or not Cap was brought back as a symbolic gesture (Marvel Comics declaring that America has “found its way back to its “lost idealism”), or simply as a fi$cal-minded move, designed to help build The First Avenger upon the strongest foundation possible.

But this ain’t a forum for political left-right-middle argument, my friend – this is where we geek-out over comic book stuff! Now that Cap IS back from the dead and the movie is in the pipeline, the question turns to which actor can possibly take on the monumental task of not only elevating Captain America above and beyond the wide divide of modern politics, but which leading man can make Cap a hero (and a star) to movie goers all over the world, while never losing that quintessential quality of being first and foremost one of the great American originals?

(See pg. 2 for our Captain America criteria)

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Disney-Marvel Deal: Stan Lee’s Approval & New Hybrid Characters

Rob Keyes — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:31:19 +0000

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.

Stan Lee, a legend of the comic book industry, couldn’t be more happy about the Disney acquisition. In a statement to MTV, he revealed his feelings about the merger and how he believes it’ll benefit everyone greatly in the long run:

“I couldn’t be happier with this agreement… It’s [a] great move for Disney, for Marvel and for my company Pow! Entertainment since Pow! has a first-look deal with Disney. From every point of view, the merger of Disney and Marvel is a match made in heaven.”

“Just imagine… with this deal Marvel gives Disney a library of literally hundreds of unique and colorful characters that have the potential to make great, high-concept movies and long-lasting franchises—and nobody knows how to play in that ball park better than Disney… This is a great day for the two companies and for the entertainment community as a whole. To sum it up as simply as possible, when you combine the best with the best, everyone wins!”

Obvious biases aside, Stan the Man makes some good points and he’s not wrong in anything he’s optimistic about. The hopes of myself and I’m sure all Marvel fans and moviegoers is that we get many more movies from Marvel Studios. I’m excited for the first announcements of what will come in addition to the Marvel Studios films already in development, including Iron Man 2, The First Avenger: Captain America, Thor and The Avengers.

Now, on to the fun stuff… New characters!

Click to continue reading about the Disney-Marvel Deal and new Hybrid Characters…

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Disney Buys Marvel

Paul Young — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:44:45 +0000

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.

Under the deal Disney will now control and own 5,000 Marvel characters, including Iron Man and Spider-Man. If Marvel shareholders approve the deal, they will receive $30 per share and will also receive .745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. Both the Disney and Marvel board of directors have approved the deal, but it still has to go through an anti-trust review. I don’t see there being any problem with the anti-trust review nor do I see the marvel shareholders turning up their noses to such a fantastic offer. Most likely, later this week, we should see final word on the resolution of this agreement.

Said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s Chief Executive Officer:

“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel`s fantastic library of characters given
its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses…This is an unparalleled
opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties
by accessing Disney`s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around
the world.”

So what does this mean to comic books fans? Well, it could be both very good and very bad at the same time. Let’s look at some quick pros and cons shall we?

Pro – Disney is a universal name with pockets so deep that God’s hand would have a hard time reaching the bottom. Marvel is no slouch either in the household name department – but let’s face it, they are no Disney. All that extra money, means way more marketing and increased traffic within the theme parks (sorry Universal but looks like you might lose the X-Men characters in your parades.)

Con – With movies like Iron Man 2, Spider-man 4, The Incredible Hulk 2, Thor , The Avengers and Captain America on the horizon, what does this mean for their development? Iron Man 2 is already in full swing so I doubt we see any type of delay with that one, but with no other pre-production or principle photography under way on some other films, could we see some eventual delay(s)?

Pro – On the flip side, with Disney having such deep pockets, that means much more available funds to push MORE movies into production. It’s not like Disney is buying Marvel because they were threatened by Marvel’s market share and were trying to buy out the competition. No, Disney bought Marvel to use the property rights, not sit on them. This could mean we start seeing Marvel characters pushed into multiple forms of media. More cartoons, more comics, more live action TV shows and definitely more movies.

Con – We could find ourselves over-saturated with watered down superheroes, quickly written scripts and under produced adaptation that are Disney is just looking to make a quick buck with. They are, after all, trying to re-coup $4 billion dollars of investment. It is distinctly possible that quality could suffer. Hopefully that won’t be the case, because whether Disney knows it or not, they are now under intense scrutiny from one of these largest, if not the largest, fan base in the world.

There are plenty of other pros and cons and we may discuss them in detail later today but for now we thought the news was worthy enough to get to you quickly.

What do you think of this mega-acquisition of Marvel by Disney? Does it make you as apprehensive as me for the future or elated that we may have an enormous opportunity to see more comic films in the future?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Screen Rant will keep you updated as news come out.

[UPDATE: For our analysis of what this could mean for future Marvel movies (and TV shows) check out our follow-up: So Disney Bought Marvel - What Does It All Mean?]

Source: The Globe and Mail

Disney Marvel Logo: Spoiler TV

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Comic-Con: Avengers Roster & Future Marvel Movies

Rob Keyes — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:17:36 +0000

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.

After the panel, more Marvel movie goodies were revealed in some roundtable interviews where Vic was involved. Participating in the interviews were key cast members Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle and Scarlett Johansson, as well as director Jon Favreau and Marvel President of Production, Kevin Feige.

Feige had the most interesting things to say about the Iron Man sequel and the Avengers movie.

According to Feige, Iron Man 2 is not about cramming in too many characters, the cardinal sin of a sequel. He emphasizes that it’s totally Tony Stark’s story and that it’s going to weave into Thor’s story and Steve Rogers’ story and that it already is in Nick Fury’s and SHIELD. This is about Tony Stark glibly declaring “I am Iron Man” and what that means for him and those around him.

Any character franchise that launches must stand on its own two feet. They have to do the same thing with Thor and Captain America so that when the Avengers movie comes, it’s not just a team movie but has characters that you already care about, understand and empathize with.

If a sequel to The Incredible Hulk is ever made, Feige says it will be after the Avengers. I hope by then Marvel is able to increase their feature film financing capacity to be able to produce four big-budget blockbusters a year. Until that happens, I think Hulk is lower priority than other characters who are more worthy of sequels or origins movies.

On that note, later in the roundtable, Feige explained that after the writers strike, Marvel is back on schedule for two films a year (having none this year and only one next year in Iron Man 2). Feige re-iterated that the less the films cost, the more profit they make and the more films they can make.

As for Ed Norton playing Bruce Banner in Avengers, there’s a “chance” according to Feige, but he didn’t sound very positive. For continuity reasons and to really strengthen Marvel’s impact with this film, I personally find it important the Norton have a role in the movie. The Hulk along with Captain America, Iron Man and Thor are key to me and I think those four should comprise the core of the film and its title roster.

In planning Iron Man 2, Feige explained that they were interested in the villains that would enhance Tony’s character. Justin Hammer is who Stark was before he was ambushed in Afghanistan, the other side of his personality is the inventor/grease monkey side and that is represented by Whiplash. Feige says that it’s fun taking a character no one thinks much of and making him cool (Whiplash).

Feige reveals that at the start of the film, Stark is quite pleased with himself, but over the course of the film the stresses of being Iron Man will be demonstrated and become a crucial part of the story.

What other characters could we see in the future? Well, Kevin’s favorites are Dr Strange, Ant-Man, Black Panther and Iron Fist. All of which, without coincidence, have long been speculated as future Marvel movies in development. He also says that he’d like to break into the cosmic part of the Marvel Universe more (Thor will touch on this).

What kind of Thor can we expect? The Kirby/Stan Lee/Simonson Thor. In the Thor film, it’s based in the scientific, not fantasy – it’s simply science we just don’t yet understand or know about.

Head to the following page for more info and updates on the characters we’re likely to see in the Avengers.

Click to continue reading ‘Comic-Con: Avengers Roster & Future Marvel Movies’

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Marvel Updates: Nick Fury’s Role In Iron Man 2 & Avengers

Rob Keyes — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:12:22 +0000

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.

“Not this time, not yet… We still haven’t moved Nick Fury into the bad-ass zone. He’s still just kind of a talker.”

As for when he’ll start kicking ass and taking names, MTV news asked him if that’ll start with the Avengers film.

“Looking forward to that, yeah.”

I guess he doesn’t know but he’s sure excited for that movie. Who wouldn’t be excited about playing a major role in one of the most epic movies in planning right now. Even though it’s at least three years away with its predecessor films still in pre-production, I’m looking forward to it.

Speaking of the Avengers… Not only will we be seeing a ton of heroes crossing paths with tons of support characters and likely, villains, the folks behind the movie are dealing with the complexities of making the film. They must cross-paths themselves frequently to make sure everyone’s on the same page and within the same continuity with their own films leading up to the Avengers team-up flick.

The three key characters; Iron Man, Captain America and Thor all have their own solo flicks coming up in the next two years and each has its own creative team behind it. That makes life challenging for Avengers writer Zak Penn who must take all of their individual stories and happenings together in planning the Avengers – especially that of Captain America which will lead into the Avengers but is still in its early stages with not even one cast member announced (look out for Captain America announcements soon!).

As for Fury not being an action hero in Iron Man 2, this is completely unsurprising for me and I think, a good thing. The movie will focus on more action for the protagonist and is introducing multiple new characters who will share in the action sequences as well.

Along with Mickey Rourke’s villainous Whiplash, we have Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow along with the highly anticipated introduction of War Machine. Director Jon Favreau has plenty to work with for Iron Man 2 already for his action sequences.

Sam L has a nine-picture deal with Marvel Studios so he’ll sure get his chance several times to be involved in the action directly, perhaps even his own solo title as Nick Fury or in a movie based on the secret organization he directs, S.H.I.E.L.D.

Plus, by having him focus on simply directing S.H.I.E.L.D. and working towards bringing these characters together for a few movies, it’ll make it that more special when it’s his time to shine on the front line.

What do you think of Sam L’s Nick Fury and what would you like to see him in down the road?

Iron Man 2 kicks off next year’s summer season on May 7, 2010.

Source: MTV

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Marvel Updates: Branagh’s Thor, & Iron Man 2 Script Is Awesome

Rob Keyes — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:34:23 +0000

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.

The multi-talented Shakespearian actor/writer/director is an unbeatable choice to helm Thor and bring him to the silver screen and better yet, he loves the interconnectivity between the Marvel character, the universe and what they are attempting to do with the film.

There’s been nothing but praise for the man coming from Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, and now we have even more good stuff to say about the man.

In one of their meetings the other week, Branagh met with Quesada, Feige and others about the movie and he gave a performance to enact the film for those who were there. Quesada described it in his column as one of his best “highlights” working for Marvel:

“It was performance art… Kevin would give us the establishment of the shot and the situation: ‘Here we are. We’re in (take your pick of location). And here’s Odin and he’s coming up to (pick a character.)’ And then Kenneth would come in and give you the color commentary. ‘Odin has an air of majesty to him’ and he’d act out the Odin part or the Thor part. So we sat there and literally got a three-hour one-man show from Kenneth Branagh. It was fantastic.”

Quesada then went on to explain how Branagh is heavily focused on character development in the film and how that’s what will really stand out in his movie:

“It’s not just big hammers and capes and things like that. It’s about what makes the character tick. There’s definitely a reason for Thor, a reason for him being and a very deep family relationship and story in the movie that I think is going to be very cool.”

Adding to this, comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis spoke with Newsarama about Branagh’s Thor, the Iron Man 2 script and why fans of the comics should be excited for the upcoming movies…

Firstly, Bendis talked about what he’s currently writing for the Comics publisher (check out the Newsarama interview linked below if you’re interested) then went into his involvement with the films and how much fun it is. For the Iron Man fans out there, he’s said he read the script for it “30 times now” and that it’s very good.

Continue Reading ‘Marvel Updates: Branagh’s Thor, Iron Man 2 Script Are Awesome’

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Zak Penn Loves Marvel Interconnectivity… But His ‘Avengers’ May Suck

Rob Keyes — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:56:43 +0000

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.

Writing the Avengers movie is one of the go-to Marvel writers, Zak Penn. He was responsible for the screenplays of previous Marvel-based films X-Men 2 & 3, Elektra, the Fantastic Four & X3 video games as well as last year’s Incredible Hulk. Currently, he’s preparing to work on his biggest task yet, Avengers.

In his previous work, most notably when writing the X-Men sequels, Penn had a desire to have the Fox Studios’ Marvel Films cross-over by including more characters in the films – most notably, the Fantastic Four. However, Fox wanted no part of that and it didn’t happen.

With Marvel Studios however, all the films share the same universe and so we’ll be seeing cameos, tying-elements and all of the characters eventually working together as a full-fledged team, come 2012 (barring any more delays).

Earlier this week, Zak Penn was on a panel at the Los Angeles Film Festival and spoke a little bit about the project and working with Marvel:

“They want to see that they’re all connected, not like the Fantastic Four can’t come into the X-Men world, like I was told. I’m taking a meeting next week with the Thor and Captain America people, and we are all going to get together, and I will see what is going to happen. I’ll see where they are leaving the characters; it’s pretty complicated. … There’s a board that is tracking what is happening. [We'll see] how this movie overlaps in that movie. … Marvel is autonomous now. It is night and day: Everyone has read every comic. They know how to make a cool movie.”

Awesome.

Continue reading ‘Zak Penn Loves Marvel Interconnectivity… But His ‘Avengers’ May Suck’

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The Return of Captain America…

Rob Keyes — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:13:36 +0000

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.

Captain America originated back in the 1940s and since that time, he’s been portrayed mainly by the character of Steve Rogers. At least, up until March of 2007 when writer Ed Brubaker had him assassinated in Captain America #25 (Volume 5) at the conclusion of the major Marvel crossover event, Civil War. The Civil War saga saw all the heroes and villains of the Marvel universe pick one of two sides: With the government and their Superhuman Registration Act lead by Tony Stark (Iron Man) or with Captain America’s freedom fighters who fought against it.

Killing off the character was a successful plan by the writers, looking back and seeing how much coverage it was given by mainstream media. Now they’re attempting to do that again by doing the opposite and likely bringing Steve Rogers back from the dead. Of course, he wasn’t going to be dead forever, or even for a long time for that matter – it’s surprising his “death” lasted as long as it did (far longer than Superman’s death following the Doomsday storyline). When you think about it, they need to capitalize on the timing with the major blockbuster Marvel films that will feature the star-spangled Hero.

According to several reports and plenty of online buzz, Captain America #600 (which officially comes out tomorrow, June 17th), sets up the return of Steve Rogers. Since Rogers’ death, his friend Bucky Barnes has taken up the mantle and sported the new Captain America suit. What will happen with Steve coming back? Will there be two Captain Americas or will Bucky step down… or something else?

Bucky’s Cap outfit by Alex Ross [click to enlarge]

On July 1st, the five-issue mini-series Captain America: Reborn begins which will truly see the return of Steve Rogers and according to Bleeding Cool, comic retailers everywhere have apparently been encouraged to stock up on these issues and given incentives to do so in order to tie in to some “major Marvel news.”

Continue reading ‘The Return of Captain America…’

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Alexander Skarsgard Talks ‘Thor’

Rob Keyes — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:39:05 +0000

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.

Initially, many thought young Skarsgård (son of veteran actor Stellan Skarsgård) got the role as he was spotted having lunch with Branagh. To me and many others, this was a great choice. Of the six candidates mentioned above, Alexander is the tallest, oldest and the largest. He also hails from a Nordic country and has the natural hair and look.

Approximately a month later, it no longer seemed that Skarsgård was the shoe-in for the role. Interviews with the actor revealed that he was no longer being kept in the loop and he felt that he wasn’t going to be the chosen one.

This led to a quick change in online speculation of who’d play the role as two days later, reports of Charlie Hunnam being a lead contender for the role popped up on the news blogs. It was being reported that Hunnam had screen-tested for the part in costume and with a hammer.

So, who would it be? Would they announce Hunnam or Skarsgård for the role?

Nope.

Instead, we got another wrench in the situation as Branagh kicked off the start of May by stating that Tom Hiddleston, his co-star from the series Wallander, was in fact in the running as well. Branagh also confirmed that the Marvel film would start shooting in January. We therefore expected a decision pretty soon so whomever was chosen could prepare for the role and get into physical training for the part.

Continue to Page 2 to hear what Alexander Skarsgård has to say…

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Marvel Movie Update

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:54:33 +0000

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.

IRON MAN 2

Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau recently got an “Atta Boy!” from George Lucas. Lucas handpicked Favreau to interview him next weekend at the Four Seasons hotel in Chicago. Favreau will also present Lucas with the Gene Siskel Film Center Visionary Award for Innovation in Filmmaking (…for making one of the greatest sci-fi trilogies of all time).

Here’s what Lucas had to say about Favreau:

Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound have had the good fortune of working with Jon [on the 'Iron Man' films]…I know firsthand that he is the type of filmmaker that crews here love to work with, because he always gives them the opportunity to break new ground.

Is it me, or does George Lucas manage to fit a plug into every soundbite he gives? Probably just me. Still, that’s a good look for Jon Favreau. You can check out everything Favreau had to say about ducking out on Iron Man 2 to interview George Lucas by going here.

Iron Man 2 villain Mickey Rourke recently opened up a bit about what we can expect from his character, Whiplash. After some unofficial concept art of the Whiplash armor surfaced online recently, Iron Man 2 fans have been keeping web pages on constant refresh, hoping to get an official glimpse of Rourke-in-armor. Well, Mickey didn’t exactly provide a snapshot of his costume, but he did recently talk to Empire about what it’s like wearing the Whiplash suit:

“It’s been really brutal, because my Iron Man suit weighs 23lb. It’s sort of a half-suit, with half my skin showing, with lots of Russian tattoos, because [Whiplash is just] out of a Russian-zone prison.”

Rourke also told The Guardian that he decided to do half his dialogue in Russian, which he is learning for the film. All and all, sounds pretty badass. And, if Jon Favreau’s Twitter page is any indication, we might be getting an official look at Mickey Rourke as Whiplash in the near future, so be sure to check back with us on the daily.

According to those same tweets, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is also ‘kicking ass”; Marvel president of production Kevin Feige was quoted at a recent industry conference as saying that Black Widow has “two sides” in film. Is that a refernce to her intitial entry as Tony Stark’s assistant, only to be later revealed as super-spy Black Widow? Or is it a reference (as First Showing’s Alex Billington speculates) to a villainous betrayal by the lovely Russian spy? Guess we’ll find out when we see the movie!

Iron Man 2 is currently at the halfway mark of its shooting schedule. It’s slated to hit theaters on May 7, 2010.

THOR

By now you should know that Thor will be played by Chris Hemsworth (Captain Kirk’s father in the new Star Trek movie); British actor Tom Hiddleston is playing Thor’s nemisis, Loki; and director Kenneth Branagh is rumored to have tapped renowned thespian Brian Blessed to play Thor’s father, the almighty Odin.

Kevin Feige dished that Thor will take place on both Earth and in otherworldly realms like Asgard, the mythical kingdom of the Norse gods. That claim by Feige backs up early rumors that Donald Blake, Thor’s human counterpart from the comics, would NOT be a part of the story. And contrary to what many (read: I) thought, according to Feige, director Kenneth Branagh is NOT going to use the kind of Shakespearean dialogue that was often used in Thor comics. Are thy kidding?

On the business end, both Chris Hemsworth AND Tom Hiddleston are signed-on for multiple movies in “multiple franchises”. This is not surprising for Hemsworth (after all Thor does have to appear in The Avengers movie), but the news that Hiddleston was also included in the cross-pollinating deal hints that Loki could be up to his trickster ways in The Avengers…

Thor is gearing up for production. It’s slated to hit theaters on May 20, 2011.

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The New Marvel Movie Logos!

Rob Keyes — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:57:46 +0000

[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…

Could we get Marvel films being made by entirely by Marvel though? Yes, finally! Our wish came true and they lived up to it with their first two self-produced features that you may have heard of: Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Both were fantastic movies that respected the source material and were well-regarded by fans and critics (I think the fans have been saying something about respecting the source material all along…).

That being said, Marvel Studios is stepping up to the plate for the real test soon with the sequel to their massive hit, Iron Man, debuting next summer, followed by their other character origin films, and that little team-up movie that brings them all together. The big budget films based on big name characters have a lot to live up to with what fans were treated to last summer in the comic book movie genre.

Iron Man 2 has recently passed the half-way point of its shooting schedule, Thor is moving full steam ahead with major news items dropping every week, including the casting of its lead actors, and we can expect to start seeing some updates on the Captain America solo film real soon.

With that in mind, a very cool picture has popped up online thanks to the folks over at AICN that depicts the official Marvel logos for the four upcoming blockbusters that we’ve been discussing. The photo was taken by one of their readers from the Las Vegas Licensing Show and Screen Rant Master Vic did some work to clear it up and make it more presentable for you – Check it out and see what you think:

Click to Enlarge

Update: Here are the Promo Posters for Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 4

As we all know, these Marvel character films are all sharing the same universe setup by the very young Marvel Studios and the big event they’re leading up to is of course the incredibly epic team-up film, Avengers. I’m not gonna lie, it’s a little insane to think that this is actually happening and the thought of it gets me excited.

The logos are awesome and they pay tribute to the classic designs we’re become familiar with from the covers of the characters’ respective comic series’. Note the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo in the center – they and their leader, Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson in the next nine potential Marvel movies) will no doubt play the key role of tying all the films together and meshing them for the Avengers team-up flick. I hope we get a ton of cross-over cameos from the main characters as well.

What do you think of the logos?

Of the slate of Marvel films coming up, Iron Man 2 of course hits theaters first on May 7, 2010. The following summer, Thor opens May 20, 2011 and The First Avenger: Captain America opens July 22, 2011. Last but not least, we have the Avengers kicking off the following summer, May 4, 2012.

Source: Ain’t It Cool News & Slash Film

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Answered: Which Studios Own Which Marvel Characters

Carl Lee — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:11:50 +0000

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.

With 20th Century FOX co-producing the Wolvie flick, getting the character to play nice on a self-produced Marvel film is going to be rather difficult. In legal speak, Fox owns a piece of the X-Men film franchise; they have the “rights” to produce any character that frequently appears in the X-Men Universe, projects like X-Men: First Class and X-Men Origins: Magneto insure Fox will be milking that property for everything it’s possibly worth. Ultimately, any mutants like Bishop, Cable, Emma Frost, Juggernaut, Havoc, Psylocke, or Quicksilver would likely appear through a Fox-funded lens.

At one point, the character Deadpool, was at New Line Cinema (along with a story by Blade Trilogy screenwriter David Goyer). The trail for a “Merc with a Mouth” solo project went cold during production of Blade: Trinity. With the rights now at Fox, there may be new life or even a Cable/Deadpool project at some point. So it isn’t all bad news, that is of course unless you think Fox makes bad comic book movies. *hint hint, nudge nudge*

But that isn’t all – Fox’s studio also has dibs on anything Daredevil, Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer. [For the heavy comic book readers, that means a Civil War movie is likely out of the question. Probably any "Marvel Event" is out of the question.] It’s been some time, but the wounds haven’t healed from the public’s viewing of Daredevil and Elektra. A Daredevil reboot (with Jason Statham expressing interest in becoming “The Man Without Fear”) was in the pipeline some time ago but recently the project’s been quiet. Due to outdated contracts and loopholes, Marvel has their top tier characters at Columbia Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment, New Line Cinema and the aforementioned, Fox.

We’ve seen the flipping images of Marvel’s title sequence for a number of years now. Co-productions between the indie studio and majors began in 1998; now Blade, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Punisher and Spider-Man are subsequently licensed elsewhere. Thus, creative control is out of hands of its comic book roots.

The first character was Blade, at New Line Cinema. After three pictures and some legal troubles between Daywalker-actor Wesley Snipes and the studio, it looks like that film run is over. Whispers of Blade IV, or a spin-off involving the Nightstalkers, were circulating some months ago but nothing concrete has surfaced. The Spike TV series was canceled due to a number of unconfirmed reasons so the Blade property, at this point, is pretty dead – but that doesn’t really stop vampires.

As an interesting tidbit (which will be elaborated upon shortly) during an alternate ending of the first Blade, a shadowy figure on a distant rooftop wrapped in rags has said to be the Marvel’s resident vampire Morbius.

Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures) is in control of two properties, all things Spider-Man and Ghost Rider. Last appearances of both characters was in 2007, which can explain the seemingly random development updates for a Venom solo project, Spider-Man 4 and Ghost Rider 2. If Columbia has any interest, they can take Black Cat or Carnage and introduce them in the next film; the same applies to Blackheart, Abigor, Wallow and Gressil. As a general rule, any time a studio introduces a comic book character, they have the rights to produce a spin-off or include that character in a sequel of some fashion.

So Morbius, who Spider-Man director Sam Raimi has said to be interested in interpreting, may have some problems if the character isn’t cleared with New Line Cinema.

If Columbia Pictures wanted to be a little ballsy, they could go after the entire Blade package and shoot Midnight Sons–the fictional team of Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, Blade, Hannibal King, Morbius and Doctor Strange. Wait… then again, should another studio (that’s not Marvel) be in charge of a project like that? Never mind.

Marvel also has regained the rights to Luke Cage from Sony Pictures, so the possibility of a Heroes for Hire movie with him and Iron Fist is not out of the question. Universal has the rights to Namor, but they may be willing to let it revert back to Marvel in exchange for distribution rights.

And the final studio that’s exercised Marvel film property, responsible for 2005’s Man-Thing and last year’s Punisher: War Zone, is Lionsgate Entertainment. After a quiet release, there’s been little movement with nature’s monstrous creature. There are few characters independently introduced through the Man-Thing comics, so there isn’t much to do in terms of a spin-off. Elsewhere, Frank Castle may be up against Barracuda in a possible sequel but no official release has been issued by the imprint. The lackluster reception, being the lowest grossing film based on a Marvel Comic property will do that to ya, gives high hopes that the project will be moved elsewhere. Keep in mind the project was just last year, so if you had hopes of Wolverine and Punisher sorting out their differences on the big screen-like yours truly-it’ll be some time.

The initial financing deal, for Marvel Entertainment, Inc., consists of $525 million for the possible production of 10 films, based on its comic book properties, over the next seven years. The debt facility will fund initial development, including scripts for each production, and they maintain sole “green light” control. Understandably there are some restrictions to taking a loan, Marvel cannot withdraw profits until after the release of the third film and only if certain financial parameters are met. The original properties for those 10 films, announced in the press release, were Captain America, Nick Fury, The Avengers, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack and Shang-Chi. In the original press release, the budget’s ceiling is at $165 million and can have a “rating no more restrictive than PG-13.” The explanation of why Marvel had been doing everything on the cheap was apparent from its initial deal.

Looking forward, Marvel can regain their characters but it’ll be nothing short of jumping through a ring of fire. The studio can shell out truckloads of cash to buy them back or wait for box office numbers to be so bad the studio that owns them doesn’t have any interest in following them up, ie. Ang Lee’s Hulk (thanks, Universal!). Not meeting a deadline for filming the property is the easiest way – most of the contracts have a clause that allows the rights to revert back to Marvel if principle photography doesn’t begin by a certain date after the initial release or if they make an upfront payment as if they were going to start principal photography. This, in part, is the reason we see studios releasing films in rapid succession.

Here’s a breakdown of the whole thing in list form (any characters/franchises not listed are under the rights of Marvel Studios):

20th Century Fox

Daredevil: Daredevil/Matt Murdock, Elektra (Natchios), The Kingpin/Wilson Fisk, Bullseye, Jack Murdock, Karen Page, Ben Urich
Elektra: Christine Cord/Tatoo, Typhoid Mary/Marry Alice Walker, Kirigi, Stick, Stone
Fantastic Four: Doctor Doom/Victor von Doom, Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Susan Storm, Mr. Fantastic/Dr. Reed Richards, The Thing/Ben Grimm, Nova/Frankie Raye, Alicia Masters, Willie Lumpkin
X-Men Mutants: [Agent Zero/Maverick/David North], Angel/Warren Worthington III, Arclight/Phillippa Sontag, Beast/Dr. Henry Phillip “Hank” McCoy, [Blob/Frederick J. Dukes], [Bolt/Christopher Bradley], Callisto, Colossus/Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers, [Deadpool/Wade Wilson], Emma (Grace) Frost, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Juggernaut/Cain Marko, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Glob Herman/Herman Gardner, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Jubilee/Jubilation Lee, Katherine “Kitty” Anne Pryde, [Kestrel/John Wraith], Lady Deathstrike/Yuriko Oyama, Leech, Magneto/Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, Mastermind/Jason (Wyngarde), Multiple Man/James Arthur Madrox, Mystique/Raven Darkholme, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Phat/William Robert “Billy-Bob” Reilly, Professor Charles Xavier, Psylocke/Elizabeth “Betsy” Braddock, Pyro/St. John Allerdyce, Quill/Max Jordan, Rogue/(Anna) Marie, Sabretooth/Victor Creed, Sebastian Hiram Shaw, [Silver Fox], Siryn/Theresa Rourke Cassidy, (The) Spike, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Wolverine/Logan
X-Men Non-Mutants: Drake Family (Steven, Madeline, Ronny), Grey Family (Dr. John, Elaine), Henry Peter Gyrich, Robert Edward Kelly, Dr. Moira Kinross MacTaggert, Dr. Kavita Rao, William Stryker, Bolivar Trask, Warren Worthington II

New Line Cinema

Vampires: Blade, Deacon Frost, Dracula/Vlad Tepes
Non-Vampires: Hannibal King, Abraham Whistler

Sony Pictures

Ghost Rider: Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze, Blackheart/Legion, Phantom Rider/Carter Slade, Abigor, Gressil, Mephistopheles, Wallow, Barton Blaze, Roxanne Simpson
Spider-Man: Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Doctor Octopus/Otto Octavius, Green Goblin/Norman Osborn, (New) Green Goblin/Harry Osborn, [The Lizard]/Dr. Curt Connors, Sandman/Flint Marko, Venom/Eddie Brock Jr., Betty Brant, Dennis Carradine (Buglar), J. Jonah Jameson, Ben Parker, May Parker, John Jameson, Joseph “Robbie” Robertson, Gwen Stacy, Mendel Stromm, Flash Thompson

Lionsgate Entertainment

Punisher: The Punisher/Frank Castle, Jigsaw/Billy Russoti, Microchip/Linus Liberman, Joan the Mouse, Maginty, Mr. Bumpo, Spacker Dave, The Russian, Maria Elizabeth Castle, Detective Martin Soap,

The possibility of Marvel having complete control of their character properties, like its comic rival DC, is a matter of time.

Coming Soon: A look back at the history of Marvel Comics on both the big and small screen.

Source: Comic Book Resources, Marvel, IMDB, NY Times, Variety

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Channing Tatum Eyes Captain America

Ross Miller — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:59:26 +0000

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?

It was rumored a while ago (one which seems to rear it’s head almost like clockwork every so often) that Will Smith was going to play the Marvel hero, but that rumor has officially been debunked. Which is great news for Tatum, as Smith’s possible involvement seemed to be the only thing holding him back from pursuing the role:

“I would love to talk about it… When I’d heard that Will Smith was [interested], I’m just like, ‘God, yeah. That’s who should play it… It would be a different Captain America than we all know in the comic, but it’s perfect.”

MTV reminds us that Smith isn’t the only rumored actor to portray the Captain – Matthew “Dude!” McConaughey has been repeatedly brought up in fan message boards as a possible candidate, as well as wrestling star John Cena.

Of course this is just one actor displaying some wishful thinking publicly – even though he may very well be looked at by Marvel as a possibility at some point in the future, I just can’t see them going with him in the end. Looking at the pictures (one shown below) of Captain America, as well as taking into account the character’s attributes and essence, Tatum just doesn’t embody him.

It’ll be interesting to see if they go with a popular and famous actor like Will Smith or Brad Pitt (with the latter, I’m just throwing in a famous name – I actually think Pitt would be a great choice for the other yet-to-be-cast Avenger known as Thor), or with a no-name like they did with Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. If they did go down the latter route, it may benefit our being able to buy into the actor at hand as the Captain.

So who do you think should play Captain America? Do you think Tatum is a good choice, and will he even get a shot at the role?

The First Avenger: Captain America is out on July 22nd, 2011.

Source: MTV Splash Page

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Marvel Pushes Back Release Dates, Spider-Man 4 Date Announced

Rob Keyes — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:34:52 +0000

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.

Here are the key parts of the official announcement:

“Paving the way for the production and release of its multi-character superhero film, THE AVENGERS, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. , announced today an adjusted release pipeline for its self-produced feature film properties that reflects the first time individual Super Hero characters and story arcs will be inter-woven and culminate in a multi-character motion picture.”

“Separately, Marvel Studios confirmed today that Sony Pictures Entertainment will release SPIDER-MAN 4 on May 6, 2011. Additionally, Marvel Studios has revised the release dates for THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA as part of its release strategy for an uninterrupted road to THE AVENGERS, now debuting May 4, 2012.”

While it may sound like bad news that we’ll be waiting quite a bit longer for three of the four scheduled Marvel flicks, it’s actually a very good thing.

When Marvel over-excitedly put out the original release schedule last May on the heels of Iron Man’s box office success, they were clearly trying to rush these movies into production. And we all know that rush = bad.

Jon Favreau had commented on how he doesn’t know if they can do Iron Man 2 so quickly as he felt he’d need a full two years to make the sequel just as he did the first. At the same time, Thor hadn’t even begun pre-production and it was rumored they were still sorting through script drafts – It wasn’t until September that they had found a director in Kenneth Branagh.

While Iron Man is locking down its character actors, they still haven’t got a cast lined up for Thor. The best we have so far are the rumors of Alexander Skarsgård possibly playing Thor, and Josh Harnett playing his mischievous brother Loki.

So, with the new schedule, they have an extra year to make Thor and an extra year to make The Avengers after all the solo films are out. On top of that, Marvel will open the summer blockbuster season for each of the next three years with their title characters (including Sony’s Spider-Man 4)

The revised schedule is as follows:

Iron Man 2 – May 7, 2010 (remains the same)
Thor – June 17, 2011 (moved from July 16, 2010)
The First Avenger: Captain America – July 22, 2011 (moved from May 6, 2011)
The Avengers: May 4, 2012 (moved from July 15, 2011)
Spider-Man 4 – May 6, 2011

What do you think of this announcement?

Source: Marvel

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Sam Jackson To Return As Nick Fury – Over & Over Again

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:38:00 +0000

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.

Anyway, I guess that he and Marvel must have come to a very nice agreement indeed, because Sam Jackson has signed a NINE picture deal with Marvel Studios!

According to The Hollywood Reporter the films include Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and any sequels related to these films. There is also the possibility of a spin-off S.H.I.E.L.D. movie as well.

There’s no word on amount (not that it’s really any of our business) nor the exact movie titles, but nine movies indicates big plans by Marvel as far as both number of films and plans to run a common thread through all of them.

To me this is the first positive news about Iron Man 2 that I’ve heard in a while.

Source: THR

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