Way back in January, singer/actor Tyrese Gibson claimed he had landed the title role in Marvel's upcoming Luke Cage flick. His story now is slightly modified; he is now only "extremely interested" and has yet to officially commit to the film. Gibson recently said the script has gone back for another re-write, and although director John Singleton has Gibson at "the top of his list" and Gibson has met with Marvel bigwigs Moritz and Arad, there is nothing promised yet. "It is not my movie, for the record," according to Gibson himself.

I continue to be thrilled with the concept of a Luke Cage movie. I'd especially love to see a Power Man and Iron Fist film. Heroes for Hire was a great book,* and I personally think it'd transition well to the silver screen, but I have a feeling that isn't the direction Marvel hopes to take with a Cage film. And as far as I'm concerned, any Luke Cage movie has great promise.

*And it has a weird reincarnation for a short Civil War run.

Perhaps the most popular way to advertise on the internet is the infamous "banner ad." You see them at nearly every site you visit (Cinematical inclusive); they are generally less intrusive and irritating than pop-ups and the like and this makes them far more palatable by consumers such as you and I. However, as with any form of advertisement, you've got to catch the eye if you plan to succeed. It's a delicate balancing act -- too bland and you get looked over, too flashy and you ruin it by irritating viewers. Clever is often the name of the game. Come up with something that amuses, entertains or otherwise grabs interest.

If you've got a blog, a MySpace, or some other personal form of webpage (and who doesn't these days?) and you are looking to decorate it with some Spider-Man 3 paraphernalia, they've cooked up a little device that'll both amuse you and act as advertising for them. You've seen them off and on before; it's a countdown clock. Days, hours, minutes, and even seconds are timed and constantly ticking downward toward the anticipated release of Spider-Man 3. Grab it from the official website, if you are interested. Personally, I think I'll wait until it's a bit closer before I start counting the seconds.

I think little behind the scenes/human interest stories are fascinating, and in that spirit I share the following story with you, the reader. There's a 64-year-old woman who lives in Cleveland, Ohio named Denise Buckley. Denise is an art teacher at a place called Hawken School; and aside from the always cool occupation of teaching sculpting Denise has another great way of impressing people at cocktail parties -- her artwork has been featured in both of the previous Spider-Man flicks. And she's not done yet; her work has been commissioned for the third film as well. In fact, five copies of four different sculptures created by Ms. Buckley have been requested (made from clay and painted to look bronze), because they're going to get very destroyed by major fight scenes. This will mark the first time her work has been destroyed by a super-hero -- it's only ever been on display in the background of the Osborn residence previously.

If I were good enough to sculpt anything, you can bet I'd consider getting my artwork destroyed by Spider-Man reaching the height of my craft. Ms. Buckley is pretty pleased with it, as well. She says her students are always impressed that her artwork appears in cool movies.

I've been so up in arms over the whole Gwen Stacy deal when it comes to Spider-Man 3 I nearly missed another fantastic little Peter Parker side story. As we all know, the character of Betty Brant* exists in the Spider-Man film world. Betty Brant is J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, and ANOTHER one-time romantic involvement of our man Pete. However, good Mr. Raimi has mercifully seen fit to leave that out of the story thus far, since he instead chose to jump right to the MJ relationship. I say "thus far" because apparently that may change, and another love interest of the pre-MJ relationship days could be thrust into an increasingly crowded love triangle (quadrangle?).

According to Elizabeth Banks, who portrays Betty in the film, her character will be "exploring a little more of my relationship with Peter Parker." Banks goes on to indicate that the office relationship between Peter and Betty is being made to resemble that of Silver Age comics, calling the Parker character "Hugh Hefner." Now all we need is for those crazy Shadowcat rumors turn out to be true, and this movie can be a full-fledged daytime soap.

*By "all" of course, I mean all geeks.

Those of you longing for some serious news on the Fantastic Four sequel can get ready - the wait is almost over. Well, for news, anyway. The movie is still awhile in coming. It's been widely known that the FF team is gearing up for a sequel, and actor Michael Chiklis, The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing, recently stated (during an appearance on Regis and Kelly) that filming would begin early this summer; fitting into the expected time frame for a July 4, 2007 release. Chiklis also confirmed that the primary filming will occur in Vancouver, Canada. You can, of course, rest assured that your faithful geek film blogger will be diligent in bringing you all the breaking news as filming gets underway - and if you hear anything that you don't see on Cinematical, make sure to get it to me - I love reader help.

I'm really hoping that the second Fantastic Four flick will give me a better finished product than the last one did. Regular readers will of course know that I enjoyed the last one for what it was, but wanted it to be infinitely better. Maybe now that origins are out of the way, we can get down to some serious action. With all the Silver Surfer/Puppet Master/Galactus rumors that are floating around, there's certainly plenty to hope for (or fear, depending).

We recently told you that action on a Captain America movie was finally starting to look like a reality, on the back of some encouraging comments made by Marvel point man Avi Arad. At that time, Avi indicated that he had both a scriptwriter and a leading man in mind for the film, but declined to comment as to the specific identity of either. The folks over at IGN are claiming an exclusive on the name of the screenwriter, thanks to a tip from " a reliable source." According to IGN, Marvel will continue in their tradition of using familiar and tested faces for their scripts, as the duties for bringing Captain America from comic book to screenplay will proportedly fall on the shoulders of David Self. Self has worked on two other Marvel projects- the Sub Mariner (which Arad has apparently raved about in the past), and the upcoming Deathlok film. He was also the man responsible for bringing the graphic novel Road to Perdition to the silver screen. Representatives for Mr. Self declined to comment, and since the film isn't likely to hit theaters until 2009, it may be a while before we recieve official confimation. Stay tuned to Cinematical for further reports as they develop.

[via IGN]

Continuing in his trend of appearing in modern Marvel films, Stan Lee has acknowledged that he will be seen in a brief cameo role in the upcoming installment of the Spider-Man film franchise. Lee, of course, is one of the main men behind the creation of Marvel comics - of course, if you don't know that, then I'm not even sure why you are reading this article. Stan is quite the busy man these days, what with his upcoming Who Wants to be a Superhero project, but True Believers can rest assured in knowing that his persona will grace both of the major Marvel sequels currently in production.

I think it is fun that Stan continues to pop up in these movies. Regardless of the man's relationship with Marvel these days (and I'm not sure anyone really knows exactly where that stands), Stan Lee is a living legend in the industry; and without him we would not have many of the most beloved super heroes of the past several decades.

In another small Spider-side note, you can dig the filming locations of the new film here, if you are interested in that sort of thing.