the avengers-related stories
Zak Penn Talks 'The Avengers' and Fox's Failure to Crossover
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Scripts », 20th Century Fox », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
The Avengers' mighty writer Zak Penn gave a nifty little update on all things Marvel yesterday, and it completely slipped past my radar. Better late than never though, right?SciFi Wire caught up with Penn right as he was on the verge of another Marvel meeting. With Iron Man 2 well underway, they're beginning to knit together the continuity and overlap the plotlines: "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." (Low wages or not, wouldn't you just love to work for Marvel?)
Every compliment Penn has for Marvel is a backhanded slap to his old parent studio, Fox. He revealed that he was frustrated while writing X-Men and X2 because he was dying to do a crossover, and bring in the Fantastic Four.
"They're doing Captain American and Thor first, and then Avengers is coming out," Penn said. "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 ... It is a world of difference [at Marvel]; it is a lot easier to do things like that, and they encourage it." Here I'll leave off so you can weep at the missed opportunities, and wish we lived in an Ultimate Universe where Marvel still owned their entire stable of heroes.
Monday Night Poll: Your Most Anticipated Marvel Movie?
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Paramount », Fandom », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Polls »
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Movies based on characters from comics published by DC and Marvel took a summer sabbatical this year -- I'm trying really hard to pretend X-Men Origins: Wolverine was only a bad dream -- but the next couple of summers promise a healthy dash of costumed superheroes to liven up movie theaters. As noted in a post earlier today, next summer will see the return of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2. Two summers hence will feature the big-screen debut of Kenneth Branagh's vision of Thor, with Chris Hemsworth playing the hammer-wielding Norse god and Tom Hiddleston as his adopted brother / arch-nemesis Loki, followed by Joe Johnston's adventure The First Avenger: Captain America, set primarily during World War II. And 2012 will finally bring superhero team-up The Avengers, plus another unspecified movie. Could it be Edgar Wright's Ant-Man? Or something else?
Without being an expert on any of these characters -- for that I bow gratefully to our own Elisabeth Rappe -- from strictly a movie fan's perspective, I'm most anticipating The First Avenger: Captain America. That's because director Joe Johnston hasn't let me down yet, and the film's World War II setting and sense of wholesome, patriotic adventure play to his strengths. But the more I think about these projects, the more I like the variety of settings and styles. Sure, they're all superheroes, but there's plenty of room for the films to establish their own identities.
What do you think? What's your most anticipated Marvel movie? Feel free to suggest other characters that should have their own movie in the comments.
Marvel Updates 'Iron Man 2,' 'Thor,' 'Captain America'
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Paramount », Fandom », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Above: Check out new logos for the upcoming Marvel films from E3, via AICN
The Marvel movie slate for the next couple of years has been firmly established: Iron Man 2 in May 2010, Thor in May 2011, and The First Avenger: Captain America in July 2011, with The Avengers to follow in Summer 2012. Kevin Feige, the company's president of production, revealed at an industry conference this weekend that another new Marvel movie will be released in 2012, according to First Showing, and also provided tidbits of information about their other projects.
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Iron Man 2: The goal is to carry over the humor and tone of the first film, while adding more characters and upping the action. Scarlett Johannson's character has "two sides," and the actress is signed for multiple movies.
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Thor: No Shakespearean dialogue (per Kenneth Branagh's wishes)! No Don Blake! Primarily set on Earth (though also on Asgard and "other worlds")! How exactly is that going to work? No idea!
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The First Avenger: Captain America: Will be "primarily" set during World War II. With Joe Johnston at the helm, Feige described the picture in terms of the director / visual effects designer's past work (The Rocketeer, October Sky, Star Wars). Sidekick Bucky will appear "in some capacity."
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The Avengers: Captain America will be involved in the plot "from the get go."
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Ant-Man: Edgar Wright will be submitting another draft after he completes Scott Pilgrim.
Feige "Feige kept saying often that he'd love for audiences to have the same experience that comic book readers have - where characters make surprise appearances almost out of nowhere in issues they pick up." To be continued...
Our Favorite Summers: 1998
Filed under: Fandom », Summer Movies »
Believe it or not, I wasn't yet a full-blown movie geek in 1998. I didn't even start saving my ticket stubs until the summer of '99. In all fairness, I hadn't been quite old enough to go to the movies by myself yet -- not much younger than any of my colleagues in the summers they covered, but young enough to spare you the math.
Every third weekend, my younger brother and I spent with our father, and a reliable way to spend time together was often to go to the movies or rent something and stay home. So by only (probably) going to the movies every third weekend, I only saw maybe six movies theatrically over the course of those eighteen weeks. I'll bold those that I remember going to see as I go along, and then touch upon the rest of the releases in between.
(By the way: the weekends in the summer of 1998 happen to line up with those of this summer. Let's see just how far we've come...)
Jon Favreau Closer to Directing 'The Avengers'?
Filed under: Action », RumorMonger », Fandom », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
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Yesterday it was announced that Marvel was changing the release dates for a few of its upcoming heavy hitters, including Thor (pushed to June 17, 2011), Captain America (July 22, 2011) and The Avengers (May 4, 2012). Additionally, we were told that Spider-Man 4 would hit theaters on May 6, 2011 -- allowing the summer of 2011 to become a make or break time for the future of several Marvel properties. But what was the thought behind making these release date adjustments? Is it simply to give folks a little more time to get the films right, or did part of it have to do with freeing up the schedule of one Jon Favreau?
According to a Marvel spy who wrote into AICN, that's exactly what's happening. Says the spy: "Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so hes not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point."
What do you think? Is Favreau the man to direct The Avengers, or would you rather some fresh eyes at the helm?
New Dates for Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers
Filed under: Action », New Releases », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
It has been a busy couple of weeks for Marvel. After signing Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury for the rest of the man's natural born life and stalling on Iron Man casting (although that all worked out in the end), their behavior might have looked a little crazy -- but, it appears it was all a part of the plan. Deadline Hollywood Daily has posted a press release from Marvel today announcing "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."So what exactly do they mean by adjusted? According to the new schedule, Thor will now be released June 17, 2011 (previously the big guy was slated for July 2010), The First Avenger: Captain America will now hit July 22, 2011 (one year later than expected), and the big bad daddy of them all, The Avengers has been moved to May 4th, 2012. Marvel even got a little feisty and stole some of Sony's thunder by announcing Spider Man 4's release date of May 6th, 2011. The good news for Marvel is this new schedule means that they will have a summer blockbuster entry every year between 2010-2012.
'Green Lantern', 'Sherlock', 'Potter Finale' Nab Release Dates
Filed under: Action », Fandom », Distribution », Exhibition », DIY/Filmmaking », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
Warner Brothers has made an interesting move with regards to The Green Lantern (which Casino Royale's Martin Campbell is rumored to be directing) as they've announced a December 17, 2010 release date for the superhero flick. No, this isn't the Green Hornet (which we wrote about earlier telling you of Michel Gondry's involvement) -- this is the other green hero, Green Lantern. It'll be interesting to see how well a superhero movie does during the winter months [cough] Spirit [cough], and while this one is kinda flying under the radar, I'm a fan of Green Lantern and I'm real curious to see what they do with it.In other Warner Bros. release date news, they seem to have pushed Sherlock Holmes (starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) to a December 25, 2009 release -- making this the studio's big Christmas Day movie. The film was previously supposed to open on November 13. Additionally, the final Harry Potter film (part 2 of the Deathly Hallows)has scheduled a release date of July 15, 2011. And guess what else is opening that weekend -- um, just a little flick called The Avengers. Could you imagine Potter squaring off against Marvel's Avengers? How cool would that box office battle be?
Other release dates announced by Warners:
Jonah Hex - August 6, 2010
Christopher Nolan's Inception - July 16, 2010
Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch- October 8, 2010
Clash of the Titans - March 26th, 2010
Which of these projects brings you the most excitement?
[via ERC]
Eva Longoria Denies 'Avengers' Casting
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », RumorMonger », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
Back in September, the oddest paparazzi picture ever taken of Eva Longoria-Parker surfaced. She was snapped leaving Marvel Studios (arguably the heart of geekdom on Earth) with a nice stack of The Avengers. The natural assumption was naturally that she might be up for a part in the future Avengers movie, with the most popular guess being Wasp. No one has managed to ask her until Ryan Seacrest trapped her on the Golden Globes' red carpet. If there was something more surprising than seeing Longoria with a stack of Avengers comics, it might have been that Seacrest had done his research, and knew his Wasp from his Wonder Woman.
According to MTV, Longoria said the rumors weren't true, but that she'd love to take be an Avenger if the oppertunity presented itself. So, to those who didn't want to see a Desperate Housewife battling the villains of the Marvel Universe, you can breathe a sigh of relief. For now, anyway. Remember, no one but Robert Downey Jr. is set to be an Avenger right now, so all bets could be off by next year.
But you do have to wonder ...what was she doing with that stack of comics? I will happily believe she might be the comic reading type, but traveling all the way to Marvel Studios for some new issues seems a little extreme. But hey, maybe that's where Hollywood fans have their hold slot -- although I can't believe Marvel HQ wouldn't bag and board for such clients.
Discuss: Should They Make an 'Incredible Hulk' Sequel?
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
Meanwhile, over in Avengers land, Robert Downey Jr. mentioned again that Hulk is going to show up in that crown jewel of superhero flicks. It's a strange place for the green giant to be in, because he's going forward, yet lost in a land of sequel rumor and leading man drama.
It's a question we've thrown out to Cinematical readers before, but with all this additional info, where do you want Hulk to go from here? Do you think that he should get his planned trilogy, then land with a thunderclap in The Avengers? Should they just leave well enough alone with The Incredible Hulk? And how do you feel about yet another Hulk recast?
My personal take is that if Marvel can't make up with Norton, they should just give up franchising Hulk, and just leave him off the big screen until The Avengers. Theoretically, you could have an all-CGI Hulk in that, thereby sidestepping the need to replace Norton. It would be clunky, though, and might "really really suck." Sigh. Why does there have to be so much drama in the world of Marvel? Earth's mightiest heroes should have a much easier time uniting than this.
Robert Downey Jr. Warns 'The Avengers', Talks 'Iron Man 2'
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », RumorMonger », Fandom », Scripts », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
Robert Downey Jr. is, quite simply, a god of geekdom. If there's a holy trinity, he shares it only with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman because it is so rare that actors just get it, and even rarer that they'll say it. Witness Downey's thoughts on The Avengers to MTV: "If we don't get it right it's really, really going to suck. It has to be the crowning blow of Marvel's best and brightest because it's the hardest thing to get right. It's tough to spin all the plates for one of these characters." He also may have let slip who The Avengers might be battling in his concerns that Iron Man remain in a real-world setting: "The danger you run with colliding all these worlds is that Jon was very certain that Iron Man should be set in a very realistic way. Nothing that happened in Iron Man is really outside the realm of possibility. Once you start talking about Valhalla and supersized super soldiers and jolly green giants, it warrants much further discussion." This could mean Giant Man, or Captain America could be looming big in Downey's thoughts.
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