Our weekly round up of the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain Marvel, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman vs. Superman, Arrow, Beware the Batman, Teen Titans Go! and more...
![Thor: The Dark World poster]( "Thor: The Dark World poster")
Well, the summer is over, but there's still one more superhero movie on the horizon for this year as Marvel Studios and director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) take us back to Asgard for Thor: The Dark World, and this week has brought us a selection of new posters featuring Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) [see here], along with an alternative design for the latter featuring a London backdrop [see here], in addition to a batch of official character descriptions for all the main players including Thor, Jane Foster, Malekith, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), Heimdall (Idris Elba), Algrim / Kurse (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Zachary Levi), Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Frigga (Rene Russo) and Odin (Anthony Hopkins) [see here]. Thor: The Dark World is set to open here in the UK on October 30th ahead of a North American release on November 8th...
...Speaking with MTV, Tom Hiddleston spoke about the complicated relationship and fragile alliance between Loki and Thor in Thor: The Dark World, as well as touching upon the future of his fan favourite character, stating that "I do feel there's some unfinished business between Loki and the Hulk. I feel like he didn't get a fair fight." Hiddleston has already said that Loki will be absent from The Avengers: Age of Ultron, but with Thanos (who also has unfinished business with Loki) expected for The Avengers 3, perhaps he'll get the opportunity for round two against the Green Goliath when Earth's Mightiest Heroes assemble for a third time...
...A few other stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been talking about their respective Phase Two properties, with Natalie Portman speaking about punching Tom Hiddleston, working with Anthony Hopkins, Marvel's mix of action and humour, and whether she's likely to follow Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts by lining up alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes in an Avengers sequel [see here]; Captain America: The Winter Soldier co-director Joe Russo explained why Emily VanCamp (Revenge) was chosen to portray Agent 13, while Anthony Mackie discussed suiting up as Falcon and the possibility of him appearing in The Avengers: Age of Ultron [see here]; and Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) has offered a few words on his approach to Yondu in next year's Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as teasing the future of the cosmic superhero franchise [see here]...
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...During a promotional interview for the upcoming Marvel One-Shot Agent Carter, director and co-head of Marvel Studios Louis D'Esposito took a moment to discuss Joss Whedon's hotly-anticipated sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron with IGN - specifically the role of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark: "He's leading the team with Captain America [Chris Evans]. I don't know where he's at 100%; we're still developing the screenplay and Joss Whedon is writing furiously to get that finished. But obviously I've seen a couple of drafts [so] it's hard for me to say at this point what [Tony] is doing and what his emotional mindset is. You can see where it was where we left in Iron Man 3 - he's in love with Pepper, he's made a grand gesture to blow up the suits at that point. But at the end, he couldn't help himself and I think he will go back to tinkering; that's what he does..."
...D'Esposito has also spoken about the prospect of diversifying the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a female-led superhero movie: "There's obviously a drumbeat that is banging louder and louder that we want a female lead superhero. We have strong female characters in our films from Black Widow [Scarlett Johansson] to Pepper Potts [Gwyneth Paltrow] to Peggy Carter [Hayley Atwell] and you never know. Maybe there's an offshoot film with one of them. Or Captain Marvel, you know? It's hard because we have a small group at Marvel. We do two films a year. To get those two films done and to do them right takes a lot of work and manpower. And female-power, obviously. To add a third film and to just put it in the slate right now is difficult. We have these next three, four, five films coming out and that's what we're really concentrating on." Meanwhile, Battlestar Galactica and Riddick star Katee Sackhoff has hinted at a prospect of her appearing in a Marvel movie, stating that "there's been some stuff going on" between her and Marvel Studios, along with "a lot of checking of availability for the first quarter of next year." Does that mean we can expect another addition to the roster of Earth's Mightiest Heroes of Age of Ultron..?
![Agent Coulson in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]( "Agent Coulson in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.")
...With less than three weeks to go before the premiere of Marvel Studios' first live-action television offering, ABC's marketing department has been working overtime with the promotional material for Joss Whedon's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., releasing a six-minute preview featurette [see here], two new images of Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson [see here], a new one-minute trailer [see here] and the following plot synopsis for the pilot episode: "These agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have a mission: To investigate the new, the strange and the unknown around the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary. In the premiere episode, 'Pilot,' it’s just after the battle of New York, and now that the existence of super heroes and aliens has become public knowledge, the world is trying to come to grips with this new reality. Agent Phil Coulson is back in action and has his eye on a mysterious group called the Rising Tide. In order to track this unseen, unknown enemy, he has assembled a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division). The group’s first assignment together as a team finds them trying to track down an ordinary man who has gained extraordinary powers. Powers that could have devastating consequences." Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres in the States on Tuesday September 24th, while it's also been confirmed that E4 will begin airing the show here in the UK from Friday September 27th...
...In an interview with Hero Complex, actor and former bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno has reminisced about his time as The Incredible Hulk in the classic CBS TV series, stating that he believes the combination of his Mr. Universe physique and a splash of green paint delivered the definitive version of the character and one that can't be replicated with computer-generated imagery: "I was the first to bring superhero muscles to the screen and to make it more believable. There’s still people who prefer to watch the old show over the newer things because it’s real, not CGI. The Hulk was the beginning of me, a platform as an actor to grow. I don’t think anybody else can play the Hulk like I could. I was able to show emotions even with all of the makeup. I don’t think it can be duplicated..."
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...Ferrigno wasn't the only former Marvel star to give themselves a big pat on the back this week, with David Hasselhoff taking a moment to reflect on the 1998 made for TV movie Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (which just so happened to have been scripted by one David S. Goyer), as well as 'critiquing' Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal in The Avengers: "I was the first Nick Fury. Stan Lee put me in that. He gave me the best line ever: 'Guys like you tend to cling to the bowl no matter how many times you flush'. Stan Lee came on the set and told me all about Nick. He said 'You're the ultimate Nick Fury'. He gave me the greatest compliment ever. You know, [Samuel L. Jackson's character in The Avengers] wasn't Nick Fury. They take these shows and they make it the way they want to make it and unfortunately, they should have had Stan Lee on the set and let him kick him into gear - whoever directed [The Avengers] decided they wanted to go that way. But it's their prerogative. He's still a great actor. I was hoping to have played [Nick Fury] in the movie. And then Samuel L. Jackson came in and he was a great Nick Fury but he wasn't really the consummate Nick Fury, the way he was written. And I think that's a shame because he's a great character and a funny character… I'm hoping to do it again sometime..."
...Moving on to Fox's Marvel Universe and Hugh Jackman's second solo X-Men offering The Wolverine has edged towards the $360 million mark at the global box office, although it looks likely that the Japan-set sequel will fall short of the $373.1 million haul of its predecessor X-Men Origins: Wolverine, leaving it in fourth place in the list of the franchise's highest-earners. Meanwhile, with Bryan Singer now in post-production on next year's X-Men: Days of Future Past, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence has spoken about reprising the role of Mystique during a chat with SciFi Now: "I’m naked. But when I do get to wear clothes, I love the ’70s outfits. Some of the Mystique look is a little different, but we’re still using the same paint. But she’s different in this film too. She was struggling – like a lot of normal humans – with the way she looked, and she was covered up a lot in the first movie, but this time she is Mutant and proud..."
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...Things have fallen pretty quiet on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 front as of late, but this week saw Paul Giamatti sharing a few thoughts on his "hammy" role as Aleksei Sytsevich - a.k.a. The Rhino - during a chat with the Toronto Sun: "In the comic books of old, he had this suit on that made him look like a rhinoceros, and it made him super strong. If there was a bank vault he would just run right through it. Butt through it with his head. And he was not very smart. I have a particular kind of suit, but I don't think I'm supposed to talk about it. He's a Russian mobster. Russians are always good villains. I have an ability to just destroy things. My accent is pretty hammy. I loved doing it. it seemed to me like an opportunity to be as over-the-top hammy as possible. It was really fun." Meanwhile, according to music producer Brainz on Twitter, we'll get to see the first trailer for Andrew Garfield's second Spidey outing this November, where it will run alongside Thor: The Dark World and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire...
...Moving on to Warner Bros.' hotly-anticipated Man of Steel sequel Batman vs. Superman, and Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston has laughed off the ridiculous report that he's signed a six-film deal to appear as Lex Luthor alongside Henry Cavill's Superman and Ben Affleck's Batman, stating that: "I’ve heard that [report] too. Six? This is all news to me. I think that maybe my name is bandied about because I’m known to be bald. ‘What bald guy can we get?’ The reality is they can take any actor and shave his head or put a bald cap on him." Meanwhile, The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel composer Hans Zimmer has teased a possible Batman reunion on the 2015 sequel, although he confirmed that as yet nothing is set in stone: "We all went, 'Okay, we're done with Batman' and now it's sort of getting smuggled back in. I have to have a think about that one. I might give you a new Batman if I do it." Zimmer then went on to give his thoughts on the casting of Batfleck: "I actually think it's a really good choice because he's a great filmmaker, he's smart - he wouldn't have taken it if he [was] setting himself up for a fall. He's a bit older these days and that's what we need. And he's got a good chin..."
...Ahead of its return next month, The CW's hit superhero series Arrow has received a new promo which you can check out here, while it's been revealed that Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Spartacus) has joined the cast as Amanda Waller, a role previously portrayed by Pam Grier (Smallville) and Angela Bassett (Green Lantern). Waller is just one of several DC characters set to debut in the second season, with The League of Assassins also appearing alongside Black Canary (Caity Lotz), Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White), Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro), Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus) and of course The Flash, and speaking of the Scarlet Speedster, Arrow executive producer has told us to expect a casting announcement soon, with cameras set to roll on Barry Allen's first appearance from September 30th...
...And finally, we'll wrap things up this week with a selection of preview clips and images from this weekend's DC Nation offerings Beware the Batman, Teen Titans Go! and the latest DC Nation Short Plastic Man, which you can check out here.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen - Available now via Amazon.co.uk![]()
and Amazon.com![]()
.
Gary Collinson
Well, the summer is over, but there's still one more superhero movie on the horizon for this year as Marvel Studios and director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) take us back to Asgard for Thor: The Dark World, and this week has brought us a selection of new posters featuring Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) [see here], along with an alternative design for the latter featuring a London backdrop [see here], in addition to a batch of official character descriptions for all the main players including Thor, Jane Foster, Malekith, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), Heimdall (Idris Elba), Algrim / Kurse (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Zachary Levi), Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Frigga (Rene Russo) and Odin (Anthony Hopkins) [see here]. Thor: The Dark World is set to open here in the UK on October 30th ahead of a North American release on November 8th......Speaking with MTV, Tom Hiddleston spoke about the complicated relationship and fragile alliance between Loki and Thor in Thor: The Dark World, as well as touching upon the future of his fan favourite character, stating that "I do feel there's some unfinished business between Loki and the Hulk. I feel like he didn't get a fair fight." Hiddleston has already said that Loki will be absent from The Avengers: Age of Ultron, but with Thanos (who also has unfinished business with Loki) expected for The Avengers 3, perhaps he'll get the opportunity for round two against the Green Goliath when Earth's Mightiest Heroes assemble for a third time...
...A few other stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been talking about their respective Phase Two properties, with Natalie Portman speaking about punching Tom Hiddleston, working with Anthony Hopkins, Marvel's mix of action and humour, and whether she's likely to follow Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts by lining up alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes in an Avengers sequel [see here]; Captain America: The Winter Soldier co-director Joe Russo explained why Emily VanCamp (Revenge) was chosen to portray Agent 13, while Anthony Mackie discussed suiting up as Falcon and the possibility of him appearing in The Avengers: Age of Ultron [see here]; and Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) has offered a few words on his approach to Yondu in next year's Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as teasing the future of the cosmic superhero franchise [see here]...
...D'Esposito has also spoken about the prospect of diversifying the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a female-led superhero movie: "There's obviously a drumbeat that is banging louder and louder that we want a female lead superhero. We have strong female characters in our films from Black Widow [Scarlett Johansson] to Pepper Potts [Gwyneth Paltrow] to Peggy Carter [Hayley Atwell] and you never know. Maybe there's an offshoot film with one of them. Or Captain Marvel, you know? It's hard because we have a small group at Marvel. We do two films a year. To get those two films done and to do them right takes a lot of work and manpower. And female-power, obviously. To add a third film and to just put it in the slate right now is difficult. We have these next three, four, five films coming out and that's what we're really concentrating on." Meanwhile, Battlestar Galactica and Riddick star Katee Sackhoff has hinted at a prospect of her appearing in a Marvel movie, stating that "there's been some stuff going on" between her and Marvel Studios, along with "a lot of checking of availability for the first quarter of next year." Does that mean we can expect another addition to the roster of Earth's Mightiest Heroes of Age of Ultron..?
...With less than three weeks to go before the premiere of Marvel Studios' first live-action television offering, ABC's marketing department has been working overtime with the promotional material for Joss Whedon's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., releasing a six-minute preview featurette [see here], two new images of Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson [see here], a new one-minute trailer [see here] and the following plot synopsis for the pilot episode: "These agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have a mission: To investigate the new, the strange and the unknown around the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary. In the premiere episode, 'Pilot,' it’s just after the battle of New York, and now that the existence of super heroes and aliens has become public knowledge, the world is trying to come to grips with this new reality. Agent Phil Coulson is back in action and has his eye on a mysterious group called the Rising Tide. In order to track this unseen, unknown enemy, he has assembled a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division). The group’s first assignment together as a team finds them trying to track down an ordinary man who has gained extraordinary powers. Powers that could have devastating consequences." Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres in the States on Tuesday September 24th, while it's also been confirmed that E4 will begin airing the show here in the UK from Friday September 27th......In an interview with Hero Complex, actor and former bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno has reminisced about his time as The Incredible Hulk in the classic CBS TV series, stating that he believes the combination of his Mr. Universe physique and a splash of green paint delivered the definitive version of the character and one that can't be replicated with computer-generated imagery: "I was the first to bring superhero muscles to the screen and to make it more believable. There’s still people who prefer to watch the old show over the newer things because it’s real, not CGI. The Hulk was the beginning of me, a platform as an actor to grow. I don’t think anybody else can play the Hulk like I could. I was able to show emotions even with all of the makeup. I don’t think it can be duplicated..."
...Moving on to Fox's Marvel Universe and Hugh Jackman's second solo X-Men offering The Wolverine has edged towards the $360 million mark at the global box office, although it looks likely that the Japan-set sequel will fall short of the $373.1 million haul of its predecessor X-Men Origins: Wolverine, leaving it in fourth place in the list of the franchise's highest-earners. Meanwhile, with Bryan Singer now in post-production on next year's X-Men: Days of Future Past, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence has spoken about reprising the role of Mystique during a chat with SciFi Now: "I’m naked. But when I do get to wear clothes, I love the ’70s outfits. Some of the Mystique look is a little different, but we’re still using the same paint. But she’s different in this film too. She was struggling – like a lot of normal humans – with the way she looked, and she was covered up a lot in the first movie, but this time she is Mutant and proud..."
...Moving on to Warner Bros.' hotly-anticipated Man of Steel sequel Batman vs. Superman, and Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston has laughed off the ridiculous report that he's signed a six-film deal to appear as Lex Luthor alongside Henry Cavill's Superman and Ben Affleck's Batman, stating that: "I’ve heard that [report] too. Six? This is all news to me. I think that maybe my name is bandied about because I’m known to be bald. ‘What bald guy can we get?’ The reality is they can take any actor and shave his head or put a bald cap on him." Meanwhile, The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel composer Hans Zimmer has teased a possible Batman reunion on the 2015 sequel, although he confirmed that as yet nothing is set in stone: "We all went, 'Okay, we're done with Batman' and now it's sort of getting smuggled back in. I have to have a think about that one. I might give you a new Batman if I do it." Zimmer then went on to give his thoughts on the casting of Batfleck: "I actually think it's a really good choice because he's a great filmmaker, he's smart - he wouldn't have taken it if he [was] setting himself up for a fall. He's a bit older these days and that's what we need. And he's got a good chin..."
...Ahead of its return next month, The CW's hit superhero series Arrow has received a new promo which you can check out here, while it's been revealed that Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Spartacus) has joined the cast as Amanda Waller, a role previously portrayed by Pam Grier (Smallville) and Angela Bassett (Green Lantern). Waller is just one of several DC characters set to debut in the second season, with The League of Assassins also appearing alongside Black Canary (Caity Lotz), Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White), Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro), Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus) and of course The Flash, and speaking of the Scarlet Speedster, Arrow executive producer has told us to expect a casting announcement soon, with cameras set to roll on Barry Allen's first appearance from September 30th...
...And finally, we'll wrap things up this week with a selection of preview clips and images from this weekend's DC Nation offerings Beware the Batman, Teen Titans Go! and the latest DC Nation Short Plastic Man, which you can check out here.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen - Available now via Amazon.co.uk
and Amazon.com
.Gary Collinson