Anticipation for The Dark Knight Rises went into overdrive this past week with the build up to the release of the six-minute IMAX prologue and new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Batman swansong, both of which generated huge amounts of excitement off the back of poor quality bootlegs that were quick to spring up online (and even quicker to disappear, thanks to Warner Bros.’ legal team). As I’m sure you know, the prologue is being shown before select IMAX screenings of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, while the trailer accompanies Sherlock Holmes 2 (well, in North America, at least). We’ll refrain from going into too much detail here to avoid any spoilers for those who haven’t had the chance to catch them, save to say that the trailer features all of the main players including Batman (Christian Bale), Bane (Tom Hardy), Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), Alfred (Michael Caine) and John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and that both are absolutely awesome.As well as the release of the prologue and second trailer, Warner Bros. also embarked on the next step of the film’s viral marketing campaign by sending a ‘Fire Rises’ Bane T-shirt and an annotated map of Gotham City to a selection of websites, while IGN also managed to put a few questions to Christopher Nolan and his wife and producing partner Emma Thomas about Bane’s introduction, the casting of Tom Hardy, and the inclusion of Catwoman. Elsewhere, a completely unsubstantiated rumour also emerged stating that Man of Steel star Henry Cavill could make an appearance as Superman in the final minutes of the film, which became even more ludicrous when Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern was also mooted for a potential cameo. I’d put this one down to fanboy fantasies – I mean, if Superman is going to show up (and before his origin story in Man of Steel, no less), wouldn’t it be nice of him to do it a little earlier in the film, thereby saving Bruce Wayne and Gotham City from a world of pain..?
Moving on to another of 2012’s big superhero outings and Sony have launched the official website for their upcoming reboot The Amazing Spider-Man, which features a short synopsis, character descriptions for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) and Captain Stacy (Denis Leary) and some new promotional images. Director Mark Webb and the cast are currently busy with reshoots on the $220m-budgeted blockbuster (you can check out a video here that indicates they’re working on the Uncle Ben [Martin Sheen] death sequence that we caught a glimpse of via ‘spycam’ way back in May), but the filmmaker has also taken some time out to discuss the ‘remake’ with Empire, during which he explained the differences between his movie and Sam Raimi’s original. Meanwhile, shifting back to the ‘old series’ for a moment, VFX company ADI have released a video showing a make-up test of an early Green Goblin design for 2002’s Spider-Man – it’s a bit silly-looking, but I’d have to say it’s not half as bad as the plastic action figure design we ended up with.It’s been a bit quiet on The Avengers front this past week (the calm before the storm, perhaps?) but we did get to see some nice concept art, new promotional artwork and a couple of international banners featuring Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), the latter of whom suggested that he “felt like a token, a little pawn chess piece” during the production in an interview with News.com.au earlier in the week. Renner wasn’t the only cast member to discuss their Marvel counterparts, with Scarlett Johansson also talking to SuperHeroHype about a potential Black Widow solo movie, a Hawkeye team-up / S.H.I.E.L.D. feature, and the upcoming Iron Man 3, while it seems that Alan Taylor (Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire) has emerged as the front runner to take over from Patty Jenkins as director of Thor 2.
Wrapping up the best of the rest…
…After a pretty negative reaction towards Nicolas Cage’s second outing as Johnny Blaze from an early screening at ‘Butt-Numb-A-Thon’, the second trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was unleashed this past week ahead of the film’s release in just two months time. Expectations for this seem to be dropping by the week, but the new trailer isn’t too bad and perhaps the Neveldine and Taylor-directed sequel will surprise a few people when it hits cinemas in February. Then again…
…Warner Premiere has officially announced the release of Justice League: Doom, the latest entry in their DC Universe Animated Original movies line. Executive produced by Bruce Timm and directed by Lauren Montgomery (Batman: Year One), Justice League: Doom adapts the acclaimed JLA: Tower of Babel storyline and features a voice cast that includes notable DC animated alumni such as Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Michael Rosenbaum, Susan Eisenberg, Nathan Fillion and Carl Lumbly…
…During an interview with MTV News to promote the release of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, director Brad Bird discussed the possibility of a sequel to Pixar’s celebrated superhero offering, The Incredibles: "I haven’t gotten it all figured out yet. I have a lot of ideas I had originally intended to be in the first movie, but you have to start throwing things out of the balloon to get it up in the air… I love those characters, and if I could make one that was to Incredibles what the Toy Story sequels were to Toy Story, I’d do it…"
…A couple of new international posters have been released for Chronicle, the upcoming low-budget ‘found-footage’ drama from director Josh Trank that sees the lives of three high school friends spinning out of control after they gain superpowers (see them here and here). The film is set for release in North America on February 3rd, with a UK date yet to be announced…
…And finally, we end on another sad note this week with the news that the influential comic book writer and artist Joe Simon has passed away aged 98 after a brief illness. Best known as the co-creator of Captain America alongside long-time collaborator Jack Kirby, Simon also served the first editor of Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics, before going on to work in a range of genres within the comic book medium. Simon was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1999.
Gary Collinson
Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.
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