The big story this week is of course the release of the first trailer from Marvel Studio’s epic superhero ensemble, The Avengers, which arrived online this past Tuesday and seemed to go down a storm with the majority of fans and critics. Running at just over two minutes, the trailer gave us our first official look at Joss Whedon’s versions of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Hawkeye (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in action, along with Mark Ruffalo’s take on Bruce Banner and a brief appearance from his green CGI counterpart, The Incredible Hulk. What it didn’t give us was official confirmation of the villains, although by the looks of things, it’s pretty clear that they’re going to be extraterrestrial in origin. Personally, I’m not too sure about the new costumes for Cap and Thor but apart from the truly horrendous soundtrack, I thought it was an excellent trailer and I’m now fully convinced that The Avengers is going to deliver big time next May. We’ve had our first look at all four of 2012’s superhero efforts now, and while it’s probably not fair to compare this to The Dark Knight Rises teaser, I’d say The Avengers takes round one in the trailer showdown. Based on what we’ve seen so far, I’m certainly more excited for Marvel’s team-up than I am for The Amazing Spider-Man (or Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), and I’m now looking forward to seeing what Warner Bros. will fire back with when we get the next trailer for The Dark Knight Rises.
In other news from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, director Patty Jenkins was finally unveiled as Kenneth Branagh’s replacement for Thor 2, with Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston were also confirmed as returning. The official announcement came just hours after it was revealed that Disney have rescheduled the sequel, pushing its release date back to November 15th, 2013 and avoiding competition from the likes of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse.Moving on and while it's been a bit quiet on The Dark Knight Rises front this past week, a few interesting spy videos have made their way online. Along with a better view of Christian Bale filming the scene of a cane-assisted Bruce Wayne, a rather fine fan-edit emerged that captures all of the action from the filming in downtown Los Angeles, including the chase between the Gotham Police and the Batpod and some impressive Batwing action. Could this be part of the film's opening scenes? It would seem to follow on well from the conclusion of The Dark Knight... Meanwhile, Variety announced that Rob Brown (Coach Carter, Finding Forrester) has joined the cast in an unspecified role, which must surely be minor, given the stage of the production. And - in a completely tenuous (and NSFW) link to The Dark Knight Rises - Marion Cotillard was spotted parading her 'talents' on the set of Rust and Bone - judging by these recent animated images, Cotillard looks to be a better fit for Catwoman than Anne Hathaway.
Sticking with the Dark Knight for a moment, Warner Bros.' animated adaptation of Batman: Year One is released in North America on Tuesday and the voice cast have been pretty active on the interview front, with Ben McKenzie (Batman), Bryan Cranston (Gordon), Alex Rocco (Carmine Falcone) and Eliza Dushku (Catwoman) all sharing their thoughts. Meanwhile Joel Schumacher spoke to IFC about his tenure on the franchise, putting aside the on-set difficulties between the director and his Batman Forever leading man to name Val Kilmer as “the best Batman”. Has all the drug-taking excesses of the 1970s finally caught up with Schumacher, or is he right? After some deliberation, I’d probably have to go with Christian Bale, but Adam West, Michael Keaton, Kilmer – and hell, even George Clooney – all brought something to the role. Still, outside of Kevin Conroy’s animated version, I think we’re yet to see the definitive portrayal of the Caped Crusader.Wrapping up the best of the rest...
…A few spy photos have made their way online from Man of Steel this past week, including a beefed-up Henry Cavill as a 300-esque Clark Kent and assorted shots of Cavill, Amy Adams and director Zack Snyder hanging around the Vancouver set…
...IGN got their hands on the first trailer from Justice League: Doom, the next installment in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. A loose adaptation of the Tower of Babel storyline, JL:Doom is the final feature to be scripted by the late Dwayne McDuffie and sees the return of DCAU voice veterans Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Carl Lumbly and Michael Rosenbaum and Susan Eisenberg...
...The critically-derided Green Lantern arrived on DVD and Blu-ray in the States yesterday (with a UK release this coming Monday), and for anyone still undecided about whether to catch Ryan Reynolds' latest superhero outing, you can catch the first five minutes over at DigitalSpy. Meanwhile, Geoff Johns told fans at the NYCC that there’s still hope for a sequel, especially if Green Lantern: The Animated Series succeeds in increasing the character’s popularity (on the subject of Bruce Timm's new animated series, take a look at the opening scenes over at THR)...
...There's an interesting interview with Marvel Television supremo Jeph Loeb ahead of the NYCC panel over at MTV Geek, which covers everything from the Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men and Blade anime series to Ultimate Spider-Man, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., along with live-action projects such as AKA Jessica Jones and The Hulk. Fans of Marvel animation may also want to take a look at the latest trailer for season two of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes...
...Any fans anticipating an excessively violent, insane and unchained version of Ghost Rider from directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine may have had their hopes dashed somewhat this week as BoxOfficeMojo revealed that the Nicolas Cage sequel-cum-fresh start, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, has received a PG-13 classification from the MPAA...
...And finally, Hugh Jackman has been talking about the possibility of an R-rated version of The Wolverine, telling Collider that: "[Director] James Mangold and I talked about it and we’re like ‘Look, let’s not put it off the table.’ There’s even talk about us doing two versions, as in finding a way to do both while you shoot it, which could be really cool. But you need to have a really good reason to exclude those fans." Jackman already dropped the franchise's first F-bomb with his X-Men: First Class cameo, so will his next outing go that one step further? As much as I'd like to see Wolverine fully unleashed, I'll believe it when I see it.
Gary Collinson
Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.
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