It seems that Tom Cruise’s latest impossible mission, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, will enjoy a hefty IMAX opening when it hits North America this December, with /Film breaking the news that the sequel will be accompanied by a six-minute prologue for Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. Warner Bros. employed the same tactic back in 2007, attaching the opening sequence of The Dark Knight to the post-apocalyptic Will Smith actioner I Am Legend and giving us our first glimpse of Heath Ledger’s Joker in action. Assuming Nolan follows suit and takes the opportunity to introduce Bane, then my guess is we’ll get some kind of origin montage that makes use of the footage shot in India back in May when Josh Pence filmed scenes as a young Ra’s al Ghul alongside Tom Hardy. In other news from TDKR camp, the production is set to finish up in Los Angeles this coming week before heading to New York for 14 days, with the LA Times reporting that the shoot could incorporate the current Occupy Wall Street protests, either as “a backdrop or a stand-in for something that already exists in the film.” Meanwhile, CosmicBookNews posted some ‘exclusive rumours’ claiming that the story for The Dark Knight Rises will incorporate elements of Batman: KnightFall, Batman: Year One and Batman: Dark Victory, which if true, adds further weight to all the speculation over the inclusion of Robin. I’d be surprised if this turned out to be true, but I do think that Christian Bale’s Dark Knight won’t be the only crime-fighter taking to the streets of Gotham next July (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I’m looking at you).
The New York Comic Con took place last weekend and the big talking point for fans was Marvel’s Avengers panel, which featured Marvel president Kevin Feige along with cast members Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Chris Evans (Captain America) and surprise guest Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner). ComicBookMovie put together a summary of the highlights (via Cinemablend and Newsarama), which included a scene between Banner and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and montage of footage cut around a conversation between Loki and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). If you’d prefer to watch, then take a look at this video to see the entire panel (well, apart from the new footage, that is), and be sure to check out an in-depth NYCC roundtable interview with Tom Hiddleston over at ComicBookResources.The Avengers wasn’t the only topic of conversation from Kevin Feige at the NYCC, who went on to discuss what he referred to as ‘Phase Two’ when asked about the status of the potential Guardians of the Galaxy and Inhumans movies. Feige then elaborated on Marvel’s ‘Phase Two’ to IGN: “we have started working on the bones and structure and threading for a phase two. It does start with Iron Man 3 and if it all works – which we hope it does – culminates in another Avengers film.” So, what can we expect from this second batch of films? Well, we already have Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 to look forward to in 2013, and assuming the Avengers won’t assemble for a sequel until 2015 at the very earliest (and more likely 2016), we can probably expect a minimum of four more movies on top of that. Feige made specific reference to Captain America 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man (which, according to Joe Cornish, is now undergoing another draft) and Doctor Strange, and you'd have to expect that a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie featuring the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson must also surely be within the realms of possibility.
Shifting to Marvel’s small-screen endeavours, we already knew that Disney’s ABC Studios were developing the TV series AKA Jessica Jones and The Hulk (which, according to Jeph Loeb, will feature The Avengers' version of Bruce Banner’s alter-ego), and now Variety have revealed that Fox have purchased a series based upon The Punisher. According to the article, “Fox’s smallscreen version of ‘Punisher’ will focus on NYPD detective Frank Castle, whose alter ego is that of a vigilante seeking justice for those failed by the court system.” So, it’s basically Dexter, then. Now, I’m a fan of the character and I could just about buy him as a detective rather than a veteran, but unless his family get slaughtered by the mob, then he's not The Punisher as far as I’m concerned.Although Sony opted against bringing The Amazing Spider-Man to the Big Apple, the studio did take the opportunity to deliver an extended trailer and some behind-the-scenes footage from the upcoming Nicolas Cage sequel/reboot Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, while directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor also responded to the recent PG-13 classification from the MPAA, describing it as ‘PG-16’ and stating that “you can burn as many people as you want.” Take a look at a summary of the Ghost Rider panel at ComicBookMovie (via the live blog at SuperHeroHype), and check out an interview with Neveldine/Taylor over at io9, during which the duo discuss the on-set dynamics between Cage and Idris Elba, along with their depiction of the villain, Blackout (Johnny Whitworth).
Wrapping up the best of the rest...
…According to Russell Crowe, Henry Cavill’s Superman won’t be the only ‘-El’ going up against Michael Shannon’s General Zod in Man of Steel. Crowe has been tweeting from the set this past week, announcing that he’s spent “umpteen hours fighting Michael Shannon” in his role as Superman’s Kryptonian father, Jor-El, and that it’s “hard to tell who wins”. I think we can hazard a pretty good guess…
…Although director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman have remained non-committal over the possibility of a sequel to Kick-Ass, Chloë Moretz has hinted at Kick-Ass 2 becoming a reality, telling MTV that: “I can't say anything, but a little bit of news is coming. Just something, Something we got up our sleeves.” Whether that ‘we’ refers to cast and crew remains unclear……X-Men: First Class finally comes to DVD and Blu-ray here in the U.K. on October 31st and The Sun posted a behind-the-scenes video from the prequel earlier this week, which looks at Hugh Jackman’s brief cameo as Wolverine. U.K. fans may also want to check out these two clips from Marvel’s new X-Men anime, which premiered in the United States last night…
…Meanwhile our friends in the U.S. will be able to get their hands on the home-entertainment release of Captain America: The First Avenger from Tuesday, and a host of promotional videos have popped up this past week – take a look at a deleted scene featuring the Howling Commandos, a ‘Skinny Steve’ featurette and a brief interview with Jack Kirby on the creation of the character, along with the Marvel One-Shot, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer…
…DC animation legend Bruce Timm took part in a video interview with Newsarama at the NYCC, in which he discussed the development of Batman: Year One and the accompanying Catwoman short. In other DCAU-linked news, Mark Hamill also announced his retirement as the voice of the Joker following his work on the absolutely immense Batman: Arkham City…
…And finally, in addition to previewing his Lizard voice from The Amazing Spider-Man to MTV, Rhys Ifans also spoke briefly about his time on the film to the Orlando Sentinel, stating that: “I put my whole body into ‘Spider-Man’. It was a thrill to work with Marc Webb. He's like Roland Emmerich. He's doing blockbusters, but he has an 'indie' heart, an indie character-oriented sensibility.” Yes, that’s Roland Emmerich. The Roland Emmerich responsible for arthouse ‘indies’ such as Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC and 2012. Hmm... I’m pretty sure the comparison is meant as a compliment, but I have to say I’d rather see Sam Raimi do Spider-Man than Roland Emmerich.
Gary Collinson
Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.
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