The Week in Spandex - The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Ghost Rider: SOV, The Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men and more...

Presenting our weekly round-up of all the biggest news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

The Super Bowl takes place this Sunday and despite the fact we won't be getting any advertising spots for The Dark Knight Rises or The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel will ensure that superhero fans have plenty to get excited over as the studio delivers some brand new footage from The Avengers, which was preceeded by a short ten-second preview earlier in the week that gave us a tantalising glimpse of the mysterious alien race whose identity has been subject to so much speculation over the past few months. While the 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' peek wasn't giving too much away, perhaps we'll have a better idea of their identity when the commercial airs on Sunday.

With just three months to go until The Avengers arrives in cinemas, the marketing machine appears to have stepped up a gear, with Marvel issuing a host of new character posters featuring Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (a mo-capped Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), while Joss Whedon and company also took part in a live Twitter chat, during which it was confirmed by the director himself that Spider-Man will NOT be making a cameo appearance, despite plenty of rumours to the contrary. So there you have it...

Turning now to The Dark Knight Rises and we're starting to get to see some of the promotional tie-ins that will accompany the release of Christopher Nolan's hugely-anticipated third Batman feature. Among the goodies released this past week are a couple of new shots of the Dark Knight, along with a look at Mattel's range of action figures, which of course come complete with the obligatory range of ridiculous accessories. Meanwhile Christian Bale also took part in an interview with Style Magazine, during which he described Batman's position in TDKR: "For me he is an anarchist and a free spirit. He knows that there are parallels between him and his enemies because life is never stable - you always have to fight for it. Keeping in mind that it may never be boring and that nobody is obliging you to behave like a superhero and to always have your muscles flexed and bulging."

Wrapping up the best of the rest…

...With Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance hitting screens later this month, Yahoo! Movies debuted a new behind-the-scenes video from the upcoming sequel / reboot, while CineComics also got their hands on a selection of images showing Nicolas Cage performing as Ghost Rider pre-CGI enhancements...

…As Sony prepare to unleash a sneak peek at The Amazing Spider-Man across select cities this coming Monday (February 6th), we also received confirmation via the Alberta Film Ratings website that a second theatrical trailer – running at 2.24 seconds in duration – will be arriving in the very near future. Meanwhile Andrew Garfield took part in an interview with The Times of India, during which he discussed how his version of the web-crawler will differ from that of Tobey Maguire’s earlier incarnation, while the official site has also updated with several new images featuring the likes of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), along with a host of wallpapers and avatars…

…In other Spidey-related news, Newsarama spoke to Marvel Studios executives Will Corona Pilgrim and Jeph Loeb about Agent Coulson and his inclusion in the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, while Loeb also touched upon the continuity of Marvel’s ever-expanding slate of comic book, theatrical and television offerings: “Marvel TV properties in general will exist within the Marvel Universe in comics. That’s the continuity we watch… there’s nothing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that goes against the publishing Marvel Universe, so we’d pretty much follow in that way…”

… Chronicle arrived in UK cinemas this past Wednesday but Fox still managed to sneak in one last trailer before the $15m found footage superhero flick opened across North American cinemas yesterday. Director Josh Trank - rumoured to be in the frame to tackle Fox's reboot of the Fantastic Four - spoke to ComicBookMovie about the film, while HeyUGuys also caught up with cast members Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan and Alex Russell…

…Warner Premiere’s latest DC Universe Animated Original Movie, Justice League: Doom, is released in North America later this month and a couple of new clips have arrived online recently, showing Batman (Kevin Conroy) squaring off against the Royal Flush Gang before the Caped Crusader’s Justice League colleagues Superman (Tim Daly), Wonder Woman (Susan Eisenberg), The Flash (Michael Rosenbaum), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Martian Manhunter (Carl Lumbly) get in on the action. Check the clips out here and here…

…The CW network’s Green Arrow television series continues to pick up steam as Deadline revealed that Canadian actor Stephen Amell has joined the cast of Arrow in the title role of Oliver Queen. Amell – whose previous credits include shows such as The Vampire Diaries, CSI, 90210 and Hung – will step into the role for the upcoming pilot, which is set to be directed by David Nutter (Dark Angel, Smallville, Supernatural) from a script by Andrew Kreisberg (Justice League) and Green Lantern scribes Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim…

…On the subject of Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds had a few brief words about the chances of a sequel to Warner Bros. big-budget box office disappointment, telling MTV Splash Page that he has “no idea” when asked if he’ll be reprising his role as Hal Jordan…

…And finally, in news which really didn’t come as much of a surprise at all, it was also announced that Fox have reached a deal with British director Matthew Vaughn to continue his mutant exploits, with Vaughn and producer Bryan Singer signing on for a sequel to last year’s X-Men: First Class. The project joins fellow X-Men spin-offs The Wolverine and Deadpool in development at Fox, with X-Men: The Last Stand and Sherlock Holmes screenwriter Simon Kinberg set to pen the script and James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender previously confirmed as returning to the cast.

Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Arriving this June.

The Week in Spandex - The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, Doctor Strange, Man of Steel, Ghost Rider and more

Presenting our weekly round-up of the big news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

After giving us a sneak peek at The Dark Knight Rises back in November, Britain’s Empire Magazine has now turned their attention to The Avengers, delivering plenty of Marvel goodness within the pages of their latest issue. Along with individual covers featuring new shots of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) – the latter giving us our first glimpse of Stark’s new Mark VII suit – and a special subscriber-only cover depicting said heroes assembled, the magazine also includes some interesting quotes from the cast and crew of the $300m blockbuster. Among the highlights was confirmation from Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige that the Red Skull will not make an appearance, with Feige also going on to touch upon the identity of Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) mysterious army: “It's not Skrulls, I've been clear about that. Beyond that, we want to hide it. The identity of the alien race is not impactful. It exists in the comic books, but we're not setting up the Kree-Skrull war or anything like that." Check out ComicBookMovie for a summary of all the info contained in the issue, and head on over to Marvel.com for five new images from the hotly-anticipated ensemble.

Meanwhile, in one final bit of news from The Avengers, English actress and 70s pin-up Jenny Agutter (Logan’s Run, An American Werewolf in London) spoke to the Radio Times about working on the film, with the article indicating that ‘Spider-Man and Iron Man’ were present on Joss Whedon’s set. Now, before everyone gets too excited, you’d have to expect the Spider-Man reference to be a slip of the tongue on Agutter’s part, especially considering that Sony have the movie rights to the character and have The Amazing Spider-Man set for release just two months later. However, seeing as that’s a brand new reboot of the character, is there a chance that Marvel could have thrown a boat load of money Sony’s way for a fan-pleasing cameo from the web-crawler? Sadly, if I was a betting man, I’d have to go with no…

Sticking with the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a moment, we already know that the studio are gearing up to go into production on Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 for release next year, but this past week has brought forth some details that may give us an idea of the two mystery movies they have scheduled for 2014. First up came reports that the proposed Doctor Strange feature is about to become a reality, with Joblo posting the following synopsis: "Doctor Strange centres around a New York surgeon, who stops running his practice after suffering injuries in a car crash. He then becomes a drifter and heads to the Himalayas, where he meets a healer and discovers that he has a great psychic power to fight against evil. Doctor Strange boasts powers that includes telepathy, teleportation, energy and astral projection." Meanwhile Captain America: The First Avenger star Neal McDonough told IMDb TV that Captain America 2 will go into production as soon as Thor wraps, while he also said he hoped to follow that up by reprising the role of Dum Dum Dugan alongside Samuel L. Jackson for the long-rumoured Nick Fury solo movie.

While it's unlikely that we'll be seeing Spider-Man in The Avengers, the friendly neighbourhood web-crawler will of course be swinging onto screens this July and The Times of India have posted a new synopsis for the Marc Webb-directed reboot, which reveals that Oscorp will play an important role in the story: "The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance - leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero." So, if Oscorp is present, does that mean we'll also get a quick cameo from Norman Osborn...?

Now that young actress Joey King has let that cat out of the bag and confirmed that Talia al Ghul is present in The Dark Knight Rises, it would seem that Liam Neeson has thought 'what the hell?' and decided to follow suit by admitting that he'll be back as Ra's al Ghul: "I can tell you nothing about The Dark Knight Rises, seriously. I was on set for maybe an hour-and-a-half and the director didn’t tell me anything of what it’s about. So, I’m being very honest when I say I have no idea what’s going to happen." Meanwhile star Christian Bale has also been speaking about his on-screen alter-ego, explaining to the New York Daily News how he takes inspiration from the Batman: Year One incarnation of the character and - most intriguingly - revealing to Empire that TDKR may not be his final outing under the cape and cowl after all: "All I know is the likelihood that this will be the last one [but] if Chris goes, 'Hey, I've got another story I think could be interesting,' then yeah, great, I'd go do that. I always assumed it would be three, but I could be wrong." Nolan has of course previously stated that The Dark Knight Rises would be his final Batman feature, although he is expected to remain involved in the franchise in a producing capacity for future installments. Could that be enough to tempt Bale back for a fourth time..?

Wrapping up the best of the rest...

...Having settled their legal dispute over the movie rights to The Crow, Relativity Media and The Weinstein Company are pushing on with their plans to reboot the series, with reports emerging that the two studios have hired screenwriter Jesse Wigutow and director Javier Gutiérrez to tackle the remake. The Crow was previously in the hands of 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, with Bradley Cooper signed up for the lead role, although there's no word yet as to whether The Hangover star is in the frame once again...

...In a case of 'what might have been', David Bowie's ex-wife Angela Bowie revealed that she was granted the TV rights to Daredevil and Black Widow for a proposed television series during the 1970s, even going so far as to pose for photographs in character (yes, that really is meant to be the Man Without Fear), while the former model was also considered for the role of Wonder Woman prior to Lynda Carter's casting in 1975...

...Last week it was rumoured that Fox were turning their attention to Chronicle director Josh Trank to helm their proposed Fantastic Four reboot, but according to an interview with Trank in HeyUGuys, he could also be in the frame for the X-Men: First Class sequel, should Matthew Vaughn pass on the project. Asked if he'd be involved in either, Trank refused to deny the speculation, stating that "I have been working on some original ideas and things are being talking about, but nothing’s a signed deal yet..." Be sure to check out the full interview for the director's thoughts on his debut feature, which arrives in UK cinemas on Wednesday...

...Attending the premiere of Daniel Radcliffe's latest film, The Woman in Black, screenwriter Jane Goldman has officially confirmed that neither she nor director Matthew Vaughn will be returning for the sequel to 2010's Kick-Ass: "Matthew is not directing [Kick-Ass 2] so it looks like someone else will write and direct which will be exciting." Could this open the door for Mark Millar to make his directorial debut? He seems to be the only person convinced it's even going to happen...

...In addition to the news that child actors Dylan Sprayberry (Land of the Lost), Jadin Gould (Battle Los Angeles) and Jack Foley (30 Minutes or Less) have joined the cast of Zack Snyder's Man of Steel as young versions of Clark Kent, Lana Lang and Pete Ross respectively, the MoS Facebook page also posted a snap of Henry Cavill posing with a young fan, giving us a pretty good look at his revamped costume...

...The marketing machine on Ghost Rider: Spirt of Vengeance has moved up a gear as the clock ticks down to the arrival of Nicolas Cage's second outing as Johnny Blaze, with Sony releasing a whole host of new images featuring the likes of Cage, Violante Placido, Ciarán Hinds, Johnny Whitworth, Christopher Lambert and Idris Elba, along with a number of TV spots and a short behind-the-scenes feature...

...DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns has spoken briefly about the status of the rumoured Captain Marvel / Shazam movie, stating that there's still hope it could see the light of day: "There's always a possibility for Shazam.... and I can't get into the specifics on that, but yeah, there's hope for Shazam." Something tells me that if the likes of Wonder Woman can't get off the ground, such 'hope' is probably very slim...

...The TV Addict has acquired a casting breakdown for the upcoming Green Arrow - sorry, Arrow - pilot, which includes a couple of familiar names including Dinah Lance, a.k.a. The Black Canary, as well as the following description of the Emeral Archer: "Oliver Queen: A 27-year-old reformed bad boy, who after having spent five years shipwrecked on a tiny, brutally dangerous island in the South China Sea returns to town a different man. Or to be more specific, a tortured, thoughtful master of the bow with a ferocious determination to make a difference..."

...And finally, fans of DC Animation may want to check out this clip from the upcoming direct-to-video animated movie Justice League: Doom, along with the following short from Aardman Animations, which features DC superheroes done in the style of Creature Comforts and will soon be arriving on television as part of Cartoon Network's DC Nation...


Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Arriving this June.

The Week in Spandex – The Dark Knight Rises, Beware the Batman, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and more…

Presenting our weekly round-up of all the biggest news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

As the comedian W.C. Fields once said, “Never work with children or animals,” and The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan will have found some truth in that this past week as young actress Joey King revealed what probably constitutes a huge spoiler, if it wasn’t for the fact that just about everyone expected it anyway. “I play young Talia al Ghul,” said King in an interview with My Entertainment World, confirming that the character will make an appearance in the hugely-anticipated sequel. “I can’t give too much away because I promised Mr. Nolan I wouldn’t say anything. There are too many secrets about the character and the movie.” Well, there’s one less now, Joey… So, unless Nolan really surprises everyone and we get to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in drag, I think it’s safe to say we now know the true identity of Marion Cotillard’s ‘Miranda Tate’.

Although Nolan’s big-screen Batman series will come to an end this summer, Warner Bros Animation are busy prepping a return to Gotham City courtesy of executive producer Glen Murakami (Batman Beyond, Justice League, Teen Titans) with the CG-animated series Beware the Batman. Speaking to MovieWeb, actor Kurtwood Smith - a.k.a. Clarence Boddicker - has provided a brief update on the new show, for which he supplies the voice of Jim Gordon. "We've just started [the show]. We've only recorded two, before Christmas. I like the general thrust of the show. It's early in the Batman story. Commissioner Gordon isn't even Commissioner yet, he's just Lieutenant Gordon. He doesn't trust Batman, even though they kind of end up helping each other out on an early case. Batman, in a lot of ways, is learning his way, and the relationship between he and Alfred is developing. It's fun and it's kind of straight in that regard, as opposed to being campy. I think it's going to be good, but it won't be out for at least a year or so."

Fresh from his success at the Golden Globes last weekend, Luther star Idris Elba told MTV that he's signed on to reprise his role as Heimdall alongside the Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston in next year's Marvel sequel Thor 2 - which is now in the hands of director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) - although he was 'unsure' if the character would make an appearance in The Avengers this May. In other Avengers-related bits and pieces Tom Hiddleston spoke to Den of Geek about the upcoming superhero team-up during a promotional interview for Steven Spielberg's War Horse, and co-star Chris Evans also had a few words about the film - and Marvel legend Stan Lee - during a chat with FansShare. Finally, fans may want to check out the unveiling of Hasbro's Avengers action-figure line, which occured during a liveblog chat on the official Marvel site on Friday afternoon.

Wrapping up the best of the rest...

...As the clock ticks down to the cinema release of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance next month, SFX Magazine got their hands on a few new images from upcoming film, along with some quotes from co-director Brian Taylor [take a look at the highlights over at ComicBookMovie]. Meanwhile Total Film caught up with star Nicolas Cage, who tried to explain how the latest film differs from Mark Steven Johnson's 2007 original: "I don’t see this as a sequel at all. I see this as Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance. The other movie was Ghost Rider. This movie is Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance." Thanks for clearing that up for us Nic...

...The Amazing Spider-Man swung into Tokyo this past week as stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were joined by producers Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach for an hour-long press conference to announce the Japanese premiere of the upcoming reboot on June 30th [watch the press conference here]. Elsewhere, director Marc Webb told Collider to expect a second trailer within the next month, with rumours since emerging that it could hit the web on February 9th and may be attached to Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and The Vow in cinemas the following day...

...Last week we heard that Fox were still keen on pushing ahead with their Deadpool feature and now comes a report from The Geek Files claiming that a 'source' has confirmed that Ryan Reynolds is still attached to the X-Men Origins: Wolverine spin-off, while the studio plan to push both Deadpool and The Wolverine into production this year...

…Meanwhile X-Men: First Class star Michael Fassbender has been talking to IFC.com about the proposed sequel to last year’s prequel, stating that he’d like to continue exploring the complex relationship between Magneto and James McAvoy’s Professor X: “It’s not just like clear-cut enemies; they’re best friends as well. In the comic books, even after they’ve had this sort of rift, Professor X asks Magneto to come back and look after the students at certain points… I think there’s always that complexity in their relationship and we want to keep that alive as possible, because that’s I think a really interesting thing - the conflict there…”

…On the subject of sequels, it looks as though we could be getting a follow-up to 2008’s Hancock, with director Peter Berg discussing the possibility in brief update to ComicBookMovie: “We've been talking about the sequel between us, Will Smith, [producers] Michael Mann and Akiva Goldsman and myself. We're all interested, but we literally just have trouble getting into the same room at the same time. We did have a series of meetings last year and started to hash out an idea for sequel - and Will Smith actually had the idea - so I think it will happen, it's just a question of timing…”

…Warner Bros’ Superman reboot Man of Steel has completed filming in Vancouver, with director Zack Snyder and stars such as Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon now heading to Los Angeles for the final leg of principal photography…

...Shifting to the small screen for a moment and The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the CW network are moving forward with the pilot episode of Green Arrow, albeit under the newly-shortened title of Arrow. According to THR, the show "revolves around the hooded super hero, a wealthy playboy by day who secretly saves the city by night using his enhanced arrows" and is described as "a modern retelling of the legendary comics character..."

…Hero Complex caught up with Harold Perrineau to discuss his voice work in the Blade anime series, with the Lost star admitting that he’d be open to stepping into Wesley Snipes’ shoes for a live-action reboot, should the opportunity arise now that the movie rights have reverted back to Marvel Studios: “You know what … I would shave my head and get into the gym tomorrow if they said that I could play Blade. I’d be in the gym pumping iron, doing kung fu… I would love to play Blade live-action. I think the character is ridiculously cool. I’m never going to be as cool as Wesley Snipes was, but I’d give it a shot…”

...And finally, Quentin Tarantino has revealed his favourite movies of 2011 and there's quite a superhero flavour to his list. X-Men: First Class placed in both his 'Official Top 11' and 'Best Adapted Screenplay' categories, while Captain America: The First Avenger, Green Lantern and The Green Hornet also managed to earn themselves honourable mentions. Guess he’s not a fan of the God of Thunder, then.

Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Arriving this June.

The Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Man of Steel, Deadpool, Green Arrow, Fantastic Four and more

Presenting our weekly round-up of all the biggest news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

Entertainment Weekly went behind-the-scenes of Christopher Nolan’s final Batman feature this past week for an inside look at The Dark Knight Rises that included five new images from the hugely anticipated sequel. Although nothing revelatory, they do provide us with a few more shots of Batman (Christian Bale) and Bane (Tom Hardy), along with Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and the briefest of glimpses of the new Batcave. The article provides a brief description of said Batcave, and also features quotes from Nolan, Bale and screenwriter Jonathan Nolan [check out the highlights here]. Meanwhile, it seems we might have some waiting to do for further footage from the film, with Warner Bros. opting against a Super Bowl ad spot for TDKR and Batman-on-Film reporting that the next trailer is likely to arrive in May and could be attached to Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows.

Although Batman (and Spider-Man) will be absent from the Super Bowl, Marvel are said to have purchased a minute long slot for The Avengers and you’d have to imagine a second trailer to arrive soon after. You can also expect the team to invade your local multiplex in the very near future, courtesy of a series of cinema standees featuring Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. Meanwhile, Marvel are pushing on with their next slate of films and it’s been revealed that Saving Private Ryan scriptwriter Robert Rodat has been brought in for a last-minute rewrite on Thor 2, which is now in the hands of director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) and is slated to hit cinemas in November 2013. According to Tom Hiddleston, Thor 2 will start shooting this summer – unless any other snags hit the production, of course – but things seem to be moving a lot more smoothly on Iron Man 3, with Robert Downey Jr. stating: “I think we have an opportunity with the third Iron Man to make it the best of the three, and maybe one of the better superhero movies that’s ever been made.”

Wrapping up the best of the rest...

...Green Lantern may have failed to set the box office on fire this past summer but it seems that plenty of people were impressed by Ryan Reynolds' take on Hal Jordan - or at least those who bother to vote in the People's Choice Awards - with Reynolds taking home the gong for Favourite Movie Superhero on Wednesday night against competition from Chris Evans' Captain America, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, James McAvoy's Professor X and Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique...

…Presumably Reynolds is also still in line to reprise his role as Wade Wilson in director Tim Story’s X-Men spin-off Deadpool and speaking at the Amazing Arizona Comic Con this past week, the Merc with a Mouth creator Rob Liefeld claimed to have seen eight minutes of early test footage: “I may or may have not seen some sort of test of footage that would blow your mind if you saw it and go holy crap and that’s Deadpool in costume. Katana swords, guns, shooting people’s faces off and making me laugh. And I may or may not have seen something that looks just like that. And you’ve got what would amount to the first R Rated X-Men movie. Because that script is R Rated…”

...In other news from the X-Men franchise, screenwriter Jane Goldman spoke to MTV about the potential sequel to X-Men: First Class, stating that "If [Matthew Vaughn] decides he wants to direct the next one and if he wants me on board, I'm 100% there." Fox currently have First Class Simon Kinberg (whose various writing and producing credits include X-Men: The Last Stand, Sherlock Holmes and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) working on a story for the proposed follow-up and Michael Fassbender seems convinced that he'll be back as Magneto: "I have no choice. They contracted me for two options," joked Fassbender to SuperHeroHype this past week. "We're at the ground level, but yeah I think there's going to be another one..."

...On the subject of Vaughn, he'll also be producing the sequel to 2010's Kick-Ass and creator Mark Millar has spoken about the project with Comic Book Resources, revealing that Chloe Grace Moretz's Hit Girl is likely to take centre stage, with the movie set to combine adaptations of both the Kick-Ass 2 and solo Hit Girl comic book series...

...A pilot episode for a Green Arrow TV series is being developed for the CW network, with Greg Berlanti (Brothers & Sisters), Marc Guggenheim (Flash Forward) and Andrew Kreisberg (Vampire Diaries) acting as the creative team and go-to pilot director David Nutter (Dark Angel, Smallville, Without a Trace, Supernatural, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) said to be in the frame to helm the project. Berlanti and Kreisberg have previously been announced as working on a Booster Gold series for Syfy, while its also thought rumoured that a live-action Blue Beetle series could feature as part of Cartoon Network’s upcoming DC Nation programming block. Let's hope they don't all go down the Wonder Woman route...

...Speaking of DC Nation, Marvel Entertainment and Disney XD have just announced their own programming block; entitled 'Marvel Universe', it is set to feature the second season of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, along with the premiere of the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man, and will launch on April 1st in North America...

...Last week we got a look at some toy concept art for the aborted Superman Lives project from director Tim Burton and now we have some more courtesy of TimBurton.jp, which includes more designs for Brainiac's ship, Superman tackling an alien creature, a humanoid Brainiac and the monstrous Doomsday, along with a prototype Superman action figure that you need to see to believe...

…Meanwhile, in a late bit of casting news from Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, actor Richard Schiff (The West Wing) took part in an interview with I Am Rogue where he revealed that he will be portraying Dr. Emil Hamilton of S.T.A.R. Labs and has already shot scenes with Superman himself, Henry Cavill...

...In addition to a new French poster featuring Nicolas Cage's Johnny Blaze, Sony have also announced the winning entry in their Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 'Face the Fan' poster contest, with New Yorker Justin P. taking home the grand prize for this effort...

...Along with all of their TDKR goodness we mentioned earlier, Entertainment Weekly also debuted a brand new picture of an unmasked Andrew Garfield from The Amazing Spider-Man, which you can check out over at ComicBookMovie...

...As we inch closer to the February release of the 'found footage' teen super powers flick Chroncile, ComicBookMovie nabbed an interview with screenwriter Max Landis, while Fox have also launched a competition for UK fans to show what they're capable of by showcasing their skills and abilities on YouTube. For more information, head on over to the official Chronicle UK YouTube channel, which you can find here...

...While we're talking about Chronicle, Variety are reporting that first-time director Josh Trank is top of Fox's shortlist to oversee their reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise, with the studio keen to see how his low-budget debut fares on its release over the Super Bowl weekend in the States...

...And finally, we close this week with the first trailer for a new documentary entitled With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, which celebrates the creative achievements of the man behind iconic characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Iron Man and the X-Men. The documentary is set to premiere on January 24th at the Slamdance Film Festival, and features input from the likes of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Stewart, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Cage, and Jon Favreau. Take a look at the trailer over at InsideMovies.

Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Arriving this June.

The Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers bad guys, Man of Steel, Superman Lives, Kick-Ass 2 and more…

Presenting our weekly round-up of the big news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

Due to last week’s Superhero Showdown, we’ve got a couple of weeks of catching up to do here but truth be told, it was a quiet end to 2011, especially after all of the excitement over the second trailer for The Dark Knight Rises earlier in December. Still, in terms of Christopher Nolan’s final Batman feature, we did get an official behind-the-scenes shot of the director at work, while Hero Complex ended the year by nabbing a rather detailed interview with Selina Kyle herself, Anne Hathaway, which also included the following scene description:

Gotham City is a war zone. A ruthless madman named Bane [Tom Hardy] has ripped away any sense of security and the citizens, haggard and clutching suitcases with refugee anxiety, sit behind barbed wire waiting to see what will blow up next. A hooded prisoner is dragged in – it’s Bruce Wayne [Christian Bale], one of Gotham’s most famous faces – but the eyes of the crowd go instead to the woman in black standing at the top of the staircase. “Sorry to spoil things, boys, but Bane needs these guys himself,” says sultry Selina Kyle, navigating the steps with stiletto heels that, on closer inspection, turn out to have serrated edges capable of leaving nasty claw marks in a fight.

Apart from that – and some “it’s been changed” / “oh no it hasn’t” back-and-forth over the sound mix for Bane’s dialogue in the IMAX prologue – it’s been strangely quiet on The Dark Knight Rises front recently, although that’s sure to change as we continue the countdown to the film’s arrival on July 20th.

So, with The Dark Knight Rises taking a back seat, much of the talk this past weekend has centred on Marvel’s upcoming team-up The Avengers – or more specifically, the identity of the bad guy(s) who’ll be joining Loki in battling Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and company. First up was a press release announcing that the Red Skull would be featured in a set of Marvel HeroClix miniatures that tie in with the movie, which of course led to talk that Hugo Weaving could be returning as Joss Whedon’s ‘Surprise Villain’. Following this, a whole host of rumours soon began to do the rounds, stating that Red Skull is indeed present and will also be joined by Thanos and a ‘new version’ of the Skrulls, rebranded as ‘The Redacted’ due to Fox owning the movie rights to said extra-terrestrial species. The ‘spoilers’ – which also includes some stuff about the Infinity Gauntlet and the Leviathan – do seem like random speculation, but they’re also pretty plausible. Take a look for yourself here.

In other Avengers news, we also got to see snippets of new footage featuring the likes of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) courtesy of a Russian trailer, while some concept art of the Quinjet and the Hulk also cropped up online. It’s nice to see the Green Goliath is wearing pants, even if they are beige...

Wrapping up the best of the rest...

...We may have received our first look at Rhys Ifans' fully-transformed Lizard from Sony's upcoming reboot The Amazing Spider-Man courtesy of toy blog Idle Hands, who posted some images of possible merchandise from the film, which included a remote control quad bike that seems to include an official shot of the villain...

...Hot on the heels of the news that Marvel have won their legal battle against writer Gary Friedrich over the movie rights to Ghost Rider comes a detailed article from Collider on the upcoming sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which includes a set visit report and interviews with co-director Brian Taylor and stars Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Ciarán Hinds, Fergus Riordan and Violante Placido...

...Earlier in the week CosmicBookNews posted their latest completely unsubstantiated rumour, this time suggesting that The Hangover star Bradley Cooper had signed on for a cameo as Lex Luthor in Warner Bros.' upcoming Superman reboot, Man of Steel, although the report has since been shot down by journalist Kurt Orzeck on Twitter. Henry Cavill's Superman will of course be squaring off against Michael Shannon's General Zod in next year's origin story, but it does seem more than plausible that Kal-El's arch-nemesis will crop up somewhere ahead of a full-on bad guy role in the proposed sequel...

...Sticking with the Man of Steel for the moment, those of us unfortunate to remember the aborted 90s reboot Superman Lives (yes, the one that Tim Burton was planning to direct, with Nicolas Cage as Superman) may be interested in taking a look at this toy concept art, which gives us a pretty good idea of just how hideous this would have been...

...Meanwhile concept artist Peter Rubin of Iron Rooster Studios has released some of his creature designs from last year's box-office disappointment Green Lantern, which you can check out here...

...During promotional interviews for Daniel Radcliffe's latest, The Woman in Black, screenwriter Jane Goldman provided a brief update on Kick-Ass 2, confirming pretty much what we already know - that the status of the sequel is currently up in the air: "I think the only thing that is fairly sure is that right now, Matthew Vaughn doesn't have any plans to direct it. He and I are not currently talking about writing it either. It may well be that Matthew oversees it in a producer role, and I may also be involved in that capacity. I know that there is somebody that Matthew has been talking to who would be interested in writing and directing that. That would be cool..."

...And finally, IGN debuted a new 60-second trailer for the ‘found footage’ flick Chronicle, while Machinima also got their hands on an exclusive clip. Directed by Josh Trank, Chronicle centres on three high school students (Michael B. Jordan, Dane DeHaan and Alex Russell) who develop uncanny super powers. Learning to control their abilities, the teens start to use them to their advantage, causing their lives to spin out of control as their darker sides begin to take over. Chronicle is set to arrive in UK cinemas on February 1st, with a North American release two days later.

Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.

A Festive Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises trailer talk, Joss Whedon on The Avengers... in 3D, David Fincher’s Spider-Man and more…

Our weekly round-up of the big news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

Warner Bros. gave Batman fans an early Christmas present this past Monday with the online release of the second theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight Rises and – with anticipation for Christopher Nolan’s Gotham swansong reaching fever pitch - it quickly went on to shatter the iTunes record previously held by Marvel’s The Avengers as it amassed a whopping 12.5m views in just 24 hours. The trailer delivered on pretty much every level, giving us a tantalising glimpse at what appears to be some epic action sequences, along with a look at the majority of the cast in action, including Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Tom Hardy (Bane), Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon), Michael Caine (Alfred), Marion Cotillard (Miranda Tate) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (John Blake), along with a Batman Returns-style introduction to Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle. In fact, there’s only really Morgan Freeman who seems to be absent…

As with the best trailers, it also raised a hell of a lot more questions than answers, giving fans plenty to ponder over as we await the film’s release next July. Among the talking points were a number of supposed Robin references (an ‘R’ in the Gotham Rogues fan sign and a case of mistaken identity between NFL star Hines Ward and a certain Boy Wonder), Selina Kyle’s apparent ‘acquisition’ of Martha Wayne’s necklace from Batman Begins, and Bane telling a beaten, greying Bruce Wayne that: “When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die”. Of course, that also leads in to the growing controversy over Bane’s voice – a.k.a. ‘The Bane Problem’ – which, according to THR, Warner Bros. are “very aware of” and would like Nolan to make significant changes, although the director only plans to make minor adjustments to the sound mix. So if you’re not a fan of the voice, it seems like you’ll just have to get used to it I’m afraid. For a great breakdown of the trailer, be sure to check out IGN's latest Rewind Theater.

In a move that’s sure to please the scores of 3D fans still out there, Disney have announced that Marvel’s The Avengers will receive the post-conversion 3D treatment prior to its release next May, with director Joss Whedon promising that the film won’t be “obnoxiously 3D”, telling Joblo that: “"There's no, 'Oh look, we're going to spend 20 minutes going through this tunnel because it's in 3D!' And no one is pointing at the screen the entire time. But it's an action movie. Things tend to hurtle toward the screen anyway." Whedon took part in an interview with the Australian magazine FilmInk [see here and here], during which he had a few comments about the likes of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), while the Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator was also the guest on the podcast Making It with Riki Lindhome, during which he discussed the epic Marvel team-up in some depth.

Sticking with The Avengers for the moment, a couple of images featuring Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans) have been released online, along with a new international trailer that includes some new footage (albeit in German). If that's not enough to satisfy your Avengers appetite, then you might want to check out the thoughts of Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki), along with Marvel's head honcho, Kevin Feige - all of which come courtesy of FilmInk. Meanwhile, looking further ahead, the studio has also announced that one of their two as yet-unidentified 2014 projects has been brought forward to April 4th, with speculation as to its identity ranging from sequels such as Captain America 2 or The Avengers 2 to a solo offering for the likes of Ant-Man, Black Panther, Blade, Doctor Strange, The Inhumans, Iron Fist, Nick Fury / S.H.I.E.L.D. or The Punisher.

Update - according to Deadline, Marvel Studios have also found their replacement for Patty Jenkins on Thor 2, with director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire) reported to have signed on for the sequel. The film will see the return of cast members Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston and Stellan Skarsgård and is slated for release on November 15th, 2013.

Although Sucker Punch may have left some fans questioning director Zack Snyder’s suitability for Warner Bros. upcoming Superman reboot, we can rest assured that the special effects on Man of Steel are in safe hands. Charged with making us believe Henry Cavill can fly is four-time Academy Award-winner Joe Letteri, whose recent credits include Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and Avatar, and the acclaimed visual effects supervisor had a few words about Man of Steel in an interview with The Playlist: “Zack’s going for pretty much everything in-camera as much as he can… I mean, the reason to think about Superman in CGI, you don’t need him full CGI as a character, because he’s basically a full person. But you just don’t want the flying scenes to look like he’s on a wire. So [the question is] how do you use CG to make that happen, and that’s still kind of being played with right now.” Meanwhile, MovieNewz.com are suggesting that Warner Bros. will follow the marketing strategy of The Dark Knight Rises by debuting the first trailer from Man of Steel in June, 2012, a whole year ahead of the film’s release in the summer of 2013. Seems plausible...

As Sony prepare for the launch of the second theatrical trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man with a new poll and a selection of publicity stills on the official Facebook page, director David Fincher has taken time out from promotional duties on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to discuss his vision for a Spider-Man reboot. Fincher, who was a potential candidate to succeed Sam Raimi prior to the arrival of Marc Webb and stars such as Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, told io9 that: “I was never interested in the genesis story. I couldn't get past a guy getting bit by a red and blue spider. It was just a problem… It was not something that I felt I could do straight-faced. I wanted to start with Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin, and I wanted to kill Gwen Stacy. The title sequence of the movie that I was going to do was going to be a ten minute — basically a music video, an opera, which was going to be the one shot that took you through the entire Peter Parker [back-story]. Bit by a radio active spider, the death of Uncle Ben, the loss of Mary Jane, and it was going to begin with Peter meeting Gwen Stacy. It was a very different thing, it wasn't the teenager story. It was much more of the guy who's settled into being a freak.” So, based on what we’ve seen so far from The Amazing Spider-Man, have Sony made the right choice in Marc Webb, or would you rather have seen Fincher’s Spidey swinging into cinemas next May?

Wrapping up the best of the rest…

...With the clock ticking down until the return of Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze this coming February, IGN have got their hands on three new images from the Brian Taylor / Mark Neveldine-directed sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance...

…In news that could offer a glimmer of hope to fans wanting to see more of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, MovieHole discovered that Warner Bros. have renewed their registration on GreenLantern2.com, meaning that a sequel to this year’s under-appreciated Green Lantern could still be on the cards. Hey, at least they ain’t planning a reboot (yet), but I’d be surprised if we see Green Lantern 2 any time in the near future…

…Meanwhile Warner’s next offering in their line of direct-to-video DC Universe features, Justice League: Doom, will receive its world premiere in New York on February 13th, 2012, ahead of its DVD and Blu-ray release on February 28th. Head over to Superman Super Site for more details on the film, including some new promotional images of Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter…

…Following successful outings for Iron Man, X-Men and Wolverine, Marvel’s fourth anime series Blade is set to premiere in North America on the G4 network on Friday, January 13th. Written by Kenta Fukasaku (Battle Royale), the series will run for twelve half-hour episodes and sees Harold Perrineau (Romeo + Juliet, The Matrix sequels, Lost) supplying the voice of the Daywalker. Check out the official announcement from Marvel here…

…And finally, one guy who won’t be having a Merry Christmas or Happy New Year is movie pirate Gilberto Sanchez, who has been sentenced to a year in a federal prison for uploading a bootleg workprint copy of the Hugh Jackman solo spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the internet prior to the film’s theatrical release back in 2009. Now I’m by no means an advocate of movie piracy but you have to feel for him – I mean, to lose a year of your life over a movie as shit as X-Men Origins: Wolverine… ouch.

Well, that's it for this week; all that remains to be said is have a very Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings to one and all!


Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.

The Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, Ghost Rider, Chronicle and more

Presenting our weekly round-up of all the biggest news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

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.

The Week in Spandex – The Dark Knight Rises goes viral, Thor dominates Twitter and The Amazing Spider-Man gets a new poster…

Presenting our weekly round-up of the big news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

The Dark Knight Rises continued to dominate the headlines this week as a Los Angeles press screening of the six-minute prologue was accompanied by the first steps in the viral marketing campaign of the hugely-anticipated sequel, code-named ‘Operation Early Bird’. Beginning with the arrival of a series of mysterious documents – a CIA Bulletin on Dr. Leonid Pavel (Alon Abutbul) via Wired, a censored transcript via Empire and a third document from the Twitter account @thefirerises, which pointed to this website. At the time, it featured a countdown that ended at 6pm GMT yesterday - at which time the site ground to a halt under the weight of half the internet – before revealing itself as a map allowing fans to book tickets for early screenings of the IMAX prologue. If you’re yet to get yourself tickets, then you better act fast…

Of course, the prologue in question went down a storm when director Christopher Nolan introduced the footage at a special screening on Thursday night. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive (well, except for complaints about Tom Hardy’s Bane voice) with several reports going so far as to suggest Nolan has managed to top The Dark Knight (although surely it's a bit premature to declare such a feat based on a six-minute opening??). Anyway, the prologue opens with Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) attending the funeral of Harvey Dent, and as rumoured, it goes on to introduce the character of Bane as he escapes his CIA captors during a huge action sequence aboard a plane. The press screening also included a montage that included glimpses of Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), before closing on a shot of Bane holding Batman’s shattered mask. Footage from the trailer perhaps? We shall hopefully find out on Friday...

Update - as you'll already have seen at the top of this article, a brand new theatrical poster has also arrived today via the official website, which includes a shot of the broken mask and tagline of 'The Legend Ends'. Exciting stuff!

The Dark Knight Rises may be generating an insane amount of hype online lately, but it’s Chris Hemsworth’s Thor that’s dominated movie chatter on Twitter in 2011, with the Marvel Studios effort taking top spot ahead of TDKR, X-Men: First Class, Fast Five and Green Hornet. However, it hasn’t been the best of weeks for the God of Thunder as director Patty Jenkins vacated the director’s chair on the sequel, leaving Marvel scrambling for a replacement in order to push on with their plans for a November 2013 release. According to THR, the shortlist for her successor is down to two names, Alan Taylor (Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire) and Daniel Minahan (Series 7: The Contenders, True Blood) - both of whom count episodes of Game of Thrones among their credits) - while potential screenwriters include John Collee (Happy Feet), Roger Avery (Pulp Fiction), Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) and Sheldon Turner (X-Men: First Class).

In other bits and pieces from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jeremy Renner has been discussing his role as Hawkeye in The Avengers with HitFix, including his thoughts on the new-look costume: "There’s the Ultimates, and then there’s the old school version. And I wasn’t interested in wearing purple tights when I’m 50, so I love that they went the Ultimates route." Meanwhile his Avengers co-star Robert Downey Jr. also passed on his thoughts about the screenplay for Iron Man 3, describing it as “probably the best script I’ve read in five years”, and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) gave a brief update on the status of his and Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man project, telling Matt’s Movie Reviews that “We’ve delivered a draft earlier in the year and that’s really in the hands of Edgar and Marvel as to if and when they’ll make it… We feel that in quite a crowded market he is a very unique and very different kind of comic book hero. So it will be great if Ant-Man got made at some point. We think we’ve written a pretty cool script.”

Fox chairman Tom Rothman spoke to MTV Splash Page at the Gotham Awards, dropping some details about the studio’s plans for their upcoming superhero slate. In addition to confirming development on a sequel to X-Men: First Class, Rothman gave us an update on their other potential reboots: “Daredevil is still with David Slade. It’s in development now. We’re working on it and Fantastic Four… I think for all of us, the bar has been raised, so we've got to aim high now. Marvel's done a terrific job with their films. Where our Marvel movies are concerned or other movies like that, I think it's important for us to really aim high and deliver an A-level experience to the audience.” It’s fair to say that Fox haven’t had the best track record outside of their X-Men franchise, and even there we’ve still been served up tripe like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the studio did take a step in the right direction with First Class (even if it didn't quite set the box-office on fire), so let’s hope Rothman keeps his promise and the studio steps it up a gear with this next round of reboots.

Wrapping up the best of the rest…

...It's a good job that Marc Webb and company shot The Amazing Spider-Man early, what with all of the reshoots that have been going on for the upcoming reboot over the past month or so. These continued this past week, with JustJared managing to get their hands on some images of an out-of-costume Andrew Garfield taking part in some wire-work stunts on the streets of Los Angeles, while you can also check out a video of said scene here. With any luck, filming should just about wrap in time for the film's release in July – in the meantime, SuperHeroHype debuted a brand new poster for the film, which you can obviously see over to your right, and a second trailer must surely be in the offing soon...

...In other Spidey news, voice actor Drake Bell (Superhero Movie) also spoke to MTV about the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man animated series: "It's going to be really true [to the source material]... He’s in high school. The webs don’t come out of his arms. He’s a science nerd, so he figured out how to make sticky web substance and they’re called web shooters. So it’s more like the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book than the Tobey Maguire movie or the new Amazing Spider-Man or anything like that." Hmm, I guess he missed the news about Sony's reboot also making use of the mechanical web shooters...

...Before Spider-Man swings into cinemas next year, Nicholas Cage's Johnny Blaze will be the first superhero out of the gate when Ghost Rider: Sprit of Vengeance arrives in cinemas this coming February and Collider got a look at some theater standees that will be invading multiplexes soon...

…There was talk earlier in the week that delays to Peter Jackson’s first installment of his Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, meant that Warner Bros. were looking to switch dates with Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, bringing Man of Steel back to its original Christmas 2012 release date. Turns out the rumours were a complete fabrication, with WB executive Dan Fellman confirming that The Hobbit will still hit cinemas next December as planned. Guess we’ll just have to wait that little longer to see Henry Cavill’s Superman in action…

…Mark Strong passed on his thoughts about the possibility of Warner Bros. giving the green light to another Green Lantern in an interview with MSN: “I know that there are two schools of thought. There's obviously the school of thought that feels it didn't make the money it should've made or what they wanted it to make, so therefore financially there's no point in making a second one. But there's also the school of thought that feels like the groundwork was made with the first one, and that the advertising and notion of Green Lantern is out there and if we can make a second one that absolutely kicked ass that it would undo all the feeling that the first one hadn't really delivered in the way that it should've done...”

…Variety announced that Lionsgate have acquired the rights to an original Stan Lee superhero property, which is set to be written, produced and directed by Smallville creators and Spider-Man 2 scribes Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. According to the report, the as-yet-untitled project will take the form of “a multigenerational superhero movie that spans several decades…”

...And finally, legendary comic book artist Jerry Robinson passed away in his sleep on Wednesday night, aged 89. Best known as the creator of Batman's arch-enemy the Joker, Robinson was also instrumental in the creation of iconic characters such as Robin, Two-Face and Alfred during his run on the title in the 1940s, and in 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in recognition of a career that spanned eight decades.

Gary Collinson

Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.