Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top stories in comic based Film & TV news!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Chris Cooper as Osborn, Marc Webb Reveals Set Photos, and the New Spidey Suit!

Horse whisperer – check. Homicidal closeted gay man – check. Traitorous spy – check. Orchid poacher – check.

What on earth is left for Chris Cooper to play? Apparently it’s Norman Osborn, aka The Green Goblin.

Cooper will join Jamie Foxx as Electro and Paul Giamatti as Rhino as they tackle Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield, of course) in the upcoming sequel. Will Cooper’s Green Goblin be on par with Willem Dafoe’s from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man? That will be difficult as Dafoe plays the unhinged supervillain so well, but if anyone is up to the task, it would be Chris Cooper.

If you follow no one else on twitter (besides Grizzly Bomb of course), make sure you follow The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s director, Marc Webb. He’s been tweeting photos from the set everyday and it’s always fun to get a look behind the scenes, and commentary from the director isn’t too shabby. Yesterday he sent out a picture of an upended car on top of a crushed cab… Rhino’s handiwork? [Ed. Note: I’ve included a shot of Shailene Woodley as MJ from the set. No reason.]

In addition to the day to day photos, some pics of the new Spider-Man suit have been released. Now you aren’t going to make everyone happy, and there were quite a few people displeased with the suit in the first film of this trilogy, but I like this one. The eyes look great, much better than the first attempt.

Now that filming is underway, I’m sure there will be plenty more in the way of news and such from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so stay tuned!

Justice League

Christopher Nolan is Allegedly Producing with Zack Snyder Possibly Directing, and Christian Bale Might be Batman! But Probably Not.

I can not be the only person who feels like this movie has been in the works for decades now and with every passing day comes another rumor only to be shot down the following day. At this rate, my grandchildren might get to see a Justice League movie, but only if they are lucky.

The latest of these rumors was that Christian Bale was going to be returning as the Dark Knight, but that has been apparently dismissed. However, it was confirmed that Christopher Nolan is involved in some capacity, most likely as a producer. Also a producer is Man of Steel director Zack Snyder and there are hints that he might be directing Justice League as well.

Of course the biggest statement in the ComicBookMovie report is that we will probably not be getting much Justice League news until after Man of Steel is released on June 14th of this year. What that really means is we won’t be getting any “official” information but if it’s like anything else in the internet age, we’ll know plenty. It may not be completely factual but we will know it!

Fantastic Four

Vampire Hunter Scribe Takes a Stab at the Script, And a Producer is Named!

What do Pride and Prejudice, zombies, Abraham Lincoln, vampires, and Mr. Fantastic have in common? Well, thanks to the Fantastic Four reboot, Seth Grahame-Smith. He’s taken on the task of “polishing” the script and one can only hope that means this reboot will be much better than Rise of the Silver Surfer because I think we can all agree, that is a movie that just needs to be forgotten about, for all eternity. Burned from the annals of geek history. Grahame-Smith wrote the screenplay to last year’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer based on his novel of the same title (he also wrote the incredibly popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and the Johnny Depp vampire movie, Dark Shadows. Also of note, he is the writer of the hopefully upcoming Beetlejuice 2.

Matthew Vaughn has been announced as the producer of  the FF reboot, directed by Josh Trank. Vaughn is obviously no stranger to the geek world with a resume including Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, so I think we can rest easy knowing that the Fantastic Four family will be treated right.

Speaking of Matthew Vaughn and X-Men…

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Peter Dinklage, Richard Nixon, and Halle Berry!

Ever since Game of Thrones (and the movie Station Agent,  that everyone should see) actor Peter Dinklage was announced for X-Men: Days of Future Past, there has been speculation as to who he would be playing. Now it appears as if there’s a character emerging from the rumors as a front-runner.

[quote]But thanks to a tipster who prefers to remain anonymous, but is extremely reliable, we can tentatively confirm: Dinklage is playing Bolivar Trask, inventor of the mutant hunting robot Sentinels in the movie sequel. -MTV[/quote]

Obviously fans have been waiting for the Sentinels to feature into the story for a long time, and Peter Dinklage as any character in the world is fine with me.

While that is fun news, it’s still technically a rumor so it could easily change. However, director Bryan Singer has said that there is one person we are sure to see in Days of Future Past and that is none other than the 37th President himself, Richard Nixon. Apparently part of the movie is based in the ’70s, and Singer has promised that Tricky Dick has a role in the story. If I have no other reason to watch this movie, it will be to see how Richard Nixon factors into the X-Men universe.

Also official? Halle Berry is returning as Storm. Is there really much more to say on that besides an underwhelmed “that’s good, I guess, for her, maybe?”

Didn’t think so.

That about does it for this edition of Hero Express! Let us know what you think of these stories in the comments and we’ll see ya next time!