Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara spoke at their annual investors meeting, where he revealed a little more about the studio’s plans for their DC Comic properties. Those plans consist of ten movies being released from 2016 to 2020, and include the confirmation of a few things we already suspected.
The slate goes as follows:
Continue reading Warner Bros. Releases DC Film Slate, Ten Movies Coming By 2020
Yeah, I know. That is clearly a picture of JGL as Nightwing and not Batman. Sorry, but I’ve been waiting a while to use that fan-made picture, so deal with it. I also know that I got your hopes up with the title only to immediately shatter them afterwards. You are not alone in this feeling. Earlier in the week some rumors started to fly that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would don the cape and cowl to portray Batman in Warner Bros. upcoming Justice League. Now I use the term upcoming very loosely, because we have all been through this before with a Justice League movie so I’m not putting too much stock into it getting made anytime soon.
Continue reading JGL Might Play Batman in ‘Justice League’? Sources Say No…
Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top five stories in comic based Film & TV news!
Robert Downey Jr. may have injured his ankle during shooting, but Shane Blacks Iron Man 3 is still pushing ahead. Not sure if Robert is back at shooting but his new suit certainly is. The new Mark VIII suit made its debut at this year’s Comic-Con and was met with mixed opinions. I wasn’t a fan originally but it has grown on me a bit since then and I would like to see this suit in action. Where’s the trailer at already, Marvel?
The blue suit to right is apparently not the Iron Patriot like we originally thought but instead is allegedly going to be Rhodey’s new War Machine armor. We mainly think this because of the clear US Air Force insignia stamped on the side of the new armor. I do not like the fact that the War Machine armor is almost exactly the same in appearance to the Iron Man suit! I think it will get confusing in a fast fight scene with them flying through the skies with explosions left, right, and center.
Images via [Collider]
What a prestigious role to play with such a well-respected film company. Congratulations Mark. Oh by the way I am clapping slowly. Not shocking that Fox decided to do this since Marvel made billions on The Avengers and then got director Joss Whedon to helm their Marvel Cinematic Universe for Phase Two. So Fox wants their remaining Marvel properties to work a little more coherently under the watchful eye of Mr Millar. Nothing wrong with that, though I’d prefer if they would just give them back to Marvel. That’s clearly not going to happen so they might as well try and make them good.
Mark Millar has a rich history with comics and to be honest he is a smart choice to oversee Fox’s comic films. His most noticeable works are The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass. In August 2007, he also won the Stan Lee award at Wizardworld in Chicago. He has the right background and so we will have to just wait and see what impact his involvement in the next Fox films will be. Fingers crossed its good.
These are Mark Millar’s words on taking the job:
“I really like the Fox team, love this bold new direction they have for their franchises and am proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema’s biggest talents. James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn’s one of my closest pals, and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone call I’ve ever had,” Millar said with characteristic understatement in a statement accompanying the announcement. Describing his new role as a “dream gig,” he continued, “I spent 10 years working at Marvel and am really happy with the work I did on the comic side of things, so the idea of working with these characters now in a brand new medium is enormously exciting for me.”
Interview via [Comic Alliance]
Talking to MTV, Ben Affleck has explained that he doesn’t want to direct any Justice League movie and he doesn’t understand where the rumors started. He never suggested to anyone he wanted the part or that he was approached for the directing role by Warner Bros. So in his defense the theory kind of came out of nowhere and I find it funny that he has to explain that point from now on.
These are his words about the suggested directing role:
“What happens is that there’s a lot of bloggers and Internet interest around superhero movies, so there’s regularly a rumor that comes up, obviously [with regard to] ‘Justice League’ once ‘Avengers’ happened they think, ‘Well it would be crazy not to make “Justice League,”‘ and I’m sure they will. I guess I should be flattered, and I’m sure it will be cool. I’ve seen some of the stuff from the new Superman movie and that stuff is awesome. I think they took a really cool, real approach to Superman, which no one has done before, so if that trend continues I’m sure ‘Justice League’ will be great.”
The reason that he won’t be involved, he says, is that he finds that he doesn’t really care to work on superhero movies at the moment, thanks to his experience with Fox’s Daredevil in 2003. But that he may work on a superheroes film in the future:
“I had a negative experience with the one comic book I liked, it was just a movie that didn’t work… It’s such a shame because first of all ‘Daredevil’ [is] a great book, great idea and then right after that they figured out that it was better to make the movies good and then they started making them cool and investing in them. I felt like I was in the 1930s with that outfit, the trousers: ‘Hey chum, hold up there! This fella’s trying to rob a bank!’ It was a drag but I did love it as a kid and they’re rebooting it.”
News via [Comics Alliance]
Captain America is going into production early next year, but they still haven’t picked a female lead. The new lead is going to be a romantic interest to Steve Rogers, and although fans may know that Sharon Carter would be a safe bet as she is the niece of Steve Rogers Wartime love Peggy Carter. The real question though is who will play the role of the Captain’s new love interest.
The short list so far appears to include Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four), Imogen Poots (Fright Night) and Alison Brie (Community). They do appear to have got a mixed group of women for the role which makes for endless speculation. I think with Alison Brie having already worked with the directors of this film that she has a strong chance of getting the role, not to mention the draw she would bring from the loyal fans of Community (Yeah, she’s HOT!). But that’s just my theory as the casting could go to any of these ladies, to be honest they have all done some very interesting work and I am sure they would do a great job.
News via [Coming Soon]
Rumors of a fourth X-Men film have been floating around the nerd vine for a while after X-Men: The Last Stand nearly destroyed the franchise. What a terrible film. The separate X-Men films First Class and Wolverine put us more at doubt that a fourth film would get made, but that they would continue the other independent X-Men stories. Well it might be more likely to happen now that Patrick Stewart teased us with a reply to a fan at the Montreal Comic Con this year.
SuperHeroHype reports:
At the 2012 Montreal Comic Convention, he was asked by a fan about returning to the series and he replied “I think there is every possibility” and then began to say the names of his female co-stars “Halle Berry! Famke Janssen! Rebecca Stamos! Anna Paquin!” Stewart then said, “yes, I’ll be reprising…”
Yes, he could just be messing with us. Yes, he might just be saying that he’d like to be in an X-Men film again. But with the sequel to First Class titled X-Men: Days of Future Past there might be a chance for him to reprise his role as present Professor and play along side his younger counterpart, which I would love to see and is perfectly possible in the time travel story line of Days of Future Past.
That’s it for this week!
According to Variety via Fandango, it looks like Warner Bros. has approached Ben Affleck to direct the Justice League movie. Affleck is a hot property in the directing pool due to his critical and commercial successes with Gone Baby Gone and The Town. Argo is also shaping up to be a film to be reckoned with considering the early buzz, and since he has made Warner Bros. some money with his films, they have sent him the Will Beale (Gangster Squad) script to see if he’d be willing to guide DC’s finest to the promised land achieved by The Avengers, aka, a vault full of cash.
The movie is scheduled to be launched at the earliest around 2015 so that would put it into direct competition with The Avengers 2 movie, which just announced Joss Whedon returning as director and writer. Ben Affleck apparently makes it known that he wants to act in the films that he directs so you might also see him don a costume if this comes true. He has been circling another project called Replay, which is also being developed by Warner as well, but they have been working on that for the last decade so this might be his next project. Only thing that might get in the way would be his long-term commitment because 2015 is a long ways away and he would be tied up until then most likely developing the story and filming. I don’t know how he can get the time off from Fashionable Male during this time.
He’s come a long way from the back of a Volkswagon
I can understand the misgivings of Ben Affleck as the director of this movie. First off, he’s not Christopher Nolan, let’s get that out of the way. Second, it’s Ben freakin’ Affleck. He was the dominatrix Daredevil and that might ruin any street cred with the comic book crowd. The reputation might not be there for him to tackle this movie with that awkward fight scene with Elektra (Jennifer Garner) on people’s minds. Third, this would only be his fourth movie and unlike Joss Whedon, he does not appear to have a deep understanding of fanboys and the comic book universe. Can he handle the massive size of this project when he is considered a neophyte to the directing game? He is basically one of the more random choices out there to grab on to. However, I liked Gone Baby Gone and I loved The Town (partially because the Boston accent is fun to imitate) and I feel that he can definitely handle the characters and the scope of this movie based off of those flicks. Now, I absolutely do NOT want him to act in it but not because I think he is a bad actor (quite the opposite actually), but he should concentrate on delivering on all the characters and not just his own. I think he would be a great choice but I honestly don’t think he’ll do it. 3 years is a long time for someone to dedicate for the movie. Granted, I don’t know who else would at this point but just for discussion purposes, maybe Looper director Rian Johnson? He has about the same experience as Affleck behind the camera and handled Bruce Willis and potential DC staple Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Looper. Granted, as I wrote that, he also did Brick, which I loved and also with JGL so maybe he should revive that detective feel and go with Batman. Boom. Discuss.
The epic, geek manga carta I had in my pants for the inevitable sequel to the bestselling Arkham City video game released late last year has just taken a nose dive upon hearing the most recent plans Rocksteady Games has for the franchise. Trust me, it doesn’t start off bad at all. First we are told that (It’s still rumor mind you) the game will in fact be a prequel to Arkham Asylum, so that’s fine right? Maybe a lead up to the first game showing Batman clobbering the various members of the rogues gallery and sending them one by one to Arkham, the whole thing ending with Batman capturing the Joker and leading right up to the beginning of the first game. Sounds great right? But apparently they’re going in a whole new direction.
According to a video at IGN, Rocksteady is furthering this new direction by having the game take place during the Silver Age of DC… Silver Age meaning the flashier costumes and ridiculous storylines like Batman traveling through space and stopping the most asinine schemes that his foes can throw at him. I’m having some trouble understanding how they go from the dark grittiness of the Arkham games into the fluffy and bygone era of the Silver Age. I hope this is one rumor that doesn’t come true. They also report that members of the Justice League will show up and the game will involve the Justice League being formed. Why not just sever all ties completely with the Arkham games then? Don’t even call it a prequel. If Warner Bros. and DC are wanting to start showing off the Justice League before their much-anticipated movie (supposedly due in 2015) then why not do a game focusing only on them? And this isn’t even the worst of it.
Paul Dini, the writer of the past two Arkham games and Batman: The Animated Series from the early 90’s will not be returning for this prequel game. To me Dini and the group of voice actors from the animated show, along with the newcomers completely owned the Batman scene. The voices and story all fit perfect, having the same amount of dark edginess to it that I remember from Batman: The Animated Series that I watched as a youngster. I watched the show and felt a sense of wonderment because so much of the show’s subject matter leaned towards being more dark and adult themed. Paul Dini will be deeply missed and hopefully won’t have to watch the franchise completely go down the crapper.
What do all of our Bat-Fans think? Excited for this so-called prequel or is it too soon to pass judgment? Sound off below!
I’ve honestly run out of Dark Tower pictures from writing articles about how many times this damned is happening and then isn’t happening and then is happening again – 4/8/11, 5/6/11, 7/20/11 – but hey, there’s more casting news to report…. recasting that is. It would appear that ‘Maximus’ himself – Russell Crowe will be taking the place of Javier Bardem as the badass gunslinger and main character ‘Roland Deschain’. Of course this is all just speculation at this point.
Grizzly Bomb 