Over the past few weeks we’ve enjoyed plenty of juicy superhero headlines, from the first reveal of Chris Evans in costume as Captain America: The First Avenger, Andrew Garfield in the Untitled Spider-Man Reboot and the cast of Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming X-Men: First Class, to the announcement last week that Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy would be portraying Selina Kyle and Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Well, after all that excitement things were bound to slow down sooner or later and sure enough that’s been the case, so while this week's column includes a sprinkling of X-Men, a touch of Spider-Man and little more than a passing mention of The Avengers, it’s time for the A-list heavyweights to step aside and let some of their costumed compatriots enjoy a moment in the spotlight.
If the Mayan calendar is to be believed, 2012 may herald the end of the world but it’s also going to be a phenomenal year for superhero movies, with Marvel bringing together Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, along with the release of Marc Webb’s Spider-Man and Christopher Nolan’s hugely anticipated sequel to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Now we can add another film to that list with the news that the first leg of filming has wrapped on… wait for it… Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance! Yes, Nicolas Cage will return as stunt motorcyclist-turned-demon vigilante Johnny Blaze in the sequel to the Mark Steven Johnson’s mostly forgettable 2007 effort, which somehow managed to bank an astonishing $228m world-wide (I guess Ghost Rider super-fan Cage really enjoyed watching himself up there on the big screen).Joining the cast for Spirit of Vengeance are Ciarán Hinds (There Will Be Blood), Violante Placido (The American) and Idris Elba (Takers), along with a rumoured appearance by Connor MacLeod himself, Christopher Lambert. Meanwhile filmmaking duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor take over directorial duties, and given that their last gig was scripting the atrocious Jonah Hex I think we can safely assume that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be destroyed both critically and commercially by its rivals. One positive though is that American Beauty star Wes Bentley won’t be back to stink up the screen even further as Blackheart, so perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies. If you’re remotely interested, Marvel Movies! posted a whole load of set pictures including a couple of shots of the Hellcycle that looks… well, shit, quite frankly.
Moving on, if you’re at all familiar with Warner Bros.’ handling of their DC stable of superheroes, you’ll know that term ‘development hell’ is a pretty apt description. It took five years to get Richard Donner’s Superman off the ground (and nineteen years to reboot with Superman Returns), while Batman hung around for a decade before Tim Burton finally brought the Caped Crusader to cinemas in 1989. So, it comes as little surprise that they’ve been trying to get their Amazon Princess Wonder Woman up and running since the late ‘90s, with the likes of Joel Silver, Lauren Shuler Donner, Joss Whedon and David S. Goyer all linked to a feature adaptation. However, it now looks as though there could be light at the end of the tunnel, albeit in the guise of a live-action television series, with the announcement this week that NBC has ordered a pilot episode from a pitch by David E. Kelley.The creator of popular US shows such as Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal and Boston Legal, Kelley has written a script that’s said to incorporate iconic elements such as the Invisible Plane and Lasso of Truth and is described as “a serious, non-campy take on the character”, while TVLine.com suggest that Charlie's Angels and Terminator Salvation helmer McG is odds-on favourite to direct. As to who’ll be stepping into Lynda Carter’s knee-highs, a host of actresses have been linked to the part over the past decade such as Jessica Biel, Sandra Bullock, Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but I’d be very surprised if they go with an established Hollywood name. Nevertheless, with the pilot set to arrive around April or May, expect an announcement very soon.
In other superhero-related goodness, Inside Movies spoke to X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn earlier this week about his upcoming prequel. Describing the tone as “X-Men meets Bond, with a little bit of Thirteen Days thrown in”, Vaughn said that the plot will see Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) teaming up with the CIA to prevent mutant Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) from starting World War III. The interview went some way to perking up my interest after last week’s disappointment, but I’m still on the fence with this one until we get to feast our eyes on some footage. Meanwhile Thor star Chris Hemsworth dropped a few tidbits about The Avengers in a chat with MTV, and AICN got their hands on more spy pics from the Spider-Man shoot that gives us a pretty good look at the webslinger’s revamped costume. Oh, and this very morning brought rumblings that Robin Williams is in talks to battle Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Rises as Professor Hugo Strange, the villain that was linked by many to Tom Hardy before he was announced as Bane. Whether there's any substance to the rumour remains to be seen...That’s about it for this week, but on a final note we’d just like to pay our respects to The Human Torch, who bought the farm earlier this week and left the Fantastic Four in desperate need of a re-branding. Of course, expect his resurrection in a month or so.
Gary Collinson
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