The Week in Spandex – The Dark Knight Rises’ Bane, Green Lantern 3D trailer, X-Men: First Class and more

Our weekly round-up of all the talking points from the world of movie superheroes...

Well, just when it was shaping up to be a quiet week in the land of cinematic superherodom what goes and happens? Warner Bros. deliver the first image of Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, that’s what! Things all kicked off with the launch of the official website accompanied by some creeping chanting, which then went through audio software to reveal #thefirerises, a Twitter account that promised to reveal a fraction of the image with every new follower. Fortunately some clever cyber-sleuth managed to get their hands on the full picture, which presents a tantalising glimpse of Batman’s latest foe.

Principal photography on Christopher Nolan’s sequel was officially announced earlier this week, but of course filming has already taken place in India and the UK and it’s probably a wise decision to release the image given all the set photos that have been emerging from the London shoot. Much like the reveal of Heath Ledger’s Joker, it’s done a mighty fine job in getting fans talking; not only does it confirm that Bane will be sporting a mask (borrowed from Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion, by the looks of things), but it’s also probably a safe assumption that he’s sporting some kind of burns, what with the whole ‘the fire rises’ thing going on. Meanwhile Variety also broke the news that Nolan has added a further three actors to the ever-growing cast – Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket) will play a character called Nixon, while Tom Conti (Derailed) and 11-year-old Joey King (Ramona and Beezus) will feature in as-yet-unrevealed roles.

Sticking with Warner Bros. for the moment and yesterday also brought the debut of the third trailer for Green Lantern, Martin Campbell's big-budget, VFX-heavy DC adaptation. Aimed at the 3D market, the trailer (which you can see at the bottom of this article) is pretty epic in scope and should do a good job of further selling the film to fans, although I'm personally not so sure how this one will go down with the general movie-going public. In other Lantern-related bits and pieces, both Ryan Reynolds and Mark Strong have been taking part in interviews to discuss the film, while Total Film announced that director Martin Campbell has no plans to return for any potential sequel.

While we're on the subject of Ryan Reynolds, the actor also had a few words to say about the the upcoming X-Men spin-off Deadpool during an interview with Comic Book Resources about Green Lantern. Describing it as "a deconstruction of superhero movies," Reynolds stated that he had no problem starring as two superheroes but effectively ruled himself out of contention for The Flash: "I always thought if I did a Deadpool film, I wouldn't do a Flash movie". Meanwhile Robert Rodriguez, who was long rumoured to be in the running for Deadpool, has told MTV that his involvement only ever went as far as reading the script but he has high hopes for the final product: "It's going to be a cool movie. I don't want people to think it's going to stink! Not at all. It's a great script and action-packed and it's a great character. But it's like, 'He turned it down! He dropped out!' Well, I was never in the project!"

Mutant prequel X-Men: First Class is set to arrive here in the UK a week on Monday and ComicBookMovie have collected a whole host of stills that includes pretty much the entire roster, along with a few more TV spots that you can see here and here. Elsewhere James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were the latest cast members to undergo the X-Perts Q&A on the official X-Men Facebook page, while Nicholas Hoult spoke to IGN about portraying Beast and Zoe Kravitz (Angel Salvadore) also had a few words about her role in the film. One person who won't be popping up in First Class however is Stan Lee (maybe that's something to do with his insistence that Bryan Singer is directing?), although the Marvel legend has confirmed that he will appear for his customary cameo in The Avengers, which leads us quite nicely into this week's round-up of the latest happenings from the Marvel Cinematic Universe...

Firstly, Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) took part in a fan Q&A with Empire and revealed that he has no idea whether Ant-Man will make an appearance in the upcoming ensemble, while Thor star Stellan Skarsgård revealed that Joss Whedon was responsible for directing the post-credits sequence in Marvel's most recent offering. Newsrama also put out a report earlier this week suggesting that Thor is underperforming compared to other Marvel efforts (I guess they must have forgot to take into account the film's world-wide haul, which at $376m and counting is already more than $100m ahead of The Incredible Hulk), but that hasn't had any impact on Marvel's plans for a sequel, with CinemaBlend reporting that The Enchantress and The Executioner are under consideration for Thor's next adversaries.

Wrapping up the best of the rest...

...If you cast your mind back to last year when Sony announced their then-untitled Spider-Man reboot, you may remember a few eyebrows being raised over suggestions that the film's budget would be a mere $80m. Well, it seems that figure was a gross underestimate, as actor and stuntman Richard Norton let slip that the actual budget for The Amazing Spider-Man stands at a whopping $220m...

...NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt has gone on record to explain the reasoning behind the network's decision to ditch Wonder Woman. Greenblatt told EW that "we did what was best for the schedule" but felt that "they made a really fine pilot and Adrianne Palicki did a fantastic job". Hmm... doesn't quite add up, that one. Nevertheless there may still be hope for Wonder Woman fans, with Greenblatt suggesting that the pilot could be shopped around to alternative networks...

...And finally, yesterday brought the sad news that wrestling legend Randy 'Macho Man' Savage has died in a car accident in Florida, aged 58. In addition to his hugely successful ring career, Macho Man enjoyed a number of film and TV roles, including his appearance in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man as Bonesaw McGraw.


Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers and more...

Our weekly round-up of all the talking points from the world of movie superheroes...

As I’m sure we’re all aware, filming kicked off on the The Dark Knight Rises last weekend with early spy photos suggesting the inclusion of Ra's al Ghul's mystical Lazarus Pit. Well, since then a scene description has emerged that, if true, would go some way to explaining the presence of Josh Pence (Young Ra's) and Tom Hardy (Bane) on set. Obviously there's the chance of spoilers, but if you're interested check it out here. Meanwhile Xnet (via BadAssDigest) reported that Israeli actor Alon Abutbul (Munich, Body of Lies) has been cast as a ‘mad scientist’, and while there’s already talk of Hugo Strange it’s probably best to wait until we hear some kind of official announcement on the casting before everyone gets too excited.

Elsewhere in The Dark Knight Rises camp, an article in the L.A. Times suggested that the film's budget is estimated to be "at least $250m", up from an expected figure of around $185m. It’s quite an interesting piece and goes on to reveal some some behind-the-scenes tension between Warner Bros. and financing partner Legendary Pictures over potential profit sharing on the sure-to-be-huge sequel, with WB allegedly looking to increase their percentage as their lucrative Harry Potter franchise draws to a close. Next up for Christopher Nolan and company is a trip to London for a four day shoot starting this coming Monday, with Christian Bale expected to be in attendance at the Farmiloe building, which stood in for Gotham City's Police HQ in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Expect a flood of spy photos in the coming week.

Moving on and you'd have to have been living under a rock these past few months not to have seen a photo of Andrew Garfield's new-look web-slinger swinging around New York City, but thanks to SplashNews we now get a look at some of the other characters from The Amazing Spider-Man including Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), not to mention Garfield in his Peter Parker attire. HeyUGuys also grabbed a few words with Martin Sheen about his role in the upcoming reboot, and while we all know how that will end up, thanks to a super-spy you can get an early peak at Uncle Ben’s death scene right here.

With Marvel's latest superhero blockbuster Thor currently sitting atop the box office both here in the UK and in North America (with a world-wide gross in excess of $283m to date), the focus now begins to shift towards their next offering, Captain America: The First Avenger. While we await the second trailer from Joe Johnston's WWII-set actioner we did get a good look at the wardrobe for the agents of HYDRA, while French magazine L'Ecran Fantastique posted a few details about Captain America in a piece that also suggested that both Ant-Man and Wasp would be making an appearance in The Avengers. It had of course been thought that Ant-Man was being back for his own movie from Edgar Wright, which he has co-written with Joe Cornish (see Cornish talk about the script here), so whether this is accurate or not remains to be seen.

While we're on the subject of The Avengers, DailyBlam delivered an insight into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s presence in the upcoming ensemble, suggesting a host of familiar names will join Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), including the likes of Alexander Goodwin Pierce, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Wendell Vaughn, Jasper Sitwell, Clay Quartermain, Jack Truman, Abigail Brand, Larry Young and Jimmy Woo. It also seems that the cast could swell further with reports that Gwenyth Paltrow may (briefly) appear as Pepper Potts, while Derek Luke is confirmed to reprise his First Avenger role as Gabe Jones. And, if that’s not enough to feed your Cinematic Universe cravings for another week then you might want to check out an interview with Thor’s Chris Hemsworth, who spoke to Hero Complex about working with Joss Whedon and squaring off against Chris Evans both on screen and at the box-office, while Kevin Fiege chatted to Box Office Magazine about all things Marvel.

It's now just over two weeks until the release of Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class (May 30th here in the UK and June 3rd in North America) and ComicBookMovie have gathered together two new TV spots and a clip, while IGN posted an interview with Jennifer Lawrence about her role as the shape-shifting mutant Raven Darkholme in the upcoming prequel. Lawrence is also the latest cast member to complete the X-Perts Q&A on the official X-Men Facebook page, with Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and Zoe Kravitz (Angel Salvadore) next to take the challenge. Meanwhile British boy-band (or should that be middle-aged-men-band) Take That have been confirmed to deliver the official X-Men: First Class song 'Love Love', and if you weren't 'fortunate' enough to catch their performance on the National Movie Awards you can check it out here.

And finally, it’s probably not much of a surprise to learn that NBC have opted against commissioning a Wonder Woman series based on David E. Kelley's pilot. Wonder Woman has been on the back foot ever since that disastrous first costume unveiling and you have to wonder how this could impact Warner Bros.’ plans for a big-screen adaptation currently rumoured for 2013. If you're interested, AICN have posted a report that gives us a few details on the pilot, while Thor star Jaimie Alexander has been talking about passing on the opportunity to portray the Amazon Princess, feeling that the approach was "all about her boobs". Hmm… maybe it’s a shame it got the chop, then.

Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers production updates and more

Our weekly round-up of all the big talking points from the world of movie superheroes...



It really is an exciting time in superherodom at the moment with filming now underway on two of 2012’s big summer offerings, The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers. This week’s column provides an update on all the gossip coming out of both camps so it’s probably a good time to say that there may be a few potential spoilers ahead. But only minor though, I promise. Meanwhile there’s still plenty going on this year with Thor (finally) hitting North American cinemas and X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern set to arrive next month, and we’ll also be touching upon The Amazing Spider-Man, The Wolverine, Ant-Man and more…



We'll start things off with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, which started filming in India's Mehrangarh Fort yesterday and continues today. Despite the fact that Christian Bale was the only actor thought to feature in this part of the shoot, the Hindustan Times reported that Bale would not be in attendance and suggested that the scene may include antagonists from the League of Shadows. Then, late yesterday, some set photos emerged showing a pool filled with green liquid that seems very likely to transform into the Lazarus Pit in post-production, especially when locals have reported that Josh Pence has been seen around the area. So how will this fit into the plot? Well, my guess - if it does turn out to be the Lazarus Pit - is that we'll see Ra's using the pit in a flashback and Bruce will use it later on to heal himself from the injuries he sustains at the hands of Tom Hardy's Bane.



In other Dark Knight news, Batman-on-Film posted a few further details about the shoot from a reliable source who states that filming in Pittsburgh will only last around three weeks before the production heads to the UK and New York City. Meanwhile the majority of the work is expected to take place in Los Angeles and it's also thought that an official synopsis will arrive soon. Elsewhere, a casting call on ActingAuditions points to Juno Temple's character being that of Holly Robinson, a juvenile prostitute and associate of Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle who first appeared in Frank Miller's classic comic series Batman: Year One, while the LA Times posted an article with further speculation that Marion Cotillard's 'Miranda Tate' is not all that she would appear.



Moving on and as with Nolan, director Joss Whedon has done a pretty good job of keeping a tight lid on The Avengers, although of course it seems that someone forgot to send Samuel L. Jackson the memo. The fallout from the alleged script leak continued this past week as FilmFanReview reported that production had shut down until rewrites could be completed. The story was pretty much debunked immediately by Marvel, but FilmFanReview soon posted an update stating that their sources say it’s legit and Marvel are just covering their tracks. Now I could be wrong, but you have to expect the major Hollywood media to be all over such a story if it were true and let’s be honest, even if the pages that hit the net are real, why would they bother rewriting it?? I mean, it hardly gives anything away – Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk. Well, no shit. According to our sources, Tony Stark puts on the Iron Man suit, Captain America chucks his shield and at one point, Thor even finds himself in Asgard…



While we’re on the subject of The Avengers, Marvel Studios supreme Kevin Feige has confirmed that there’s absolutely no chance of Hank Pym / Ant-Man making an appearance in the superhero ensemble, which could add fuel to the possibility of a solo flick in the near future. Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish have recently turned in a new draft and if it does become a reality then I wouldn’t put it past Marvel to pull one of their last-minute post-credits acts come summer 2012. Feige has also been talking further potential instalments in the Cinematic Universe, discussing spin-offs for Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and S.H.I.E.L.D. with The Playlist, and updating everything from Iron Man 3 and Doctor Strange to potential Disney-backed animations in an interview over at Collider.



Sticking with Marvel for the moment and after banking over $100m internationally to date, Kenneth Branagh's Thor finally arrived in North American cinemas yesterday (read our reviews here, here and here). Marvel legend Stan Lee has been tweeting his approval of the film, while Kevin Feige has been talking up a sequel and explaining that screenwriter Don Payne is already working on developing the story. As for a director, it seems Branagh is open to a return: "I am not sure I am done with Thor's universe, or if it is done with me. I guess it will likely depend on how massive it is and how the reviews are, and then schedules and all that nonsense."



Wrapping up the best of the rest...



...The Amazing Spider-Man is close to wrapping principal photography after a lengthy six-month shoot and The Daily Mail has posted a few photos which confirm that Andrew Garfield's Spidey will be swinging his way around New York via the traditional wire method as opposed to the CGI work used in Sam Raimi's earlier trilogy. Meanwhile the article also contains an image of a heavily disguised Rhys Ifans, who seems to be going to some lengths to keep his appearance as The Lizard under wraps (check out those green eyebrows!)...



...Warner Bros. released a new trailer for their upcoming DC Comics adaptation Green Lantern earlier this week that features a host of new footage including glimpse of Peter Sarsgaard's villainous Hector Hammond. While the buzz seems to be picking up for the Ryan Reynolds-starrer, some of the CGI still seems a bit iffy and the studio must be hoping that the recent increase in the VFX budget will pay off come the film's opening on June 17th...



...X-Men star Hugh Jackman took part in an interview to promote his new live theatre show and talk shifted to The Wolverine, with Jackman stating that he hopes to get underway with production this October. The Wolverine is currently without a director following the departure of Darren Aronofsky earlier this year, while the likes of David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) and Duncan Jones (Source Code) have been mentioned as possible replacements...



...In other X-Men news, Matthew Vaughn's mutant prequel X-Men: First Class arrives here in the UK in less than four weeks time and the promotional machine continues to roll on with the release of a new international poster and a character banner featuring stars Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Alex Gonzalez, January Jones, Kevin Bacon and Jason Flemyng. There’s also been some new character videos, while Fox have also released details of the special edition box set for the film's Blu-ray release, and you can check out all the new images over at ScreenRant...



...A piece of original art from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns featuring Batman and Carrie Kelley's Robin has been sold for a whopping $448,125 at auction, making it the single most valuable piece of American comic art ever sold...



...And finally we end with the sad news that the Academy Award nominated actor Jackie Cooper has died aged 88. Cooper, who as a child star was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his leading role in Skippy (1931), was best known to comic book fans as Perry White, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet, having appeared in all four of Christopher Reeve's Superman movies.

Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - The Avengers assemble as Pixar say no to Marvel

Our weekly round-up of all the talking points from the world of movie superheroes including The Avengers, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel and The Amazing Spider-Man…

Warner Bros. may have grabbed most of the attention these past few weeks with casting announcements on The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel but this week’s column is all about Marvel (well, pretty much all, anyway), with Monday gone marking the official beginning of principal photography on their epic superhero ensemble, The Avengers. Director Joss Whedon revealed the news himself via a statement on Whedonesque, with the principal cast members – the likes of Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Mark Ruffalo (The Incredible Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Stellan Skarsgård (Professor Erik Selvig) – expected to commence filming this coming week.

To mark the occasional the studio quickly released the first official set photo along with a press release that seemed to indicate a slight name change to Marvel’s The Avengers (is that really necessary?). We also managed to get a few scraps of info about the upcoming film throughout the week, with Mark Ruffalo stating that he has “a couple of lines as the Hulk” and describing his character as “the teammate none of them are sure they want on their team”. Chris Evans also revealed that Captain America will find himself in new threads, while Paul Bettany confirmed that he is set to reprise his role as the voice of Jarvis from Iron Man. Meanwhile a guy going by the name of XXXBobSmith claimed to have a copy of the screenplay for The Avengers and released a couple of pages in an effort to sell the script on to interested sites. Judging by the images the script certainly looks as if it could be legit (see for yourself here) and if so, then I hope Mr. Smith gets enough to pay for a decent lawyer.

Of course before we get to The Avengers we have two lead-in movies from Marvel Studios this year in Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. Kenneth’s Branagh’s Thor opened officially in UK cinemas yesterday (read my review here and another from Liam Trim here) and with three days of preview screenings you’d have to expect the God of Thunder to topple Justin Lin’s Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist when the weekend box office figures are in. If you aren’t quite fully Thor-ed out yet, be sure to check out MTV's interview with Kenneth Branagh and a ‘Making of Thor’ feature that Total Film posted earlier in the week. Finally, on the Captain America front, Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson embarked on some last-minute filming in Times Square, which you’d imagine to be for the customary post-credits scene. You can check out some footage and images at Collider.

Moving on to the X-Men franchise and Fox have released another two trailers for Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming prequel X-Men: First Class, which hits cinemas in less than five weeks time. X-Men: First Class was the clear winner in our poll to find your most anticipated superhero film of 2011 [see the full results at the bottom of this article] and while the film’s poster campaign has been less than stellar the trailers really do look promising. In other First Class news, Hero Complex posted a preview of the film that includes comments from both Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, while the official X-Men Facebook site continued to update their ‘X-Perts’ Q&A series with Jason Flemyng (Azazel) the latest to take on fans’ questions. There’s also an interesting article over at Heat Vision about the dispute that’s taken place over the writing credits on First Class, which seems to have been resolved after the WGA stepped in to try and clear things up.

Another film arriving later this summer is Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds as the first human Lantern, Hal Jordan. Yahoo debuted a couple of new character posters featuring Sinestro (Mark Strong) and Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) along with the final one-sheet, with MTV releasing a promotional banner that gives us a good look at the Green Lantern Corps. Elsewhere Martin Campbell and screenwriter Greg Berlanti took part in an interview with Hero Complex in which they talked about how the upcoming film differs from other superhero efforts, while Variety announced that Warner Bros. are pumping an extra $9m into the VFX budget but remain confident that the film will be ready for its planned release date of June 17th.

Wrapping up the best of the rest…

… Pittsburgh may be doubling for Gotham City in Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises but it seems that the production is also set to take in the Indian city of Jodhpur for two days of filming at Mehrangarh Fort in early May. Christian Bale is the only actor mentioned in the article but my guess would be that the location is either filling in for Peña Dura or somehow linked to the League of Shadows…

…Michael Shannon’s General Zod has found his “right-hand bitch” for Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot Man of Steel and thankfully it’s not Lindsay Lohan. Variety broke the news that German actress Antje Traue (Pandorum) has been cast as Faora and joins a cast that so far includes Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane and Kevin Costner…

...The Amazing Spider-Man is also set to swing into cinemas in 2012 and actress Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy) has revealed that the six-month shoot on the Andrew Garfield-headlined reboot will draw to a close in mid-May...

...Disney COO and Pixar legend John Lasseter has moved to put an end to fan speculation surrounding a possible Pixar - Marvel team-up, telling IGN that "we've done superheroes here ourselves and so we have that kind of history with Brad Bird doing The Incredibles"...

...And finally, we've been running a poll over the past couple of weeks to find your most anticipated superhero film of 2011 and the results are now in. Take a look...

X-Men: First Class - 31% (165 votes)
Captain America: The First Avenger - 24% (130 votes)
Green Lantern - 22% (121 votes)
Thor - 21% (116 votes)

Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises, Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns deliver a Bat-overload

Our weekly round-up of all the talking points from the world of movie superheroes…



For the fourth week in the row Warner Bros. deliver the top story of the past seven days with the long overdue confirmation that both Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Marion Cotillard are to reunite with their Inception director Christopher Nolan on next year’s The Dark Knight Rises. JGL had been linked to everyone from Robin to Hugo Strange and Alberto Falcone, while Cottilard was expected to portray Talia al Ghul, but speculation once again proved wide of the mark with the release of an official press release on Tuesday stating that: “Cotillard will appear as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham. Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon.”



So, could there be more to these roles than what we’re being led to believe? The possibility still remains that ‘Miranda Tate’ could be a cover for Talia al Ghul, especially given the double-identity of her father in Batman Begins, and of course the news that Josh Pence has been cast as a younger Ra’s for a flashback scene. As for John Blake, JGL is a pretty big name to have as an inconsequential character so you have to expect him to have an important role within the story (as Bleeding Cool discovered, the name does have history in the Batman comic line although something tells us it’s not the same guy). The Dark Knight Rises really is assembling an A-list cast with Gordon-Levitt and Cotillard joining the likes of Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman for Nolan’s final outing in Gotham City, which starts filming next month [and, if you’re desperate for anything TDKR-related, you might want to check out this purported set photo featuring a bulked-up, shaven-headed Tom Hardy].



In other big news for Bat-fans, THR revealed some details about the upcoming DC Universe Animated Original Movies adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal comic book series Batman: Year One (as well as a couple of first-look images that you can see here). Executive produced by Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series) and directed by Sam Lui (The Batman) and Lauren Montgomery (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse), the cast will feature Ben McKenzie (The O.C.) as the Caped Crusader alongside Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) as Gordon, Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) as Detective Sarah Essen and Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Catwoman. The animated film is expected to premiere at the SDCC in July before a home-video release towards the end of the year. Meanwhile there’s also been talk back over at Bleeding Cool that work is already underway on an animated version of another of Frank Miller’s classic tales, The Dark Knight Returns. Here’s hoping (and hoping it's done right).



Shifting now to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which as you’d expect has been working overtime in the wake of Thor’s world premiere in Sydney this past weekend. Naturally the cast and crew have been doing a host of promotional interviews (if you're interested, there's one at the bottom of this post featuring Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston), while a poor-quality video has hit the net revealing the post-credits sequence – check it out here if you really want to spoil yourself. Despite losing out at the top of the Australian box office to Fast Five, Thor has been picking up plenty of positive reviews and one thing’s for sure, it’s not going to face much competition from The Asylum’s latest knock-off, Almighty Thor, that features a ‘stellar’ cast including Kevin Nash as barely-comprehendible Odin and Cody Deal as an Uzi-wielding God of Thunder.



Elsewhere, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also had a few words about the future of the Cinematic Universe post-Avengers in an interview with D23: The Official Disney Fan Club (via IGN): "Thor will go off into a new adventure, and Captain America will continue to explore the modern world in another film of his own. We hope that holds true for the characters appearing in that film — Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. —all of whom are more than worthy and capable of carrying their own films. And, we've got a lot of other characters we're prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts, these great cosmic space fantasies, Dr. Strange, and the magic side of the Marvel Universe. There are many, many stories to be mined." Let's just hope that by 'mined', he doesn't mean 'milked' - throw into that mix Iron Man 3, an Avengers sequel, and mooted projects such as the Inhumans, Black Panther and Luke Cage (a part which Isaiah Mustafa – a.k.a. the Old Spice Guy – continues to lobby for in a recent chat with SuperHeroHype) and it really looks as if the Disney machine is about to go into overdrive.



Another Marvel property that’s been busy this past week (as always) is X-Men, with Fox releasing yet another new poster (pictured) and a second international trailer for X-Men: First Class that gives us a sprinkling of new footage and a good look at the story between Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender). The trailers have done a pretty good job of selling the upcoming prequel, which is fortunate seeing as the poster campaign has been average at best. Meanwhile IGN posted an interesting interview with Bryan Singer in which the First Class producer discusses the inspiration behind the film, the inclusion of the Hellfire Club, character selection, the series’ continuity and potential sequels.



Wrapping up the best of the rest...



...A tweet suggested that construction is underway on a Fortress of Solitude for Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel, featuring Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon and Amy Adams...



...Green Lantern continues to step up promotion ahead of its arrival this summer, with Warner Bros. releasing an extended TV spot and a couple of new posters featuring Hal Jordon (Ryan Reynolds) and Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush)...



...It seems as though it's not only Adrianne Palicki's costume that's undergone some last minute changes on the Wonder Woman pilot, with io9 reporting that David E. Kelley's teleplay was heavily rewritten during the shoot to beef up the action...



...And finally, while last week brought word that The A-Team's Bradley Cooper was being lined up to star in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's proposed reboot of The Crow it now seems that The Weinstein Company have thrown a spanner in the works by threatening legal action over Relativity's attempts to sell the distribution rights (to anyone but themselves, you'd guess).



Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston on Thor...

Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - Man of Steel, The Dark Knight Rises, X-Men: First Class and more

Our weekly round-up of all the talking points from the world of movie superheroes…

We start things off this week with the news that character actor Michael Shannon (The Runaways, Jonah Hex, Boardwalk Empire) has signed on to Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel as bearded baddie General Zod, a role made famous by Terence Stamp in the original Superman and Superman II. Shannon won the part against rumoured competition from the likes of Viggo Mortensen and Edgar Ramirez and his casting seems to have been met with a positive response from the fan community. Shannon joins a cast that so far includes Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, and he had a few words about meeting with Snyder and Cavill in a short interview posted earlier this week.

Sticking with Metropolis for a moment and LatinoReview posted some potential spoilers from a 'reliable source'; concerning the film's Batman Begins-style approach, Man of Steel will go into some detail retreading - sorry, rebooting - Superman's origin and includes both Kal-El's Kryptonian parents (with Daniel Day-Lewis having been under consideration for Jor-El as opposed to Zod) and his infant homeworld, which is apparantly going to look a bit like Coruscant. Oh, and the female villain - yes, the one Lindsay Lohan has been linked to - isn't Ursa, but rather Faora, the comic-book character that served as the inspiration for Zod's 'right hand bitch'. If the past few weeks are anything to go by, expect more Man of Steel announcements tomorrow.

Moving on and Christopher Nolan continues to populate the cast of The Dark Knight Rises, with Variety reporting that a trio of actors are up for supporting roles. Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me, Grey's Anatomy) is tapped to portray a 'courageous special forces operative' and Diego Klattenhoff (Mean Girls, Lucky Number Slevin) a 'rookie cop looking to make a difference', with Burn Gorman (Layer Cake, Torchwood) also said to be under consideration for an unspecified part. Furthermore, Lost's Richard Alpert - a.k.a. Nestor Carbonell - is in talks to reprise his role as the Mayor from The Dark Knight and should negotiations go smoothly they'll join a burgeoning cast that includes Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Juno Temple, Josh Pence and - if and when they finally get around to confirming it - Marion Cottilard.

The first superhero movie of the summer hits this weekend as Marvel Studios' Thor receives its world premiere in Sydney, Australia. We've been inundated with promotional material over the past month and the marketing machine continues to roll on with the release of a couple of cool Thor apps and a behind-the-scenes featurette that features the thoughts of Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Kenneth Branagh, along with a brief glimpse into the world of Asgard. Finally, if you're interested in spoiling yourself further, AICN posted a pretty good breakdown of the Thor footage show at the Kapow Comic-Con in London last weekend.

Elsewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and with filming about to commence on The Avengers, we're starting to get a few scraps of information about Joss Whedon's upcoming superhero ensemble. Hemsworth and Captain America: The First Avenger's Chris Evans had a few words about the scale of the project, promising that there'll be "plenty of conflict" between Earth's Mightiest Heroes, while Mark Ruffalo suggested in an interview that his version of the Hulk could be sporting a full-on gamma-enhanced chest rug. And, looking further ahead, Captain America screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely spoke to MTV and briefly touched upon their approach to the post-Avengers Cap sequel.

Another franchise planning well in advance is Fox's X-Men; in addition to a host of spin-offs (more on those in a second), X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn and producer Bryan Singer talked to Total Film about possibilities for the remainder of the proposed trilogy, including shifting the action to the 70s and 80s for the next two installments. Meanwhile Harry Knowles over at AICN got word that Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones was set to meet with Fox about stepping into Darren Aronofsky's shoes on The Wolverine, despite a reported lack of interest in the project. Finally, it's also been announced that Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool project is now going by the name of X-Men Origins: Deadpool, which begs a couple of questions: a) haven't we already seen Deadpool's (hideous) origin in X-Men Origins: Wolverine?; and b) why on earth would they want to associate the new film with that disappointing mess, especially when it's meant to be a reboot of the character?

And the best of the rest…

...A while back we heard that Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) remained attached to their live-action Ant-Man feature for Marvel Studios, and speaking at the Kapow Comic-Con last weekend the pair confirmed that they had just delivered a second draft of the screenplay...

...Could Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy have competition for Andrew Garfield's affections in The Amazing Spider-Man? SuperHeroHype discovered a casting call for an "actress to portray beautiful red-headed teenage girl for featured background", which immediately opens up the possibility of a cameo by Mary Jane Watson...

...Oscar-nominee Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile, Daredevil) is close to a deal to lend his voice to Kilowog in Martin Campbell's Green Lantern, joining a cast that includes Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett, Tim Robbins, Temuera Morrison, Taika Waititi and recent addition Geoffrey Rush...

...And finally, THR have announced that Bradley Cooper (The A-Team, Limitless) has started negotiations with Relativity Media to star in their remake of The Crow, which is of course based on James O'Barr's gritty underground comic series. The project seems to be coming together quickly, with Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) coming on board just last week and production expected to get underway later this year.

Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - Green Lantern footage and The Dark Knight Rises casting puts Marvel in the shade

Presenting our weekly round-up of the biggest talking points from the world of movie superheroes…

2011 has started brightly for superhero fans with the last few months delivering flood of images, trailers and gossip from all of the year's big comic book adaptations - Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern and Captain America: The First Avenger - along with plenty of juicy details on future big hitters such as The Dark Knight Rises, Superman: Man of Steel, The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Nevertheless things have slowed a little over the past seven days, but despite the lack of any earth-shattering highlights we still have plenty of interesting bits and pieces to tide us over as we await the next big story from the land of movie superherodom...

Somewhat unusually we start things off this week with Green Lantern, the upcoming DC Comics adaptation from director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) and starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. Now if you've been following the progress of Green Lantern, you're probably aware that the marketing campaign has been pretty much non-existent, especially considering the film is due to hit cinemas in two months time. Well that all changed this past week as an extended four-minute trailer debuted at CinemaCon and WonderCon before making its way online. Now to me, the majority of the footage seemed like a cut-scene from an Xbox 360 game, but I have to admit it was a big improvement over the rather uninspiring first trailer and really seemed to whet the appetite of Green Lantern fans.

Another Green Lantern trailer is rumoured to arrive soon (word is it will be attached to Thor) and the film, which also stars Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Jay O. Sanders, Temuera Morrison, Taika Waititi, Jon Tenney, Angela Bassett, Tim Robbins and Geoffrey Rush, is set for release in the UK and US on June 17th. Meanwhile Ryan Reynolds also dropped a few comments on Warner Bros.' proposed Justice League of America movie that was recently announced by WB President Jeff Robinov: "No one has ever approached me about doing a Justice League movie." So, as it stands at the moment any potential JLA movie looks like it could introduce a new Batman, a new Superman and a new Green Lantern, despite the fact that both Reynolds and Man of Steel star Henry Cavill are yet to appear on screen as their respective characters. No, it doesn't make sense to me either.

Sticking with DC's stable of cinematic superheroes for a moment, RadarOnline revealed that Lindsay Lohan is under consideration for a role in Superman: Man of Steel, if she can remain out of prison that is. According to the report, Lohan (or is it just Lindsay now?) was disappointed to lose out on the part of Lois Lane to Amy Adams but could still audition for a role as a villain, with the same article suggesting that unknown actor Adam Harris would be trying out for Lex Luthor, which has since been confirmed by YouBentMyWookie. In other Superman-related news, director Zack Snyder took part in a video interview with Empire Magazine and had a few words about working with producer Christopher Nolan, describing him as "amazingly generous". Nothing like sucking up to the boss, especially given the recent talk of Snyder being pulled from the upcoming reboot due to the critical and commercial failure of his latest film Sucker Punch.

Turning to Nolan's other project and it looks as though The Dark Knight Rises has found a new Gotham City, with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette revealing that the production has opted against a return to Chicago and instead will be descending upon the Steel City for a summer shoot. In other possible news, Inception actress Marion Cottilard confirmed that she has a project lined up for this summer but refused to drop any further details during an interview with The Independent. Cottilard has long been rumoured to join the cast alongside Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Juno Temple, and pretty much every man and his dog suspects that she's playing Talia al Ghul. It seems even more likely now that Josh Pence (The Social Network's digitally-replaced-by-Armie Hammer Winklevoss twin) has been confirmed to feature as a younger Ra's in a flashback sequence, so if true, isn't it about time they confirmed it already? Sheesh.

Moving on now to Marvel and with just a few short weeks until the arrival of the Kenneth Branagh's Thor, the studio's promotional machine continues to ramp up the publicity. Along with the launch of the official website, leading man Chris Hemsworth has been talking to IGN about working on the film, while he also had a few words about his preparation for Joss Whedon's The Avengers and confirmed that the principal cast are set to commence filming in the next month. The site also debuted a short clip from Thor that gives fans the first glimpse of Jeremy Renner in his cameo as Hawkeye, while there seems to be a never-ending stream of TV spots cropping up online (at this rate we'll have seen the entire film before it hits the cinema).

Shifting over to Fox's various spin-offs of their X-Men franchise, Deadline continues to report that both David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) and Duncan Jones (Source Code) are in the frame to fill the vacancy left by Darren Aronofsky on The Wolverine. Slade is currently attached to the proposed Daredevil reboot (he won't, however, be handling Deadpool, with the Los Angeles Times reporting that VFX man Tim Miller has been given the gig of bringing Ryan Reynold's Merc with a Mouth back to the screen), but with Universal said to be interested in Hugh Jackman for a lead role in Snow White and the Hunstman alongside Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron, it's possible that Logan's latest adventure could be put on the backburner for the time being.

In the meantime, Fox have Matthew Vaughn's prequel X-Men: First Class arriving this summer and the official Facebook page continues to update their 'X-Perts' Q&As with Edi Gathegi (Darwin) and Caleb Landry Jones (Banshee) taking up the challenge this past week, while Joe D! delivered a rather cool fan-made retro title sequence that really is worth checking out. And, if that's not enough to give you your X-Men fix for the week, there's also a new trailer for Marvel's Wolverine anime, which debuts in the US this coming July.

Wrapping up the best of the rest, ComicBookMovie posted quick video interview with forgotten 80s star C. Thomas Howell who had a few words to say about his experiences working alongside Andrew Garfield, Martin Sheen and Emma Stone in Sony's upcoming reboot The Amazing Spider-Man... Marvel legend Stan Lee spoke to Hero Complex about filming his cameos for Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, while pondering his next potential role: "I wonder why DC Comics doesn't have me do a cameo in Batman?"... and finally, on the subject of Stan, feast your eyes on the trailer for his latest project, the animated TV series (and possible movie) The Governator, produced in collaboration with star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Words cannot describe... but Arnie gives it a go anyway over at THR.

Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - The Dark Knight Rises Again, Superman gets his Lois Lane, Marvel spoilers and more...

Presenting our weekly round-up of the biggest talking points from the world of movie superheroes…

We've known for a while that Christopher Nolan will bring his Batman tenure to an end next year with the release of The Dark Knight Rises, but it now appears that the director is set to remain involved with the franchise in a producing capacity as Warner Bros. executive Jeff Robinov spoke to Hero Complex about the studio's future plans for their stable of DC characters. "We have the third Batman, but then we’ll have to reinvent Batman... Chris Nolan and Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is.” Along with future stand-alone movies, it also seems that the Batman character could be cropping up in a Justice League feature, with the long-gestating project seemingly pushing forward for a 2013 release that would then pave the way for Flash and Wonder Woman to grace the big screen. Looks like someone may have a little Avengers-envy.

Regarding Robinov's Batman comments, some sites have taken the line that another reboot is in store for the Caped Crusader, such as BadAssDigest, who speculate that "Nolan is putting a definitive cap on his trilogy" that will leave a reboot as the only plausible alternative. Quite how they come about this information is anyone's guess (especially as Gary Oldman has said that not even the film's cast have received the last few pages of the screenplay), so talk of Christian Bale's Batman ending the trilogy incapacitated, retired or even dead is surely premature. Personally, I think it seems a little odd that Nolan would remain involved with a rebooted series and looking closely at Robinov's comments, a "reinvention" would suggest to me more of a continuation of the series, albeit with a change of direction, a la Batman Returns to Batman Forever. Good luck with that.

Sticking with DC for the moment and last weekend brought the news that Amy Adams has signed up for Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel as roving reporter Lois Lane, joining a cast that includes Henry Cavill (Superman), Diane Lane (Martha Kent) and Kevin Costner (Jonathan Kent). Now Adams probably wouldn't have been my first choice and the announcement seemed to generate a bit of a mixed reaction, but Snyder is certainly confident that he's got the right woman: "Amy is really just an amazing talent... she just really sort of embodies everything we're going for."

The Sucker Punch director also remained tight-lipped on the chances of General Zod making an appearance, although Viggo Mortensen remains heavily linked to the role now that Snow White and the Huntsman negotiations have broken down. However, Snyder did take the time to confirm to HeyUGuys that, much like Nolan's Batman, his Superman won't take place in the same universe as any potential Justice League feature. Where that will leave Cavill (and Bale's replacement) is anyone's guess, but it doesn't look like WB have given much thought to their future plans (fuck it, let's just stick Nolan in charge, we'll be fine...).

Moving on now and the past week delivered a flood of information on upcoming Marvel features, so much so that the next few paragraphs should probably be considered pretty spoiler-heavy. We'll begin with their two in-house offerings, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, both of which featured heavily at CinemaCon on Monday...

Among the highlights was twenty minutes of consecutive footage from Kenneth Branagh's Thor, beginning in Asgard as Thor (Chris Hemsworth) gets into an argument with Odin (Anthony Hopkins) that sees him stripped of his powers and banished to Earth. From here he's discovered in the desert by Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgård's characters (check out a clip from that scene here), and sets out to retrieve Mjolnir from the hands of Agent Coulsen (Clark Gregg) and a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, including a quick cameo from Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye [the Walt Disney presentation also revealed some concept art as to Hawkeye's appearance in Joss Whedon's The Avengers, which is said to differ considerably from that of the comics]. Along with the screening, Marvel also debuted a couple of new posters featuring Thor and nemesis Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

Not to be outdone, the scenes from Joe Johnston's Captain America kicked off with the present day discovery of Cap by two military men in the Arctic (which again, is said to be a more realistic interpretation of the comic, i.e. no iceberg) before shifting to its WWII setting with a digitally altered Chris Evans in pre-Super Soldier Steve Rogers mode. After introducing characters such as Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci), Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), Steve goes through his transformation into Captain America, ending with him receiving his vibranium shield. For a much more detailed overview of both the Thor and Captain America previews, be sure to check out the report from SuperHeroHype.

Shifting to Matthew Vaughn's upcoming X-Men prequel X-Men: First Class and it seems as though James McAvoy is doing his best to give the entire plot of the film away as he took part in a spoilerific interview with IGN Movies. The discussion covered pretty much everything, revealing that Xavier will have a thing going with Moira McTaggert (Rose Byrne) and find himself in a love triangle with Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), as well as ending the film sans hair and in a wheelchair. Furthermore, the latest edition of Empire Magazine comes with a few scene descriptions including the fight between Xavier and Magneto, along with the news that cult actor Michael Ironside will be making an appearance in addition to "a surprise and fun cameo that qualifies as a massive spoiler".

In other X-Men news, Hugh Jackman has been talking about the search for a new director on The Wolverine, reaffirming his commitment to the project in the wake of Darren Aronofsky's departure: "The script is fantastic — the best we’ve ever had, which is why it attracted Darren in the first place. His personal situation precludes him from doing it now, and I feel for him. But now we need to find a director." Meanwhile James Marsden has also spoke to MovieLine about Cyclops' off-screen death in X-Men: The Last Stand and his hopes for a reunion with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman should Bryan Singer's rumoured sequels come to fruition.

Other interesting bits and pieces from the world of movie superherodom…

...It looks as though the marketing for Green Lantern could finally be kicking its arse into gear with four clips from the movie and a new trailer screening at CinemaCon and WonderCon (watch an abridged version here), along with news that Geoffrey Rush will provide voice-work for Tomar-Re. Green Lantern also debuted a new poster, while stars Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively discussed the film in depth with a Q&A that you can see here...

...Reynolds also had a few words about the status of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine spin-off Deadpool at CinemaCon, stating that delays aren't down to the screenplay (written by Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick), but the project remains some way off from moving forward...

...Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones spoke to Rope of Silicon about meeting with Christopher Nolan for Superman: Man of Steel, confirming that he would have taken the gig had it been offered to him. Meanwhile Jones also revealed that he'd passed on the opportunity to reboot the iconic British character Judge Dredd...

...Deadline have revealed that British writer Drew Pearce is in talks to develop the screenplay for Iron Man 3, which sees Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black stepping in to replace the departing Jon Favreau for Tony Stark's first post-Avengers outing...

...After hinting about a possible return to the comic-book genre, details have emerged on Arnold Schwarzenegger's next project - an animated superhero series entitled The Governator. Arnold is teaming up with Marvel legend Stan Lee to develop the show, which is expected to arrive some time next year, and EW got their hands on some concept art...

...Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey spoke to Hero Complex about his desire to star in Marvel's proposed Dr. Strange movie (which has Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer attached as screenwriters) or the rumoured television series centred on the Sorcerer Supreme...

...And finally, recent set photos from the shoot of the Wonder Woman pilot confirm that Warner Bros. have listened to fans' disappointment at Adrianne Palicki's costume, which has since went through a redesign. Shame it still looks shite...

Gary Collinson

The Week in Spandex - Captain America trailer, Dark Knight Rises casting confusion and X-Men: First Class character bios

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

It seems like an age ago that we got our first look at Marvel’s upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger with the all-too-brief 30 second Super Bowl spot back at the beginning of February. Well, after weeks and weeks of anticipation the first full length trailer finally arrived this past Thursday and boy, was it worth the wait. Expanding on the TV spot, the trailer gives us a good insight into Cap’s origin from sickly G.I. to patriotic Super Soldier and we also get a look at the majority of the supporting cast including Peggy Carter (Hayley Attwell), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), Professor Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), along with brief glimpses of Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough) and the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving).

Captain America is the last superhero to arrive this year (the film hits North American cinemas on July 22nd and opens here in the UK the following week) and judging by what we’ve seen so far it looks as if director Joe Johnston is set to end the summer on a high. Evans seems like a great fit for the role and the studio have done a fine job selling the movie, delivering a trailer that really raises the bar against what we’ve seen from Green Lantern, Thor and X-Men: First Class. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s the best trailer we’ve seen to date from Marvel Studios and I’m just hoping that the film can go on to live up to its promise. If you want to take a closer look at the trailer there’s a pretty good breakdown over at ComicVine that’s worth checking out, and if you’re desperate to get your hands on anything Cap-related then you might be pleased to hear about the special (and extended!) Blu-ray release this May for 1990’s cult shitfest Captain America, starring Matt Salinger as the Sentinel of Liberty. Or maybe not.

Sticking with the theme of The Avengers for the moment, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada had a few words about both Thor and Captain America and revealed that filming is already underway on Joss Whedon’s epic superhero ensemble. Mark Ruffalo also spoke to Total Film about stepping into Ed Norton’s elasticated shorts for the 2012 team-up and suggested that it’s likely we’ll be seeing more of The Avengers in the future, but sadly we may have seen the last of The Incredible Hulk as a standalone franchise (until the next reboot, obviously). However, don’t expect all of the Avengers to go down this path, with Thor actress Rene Russo announcing that, much like Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, she’s already signed up for a sequel. Of course Kenneth Branagh’s original has to come first, with a new TV spot and more character posters arriving in advance of its release on April 27th (or May 6th for those across the pond).

Turning now to the week’s other big talking point and no, it’s not the official confirmation that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has joined the Inception reunion on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, but rather the pantomime to-ing and fro-ing between heavyweight publications Variety and Entertainment Weekly over just who in the hell he’s playing. The whole “oh yes he is… oh no he isn’t” began on Saturday when Variety confirmed his casting and stated that he’d be portraying Alberto Falcone, son of Batman Begins mob boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and The Long Halloween’s Holiday Killer. However, by Monday EW had shot Variety’s story down by saying the character of Falcone was ‘incorrect’, although sadly their ‘source’ didn’t feel the need to go on and ‘correct’ it.

So, who is JGL likely to be playing? He’s been linked to just about every Rogue in the Gallery (The Riddler, Hugo Strange, Deadshot, Falcone and even The Joker) so let’s face it, he could be anyone. My guess is that Warner Bros. will wait until they’ve added a few new faces to the cast and release a joint press release, much like they did with Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy. Marion Cotillard has long been linked to an unspecified role and Variety has announced that Juno Temple is “100% locked in” as a “street-smart Gotham girl”, whom AICN have speculated could be Robin. That would support earlier rumours of location scouting for Robin’s hideout and I suppose if you really have to include Robin then a female version could be the way to go (it certainly makes more sense than Joseph Gordon-Levitt, that’s for sure).

Of course TDKR isn’t the only DC property that Warner Bros.’ and Nolan are working on for 2012 and there’s also been some movement on possible additions to the cast of Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel. Viggo Mortensen had been tipped to join up alongside Henry Cavill, Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as General Zod, but it was thought that his involvement with Snow White and the Huntsman would effectively rule him out. The latest names said to be ‘of interest’ for the unspecified villain(s) are Edgar Ramirez (Carlos, Wrath of the Titans) and Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire), although Variety have reported that Mortensen has officially withdrawn from Snow White negotiations and could be back in contention. Snyder is busy finishing up the promotion of Sucker Punch and with Man of Steel set to film in August, expect some official casting news in the very near future.

Moving on now and the X-Men Movies Facebook Page continues to deliver regular updates on Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming prequel X-Men: First Class. The pick of the goodies this past week was a Q&A with Nicholas Hoult, who stars as a pre-PhD’d Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast, answering a selection of fan submitted questions. The X-Perts Q&A series continues every week until June 1st and takes in all of the major cast members, with Oliver Platt (Man in Black) and Rose Byrne (Moira McTaggert) next in line. Meanwhile the page also delivered a host of character bios which, in addition to the aforementioned names, also includes Xavier (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Darwin (Edi Gathegi), Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), Azazel (Jason Flemyng), Riptide (Alex González), Havoc (Lucas Till), Angel Salvadore (Zoë Kravitz), Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost (January Jones). Head over to ComicBookMovie where they’ve kindly gathered all of the bios together for your viewing pleasure.

Other interesting bits and pieces from the world of movie superherodom…

…The Twilight Saga: Eclipse director David Slade has been busy talking about his new Daredevil project on Twitter and suggested he’s yet to be approached about taking over on The Wolverine now that Darren Aronofsky has departed. Slade also tweeted on Deadpool, saying that the studio are looking at comedy directors…

…That leads in nicely to a Latino Review chat with James Gunn, in which the Super director talks about the possibility of moving into the serious superhero business, revealing that he has had general discussions with Marvel and had earlier passed on the opportunity to write Fantastic Four…

…Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-director Brian Taylor described the upcoming Nicolas Cage flick as “pretty much a reboot, only with the same actor, which makes it: a requel. Or a seboot, I can’t decide which one I like better", while Johnny Whitworth (Limitless) had a few words on portraying the villain, Blackout…

…It may be more than a year before we see Andrew Garfield swinging into cinemas as The Amazing Spider-Man but Sony are obviously confident of success, hiring screenwriter James Vanderbilt to begin work on the sequel…

…We got a nice shot of Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison), the Green Lantern who recruits Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) in Martin Campbell’s upcoming DC adaptation. With the film set to open in June a second trailer should be just around the corner…

…Fresh from playing a Frost Giant in Thor, Joseph Gatt becomes the latest actor to sign up for the Wonder Woman TV pilot in the role of John O’Quinn, henchman to Elizabeth Hurley’s villainous Veronica Cale…

…And finally it looks as if we’ll be seeing more of our favourite DC characters on the small screen as DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. team up with Cartoon Network to deliver the DC Nation programming block. Shows expected to appear include Green Lantern, Young Justice and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, in addition to “event programming, interstitials, exclusive behind-the-scenes of theatrical production and an insider look into the world of all things DC.”

Gary Collinson