News of the Week (15/08/12) – Snow White, Daredevil & Kick-Ass 2

Rumours are flooding the internet today surrounding the topic of the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel and whether Kristen Stewart or director Rupert Sanders will return for a second film. With the recent news coming out that Stewart and Sanders were having an affair it is clear this would cause more problems than its worth if these two worked again together, therefore it seems as though the sequel will not be happening with Kristen Stewart playing Snow White because Sanders looks set to return to direct. The attention instead will shift towards Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman and create a sort of spin off from the first Snow White fantasy film. This was always the plan to do so in the third film but have two films about Snow White precede this. They could always hire Lily Collins to replace Stewart in the lead role, she made a fantastic Snow White in Mirror, Mirror and really looks the part, but if they’ve decided to tell a story based around the Huntsman then so be it; but it better be of a much higher quality than X-Men spin off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

There seems to not be a week go by at the minute when Marvel and its film properties aren’t in the news: be it Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy or this week Daredevil. Work had apparently been moving forward on a reboot to the Daredevil film franchise at FOX and a director was even pretty much set to go for it; Joe Carnahan (director of The A-Team and The Grey) was tweeting about his excitement to adapt Daredevil in the world created by Frank Miller’s successful run on the comic books back in the late seventies/early eighties which had a darker film noir feel about them. Now it seems as though those ideas have gone up in smoke as FOX are clearly in no rush to get the project off the ground and are apparently willing to let the rights go back to Marvel come October. As soon as Marvel gets the rights back (even before probably) work will be done to get a film reboot going and it would be my guess that he would be set in the same universe as Marvel’s Avengers series probably. I hope that Ben Affleck comes in to direct the reboot, he loves the character and even though his starring role as Matt Murdock wasn’t very good he should be considered to direct, I think his Daredevil would be great and have a similar feel and tone to Gone Baby Gone.

And now here’s the latest casting news that has caught my eye this week: first of all, Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame has landed himself a lead role in Nick Hornby adaptation ‘Long Way Down‘ which follows four people who plan to commit suicide by jumping off a building on New Year’s Eve, but become friends with each other before the jump. Keira Knightley has gone and landed herself a part in her first franchise since Pirates of the Caribbean in Kenneth Branagh’s new Jack Ryan film in which Branagh also plays the villain to Chris Pine’s hero. It will be great to see Knightley swap her corsets and what not for a more modern attire in this film. And finally Scrubs‘ Donald Faison or ‘Turk’ has signed on to appear in comic book sequel Kick-Ass 2:Balls to the Wall as Dr. Gravity, a hero who is inspired by Kick-Ass and becomes an ally of his in his new team ‘Justice Forever’. This looks like a fun piece of casting and it is fantastic to finally see some real signs that the sequel is moving ahead!

Which Avengers Characters Should Appear in the Next Movie?

Marvel’s The Avengers has just passed the billion dollar mark worldwide in just nineteen days. It has fast become one of the highest grossing films of all time and that should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about comic books or movies. With a sequel already green-lit by Disney, surprise surprise, there is the opportunity to introduce more characters both in the movies leading up to Avengers 2 and in the sequel itself, so who will appear? Here is my list of the characters I would most like to see and who I think would be a good and realistic casting choice.

 

Ant-Man: I’m talking the Henry Pym Ant-Man, not any of the reincarnations. An Ant-Man movie seems to have been in the works for as long as Marvel Studios have been making films but things are finally moving forward and you would expect this film to tie Ant-Man in to the already existing Marvel Universe seeing as though he is one of the original Avengers in the comic books. I know that Nathan Fillion’s name has been banded around for the part and with Joss Whedon now having a little input in casting maybe Fillion has a chance of getting the role; I would be in support of this.

 

Wasp: You can’t really have Ant-Man without having Wasp, the two are married in the comics and go hand in hand. She was one of the founding members of the comic book world Avengers and is likely to be introduced in the Ant-Man film. Combine this with the fact that the Avengers is lacking some serious female representatives then I think it is highly likely that Wasp will feature sooner rather than later. When Wasp was first being rumoured Eva Longoria was linked with the part and I would definitely back this casting choice. She is a wonderful actress and although her success in acting has been on television I think that she could hold her own in an ensemble cast.

 

Black Panther: Black Panther is one of my favourite comic book characters from Marvel and he was the first black superhero in mainstream American comics; he is African royalty and ruler of his own country with a long running association with the Avengers. I don’t know if Marvel would be able to afford this actor because he is absolute true quality but if he was to star in the role the movie would no doubt be a huge hit! My pick for this role would be Djimon Hounsou of Blood Diamond fame, I think he is the stand out candidate for this role out of the already known actors.

 

 

Ms. Marvel: I believe that Ms. Marvel is one of the best female characters that Marvel has on its roster. Carol Danvers, who dons the outfit in the comics, has been a member on Marvel’s two biggest teams, Avengers and the X-men so who owns the rights to the character is unknown but hopefully we will get to see her in future Avengers films. Female superheroes don’t have huge success in their individual films (I’m looking at you Elektra and Catwoman) but as part of a team she could work really well. I would love to see Katherine Heigl get the part because I like her as an actress but I don’t think anyone would be in support of that so instead I will pick Charlize Theron.

 

If you go beyond this point you are in serious SPOILER territory for The Avengers, but you should have seen it by now anyway.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 

Vision: So the likelihood of Vision being included in the next Avengers film seemed less and less likely with the likelihood of Ultron appearing diminishing (you won’t understand that if you do not follow the comics but don’t worry). Anyway, as you will know if you have seen The Avengers Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD died at the hands of Loki, yet he is still contracted to several more Marvel films and is remaining coy about his involvement with Iron Man 3. What’s more, people thought this was the work of Joss Whedon (a man known for killing off popular characters) but this was actually planned by Marvel’s man in charge Kevin Feige. Clearly Marvel have plans for Agent Coulson and in one interview they even said “I believe the letters L, M and D were mentioned somewhere’. L.M.D = Life Model Decoy. So will Agent Coulson come back as The Vision? There is no doubt that Clark Gregg has become a favourite of fans of the Marvel Universe as it is his appearance that helped to tie all the films together and make The Avengers possible. If Agent Coulson was reborn as The Vision I would think this was an absolute stroke of genius on Marvel’s part.

Has Hollywood run dry of ideas?

This week it was announced that Transformers 4 had been given the go ahead. It is not yet clear for certain whether this is a sequel or a reboot but either way it will certainly be something we have seen before. This can be said for other films hitting the screens this summer: The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, G.I. Joe and at the end of last year we had Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Mission Impossible 4. In the pipeline we have more Bond, a reboot of The Fantastic Four and the two sequels to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. So many of Hollywood’s products nowadays comes from comic books, novels or foreign films that it seems like Hollywood has lost it’s originality.

Sure, everyone loves a sequel to one of their favourite films, getting to see their favourite characters on another adventure (if it is done correctly) and there is no doubt that the big wigs in Hollywood know this. But don’t we, as paying members of the audience, deserve something new and refreshing for a change? Okay, so not every film being brought out is based on something else but the big ones that are really pushed by studios are and at the minute the trend seems to be comic book films.

You could argue that turning a novel or a comic book into a film really opens up the audience for that product, but it is not original! If someone has come up with the original story for the novel in question then why is it so difficult for a writer hired by some big Hollywood studio to come up with an equally original idea? And why remake films that have already been made? There has recently been a rise of international films being remade in Hollywood that only saw release a couple of years before: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Internal Affairs (which Hollywood turned into The Departed) are a couple of examples. Yes, both of these films turned out to be huge successes but was there really any need for them? Have movie audiences really become too lazy to deal with subtitles?

Maybe it is not a case of Hollywood running out of ideas, though. It could be that Hollywood studios are just happy to cash in on products they KNOW will earn money. It has become clear to studio executives that if something contains the name ‘X-Men’, ‘Bourne’ or ‘Bond’ that audiences will go and see that film, they would argue they are giving the public what they want. But with the ever increasing amount of movies being made based on other works, is originality dying out?

Let’s hope not.

Avengers Assemble!

UK Cinema Release: 27th April 2012

“I still believe in heroes” states Colonel Nick Fury about halfway through this trailer, and he isn’t the only one with millions of comic book readers around the globe waiting for this film to hit cinema screens. This may only be a minute long, just a little teaser for fans, but there is already plenty to get excited about.

We get our first REAL look at the whole team in their costumes. Up to this point there has been lots of negativity surrounding aspects of Captain America’s outfit in particular, however in this trailer those problems seem to be settled as he looks great, as do the rest of the team. The only problem really, I think, is Hulk, who looks slightly more like the older version than Ed Norton’s version in The Incredible Hulk which I think could be a step backwards, although I wouldn’t say that to his face.

The action scenes look as though they will be executed excellently. There are images of America being attacked and The Avengers running from explosions, Thor landing on what we assume is the quinjet, and also summoning lightening which will please fan’s everywhere! We see Hulk smashing enemy ships with ease whilst also flying through the air which looks incredible as the Hulk himself and we are treated to a clip of a fight scene featuring Iron Man during flight which hopefully will be as good as it looks.

But for comic book readers the action is not the thing they are looking forward to seeing most; it is the interaction between the team. We see what we can assume, correctly or not, is one of the first meetings between Cap and Iron Man and there does seem to be a little hostility in the air, maybe they’re deciding who should be leader? We also see Thor helping Cap up off the ground showing great teamwork among our heroes. And finally we get to see some of that famous Tony Stark wit during his exchange with Loki. “We have a Hulk”: a simple line sure to bring smiles to the faces of comic book fans and movie fans everywhere.

Brace yourself, because this will be one of the best movies of the summer! Guaranteed!