Our weekly round up of all the latest stories from the world of screen superheroes, including Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor: The Dark World, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fantastic Four, Watchmen, Man of Steel, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman vs. Superman, Gotham, Constantine, Arrow, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, Teen Titans Go!, Beware the Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and more…
This week saw Marvel expanding its Cinematic Universe with the studio’s first live-action small screen offering as Clark Gregg’s Agent Phil Coulson returned from the dead for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which premiered in the States on Tuesday (delivering TV’s best drama debut in four years, with just under 12 million viewers) before heading to these shores last night. Flickering Myth’s writing team were split over the pilot, with Anghus Houvouras delivering a glowing review, and Anthony Stokes feeling that the show got off to a disappointing start (personally, I’m in the latter camp, but like Anthony I’m hoping things will pick up as the show gets into its stride). Anyway, with the premiere now out of the way, we can start to look forward to the rest of the season, and ABC has released a clip and TV spot from the second episode [see here], along with a couple of series trailer [see here and here], while we’ve also had our first look at guest star Ian Hart (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) as Dr. Franklin Hall, who’ll make his debut in episode four…
…Next up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a return to Asgard for Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World, and this week has saw the release of a couple of new TV spots [see here and here], along with a behind-the-scenes video featuring Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and the latest batch of ‘Thorsday’ posters, including a UK one-sheet and new character posters for Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston) [see here]…
…Thor: The Dark World will mark Tom Hiddleston’s third outing as Loki, and while he’s already ruled himself out of contention for The Avengers: Age of Ultron, it would be a huge surprise if the God of Mischief wasn’t back to menace the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point in the future. And when he does, Hiddleston would like to explore the relationship between the fan favourite villain and The Enchantress: “When I was first reading the comics, the relationship with the Enchantress was one of the really fun things I thought would be good to explore, and may have even pitched it to Kevin Feige at some point. Because she is as sneaky and as untrustworthy as he was.They basically had a really fantastic and twisted relationship until they both say, ‘You know what? I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. It’s over.’ Because they keep betraying each other, in a way. So it could be good…”
…Anyone lucky enough to be in Hall H during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International witnessed Joss Whedon unveiling the title for The Avengers 2, as well as a short announcement teaser featuring the titular villain Ultron and now the footage has finally arrived online – be sure to catch it here, while you still can. Meanwhile, writer-director Joss Whedon has also reflected on the first movie, casting a rather critical eye of last year’s mega-blockbuster, as well as looking forward to the 2015 sequel: “When I think of a great film, I think of something that’s either structured so perfectly like The Matrix or made so lovingly like The Godfather Part II. There was haphazardness in the way [The Avengers] comes together — not just the people, but the scenes. I don’t think you’d look at it and go, ‘This is a model of perfect structure.’ You’d go, ‘This is working.’ I do like [The Avengers]. I’m proud of it and I like its imperfections. The thing I cared most about — making a summer movie like the ones from my childhood — is the thing that I pulled off. I want to be clearer about how I engage the audience and where I take them [with The Avengers: Age of Ultron]. I want more control visually, more time to prep it. Not that I didn’t dictate every shot — I did. But there’s only so much you can do when you’re making a summer film when the ball is already rolling as fast as it was when I got in. Why do it again if you can’t do it better..?”
…Looking beyond Age of Ultron and there’s a lot of expectation that Black Panther will make his long-awaited debut during Phase Three of the MCU, and despite the fact he’s playing Korath the Pursuer in next year’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Djimon Hounsou has not given up hope about portraying the King of Wakanda: “It would be an honour to be T’Challa. It would have to be done right, given the history of that character and that comic. I have a foot in the Marvel comics world now, so we’ll see where they’re going to take that…”
…If you cast your eye over the cast list for X-Men: Days of Future Past, you’ll notice that Bryan Singer has reunited virtually every member of the mutant superhero team for next year’s X-Men sequel, although one character conspicuous by their absence is that of fan favourite Nightcrawler. Speaking to Geek Tyrant, X2: X-Men United star Alan Cumming has explained why the Fuzzy Elf is absent from the time-travelling superhero epic: “There was a time when it was maybe going to happen, but I wasn’t available so it didn’t happen. I really loved that film I was in, don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a great film, but it wasn’t my favourite experience of my life…”
…Marvel’s First Family are set to return to the screen in 2015 courtesy of director Josh Trank (Chronicle) in The Fantastic Four, but this week we got a glimpse of what might have been, had Tim Story not decided to turn Galactus into a giant cloud at the conclusion of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Check out some concept art from the 2007 sequel here, which shows a much more familiar interpretation of the Destroyer of Worlds…
…Four unused posters from director Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal superhero tale Watchmen have arrived online, which you can check out here. Meanwhile, designer Alex Griendling also revealed a rejected pitch for the film’s marketing campaign which would have centred on disgraced President Richard Nixon: “I wanted to do a Re-elect Nixon guerrilla poster campaign, since those posters and that plot line are pretty prominent in the book, but that was shot down as being too obscure – ‘Why would seeing re-elect Nixon posters make people want to see Watchmen..?'”
…David S. Goyer took a break from scripting Batman vs. Superman to attend BAFTA’s latest BFI Screenwriter’s Lecture, during which he took a moment to address the controversy over the climax to Man of Steel where – SPOILERS – Superman (Henry Cavill) puts an end to General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) attack on Metropolis by snapping the Kryptonian bad guy’s neck: “We were pretty sure that was going to be controversial. It’s not like we were deluding ourselves, and we weren’t just doing it to be cool. We felt, in the case of Zod, we wanted to put the character in an impossible situation and make an impossible choice. This is one area, and I’ve written comic books as well and this is where I disagree with some of my fellow comic book writers – ‘Superman doesn’t kill’. It’s a rule that exists outside of the narrative and I just don’t believe in rules like that. I believe when you’re writing film or television, you can’t rely on a crutch or rule that exists outside of the narrative of the film. So the situation was, Zod says ‘I’m not going to stop until you kill me or I kill you.’ The reality is no prison on the planet could hold him and in our film Superman can’t fly to the moon, and we didn’t want to come up with that crutch. Also our movie was in a way Superman Begins, he’s not really Superman until the end of the film. We wanted him to have had that experience of having taken a life and carry that through onto the next films. Because he’s Superman and because people idolise him he will have to hold himself to a higher standard…”
…Goyer also took a moment to update the status of 2015’s Batman vs. Superman: “One of the things that has been fun for us, is we’re a bit a further along than what I think people realize. From a fan point of view, you’re conscious of that when you’re working on these things, but you can’t let yourself be paralyzed by that. At the end of the day you still have to create something. And if you try and think, ‘Well what would the fans like’ then you stop being creative. It’s sort of like where does it end? You have to write the story that you want to write, and hope that people want to see it.” And as for who’d win in a dust up between DC’s two most iconic superheroes, Goyer went on to offer the following response: “Most comic book purists would says Batman because he is the ultimate strategist. Even though it makes no sense what so ever. If Superman just flicked his finger Batman would be done for…”
…Since Ben Affleck was announced as the next actor to portray the Dark Knight, we’ve heard from virtually every actor in Hollywood, and now it’s the turn of another Caped Crusader in Batman & Robin star George Clooney, who told Verbice Magazine: “I am the least qualified person to comment on anyone playing the role of Batman since I so terribly destroyed the part. I tend to look at it like this – let’s just see what the movie is before everyone starts beating him up. He is a smart man, he knows what he is doing…”
…Coinciding with the release of The Dark Knight Trilogy: Ultimate Collector’s Edition (which hit U.S. shelves this past Tuesday), several clips and images from the feature-length documentary The Fire Rises: The Creation and Impact of The Dark Knight Trilogy have arrived online, including Christopher Nolan talking about his original Batman Begins pitch, Christian Bale auditioning for the role in Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever Batsuit, Cillian Murphy dressed as The Dark Knight during his own Batman Begins audition, and Anne Hathaway auditioning for Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises…
…Having been rumoured back in July, Warner Bros. Television has confirmed that a Batman spin-off series is heading to TV, with Fox landing the rights to Gotham, which is being developed by Bruno Heller (The Mentalist) and will “explore the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon and the villains who made Gotham City famous. In Gotham, Gordon is still a detective with the Gotham City Police Department and has yet to meet Batman, who will not be part of the series.” Meanwhile, WB Television has stepped up its efforts to overshadow Marvel on the small screen by with another DC-centric pilot, with NBC developing a Constantine series from executive producers Daniel Cerone (The Mentalist) and DC regular David S. Goyer; it will mark the second adaptation of Hellblazer, with Keanu Reeves playing the supernatural detective in the 2005 movie Constantine, while the character is also expected to feature prominently in Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro’s proposed Justice League Dark movie, assuming it ever gets off the ground of course…
…There’s less than a fortnight to go before Arrow returns to The CW, and a new season two promo has been released [see here], as well as confirmation that another familiar DC face is set to debut in Starling City, with Dylan Neal (Dawson’s Creek, Percy Jackson) set to join the cast as Dr. Anthony Ivo. Meanwhile, Grant Gustin (Glee) has spoken about his upcoming role as Barry Allen / The Flash, who is set to appear in the eighth episode of the second season with a view to spinning off into his own series: “I’m really excited. I’m a little fanboy. I’m so excited to be a part of the show,” states Gustin, who will make his debut alongside Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen in episode eight of Arrow’s second season. “I’m really excited. I’m a little fanboy. I’m so excited to be a part of the show. I got an audition and I was really excited and a little skeptical at first, because I’m a comic book fan. I know the character and know I’m a little young. He’s not going to be The Flash immediately, obviously. We’re going to be Barry Allen first in two episodes and then he’ll come back later as The Flash. I haven’t actually had a chance to read any scripts yet, so we’ll see. I didn’t realize before I started doing all my research that he can actually time travel, he can run so fast. I think that’d be a really fun thing to play with on the show is him kind of going to different times and experimenting with that. That’d be fun…”
…And finally, on the animated front you can view a selection of clips from the next episodes of Avengers Assemble and Ultimate Spider-Man [see here] and Teen Titans Go! and Beware the Batman [see here], while any DC fans heading to the New York Comic-Con may be interested in a Batman: The Brave and the Bold panel which is set to take place on October 11th and will feature actor Diedrich Bader (Batman), producer James Tucker, eight-time Emmy Award winning dialogue director Andrea Romano, Warner Archive podcasters Matt Patterson and DW Ferranti as well as some surprise guests. If you’d like to get your hands on free tickets, check out the details here.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen – Available now via Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.