…Moving on to Marvel Studios and with less than a month to go before the release of the penultimate instalment of Phase Two (and with special 17-minute IMAX 3D previews incoming on Monday and Tuesday), Marvel has continued the promotional blitz for Guardians of the Galaxy with the arrival of new posters for Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) [see here], along with some behind-the-scenes images of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Rocket and Groot pre-CGI [see here], details of the ‘awesome’ official soundtrack [see here], and our first official look at Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) as Yondu [see here]…
…As he puts the finishing touches to Guardians of the Galaxy, director James Gunn has posted a heartfelt message about his two years working on the movie [read his statement here], while he’s also talked more about Nathan Fillion’s cameo, suggesting it could lead to a bigger role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe further down the line: “Nathan Fillion is not Nova. There’s so much bullshit on the internet. I woke up – first it’s ‘Nathan’s Nova!’, then there are articles all over saying Nathan’s Cosmo. It’s like, ‘What?!’ Nathan’s role is a very small cameo that I wanted to give to Nathan because I love working with him and I think it’s lucky for me to have Nathan in all of my movies. At the same time I wanted to give him something where Nathan could have a larger role in the Marvel Universe if either Joss Whedon or I or whoever chose to do that in the future. Which I would love to do…”
…As filming continues on Avengers: Age of Ultron, we’ve got a few new spy photos from the Bourne Wood set of the Joss Whedon-helmed sequel, which show Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth in action as Captain America and Thor; check them out here…
…Moving on to Phase Three and Paul Rudd has revealed that he won’t be pulling a Chris Pratt for his role as Scott Lang in Ant-Man, stating that “I’ve had to kind of try and get in better shape. I don’t get too jacked. It doesn’t make sense for someone trying to be an ant.” Meanwhile, with filming set to get underway later this month, it has also been revealed that David Dastmalchian (The Dark Knight, Prisoners) has signed on for an unspecified role, where he’ll join Rudd and a cast that also includes Michael Douglas (Behind the Candelabra), Patrick Wilson (Watchmen), Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Corey Stoll (House of Cards), Michael Pena (Cowboys & Aliens), Matt Gerald (Dexter), and Kevin Weisman (Hello Ladies)…
…Over the past couple of weeks there’s been renewed speculation that Marvel could be planning a MCU version of Planet Hulk, but it seems that Mark Ruffalo isn’t keen on the idea, with The Avengers star stating that: “I don’t think [Planet Hulk] is the way to go. I think you need more Banner. The whole thing is just him as Hulk, on a planet, fighting other gladiators.” Ruffalo also went on to discuss how he’d like to see his character developed post-Age of Ultron: “If we could find a story that’s compelling enough to hold people’s interest for the two hours — that is essential. It’s a tough nut to crack and I see it as a tough nut to crack. I think it’s tougher than the other superheroes because you have a guy who essentially doesn’t want to be there doing the thing that you want him to do more than anything. So it can be frustrating as an audience member. It could become a little mirthless. I think that Joss [Whedon] is trying to set it up enough so that we can strike out new ground on that relationship. With the new technology there’s a lot to do in Hulk-land that we haven’t done yet that is really exciting. So you could have a balance of the two. And I’ve been finding this relationship between Banner and the Hulk and Hulk and Banner is equally compelling — it’s been explored in the comics, but never in the movies. It’s always been Banner’s relationship to this sort of lump, this unknowable very two-dimensional thing. But there’s also something really interesting about Hulk’s relationship with Banner. The only thing that scares Hulk is Banner. It’s not some bigger, scarier, huger thing — it’s this frail man. And it terrifies him and it angers him. It’s such an interesting relationship that no one has cracked. I feel like that would be an interesting place for us to go. That might hold people’s attention…”
…As Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gears up to go into production on its second season, Clark Gregg has teased what’s in store for Agent Coulson when the show resumes in the Fall: “What’s been clear to me is that the Agent Coulson who’s running this team post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, post-Hydra, post-being killed and brought back to life with something in him he doesn’t understand… He’s a very different Coulson than the guy who everyone knew. A lot of people who knew him in the old days say, “He’s different.” I think you would have to be different having gone through that stuff. So I think he’s reinventing himself and re-understanding himself as a person anyway, which is probably really necessary to taking in the new environment and figuring out what S.H.I.E.L.D. ought to be in a way that it doesn’t get rotten again…”
…And finally, as X-Men: Days of Future Past ($715.2 million) overtakes The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($704.2 million) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($711.2 million) to become the highest-grossing movie of the year so far, director Bryan Singer has given us a peek at what’s to come from the next instalment of the mutant superhero franchise by posting an image of the title page for the treatment to 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. See it here.
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
Originally published July 5, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
