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.
Originally published May 14, 2011. Updated February 28, 2020.
