Presenting our weekly round-up of all the biggest news stories from the world of movie superheroes…
With X-Men: First Class arriving on DVD and Blu-ray in North America yesterday, producer Lauren Shuler Donner has spent the past week discussing the various incarnations of Fox’s X-Men movie franchise with a number of sites including IAmRogue, CraveOnline, HitFix, Total Film and CinemaBlend. Among the highlights was confirmation that Shuler Donner has recently spoken with fellow producer Bryan Singer, screenwriter Jane Goldman and director Matthew Vaughn about possibilities for a sequel to this year’s ‘preboot’, which will probably be set in the 1970s and could feature cameos from the likes of Jean Grey and Cyclops.
As for the possibility of further muddying the X-Men timeline, it would appear that any hope of continuity within the franchise is now a thing of the past, with Shuler Donner stating that the First Class series is “now in its own timeline”, while the proposed Deadpool spin-off will also retain no connection to the disastrous X-Men Origins: Wolverine save for Ryan Reynolds in the title role. Meanwhile, it also seems that The Wolverine is unlikely to go into production until next summer, continuing the string of delay’s on Hugh Jackman’s latest outing as the adamantium-clawed mutant.
The Los Angeles leg of The Dark Knight Rises shoot continues, with more spy pictures and videos continuing to emerge from Christopher Nolan’s third and final Batman outing. While not all that exciting, the latest images gave us a look at Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne being escorted in a GCPD car driven by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake, along with some shots of Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle tackling a thug over a stolen apple. Meanwhile in other news from TDKR, Marion Cotillard told MTV that her role “was not based off of a character in the comic,” which seems to be a clever way of sidestepping the Talia al Ghul speculation with her turn as ‘Miranda Tate’.
Turning to Batman’s World’s Finest partner and Michael Shannon has confirmed that Henry Cavill’s Superman will be squaring off against a motion-captured General Zod in Zack Snyder’s reboot Man of Steel, bring an end to speculation over the identity of ‘Mo-Cap Man’ and sparking new speculation as to just what could be in store for the popular villain. Shannon told MTV that his take on Zod won’t be an impersonation of Terrence Stamp’s outing in Superman II, while recent set photos from the Man of Steel shoot also gave us our first look at Laurence Fishburne as Perry White and Diane Lane as Martha Kent.
Earlier in the week there were reports that The Avengers would be squaring off against a giant CGI creation called the Leviathan in Joss Whedon’s Marvel superhero team-up, with theories pointing towards some kind of alien ship or a giant ‘sea-monster’ (which also prompted talk over the possible inclusion of Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Atlanteans). While there hasn’t been any kind of clarification on the matter, a leaked call sheet finally confirmed the inclusion of aliens in The Avengers, although with Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) referencing the Skrull and the Kree in an interview with CraveOnline, I think we can now discount both of those races. Perhaps Whedon was telling the truth when he said it the villains would be something entirely new.
Wrapping up the best of the rest…
…According to a rumour from ComicVine, Guillermo del Toro has submitted a treatment for his television adaptation of The Incredible Hulk that features the development of the Red Hulk as a villain…
…Thor star Jaimie Alexander spoke to HomeTheaterForum about her hopes for 2013’s sequel, stating that she’d like to “see things progress between Thor and Sif [and] I’d also love to see Beta Ray Bill”…
…Director David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) tweeted a brief update on his Daredevil reboot, tells fans that: “The Daredevil news is simply that we are taking the time to get the script right. No casting, or other decisions will be made until then”…
…And finally, Batman: Year One co-directors Lauren Montgomery and Sam Liu took part in a video interview with ComicBookResources, during which they discussed the upcoming DC Animated Universe Original Movies adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic Batman origin tale.
Holy Franchise, Batman! – Coming 2012.
Originally published September 10, 2011. Updated November 29, 2022.
