Our weekly round-up of all the big talking points from the world of movie superheroes…
The big news is of course the release of Matthew Vaughn’s Cold War-era mutant prequel X-Men: First Class, which I have to say I found to be a little over-rated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable, but in my opinion it really doesn’t justify all the hype that’s been coming its way this past week (you can check out my full review here). Nevertheless, Vaughn’s done a good job setting things up for the next two installments in the ‘First Class Trilogy‘, which I’m sure will be announced once the opening weekend figures come in for this first outing, while James McAvoy has been discussing a potential sequel over at Hero Complex.
Anyway, a whole raft of clips and TV spots have made their way online this past week to further promote the release of First Class (I’m sure by now someone could do a pretty good job of editing the whole film together from these), along with a couple of interesting bits and pieces including a three-part roundtable interview with Matthew Vaughn at ObsessedWithFilm, a video interview with screenwriter Jane Goldman at IGN and an insight into the VFX process courtesy of Rhythm & Hues which you can read over at Comicus (scroll down for the English version). Finally, Vaughn and January Jones have also been answering fan questions over on the Facebook X-Perts Q&A (and no, they didn’t answer that one).
Also stepping up the publicity this week ahead of a July release is Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The First Avenger, which debuted three new promo images – featuring Chris Evans as Cap, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull – along with a few TV spots, one of which featured snippets of new footage. Meanwhile TFA storyboard artist Martin Asbury updated his website with some of his work from the film, which could possibly contain a few spoilers but really is worth checking out. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, expect The Avengers to have quite a presence at the Licensing International Expo (which runs from June 14th-16th in Las Vegas), with ComingSoon.net delivering a sneak preview of a promo poster for the upcoming superhero ensemble.
Along with The Avengers, another big movie expecting to make a splash at the Licensing Expo is Christopher Nolan’s final Batman feature The Dark Knight Rises, with Batman-News.com speculating that it could play host to the reveal of the latest Bat-vehicle in much the same way that the Batpod debuted back in 2007 (oh, and a couple of purported viral videos have sprung up on Youtube, most likely fakes but you can take a look here if you haven’t seen them already).
Wrapping up the best of the rest…
…After confirmation earlier this week that Sony will be taking The Amazing Spider-Man to Comic-Con, there’s been talk from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be the next superhero flick to follow suit…
…New Daredevil director David Slade has been busy on Twitter recently, teasing an announcement on the upcoming reboot while confirming that he was never attached to the proposed Justice League of America movie, nor a potential reboot of The Shadow…
…Green Lantern’s arrival in cinemas is now less than two weeks away and Warner Bros. have recently debuted a new website entitled Green Lantern Creator, which features some new shots of the alien characters and gives fans the opportunity to create their own member of the Green Lantern Corps…
…CosmicBookNews have posted an article that gathers together all of the Man of Steel rumours that have been doing the rounds lately, while original Superman director Richard Donner took part in a interesting interview with Hero Complex to promote the release of Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology Blu-ray box set that arrives on June 13th…
…Another DC superhero who looks set to be coming to the big screen is Hawkman, with BleedingCool reporting that the proposed film is “part Indiana Jones / The Da Vinci Code, part Ghost“. Head over to the site to read the full logline that’s doing the rounds…
…For anyone out there still remotely interested in NBC’s Wonder Woman pilot, iFanboy posted an in-depth review which also features some previously unseen images, including what looks to be a shot of Wonder Woman’s plane…
……And finally, while it doesn’t really have anything to do with movies, DC Comics have announced plans to relaunch all of their titles with new #1s, which one can only assume to be the major announcement that was scheduled for this month’s Hero Complex Film Festival.
Originally published June 4, 2011. Updated November 6, 2019.
