Ahead of this weekend’s San Diego Comicon, Marvel has decided to sneak out some images from upcoming superheroic blockbusters Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger – and they look pretty awesome!
Previously released screenshots show Thor is staying fairly close to his current Earth 616 look (wiki it non-fanboys!), and it’s pleasing to see that his half-brother Loki, the Norse god of mischief, will be keeping his iconic horned helmet on the big screen.
Cap meanwhile get’s a more realistic chainmail-free look obviously based on his appearance in the company’s ‘Ultimates’ comics line. The Ultimates has already proven a rich seam for Marvel’s movie division, influencing everything from Iron Man’s beard to The Hulk’s helicopter drop, meaning we can hopefully expect a surprisingly grim, if over the top take on the star spangled avenger.
What better place than the vast temple of Mammon men refer to as London’s Westfield shopping centre to settle in and check out a movie about a billionaire show-off. Make no mistake, Iron Man 2 is all about the bling.
Unfortunately, it isn’t really about anything else.
Where the first movie gave us a former hellraiser as a cocky, likeable..er..hellraiser, here we get to see all the bits we hate about rich guys like that. All the dazzle, all the showing off -in short, all the style over substance…
News wandering in from the depths of Variety this morning that king of 90’s geek-dom Joss Whedon is Marvel’s go-to guy for the upcoming big screen Avengers Movie. At first this sounded like internet rhubarb based on Whedon’s involvement in the on-again, off-again Wonder Woman project, but the Dollhouse director himself spoke up yesterday, claiming he was ‘wrapping up a deal’ with Marvel to tackle their biggest hitters.
Based on the classic Lee/Kirby strip, “The Avengers!” sees Captain America, Thor and Iron Man teaming up, and early script news reports that they’ll be following the comic to a tee by taking down none other than the rampaging Hulk. The house of ideas also took the prescient step of signing up the leading actors of those properties to a multi picture deal, meaning “The Avengers” would star Robert Downey Jr. (as Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Hemsworth (Thor) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury).While Smoochy himself, Ed Norton may also return as the Hulk.
It looks like script writer Zak Penn has been catching up on Marvel’s recent Avenger’s reboot “The Ultimates”, tying the continuity more closely into that timeline than the original Marvel universe (Earth 616 to us fanboys), but Whedon, who also wrote several issues of the company’s “Astonishing X-Men” series, is sure to want to give the screenplay a workover.
While Whedon has shown he’s got the writing chops for the gig, “Serenity” remains his sole big-screen directing credit – do you think he’s ready to tackle such a mega-budget action piece?
It seems that director Joe Johnston has been using his post-Wolfman time wisely, bypassing regional premieres in favour of homing in on a lead for The First Avenger: Captain America.
Chatting to Marvel.com, Johnston says he expects to announce a lead in the next fortnight.
“We need to cast it soon,” said Johnston. “We have a very short list, but we’re still juggling actors here. I’d say within the next couple of weeks we’ll have ourselves a Captain America, I hope.”
Sam Worthington was most recently linked to the star-spangled spandexer, but it’s unclear whether the grunting half-wall half SHOUTING ACTOR has made the shortlist. Tyrese still appears to be in the running for the role of proto-super soldier Isaiah Bradley.
Despite some shouting from fanboys – and speculation that the plot may include Marvel’s dodgy Brit-hero Union Jack – Johnston is still set on filming in the UK, which given the WWII period piece that’s been mooted, makes perfect sense, with Marvel’s head honcho Kevin Fiege claiming it will be
“One of the most international films we’ve done”. So Europe-wide Nazi-crushing super-carnage then – this can only be a good thing.
More rumblings from the heavens over at Marvel studios today, as Queen of Space/Hitman’s assistant Natalie Portman joins the impressive looking cast for Kenneth Branagh’s Thor movie as Thor’s Earthly love interest, nurse Jane Foster.
