Roundup 12.14.11 – MARVEL MOVIES
Here’s the latest Marvel movie news! The Amazing Spider-Man! The Avengers! Iron Man 3! And more!
ATTABOY FOR STAN LEE
Excelsior!
The Producers Guild of America will honor Stan Lee with the 2012 Vanguard Award at their January 21 ceremony.
Lee, who makes cameo appearances in almost every Marvel movie, has been responsible for creating or co-creating many of the Marvel heroes that are now making bank at the box office.
[Full press release at Collider]
AVENGERS
Joss Whedon talked with Yahoo Movies about the process of working with the studio in the development of the movie, and what restrictions and mandates impacted the story. Whedon also discusses the sense of collaboration on the project, working with several actors who had already played their parts in other films, and how everything fit in the new team-up. Of note, he mention’s Bill Bixby’s performance as Bruce Banner is the starting point for his conversations with Mark Ruffalo, the new Banner. [Additional Hulk talk here]
Speaking of new banners:
Is a sequel already in the works? So says Kevin Feige when he talked with The Hollywood Reporter at this year’s New York Comic Con. The Marvel exec listed the various projects in the works, including Iron Man 3, which will be part of what Feige calls “phase two” of the movie production plan.
IGN caught up with Feige at NYCC as well, and the studio chief also dropped the tidbit that Avengers 2 would likely have a different line-up. “Absolutely. That’s the fun of it — introducing new characters,” he told them.
More details on the entire slate of films, including a tentative time-line, can be found at News in Film.
Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki in the upcoming team-up film, says long-time fans will be very happy with the other villains who will make an appearance. Because taking on a team would be a hefty challenge for the trickster. “Loki has help, obviously,” said Hiddleston. “If Thor could beat Loki on his own at the end of Thor, then why, logically, would it take eight this time?” [More at MTV News – with video]
Composer Alan Silvestri has confirmed that he will be scoring The Avengers. [Comic Book Movie]
Meanwhile, who should get the license to develop the new Avengers video game? Comic Book Resources has this overview of the possibilities.
Marvelous News has the details on the Hasbro line of action figures that will roll out starting in January. And Diamond Select will have a collection as well.
HAWKEYE?
Hitfix talked with Jeremy Renner about his role as Hawkeye, and how standing in a bucket in Thor is so much different from the ensemble of The Avengers. And he discusses the possibility of a Hawkeye solo movie. [More at HitFix]
IRON MAN 3
Director Shane Black was at Long Beach Comic Con, where he participated in a Q&A about the movie. According to Comic Book Resources, the sequel will not follow the “Demon in a Bottle” story line. Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle are both coming back, and the villain is… well… we don’t know that yet. But Black says Iron Man has never really had good villains.
Robert Downey, Jr. says the script for Iron Man 3 is
[youtube=http://youtu.be/7RhvDTUmlr8]
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
In a recent development, Disney (which owns Marvel) has acquired Sony’s merchandizing rights for The Amazing Spider-Man, which is currently outside of the Marvel Movie continuity. But could this mean Disney/Marvel is one step closer to bringing the web-head back into the fold? Could this be part of Kevin Feige’s “Phase Two”? In the wake of Spider-Man being part of the Fantastic Four (another franchise outside of current continuity) and the new Avenging Spider-Man comic title, it seems there’s a concentrated effort to get Spidey to play well with others. [More at Comic Book Movie]
Emma Stone talks about playing Peter Parker’s first love, Gwen Stacy, in this conversation with the Vancouver Sun. “I just thought her story was epic,” Stone said. “When you hear the story of Gwen Stacy for the first time, I’m sure, at any age, it floors you.” Stacy, the daughter of the police chief, died in the comic books when the Green Goblin threw her off a bridge and Spider-Man snagged her with his webs at the wrong angle, snapping her neck and killing her.
And here’s concept art that may reveal the look of the Lizard in the upcoming film, via SpiderMedia.ru:
DAREDEVIL & ANT MAN
Moviehole is reporting, via various sources, that the writers for both the Daredevil reboot and the Ant Man flick have turned in their respective scripts to studio chiefs. Now it’s a waiting game.
GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE
A new stand-up display and movie poster has been revealed. [Details at Marvel]
You may have already seen this, but the creative team – Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor – tells the LA Times Hero Complex that this sequel is going to be darker and grittier, ditching the leather jacket and going for a more visceral presentation. The pair were at New York Comic Con talking about how they pored over a stack of Garth Ennis’ work to prep for the project.
The two also talked with MTV about the villain, Blackout, and how he’s not quite the same as the version in the comic books. “We didn’t really honestly do a lot of research into the comic book version of Blackout,” Taylor admitted. “We kind of just took the visual of him and went from there.” Is this a good thing? Or will it open up new possibilities for the dynamic between Blackout and Johnny Blaze? And in this segment, they talk about how the movie may only have a PG-13 rating, but it will stretch every bit of that “13” part.
io9 has a clean copy of the clip that debuted at the Scream Awards.
And CrunchyRoll has collected new poster art here.
