It’s Friday morning, and that means another batch of news bites. This turned out to be a fairly busy week in Hollywood, with a whole lot of movie news coming to light. There’s a big mess of Marvel news, a touch of Turtle news, a dash of Disney, and an assortment of news on other major film operations. What there isn’t, strangely enough, is the need for a rumors section this week. Everything is relatively solid, at least what I came across. I’m sure there’s some random speculation out there, but I only came across a few items that come under that header, and they’re all tied to more definite news.
So for once, we can have a Friday without any major rumor-mongering. Read on!
Daredevil isn’t the only character that Marvel has reacquired the movie rights to. Also returning to Marvel Studios are Blade, Ghost Rider, and the Punisher, according to production president Kevin Feige. A reboot on Blade is already confirmed as being planned (poor Wesley Snipes; he just got out of prison, and the rug is pulled right out from under him.) What’s interesting is the timeline on these… Daredevil lapsed back to Marvel because it had been several years since Fox had done anything with the property. But Ghost Rider had a movie out just two years ago. Presumably it was either purchased back or there was some other forfeiture clause in the licensing agreement. Elektra may also have returned to Marvel as part of the Daredevil rights; Feige has stated he believes this to be the case, but would have to check with the legal department. He also said not to quote him on it, but several places are ignoring that request.
Also being revealed by Feige is confirmation that Robert Downey Jr. will be in The Avengers 2, with plans for him to also be in The Avengers 3. Negotiations were underway regarding his role in those films; Iron Man 4, however, is not yet confirmed, as it is uncertain if Downey wishes to return for another solo film. More Marvel news includes a script in the works for Ms. Marvel, and plans for Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Iron Fist, and The Runaways; the latter two being new revelations to the best of my knowledge. Feige also confirmed that at present there are no plans for spin-offs for War Machine (from the Iron Man franchise) or the Falcon (from the upcoming Captain America: the Winter Soldier).
Also, as mentioned several months back, Disney is at work on the first animated Marvel feature, Big Hero 6. A brief look at the animation can be seen here.
And I think that’s all the Marvel comics movie news this week. Now on to other things. Such as Marvel comics TV news. (Busy this week, aren’t they?) Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is expected to be officially picked up by ABC today. A brief video clip was momentarily posted on ABC’s official YouTube channel with what appeared to be the Hulk, but it was taken down shortly after its appearance.
From Disney’s Twitter feed: Richard Madden (currently known for playing Robb Stark in Game of Thrones) has been cast as the prince in their live-action Cinderella.
It shouldn’t surprise anybody that Christopher Nolan is casting at least one of his regular actors in Interstellar. Michael Caine has joined the cast, making this the sixth time he’s teamed up with Nolan.
After the rumor mills died down, the new incarnation of The Crow apparently has its star: Luke Evans, who played Apollo in Clash of the Titans and Zeus in Immortals. So he’s going from playing gods in B-movies to a quasi-superhero in a remake of a cult classic. Is that moving up or down the ladder?
Speaking of Clash of the Titans, this week brings some sad news for fans of the original fantasy epic. Legendary visual effects engineer Ray Harryhausen has passed away at the age of 83.
Apparently stopping Tom Cruise is impossible… or at least, stopping another mission is. a fifth Mission: Impossible film has been confirmed.
The Man of Bronze is coming to the big screen, courtesy of Shane Black. Black is co-writing and directing Doc Savage for Sony Pictures as his next film. The pulp adventure hero was immensely popular during the 1930s and 40s, and was the primary inspiration for Indiana Jones — the latter character being created in part because Lucas and Spielberg were unable to secure the rights to Savage. Doc Savage has, however, been filmed once before, in the 1975 film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze under Warner Brothers.
Remember the Dungeons and Dragons movies? Did you want more, or at least a chance at seeing a good one? No promises on quality yet, but Warner Brothers is looking to restart the film franchise, with a script by David Leslie Johnson, who wrote Red Riding Hood and Wrath of the Titans. You know what? Forget I said anything regarding quality.
There’s a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle news this week as well. On the “minor, but nice touch” front, Megan Fox, as April O’Neil, will have the trademark yellow jacket, though it appears it’s not a full yellow suit. Also, for some reason, she’s on a trampoline in several pictures. One hopes that this is for a stunt or just goofing around and that it’s not part of the script. Some eagle-eyed viewers have also spotted that Will Arnett’s character has a photo I.D., and were able to read it: Vernon Fenwick, who in the cartoon was April’s cowardly-but-gloryseeking assistant. Also joining the cast is character actor William Fichtner, who supposedly has “an iconic role”, though what role this may be is as yet unrevealed. CinemaBlend was speculating he may be Shredder, but as Fichtner seems rather low profile for the main villain (and also isn’t Japanese like Oroku “the Shredder” Saki), this seems spurious.
And finally, there’s some delay news. Jurassic Park 4 has been pushed back by Universal, with no new release date announced. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers is also pushing a few things back. 300: Rise of an Empire has been shoved from August 2 of this year to March 7, 2014; in turn, All You Need is Kill (starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt) has been moved from that date to June 6, 2014. So they take the 300 prequel out of the height of summer and put it in the early spring section, while moving a film from there to the summer blockbuster season. It doesn’t sound like they have a lot of faith in 300: Rise of an Empire.
“Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.”
— Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605-1615)
Morgan on Media 
About time Marvel gets a Black Panther movie in progress.
That Big Hero 6 footage looks pretty sharp.
I wouldnt mind another MI movie. The last two have been pretty excellent!
“No promises on quality yet, but Warner Brothers is looking to restart the film franchise, with a script by David Leslie Johnson, who wrote Red Riding Hood and Wrath of the Titans. You know what? Forget I said anything regarding quality” LOL
There was a rumor about a month back that Morris Chestnut is up for the role as Black Panther, since he made a post that it was “time to get familiar” with the character. I’m not really familiar with the actor, though. Looking at IMDb, he’s got a role in Kick-Ass 2 as “Sergeant Marcus Williams”, so maybe after you watch that you can let me know if he looks like he’d be good for the part. (I haven’t seen the first yet, and the character was apparently a different actor then.)
The Big Hero 6 footage does look pretty sharp. I wasn’t sure I’d be interested at all in it, since I know little of the characters beyond “Marvel’s Japanese superteam”, but that footage is promising.
He was solid in the short-lived “V” TV show from a few years back. Marvel has been floating those characters as potential feature films for awhile now, so I’ll believe them when I see them. Or when a director actually steps up with a plan for them, like Edgar Winter with Ant-Man.
Yeah, a lot of them are in the same category as DC and “Wonder Woman” — you know they want to do it, but there’s no indication they’re really making progress.
Hell, I’m still more than half-inclined to treat “Ant-Man” that way.
Boy, we’ll be Marvel-ed out in the next year with all those movies and yet there’s still no plans to do DC’s The Flash 😦 I was astounded to hear how much money RDJ makes w/ Iron Man and Avengers, man that’s close to $100 mil!! Meanwhile his co-stars Hemsworth and Evans only got a paltry $500K raise for Avengers 2.
Not surprised Cruise is back for IM5 but I’m not sad Jurassic Park 4 got delayed, maybe they’ll scrap it altogether.
It is an awful lot of Marvel. I’m hoping things level out to where Marvel movies (and superhero movies in general) are a regular thing but that it doesn’t “bubble” from bad films and cause the whole genre to get put on the back burner again.
I’d like to see a Flash movie as well. There have been vague plans for one for about ten years now, but it’s like Wonder Woman in that respect — it’s been stuck in development hell as they go through one script after another.
And yeah, Downey’s making a killing on Iron Man and Avengers. Granted, he’s indisputably the big star, but… wow.
I somehow suspect that even if they scrap the entire script for JP4, they’ll just come up with another one. The temptation to do 3D high-def IMAX dinosaurs is just going to be too much to resist.
I really don’t know if ANY actor is worth $35 mil a movie. I mean seriously, in the grand scheme of things, it’s just excessive.
It’s the % of take of the movie rather than straight salary that does it, I believe.
That Dungeons and Dragons info made me think about that terrible tv movie with Tom Hanks, Mazes and Monsters, anyone remember that?
Doc Savage film sounds cool but not so sure about Shane Black at the helm. Hooray a Dr. Strange film, they better have Power Man along with Iron Fist.
I’ve heard of M&M, but I haven’t had the opportunity to see it yet. I want to, though; it sounds gloriously stupid.
Doc Savage does sound pretty cool. I’m not worried about Shane Black, he’s got a pretty good track record.
Dr. Strange will be very cool if it happens, though it’s been “in consideration” for a long time. I’d like to see Power Man as a separate movie, and then do the PM/IM “Heroes for Hire” team-up film.