Tons of news on the Marvel front so far this week. Loads of tasty tidbits from almost every corner of the active Marvel film properties. Being the eve of of the New York Comic Con, this doesn’t really come as a shock. I’ll go through some of the nice reveals that have leaked through recently.
Marvel Productions
RDJ confirms Iron-Man 4!!!! and then denies it….
Earlier this week Robert Downey Jr. was on Ellen and when asked if Marvel had plans to do another Iron-Man film. He joked, before giving a quick “Okay, yes.” when prodded again by Ellen.
Then the next night whilst on Letterman, he was asked the same question (clearly this Iron-Man thing has some sort of fan-base, weird), he denied all claims and even outright says they are not making any more Iron-Man films, but he is still part of the universe.
http://youtu.be/r98Tb4MUyVI
Will there ever be another Iron-Man film with RDJ at the head, who knows? But it seems that if Marvel has any plans to do so, they have kept Robert in the dark.
Robert Downey Jr. wants to be on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
On the topic of our favorite Robert Downey, he recently hosted a reddit AMA, in it he was barraged with questions about Marvel films and even at one point if he would be on the AoS show, to which he responded with:
Nothing is impossible. But there might be a fair amount of red tape involved in something like that. I love Clark Gregg, and am pleased the show is doing so well.
Which is a bit of a brush off for the question, but when asked what show he would want to be a guest on, he responded:
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
This means little to nothing in the scope of things, being that Tony Stark still believes Coulson dead in the films and S.H.I.E.L.D is all but defunct, but the thought of our Armored Ally making an appearance is pretty cool. Who knows, maybe down the road we will see this guest appearance, never say never.
Antman casts a “pivotal role”
This week Martin Donovan (Weeds) has been cast in a “pivotal” role for the Ant-Man film. Whilst keeping in line with all of Marvel’s projects, this announcement is shrouded in mystery. He could play anyone from a young Henry Pym, against Michael Douglas’s older version of Pym, to the husband of Pym’s daughter Hope van Dyne played by Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit). As will all things Marvel Productions, we will have to wait for this fog of uncertainty to clear up. Until then, the anticipation is killing me.
Sony Productions
Spider-man reboot, rebooted?
There is a rumor going around from a man called Devin Faraci, who is supposedly a good source of leaked material, that a number of things will be going on with this Sony franchise. The first piece of weird news is that, after the critical flop that was The Amazing Spider-man 2, the Sinister Six movie planned will be a “soft” reboot. Meaning Garfield will be recast. Whether or not this means the entirety of the cast will be replaced is uncertain, although I can’t imagine recasting just one character and calling it a reboot.
This also means any solo spidey adventures will be put off for a few years to see is any of the seedling characters they are spreading so thinly can branch off into their own solo franchises. This way a “crossover” between the franchises seems more fluid and less forced.
Venom violated
The final bit of news is that it seems the Venom movie being directed Alex Kurtzman is no longer being directed by him, and by that I mean that the film is off, again. Yes, as rumor has it, the Venom film has been delayed yet again, after an attempt was made after Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 to get the film off the ground.
This again is all hearsay, but seeing as Sony has yet to comment on any of these rumors, there may be a bit of true to this all. Either way, only time can tell.
Fox Productions
Spandex-less Four
Recently Michael B Jordan, playing The Human Torch in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot directed by Josh Trank, was interviewed by ABC news. While other cast members have stated that this is going to be a less kitschy, more gritty film, Jordan gave a little insight into what we may see on the screen, in regards to the classic spandex costumes in the comics, he said:
“It’s a new look. We are all in containment suits … The costume process definitely took some time to get in and out of that thing, especially since I was bulking up. It was a little more snug during filming. We got through it man. It was a process, but we did it. It was hard work.”
This along with Kate Mara, playing Invisible Woman, stating that Trank told her she didn’t need to read the comics, due to the fact that this story is something that has never happened before, lead us to believe we will be seeing a drastically different version of the First Family.
Mutants for the small screen
New rumors are emerging that 20th Century Fox is in “Deep Development” of a new live-action show staring the X-Men. While this won’t be the first time the X-Men have graced the television in a live-action format, the lesser known and even lesser received Mutant X made the attempt to carry over the action of the first three X-men films to television and did a less than stellar job, it will be the first time the X-Factor will be shown in any live-action format. It is said that the show will star the X-Factor and be lik ,as quoted by Shawn Madden of eatgeekplay.com, “’Fringe’ in the ‘X-Men’ world”. Sounds like an interesting pitch, yeah? It’s said to feature Jamie Maddox aka Multiple Man.
Keep your eyes and ears peeled as more superhero news is revealed at this upcoming New York Comicon, until then, remember, Any man that can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. Don’t forget a towel!
