DC DELIGHTS #4: Everything And Anything DC

SO this DC Delights will be considered as the big one as it its pretty much two weeks worth of news crammed into one! We’re talking Constantine, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Gotham and to add the movie stuff also like Wonder Woman, Batman V Superman, George Miller’s cancelled Justice League movie and a bunch more!

SO let us begin the journey of DC news!

TV NEWS

Visual effects studios Important Looking Pirates and Crafty Apes have released videos showcasing the digital effects their artists created for NBC’s Constantine.

Yes, the television series was cancelled earlier this month, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy cool effects that were designed for its first and probably only season. I especially like ILP’s “Blessed Are The Damned” video because it shows the work that went into the wings and the flight of Imogen (Megan West) the Fallen Angel.

Check it all out in the videos below.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/124600759

https://player.vimeo.com/video/118622778

https://player.vimeo.com/video/118622870

https://player.vimeo.com/video/118623579

Regardless of how you felt about Season 1 of Gotham, the FOX show did manage to bring a startling number of Batman’s famous rogues gallery to life in its freshman year (even if there was no Caped Crusader around). Notable successes included Robin Lord Taylor’s popular take on The Penguin, and Cameron Monaghan’s memorable cameo as a younger Joker.

With the latter apparently set to play an even bigger role in Season 2, TVLine have revealed details about two more thorns in Jim Gordon’s side. The site claims that the first new arrival, “a male DC villain”, will be “intelligent, cultured and highly articulate,” as well as “extremely attractive, seductive and threatening”. A seductive Mr. Freeze, perhaps?! Joining this mystery rogue will be a female antagonist, “in her mid-to late 20s”, who is somewhat of a “sexy knock-out”.

Chris Chalk is the latest guest star to be promoted to series regular status on the FOX show, having made a small but memorable guest appearance as ‘Lucius Fox’ in the late stages of Season 1. This news, revealed first by TVLine, should not come as any surprise though, as Chalk was apparently brought onto the series with an explicit ‘option to return’ during the sophomore season.

When we last saw Mr. Fox, he had a few things to say to young Bruce about the state of Wayne Enterprises. According to Gotham EP John Stephens, Lucius will become “another person who’s going to help Bruce on his journey to find out what happened to his parents and what his parents were doing, and also his journey to manhood and Batman-hood.” Stephens also claimed that “[Adult Bruce is] like a science genius, and some of that’s going to come from Lucius Fox.”

While speaking recently at MCM London, the show’s stars Willa Holland, Karl Yune (Maseo), and Rila Fukushima talked about their experiences working on this past season as well as strategically teasing their characters’ possible futures on the show.  This included Yune who, despite his character dying at the hands of his former wife, Tatsu, hinted that there is a possibility fans might see Maseo return. Yune hinted that the series’ creator and showrunner, Marc Guggenheim, had simply told him “don’t make any plans“. Meanwhile, Holland reveals what alterations she’d like to see made to Speedy’s new costume


After her brief cameo appearance in the second season of Arrow, the series could have used a lot more Harley Quinn, according to actress Willa Holland, who plays Thea Queen on the show.

Holland told Flickering Myth that “We had big plans for Harley, but I guess something came down from DC execs that told us to shut it down. I mean, we had that tease with the pigtails and the A.R.G.U.S. [prison] outfit but, we’ll never see it. We would love to Harley in Arrow but it will never happen.”

The character, who originated on Batman: The Animated Series, will be featured prominently in next year’s Suicide Squad live-action feature. The Squad were featured in the episode in which Harley made her unnamed cameo on Arrow and a number of others, but their role will reportedly be significantly diminished going forward, with some of the characters from the Suicide Squad movie taken off the board entirely.

This preview doesn’t reveal a lot about what’s to come in Arrow this Fall, but some very interesting hints are definitely dropped by executive producer Marc Guggenheim. Season three may have made the mistake of focusing more on Felicity crying than Ra’s al Ghul, but there’s a lot to look forward to in season four. For example, we have no idea how Oliver will once again take on The Arrow identity, while Damian Darhk and H.I.V.E. are also set to take on major roles which should be fun.

Flash executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has confirmed that the entire first season of the show is an alternate timeline due to the manipulation of Tom Cavanagh’s Harrison Wells.  So will we ever see the original timeline or will the show always exist in the alternate one?  As Matt Letscher Eobard Thawne stated in latter episodes of the show, Thawne went back in time and hijacked Well’s life so that he could create the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator much earlier and create The Flash [and subsequently, many of Flash’s Rogue Gallery].  But Eddie’s (Rick Cosnett) heroic sacrifice means that Wells never even existed so wouldn’t that mean the timeline has been reset? Or does the alternate timeline continue on?  Said Kreisberg to EW, “Part of the fun of The Flash is when you have people dabbling in sci-fi physics, they’re significantly altering the world. We established in the finale that the entire series of The Flash is, in itself, an alternate timeline that’s been skewed from the real one. Wells setting off the accelerator created all the metahumans, and the results of the singularity will also have long-term effects.”

The finale episode answered a lot of questions, but the ending left us with a lot of new ones. In the following promo which aired at the end of the finale, executive producers Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg tease plans for season two, and it sounds like the singularity might help to create new metahumans for the Scarlet Speedster to face off against! Throw in alternate timelines, Cisco being confirmed as having powers, that Killer Frost tease, and the Speed Force, and we have a lot to look forward to.


Grant Gustin was brought up and down the red carpet at The CW’s 2015 upfronts in New York last Thursday rather quickly. He answered questions rapid-fire, and was one of – if not the – most in-demand talents there, with Hollywood blogs, Comic Book websites, and TV news shows alike vying for his attention.

As the titular lead of The Flash, Gustin told ComicBook.com that it’s easy to relate to Barry Allen’s joy in embracing his alter-ego.

“I just innately have fun doing this,” the actor said.

While Barry has been put through quite a bit this season, especially in the last month or so of the show, Gustin hopes that he’s holding onto that sense of fun, and he talks with the folks in charge about it regularly.

“I had actually gotten to a place where I talked to [EPs] Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti about it, because I felt like Barry had gotten to this really dark place, and he maybe wasn’t having fun anymore,” he told us, expressing his concern. “They promised me that Barry was still having fun, and he’d still get those moments.”

As for next year, Gustin thinks that as Barry grows as a hero, he’ll get further away from that “dark place” and into a position that more mimics the Barry Allen of the printed page at DC Comics.

“I want to be able to, next year, get a little more cocky with it and confident with the super powers. I want to be a little bit closer to the Flash from the comics,” he said.

One thing that can help cure the “dark first season” blues as he described it, is the camaraderie with his castmates. With Wells presumably out of the picture, or at the very least off of “Team Flash,” Gustin hopes he’ll get to show how Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry spend more of their downtime.

“Cisco and Barry I’ve always wanted to explore more since the beginning; we did just a little bit in the first season, and that was because we [Grant and Carlos Valdes, who plays Cisco Ramon on the show] had brought that up to the writers,” said the star.

He also noted that he “loves working with Danielle Panabaker” and thinks the down moments with the three of them (Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco), outside of any superheroics, should get their due in season 2.

“I think it’s fun, even just as friends and not a superhero team, to just kind of have those three do more socially next year. Like the karaoke scene this year, we had a lot of fun doing that.

Gorilla Grodd’s small screen debut in The Flash was nothing short of incredible, but it could have been even better had they followed the concept art below (via Film Sketchr). Of course, this might give us an idea as to what we should expect from the character’s return in season two, but we’ll just have to wait and see on that.

Admitting that she really thought she was done in the CWverse following Sara Lance’s death in the Arrow season premiere, Legends of Tomorrow actress Caity Lotz told TVLine at upfronts last week that the new show is even cooler than she imagined it would be when the idea of a return was pitched to her.

“It’s going to be big,” she teased. “I didn’t really know that much about the show and I said ‘I want to do it, I trust you guys,’ and when we were shooting our teaser, they were telling me some of the stuff that’s going to be happening, and I was like, ‘This is way cooler than I — not that I didn’t think it would be cool, but just stuff that I wasn’t even imagining or picturing. I think this is going to be really fun to do.”

You can see the full interview below.

Speaking of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Entertainment Weekly talked with one of the stars, Wentworth Miller(Captain Cold)! “I hope the answer is no on the way to yes,” says Miller. “Because if you stuff a bunch of rabid dogs in a barrel and roll it downhill, that’s something that’s worth watching.” However, despite his evil tendencies, Miller’s Captain Cold does have a softer side. “In his relationship with his sister, you see he does have a heart. And there are people that he’s willing to put ahead of himself, so now that he’s aligned with these good guys, for better or worse, they’re going to start influencing him and his way of thinking. I’m excited to explore his shades of gray so we see he’s not just a villain, he’s a man.”

‘Kara Zor-El’ will soon be flying onto our screens on the new CBS show Supergirl this November. Apparently, one of the most overwhelming moments for star Melissa Benoist was the first time she ever got to put on the iconic suit – designed by three-time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood. Speaking to E! Online, Benoist explained how exciting the whole experience was for her:

“I just had this injury so I had this eye patch on. It was kind of embarrassing, but the second I put it on, something shifts inside of me. It’s kind of impossible not to feel strength and empowerment and positivity and hope. It really is pretty surreal!”

We recently had a glimpse of the show’s special effects in that action-packed trailer. Benoist noted how strange it felt watching herself perform these heroics on the small screen: “I don’t recognize myself when I see those scenes”, she claimed, “It’s kind of insane. The sheer scope of all of it, it’s so epic that it’s kind of mind-blowing to see it all put together.”

Sadly the pilot episode for the Supergirl show has leaked.

However, unlike last year’s leaked pilots for CW’s The Flash and NBC’s Constantine, the Supergirl pilot is available in full 1080p HD and is surprisingly watermark-free. The source of the leak is yet-to-be determined, but Variety confirms that the leaked episode went live around 3 a.m. ET this morning. At the time of this posting, CBS had yet to respond to the leak.

Variety posted their annual “10 TV Actors to Watch” piece, which includes fresh looks at hotly-anticipated superhero show, “Supergirl”!

“Supergirl” actress Melissa Benoist (Whiplash), can be seen standing proudly in the wake of the pilot episode being recently pirated.

“I never imagined myself getting a role like this,” Benoist says. “There are moments when I step back and look at the bigger picture and I’m on the set with fire and explosions and I’m in the suit — and I’ll have to do a double-take.”

Benoist leads a cast that includes Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, Laura Benanti as Alura Zor-El, Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant, Chyler Leigh as Alexandra “Alex” Danvers, Jeremy Jordan as Winslow “Winn” Schott, David Harewood as Hank Henshaw and, in mystery roles, Dean Cain and Helen Slater.

Hailing from Warner Bros. TV and Berlanti Productions (who also produce the hit DC Comics series “Arrow” and “The Flash” for The CW), “Supergirl” is based on the characters from DC Comics and centers on Kara Zor-El, who comes to Earth after escaping the destruction of Krypton. After many years hiding her abilities, she joins the ranks of her cousin Superman to become the hero she was meant to be.

The pilot episode of “Supergirl” was written by Ali Adler (“No Ordinary Family”) and Greg Berlanti (“Arrow,” “The Flash”). They will also executive produce along with Sarah Schechter and Warner Bros. TV. The show has a series commitment at CBS, and is expected to debut in November.

In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg reveals that Cavanagh will remain on the show as a series regular, weighs in on Eddie possibly returning, and teases “a bunch more villains” as well as additional speedsters for season two.

THR: When did you know Eddie would make this sacrifice?

Kreisberg: When we decided to name him Thawne, we hoped the audience would suspect Eddie was the Reverse-Flash because of his last name. We always knew Eddie would be his ancestor, but we weren’t quite sure how we would end the season. The way things were moving forward, it felt like it was the best thing to do for his character. Like with Colin Donnell [whose character Tommy died in Arrow’s season one finale], it was literally the worst thing we could do to ourselves as writers, producers and friends, because we all love Rick so much both personally and professionally, and we think he’s crushed it as Eddie all season. We’ve all become very close. It’s one of those terrible things. The story sort of tells you what it wants to be and as much as it broke our hearts, we knew this was the way the season needed to end.    

What was Rick’s last day on set like?

Usually the last day on set tends to be something very mundane. The last day on set turned out to be his death scene. It was a very complicated day, visual effects-wise, because of all the things that were going on. It was also a difficult day emotionally. Not only was it the end of the season, and everyone from the crew to the cast has just been killing themselves to make this show as good as it could be, it was also incredibly emotional. Just like Collin Donnell, Rick was told about the plan way in advance, because obviously we didn’t want him to read it and be surprised. As soon as he found out, he kicked up his acting level a notch. It was almost subconsciously — his performance got even stronger, which again makes it even worse emotionally for us. Rick has been turning in his best work of the year in these last few episodes just like Colin did. I literally can’t say enough about Rick Cosnett.

Will Eddie be back?

The great thing with our show — you saw it with Colin Donnell and with Caity Lotz [whose deceased Sara is returning for spinoff Legends of Tomorrow] — is just because you are dead doesn’t mean you’re not coming back. Especially in the world of The Flash, which involves time travel and real hardcore science fiction, there’s always a way for Eddie to return, and we hope Rick will.

How does Eddie’s sacrifice work? Eobard disappears — but everything he did up until the finale still happened?

Our time travel hopefully holds together as much as it can. It doesn’t completely obliterate all of their memories of Eddie and everything, but it has the desired effect of “harm to Eddie means harm to Tom Cavanagh’s character.”

How did you lay the groundwork for Eddie to make this choice?

Eddie has been struggling these last few weeks, hearing about the future and about how there is no place for him in the future. He wasn’t going to believe in Wells’ interpretation of the future. He was going to make his own decision and he basically decided to recommit to Iris, which only makes his sacrifice that much more heartbreaking. He didn’t do it because he didn’t have anything to live for. He did it because he had everything to live for.

What does this mean for Tom Cavanagh’s future on the show?

Tom Cavanagh will be back. That is not in question. Tom Cavanagh will continue to be a regular.

This season was so well planned out in advance. Is that the approach you will take with season two — constructing a big master plan like you had for season one?

Not to pat ourselves on the back too much, but if you watch the pilot, there are clues that got laid out throughout the season. We’ve done the same thing for season two, and hopefully we’ve created a structure and a scenario for season two that people will find equally compelling and equally interesting. Some of it has already been set up in the events of season one — just like we do on Arrow where, without even realizing it, toward the end of the season we’re setting up the next season. Once people come back in season two, they’ll look back at some of these episodes in season one and go, “Oh wait a minute, I see where this came from.”

You’ve said season two will introduce more Speedsters. Is that going to be a major theme akin to the Rogues in this season?

Yeah. We are going to introduce a few more speedsters next year and a bunch more villains. How they and those villains come about is part of the surprise of season two. We’re really excited. [Executive producer] Greg [Berlanti] and myself and [executive producer] Geoff Johns and the writers, the cast, the crew, the directors — we are so proud of this season of television. It really is a high mark for all of us, and we feel a great deal of pressure and anxiety to live up to it because it’s been so well received. As proud as excited as we are about everything we’ve done this year, we really are just as proud and excited for all the things we are planning coming up. Hopefully people will continue to take this ride with us.

According to series star Grant Gustin, The Flash’s second season might explore the multiverse. With at least Earth 2 on the table, Gustin said that the series will explore alternate timelines and realities.

“What’s fun about this show is that there’s going to be multiple timelines as we move forward,” Gustin said. “I think we’re going to start showing Earth-One and Earth-Two in the near future. There will be kind of different dimensions going on.”

For those who’s heads aren’t exploding right now, let us explain. In DC Comics, there exists a multiverse of parallel dimensions and realities, all of which explore the DC Universe through a different lens. It’s one of the publisher’s biggest selling points, often playing a key role in their crossover events. Earth 2, for example, hosts all of DC’s golden age, WWII-era characters—including the silver-haired speedster, Jay Garrick.

While a thriving multiverse may work well for a sci-fi-heavy show like The Flash, series co-star Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon) thinks it could present a tricky situation for The CW’s other shows, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow.

“It gets a little Rubik’s Cube-y in terms of keeping consistency between all these timelines and whatnot,” Valdes, always the science nerd, told TVGuide. “But the writers have their stuff together. If I were to trust anyone, it would be them.”

Robbie Amell, who appears on “The Flash” as one half of Firestorm, revealed in an interview with CBR News that although he filmed a sequence for the finale debuting Firestorm’s new matter manipulation ability, the scene was ultimately cut for length.

“In the finale, you were going to see a scene where Caitlin and I are talking. I tell her, we do have a better handle on our powers, [and] I show her a new trick,” Amell explained. “They introduced matter manipulation in the finale — but the finale was also thirty minutes too long, because it’s such a huge, incredible episode, [the scene] was one of the things that could go. You won’t see it, but originally I turn a thermometer into a flower for her. It was a very sweet scene that showed some matter manipulation. Maybe they will release it on the DVD/Blu-ray set… In the finale, there was going to be a scene when we turn into Firestorm. We literally step towards each other and turn into him. There isn’t any difficulty. And, now, we get to do matter manipulation — but nobody gets to see it yet.”

In the show, Raymond and Martin Stein (Victor Garber) have traveled a long, bumpy road to becoming a Firestorm that truly works in tandem. With this new ability, it seems as though the two have finally hit a groove that allows them to explore the possibilities of their metahuman abilities.

With the first season of “The Flash” coming to a close, lead actor Grant Gustin has readily expressed his gratitude for the show’s success. He’s already penned an open letter thanking the show’s cast, crew and fans, and now he’s given an in-depth interview to Buzzfeed in which he reveals what the future holds for the CW’s growing lineup of DC Comics programming.

Joining “Arrow” and “Flash” next season is “Legends of Tomorrow,” a team-up spinoff that features characters that got their start on other CW/DC series. As Gustin revealed in the interview, some “Legends” stars will pull triple duty during the 2015-2016 TV season.

“Like, I’m on ‘Flash,’ but as far as a lot of those other characters are concerned, they’re just on three TV shows at one time, which is really cool,” said Gustin. “Wentworth [Miller, who plays Captain Cold] and Dominic [Purcell, who plays Heat Wave] are on ‘Legends,’ but they’ll be on ‘Arrow’ and ‘Flash,’ too. It’s like a revolving door for all three shows.”

Crossovers with “Arrow” were commonplace during “Flash’s” first season, with a number of characters — including Felicity Smoak, Ray Palmer, Laurel Lance and the Arrow himself — all appearing on the show. Conversely, “Flash” actors Grant Gustin, Danielle Panabaker and Carlos Valdes all appeared on “Arrow.” Appearing on both shows proved to be a little taxing on the actor, as he told Buzzfeed, but he did power through the long schedules and has learned how to handle the workload better.

“When I was doing the ‘Arrow’ crossover for the first time, I thought, I’m going to die at some point this season,” said Gustin. “But we pushed through to Christmas and that was the moment I was like, Oh good, I’m not going to die. And now I know for next season what it’s going to take, I know how to pace myself, and I don’t have to come out of the gate so strong. I put a lot of pressure on myself this time last year, and I’m not doing that to myself now because I trust Andrew [Kreisberg], Greg [Berlanti], Geoff [Johns], and my cast. We all do it together.”

Greg Berlanti takes a hands-on approach to all of the shows in his stable, and over the years has assembled a trusted team to help him execute — Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and Ali Adler, among them — which DC Comics chief content officer Geoff Johns jokingly calls his “Justice League.”

“Honestly, I’m so reliant on others,” Berlanti says to Variety. “It’s the long-term relationships I’ve had that allow me to do multiple things, because you have a shorthand with these people.”

With a total of six shows now in production — the Debra Messing vehicle “Mysteries of Laura” on NBC, along with the CW’s hits “Arrow” (starring Stephen Amell) and “The Flash” (headlined by Grant Gustin), not to mention his upcoming feature “Pan” (due in October) — he’ll need superpowers of his own to manage his staggering workload.

But nervous network execs needn’t worry. The 42-year-old wunderkind says he discovered long ago — going back to his days on the WB’s “Dawson’s Creek,” where he had a meteoric rise to showrunner — what it takes to succeed in the role.

“I learned that I really rely on other writers — that I can break stories quickly, but I can’t write quickly,” he says. “I learned that it’s OK that I’m not great at everything, that there are a lot of things that I may never be as good at as some of the other people I hired. Don’t be threatened by that. Co-opt that. Be good at the stuff you’re good at, but also know what you’re not as strong at.”

So he focuses his time and energy on where he can make the most impact: developing stories, editing, casting. You’ll rarely find him on set.

“I don’t have to be on every phone call for everything that gets approved, but I need everybody to know — whether it’s a junior executive at a network, an actor, a production person or a department head on one of the shows — that they can always reach me,” he says.

His priority is always quality: “I don’t want to do more just to do more it if it’s not good,” he says. And the frustration, he admits, is that he can’t always be where things are going well — it’s the problems that draw his attention. And certainly, the debuting shows will be his focus.

“The first thing I’m thinking about in the morning, and the last thing I’m thinking about at night, are usually the newer ones, because you haven’t figured out the algorithm yet,” Berlanti says. “From the moment the shows get picked up until we have an episode that’s as good as the pilot, I’m usually stressed about how we can do it again.”

That comicbook shows are now a success seems a no-brainer, given that they’re all that seems to be scoring in movies, but “Arrow” was a smallscreen breakthrough. And everyone involved credits Berlanti, a self-professed comicbook geek. It was his passion for the source material that infused the show — along with its successor, “The Flash” — with its emotional heart, compelling narrative and whiz-bang visual effects that have stirred fans and critics alike.

“The first thing I always do is ask, ‘What is the show if you took away (super) powers?’ ” he says. “I only know, as a fan, what I would want to see.” Thanks to his track record, Berlanti has become DC’s go-to producer for its comicbook archive. Cue “Supergirl.”

A comics heroine has been long overdue — even Berlanti’s nieces have been nagging him — so when DC pitched him on the concept, he was intrigued. But rather than keep the show in the vein of what had been done before, he wanted to take a proportional leap. “With what we accomplished and learned from ‘The Flash,’ ” he says, “if we could do that on an even larger scale, on a bigger network, what would that look like?”

CBS, he reports, jumped at the chance. He says entertainment prexy Nina Tassler fell in love with “Supergirl” at the pitch meeting, so much so that she started to cry. “It didn’t matter at that point what they were going to pay for it,” he says. “That’s who you want buying the show.” (Despite the rumor mill, Berlanti says there was never a chance of the show moving to the CW. Plus, he adds, “We would never have been able to afford the kind of budget we have.”)

As with “The Flash,” Berlanti has insisted “Supergirl” invest heavily in visual effects, and Johns calls the money well spent.

“When people see the pilot, they’ll be blown away by what’s accomplished on television,” says the DC content topper. “But Greg knows that it’s not just about spectacle. It has to be about heart; it has to be about humor.”

Casting is paramount to Berlanti: He calls the show’s star, Melissa Benoist, the “Annie Hall” of superheroes.

“The most important decision you can make as a showrunner when you’re doing a pilot is who’s in it, and who’s directing it,” he says. “If we had not found her, I would have said, ‘I don’t want to make this.’ ”

MOVIE RUMOURS & NEWS

Wonder Woman is about to get hot and heavy with Chris Pine.  Sources tell Variety the “Star Trek” actor is in negotiations to join Gal Gadot in the upcoming superhero pic for Warner Bros.

Pine would play Gadot’s love interest Steve Trevor in the origin story. Warner Bros. had no comment.

Patty Jenkins, who recently replaced Michelle MacLaren, is directing from a script by Jason Fuchs. “Wonder Woman” will be released on June 23, 2017.

Charles Roven is exec producing the DC Comics tentpole for Atlas Entertainment. Zack Snyder, director of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” is also producing.

In the comics, Steve Trevor was an intelligence officer in the United States Army during World War II whose plane crashed on Paradise Island, the isolated homeland of the Amazons. He was nursed back to health by the Amazon princess Diana, who fell in love with him and followed him when he returned to the outside world. There she became Wonder Woman (and also his co-worker, Diana Prince).

Rumors had suggested that Scott Eastwood had landed the part, but insiders tell that Eastwood was given a choice to test for the Trevor role or sign on for a guaranteed supporting part in “Suicide Squad,” which he opted to take.

Warners tested a handful of other actors but later decided to look at more high-profile names and go with a straight offer. Pine won over production execs and Gadot at his meeting, leading the studio to pursue him for the role.

Pine, having starred as Captain Kirk in the last two “Star Trek” movies, is no stranger to the fanboy world, but “Wonder Woman” will mark his first venture into cinema’s most popular genre and should lead to more opportunities in DC’s Justice League universe. Gadot’s Wonder Woman, of course, plays a key role in Snyder’s forthcoming “Batman v Superman,” which arrives next March.

The CAA-repped Pine is currently in production on the thriller “Comancheria” and will immediately jump into production on “Star Trek 3″ afterward. He can be seen next in “Z for Zacharia” this August and co-stars in the Disney adventure pic “The Finest Hours” bowing next year.

It’s safe to say we’ve seen a lot of great stuff from the Suicide Squad set in Toronto recently, including some high speed chases, and some fascinating scenes from Margot Robbie’s ‘Harley Quinn’, Jared Leto’s ‘Joker’ and a certain Caped Crusader too. Many fans have (somewhat prematurely) started to wonder whether the whole movie was going to be spoiled for them. Thankfully, the movie’s director David Ayer has come out on Twitter to put their fears to rest:

It seems like he’s also signalling the end of filming on the streets of Toronto. This would give merit to his claims that fans aren’t going to see much else from the movie – and that’s probably for the best! Be sure to give the director a follow on Twitter though, you never know what sort of BTS images he could tease fans with over the coming months!

Taking to the ShanlianOnBatman Podcast, Umberto Gonzalez has revealed (as previously reported by BadassDigest) that what he refers to as “the muscle” in Zack Snyder’s upcoming BATMAN v SUPERMAN is none other than the iconic ‘Superman’ villain ‘DOOMSDAY’. Along with letting fans know (at the 39:33 time-stamp) that the villain apparently looks “incredible”, Gonzalez also been told that the [SPOILERS] “DO YOU BLEED” dialogue uttered by Ben Affleck’s ‘Batman’ actually occurs during a dream sequence in the film [END SPOILERS].

Check out the podcast down below starting at the 38: 34 mark for the details via. Elmayimbe himself.

JoBlo’s Paul Shirey is reporting that Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice will indeed feature Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor suiting up in his trademark green/purple Warsuit on film!

According to Shirey, while the film’s initial conflict will unsurprisingly be between the film’s two titular heroes, Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman, the true main villain of the Zack Snyder-directed picture is actually Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor, which considering Luthor’s history, isn’t all that shocking. However, where this new Lex Luthor deviates from past iterations is that he will be the first ever depicted on screen to actually put on the Warsuit, an armor that Luthor has been seen wearing for decades in the comics. According to JoBlo’s sources, who have actually seen the Warsuit, the armor looks very comic-accurate, albeit with a slight DCCU touch. He isn’t sure how long Eisenberg will actually wear the armor, but he speculates that it will more likely than not be for at least part of the finale for a sure-to-be epic showdown with Superman.

It’s also not exactly known how Luthor acquires the Warsuit, but a popular theory is that he builds it with leftover Kryptonian technology, which may or may not include General Zod’s corpse, from Man Of Steel’s destructive finale. In addition to confirming that Eisenberg will definitely wear the suit, Shirey also corroborates the reports that Lex isn’t the only villain in the film, but he isn’t sure whether its Doomsday or another major villain like The Joker or Brainiac.

It was just a few years back that director Brad Peyton, fresh off the box office success of his second feature film, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, signed on to develop a feature film based on DC Comics’ intergalactic antihero, Lobo. Word even followed that the film, to be produced by Joel Silver, looked like it was going to star Journey‘s Dwayne Johnson as the Main Man. Although Johnson and Peyton did reteam, their second project together became this month’s disaster actioner San Andreas instead. Meanwhile, the big screen DC Universe was officially revealed last October without a Czarnian in sight.

“I think what’s happening with DC is that they have prioritized what they need to make first in order to kind of lay the foundations for the DC Universe,” Peyton told ComingSoon.net this weekend at the San Andreas junket. “This is what I believe is happening just from what they’ve been taking about. They’re talking about ‘Justice League,’ ‘Batman v Superman,’ and going into ‘Flash,’ ‘Wonder Woman,’ and ‘Aquaman.’ Those are kind of the pillars of that universe.”

Unfortunately for the project, it sounds like Lobo was put on the back burner at the studio, despite having a completed screenplay.

“It’s one of those things where, creatively, you and I get it, but there’s a lot of people that don’t quite get that,” Peyton said when asked if the success of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy helped bolster the chances of a film based on a similarly comedically irreverent space-traveling comic book character. “It’s a real uphill battle to talk people into spending a lot of money to do things correctly… I was really happy with the script, [though]. I talked with Dwayne about it. Joel Silver and I had a really amazing meeting about it. I did a rewrite of the script and was really, really excited for it. In their estimation, though, he wasn’t one of those main guys… That’s fair enough. I think that, to do any kind of comic book universe correctly, you do need to establish, ‘Here’s the tone. Here’s the main people.’ Then we can grow offshoots from there. With Marvel, they’re now doing smaller characters like ‘Ant-Man’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ They obviously had to start, though, with their big guns and set up ‘The Avengers.’ I kind of feel like that’s where DC is now. They’re setting that team up.”

Does that mean that Lobo could return somewhere down the line? Peyton seems optimistic at the prospect.

“I think there’s going to be a really amazing time for ‘Lobo’ and I think people are going to realize, certainly once they revisit it, what they’re sitting on,” he says. “But you never know. I’m really happy with the project and where we got it and fingers crossed it comes to fruition at some point.”

It was revealed last month that Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie, 21 Jump Street) are writing Warner Bros. Pictures’ upcoming big screen take on DC Comics’ fastest man alive. Although it was already revealed that The Flash, set for release March 23, 2018, will star Ezra Miller as Central City’s scarlet speedster, Lord announced during The Hippojuice Podcast (via /Film), that The Perks of Being a Wallflower star will likely be playing a new iteration of Barry Allen as opposed to one of the other men who have, in the comics, appeared as the hero.

“We’re trying to break a story,” says Lord. “It’s interesting, because there’s a really popular TV show out there, and we’re trying to carve out space for the movie that’s apart from that. I think we’re doing alright. …I believe [our Flash] is going to be Barry Allen. …We’re more trying to stick with the cinematic universe… iI really is its own thing and is kind of a stand-alone movie. We’re just trying to think of the best story. I think you guys will like it, it’s kind of a different take on superhero stuff. I’m optimistic!”

Miller is expected to also appear as Allen in Justice League Part One and, although unconfirmed, could even make a debut in next year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.


New promo art for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has surfaced onlin, and it finally shows the two iconic heroes coming to blows. Some live-action stills would obviously be nice, but we’re probably still quite some time away from that, so this will do very nicely in the meantime. As you may have realised, both of these pay homage to some classic comic book images by David Finch and Jim Lee.

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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is currently promoting his new movie San Andreas, but he also took some time to share his excitement for his upcoming role as the Shazam villain Black Adam in the DC Cinematic Universe.

“I can’t wait,” Johnson told HeyUGuys at the San Andreas world premiere. “He’s a unique type of villain. When you start off as a slave, you’re not in a good mood! There’s a heavy wrath that a lot of people have to pay. But when it’s fuelled by a righteous anger if you will, like Black Adam, then you open up to what the character can be which I’m really excited about. That’s why he’s not just a straightforward bad guy.”


Johnson has gone on to confirm in a new interview that the Shazam movie will come sooner than expected.

This won’t come as much of a surprise as The Rock has previously implied to MTV in March that Shazam is not beholden to the 2019 release date WB gave it back in October of 2014. Now, The Rock is sounds much more confident.

“No, I don’t think it is going to be that far away,” The Rock said when asked if fans will have to wait until 2019 to see Shazam. “It’s going to be earlier than that. I don’t think 2019.”


The latest scoop from HeoricHollywood’s El Mayimbe (formerly of Latino Review) is that Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is really old in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  In fact, she’s been around for centuries!  It sounds outlandish, but this actually lends itself to previous reports that the Wonder Woman film will be something of a prequel to the DC Cinematic Universe, with the Amazonian warrior’s solo outing being a Period Piece.

It will be interesting to see whether Snyder goes with Wonder Woman’s New 52 origin- that she’s half-Olympian God, the daughter of Zeus ( a female Hercules essentially).

Snyder could also opt for the pre-New 52 origin which details her origin as a clay statue given life by the Olympian Gods.  The third option, is that Snyder comes up with a completely new origin story for Wonder Woman but that seems unlikely given Snyder’s penchant for remaining relatively close to the source material.

George Miller’s abandoned Justice League Mortal movie is one of the most mysterious comic book movies that never got made. While other canceled comic book movies have seen a lot of concept art surface online, no concept art for Justice League Mortal has ever been revealed. That is until now.

Australian director Ryan Unicomb sat down with Inside Film to discuss his vision.“I have always been fascinated with project, which would be in the same vein as 2013’s Jodorowsky’s Dune and this year’s The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?, about a Superman movie that Tim Burton was to direct in the 1990s.” Unicomb is working on the documentary about George Miller’s abandoned Justice League movie, and the official twitter account for Miller’s Justice League Mortal documentary has just revealed the first three pieces of concept art ever shown for the film.

One piece of concept art shows what Aquaman’s costume would have looked like in the film, while the other two pieces of concept art show Wonder Woman in action. Also a concept sculpt of J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter was released.

The Miller’s Justice League Mortal documentary hopes to feature never before seen artwork, interviews with some of the proposed cast and crew, and a behind the curtain look into what really happened to bring the blockbuster to its knees. The documentary plans to present a non-biased recount of the development, pre-production and untimely cancellation of the project as well as the long lasting effect it had on the Australian Film Industry.

The project is currently in development and hopes to begin filming later this year.

BOOM and there you go that wraps up another DC Delights for you lovely people! Be sure to check back next week for more!

PEACE!!

FAN STUFF SUNDAY #11: Marvel’s Spider-Man, Kal-El’s Journey, Terminator Concepts, And More!

So this week we have quite the blockbuster filled Fan Stuff Sunday, from Spider-Man to Superman, we can watch the sheer talent some fans have unfold right in front of us right here! To breakdown the rundown this week, we have Alex Luthor gives us a look at what we could get for Marvel’s Spider-Man, Lord Mesa brings us more of the same adorable art, Ryan Crain shares his concept of what a terminator would look like, and Adeel of Steel presents Kal-El’s journey to Earth!

Credits: Alex Luthor, Adeel of SteelLord Mesa, and Ryan Crain

SUICIDE SQUAD Set Photos & News Roundup; Joker’s Lambo, Fast & Furious?, And More!

Well folks over the last week or so I have been collecting all that I could on Suicide Squad from set photos to videos and possibly a little more. Now let me preface this with a possible spoiler warning as a certain character turns up that may well be a honest surprise to some. But if you want to go on forward then go right ahead! As always enjoy!!


SUICIDE SQUAD | Margot’s Stunt Rehearsal

SUICIDE SQUAD | Batfleck’s, Joker & Harley Stunts

SUICIDE SQUAD | Joker’s Lambo

SUICIDE SQUAD | Ben Affleck & The Batmobile

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Action! #Batmobile #SuicideSquad #Toronto #DC

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Ground zero #Batmobile #SuicideSquad #DC #Toronto

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Principal photography on Suicide Squad is about to enter its seventh week of production in Toronto, Canada. And in addition to preparation for an action sequence involving a chopper crashing into two Midway City buses, a new batch of photos (via Margot Source) have revealed some rather dark usual-looking, fully armed creatures on the open set over the weekend.

Based on their appearance alone, it’s difficult to determine which DC Comics characters these guys could be, if any at all. However, they may actually be soldiers who have met Cara Delevingne’s “goddess witch,” the Enchantress, who we’ve seen officially but not yet on set.

Here’s some other set photos seemingly show us that s*&T is going “down” wherever Suicide Squad is taking place *cough*Gotham*cough*!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookedphotos/17820103428/in/photostream/player/

We must have seen more unofficial images and videos from the set of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad than any other CBM in recent history at this point, but one team member who’s been absent (though we did see some strange creatures she may have been responsible for) so far is Enchantress, who’ll be played by model turned actress Cara Delevingne.

During an interview with EW, the Paper Towns star remains tight lipped about her character, but does have some very nice things to say about the currently shooting flick, while admitting that she’s not usually a big fan of the genre.

“It’s f–king insane”, she tells the site. “I’m not the biggest fan of superhero films. There are so f–king many. I love the Batmans but some of them I’m not that keen on. I’ve never been so excited to see a film and I’m actually in it. I wish I could tell you about it at all. The movie is going to be the best thing in the world. The camaraderie on set is insane.”

Directed by David Ayer from his script, Suicide Squad stars Will Smith (Deadshot), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag), Jared Leto (the Joker), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jai Courtney (Boomerang), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Cara Delevingne (Enchantress), and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc), with Raymond Olubawale (King Shark), Jay Hernandez, Ike Barinholtz, Jim Parrack, Adam Beach, and Scott Eastwood. The film releases on August 5, 2016.

Some Sources: Just Jared, Just Jared(1), Just Jared(2)

PEACE!!

MARVEL MADNESS #7: Ryan Reynolds IS AWESOME, CIVIL WAR Updates, An APOCALYPSE Is Coming, And More!

So prepare yourself for a mountain worth of Marvel news coming to you! We have a vast amount of all things Marvel related this week. We’re talking Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Captain America: Civil War, Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, and a hell of a lot more!

So enjoy!!

DEADPOOL NEWS

Ryan Reynolds took a break from getting hit in the face as Wade Wilson to make a young fan’s day. 15-year-old Calista King paid a visit to the Deadpool set last week, and not only scored a sweet looking sword but was also given a walk-on part in the movie. Reynolds also posted a second image of the Merc With a Mouth relaxing in front of that cheesy electronic fire. By the sounds of things, the bearskin rug must have picked up a couple of stains.

Back in March, Hugh Jackman (The Wolverine) told MTV that he would be interested in appearing in the new Deadpool movie, and now the film’s star Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern) has been asked if Wolverine will “pop up.”

“God I hope so, that would be really nice,” Reynolds told the Australian website news.com.au while promoting Woman In Gold. “I dunno, we’ll see. It seems like he’s open to it, but it’s gonna be more of a scheduling issue than anything else.”

In the comics, Wolverine and Deadpool have intertwining backstories and beyond that they have done plenty of verbal and physical sparring. Plus, the two actors are close friends. That friendship began on the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), which is the first time Ryan Reynolds played Wade Wilson/Deadpool.

The image below (which we’ve had to split into two unfortunately) is featured in this month’s edition of Empire Magazine, and as you can see, it gives us yet another great look at Ryan Reynolds in costume as Deadpool. This hopefully means Empire will have a cover story on the movie in an upcoming issue as we still don’t know a huge amount about the movie despite a ton of set photos finding their way online recently.

While taking a short break from leaping dramatically over moving cars and murdering Mario Lopez, Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds had the chance to make one young fan’s dream come true. Tony Acevedo is currently fighting against Hodgkin’s Disease, and recently got the chance to visit the Vancouver set to meet Reynolds and the crew – courtesy of the Make A Wish Foundation.

Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.

Deadpool is directed by Tim Miller, and stars Ryan Reynolds (Wade Wilson), Morena Baccarin (Vanessa Carlysle), T.J. Miller (Weasel), with Ed Skrein, and Brianna Hildebrand (Ellie Phimister). The movie is scheduled to hit theaters on February 12, 2016.

MOVING ON TO CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR 

According to Lainey Gossip, who has been nonchalantly dropping some interesting tidbits about the Marvel Cinematic Universe for some time now, the aforementioned African Market sequence is actually the “first big action set piece of the movie […] that kicks off the Civil War.” Apparently, there will be a lot of innocent civilians killed amid the battle between Cap’s new Avengers team and Crossbones, which seems to be the “international incident” mentioned in the official synopsis that will ultimately cause the world governments to enforce some control over superhero activity.

About the Winter Soldier, Lainey Gossip reveals that he will be “the touchstone of the conflict” in Captain America: Civil War especially considering secret identities are not as big of an issue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they are in the “Civil War” comic book storyline. Many have been wondering just how Bucky will factor into the superhero-packed adaptation, but we know from Avengers: Age of Ultron that he’s still being sought out by Captain America. And it’s been said that Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)  “may be using the government registration” to also help track down the brainwashed super soldier who assassinated his parents, as revealed in The Winter Soldier.

Furthermore, it was recently reported that the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) will also be hunting down the Winter Soldier for reasons currently unknown, but Lainey Gossip adds that Crossbones also wants the Winter Soldier, or rather his “HYDRA pet,” back under his control. The source then dropped this very intriguing nugget: “Civil War is a critical moment for Sebastian Stan and Bucky Barnes—he has to get everyone on his side by the end of this movie, because his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to get a lot bigger.”

After visiting the set of Captain America: Civil War over the past few days, star Jeremy Renner, who played the awesome & badass Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, officially suited up this week to shoot his first scenes in the Marvel epic. To celebrate the occasion, Renner shared two behind-the-scenes snaps of him on set, one of which may have revealed an updated logo for the movie. Check out his tweets below:

Perhaps the most exciting thing to come out of last week’s batch of photos from the Civil War set was our first look at Frank Grillo in costume as the villanous ‘Crossbones’. Evidently filming some sort of stand-off against Chris Evans’ Captain America and more than a few of his Avengers pals, this appeared to be one of the movie’s earlier action sequences (although there’s really no way of telling for sure at the moment). Fans excited to see more of Brock Rumlow may be about to be a little disappointed though, thanks to a recent post from the actor’s official Instagram account:

The supremely talented Oscar Isaac was recently a guest on the Monkeys Fighting Robots podcast recently and briefly touched on his work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and X-Men: Apocalypse. On the latter, Isaac confirmed that he’s already begun filming for Apocalypse and that he’s still digesting the script and developing his take on the character.  “I’ve been reading the script a lot and trying to come at for me, a interesting angle. Definitely focusing on the fact he is the embodiment of the second coming of the judgments of god and that energy going in. We’re playing with that. What we are trying to do is make his philosophy and what his mission is, one that is both simple but also holds water, that really makes sense throughout the whole movie. I think Simon Kinberg and Bryan Singer, we’ve been able to come up with something very cool.”

2016 is a crowded and incredibly exciting year for superhero movies, but one release which is flying somewhat under the radar is Gambit, an X-Men spinoff starring Channing Tatum. The actor landed the role after making it clear in interviews how interested in the Cajun character he is, and Fox are currently in the process of hunting for a director. So, just how excited is the actor about the movie?

“I love Gambit,” Tatum says in the latest issue of Empire Magazine. “I grew up in the South; my father’s from Loiuisiana. We’d go to New Orleans and I heard all the dialects. It felt so different from the rest of America; it has its own ancient culture. So I identified with that. And he always felt the most real of the X-Men to me. He’s kind of a tortured soul and he’s not a good guy. But he’s not a bad guy, either. He walks his own path. And of course he plays cards and drinks and is a martial-arts badass!” It sounds like the movie is going to be pretty faithful to the comic books then, but that’s not a huge surprise what with X-Men scribe Chris Claremont writing its treatment.

As for the current status of Gambit, the actor added: “Josh Zetumer just turned in the first draft of the script, and it’s killer. None of us were sure how he was going to deal with the X-Men world. But we’re going to be changing some of the tropes of these movies. It’s always about saving the world (Laughs), but maybe we’re going to shift things a liittle but. There’s so many ways you can take [an origin story]. You could do it like Batman Begins, or a different take and go the Guardians of the Galaxy route. All I can say is, I’m super excited.” 

Who is Caliban? He’s a mutant with the ability to sense other mutants within a 25 mile radius, and as well as being a Morlock, Caliban has been a member of X-Factor and X-Force. However, it’s his relationship with Apocalypse which will no doubt come into play in X-Men: Apocalypse. As a Morlock, the character looked pretty emaciated and unimpressive, but he later transformed into a far more impressive figure when he decided to align himself with Apocalypse.

According to ComicVine, “For a while Caliban was known as Hellhound, but was later officially announced as Death, Archangel’s replacement in Apocalypse’s Horsemen. He would use his enhanced senses and strength to locate more mutants for Apocalypse, and his personal anger and rage to punish his enemies.” How much of this will factor into X-Men: Apocalypse remains to be seen.

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Well, this is very interesting. The Pepsi sign definitely appears to indicate that the scene below(thanks to Empire) from X-Men: Apocalypse is taking place in the 1980s rather than a desolate future of some sort, and it looks like Cyclops and Jean Grey are wearing costumes which are at least somewhat similar to the uniforms the youngsters have in the pages of All-New X-Men. Hey, at least it’s not black leather anyway. Who they’re battling isn’t clear (Archangel seems like a likely candidate) or what that structure is, but common sense says it all has something to do with the movie’s titular villain!

Photographer Melissa Paradis has managed to get some very nice snaps of a few of the cast members of X-Men: Apocalypse in and around the Montreal set of the movie. As you can see they’re clearly not gearing up to shoot anything here, but, unlike Alexandra Shipp who’s covering her (presumably) white hair with a hat, Olivia Munn’s purple-tinted do is on full display as she pets her pooch. Hopefully we’ll get some pics of theese guys in costume over the next few days.

X-Men: Apocalypse, directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men: Days of Future Past), will hit theaters on May 27, 2016 and stars Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Oscar Isaac (Apocalypse), Rose Byrne (Moira McTaggert), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Ben Hardy (Angel), Olivia Munn(Psylocke), Lucas Till(Havok) and Lana Condor (Jubillee).

FANTASTIC FOUR NEWS

A new international look at Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot has been released it is mostly made up of footage from earlier trailers, but there are some previously unseen shots of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing getting used to their burgeoning abilities. 

So begins Michael B. Jordan’s letter (via EW) in response to the backlash his casting in Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot received. His character, Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch, was a white guy in the comics so even though Jordan had proven himself a fine actor with roles in the likes of Fruitvale Station and Chronicle, this was always going to be a problem for raci…, err, purists. The actor had commented on this previously in interviews, but this the first time he’s come out with a full, in-depth response.

He goes on to say that he’s stopped being bothered by the negativity, and can see everyone’s perspective when it comes to going against 50 years of comic book continuity. “But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the Fantastic Four comic first came out in 1961,” he continues. “Plus, if Stan Lee writes an email to my director saying, “You’re good. I’m okay with this,” who am I to go against that?”

“You’re not supposed to go on the Internet when you’re cast as a superhero. But after taking on Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four—a character originally written with blond hair and blue eyes—I wanted to check the pulse out there. I didn’t want to be ignorant about what people were saying. Turns out this is what they were saying: “A black guy? I don’t like it. They must be doing it because Obama’s president” and “It’s not true to the comic.” Or even, “They’ve destroyed it!”
“Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, “I’ll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I’ll take the brunt for the next couple of generations.” I put that responsibility on myself. People are always going to see each other in terms of race, but maybe in the future we won’t talk about it as much. Maybe, if I set an example, Hollywood will start considering more people of color in other prominent roles, and maybe we can reach the people who are stuck in the mindset that “it has to be true to the comic book.” Or maybe we have to reach past them.
To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends’ friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s okay to like it.”

FANTASTIC FOUR, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.

Directed by Josh Trank, The Fantastic Four reboot stars Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic, Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch, Kate Mara as Invisible Woman, and Jamie Bell as the Thing. The film is scheduled for release on August 7, 2015.

AGENT CARTER & AGENTS OF SHIELD NEWS

Iain DeCaestecker & Nick Blood had the following conversations talking about the future of Agents of SHIELD in the upcoming third season!


“Director Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) embarks on a deadly new secret mission to protect the world from new threats in the wake of SHIELD’s wars with Hydra and a rogue faction of Inhumans.”

Some good news for Agent Carter fans here. Actress Haley Atwell has revealed that the upcoming second season of the show will run for 10 episodes – 2 more than its debut season. Peggy and co. are set to return to our screens during Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s midseason hiatus, but there’s no word on whether the extra couple of Agent Carter episodes will have any bearing on the length of the third season of Marvel’s flagship series.

Atwell also says that she’ll be crashing the Atlanta set of Captain America: Civil War next week, but she’s most likely just kidding since we know that.


“Dedicated to the fight against new atomic age threats in the wake of World War II, Peggy must now journey from New York City to Los Angeles for her most dangerous assignment yet. But even as she discovers new friends, a new home — and perhaps even a new love — she’s about to find out that the bright lights of the post-war Hollywood mask a more sinister threat to everyone she is sworn to protect.”

When it came to boarding ABC’s Marvel limited series Agent Carter as composer, Christopher Lennertz, who had an interview with Deadline, already had the job before the cameras rolled. More specifically, he served as composer for the Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter short that was included on the Avengers DVD. The short’s director, Marvel copresident Louis D’Esposito, also helmed Agent Carter’s first episode and served as the series executive producer.

What made Lennertz—a 2006 Emmy nominee for his Supernatural score—the lead contender for the gig was his experience with 1940s-era military music as well as the spy genre sound, respectively accentuated in his scores for the Steven Spielberg World War II videogame Medal of Honor and the 2005 James Bond game From Russia with Love.

“They wanted the music to be smart and lush,” says Lennertz of the direction from the Marvel folk. “(Agent Peggy Carter) isn’t a superhero, but she’s a super spy, and the action music lives in the world of James Bond and Mission: Impossible.”

In exuding Carter’s spirit, Lennertz employed brass indicative of the big band era, specifically French horns for the action scenes, as well as strings. “Peggy is sexy and seductive and with the strings one can slip into espionage and tension,” explains the composer.

At one point, Lennertz’s orchestra numbered 60 members, including a Russian men’s choir for a folk choral piece used in episode five. But one of the most vital instruments that truly captured Carter’s aura was Lennertz’s use of the alto flute. “It feels like a strong woman’s voice, especially as she’s sneaking around” he says of the instrument heard frequently in composer John Barry’s Bond scores. “It also has that spy quality. Peggy is a real ’40s woman—curvy and strong. She can hold a machine gun with the best of them.”

JESSICA JONES NEWS

A couple of weeks ago, Netflix unveiled the latest synopsis for A.K.A. Jessica Jones, which is currently filming in New York and should wrap sometime in July. Since then, however, things have been relatively quiet besides some set photos.

With the show nearing the end of production, that should change soon enough. We should be getting an official logo soon, if not a concept poster, and possibly an official still or two to get fans excited for the release later this year. (As of right now, there is no official release date although it is looking like it’ll be in November or December.)

For now, we have a few photos of Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones) and David Tennant (Purple Man), thanks to the DailyMail, on set to hold us over.

Ever since her short-lived stint as a Super Hero ended in tragedy, Jessica Jones has been rebuilding her personal life and career as a hot-tempered, sardonic, badass private detective in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. Plagued by self-loathing, and a wicked case of PTSD, Jessica battles demons from within and without, using her extraordinary abilities as an unlikely champion for those in need… especially if they’re willing to cut her a check.

RANDOM TIDBITS

The Amazing Spider-Man Universe is dead. Andrew Garfield will no longer be playing Peter Parker when the wall-crawler makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, and Sony’s spinoff plans have been put on the back burner while Kevin Feige looks to repair the damage they did to the franchise.

One idea thrown around by Sony was a female led spinoff, and some “Sony Hack” emails actually addressed the possibility or bringing Emma Stone back as either Spider-Gwen or – seriously – Carnage. That could still happen, and when MTV News caught up with the actress, they asked her if she would be interested in taking on the role. It sounds like she very much is, and while Stone points out that a lot of moving parts would have to come together to make it happen, Marvel and Sony would no doubt have a hit on their hands if they moved forward with Spider-Gwen.

The video is also well worth a watch to see Bradley Cooper’s complete befuddlement at the name as he questions why she would be called Spider-Gwen when Spider-Man isn’t called “Spider-Peter”.

Latino-Review.com reported, and backed up by El Mayimbe, that Asa Butterfield (Hugo, Ender’s Game) had been cast as the new Spider-Man. After that news broke several trades denied Butterfield got the part, but did verify he is the frontrunner.

That same day, a link to that story was posted on Reddit. Nothing unusual about that, except for the fact that Asa Butterfield himself dropped in and made two comments, which he later deleted. He did so using the screename “Stimpers,” which he verified for an AMA years back.

Because Butterfield hasn’t appeared in a lot of projects over the past few years, many outlets have been using old images of the actor when he was much shorter. This has led to a misconception about his height, which Butterfield clarified.

He then deleted those comments. Why? Notice how he didn’t confirm nor deny the report. Was he instructed by Marvel or his agent to delete them?

Source: Comicbook.com

And those aren’t the first comments Asa has made regarding Spider-Man on Reddit. Here’s two more comments (screengrabs) he made months back.

Source: Comicbook.com
Source: Comicbook.com

Some audition tapes were going around for season two of Daredevil, and they appear to be for fan-favourite character Elektra. They’re looking for actresses with martial arts and dance experience, and the two featured here both have very exotic looks.

As you can see, there is no videos here as they have now been removed from many video sites, adding some weight to the speculation that they were meant for the role of Elektra.

Elektra for the uninitiated is a lethal scarlet assassin. Daredevil’s most fearsome enemy as well as his former lover and most renowned as being the greatest assassin in the world.

A few weeks ago, we heard reports that Marvel were interested in hiring director Ava DuVernay to helm one of their upcoming Phase 3 movies – widely rumored to be either Black Panther or Captain Marvel. The Wrap, who originally broke the news, recently sat down with actor David Oyelowo, who received a Golden Globe nod for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in DuVernay’s Selma. The actor insisted that a studio like Marvel would be “smart” to hire his longtime colleague:

“The thing about Ava is everything she touches she elevates. She bakes into it who she is. So, if Marvel is as smart and as brave to go on that journey with Ava, I’m personally the first in line to see what she does with that. I think she’s going to take it in directions that are both exciting and provocative, and different to what you’ve seen thus far. It’s always going to be a Marvel movie, but she is so singular as a director that I think her, plus that brand is an exciting idea.”

While Oyelowo did seem very excited to see his friend join up with the world of CBMs, he himself appeared to be a little more hesitant about the idea of starring in one:

“For me personally, I tread with caution around the notion of those kinds of characters. Depending on which one of them you’re playing, there’s always a danger you’re going to get so identified with this larger than life character, that it could become tougher for audiences to believe you in other roles.”

Check out some fantastic Avengers: Age of Ultron concept art that was recently posted by Marvel Studios’ conceptual designer Josh Herman, and the visual effects company MPC (Moving Picture Company).

Josh uploaded the work he did on Iron Man’s Mark 45 armor (along with Phil Saunders), Hulkbuster armor (along with Josh Nizzi), the villainous Ultron (along with Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen) and various designs for the peacekeeping robots known as the Iron Legion.

MPC released four images featuring designs for the interior of Avengers Tower, formerly known as Stark Tower. We got a good look at during the party scene that Ultron (voiced by James Spader) crashed. What a party pooper.

And that is that for another Marvel Madness. Hopefully you are all stocked up on all things Marvel for this week! Check back next week for more!

PEACE!!

Tilda Swinton In Talks To Play The Ancient One For DOCTOR STRANGE

Tilda Swinton is on her way to the Marvel Universe. The actress is in negotiations to join Benedict Cumberbatch in Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange, being directed by Scott Derrickson.

Strange is Marvel’s supernatural hero, a formerly cocky surgeon who loses the use of his hands, and while on a last ditch attempt to heal himself, discovers magic. Strange’s mentor is a Tibetan mystic known as the Ancient One, who is training pupils to be the next sorcerer supreme. In the comics, the character has been a male, and Marvel Studios initially was searching for a male actor.

But the studio rethought the role and has now made it female. If a deal makes, Swinton will play the Ancient One. Strange has a release date of Nov. 4, 2016. The movie is due to begin shooting November in the U.K. Kevin Feige is producing.

Joining a Marvel movie is the latest move for Swinton, whose film résumé reveals an actress that refuses to be pigeonholed in any way.

The actress will be seen with Amy Schumer in Judd Apatow’s new comedy, Trainwreck, and has appeared in the last two Wes Anderson movies, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom. In between, she gave a show stopping performance as a brutally poised but unbalanced villainess in Snowpiercer, Joon-ho Bong’s sci-fi movie that starred Chris Evans.

She won an Oscar for best supporting actress for 2007’s Michael Clayton and played the angel Gabriel in the 2005 adaptation of DC Entertainment’s comic Constantine.

Source: THR

Cast Talk MAD MAX: FURY ROAD; Black & White Coming To Blu-Ray; Sequel Title

Coming off near universally positive reviews, Mad Max: Fury Road had a solid opening weekend, but it wasn’t quite the stratosphere-breaking number that some were hoping. Pitch Perfect 2 was always going to win the weekend given its PG-13 rating, broad fanbase, and the fact that it’s a female-led movie marketed to female moviegoers (shocker: when Hollywood decides to make them, these movies do well!), but with a reported $150 million budget, some see Fury Road’s $44 million opening as disappointing. Why? Because they want a sequel, of course.

Director George Miller hasn’t been shy about the fact that he’s planned more than one new Mad Max movie, previously confirming that he’s written the follow-ups. Speaking on The Q&A Podcast with Jeff Goldsmith (via The Playlist), Miller went one further and confirmed that the Fury Road follow-up is titled Mad Max: The Wasteland:

“We’ve got one screenplay and a novella. It happened because with the delays [on Fury Road] and writing all the backstories, they just expanded.”

Indeed Miller seems keen on continuing this franchise, but that will depend on a couple of factors. First of all is box office, seeing as how Miller’s way of making these movies (ie. the way that ends in a masterpiece) isn’t cheap. For an R-rated movie Fury Road is doing fine and should have legs, but we’ll have to see how it continues over the next few weeks. But hey, if Pacific Rim’s box office was enough to warrant a sequel, Fury Road shouldn’t have too much of a problem.

The other factor is the actors. It’s no secret that Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy butted heads on set, and indeed Theron confirmed to Esquire that it was a tough shoot:

“We fuckin’ went at it, yeah. And on other days, he and George [Miller, the director] went at it. It was the isolation, and the fact that we were stuck in a rig for the entire shoot. We shot a war movie on a moving truck — there’s very little green screen. It was like a family road trip that just never went anywhere. We never got anywhere. We just drove. We drove into nothingness, and that was maddening sometimes. And it’s material that’s really frightening — we didn’t have a script. Tom and I are actors who take our jobs seriously. Both of us want to please the directors we work with, and when you don’t know if you can deliver on that, it’s a frightening place to be — and for Tom more than me, because he was stepping into big shoes.”

Theron has said previously that she’s not crazy about returning given how grueling a shoot Fury Road was. Action sequences aren’t fun to shoot, and when you consider that Fury Road is nothing but action sequences, it becomes a really tough production for an actor. Of course The Wasteland could be more Max-centric, so it’s also possible Furiosa doesn’t return.

At the Los Angeles press day Collider had landed an interview with George Miller. He talked about the various challenges of making Mad Max: Fury Road, deleted scenes, if he’ll do an extended cut on the Blu-ray, what version he test screened in Burbank a year ago, what his version of Contact would have been like, if he has a lot of unproduced screenplays, if making a superhero movie is still on his list of things to do (he came thisclose to making Justice League), and a lot more.

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Speaking with /Film, the filmmaker discussed a black and white cut of Fury Road that he says is the best version of the film:

“We spent a lot of time in DI (digital intermediate), and we had a very fine colorist, Eric Whipp. One thing I’ve noticed is that the default position for everyone is to de-saturate post-apocalyptic movies. There’s only two ways to go, make them black and white — the best version of this movie is black and white, but people reserve that for art movies now. The other version is to really go all-out on the color. The usual teal and orange thing? That’s all the colors we had to work with. The desert’s orange and the sky is teal, and we either could de-saturate it, or crank it up, to differentiate the movie. Plus, it can get really tiring watching this dull, de-saturated color, unless you go all the way out and make it black and white.”

It’s fascinating to hear Miller say he prefers this black and white version, especially since the over-saturated nature of the visuals are one of the (many) reasons Fury Road stands out as distinct amongst a sea of other blockbusters. However, if you’re curious about this black and white cut, there’s a strong possibility you’ll get to see it. Per /Film, Miller aims to put this version on the Blu-ray:

A while after this talk, during a post-film reception, I spoke with Miller about his affinity for that black and white version of Fury Road. He said that he has demanded a black and white version of Fury Road for the Blu-ray, and that version of the film will feature an option to hear just the isolated score as the only soundtrack — the purest and most stripped-down version of Fury Road you can imagine.

Collider had an interview with Tom Hardy. He talked about making Fury Road, filming on location in Namibia, what he learned from making such a massive movie, collaborating with George Miller and how the film has one of the “coolest female leads ever”.

What day did you realize when you were filming, ‘Holy fuck. Are we gonna get through this thing?’ Because of the practicality and the actual filming of this thing.

HARDY: I think day one, as soon as we landed. Because we were in the middle of nowhere—well actually Namibia is not in the middle of nowhere, if you’re in Namibia it’s absolutely fine. If you’re logistically trying to create an X amount of hundred million dollar movie, and you’re that far away from Los Angeles and you’re that far away from Australia which your home base is, Namibia is right in the middle of both of those places in the middle of the desert and it could be hard to get anything to and from that place and all that crap. Those vehicles, the stars, the camera crew, the actors; just a kit, and then to take that kit and that equipment that you need and move it all around the locations that you have to manifest the huge infrastructure and epic nature of that movie. Day one since you arrived there it was so, ‘This is a beast’ and how do you eat an elephant? Which I suppose –metaphorically speaking– would be a mouthful at a time. So it became a very methodological approach, a step at a time for seven months or whatever it was. But every day was a big day for stunts and you knew that something could inevitably go wrong at any given time, so a lot of care was taken to avoid any of this. And not to mention, it’s not like a military film. You’re seeing military vehicles, it would kind of make more sense to see this kind of organization; but what you saw was some kind of Hell’s Angels, S&M, Cirque Du Soleil fetish party. In the middle of the desert. So it was kind of surreal as well to see this military campaign going on in the middle of the desert, as some kind of strange festival, an orchestration of mad, epic stunts, violence, and surrealism.

Yeah, it’s crazy. Are there a lot of deleted scenes in the movie that you remember filming that didn’t make the finished film?

HARDY: No. Everything that George [Miller] had in a 300 page sort of comic book document, frame by frame is accurately executed an up on the screen, but much more relentless and hydraulic and dynamic than it would be in a comic book.

Sure.

HARDY: It was not until I saw the finished piece and I saw the latest version last night that I realized fully what George was trying to articulate on the floor. Because you couldn’t explain what I saw, and we wouldn’t have known—it was like trying to herd cats. He was trying to explain to us a color we hadn’t seen yet, so we were trying to understand but couldn’t have fully understood.

The thing that really struck me is that even though film is a hundred years old or over a hundred years old, I really think that he accomplished something that has not been done, in terms of telling the story. It’s innovative filmmaking, even with everything else that he’s done. Did you take that away from the film or what did you take away from the finished version?

HARDY: I can see what you’re saying, I think. I took a lot away from the film, to be fair. I mean a lot of it is hard to explain because I’d never done anything like this before. So now I think having worked with Alejandro [González Iñárritu]—now we’re eight months into it in another big sort of epic—my shoulders are wider enough to have the patience of how long it takes to get things of an epic nature done. So there is no end [Laughs], it’s easier to be, not patient, but to give myself over to a process which is seemingly relentless and unending, because I know there is an end to it and the results that can also be unequivocally masterful and brilliant. So I’ve learned that as a stretch. It was a muscle stretch as a performer because I’ve never done anything that big before, so Fury Road was a massive education for that.

As for filmmaking terms, I think George is somebody who challenges himself even though he’s getting up there towards 70 years of age now. This is a movie that one might attribute to a much more youthful perhaps director and a real mistake, because this is a wise man’s action movie, this is a man who’s had years and years of thoughts and meditation on his own. Everything from the original Mad Max to Babe, Happy Feet, which is historic and he’s really visited his world of which he’s created an entire culture, like a counterculture and a cult as it were. He’s really invested in it. He’s not come back and mad a superficial action movie, he’s come back and done three immediate things: He’s tested himself to a point where not only has he upped the finance behind his movie and subsequent downstream—there’s also films, and concepts, scripts, and comic books, and all kinds of stuff in the offing for George and a wealth of material on Mad Max. But also he pushed himself to a point where he got his team to do things that they hadn’t done before, like the stunt teams.

Chris Nolan would ask his folks to flip a truck or to take a plane out of the sky and that is an extensively difficult live-action stunt to do, because you want to see it done properly because it brings the audience in a bit closer as opposed to CGI or visual effects. George wanted to do that for an entire movie, so he demanded a huge amount of pressure of his stunt department and his drivers, they challenged them and they had to make that come true, and then you needed to cohesively hybrid that between the narrative storytelling with the characters and dialogue and physical action from the actors. They would seamlessly sort of blend it together with this action performance also combined together in a stylized design element, all of it is just his signature.
So he’s pushed himself there, and then if you listen to the soundtrack, again, George Miller, you can’t sell George Miller anything, he chooses what he wants, he goes out there he finds it. You can torture him, but ultimately George is very clear about what he wants and methodically with due diligence picks exactly what he wants to fulfill his vision. And he chose that dubstep and mixed it with like hard vehicle sort of sounds and ambience sounds. The man has one foot in the future, he’s in the present and he has a legacy of the past drawn together, so he’s challenged himself and he’s got a mythology there’s nothing underneath this epic movie.

That’s why I said out of all the movies I’ve seen, I’ve never seen anything like this.

HARDY: Makes sense what you’re saying, I guess I hear you.

It’s fucking bonkers and awesome.

HARDY: And then the next thing he does is he says it’s Mad Max and he actually delivers arguably one of the fucking coolest female leads ever, and she’s an amputee [Laughs]. As if it isn’t enough to have a female lead who’s like a person of great strength, let alone a female lead, but she’s got one arm. So, he’s killing it, right across the board. George’s mind is I think sacred, of sorts, and he articulates in great sensitivity so I think so there’s nothing glib.

Collider again had an interview with Abbey Lee (she plays one of the women on the run from Immortan Joe). She talked about how she got into acting from modeling, memorable moments filming Mad Max: Fury Road, what it’s been like filming Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon (she calls the film “mind bending”), her character in Alex Proyas’ Gods of Egypt, her worst jobs before acting/modeling, and a lot more.

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Charlize Theron’s stunt double, Dayna Grant tweeted out a bunch of behind-the-scenes set photos. Looking at these images, it creates hope that the Blu-ray will have an outstanding documentary that delves deep into the film’s practical effects and stunt work.

Lastly, speaking with MTV News, “Fury Road” production designer Colin Gibson revealed the instrument wasn’t a mere prop: It was a functioning guitar that also happened to belch flames.

“George — unfortunately — doesn’t like things that don’t work,” Gibson said. “I have in the past built him props that I thought were just supposed to be props, and then he goes, ‘OK, plug it in now.’ The first version of the guitar which — I think I put too much into the flame thrower, not enough into the reverb. And yes, the flame-throwing guitar did have to operate, did have to play, the PA system did have to work and the drummers … Unfortunately, I did get practice in all positions, and I’ve got to tell you, the drumming was very uncomfortable at 70 [kilometers] an hour, eating sand.”

Sean Hape, aka iOTA, who played the maniacal Doof Warrior strapped to the amps, conceded to Noisey that it “wasn’t a great guitar.”

“It spent a lot of time out in the desert, you wouldn’t want to record with it,” he said. “Most of the time, I’d just try to make noise. I pulled out some AC/DC, some Soundgarden, some Zeppelin, but after eight hours, you do just start thumping on it for a while.”

FAN STUFF SUNDAY #10: Wonder Woman Trailer, White Canary Rises, Anarchy Arrow, and More!

This Sunday is chocked full of amazing spectacles to gaze upon for your pleasure, soul and possbly more! We have a Wonder Woman and Avengers VS Alien/Predator trailers, fan art showing us that the White Canary rises, a very anarchist Arrow, and of course more!

Credits: Alex LuthorBoss LogicLord Mesa, MrSteiners, and newcomer DigitalCrow.

Alex Luthor‘ Avengers VS Alien/Predator
Alex Luthor‘s Wonder Woman
Lord Mesa‘s White Canary Rises…. And more!

Boss Logic‘ Anarchist Arrow

DigitalCrow‘s White Canary Rises

MrSteiners‘ logos for Mad Max: The Wasteland 

PEACE!!

Even More CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Set Photos; RDJ, Renner, Olsen, Johansson AND Rudd Spotted!

Another day, another batch of photos from the Captain America: Civil War set. However, this particular batch features not only a first look at actor Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) on set in-between takes, but also a first look at Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) finally joining Chris Evans (Captain America) and Anthony Mackie (Falcon) in the battle against Crossbones (Frank Grillo). While it appears the supervilain (who’s sporting more burn scars) is no match for Cap and his new Avengers team, yesterday was reportedly the last day filming will take place on this African Market set.

It also appears Robert Downey Jr. is about to start work on Captain America: Civil War as the Iron Man actor has now been spotted on the African Market set. Although Downey wasn’t in costume, additional photos & videos from the shoot capture more of Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), and Frank Grillo (Crossbones) back in action, as well as Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) in different civvies as Scott Lang.

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https://instagram.com/p/26kJO7PfPG

Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain. Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Emily VanCamp, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, and Martin Freeman, Captain America: Civil War is set for release on May 6, 2016.

Sources: DailyMail / MTV / Daily Mail(1) / Just Jared / Just Jared(1) / Just Jared(2) / Just Jared(3)

MARVEL MADNESS #6: Matthew McConaughey Has Been Talked To, Pratt’s Contract, Psylocke’s Hair, And More!

This week’s Marvel Madness is chocked full of Matthew McConaughey, Chris Pratt’s movie contract, Daredevil, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy 2, the colour of Psylocke’s hair, and much much more!

Following his breakout roles in Mud, Magic Mike, Dallas Buyers Club, and “True Detective,” actor Matthew McConaughey has been more in-demand than ever before and apparently Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. wanted him in their respective cinematic universes. Speaking with Variety, McConaughey was asked if he’d ever consider being in a superhero movie and revealed that he has been courted by both studios before.

“I’ve read some Marvel and DC scripts and I’ve talked about working with them on some scripts, none of which I’ll share with with you what they are — or were. Yeah, I’ve circled some of those. Nothing has been right for me yet. But I’m sure open to it.”

McConaughey was then asked what would convince him to be a part of one, saying:

“It’s very simple for me. I look at the script. Is the opportunity exciting? Is the money that comes with it exciting? Sure. Is it the possibility of going, ‘Hey you can get on a train and it can be a franchise and you could do 3, 4, 5, and have a great time as some kind of superhero or anti-hero.’ But I would also look at something like that and say, ‘Hey, in success that means you are on the train for a while.’ Contractually, you’re going to return to the character over and over. It’s something I asked myself is it something I’d want to return to. Would I be excited to go back and put the shoes on the character again? Going and doing the press tour with that group of people again? I always ask myself those questions again. It starts with the story and character.”

When Marvel Studios began building their cinematic universe they have the foresight to lock up their future movie stars to multiple films, removing the possible contractual potholes that could appear down the road. Now that Guardians of the Galaxy has grossed a gazillion dollars fans of the MCU are interested in knowing how many films its star Chris Pratt is obligated to do. GQ got some answers.

Guardians of the Galaxy was the making of Pratt, but however effortless it may have seemed on-screen, the movie’s deft combination of action and comedy, sincerity and levity, didn’t come easily.

“[Guardians director] James Gunn had a hard time working with me for about the first half of the movie,” Pratt explains. “He’ll say—and I wouldn’t want to be quoted [sounding like I was] saying this about myself—I’m a much more cerebral person than you may expect. You may see this guy who’s sort of like goofy and funny and doesn’t give two shits, but really I’m thinking a lot, in my head below the surface.” Too much, in fact, so that sometimes Pratt would lose track of the natural instincts Gunn had liked. “It’s a little bit like a Venus flytrap,” says Pratt. “If you stick your finger in and it closes, it takes like a week to open back up. So he had a hard time working with me because he’d tell me something, or I’d do something, and the next thing you know he couldn’t get me back to where I started originally.”

“I think that he had gotten a lot of success over the past few years being the funny sidekick,” says Gunn, “which means that he always has to juggle to entertain everybody. And the truth is, Chris didn’t trust himself to just be Chris Pratt—and how desirable that is to an audience.”

“I thought I was bad,” Pratt concurs. “I thought I was doing bad acting. I would just think: My bullshit meter’s going off. This screams inauthentic to me.” Pratt says that Gunn had little patience with this. “He’s like, ‘Who gives a shit what you think? I don’t fucking care!’ “

He’d literally say that?

“Yes! He’d be, ‘It’s not your fucking movie, dude, it’s mine! Trust me and shut the fuck up and do what the fuck I tell you, and scream it!’ He’s like, ‘More! Louder!’ I would get pissy because as an actor, you sometimes hate that direction: Louder, faster. But it’s true—sometimes you have to be louder, speak more clearly, let the words do the work, and just get out of the way.”

“I think being the center of focus on the actual movie set,” says Gunn, “and having to learn this balance, which I think he had never learned before, of both allowing himself to be the center of attention while simultaneously realizing in what areas he is completely unimportant—that’s what being a movie star is, and it’s a very difficult balance for someone to learn.”

They say the suit makes the man, and with a hero whose look has become as iconic as Daredevil’s, that applies ten-fold.

With the Netflix Original Series “Marvel’s Daredevil,” the creators behind the series had to reimagine Matt Murdock’s classic suit to fit in with the grounded, street-level tone of the series.  In order to accomplish this, they looked to the team of designers and costume artists at Marvel Studios—headed up by Ryan Meinerding—to take a crack at some of the visuals and designs for the series.

“Joe Quesada got in touch and asked if I could help out,” recalls Meinerding. “Our whole team actually did designs, [including] Rodney Fuentebella, Andy Park, Jackson Sze, Josh Nizzi, and Anthony Francisco. I think we all did a round of designs as fast as we could, and they settled on one of mine. Beyond that, we did our normal process of modeling the head and the cowl [in] 3D with Josh Herman, and then I was involved throughout the costume creation process.”

Marvel CCO–and one of the series’ Executive Producers–Joe Quesada, known for an immensely influential run as the artist on Daredevil’s comic series, also had a hand in the series’ designs.

“The starting point is always story,” explains Quesada. “We had to come up with a logical reason as to how someone with Matt Murdock’s means and ability to actually make a costume could make that dramatic of a leap from the vigilante costume to the super hero [suit]. Once that logic was in play, which was the Melvin Potter of it all, we had to build to that point. I think if we had gone to that red costume too soon, it would have caused a lot of viewers to bump on the material, because it was so grounded in the real world.”

The “Melvin Potter of it all” refers to the character who, in the series, actually helps Matt build his final Daredevil suit. Having a character like Potter, a mechanic, actually develop and build the costume in the series gave the team a basis to work off of.

“The tone that was really communicated was the sense of realism that they were going for,” relates Meinerding. “I think the way that [manifested itself in] the costume was through the armor and making it feel a little bit more padded than you traditionally think of Daredevil being. When we do these designs, there’s a concept of grounded and a concept of reality. The grounded nature that they brought to the vigilante costume was the simplicity and effectiveness, because you’re trying to conceal your identity but also [have to be] mobile enough to fight.
“When you do a super hero costume in that world, it’s hard to be as real as you need to be, because you’re making it heightened. So you try and find the touchstones for that with armoring pieces that you would want armored, like your shins and your forearms for blocking and hitting as well as having things be riveted on. The overall layout of that costume is really that it’s meant to look like a Kevlar vest with stuff underneath it. That’s what we were going for.”

Quesada commends Meinerding’s work, commenting on many of those “touchstones” added to the design.

“One of my favorite parts of the costume is that if you look very, very closely at some of the way the armature is attached to the costume, you can actually see rivets,” Quesada elaborates. “There was something about that particular element that I told Ryan, we should lean into that a little bit because that is so quintessentially New York and how the city itself is constructed. And Melvin Potter, being who a guy who’s working on engines [and] a bunch of different things, rivets seem like something he would use. Ryan also did some great stuff with respect to the placement of blacks against the red, the way that the darker portions of the mask are constructed to really give the full feeling of when comic artists draw that mask and rim light it in red while leaving the center portions black.”

Daredevil’s cowl remains one of the most defining characteristics of his look, lending him the nickname of Hornhead, so that in particular had to come out just right.

“The horns are iconic, and we had to be careful as to how we handled them,” remarks Quesada. “I think what Ryan did is absolutely spectacular, when you really look at the structure of the helmet and the horns, because those can be done in a way where they actually look silly. He created an architectural design, an angular design for the horns, that just feels natural to the cowl.”

As Quesada hinted, bringing that cowl to life wasn’t as simple as slapping a couple of horns on and calling it a day.

“One of the most interesting things about Daredevil, that I hadn’t fully appreciated before I started working on the character, is that I think that head is one of the most difficult heads to design for a live action context,” confesses Meinerding. “Because if you have a mask like Captain America’s, it’s difficult in it’s own ways, but you still have the actor’s eyes coming through. So you get performance, you get a sense of who they are, of their expression, of what they’re doing. [As a result] the bottom half of the face matches the top half, in terms of expression. With Daredevil, because half of his face has to be covered and has its own expression and the actor’s face is going to be doing something else, it’s actually a very difficult challenge to come up with something up top that’s not going to bump with something down below.”

In the end, one more element had to fall in place before Daredevil’s final suit could fully harken to the iconic look from the comics.

“The billy clubs, designed by Andy Park, were also very important,” stresses Quesada. “There was a discussion early in the process, because Charlie Cox [and his stunt double] Chris Brewster are both right handed, of having the billy clubs holster on the right leg. But Daredevil wears those billy clubs on the left hand side. So while it would have been easier to place the holster on the right we all felt that we had to keep to the classic profile and keep them on the left. It made life a bit more difficult for Charlie and Chris, but they caught on pretty quickly. No matter how you sliced it, they were going to have to holster the billy clubs without looking because lets face it, DD would have no need to look.

“Ultimately I think the silhouette is always what’s really important. Does it look heroic? Does it look like our character? If he stands on the parapet of a roof and turns his head and we see those devil horns, is it Daredevil? I think that’s where Ryan succeeded and exceeded all of our expectations. It’s Daredevil.”

Kicking off Marvel’s 2017 plans, the second year of “Phase 3″ of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first year the studio will have three theatrical releases, will be the sequel to surprise hit Guardians of the Galaxy. Writer and director James Gunn was confirmed to helm GOTG 2 before its predecessor even opened in theaters and he’s already working hard developing the followup.

Over the weekend, Gunn held another live Q&A session via Twitter’s Periscope livestreaming app, and spoke quite a lot about Guardians of the Galaxy 2.  In responding to questions, he explains that he’s been rushing to get the sequel’s script done and has already completed a draft, only now finally taking a breather. He’s aiming to complete it before heading to Columbia next month to shoot his next film, The Belco Experiment, which he is writing and producing.

As we reported in early April, Gunn was very quick to submit a lengthy 70-page story treatment to Marvel’s creative committee, not long after pitching a story for the sequel which Gunn claims is “risky” for Marvel in how different and original it is compared to the comics. The “story about fathers,” as Gunn labels it already has at least one draft of the script done which he’s revising and tweaking. Production begins next February so there’s still a long while before concrete details begin leaking out from him and Marvel Studios.

What we do know from this latest Q&A is that one new main character will be joining the team in GOTG 2 and from our talks with Gunn during the Guardians of the Galaxy press junket, he made it clear that he wants at least two female members on the team in the next film. He also hinted that someone familiar may join the team. If it’s not an Avenger (which Gunn has also hinted at in the past) an easy guess would be Yondu (Michael Rooker) who in the comics is a future member of the team and who we know has a major part in the sequel as well, returning alongside his right-hand man, Kraglin (played by James Gunn’s brother, Sean Gunn).

When asked about casting newcomers for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Gunn revealed that the process has already sort of begun. He’s already talking with someone about playing the character he has in mind, a new Guardian, as he labels it. We don’t yet know who that is, but in terms of the core Guardians of the Galaxy roster, we’re guessing based on Gunn’s words since the first movie came out, that there will be two additions to the team: someone we’ve met and someone we haven’t who he’s talking to now – even if it’s informal talks at this point.

Star Wars creator George Lucas thinks that a new Howard The Duck movie could be a hit—so long as Marvel Studios rendered the titular fowl  in computer generated imaging.

“Someday, I hope, Marvel will make a new version of Howard the Duck, and you’ll see it could be a good movie,” Lucas told Wired Magazine. “A digital duck will make that thing work.”

This comment may prompt an eye-roll or two from those familiar with Lucas’ career. Though celebrated as the creator of Star Wars, Lucas has been equally criticized for his over-reliance on CGI effects in the Star Wars prequels, and for stuffing CGI effects into his classic Star Wars trilogy for the “Special Editions” released in 2004.

Interestingly, Lucas served as executive producer on Marvel’s 1986 Howard The Duck movie. Though nary a pixel was to be found, the film is still generally regarded as one of Marvel’s worst. But now that Marvel Studios has brought the character (in full CGI) into their cinematic universe through Guardians of the Galaxy, perhaps Lucas will get his wish.

Phil Lord spoke briefly to The Hippojuice Podcast (via /Film) about the upcoming animated Spider-Man film he and Chris Miller have in early development at Sony Pictures, although it doesn’t sound like there are any solid details to share quite yet.

NON-MCU STUFF!

X-Men: Apocalypse hair designer Felix Lariviere has confirmed, via Twitter, that Psylocke will have purple hair in X-Men: Apocalypse.

In the comics, Psylocke is a British woman and natural blonde. She dyed her hair purple during her early pursuit of a modelling career. Even after Betsy was forced to body swap with the Asian assassin Revanche, she continues to be drawn with purplish hair (black with a purple shine, at its subtlest).

Olivia Munn will play Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse. I’m sure fans will be eager to see the results of her purple dye job.

The X-Men: Days of Future Past – Rogue Cut Blu-ray release will feature a sneak peek at the upcoming Fantastic Four movie.

The Fantastic Four preview is part of the over 90 minutes of never before seen special features promised to be included with the release, in addition to the Rogue Cut itself. The Rogue Cut Blu-ray also includes the theatrical version of Days of Future Past.

The Rogue Cut will add 17 minutes to the theatrical cut of X-Men: Days of Future Past, including a restored action sequence featuring Rogue (Anna Paquin) breaking out of a Sentinel controlled prison camp.

Other special features included on the Rogue Cut Blu-ray are:

Audio Commentary by Bryan Singer and John Ottman for the Rogue Cut
Audio Commentary by Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg for the theatrical cut.
Mutant vs Machine
X-Men: Unguarded
Gallery
Second Screen App

X-Men: Days of Future Past – Rogue Cut will be released July 14.

And that’s all folks! Hope you have been now inundated with all things Marvel for awhile, BUT be sure to check back next week for more!

PEACE!!

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2 | A NEWS ROUNDUP

Cowabunga! A bunch of news, set photos & videos, and more have been released online for the upcoming sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2! We have a Bebop casting, an old face returning, and a bunch of other things for you!

Though Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 is currently filming in both Buffalo and New York City, the sequel almost set up shop in another New York locale: Syracuse.

According to producer Brad Fuller, the film seriously considered filming in the town just east of Buffalo while scouting Upstate New York location. Another contestant was Rochester, which is nestled between Buffalo and Syracuse. But according to Fuller, TMNT2’s production ultimately chose Buffalo for the city’s Kensington Expressway, which provided the right environment for a particular scene.

“There are high walls on the side of the highway and that is great for the story and it looks really cool,” Fuller told Syracuse.com. Filming in Buffalo began last week, as the crew filmed numerous car chase scenes with the Turtles’ battlewagon. The main cast however, remained in New York City to film their portions.

According to the Buffalo News, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will bring as much as $9 million to the small city after receiving a 40 percent tax credit for choosing to film there.

According to Deadline, Bebop will be played by Gary Anthony Williams in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. No word on who will play his rhinoceros partner in crime Rocksteady just yet, but it’s assumed both characters will be fully CGI once the mutations take place. Before his transformation though, Bebop will apparently be “a punk street thug member of a ragtag gang of misfits who acts as if he’s intellectually superior, but isn’t.”

Laura Linney is playing a member of New York’s finest in the movie, and will probably be tasked with tracking down the awesome foursome and bringing them to justice. Are there any notable female cops in TMNT lore? 

Also spotted on set was Arrow’s Stephen Amell who’ll play Casey Jones, with Raphael actor Alan Ritchson.

Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard and Pete Ploszek along with Ritchson were on set too, with their CGI turtle suits.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 production crew has been split in two. One team is filming with the principal actors in New York City, while the other crew is filming an elaborate car chase scene up in Buffalo, New York.

The first set of videos features the main cast filming scene at the NYC set with a large green screen behind them. The first video shows that there is some tension between Will Arnett’s character Vernon Fenwick and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and new team member Casey Jones (Stephen Amell). How did this develop since the first film is anyone’s guess. You have to assume it has something to do with the fine clothes and new supermodel girlfriend Vern has been seen wearing and with, respectively.

The next slew of videos showcases the extensive car chase scene that is being filmed on Route 33 in Buffalo. After watching all of the videos I believe I have a good idea of what is going in this scene, sort of. There is a truck being escorted by men on motorcycles. That truck appears to be prisoner transport vehicle that the police commonly use. So we could assume that there is a prisoner inside. It might be a Turtle. As the scene unfolds there are two stuntmen that use welding torches. They appear to be trying to open up the roof to help whoever is inside to escape. Their bulky outfits suggests that they are in fact Turtles, and at some point one of them loses their footing and hangs upside down as the transport vehicles keeps on moving along.

Following all of this are two sporty 3-wheeler vehicles, Polaris Slingshots. And chasing behind them is the Ninja Turtles’ “Battlewagon,” which is a reinforced sanitation truck.

https://instagram.com/p/2UxjCWNl03

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“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2″ will hit theaters on June 3, 2016 and stars Megan Fox (April O’Neil), Will Arnett (Vern Fenwick), Stephen Amell (Casey Jones), Brian Tee (Shredder), Tyler Perry (Baxter Stockman), Laura Linney and Gary Anthony Williams (Bebop) in the Paramount sequel. Michael Bay will once again produce with his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. David Green is set to direct from a script by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec.