As we rapidly approach the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, which is the final Marvel film leading up to next year’s The Avengers, we expect to be getting a lot more coverage and peeks at images and stills from the new film while it shoots in New Mexico and Ohio.

While we haven’t gotten there just yet, a correspondent over at ESQ. magazine managed to snap a shot of the brand new promo poster that Marvel is using to sell the film at the recent International Licensing Expo in Las Vegas.

Definitely digitally rendered, it’s not an exact depiction as to what we’re going to get from the film itself, but it gives a good idea at what we can look forward to when Joss Whedon brings everyone together for what will likely be an epic film.

The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Tom Hiddleston, and Stellan Skarsgård and hits theaters May 4, 2012.

Check out the first poster after the jump and let us know what you think!

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It’s nice to see actors go from virtual unknown to multiple Oscar nominee to star of a mega-budget action franchise in just a few years — especially when they’re not in their teens anymore. Fortunately, this time around with actor Jeremy Renner, who’s done just that, we actually like him and don’t feel like he’s being shoved down our throats like certain other people (Sam Worthington, we’re looking at you).

Renner’s latest gig is the lead role in the Tony Gilroy-directed The Bourne Legacy. Renner, who as we mentioned above, has been nominated for Oscars the past two years for his work in The Hurt Locker and The Town, is expected to close his deal quickly to play a new character in the spinoff film that begins production in September.

This new character will reportedly be an operative from a covert government program even more dangerous than Treadstone, the program that created Jason Bourne. Other actors reportedly in contention for this coveted role were Joel Edgerton, Dominic Cooper, Garrett Hedlund, Luke Evans, Taylor Kitsch and Anthony Mackie. Of those, Renner seems like the best choice — especially given his strong performances in his last couple of films.

The Bourne Legacy begins filming this Fall for an August, 2012 release.

We’re about a month away from the biggest comic book movie season ever, which means it’s time for some juicy news bits to float on by. There’s some great stuff about the upcoming Green Lantern film, which has already come out.

With two more of the four Avengers prequels (which already include Iron Man 2 and Incredible Hulk) hitting theaters this summer, questions about crossover are bound to come up. The Howard Stark cameo was already slightly spoiled in last week’s Captain America: The First Avenger trailer, but who will be the big reveal in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor?

Well, it looks like Cinema Blend has broke the spoilerific (take the hint! walk away now if you don’t want this ruined.) news that we will, in fact, be getting a Jeremy Renner cameo as Hawkeye in the upcoming flick. Cinema Blend’s got the report.

The scene we saw featured Renner as Hawkeye, working with the infamous Agent Coulson, played as he was in the Iron Man movies, by Clark Gregg. The scene features Hawkeye using his famous bow and arrow and he has multiple lines, so while we’re talking about something a little more than a momentary cameo, there’s no way to know if his involvement will go any further than that one scene.

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This may be the biggest year for the Academy Awards, as some major Hollywood players are going up against some fresh newcomers. Eyeballs everywhere will be glued to ABC on Sunday, February 27th at 8PM E/5PM P when the awards show goes live. But before that, we decided to do some picking of our own with the staff’s predictions for each award.

For a full list of the nominees, check out our previous article on the subject. Now, on to the predictions.

Best Picture

Shannon Hood-The Social Network. It had early and consistent momentum all year, and the Academy appears to be trying to shake up their stodgy image. This would be the perfect film to put their money where their mouth is.

Matt Raub – True Grit. Not only are the Coens a regular in the “I Have an Oscar” club, but this testament to classic western films is definitely one for record books, between its all-star cast and gritty (no pun intended) visual style, this one definitely deserves the golden statue.

Chris Ullrich – True Grit. Even though this was a pretty great year for movies and there are many excellent choices in this category, True Grit stands on its own as my pick. As an example of pure movie storytelling, this Coen Brothers masterpiece excels on every level and delivers a pure entertainment experience you will want to revisit many more times in the future.

Cortney Zamm – The Social Network. There’s a lot of great films in this category, some of them from my favorite directors and starring my favorite people. But the one that combined all of the essential elements of filmmaking into a truly gorgeous, compelling, and memorable film was The Social Network.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the  nominees for the 83rd annual award ceremony this morning. The King’s Speech was the front-runner with 12 nominations. Overall, there weren’t too many surprises.

Many were disappointed  that Christopher Nolan did not receive a best director nod, but as a consolation prize, Inception was nominated as a contender for best picture.
True Grit did quite well, with Hailee Steinfeld nabbing a best supporting actress nod, and nominations for best picture, best director(s), best actor, and best adapted screenplay. Winter’s Bone was recognized for best actress, best picture, and best adapted screenplay. Dogtooth, Jackie Weaver, and Javier Bardem were nice surprises.

Here are the nominees in the order that they were announced.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld True Grit
Jackie Weaver Animal Kingdom

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale The Fighter
John Hawkes Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner The Town
Mark Ruffalo The Kids Are All Right
Jeffrey Rush The King’s Speech

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While things are a bit shaky in terms of what we’re calling the newest Mission: Impossible film, one thing is for sure: the cast is going to kick ass. Hawkeye himself, Jeremy Renner joined the cast a few weeks back, which was already headed by returning Cruise, Ving Rhames, and Simon Pegg, and the newly added Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q.

Now, a brand new face of awesome is jumping in, as LOST star Josh Holloway has been signed to join Cruise’s new team of super spies. This marks Holloway’s first major role since leaving the island, or dying, or staying in purgatory, or however you want to interpret that ending.

Between this cast, Incredibles director Brad Bird taking the helm, and J.J. Abrams supplying the story, there is very little room for this film to fail, or at least we hope. Megastar Cruise even took a pay cut in order for this film to get made, so it has that going for it.

The movie is set to go into production before the end of the year, with a release date of December 16th, 2011. Expect to hear plenty more news coming out of this camp in the coming weeks as we lead up to principal photography.

It’s rare when two different pieces of news come together to form an even more awesome story. That’s the case here, as Jeremy Renner, star of last year’s critical success Hurt Locker, will be joining the ever growing greatness which is the upcoming Mission: Impossible 4 film.

Why is this such a big deal? That’s a three-part answer.

One: Renner has been a huge deal ever since working on Locker and even got cast as a fan favorite in the upcoming Avengers film helmed by Joss Whedon as Hawkeye. As if that wasn’t enough, two: he’s joining M:I4, which will be directed by Brad Bird, famous for his work on The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and The Simpsons. Three, the script comes from lord of all things geek, J.J. Abrams.  From Deadline:

Renner will star alongside Tom Cruise in the fourth installment of a franchise that will begin production in the fall. It is the second major role for Renner coming out of his  turn as the reckless explosives specialist in the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker. Renner also will star in Marvel Studios’ The Avengers, playing the role of Hawkeye. Renner will next be seen in the Ben Affleck-directed The Town, the GK Films-produced drama that Warner Bros opens September 17.

Paramount has struggled to find the right co-star to play an operative opposite Cruise, and one factor was to selecting an actor who could potentially carry the series down the line, should Cruise’s Ethan Hunt character not continue to be the emphasis.

So there you have it, Renner will be showing off his archery in The Avengers, fighting alongside the former Daredevil in The Town, and now costarring in one of the highest grossing action film franchises in the past decade. What will he do next? Let’s hope he doesn’t go the way of Vin Diesel and pull a Pacifier.

In a lot of cases I wouldn’t bother with something like this. It doesn’t really show anything nor does it give us any clues to the story, villains or much of anything else about the movie. So why show it at all? Well, because it’s for Marvel’s upcoming Avengers movie and I think it will be awesome. Also, why not?

In this very early teaser made especially for Comic-Con, we get Samuel L. Jackson narrating and telling us that on a certain day earth’s mightiest heroes decided to team up, form the Mother F***ing Avengers and kick some considerable ass. Obviously, if you know anything about comics you probably already know that. Plus, as we’ve been following this story for quite some time, you also know most of the actors in the film as well as the writers and director.

Still, the idea of  Joss Whedon directed Avengers movie featuring Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Clark Gregg, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo is just too great an idea to pass up on any information, no matter how slight.

So, enjoy the teaser after the jump for what it is and expect a heck of a lot more info from this movie, and all the Marvel properties, as soon as it becomes available.

The Avengers assemble in theaters on May 4, 2012.

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Ben Affleck may get a pretty bad rap for his acting, but that was certainly redeemed (mostly) when he stepped behind the camera for the first time to direct Gone Baby Gone. The film was nominated for tons of awards, including Best Actress for Amy Ryan.

Affleck is at it once again with his latest directorial effort The Town. You can tell that he’s got some recurring themes, much like his buddy Kevin Smith, such as a gritty town in Boston and female abduction. This time, Ben himself is stepping in the male leading role, instead of casting his brother Casey.

The movie is based on the Chuck Hogan book Prince of Thieves about a bank robber who becomes infatuated with a witness that his gang is convinced will talk. The movie also stars Blake Lively, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner.

Check out the new trailer after the jump. Catch Ben Affleck’s The Town in theaters on September 10th.

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It seems like Marvel can do no wrong with casting and news for their upcoming Avengers flick. First, fanboy superstar Joss Whedon is announced as the director, and now it seems fan favorite Jeremy Renner will be taking on the role of Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye.

Speculation started a few months ago that the Hurt Locker actor would join the upcoming Joss Whedon-helmed Marvel pic, The Avengers, but not much evidence came through to make us believe it was going to happen. It seems that it was true all along, as Jeremy Renner is currently finalizing the deal with Marvel Studios to carry the bow-and-arrow. From THR:

Renner’s involvement was initially rumored last fall, although the actor, who was in the middle of the awards derby with his war thriller “The Hurt Locker,” was at the time more taken with Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled drama and was being heavily courted by Universal for “Battleship.”

Renner never joined “Battleship,” and while he still has definite interest in Anderson’s film, that project is still cobbling financing and has seen its start pushed back several times.

Renner saw a chance to take on work in a role that, while key, is not starring in nature and will allow him to slide into Anderson’s film if it should come together.

The actor will be joining an already full cast of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Sam Jackson, Don Cheadle, Chris Hemsworth, and Scarlett Johansson. If you are one to believe IMDb’s rumored casting, that group also includes Malin Akerman as The Wasp and Nathan Fillion as Ant Man.

Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is currently set for release on May 4, 2012.

While this is definitely a cool idea, it should be noted that this piece of news is most definitely a rumor as of now and should be treated as such.

With all eyes still on Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 as it continues to make money at the worldwide box office, most Marvel fans are already ready for more from the cinematic universe. We’ve got Thor on the way next and then Joe Johnston’s Captain America. But after that, everything leads to Joss Whedon’s The Avengers in 2012.

We’ve heard we’ll see just about every Marvel character in The Avengers the company currently has the film rights to including The Hulk, Thor, Cap, Iron Man, Ant Man, and Hawkeye. Now we’re getting word that the main villains of the film could be the alien race The Skrulls.

The highlight of this insider scoop (DISCLAIMER: which has not been confirmed by the studio itself) is that the shape-changing alien race the Skrulls are being used as the main antagonists for The Avengers. Not only that, but the Skrulls will ‘brainwash’ and use the Hulk in a similar fashion Loki did in the comics.

Don’t expect a full on alien invasion, though; that will have to wait for a sequel. The Skrulls’ role will be largely clandestine, similar to the way S.H.I.E.L.D. operates.

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