It sounds like the only “green” we’ll see Edward Norton dealing with in the near future will be for his upcoming film Leaves of Grass.  Speaking at SXSW, Norton was asked about whether he would be doing a sequel to The Incredible Hulk.  For fans of his take on the Hulk, his answer is somewhat disappointing:

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think it has got more to do with what Marvel is doing. I get the sense they have this grand vision of unspooling a lot of their characters and then starting to put them together. I think they can only do so many at a time. Obviously, they are doing Iron Man 2 and then getting some of the new ones out.”

I’ll be the first to admit The Incredible Hulk was by no means awesome, but it was pretty good entertainment.  If nothing else, Norton’s portrayal of Bruce Banner was great, so it’s unfortunate he may not return.  So, if he’s not on board for another Hulk film what about the other Marvel tie-in films like Thor and The First Avenger: Captain America?

Continue Reading →

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment have finally released an official synopsis of the plot for their upcoming big screen adaptation of Thor, starring Star Trek’s Chris Hemsworth and Star Wars‘ Natalie Portman. Along with the sysnposis, they’ve also included preliminary credits which carry the favored disclaimer “Credits Not Final.”

This is amusing considering the film is already in production and you would have to expect that those pesky contracts had already been finalized before any actors stepped in front of a camera. Anyway, no big surprises in the synopsis but we do get a few good confirmations.

Check it out after the jump, courtesy of the fine folks at Paramount and Marvel Entertainment:

Continue Reading →

Captain America (Bucky)

Note: This article may contain spoilers. If you dont care about that, read on.

Norman Osborn is going down. There’s no doubt about it. The “Dark Reign” looks to be collapsing and as casualties on both sides pile up in Seige, the dawn of the Heroic Age is just around the corner.

With the Heroic Age coming, some Marvel books will be coming to an end, most notably New Avengers. In the aptly named New Avengers: Finale, scribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist Bryan Hitch will tie up the loose ends of every New Avengers tale that has led to this point. With no cover image even leaking on to the internet yet, no one knows exactly what’s to come from this book.

This will all come to a head in April, giving perfect timing for Marvel’s latest set of promotional art entitled, “I’m an Avenger” and “I’m a Secret Avenger”. With a “May 2010″ tag, these pieces feature work from John Romita Jr. and show some of the current stars expected to be present in the Avengers team post-Siege. The most shocking has Hawkeye, not Ronin, pictured which could mean that Clint Barton may finally be returning to the good old purple and blue.

The five “secret” pieces show simple silhouettes of various members of the new Secret Avengers along with different quotes they’d use to describe themselves. Of the Secret Avengers thus far there are many theories going on about who might be on the team.

Take a look for yourself at them all below and let us know who you think may be screaming for their team to “Assemble!” come May.

Continue Reading →

In an effort to keep things out of the hands of those who made the characters popular, major studios such as Sony, and now Regency and Fox, are rebooting their recent Marvel films in order to retain the rights so they don’t default back to Disney owned Marvel. Sony is doing so with the reboot of Spider-Man, while Regency and Fox have recently announced that they’re doing the same with Daredevil.

Originally made in 2003, and starring Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell, the film isn’t even a decade old and it’s getting a complete revamp. This time, the writer behind 2008’s The Day The Earth Stood Still, David Scarpa, will be penning a script, and the story will more than likely scrub the previous films’ continuity.

It’s unfortunate that studios resort to these childish ways. If the franchise eventually ends up in the hands of Marvel and Marvel Studios, this could mean great film cameos from some of our favorite heroes. A perfect example is what Favreau, Brannagh, and Joe Johnston are doing with the Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America films, and it’s all like a fanboy’s greatest dream.

Continue Reading →

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by Elisabeth Rappe and, as usual, launch into discussions of various topics including Twilight’s vampire baby, that Breaking Dawn may be unfilmable, Conan O’Brian, Jay Leno and NBC and the Spider-Man reboot. They also discuss Stuart Townsend leaving Thor, the casting of Blake Lively in Green Lantern, who should play Sinestro in Green Lantern and a whole lot more.

The trio also made some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of Aziz Ansari’s standup video Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, Elisabeth’s pick of Lesbian Vampire Killers and Chris’ pick of Katherine Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which is new on Blu-ray this week and also one of Chris’ top ten films of 2009.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:07:36 — 92.9MB)

I don’t know what it says about Stuart Townsend or Marvel’s upcoming Thor movie, but he has walked off of the project citing “creative differences”. Townsend (who also walked away from the role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films) was signed to play Fandral, one of the “Warriors Three”, an Errol Flynn-esque Asgardian.

The question now becomes: with Townsend’s absence, will Thor become a new classic, much like the Rings trilogy, or will it fall by the wayside much like films that he originally signed up for such as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Queen of the Damned.

Thor, which started filming this week, didn’t lose a second over the loss as newcomer Joshua Dallas has stepped into the role. Dallas recently had a role in the still-unreleased stateside horror sequel The Descent 2 and in the George Lucas-produced story about the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails.

Thor is being directed by Kenneth Branagh, also stars Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek), Natalie Portman, and Anthony Hopkins, and is slated for May 6th, 2011.

In the never ending quest for the perfect release schedule for big movies, studios often shift dates around in an effort to one-up the competition or, in some cases, counter-program so their movie is the only one of its genre coming out on a particular weekend. Other times, studios make changes that seem deliberately to undermine other movies. Case in point is today’s switch of Marvel Studios’ Thor movie from the original date of May 20, 2011 to May 6, 2011.

You may wonder why this is significant? Well, this is the same weekend that Spider-Man 4 is supposedly going to be released by Sony. Although, with the troubles the film is supposedly going through, it may end up getting the date pushed. Still, its a pretty interesting move on Paramount’s part.

Although this move does appear, at least on the surface, as an act of internal rivalry, the report states that Paramount simply did not want to wait on an “official” release date change for Spider-Man 4 in case other studios tried to get there first. This way, a Marvel movie still has a slot on the opening weekend of Summer. Makes sense I guess.

When I first saw The Punisher: War Zone I pretty much hated it.  Yet another Punisher reboot that simply didn’t work.  However, upon further reflection over subsequent months I realized War Zone wasn’t bad. Actually, it was Ray Stevenson’s performance as Frank Castle that single-handedly saved the film.

Stevenson continued to flesh out his bad ass resume as Titus Pullo in the mini-series Rome. While Titus was a more benign individual at times it didn’t take much to bring out the Punisher-esque tendencies when he reverted to his soldier role.  In fact, Rome had some of the best action sequences ever and Stevenson again was brilliant in this capacity.

So, what happens when you combine The Punisher and Titus Pullo? How about one of  Thor’s Warriors Three: Volstagg? Of course, the most obvious question was how Stevenson would fill out Volstagg’s large, um…physique:

“…a solution is at hand, in the shape of a fat suit. “It’s fantastic,” said a beaming Stevenson. “I’ve tried the suit on, and what they’ve done is kind of sex him up: he’s sort of slimmer but rounder.”

Continue Reading →

We hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday and had a chance to read some great comics during the break because the Marvel machine isn’t stopping. This week they have all-new comics for your reading pleasure and, of course, we have some preview art for you from some of the titles.

This week we’re particularly interested in the latest Iron Man titles such as Iron Man: Requiem, the latest issue of Psylocke and The Torch #4. Also, remember that comics come out on Thursday this week (at least from Marvel), so be sure and plan accordingly.

Comics On-Sale:

ANITA BLAKE, THE LAUGHING CORPSE – EXECUTIONER #2
BLACK WIDOW & THE MARVEL GIRLS #1
CAPTAIN AMERICA THEATER OF WAR: PRISONERS OF DUTY
DARK AVENGERS ANNUAL #1
DARK TOWER: THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #1
DARK TOWER: THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #1 PETERSON VARIANT
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #898
FALL OF THE HULKS: ALPHA
FALL OF THE HULKS: ALPHA FINCH VARIANT
HULK: WINTER GUARD
IRON MAN VS. WHIPLASH #1
IRON MAN VS. WHIPLASH #1 SHS VARIANT
IRON MAN: REQUIEM
NOVA #32
PSYLOCKE #2

Continue Reading →

As casting news about the upcoming Thor film continues to heat up there’s a little film called The Avengers we’re all really interested in too. The comic book mega-film will bring together some of the biggest Marvel heroes ever.  So, it comes with some excitement to be reporting on potential casting news for The Avengers.

Word is Jeremy Renner, star of war drama The Hurt Locker, may be set to play bow and arrow hero, Hawkeye.  When asked about the role, Renner said:

“Hawkeye could be interesting. They’re going to send me some stuff on it, see what it is. But I think they’re pretty awesome, trying to make superhero movies almost plausible and not just some fantasy thing.”

The simple fact that Renner is being sent “stuff” bodes well for his inclusion in the film.  Another advantage is that Renner has a cameo in Thor which means he’s already on the Marvel bandwagon.  While I can’t imagine Hawkeye having a huge role in The Avengers it’s great to find out Marvel recruiting top talent to fill the hero roster.

The Avengers is set to hit theaters on May 4, 2012.