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Yesterday, Marvel Studios released a short preview teaser of their Cinematic Universe "Phase Two" which starts next month with Iron Man 3 and will end with The Avengers 2 in 2015. The teaser included a little footage of Iron Man 3, but the full, nearly five minute "Phase Two" preview not only offers a longer look at Iron Man 3 (including interviews with Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley and director Shane Black) but the rest of the "Phase Two" movies as well.
Behind-the-scenes footage is revealed from Thor: The Dark World, with director Alan Taylor (HBO's Game of Thrones) explaining that Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) will join Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in Asgard, while concept art from Captain America: The Winter Soldier is revealed and directors Anthony and Joe Russo discuss what's in store for Cap (Chris Evans) in the sequel. Even Guardians of the Galaxy gets a mention, with more concept art revealed and director James Gunn briefly talks about the "space epic" before the real treat of the "Phase Two" preview is revealed: a few seconds of director Edgar Wright's test footage for 2015's Ant-Man, all before Joss Whedon can end the preview with a brief update of what's happening with The Avengers 2.
watch the preview >> Posted 04.03.13 by Ryan -
Marvel Studios' "Phase One" of its Cinematic Universe began in 2008 with Iron Man and continued until last year's mega-hit The Avengers. "Phase Two" will begin this year with the May sequel Iron Man 3, and, presumably, will again end with The Avengers 2, which is set to start shooting in the U.K. in early 2014.
Before Avengers 2 arrives, however, fans will first get to see Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and even Guardians of the Galaxy. For now though, "Phase Two" rests with Iron Man 3, which is the focus of a new preview Marvel has released, with Marvel president of production Kevin Feige calling the sequel "the start of that new road of Phase Two."
watch the preview >> Posted 04.02.13 by Ryan -
The Avengers was one of the biggest hits of the year, with writer-director Joss Whedon successfully blending super heroes like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) together into a single adventure. The movie became the third-highest grossing movie of all time, and has ended up on several "Best of 2012" lists.
But that doesn't mean it was perfect. In fact, a group called Cinema Sins have compiled a list of things they feel are wrong with The Avengers and have put them into a 3-minute video (via Gizmodo). Some complaints might seem a bit trivial, but a few, such as S.H.I.E.L.D's "secret" base being located out in the middle of a "brightly-lit, exposed mesa" in the middle of the desert are right on the money.
watch the video >> Posted 12.24.12 by Ryan -
Those that stuck around for the first post-credits scene from The Avengers were either excited or confused by the appearance of the grinning, purple-skinned Thanos, depending on your amount of comic book knowledge. Those audience members that spent their childhoods outside likely had no idea who the character was, but for those that spent their childhood buried in comics were rewarded in knowing that Marvel Studios and president Kevin Feige were steering "Phase Two" of their Cinematic Universe in the right direction by including one of the Avengers most popular villains. Feige has only admitted that Marvel "has plans" for the Mad Titan, while the character's creator, comic book writer and artist Jim Starlin, has said that the character will be used in both 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and 2015's The Avengers 2.
DC Entertainment also noticed the success of The Avengers and are countering by releasing their own superhero team-up Justice League just in time to greet The Avengers 2 in 2015. Apparently, DC also saw the Thanos scene in Avengers and, if recent rumors are true, are countering with their own galactic villain in Darkseid. So which villain is the biggest and baddest in the galaxy? There's only one way to resolve the issue: in a Character Cage Match!
check out the characters' strengths and weaknesses then vote in on our poll >> Posted 12.08.12 by Ryan -
Who Should Play the Fashionista Founding Avenger?
It's hard to find a moviegoer who has seen The Avengers who didn't love the movie — it's got a 92% approval rating among critics and an incredible 96% approval rating among fans on aggregate review site RottenTomatoes. Nevertheless, some die-hard comic book fans are still a little bent out of shape that Ant-Man and Wasp weren't included in some way, considering the diminutive heroes were both founding members of the super team in the Marvel comic books (Wasp even christened the team "Avengers" after their first battle with Loki). Though it hasn't specifically been said, it's generally understood that Marvel President of Production Kevin Feige has held Ant-Man in reserve to give co-writers Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) time to finish their Ant-Man screenplay.
What does Ant-Man have to do with Wasp, you ask? Well, wealthy debutante Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. Wasp, has been linked to Henry "Hank" Pym, a.k.a. Ant-Man, since her first appearance in Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963). Initially only Pym's lab assistant, Van Dyne eventually teamed up with Ant-Man as Wasp — using the same "Pym Particles" that Hank uses to shrink, but also undergoing a procedure that gave her wings and a bio-chemical energy blast dubbed "wasp's stings" — to avenge her father's death. The two fell in and out of love over the years, but Van Dyne has always fought the good fight as Wasp whenever she has been needed. It's possible that Marvel will introduce Wasp in The Avengers 2, but considering her connection to Pym, we're betting on her making her big screen debut in Ant-Man, which hits theaters six months after the Avengers sequel. Who do you think has the right stuff to play the socialite superhero?
Select the Top 10 Actresses Who Could Play Wasp >>
Posted 10.21.12 by BrentJS -
Marvel had yet to officially announce the director of its next new franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy, when The Avengers director Joss Whedon beat them to the punch by revealing that James Gunn would not only be directing the movie, but performing rewrites on the screenplay, as well. Whedon told MTV that Gunn's take on Guardians was "very twisted" and that the director himself would be the ingredient that makes such a weird cast of characters — including a walking tree named Groot and a talking raccoon named Rocker Raccoon — fit into the cinematic universe that Marvel is creating.
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If you've ever gotten a virus on your computer, you know how crippling they can be, often completely destroying your operating system. Now, imagine you get a virus, but your computer's operating system is... your brain. The new web series produced by Bryan Singer, H+: The Digital Series, takes place in the very near future and deals with just such an eventuality. Series star Alexis Denisof recently chatted with Hollywood Dailies about the series and its impressive production values, saying that, finally, "cinema theater has come onto your laptop."
Denisof, a personal friend of The Avengers writer-director Joss Whedon — Denisof guest-starred on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is married to series regular Alyson Hannigan — also confirmed that he will be reprising the role of the mysterious "Other" in The Avengers 2, joking that "the sequel is called The Avengers 2, a.k.a. The Other Returns."
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With a global box office take in excess of $1.46 billion, The Avengers is the #1 comic book/superhero movie of all time and seemingly a shoe-in for the #1 movie of 2012, so there was never really any doubt that Marvel Studios and parent Disney would make a sequel. The real question has been whether or not Joss Whedon, the man responsible for combining all of the disparate, larger-than-life characters from throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe into one colossal team-up movie, would return to direct The Avengers 2.
Shortly after the movie came out — and its mega-success made a sequel inevitable — Whedon expressed reservations about signing up for another go-round with "Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Whedon said that he was "very torn" about directing a sequel, citing the "enormous amount of work" involved in "telling what is ultimately somebody else's story." However, he also said that he already had "a bunch of ideas" for a sequel. Well, apparently Whedon wasn't as torn as he let on because, according to The Huffington Post, Disney "confirmed Whedon will both write and direct" The Avengers 2 during a conference call with investors on Tuesday. As if that's not awesome enough, Whedon will also be working on another Avengers-related project for Marvel.
what else will whedon be working on? >> Posted 08.08.12 by BrentJS -
We're really excited about the way Marvel Studios continues to expand on the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe through short films included as DVD extras like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer, The Consultant and Item 47 — which will be included with The Avengers when it is released on home video in September — but what we really want is a weekly dose of Marvel action.
Acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro has been developing a TV series for ABC based on the Hulk for some time, but the budget constraints of animating ol' jade jaws for TV has been a prohibiting factor, and the script for the pilot is in need of a rewrite. But, whether the obstacles to del Toro's Hulk TV series get ironed out or not, Marvel and ABC are apparently forging ahead with plans to bring Marvel characters and situations to the small screen.
Marvels on the tube? >> Posted 07.30.12 by BrentJS -
Before The Avengers exploded on screens, Marvel Studios had already constructed their future plans, setting release dates for Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013) and Thor 2 (November 8, 2013), while putting Captain America 2 into the first of two scheduled release dates for 2014 (April 4). The second 2014 release date (May 16) has been rumored to be several other Marvel projects, including a The Black Panther movie, director Edgar Wright's (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) long-in-development adaptation of Ant-Man and, most recently, Guardians of the Galaxy, even as it has been moved moved from May to August 16. It looks like the latter movie is becoming the most likely to arrive in 2014.
Guardians of the Galaxy on their way? >> Posted 07.05.12 by Ryan