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Who Should Wear the Cape & Cowl?
It's still unclear how Warner Bros. (WB) plans to proceed with the Batman franchise now that director Christopher Nolan has wrapped up his trilogy. If you've seen The Dark Knight Rises, than you know that Nolan handed the keys to the bat cave to someone from within the universe he created just in case WB wanted to continue the story. However, since the studio announced in June that Gangster Squad scribe Will Beall had been hired to pen a movie based on DC Comics' preeminent super-team, the Justice League — the team's current roster includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Cyborg — it seems far more likely that a new Bruce Wayne/Batman will be chosen, one that has nothing to do with Nolan's universe.
It will be tough to fill Christian Bale's Academy Award-winning shoes, but there must be someone out there with the physicality to play a superhero and the acting chops to portray a man driven to prevent the kind of senseless violence that took his parents away from him. Help us choose the new Dark Knight.
Select the Top 10 Actors Who Could Play Batman >>
Posted 10.09.12 by BrentJS -
British actor Tom Hiddleston was a relative unknown before being cast as the villain Loki in last year's Thor but now Hiddleston is known enough at least to be the recipient of his own fan mail. Having already reprised the part in this summer's The Avengers, Hiddleston will play the role a third time later this year as the sequel Thor: The Dark World starts production. After Total Film's readers voted Hiddleston "Hottest Actor," the actor discussed the role of Loki and what audiences may find so appealing about him.
In the words of Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner: "Loki’s mind is a box of cats. You can smell crazy on him!" In all seriousness though, I have received a lot of incredibly passionate and articulate letters from fans, explaining how they're drawn to Loki’s psychological and emotional complexity; that he's a villain you can almost root for; a villain you can love to hate, or hate to love. Underneath the steely cold veneer of his trickster charm is a certain vulnerability and sensitivity — the wounded fragility of an outcast brother and son. His mind IS a box of cats though! But I love him.
hiddleston teases Thor 2 >> Posted 08.06.12 by Ryan -
After causing trouble as the primary antagonist in both Thor and The Avengers, Marvel president Kevin Feige has said that Loki (Tom Hiddleston) won't be the primary villain in Thor 2. "You can’t do a Thor movie without Loki," he said last month. but Thor will be tackling "another big villain" in the sequel.
That doesn't mean that the brothers won't continue the contentious relationship from Thor, The Avengers, and decades of comic book history. Hiddleston said last month that he hoped Thor 2 would answer the questions of whether "Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Thor [can] find forgiveness for Loki in their own hearts" and whether "Loki [can] accept that forgiveness." Apparently, Chris Hemsworth agrees.
more on Thor and Loki's relationship >> Posted 05.18.12 by Ryan -
Assembling "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" into one team, as Marvel has done in The Avengers, can be a little overwhelming — Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). So much so that's its easy to forget their common enemy: Loki (Tom Hiddleston).
In last year's Thor, Loki discovered the truth of his origin and began to plot revenge against his adopted brother, Thor. A confrontation between the sibling Norse gods ended in Loki falling from Bifröst Bridge and out of the realm of Asgard. As is made clear in the movie's latest featurette, Loki lands on Earth with a thirst for power, ready to make himself king of the entire planet until the Avengers get in his way. The featurette offers new footage of the movie, including a scene where he makes people kneel down to him, a scene he recently described to Cleveland's Plain Dealer (the scene was shot in Cleveland).
watch the featurette >> Posted 05.01.12 by Ryan -
Audiences will soon see how writer-director Joss Whedon has done with the character of the Hulk in The Avengers this weekend, but early reviews have been very positive about Whedon's use of the "enormous green rage monster." Mark Ruffalo, the third actor to play the role of Dr. Bruce Banner and the first to play his alter ego in motion capture, recently admitted that he would "love" to make a solo Hulk movie, but Marvel President of Production Kevin Feige was more practical. "I love that people are saying that and are feeling that way about Hulk, but mission accomplished at this point," said Feige of a possible Hulk sequel.
Feige may be cautious about another outing, but another Marvel executive, Paul Gitter, isn't. The President of Consumer Products for North America told Forbes that the studio has been "pleasantly surprised by the phenomenal response" to the Hulk, and that Marvel plans to "spin him off to a stand-alone TV program next year," followed by a big-budget franchise movie in 2015. Guess when you have a movie that almost makes back your $220 million budget in just five days of release in only 70% of foreign markets, strategies have a tendency to change.
more about Iron man 3 and Thor 2 >> Posted 04.30.12 by Ryan -
Fans are arriving en masse to see "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" assemble in The Avengers — at least, overseas. The movie is already setting records, a trend sure to continue this weekend as it expands to 42 additional foreign markets.
For American audiences, who still have to wait a week, at least there are more character posters released by Mondo, the collectible art arm of Austin's Alamo Drafthouse). Last week, two retro posters of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) were revealed, and MTV has discovered the posters of the other four members — Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Dr. Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) — posted at various sites all over the Internet.
see the posters; Feige talks humor and villains >> Posted 04.26.12 by Ryan -
Considering the numerous accolades, top-notch talent, and piles and piles of money that comic book–based superhero movies draw these days, you would think the genre would finally get the respect of the acting community. But apparently enough "classical" actors still think that superhero movies are "ignoble" enough that British actor Tom Hiddleston — who played the villainous Loki in Thor and reprised the role for the forthcoming The Avengers — felt the need to write an open letter to The Guardian defending the genre, describing superheroes as modern day myths, metaphors, and archetypes, and calling superhero movies "the pinnacle of cinema."
what did Hiddleston say in his open letter? >> Posted 04.26.12 by BrentJS -
Another week, another barrage of preview clips from Marvel's The Avengers.
Last week saw the release of three Avengers preview clips. The first saw S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) discuss the Tesseract (or Cosmic Cube), while the second saw Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) discussing who has the best tactical advantage while Stark enjoyed a drink in Stark Tower. The week ended with a clip that showed Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) fighting side-by-side against Loki's army.
The latest clip is again, dialogue heavy, as Nick Fury (Jackson) discusses the meaning of power with Loki (Hiddleston) after the latter has been imprisoned in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell made for the Hulk. Thor (Hemsworth), Captain America (Evans) Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hill (Smulders), and Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) listen in as they talk.
watch the clip >> Posted 04.16.12 by Ryan -
Marvel only has The Avengers scheduled for this year, but next year's Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 will see two of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" continue their own solo adventures. Robert Downey Jr. recently spoke about how Iron Man 3 will focus on "the exploration" of Tony Stark and not his Avengers pals, and at the movie's premiere last week, Chris Hemsworth similarly told Zap 2It that Thor 2 will concentrate on the thunder god's life outside of The Avengers.
I haven't seen the script yet, but the big challenge was — we left Thor with that hope of Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) on Earth and Thor in another realm kind of somehow getting together. You know, I think the satisfying thing would be to see that happen. [Avengers writer-director] Joss [Whedon] did a great job of fostering that and putting her out of the picture for the moment. Also, whatever maturity Thor left in the first film, really being put to the test. I think he would like, now, to be put in the position to take over the throne and be worthy of that position. We'll see.
wait, has hemsworth read the script or not? >> Posted 04.16.12 by Ryan -
It hasn't been easy keeping up with the barrage of TV spots, preview clips and featurettes for Marvel's The Avengers, but for those keeping track, the fourth preview clip has been released.
While only 30 seconds in length, the latest clip is a welcome return to action after the previous dialogue-heavy clips — one of which saw S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) discuss the Tesseract (or Cosmic Cube) while another featured Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) engaging in a casually intense chat about who was gong to beat whom. There's hardly any dialogue at all in the latest clip, which features Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) fighting side-by-side against Loki's secretive army of... aliens?
watch the clip >> Posted 04.14.12 by Ryan