Robert Downey Jr weighs in on Black Widow and LFF line up announced

In just six years, Marvel have introduced and greatly developed seven central characters – Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury – three of whom now have their own mulit-billion franchises. There’s now a great demand for Black Widow, played by Lost in Translation’s Scarlett Johansson, to at last get her own standalone film; she’s so far only had supporting roles in Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers. X-Men and Watchmen’s writer David Hayter and Game of Thrones’ Neil Marshall have both expressed interest in directing the project while Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) has criticised Marvel for not yet confirming the film.

Robert Downey Jr is now weighing in on the discussion. “It just seems like whatever Scarlett does people want to go see it,” the star of Zodiac, Chaplin, Tropic Thunder and Sherlock Holmes explained. “The funny thing is honestly at this point everyone deserves a franchise,” Downey continued. “I think Jeremy Renner is — when folks see the Avengers: Age of Ultron –  he’s just a rockstar. And Ruffalo is pumped. He does great work. I’d like to hear them talk even more seriously about a Hulk franchise, because that’s been one of the toughest ones to get right. But I’m sure that my parent company is feeling expansive and bold after the summer they’ve had.”

The British Film Industry’s London Film Festival (BFI LFF) is back this autumn and at last the full line up has been announced. The festival opens with wartime drama The Imitation Game. Headhunters’ Morten Tyldum directs the biopic of codebreaker Alan Turing. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness), Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean, Never Let Me Go), Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Kick-Ass), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, Gosford Park), Matthew Goode (Watchmen, Stoker) and Rory Kinnear (Skyfall, Southcliffe).

Also featuring in the festival are the following: Sporting drama Foxcatcher, although it is far from its wide release, is already an Oscar favourite after causing a great stir at Cannes. Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball) directs the cast of Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller and Mark Ruffalo. Ansel Elgort, Adam Sandler, Judy Greer, JK Simmons, Jennifer Garner and Emma Thompson star in Jason Reitman’s (Juno) comedy Men Women & Children. Timothy Spall is the title character of multi-award winning Mr Turner, from Mike Leigh (Topsy Turvy, Another Year).

Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line, Mud) may be on her way to a second Oscar with Wild, the new directorial effort from Jean Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club, The Young Victoria). A slightly more mainstream event arrives in the form of epic sequel Monsters: Dark Continent, from first time director Tom Green. The festival’s conclusion will be marked by a screening of WW2 thriller Fury. David Ayer (End of Watch) directs the cast of Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena and Jason Isaacs.

London Film Festival – October 8th-19th

Black Widow – 2017?

Game of Thrones star joins Star Wars and Stan Lee may have confirmed Black Panther

The casting process for Star Wars: Episode VII did seem to have come to a halt until the entire principal cast was announced at once. Since then a string of unknowns (Dixie Arnold, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Roman Bloodworth) have joined them and now JJ Abrams (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Super 8) has added to his ensemble. Miltos Yerolemou, best known as Syrio Forel in Game of Thrones, has been confirmed for yet another unspecified role.

Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Andy Serkis, Max Von Sydow, Domhnall Gleeson, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Gwendoline Christie, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Christina Chong, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew.

Stan Lee is widely celebrated as the Godfather of Marvel comics and it’s only right that and is now best known for the cameo appearances he makes in almost every Marvel film, game or TV series. He’s no longer directly involved in the production of the films, he acts as a form of spokesperson for the studio and sheds a few secrets he may not have supposed to. Today, when asked on whether a Scarlett Johansson led Black Widow film was on the cards, he let loose a little more than what we expected.

“The chances are she will have her own movie because eventually all the superheroes are going to have their own movies,” Lee elaborated. “They are already working on Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and the Black Panther, and there are others I am not allowed to talk about.” Some of the casting suggestions for Black Panther include Chadwick Boseman and John Boyega There are great hopes for there to be Thor 3, Captain Marvel and The Inhumans but currently the MCU schedule looks like this.

Phase 2:

• 2015

The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Joss Whedon – Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Samuel L Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Cobie Smulders, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Stellan Skarsgard, Hayley Atwell, Thomas Kretschmann, Andy Serkis

Phase 3:

Ant-Man – Peyton Reed – Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Pena

• 2016

Captain America 3 – Anthony and Joe Russo – Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan

Doctor Strange – Scott Derickson – Joaquin Phoenix

• 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – James Gunn – Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Josh Brolin

Black Panther – 2017/18?

Star Wars: Episode VII – December 18th 2015

Marvel Triple-Bill: Jack Huston rumoured for Doctor Strange, Neil Marshall wants to direct Black Widow and Jeremy Renner won’t rule out Cap’ 3

Under Kevin Feige’s leadership, Marvel Studios have conquered both the box office and fan’s hearts, over ten films they’ve garnered near $7 billion in total with an average of around $700 million a piece. With Joss Whedon’s The Avengers becoming a worldwide smash hit, the studio significantly upped their game for their second phase and their new property Guardians of the Galaxy has defied numerous predictions of disaster to become the biggest hit of this summer. Phase 2 concludes early next year with Joss Whedon’s follow up The Avengers: Age of Ultron and that’s followed by Phase 3 instalments Ant-Man, Captain America 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and a further six unannounced projects but before that things are going to get a little Strange.

Doctor Strange is on the way for a 2016 release. Sinister’s Scott Derickson is confirmed to be directing the project whose current focus is finding its leading man. Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Zero Dark Thirty), Jon Hamm (Mad Men, Million Dollar Arm) and Adrien Brody (The Pianist, King Kong) have proved as popular choices; it’s rumoured that Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club, Fight Club) and Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dark Knight Rises) were on Marvel’s wish list but Joaquin Phoenix (The Master, Gladiator) is currently the only star we know haJack Huston had a similar meetings had discussions with Marvel about the role until now. It’s reported that Broadwalk Empire’s Jack Huston has entered similar meetings. Should he get the role he’d be the second Broadwalk Empire star to join MCU after Charlie Cox was cast as TV’s Daredevil however I’d tip the role in the favour of either Jon Hamm or Joaquin Phoenix.

After The Winter Soldier’s huge success, one of Marvel most anticipated upcoming instalments is Captain America 3. Anthony and Joe Russo are confirmed to be returning as directors although our official knowledge of the cast besides Chris Evans as the titular hero. We’re expecting there to also be appearances from Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) as Black Widow, Sebastian Stan (Black Swan) as The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie (The Adjustment Bureau) as Falcon, Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) as Agent Hill, Frank Grillo (The Grey), Emily Van Camp (Revenge) as Agent 13, Toby Jones (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) as Arnim Zola and Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction) as Nick Fury. What fans are desperate to know is if the pinpoint-accurate archer Hawkeye will return in Cap’s next outing.

Hawkeye, played on film by two time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Bourne Legacy, American Hustle, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Town), or Clint Barton has so far made two MCU apperances: first a cameo in 2011’s Thor before probably being the least prominent of The Avengers the following year, in that he spent crucial character development time as Loki’s flying monkey (I understood that reference). He’ll continue his role next year in Age of Ultron and Renner himself hasn’t ruled out a reappearance claiming he’d experienced “rumblings” of a role in Cap’ 3.

Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is one of Marvel’s greatest icons. With three feature film appearances under her belt, she’s up there with the big three of Captain America, Thor and Iron Man but so far she’s only been tagged into supporting roles in Iron Man 2 and The Winter Soldier. It has been strongly suggested that one of Marvel’s upcoming spaces should be dedicated to a Black Widow solo adventure although there may be greater demand for Thor 3, Ant-Man 2, Black Panther, The Inhumans or Ms Marvel. Johansson proved that she could gain success without relying on a more bankable male hero in this year’s Lucy so Marvel may just be waiting for the right person to propel the project. Emmy nominee Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers, Game of Thrones) has now expressed great interest in tossing in his hat.

“I would love to do a Black Widow movie. That’s perfect. I would love to do that. That character is really interesting, she doesn’t have any superpowers, she just has extraordinary skills, and the world that she comes from, being this ex-K.G.B. assassin, I find that really fascinating, yeah.” Marshall appears to be on the right path with heading the films towards exploring, not necessarily setting in, Romanoff’s murky past. Since the flops of Elektra and Catwoman, both DC (Wonder Woman) and Sony (Black Cat/Spider-Woman) are keen to once again expand into a female-centred comic book film but Marvel seem as if they’re the ones to set mould for the new market.

Black Widow – 2017?

Captain America 3 – May 6th 2016

Doctor Strange – July 8th 2016