Marvel confirm their future in massive announcement: Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Inhumans, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War!

In the summer, Marvel confirmed a series of release dates without a name to them but, at a recent presentation, the Phase 3 line up was at last revealed. It begins in 2015 with Ant-Man although that wasn’t mentioned today. What did steal focus was the third solo outing for Captain America which is now officially titled Civil War. It’ll be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (The Winter Soldier) and will star Chris Evans (Snowpiercer) as Cap’ and Robert Downey Jr (Chaplin, Sherlock Holmes) as Iron Man while there are rumoured appearances from Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, The Other Boleyn Girl) as Black Widow and Anthony Mackie (The Adjustment Bureau, The Hurt Locker) as Falcon. There’s new title artwork for the film.
Captain America: Civil War – May 6th 2016

Next up was Doctor Strange. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) recently signed on to star with Scott Derickson (Sinister) directing but the harrowing casting process has pushed the film’s release back a few months.
Doctor Strange – November 4th 2016

The smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy has now taken over $750 million worldwide and its sequel will be released sooner than expected. Director James Gunn (Slither) returns with the cast of Chris Pratt (The Lego Movie, Moneyball) as Star Lord, Bradley Cooper (Limitless, Silver Linings Playbook) as Rocket, Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek) as Gamora, Vin Diesel (Saving Private Ryan, Pitch Black, Fast and Furious) as Groot, Dave Bautista (Riddick, Bond 24) as Drax, Karen Gillan (Doctor Who, Oculus) as Nebula and Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) as Thanos (probably).
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – May 5th 2017

Thor’s second adventure, The Dark World, wasn’t consider the box office success of Cap’ 2 or the Iron Man films but it still grossed far north of $600 million globally. This has prompted the confirmation of Thor: Ragnarok, in which Asgard trembles at the threat of apocalypse. Chris Hemsworth (Rush, The Cabin in the Woods) and Tom Hiddleston (War Horse, Only Lovers Left Alive) will star as Thor and Loki respectively while I’d expect Natalie Portman (Black Swan, Leon) as Jane Foster, Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Pacific Rim) as Heimdall and Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day) as Odin. A director is yet to be found.
Thor: Ragnarok – July 28th 2017

Black Panther was the first of three new properties to be announced. Again no director is signed on but a writer is present in the form of documentary maker Mark Bailey. More excitingly 42 and Get on Up’s Chadwick Boseman was confirmed to be playing the tribal hero. We reckon Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Prestige, The Lord of the Rings) will play villain Ulysses Klaw.
Black Panther – November 3rd 2017

The title itself is going to be tricky to sell but Marvel have at last invested in a female led film, following suit from DC’s Wonder Woman. There’s still no word on a director or star (is Longmire’s Katee Sackhoff still on the cards?) but a release date is in place.
Captain Marvel – July 6th 2018

New franchise Inhumans was also conceived is similar circumstances in that we know almost nothing but there are faint rumours that Vin Diesel (already voicing Groot) will play team leader Black Bolt.
Inhumans – November 2018

The most exciting announcement of all was that the third instalment of the central Avengers series will be split into two parts. Infinity War Part 1 and 2 will be released across 2018 and 2019. I sincerely hope that Serenity’s Joss Whedon will direct.
The Avengers: Infinity War Part I – May 4th 2018
The Avengers: Infinity War Part II – May 3rd 2019

Let’s just recap on the story so far in Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe:

Phase One:

Iron Man – 2008 – Jon Favreau – Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Samuel L Jackson

The Incredible Hulk – 2008 – Louis Leterrier – Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson

Iron Man 2 – 2010 – Jon Favreau – Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Samuel L Jackson

Thor – 2011 – Kenneth Branagh – Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Clark Gregg, Jaimie Alexander, Idris Elba

Captain America: The First Avenger – 2011 – Joe Johnston – Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Samuel L Jackson

The Avengers – 2012 – Joss Whedon – Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany

Phase Two:

Iron Man 3 – 2013 – Shane Black – Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, Paul Bettany

Thor: The Dark World – 2013 – Alan Taylor – Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, Anthony Hopkins, Jaimie Alexander, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba

Captain America: The Winter Solder – 2014 – Anthony and Joe Russo – Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford, Samuel L Jackson, Sebastian Stan, Cobie Smulders

Guardians of the Galaxy – 2014 – James Gunn – Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Benicio Del Toro

The Avengers: Age of Ultron – 2015 – Joss Whedon – Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, James Spader, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Paul Bettany, Andy Serkis

Phase Three:

Ant-Man – 2015 – Peyton Reed – Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Judy Greer, Michael Pena, Corey Stoll

Captain America: Civil War – 2016 – Anthony and Joe Russo – Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, (unconfirmed) Anthony Mackie

Doctor Strange – 2016 – Scott Derickson – Benedict Cumberbatch

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – 2017 – James Gunn – (unconfirmed)

Thor: Ragnarok – 2017 – (unconfirmed) – Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston

Black Panther – 2017 – (unconfirmed) – Chadwick Boseman, (unconfirmed) Andy Serkis

The Avengers: Infinity War Part I – 2018 – (unconfirmed) Joss Whedon – (unconfirmed) Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Brolin

Captain Marvel – 2018

Inhumans – 2018

The Avengers: Infinity War Part II – 2019 – (unconfirmed) Joss Whedon – (unconfirmed) Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Brolin

The Third Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been unleashed so tell us which of the ten new instalments you are most excited about. For us, it has got to be both parts of Infinity War. Bye for now!

Lord and Miller rumoured for Ghostbusters 3, Andy Serkis reads Jungle Book and Patton Oswalt set for Agents of Shield

It was recently announced that Ivan Reitman would not be returning for the upcoming sequel Ghostbusters 3, although producers were determined that the project was still in place. This is perhaps because they had a new director, or directors, in mind. It’s rumoured that Phil Lord and Chris Miller will be rebooting a series that hasn’t seen a genuinely successful instalment since its 1984 beginning.

Lord and Miller are of coarse the brilliant minds behind The Lego Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street. For potential stars, we reckon surviving G’busters (RIP Harold Ramis) Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd will have a small role, and I doubt appearances from the original’s Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver or Ernie Hudson but will most likely be handing the baton over to a new era of Slimer-fighters and (Stay Pufft) Mashmallowman-hunters. Altogether now: Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!

There’s two adaptations of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book racing into production at the moment. Disney have gone as far as appointing Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Zathura, Elf) as director and Idris Elba (Pacific Rim, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, American Gangster) for the voice role of Shere Kahn while Warner Bros named Ron Howard (Rush, Apollo 13) atop of their list of potential shot-callers. The latter production has now stalked the jungle for their new director who’s none other than Andy Serkis. Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King’s Gollum, Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Caeser and King Kong’s King Kong) is set to make his directing debut with The Jungle Book although his not alien to the job – he’s worked very closer with Oscar winning director Peter Jackson as second-unit director on The Hobbit films where he directed the Moria battle sequence.

Patton Oswalt has consistently proved himself as a comic talent in Young Adult, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and a brilliant cameo role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (pictured) as well as having the lead in animation Ratatouille. He’s now attached to star in an upcoming episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, a show which had a rough beginning, took and extended Christmas break and then returned with (hopefully) better quality of writing to finish off and to bid for a second season greenlight. Others set to join the main cast of Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennett, Elizabeth Henstidge and Iain De Caestecker include Jaimie Alexander and Bill Paxton.

Oswalt had this to say: “I’m lucky that I’m visible enough that they wanted to bring me in to play this character. I’d worked with Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly and director of Serenity and The Avengers)  before on Dollhouse, and I guess I wasn’t too annoying and they decided to put me on another one of his shows. So I was very lucky.”

Agents of SHIELD – continues on ABC and Channel 4

Ghostbusters 3 – 2016?

The Jungle Book – 2016?

Snyder’s Batman vs Superman delayed to 2016, American Hustle wins big at SAGA plus news for Marvel, Star Wars and Bond

We know we’ve done a lot of award season coverage of late and that continues today with the Screen Actors Guild Awards but we’ll try and fit in some other stuff too.

Best Ensemble Performance:

American Hustle

12 Years a Slave

August: Osage County

Dallas Buyers Club

The Butler

Best Leading Actor:

Matthew MacConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club

Bruce Dern – Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips

Forest Whitaker – The Butler

Best Leading Actress:

Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Judi Dench – Philomena

Meryl Streep – August: Osage County

Emma Thompson – Saving Mr Banks

Best Supporting Actor:

Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips

Daniel Bruhl – Rush

Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave

James Gandolfini – Enough Said

Best Supporting Actress

Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave

Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle

Julia Roberts – August: Osage County

June Squibb – Nebraska

Oprah Winfrey – The Butler

In TV, Breaking Bad won both Best Ensemble and Best Actor (Bryan Cranston) in a drama series. Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) won Best Actress in drama but Julia Louis Dreyfus (Veep) picked up the corresponding award for comedy and Helen Mirren (Phil Spector) for mini-series/TV movie. Michael Douglas (Behind the Candelabra) and Ty Burrell (Modern Family, which also won Best Comedy Ensemble) respectively won Best Actor in a mini-series/TV movie and comedy series.

We move onto the surprising news that one of 2015’s major releases will follow in the footsteps of Pirates 6, Star Trek 3, Warcraft and Finding Dory to escape from the avalanche of film releases that 2015 brings, such as The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Cinderella, The Good Dinosaur, Fast and Furious 7, Fifty Shades of Grey, Star Wars: Episode VII, Terminator: Genesis, Jurassic World, Assassin’s Creed, Seventh Son, The Fantastic Four, Pitch Perfect 2, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, Bond 24, Mission: Impossible 5, Inside Out, Tomorrowland, The Minions, Frankenstein, Kung Fu Panda 3, Ted 2, Crimson Peak, Silence, Insurgent, Point Break, San Andreas, Poltergeist, In the Heart of the Sea, The Gambler, Queen of the Desert, Insidious 3, Chappie, Cyber, The Penguins of Madagascar, The Bourne Betrayal, The Secret Service, The Wedding Ringer and Killer Crow.

It’s Batman vs Superman which has pulled out into 2016. You’d think that this’d be one of the highest grossing films of the year so it’s backed out not because of competition but because of development difficulties. Fox cites that writer/director Zack Snyder (300, Man of Steel, Watchmen) and co need “time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story.” Pan, a prequel to Disney classic Peter Pan, is the Fox release that’ll replace it in 2015. That’ll be directed by Joe Wright (Hanna, Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, The Soloist) and may star Hugh Jackman (X-Men, Real Steel, Australia, Les Miserables, The Prestige) The Man of Steel sequel will star Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishbourne and Gal Gadot and is rumoured to star Joaquin Phoenix and Jason Momoa.

There’s a few other quick snippets of news. Agents of SHIELD, which returns to Channel 4 in late February, recently confirmed that Bill Paxton will join the team. The show must be trying to up the anti by adding another major star. Asgardian warrior Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), who featured in both Thor and Thor: The Dark World, will be the focus of an upcoming episode. Initial ratings for the series have been lower than expected but ABC boss Paul Lee is confident a second series will be on the way.

While we’re on Marvel’s Disney side of things, we’d like to share with you the first promotional art of James Gunn’s (Slither, Super) stellar new comic-book adaptation which stars Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Glenn Close and John C Reilly: Guardians of the Galaxy.

We swiftly move onto the James Bond franchise which we reference earlier. The yet untitled Bond 24 will be directed by Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road, Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Away We Go, Jarhead) will return to the franchise after the huge success he had with Skyfall, which grossed over a billion dollars, nearly over double what any previous instalment had gained. Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw are all set to revive their roles and John Logan is confirmed to be writing the script. As well as Skyfall, he penned Hugo, Rango, Coriolanus, The Aviator, The Last Samurai and Gladiator to much critical success so he should be able to astound us again with Bond 24.

“My goal is to write a great movie that’s appropriate, to build on what we did on Skyfall, but make it its own unique animal,” Logan said. “The themes, ideas and the characters from Skyfall can obviously continue on, because it is a franchise, and it is an ongoing story. So I think there’s resonance from Skyfall in the new movie.”

The fourth and final quick snippet of news is staying in the realm of scriptwriting. While Logan is starting his work on a new production, JJ Abrams has confirmed that the screenplay for his epic reboot Star Wars: Episode VII is finished. The Star Trek Into Darkness and Super 8 director/Felicity, Lost and Alias creator and his colleague Lawrence Kasdan (scribe of the original Star Wars’ The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark) have finished their work writing. Also, producer Kathleen Kennedy told the ToysrEvil blog this about the franchise’s future as a whole.

“The canon that he created was the Star Wars saga. Right now, Episode VII falls within that canon. The spin-off movies, or we may come up with some other way to call those films, they exist within that vast universe that he created. There is no attempt being made to carry characters from the standalone films in and out of the saga episodes. Consequently, from the creative standpoint, it’s a roadmap that George made pretty clear.”

Batman vs. Superman – May 6th 2016

Pan – July 17th 2015

Bond 24 – November 6th 2015

Agents of SHIELD – Channel 4 in late February

Guardians of the Galaxy – August 1st

Star Wars: Episode VII – December 18th 2015

Wonder Woman confirmed for Batman/Superman, Amazing Spider-Man 2 publishes new pics and Louis Leterrier and Sacha Baron Cohen for Grimsby

Louis Leterrier’s career has been a little sticky. His directorial debut Unleashed, starring Morgan Freeman, Jet Li and Bob Hoskins, put him forward and he was soon some lovely big budgets but all Transporter 2, The Incredible Hulk and Clash of the Titans fell flat. However, this year’s Now You See Me was quite a brilliant magician themed thriller. Read our review here. Sequel talk has been floating around a bit but his project after that is today’s focus.

Grimsby is the unambitious title of the new spy comedy that Leterrier’s now attached to direct. The premise, written by Borat’s Baron Cohen and Wreck It-Ralph’s Phil Johnston, is of a couple of comedic spec ops brothers on a secret mission. I think it’s going for less of the James Bond/Jason Bourne parody road that’s been well covered by Johnny English and various other attempts so I think it’ll try and go for a satirical take on say Call of Duty. Variety says that Leterrier won the job of calling the shots over I am Number Four’s DJ Caruso.

Previous Spider-Man films have suffered from a key problem. As soon as Peter Parker gets costumed and swings around he turns into a often disappointing 3-D model. It looks as if Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 it’s trying to capture a more physical Spidey (Andrew Garfield) and these new pics unveil that a bit of that as well as Jamie Foxx as the menacing Electro. Press next to cycle through. Emma Stone, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Dane DeHaan, Martin Sheen and Chris Cooper.

Finally we’ve come the big news of the day which is a bit of news about Wonder Woman. Joss Whedon performed an Amazonian dance around the project for a while before he became Marvel’s main man and names such as Cobie Smulders, Megan Fox and Jaimie Alexander thrown into the mix. However, Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) will be the one to bring Wonder Woman to the screen but I think we guessed that. The surprise is that we’ll get to see her in 2015’s superhero clash Batman vs. Superman, as it’s titled for now.

In addition, Fast and Furious’ Gisele, or her actual name Gal Gadot, is now set to play her. Batman vs. Superman isn’t the only time we’ll be able to see Bat, Supe and Wonder Woman share the screen. Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s The LEGO Movie comes before and features the aforementioned trio as well as Green Lantern for good measure. The Danish figures will be voiced by Will Arnett, Channing Tatum, Cobie Smulders and Jonah Hill as well as Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie and Charlie Day meanwhile Batman vs. Superman has Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman as well as Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane and Amy Adams.

Batman vs. Superman – July 17th 2015

The LEGO Movie – February 14th 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – April 18th 2014

Grimsby – 2015?

Weekend box-office – 4th to 11th of November 2013 – can Thor fly to the top and can it defy Gravity?

There’s been two huge openings both sides of the Atlantic this week and they’ve both risen to the top of their respective charts, as I predicted last week. Let’s take a look at how I did in a week that looks like places 2 – 5 were decided by the flip of a coin in the US.

US

1. Thor: The Dark World – Director: Alan Taylor – $86.1 million
2. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine – $11.3 million
3. Free Birds – Jimmy Hayward – $11.2 million
4. Last Vegas – Jon Turteltaub – $11.1 million
5. Ender’s Game – Gavin Hood – £10.2 million

UK

1. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron – £6.2 milliom
2. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor – £2.9 million
3. Philomena – Stephen Frears – £1.4 million
4. Captain Phillips – Paul Greengrass – £1 million
5. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Kodi Cameron, Kris Pearn – £0.9 million

Well, it seems I was a bit two optimistic about the more indie releases of About Time, The Book Thief and Parkland, none of which scratched either top 5. Only $1.2 million separated places 2 – 5 in the US. Ender’s Game has dropped dramatically while Free Birds has gone up a place, likely because we’re getting closer to Thanksgiving which is Free Birds’ theme. Philomena is holding much stronger than I thought it would. I had incorrectly predicted Last Vegas in it’s place last week as the latter has been pushed back to January next year. I scored a dismal 1/5 in the US and a non overwhelming 2/3 in the UK taking my total to a disappointing 3/10 but I’m new at this! Here’s what I feebly foresee for next week:

US

1. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
2. The Best Man Holiday – Malcom D. Lee
3. Free Birds – Jimmy Hayward
4. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine
5. Nebraska – Alexander Payne

UK

1. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron
2. The Butler – Lee Daniels
3. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
4. The Counsellor – Ridley Scott
5. Don Jon – Joseph Gordon Levitt

I’m hoping for more pleasing results next week. My current total is 9/20 so let’s see if I can take it up to over 50%. Find out next week, here on Tuorhoth Movies. There’s a whole quartet of major but not quite mainstream releases in the UK next week. They are The Butler, The Counsellor, Don Jon and Dom Hemmingway. I think that they’ll rank commercially as I just listed them.

Chris Hemsworth and Jaimie Alexander in Thor: The Dark World, the US number one.

Sandra Bullock in Gravity, the UK number one.

Thor: The Dark World review

Director: Alan Taylor

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Jaimie Alexender, Renne Russo, Christopher Eccleston, Idris Elba, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, Tadonobu Asano, Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje, Jonathan Howard

Kevin Feige’s Marvel franchise began in 2008 with the brilliant Iron Man. Until last year, they weren’t quite able to match it’s standards but Joss Whedon managed to make a Marvel masterpiece with Avengers Assemble setting the bar remarkably high for this year’s two installments. Iron Man 3 certainly turned up the action and the twists and, while a great film, it wasn’t quite an Iron Man film (no ACDC or Black Sabbath used once) and more of a Guy Ritchie/Downey Jr comedic sci-fi thriller. Thor: The Dark World on paper doesn’t look in too great a position if you look at is as a director coming in as a newcomer to a successful franchise that’ll make money even if it’s rubbish and who hasn’t made a feature film for a decade (in which he took to TV) and is best known for The Emperor’s New Clothes and Palookaville. This is Loki, and not low-key, but Taylor has delivered a great fantasy epic. Plus, Taylor’s decade on TV brought us Game of Thrones and Mad Men.

Thor (Hemsworth), Prince of Asgard, has finished restoring peace to the Nine Realms and rebuilt the bi-frost after a brief chaos in the aftermath of his adopted brother Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) attack of Mid-Gard/Earth. However, chaos makes a speedy recovery when the millennia dead Dark Elves return with the leader Malekith (Eccleston) intent on using the long lost energy of the Aether to turn the universe back to the dark. Thor must betray his father and king Odin (Hopkins) and recruit Loki to defeat Malekith. Meanwhile, on Earth, a quartet of scientists (Portman, Skarsgard, Dennings, Howard) realise that Malekith’s plan ties in with The Convergence, the aligning of the Nine Realms.

Marvel’s war with DC has brought as far away as possible from it. With trial, Avengers Assemble, and error, The Wolverine and The Amazing Spiderman, it’s been proved proved that there’s no point in making Marvel grounded, gritty and realistic like The Dark Knight so it’s gone in the opposite direction: reveling in it’s fantasy and outrageous grasp of physics to make extremely fun films.

Despite the sinister title, The Dark World is quite hilarious but not at the expense of the epic action, with Loki’s taunts the clear highlight – “Let’s talk about justice and freedom – I love America!”. It’s still gripping and dark but hugely enjoyable. Kat Dennings’ great comedic performance adds to that and I loved the cameo from Chris O’Dowd.

Natalie Portman and her character Jane Foster are great two. Their managing to save the world in a way crucial to the plot without her having to take any clothes off (and yes, that was a dig at Gwyneth Paltrow and Iron Man 3) as well as promoting the power of science. Not promoting the power of science however is Skarsgard’s Eric who’s completely lost it (kind of Close Encounters style) after being possessed last year – makes you think what happened to Hawkeye?

Levi, Stevenson, Asano, Elba and Alexander give annoyingly small performances but, rightly, Thor and Loki’s relationship and distrust is the centre of focus. Their bitter reunion and friction with their parents Odin and Friggo (Russo) gives you some real drama to invest into and not just smothering us with special effects. That said, this is the most visually stunning Marvel film yet. Asgard is at the height of it’s splendour and beauty but I’m not convinced that we’d find the reclusive prince in the local tavern.

It’s possibly the best film yet in the Kevin Feige Marvel series. Dennings, Hopkins, Portman and Hemsworth are all great but Tom Hiddleston is once again brilliant as the mischievous Master of Ceremony. No matter how much of a Doctor Who fan I am, I have to say that Eccleston’s Malekith was a little disappointing, I wish that he would just speak English or that Kurse (Akkinuoye-Agbaje) was brought to the forefront and the ridiculously fun final showdown was a little too reminiscent of Jumper. The film is good enough to shine through that though. It’s a supreme fun action fantasy and, while Marvel may never has it’s Dark Knight, it’s much more of a sequel to Thor than Iron Man 3 was to Iron Man.

8/10

“When do we start?”

McAvoy talks X-Men 7, Thor 2 posters, Marvel’s Ant-Man first pic, Star Wars 7 rumours and Cooper could be Mercury

Famed comedic actor Sacha Baron Cohen left the long troubled project of turning the life of 80s rock star Freddie Mercury into an on-screen biopic few months ago. Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe denied that he was to play the role about a week ago but the film may now have another contender for the portrayal of the Queen frontman.

Latino Review have informed us that Dominic Cooper was the leader in the race for the role. The London born actor had supporting roles in blockbusters like Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Captain America: The First Avenger as well as leads in acclaimed dramas like The Duchess and The Devils Double. The idea that Cohen clashed with was the surviving band members one of having a less edgy and likely PG certificate release will be penned by Peter Morgan (two time Oscar nominated writer of Frost/Nixon, The Last King of Scotland, The Queen and The Damned United).

We’ve got big news on the Marvel front with the first picture from Ant-Man. We still don’t know who’s playing the titular superhero and his alter ego Hank Pym but director Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Shaun of the Dead), and presumably the others on board making the film.

This pick is most likely test-footage but Dorset born Edgar Wright has gone to Los Angeles to begin production, which he confirmed alongside this picture on his Twitter feed.

A couple of other brief snippets of Marvel news come from Thor: The Dark World which has unveiled yet more posters. Jaimie Alexander’s war-ready Lady Sif, Ray Stevenson’s jaunty Volstagg and Zachary Levi’s swashbuckling Fandral our showed off in these new banners and are all part of a much bigger lead cast in the heavily anticipated Marvel Sequel.

The next bit of Marvel news comes from the other side of the the studio(s). You’ll know that Disney owns The Avengers (Ant-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Black Panther, Agents of SHIELD, Hawkeye, Vision, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Dr Strange, War Machine, The Inhumans Loki and, potentially Blade, Elektra and Daredevil), Sony owns Spider-Man (Spider-Man, Electro, Green Goblin and others), Universal only has Namor the Sub-Mariner while Fox has the X-Men (Wolverine, Magneto, Mystique, Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm, Iceman, Rogue Kitty and others) and The Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Doctor Doom, the Silver Surfer, The Thing, Mr Fantastic, The Invisible Woman). Any chance of a inter-studio team up is, currently, nil.

Fox’s X-Men is the focus of the next few paragraphs however. James McAvoy first appeared in 2011’s X-Men: First Class, better known as the one that got the series back on track, as the younger version of Patrick Stewart’s role as Charles Xavier/Professor X, founder of the X-Men. Both Stewart and McAvoy are returning for the seventh X-Men installment, Days of Future Past, and the latter has told IGN more about his new project.

“Potentially it’s going to be the biggest, most epic X-Men they’ve ever had,” he tells us confidently. “I think it’s the second biggest production Fox have ever embarked upon, behind Avatar. So they’re definitely going for it.” He explained how he felt safe now that the series’ best and most prolific director Bryan Singer once again directing. “Bryan’s very protective of the series. He did create it. He did help form that environment that allowed subsequent superhero movies to exist and thrive like they have done for the last however many years. Not to say that there weren’t other superhero movies out at the time, but of that ilk, where it was OK to take it really seriously. He does take it really seriously. There’s a kind or reverence about it, which I like. You want people to take it seriously. That’s what he brings to it I think. And a safe pair of hands – you know you’re in good hands.”

Star Wars: Episode VII has been one of the most secretive productions of recent years. We know JJ Abrams will direct it and Episodes VIII and IX, it will film in both LA and the UK and will come out Christmas 2015. Nothing else! Fans have been demanding titles, stars and plots and Tuorhoth Movies, and the internet in general, can do nothing but to speculate rumours.

We can now confirm that Saorise Ronan (the New York born but Irish young star of Hanna, The Lovely Bones, How I Live Now, Byzantium) and Sullivan Stapleton (Aussie star of Gangster Squad and the upcoming sequel 300: Rise of an Empire) both auditioned for Star Wars while 5 time Oscar nominee (3 of which he won) Daniel Day Lewis was linked to the film. About a month ago, Benedict Cumberbatch was rumoured and then later distanced himself from the project. It’s early days but on the subject of her audition, Ronan said “But so has everyone else.” Ronan joked that Disney would “cut my head off with a lightsaber” if she revealed anything. One of the main worries expressed by the worldwide hoard of Star Wars fans was that the new trilogy would be “Disneyfied”. He likened their approach to this film to Marvel and 2012’s action-packed Disney romp The Avengers. “The beauty there is that Disney doesn’t want that. They are very sensitive to that. They’re being very careful.”

The secondary Star Wars rumour was of a live-action TV series not unlike Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. This is different to the animated Star Wars Rebels which comes out next year as a replacement to the abruptly cancelled Star Wars: The Clone Wars. A potential series called Star Wars: Underworld fell after a few hurdles after issues with a $5 million per episode budget. The new series is likely to be bridging the gap between Return of the Jedi and Episode VII seeing as that is the period of the Star Wars universe that, out of films and television, we no little about. It’s either that or a series on a pre Phantom Menace world which doesn’t light me up with excitement.

“Who should play Ant-Man?” is our question today. Richard Ayoade, Simon Pegg and Alan Tudyk are among the favourites but my selections are Firefly’s Nathan Fillion and The Great Gatsby’s Joel Edgerton. YOU DECIDE!

X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 23rd 2014

Thor: The Dark World – October 30th

Ant-Man – July 31st 2015

Star Wars: Episode VII – Christmas 2015

Star Wars: Rebels – 2014

Freddie Mercury – 2015?

New Hobbit 2 posters and trailer, Disney plans Cruella De Vil film and the must-sees of October 2013

October 2013 through to January 2014 is bringing us some big releases. This feature will be guiding you along and giving you the opportunity t start filling in your film diary.

October:

The Fifth Estate – Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, the last two Twilight films) directs the true recent story of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The British actor of the moment Benedict Cumberbatch (The Hobbit, Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness) takes the lead role while Spanish star Daniel Bruhl (Rush, The Bourne Ultimatum) plays tech-obsessed activist Daniel Domscheit-Berg as they set out extracting secrets from whistleblowers across the world and publishing them online. Carice van Houten (Repo Men, Valkyrie) and Peter Capaldi (World War Z and the new Doctor Who) also star. OCT 11th

Emperor – Tommy Lee Jones (Men In Black, Lincoln, No Country for Old Men) and Matthew Fox star in Peter Webber’s (Girl With A Pearl Earring) WW2 drama about the two leads character’s deciding the fate of surrendered Japanese Emperor’s daughter Hirohito (Eriko Hatsune). OCT 4th

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn are the directors of the animated sequel to the 2009 oddball family comedy. James Caan, Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Adam Sandberg are the stars of a plot that sees all the animals in the safe-haven of Swallow Falls turn into bizarre food-animal hybrids. OCT 25th

Captain Phillips – Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan) is the title character in the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and his ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates. Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone) is the director of the hostage thriller that could see him and Hanks in  contention for Oscars. OCT 18th

Machete Kills – Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) directs this action sequel. Danny Trejo (Breaking Bad) returns in a plot that sees his character, Machete, thrown back into action when the US Government appoints him with the task of charging into Mexico and taking down on of the US’s most wanted drug lords. Pop-star Lady Gaga stars in a revamped cast featuring Amber Heard (Drive Angry, Zombieland), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, Fast and Furious) and Carlos Estevez (AKA Charlie Sheen) as the US President. OCT 11th

Ender’s Game – Scott Orson Card’s sci-fi novel is finally adapted into a big-budget action film. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield – Hugo) is a seemingly ordinary teen whose chosen to go to outer space and begin training as one of the first of a new breed of war commanders who must fight back against the impending alien threat. Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Sir Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3, Gandhi, Hugo), Viola Davis (The Help), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) also star in Gavin Hood’s (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) space set thriller.

Romeo and Juliet – The aforementioned Steinfeld also has a lead role in this Shakespeare adaptation. If you don’t know the plot 1) HOW??? 2) Romeo Montague (Douglas Booth) falls for Juliet Capulet (Steinfeld) but their protective head of one of the rivalling famlies Lord Capulet (Damian Lewis) prevents them from meeting so Romeo’s friend Friar Laurence (Paul Giamatti) concocts a dangerous plan to get the romantic pair together. Ed Westwick and Kodi Smit-McPhee also star in the period drama that has a Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey, The Young Victoria) script to it’s name. OCT 11th

You’ll have heard plenty about Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World in recent months. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Jaimie Alexander, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and Stellan Skarsgard all play roles in a plot that sees Norse god brothers heroic Thor and sinister Loki forced to team-up to end the potential destruction caused by revived evil race the Dark Elves and their diabolical leader Malekith (30th). October also brings the release of horror sequel V/H/S/2 (14th). There’s also Dexter Fletcher’s Proclaimers based, Scottish, comedy musical Sunshine on Leith (4th). Ken Jeong, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph, Michelle Rodriguez, Bill Hader, Michael Pena, Samuel L Jackson, Luis Guzman and Snoop Dogg are all voicing characters in the story of a snail who dreams of becoming the fastest thing in the world titled Turbo (18th). James Corden and Julie Walters star in the true story of Paul Potts as he aspires to become a world renowned opera singer. His dreams are crushed over and over again until he auditions for the little known, in 2007 that is, talent show Britain’s Got Talent in One Chance (25th). Finally, we’ve got stupid, crass daredevil sequel Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (23rd). Our coverage of each month’s must-sees continues at the beginning of November with the November must-sees featuring Gravity, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Counsellor, Grace of Monaco, Last Vegas, The Family, Kill Your Darlings, Escape Plan, Philomena, Dom Hemingway and many more.

Cruella De Vil was the iconic villain of 101 Dalmations. She’s now set to have her own spin-off film. This seems to be part of Disney’s apparent plan to turn a lot of their animated classics into more grown-up live-action films. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was the first and it’s been followed by Rupert Sander’s Snow White and the Huntsman and the upcoming Maleficent (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty directed by Robert Stromberg and starring  Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning) and Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh directing with Lily James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter and Cate Blanchett building up the cast). Aline Brosh McKenna (writer of The Devil Wears Prada and We Bought a Zoo) has been hired to script the film as well as Branagh’s Cinderella.

Moving on, we’ve got fresh new The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug posters for you to admire.

Director Peter Jackson’s imagery is as stunning as ever in these character teasing banners. At the bottom, we’ve got returning company members Kili (Aidan Turner), Fili (Dean O’Gorman), Dwalin (Graham McTavish), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman). Above them is the ever menacing presence of the Elven King Trandruil (Lee Pace). At the top we find a more cryptic poster. We know that it’s the legendary Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) with the bow in the foreground. Behind him we find the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) accompanied by a more sinister, knife wielding figure. Much internet searching in my behalf as to who this actor or his character is has been fruitless so I challenge YOU to wildly guess his true identity in the comments.

Following the posters was an epic new trailer for the film which you can find over at The Verge. Anyone trying to avoid any plot details of the film (seeing as it does now differ from original book by JRR Tolkien) may want to skip to the next paragraph. Sauron is in it! The return of Lord of the Rings’ big bad was teased by The Necromancer in the previous film, An Unexpected Journey, but his eye does flash up on the screen. His distinctive orc army also looks like it’ll make an appearance in the dark land of Mordor. We’re also teased more of likely the most terrifying dragon in recent film history in the form of the titular villain Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). The Desolation of Smaug looks like it could be a more open with roaming special effects rather than An Unexpected Journey which was, at time, a little cramped into tight sets and the adventure really got going as soon as we got out of the enclosed areas.

“His name is Bilbo!”

Cruella De Vil – 2016?

Cinderella – March 13th 2015

Maleficent – May 30th 2014

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – December 13th

The November Preview Special – Early November here on Tuorhoth Movies

New Hunger Games 2 pics and castings and Thor 2 posters

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is one of the biggest releases of the rest of this year. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Donald Sutherland, Willow Shields, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones and Elizabeth Banks are all returning for, perhaps, the year’s biggest sequel with a whole load of new recruits, including Sam Clafin, Jena Malone Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffery Wright, Lynn Cohen, Amanda Plummer, Elena Sanchez and many more for the incredible spectacle that is the 75th Annual Hunger Games that celebrates it’s anniversary with the revamped arena and a new twist that makes the Third Quarter Quell the biggest yet! The film’s likely to do better than any of the Twilight films, seeing as The Hunger Games managed well over $600 million dollars, and this year’s young adult flops Beautiful Creatures, The Host and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. A new photo gallery has been released online for the film and it shows off practically all of it’s stars.

Here’s the gallery itself, courtesy of Empire (click next to cycle through the photos). This comes with the announcements of two stars for next year’s sequel Mockingjay – Part 1. Those that want to stay spoiler free of the next few films may not want to read the next paragraph.

There’ll be a trio of female leaders of the rebellious districts. We already know that 4 time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore would play the mysterious District 13 leader Alma Coin, whom The Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen, (Jennifer Lawrence) is slow, and reluctant, to trust. Lily Rabe (All Good Things) was then confirmed as the portrayer of Commander Lyme, an incredibly tough former Hunger Games tribute who is now the leader of the Rebellion’s biggest struggle yet: District 2! Yesterday, it was announced that Patina Miller, West End and Broadway star who’s currently impressing critics in the critics in Broadway’s revival of Pippin, would play the trustworthy Commander Paylor of District 8 who attempts to get her wounded people through air strike after air strike.

Thor: The Dark World is fast approaching. It’s nearly one month away now and two posters showcasing the film’s stars, Natalie Portman and Jaimie Alexander, have been released in a series of character banners (excuse the obscure Marvel reference). Portman and Alexander play Jane Foster and Lady Sif respectively and join Anthony Hopkins (Odin) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) as well as Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Christopher Eccleston (Malekith the Accursed). Like the Catching Fire gallery, remember to click next to cycle through the posters.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is out November 21st

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is out November 21st 2014

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is out November 20th 2015

Thor: The Dark World is out October 30th