Don Cheadle joins Avengers 2 and Sony confirms Spider-Man spin offs

In the last two Iron Man films, Jim Rhodes/War Machine and, later on, Iron Patriot has impressed us as Iron Man’s sidekick but his second portrayer (Don Cheadle) wasn’t considered into the plot by director and writer Joss Whedon. Whedon returns for the biggest sequel of 2015, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and we thought he’d completed his main cast with Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Ruffallo, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor Johnson, James Spader and Anthony Mackie but Don Cheadle has been added to the cast so we might expect other character traditionally starring in the Iron Man films such as J.A.R.V.I.S., (Paul Bettany), Happy Hogun (Jon Favreau) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), none of whom have been confirmed yet.

The next  Marvel news comes from Sony’s expanding The Amazing Spider-Man universe. We reported about a month ago that Sony were to develop a new Spider-Man spin off, possibly more centred around the villains. Later, we told you that The Amazing Spider-Man producer Avi Arad and comic-book legend Stan Lee were working together on a new project, which we presumed to be Venom.

We can now announce that Avi Arad and another team of writers and producers are developing both Venom and The Sinister Six. They’ve got three of JJ Abrams’ team, namely Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci plus Alias’ Jeff Pinker, on to make Venom with Kurtzman directing as well as writing. Meanwhile, The Sinister Six will be written by The Cabin in the Woods director and World War Z scribe Drew Goddard and Now You See Me’s Ed Solomon but we wouldn’t be surprised if the five were to crossover and work with eachother on both projects. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will produce with Stan Lee being an integral part of the production.

In terms of casting, Vemon appeared once before in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 where he was played by Topher Grace but that was part of Sam Raimi’s trilogy which was updated by last year’s Amazing Spider-Man. The Sinister Six are likely to be made up of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan or Chris Cooper), Rhino (Paul Giamatti), Doctor Octopus (played by Alfred Molina in 2004’s Spiderman 2, we know Doc Oc will be rebooted with a new star thanks to The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s trailer), Vulture (hasn’t been seen on screen yet but we know he’s going to arrive thanks to the new trailer again) and then either Mysterio or Sandman (previously played  by Thomas Haden Church).

The next Spidey related adventure is The Amazing Spider-Man 2, directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Martin Sheen, Chris Cooper and Felicity Jones.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron – May 1st 2015

Venom – 2016

The Sinister Six – 2017

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – April 18th 2014

Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser, Goyer speaks about Batman vs. Superman, Lawrence to cameo in Dumb and Transformers 4 pic

You’re likely to have been following the recent movie studio war between Marvel and DC. The latter had a major victory with Christopher Nolan’s brilliant Dark Knight trilogy. The Dark Knight and TDK Rises both made over a billion dollars and were critical successes but things turned around in the last 12 months or so. The last two Marvel films (Joss Whedon’s Avengers Assemble in 2012 and Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 this year) both reached the $1 billion mark and are the 3rd and 5th highest grossing films of all time while DC and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel reached a largely impressive but not record breaking $662 million. Both of the cinematic franchises are lining up a film for 2015 that’ll most likely be the biggest yet for both of them. Today’s two major news stories are investigating those two films: The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman vs. Superman.

First, it’s off to the stellar cast of Age of Ultron: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Quicksilver), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill), Samuel L Jackson (Nick Fury), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and James Spader (Ultron) plus rumoured stars that could reprise their roles Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson) and Anthony Mackie (Falcon). We’ve finally been allowed to get the trailer for Joss Whedon’s superhero sequel. It was first aired at this summer’s 2013 San Diego Comic-Con but the deal with promoting a project at SDCC is that it’s exclusive to the fans that go and not, until months after, available to those who didn’t attend. Our Avengers 2 preview is a little spoilerific on the front of Iron Man 3 so don’t read on in case you haven’t caught up with the latest Marvel/Disney adventure.

Filming for Ultron doesn’t begin until February next year so this trailer is more of a mood piece than anything else but it does give us more of a glimpse at the plot. In the comics, Ultron is the accidental creation of Ant-Man/Hank Pym but Joss Whedon and Marvel Films president Kevin Feige have stepped out to say that Pym doesn’t feature in their story and we won’t see him until Edgar Wright releases his action sci-fi Ant-Man (July 31st 2015). We could expect a big reveal moment for Pym in one of Marvel’s trademark post-credit sequences but their going to have to adjust Ultron’s sinister origin. The trailer shows an Iron Man helmet being dented, smashed and scorched until it forms the head of Ultron. It’s probably metaphorical but, after Tony’s retirement in Iron Man 3, Stark may still be tinkering in secret with his many contraptions. I’m guessing that one becomes the megalomaniac and robotic Ultron. This inspires Stark to build a new suit and reunite with the rest of the Avengers in order to destroy Ultron before he does the same to the world.

David S. Goyer is the genius behind the scripts and stories of The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel and Blade and his hoping to transfer all that superhero goodness into Zack Snyder’s DC mash-ups: Batman vs. Superman and Justice League. We don’t know anything about the latter but the former is something a bit closer on our radar. Ben Affleck (Batman), Henry Cavill (Superman), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) and Diane Lane (Martha Kent) are all set to star and Goyer has spoken out.

“One of the things that’s been fun for us is we’re a bit further along than I think people realise.” So, a story of sorts must be in place and he could be referring to that they’re far enough along to be thinking about Justice League. On the subject of fan pressure from the millions of Bat-fan’s out there, he says “We’re conscious of the fan point of view when we’re working on these things but you can’t let yourself be paralysed by that. At the end of the day you still have to create something, and if you try to think about what the fans would like, you stop being creative. It’s sort of like, where does it end? You have to write the story that you want to write and hope that people want to see it.”

We’ve got a couple of news snippets just to finish off. We’ve got confirmation that Oscar winning The Hunger Games, Winter’s Bone and Silver Linings Playbook star Jennifer Lawrence will cameo in Dumb and Dumber To. Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne will be returning with their original stars (Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels) and original directors (the Farrelly brothers) for the sequel that’s now got some surprise guests. Jennifer Lawrence will be in a fairly limited supporting role, the younger version of Kathleen Turner’s character. Rob Riggle (The Hangover, 21 Jump Street) will also appear as a pair of twins.

Finally, Transformers: Age of Extinction has unveiled a still from the film. Mark Wahlberg, Jack Reynor and Nicola Peltz all star in this first new shot from the fourth instalment in Michael Bay’s mega-franchise. Find out more in our 2014 Future Films preview page. By for now!

The Avengers: Age of Ultron – May 1st 2015

Batman vs. Superman – July 17th 2015

Ant-Man – July 31st 2015

Dumb and Dumber To – late 2014

Transformers: Age of Extinction – July 10th 2014

Great new Ender’s Game poster, Marvel’s Runaways and Batman’s Jim Gordon in FOX/DC spin-off TV series

The role of Commissioner Jim Gordon seemed an unimportant one until Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy which revolutionized the franchise. Oscar nominee Gary Oldman (Leon, Harry Potter, The Fifth Element, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) played Gordon from 2005 to 2012 making it his best known role. FOX have now expressed interest in giving Jim Gordon his own spin-off TV show.

It’s clear that it won’t be part of either the Christopher Nolan Bat-Verse or Zack Snyder’s DC world, seeing as the rights for the universe that Ben Affleck’s Bat and Henry Cavill’s Superman share are over at Warner Bros. So that means that Oldman won’t be a part of the series that seems like a similar project to Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD (which starts this Friday). It’s the story of the hero who has no superpowers, ramming home the message of “It’s what we do that defines us!”,  Batman (and Rachel’s) quote throughout Batman Begins. It’ll also show his rising through the ranks but they’ve got to through in some of Batman’s many infamous villains (e.g: The Riddler, the Penguin and the many others that haven’t been used for decades) otherwise it’ll just be a generic cop-show that happens to be set in Gotham. Will Bruce Wayne be a supporting player with everyone, par the audience, not knowing who he is? Is Harvey Dent (and later Two-Face going to) going to be a supporting figure? Tell us in the comments what should and shouldn’t be in FOX’s Gotham.

One two occasions (just before Iron Man was released in 2008 and in 2010 when Peter Sollett, director of Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, was appointed), an adaptation of the fairly unknown Marvel comic-book series The Runaways (the story of six unrelated children who discover that they’re respective parents are criminal supervillains, who’s powers are genetically inherited by the children who decide to end their elder’s schemes with them) seemed ready to go. The whole thing seems to have stalled because of 2012’s Avengers Assemble. It became apparent that the classic Marvel heroes (X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, Captain America, Hulk) were the box-office, and usually critical, hits while some of the more unknown ones (Daredevil, Elektra, Blade) were all hammered by the critics. The more famous the hero the bigger the cinema market now seemed to be the approach so unheard of stories like The Runaways were shifted over for more Cap, Iron Man and Thor sequels as well as Ant-Man, Black Panther and Dr Strange.

Drew Pearce (writer of Marvel’s Iron Man 3 and comedy show No Heriocs as well as the announced sequels Sherlock Holmes 3 and Mission: Impossible 5) “It’s there. Maybe it’ll be a Phase Three movie. I really hope so. I’m really proud of it and I think it’ll be a brilliant film, but I think it all depends what Kevin Feige’s (Marvel Studios President) master plan is.”

Finally, we have a glorious new Ender’s Game poster. Asa Butterfield (Hugo, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas), Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Blade Runner), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Romeo and Juliet), Viola Davis (The Help, Disturbia), Sir Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3, Gandhi, Shutter Island) and Abigail Breslin (Signs, Little Ms Sunshine, Zombieland) make up a cast that boasts 9 Oscar nominations, including one win. If director Gavin Hood plays his cards right, it could be the sci-fi hit of the year. Thanks for reading and bye!

Gotham – 2014 on FOX

Ender’s Game – October 25th