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?

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

Warcraft casting and Troll Hunter remake rumours plus 2013 Emmys

The 2013 Emmys brought some expected and some surprising wins as they celebrated the last year of US TV and Downton Abbey. Vince Gilligan’s hit show Breaking Bad was the big winner of the night as iticked up the Emmy’s Oscar Best Picture equivalent: Outstanding Drama Series. Claire Danes beat actresses like Robin Wright (House of Cards), Kerry Washington (Scandal) and Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel) for her award win with Homeland while Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom) defeated the likes of Brian Cranston (Breaking Bad), Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Damien Lewis (Homeland) and Kevin Spacey (House of Cards) to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Bobby Cannavale (Broadwalk Empire) and Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) got the Supporting Actor/Actress awards while Henry Bromell (Homeland) and David Fincher (House of Cards) won the writing and directing awards respectively.

Onto comedy now. The brilliant Jim Parsons won Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for the third time (and fifth total nomination – pretty impressive for a show that’s had six seasons) for the even better The Big Bang Theory against film stars like Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Matt LeBlanc (Episodes), Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Don Cheadle (House of Lies) and Louis CK (Louie). Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale also picked up acting awards for Veep, as did Merritt Weaver (Nurse Jackie). Modern Family won both Outstanding Comedy Series and Best Directing for a comedy series while 30 Rock picked up Best Writing. Behind the Candelabra won big with Leading Actor in a Mini-Series or Movie for Michael Douglas as well as Best Director (the now retired Steven Soderbergh) and Best Mini-Series or Movie.

Moving on, Duncan Jones (director of sci-fi hits like Moon with Sam Rockwell and Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal and son of David Bowie) will be directing the adaptation of the massively successful MMORPG World of Warcraft. He’s know hinted at possible castings. Paula Patton was part of Tom Cruise’s team of rogue agents in box-office hit Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Golden Globe winner Colin Farrell was the star of thrillers like Phone Booth and Total Recall as well as the comedy In Bruges. They’re now both linked to star in Warcraft. It’s early days but Jones confirmed via Twitter that Patton is in negotiations to star while Farrell has been offered the role. The film will start shooting next January.

The brilliant Norwegian slightly comedic found-footage horror Troll Hunter was bound to spawn a Hollywood remake since it’s successful opening in 2011. The plot sees a group of students investigating a series of mysterious animal killing in the Norwegian mountains and forests for a university project. They join a grizzled man who claims to have the answer to their questions: Trolls. It’s a greatly original film that I do recommend. The real life Norwegian Prime Minister turns up at one point so it’s definitely worth a watch.

Neil Marshall is the man directing the new remake. The Newcastle born writer/editor/director has plenty of experience with films like chilling horror The Descent and Roman set Michael Fassbender action Centurion as well as two episodes of HBO’s epic fantasy Game of Thrones and the upcoming TV adventure drama Black Sails. He’ll have an fairly inflated $25 million budget for on-set production they will begin early next year.

Warcraft is out 2015

Troll Hunter is out early 2015