Gal Gadot elaborates DC contract, Hedlund hooked for Pan and first poster for Hunger Games: Mockingjay

You’ve probably heard the recent news that Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman has been delayed into 2016. The sequel to Man of Steel, as well as featuring Henry Cavill, Diane Lane, Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne, will see the debuts as Ben Affleck as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and may introduce Jason Momoa and Joaquin Phoenix. However, Gadot’s (Fast and Furious’ Giselle) role is today’s focus. Speaking to Israeli, her home country’s, press, she announced that she’s signed a three movie deal, which sparked a lot of speculation.

We predict that this trio of pictures will begin in 2016 before moving on to an Avengers style teamup in 2018 before Wonder Woman, so long as Gadot’s portrayal is popular, could receive her own spinoff. You may think that this is a little far fetched considering the latter of the trilogy could be as far off as 2020 but bare in mind that, last year, Robert Downey Jr signed a deal for Avengers 2 (2015) and Avengers 3 (2019). Mega franchises such as this need to book their stars early as six years is a long time to drift into other projects.

We move onto news from the production that replaced B’man v S’man in 2015. That would be Pan, Fox’s new prequel to the animated Disney classic Peter Pan. Joe Wright, who called the shots on Atonement, period dramas such as Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina as well as the brilliantly brutal action thriller Hanna, is directing and both Hugh Jackman and Javier Bardem have been rumoured to be playing Blackbeard for some time but the role of Hook has been cast with the announcement of the young Garrett Hedlund, who reportedly beat Ezra Miller and Jack Huston to the role.

In this new iteration, Hook is one of the many members of Blackbeard’s crew, who are encountered by Pan – I sense mutiny afoot. Hedlund seems a strong casting. He stuck it big and mainstream with Tron: Legacy, Four Brothers and Troy but, over the last three years or so, established himself as a more critically appealing star with Country Strong, Inside Llewyn Davis and On the Road.

Finally, we’ve got the very first poster for 2014’s biggest sequel. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 will be directed by Francis Lawrence (I am Legend, Catching Fire) and will star Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Clafin, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Josh Hutcherson, Lily Rabe, Natalie Dormer, Jena Malone and Stef Dawson but the basic first banner just shows the Mockingjay, metaphorically, taking flight.

Universal rules out Damon’s return to Bourne, Tomorrowland plot and Mockingjay

Sad news for anyone expecting Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne crossing paths with Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross. A fifth Jason Bourne film entered development about a month ago and now Universal Studios has confirmed Matt Damon is not in talks for the role.

Damon has been closely associated with Jason Bourne since the release of The Bourne Identity and more so with the release of the excellent sequels Supremacy and Ultimatum. Jeremy Renner took the lead in critically attacked sidequel The Bourne Legacy as Aaron Cross. However, worldwide takings of $275 have given the studio enough faith for a sequel. I thought this meant that Damon and, the series most prolific director, Paul Greengrass would be returning to add substance to a failing franchise. Universal have stepped out to say that neither Damon nor Greengrass are in talks for another Bourne sequel.

Disney have now made an official announcement stating that their sci-fi Tomorrowland has begun filming! Brad Bird (director of The Incredibles and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) will direct this new feature with a Damon Lindelof script and we know know more about the plot.

They describe it for us: “Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as ‘Tomorrowland.’”

If you’re not aware of this production, who may have heard it’s previous title: 1952. It stars George Clooney (two time Oscar winner) and Hugh Laurie as the respective hero and villain and now Judy Greer (supporting actress in Three Kings and lead ape in the upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) is in talks to star.

Finally, two actresses have joined the forthcoming Hunger Games two parter Mockingjay! First, Natalie Dormer has joined the cast as Cressida, a resistance reporter who films and documents Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) in her endeavours for televised propoganda. I predict an expanded role from that in the book seeing as the big star potential that she has. The Reading born actress was Elementary’s Irene Adler, The Tudors’ Anne Boleyn, Game of Thrones’ Margaery Tyrell as well a supporting role in Captain America: The First Avenger as well as being ranked 29th on IMDB’s up to date top actors and actresses of the moment list list (the current top 5 being: 5)Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games, 4)Ben Affleck ,the new Batman, 3)Aaron Taylor Johnson, Kick-Ass, 2)Lee Thompson, the sadly late star of Rizzoli & Isles, 1)Chloe Grace Moretz, Johnson’s Kick-Ass co-star. She was also Lady Dor in the rather excellent BBC radio series Neverwhere.

The Australian actress Stef Dawson will play the romantic interest of Finnick Odair (Sam Clafin), who’ll make his entrance this winter with Catching Fire. Her character name is Annie Cresta, District 4 victor of the 70th Annual Hunger Games who has since gone mad with terror. Dawson starred in this years well received comedy short 6 Years, 4 Months and 23 Days, hopefully the film isn’t that long!

The Bourne Betrayal (most likely but other titles could be: Sanction, Deception, Objective, Dominion or Imperative) could be out in 2016

Tomorrowland is out December 12th 2014

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