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

Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer, four more join Warcraft and David Magee writing a new Narnia

Sadly, Duncan Jones’ video game adaptation of World of Warcraft has been postponed into 2016. Colin Farrel, Paula Patton, Anton Yelchin, Anson Mount and Paul Dano are the key stars who are at least in negotiation. Others are now being drafted in as possibly new characters or replacements for those above who are no longer in the project and they are some truly major names. Dominic Cooper is best known for Captain America:The First Avenger and The Devil’s Double and he could be joining X-Men: The Last Stand, 3:10 to Yuma and The Mechanic’s Ben Foster as well as Eastenders and then Pacific Rim’s Robert Kazinsky and Rock ‘n’ Rolla’s Toby Kebbell. Vancouver filming starts next month.

A couple of months ago, we reported that a new instalment could be on the way from the CS Lewis created world of Narnia. Producer Mark Gordon is still the man responsible for adapting The Silver Chair but now David Magee, writer of Life of Pi and Finding Neverland, is working on a screenplay. The Silver Chair’s plot sees Voyage of the Dawn Trader’s Eustace assigned by Aslan to find for an elderly Prince Caspian his long lost son but Eustace’s unsuspecting school friend Jill complicates things a little. Will Poulter, Liam Neeson and Ben Barnes have played some of the above roles in the past but it’s unknown if any of them are returning. Neeson’s voice role as Aslan has often defined the series and Will Poulter and Ben Barnes’ careers have/are set to take off over the next couple of years with their roles in We’re the Millers, The Maze Runner and The Seventh Son.

Finally, the very first trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has swung into action. Check it out here. It’s quite a spectacle and we only have to wait till April. The only villains we new of so far for this Marvel instalment were Electro (Jamie Foxx), Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and the Osbornes (Dane DeHaan and Chris Cooper replacing James Franco and Willem Dafoe from Sam Raimi’s franchise) with hints at building up the Sinister Six but we didn’t realise it’d happen so quick. It’s safe to say that Harry Osborne will be the Green Goblin and we’ve got surprising cameos, ish, from Vulture and Dr Octopus, one of whom hasn’t been seen since 2004 and the other hasn’t been on our screens once, do correct me if I’m wrong as I don’t care for some of the poor, cheesy and failed adaptations of Spider-Man from the 20th century. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Sally Field also star while Marc Webb directs.

The Amazing Spider-Man – April 18th 2014

Warcraft – March 11th 2016

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair – 2016