If this goes through, expect a lot of rabid Fantastic Four fans to begin sounding racist. And also a lot of racists to start sounding like Fantastic Four  fans.

The Wrap is reporting that Michael B. Jordan has had numerous meetings with Fox to reunite with his Chronicle director Josh Trank on the director’s reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise. He is in talks for the role of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, a role originated by Chris Evans in the first set of films. The website says that the only thing standing in Jordan’s way is that the studio wants to be sure he can build chemistry with the other cast members, whoever they turn out to be.

As you can see, Jordan is African-American, and Johnny Storm is portrayed in the comics as being white. This has cause a fair bit of outrage in the comic fan community already and he hasn’t even been cast yet (the project hasn’t even been officially greenlit yet for that matter). And if fans made a stink because Idris Elba, one of the best actors on the planet, played the formerly white Heimdall, one of the most minor characters in Marvel’s interpretation of Norse mythology, in Thor, you can expect this rumbling to continue and intensify if Jordan actually gets cast.

Of course, it’s easy to think that comic fans are upset over a black actor being cast as what is known as a white character because, well, they don’t want a black actor playing what is known as a white character. And I’m not so naive that I believe there are no racists in comic book fandom, but comic book fans are awfully fickle and finicky about how their comics are adapted to the big screen. If you do a quick Google search, you’ll find a lot of outrage over the fact that Superman isn’t wearing red pants in The Man of Steel. You’ll also find a lot of complaints about Superman’s hair style in the film and the fact that Lois is now a redhead. So all the rumblings over Jordan’s casting isn’t exclusively an act of racism, they’re more an act of fans being really, really anal.

As for me, I can’t say that I am familiar with Jordan’s body of work, but the fact that he has The Wire  and Friday Night Lights on his resume tells me he can bring a lot to the role. If I would admit to any concerns about Jordan’s rumored casting is that it appears that they are looking at white actresses for the role of Johnny’s sister, Sue. This would mean that one of the siblings would be adopted. This would put an interesting twist on the family dynamic the characters represent, and could be worthy of being examined on film. However, in these types of films, these kinds of issues are barely addressed, let alone investigated in any meaningful way. If you are not going to use this casting to raise understanding or awareness of this kind of modern family dynamic, it becomes an arbitrary publicity grab and therefore superfluous.

These days, an actor or actress starring in two or more comic book movies is becoming more and more common. Everyone from Scarlet Johansson to Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Evans to Idris Elba has more than one comic book film on their resume. Now, we might just have to add Tom Hiddleston to that list.

The English actor, who made such a memorable performance as Loki in Thor  and The Avengers, might be taking the lead in one of the most iconic heroes from the world of independent comics–The Crow.

The Wrap is reporting that the actor is in talks with producers of the remake of the 1994 Brandon Lee film, which in itself was an adaptation of James O’Barr’s 1988 graphic novel. The website even states that Hiddleston sent in a make-up test he did on his own in order to show his interest in the part.

Hiddleston follows Bradley Cooper, Mark Wahlberg and James McAvoy, among others, who were rumored to be considered for the part.

Let me just say that I consider pretty much all remakes to be pointless. And second to the RoboCop remake, I consider The Crow remake to be the most pointless. But that being said, the idea of Tom Hiddleston in the lead role excites me. He’s a great actor, and one I think would bring a lot to the role. Hopefully, these talks go well and he gets the part.

Even though Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter was only in a little bit of Captain America: The First Avenger, she seems to have made an impression fans. And thanks to those fans, we’ll be seeing a little bit more of her.

Atwell was interviewed by The Age about her possible involvement in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, involvement she is reticent to confirm or deny even though she is included in a cast list in an official press release from Marvel. However, she did reveal that footage featuring her would be shown and a certain comic book convention:

“There’s been an online campaign for Peggy to be featured. People really liked her. So Marvel have made sure that as part of Comicon there will be a little kind of snapshot as to what Peggy’s actually really capable of, which was finished here and which was great fun. Hopefully, it will lead to other things.”

Brendon Connelly over at  Bleeding Cool seems to think that Peggy Carter will be making an appearance in a Marvel One-Shot, a line of short subjects that began with The Consultant on the Thor Blu-Ray, continued with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer on the Captain America: The First Avenger Blu-Ray and  Item 47, a short that was attached to The Avengers Blu-Ray. Even though the last two had at best a transitory connection to the Marvel Film Universe, using these One-Shots to flesh out supporting characters who might not be able to support their own film is a great idea.

However, the way it sounds is that footage being shown will not be as long as the shorts typically run. So what this footage might be might be scenes from Winter Soldier featuring Peggy.

I guess we’ll see in a couple months when Comic-Con rolls around.

Who needs X-Men: Days of Future Past spoilers when Bryan Singer has a Twitter account?

The director is at it again, this time tweeting an image of everyone’s favorite furry scientist, the Beast.

As we can see above, we can tell this is an older version of the Beast by the patches of white and grey mixed in with the blue fur. But it looks like he is still part of the team (as we can see by the snatch of yellow on his shoulder) and it appears that it is Nicholas Hoult playing him. Well, it’s hard to tell with the make-up, but the shape of the face looks like Hoult’s.

It certainly doesn’t look like Kelsey Grammer. As we know, Grammer played the older Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand, and while Ellen Page made the jump from that film to Singer’s latest, perhaps this means that the Fraiser actor won’t.

Or this could just be a work up of some potential make-up and I am reading far too much into it.

Zoe Saldana is in talks to appear in Marvel Studio’s The Guardians Of The Galaxy. She would appear as Gamora, one of the titular intergalactic superheroes. A skilled assassin, the green-skinned Gamora is the last of a species that was exterminated by a race known as the Badoon.

Saldana’s casting comes as a bit of a surprise as she was not named on a reported shortlist of actresses under consideration by the studio back in January. She is joining Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista who have already signed onto the comic book adaptation.

This will make Saldana’s third space-set franchise, after having appeared in James Cameron’s Avatar and J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek.

With director James Gunn looking to start production on the film in June, expect more casting notices in the weeks to come. Guardians Of The Galaxy is scheduled for an August 1, 2014 release.

Via Hollywood Reporter.

With the release of Iron Man 3 just a few weeks away, let’s start to turn our attention towards some of the other films that will be making up Marvel Studio’s “Phase Two” that leads into 2015′s The Avengers 2. Specifically, the two films that the studio has scheduled for 2014 – Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Guardians Of The Galaxy. Some production art for the two films has just popped up in the wilds of the internet that are pretty stunning. I’m not sure if they have been officially released by Marvel, so best to enjoy them while you can.

First up is a piece from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, showing the two titular characters going at it in battle. Note that Steve Rogers is out of his usual Captain America uniform.

Then we have three pieces from The Guardians Of The Galaxy, and they definitaly promise something pretty new in terms of look for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It definitely looks as if director James Gunn is going for a Star Wars-like space opera vibe here, especially in that last one.

Via Geek Zenith.

As even most casual Star Wars fans probably know, writer/director George Lucas’ initial screenplay drafts for what would become known as Star Wars (and then later Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) were vastly different from what audiences finally saw starting in 1977. And if you have had the occassion to read any of the three complete drafts and one short treatment that Lucas wrote (they’re just a Google away), you’ll see elements of what finally made it to the screen but in unfamiliar configurations.

Dark Horse Comics will be taking that early script and adapting it into an eight-issue miniseries starting this September. In their nearly two decade run as the publisher of Star Wars comics, Dark Horse has put out numerous series exploring the width of the Star Wars galaxy and the depth of its history. It has even published a few looks at how the classic trilogy of films may have played out if one little thing happened differently. But this is some real out-of-the-box thinking from the publisher and I am excited to see what they will deliver.

Here is the bulk of Dark Horse’s announcement as well as the first page of art from the first issue.

It’s no April Fools’ prank! Dark Horse is honored to announce a dream project: working with J.W. Rinzler, executive editor at LucasBooks, and artist Mike Mayhew (Avengers) to adapt the rough-draft original screenplay which spawned the biggest franchise in film history!

Three years before his 1977 film, George Lucas put down on paper his first story set in a galaxy far, far away—a tale of fantastic adventures, daring escapes, “lazer swords,” romance, and monsters. A story of Jedi Annikin Starkiller and General Luke Skywalker, an alien named Han Solo, and evil Sith Knights. The screenplay was titled The Star Wars!

“I’m not sure where I first read about The Star Wars—it was years and years ago—but the idea of Luke Skywalker being an older Jedi General, and Han Solo being a six-foot-tall lizard, turned my Star Wars fan brain on its side,” said longtime Star Wars editor Randy Stradley. “I always assumed this would be one of those stories that would be ‘lost to history,’ so getting to work on bringing it to life is kinda like a dream come true.”

“While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft forThe Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing,” said writer J.W. Rinzler. “While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”

Originally conceived in 1974, The Star Wars has been the subject of rumor and legend in the fan community throughout the history of the galaxy far, far away. Now, Lucas has seen fit to grant Dark Horse the right to adapt this fabled story into an eight-issue comic series launching in September!

Perhaps the most interesting of the projects that director Guillermo Del Toro is in the process of developing is the one that will see several of DC Comics supernatural superheroes teaming up to stop a world-threatening menace. Called by some fans Justice League Dark after a similarly-themed series that DC is currently publishing, it’s original working title of Heaven Sent has been changed to Dark Universe and it is possible that the film is an adaptation of writer Alan Moore’s “American Gothic” storyline which ran from Swamp Thing #37 to 50.

At a panel at Anaheim’s WonderCon Saturday, where Del Toro was primarily promoting his film Pacific Rim which opens this summer, discussion turned to the project and the director let loose with a few tidbits of information about the project -

• Del Toro stated that a bible for the film had been written and that there is a screenwriter attached to the project that he hopes to be able to name soon. He did divulge that the film’s through-line would originate with Jason Blood’s history with Merlin and the Knights of King Arthur and how that resonates to create a threat in the present day.
• Unlike when the character was played by the dark-haired Keanu Reeves in 2005′s Constantine, Del Toro promised that in his film the character of con man/mage John Constantine would be blonde as he is in the comics.
• While he declined to get into too many specifics, Del Toro stated that the film would feature Constantine recruiting the other supernatural heroes.
• Among the heroes recruited by Constantine are Swamp Thing, the Demon, Deadman, the Spectre and Zatanna. The film will also deal with some of their origins over its course. “Swamp Thing is at peace with who he is but Deadman is still trying to find out who shot him.”

Del Toro also stressed that he wouldn’t be able to get to serious work on the film until at least after he finished his haunted house film Crimson Peak.

Via Coming Soon and Bleeding Cool.

Iron Man 3 audiences in China will be seeing a different version of the film than fans around the rest of the world. It’s not due to any State censorship (for once), but a calculated move by Marvel Studios to appeal to the country’s audience.

Marvel announced to day that for China the third Iron Man film will boast more screentime for Chinese actor Wang Xueqi as well as an appearance by popular Chinese actor Fan Bingbing (who was just recently added to the cast of X-Men: Days Of Future Past).

Here’s Marvel’s press release -

Marvel Studios and DMG announced that a Chinese version of IRON MAN 3 will be released in China on a date to be announced in the near future. DMG, a Chinese media and entertainment company, collaborated with Marvel Studios on the Chinese elements in the film, and is marketing and distributing the film in China. While Marvel and DMG have decided not to apply for co-production status in China, the film includes significant Chinese elements. Renowned Chinese actor Wang Xueqi will appear in both the studio’s Chinese version of the film and in its international and domestic US version. Both versions of the film include Iron Man 3 footage filmed in Beijing in December. The Chinese version of the film will also feature a special appearance of China’s top actress, Fan Bingbing, and will offer specially prepared bonus footage made exclusively for the Chinese audience. Marvel Studios’ experience working on this film with Fan Bingbing and Wang Xueqi and in shooting in China has been very positive and has created a springboard for future collaboration with China’s talented stars and its growing film and television industry. The IRON MAN cast and filmmakers look forward to bringing IRON MAN back to China.

There is no official word if the material in the Chinese cut will make its way to blu-ray as a special feature, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were to.

Imagine this. You find a way to clone long dead people. You also just happen to have DNA from each member of the 1927 Yankees. So, naturally, you clone Ruth, Gehrig and the rest to create a team with the goal of having them all play…soccer.

Now, Murderer’s Row might be great soccer players. But you’d want to see them play baseball. You’d be disappointed otherwise. That’s the feeling I get after watching The Wolverine trailers (both the domestic one and the longer international one, both are posted below).

Not many comic books could survive the transition to the big screen unchanged, but Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s 1982 Wolverine miniseries could. There is no glaring contradiction to the film continuity in the story, and, for a while, it looked like we might just be getting the most faithful X-Men adaptation to date.

Gone is Logan meeting Mariko first (now he meets her father Shingen first–back in WWII!), no shocking revelation about Yukio’s loyalties (she’s revealed as working for Shingen from the very first frame she’s in), and what’s added is a mopey, mourning Wolverine who is losing his powers. Yay.

Granted, it does look better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but if the film was nothing but Hugh Jackman sitting in a La-Z Boy and eating Pringles, it would still be better than that film.

The Wolverine opens July 26, 2013.

Domestic

International