Marvel seems to be moving forward with a Black Panther movie. At least, they’ve gone so far as to hire a screenwriter. Granted, that’s probably the cheapest of the investments Marvel will have to make, unless they try to low-ball the director and star as well. Still, it shows some level of intent.

I’m not a particular fan of the Black Panther, but I’ve read some stuff with him that is pretty cool. The writer in question, Mark Bailey, is mostly known for documentary work, though he has done at least one other adaptation that might see the screen. There’s no word yet on how Marvel or Mr. Bailey intends to adapt the story of the Black Panther, but the last time there was any serious interest in the character, he was going to be involved in some kind of Indiana Jones/Alan Quatermain-style adventure.

Oh, please, no. That just sounds so stupid.

Granted, that was in the 1990s. Hopefully Hollywood has gotten smarter.

And then I remembered Catwoman, and that shot that idea to shit.

Read the article at Collider.

There’ve been a couple of articles out about Edgar Wright and an Ant-Man movie. First off, good choice for a director. Second off, for all the Ant-Man haters, piss off. If Hank Pym is the problem, make it Scott Lang or even Eric O’Grady to avoid the crap that both the regular stream and Ultimate universe Pym has all over him. It’s a movie, of course, so we could avoid the wife-beating issue (much less prominent in mainstream Marvel vs. Ultimates), but whatever. It doesn’t matter the name of the character, because while it may look very similar to the comics Ant-Man, it’s not going to be that guy.

Why? Well because Mr. Wright indicates his Ant-Man is a bad ass secret agent who happens to also have the shrinking powers. That is pretty cool, and it would be nice if this secret agent were also a science nerd—like Hank Pym—rather than just an amusing jack ass—like Eric O’Grady. I’d also like the character to have the more modern Ant-Man suit and powers, those from the recent (and, of course, cancelled) the Irredeemable Ant-Man.

This movie isn’t even close to production, and who knows if it’ll even get there. The only thing that I would accept sidetracking this project would be an Iron Fist project (or possible a Heroes for Hire with Iron Fist as a main character).

So the official Thor trailer is out. I actually think the leaked Comic Con trailer gave us a better idea of the story, but this one has lots more of the Destroyer, and has Thor actually using Mjolnir.

Yeah, people were ragging on the costumes, how they looked, and the like. For me, it works well enough. Does it look metallic? Not particularly. Do I care? Not particularly. I think they’ve done a good job of presenting the costume as I know it from the comic. I know it was always supposed to be metallic—or partially metallic—but the costume never seemed so in the comics themselves, so I guess I don’t expect that of the movie either.

I mean, we’re talking the Norse gods—we’re going to quibble over the material of their costumes?

Also? There’s an official poster. You may have noticed it above.

See the trailer here.

It’s old news now, but none the less interesting: Disney has talked about creating three TV series based on Marvel properties: the Hulk, Cloak & Dagger, and either the Punisher or the Daughters of the Dragon.

There’s been plenty of ink spilled on the Hulk TV program. Guillermo del Toro has been linked to it, so that’s hopeful. The old TV series was pretty good and really had its moments, but was pretty divorced from the comic book property which spawned it. Hopefully we’ll see something even better. Not being a fan of the comic, I could care less if the show deviates from the plot of the comics, given that I can’t even tell you what the plot of the comic is these days—though I did enjoy Planet Hulk.

For Cloak & Dagger, I read the first year of the series that was spawned by Strange Tales back in the late 80s. It never really struck me as being that interesting. Like most Marvel properties, give it to a great writer, you’ll get something great. I can’t even guess what the TV will bring us.

As for Punisher vs. DotD, for this one, I’d go with Daughters. Yes, more obscure, but the talk is for properties to be broadcast on ABC. DotD strikes me as something that could work on a regular broadcast network while the Punisher needs something with a harder edge, like HBO.

A little bit of casting news for Friday.

There are reports floating around out there—or are they rumours?—that Martin Sheen and Sally Field have been cast in the Spider-man reboot as—who else?—Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

Now this would be quite a casting coup, though—honestly—I think Cliff Robertson has more of the “Uncle Ben” vibe than Martin Sheen. Sheen, to me, has too much Apocalypse Now and West Wing for me to ever think of him as Uncle Ben. He’s too distinct. These days, he just carries too much intrinsic gravitas to be kindly Uncle Ben.

Sally Field as Aunt May I might buy, though for a visual likeness from the comics, Rosemary Harris totally won. I can’t see Sally Field doing the same. Then again, maybe they are going for a younger Aunt May.

What all this means—sadly—is that we’re going to see another origin story, that is unless all the Uncle Ben scenes are flashbacks. For the number of people who will see this movie who don’t know the Spider-man mythology, re-doing the origin is a waste of time. It’s a waste of time that could be used selling us on this new Spider-man. Seriously, I don’t want to see origins of Spider-man, Superman, or Batman ever again.

Someone like Green Lantern, who is a little off the mainstream media radar, okay. He also hasn’t had an origin movie (or two) already. Think of X-Men. That movie showed the origin of Rogue, in a manner of speaking, but it was over quick and the movie got on doing what we wanted it to do.

It’s too bad that this Spider-man reboot can’t do the same.

So Christopher Nolan says no 3D for the next Batman movie, given that he wants it to be faithful to what had come before.

Thank you, sir.

I almost want to tack on a “for now,” given that I man sure the studio will apply a fair amount of pressure (read: dump truck full of money) to try to get him to change his mind. If he does not, he proves himself a man of integrity. If he does, well, he’s just another cool dude in Hollywood.

He’s also said the title of the movie will be the Dark Knight Rises, so I assume there will be plenty of yeast. That or porn. Either makes me happy it won’t be 3D.

It’s also possible that this will be Nolan’s last Batman movie. And while that would be a shame, better to go out on a high note.

Did you hear that, Raimi?

Y’know, I still haven’t seen the movie Ghost Rider with Nicholas Cage. It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching Mr. Cage chew the scenery, because that can be downright fun sometimes. It’s not that I didn’t want to watch Eva Mendes be all Eva and stuff, ‘cause I’m totally cool with that. It’s not even that I couldn’t care less about the care, because I did actually collect the 90s revival of Ghost Rider for the first year or so. It’s just that I see so few movies, I usually go with the ones that get me jazzed. Hearing about the Ghost Rider movie definitely made me pass.

We already knew a sequel was in the works. It was also pretty commonly accepted that Mr. Cage would be back with a flaming head. Now the word is that the budget has been cut. Cue the shocked gasps . . . actually, instead cue Claude Rains as Captain Renault and his “I am shocked, shocked to find . . .”

And it’s still reportedly getting a budget of $75 million. Wow, hard times. Cage is said to have taken a pay cut from $12 mil to $7 mil to hold onto the role.

Wait. Hold the bus. Nicholas Cage is getting $12 million for a movie? Really?

Wow. Just wow.

The article can be found here.

I’m sure you already know this, but there has been some casting and plot news regarding the Spider-man reboot.

Emma Stone, who I don’t really know that much about, but looks attractive enough, has been cast for the movie. The funny thing is that although Ms. Stone is a red-head, she’s going to be playing Gwen Stacey. Guess they’ll get a blonde for MJ. Andrew Garfield is playing Peter Parker/Spider-man.

The villain of the piece is going to be the Lizard, and Rhys Ifans is set to play him.

I’ve got no comment on any of the casting, because I really don’t know any of their work. The Lizard can be a good villain, but it’s a bit of a shame that Dylan Baker couldn’t play Curt Connors in the new movie, just as he had in the last two, but I guess they want to cut all ties with the previous movies.

Oddly enough, Dylan Baker played Emma Stone’s dad in the cancelled TV series Drive, staring Nathan Fillion. Yes, all roads do lead back to Firefly. Live with it.

It’s pretty much official that Darren Aronofsky is going to be the man helming Wolverine 2. This is cool, but not screaming-like-a-teenage-girl or shit-my-pants cool. A director who has done great work is not necessarily a great director, and a great director for something like the Wrestler is not necessarily a great director for something like a Wolverine movie.

However, it is good news. He does have chops. Word is, the movie is going to be set in Japan. We can hope it follows the Wolverine mini-series, which was awesome, though the first movie didn’t have any Japanese backstory in the history of Wolvie montage. Should we assume it happens between his leaving Team X and the time of the adamantium memory bullet (it hurts to write that).

Whatever the case, with Christopher McQuarrie writing the script, Aronofsky should get something solid. That’s as long as some studio douchebag doesn’t focus group the shit into it. Filming is supposed to begin next year, and Hugh Jackman has promised this is going to be something darker, something different from what has gone before.

Here’s hoping.

I haven’t really mentioned anything about X-Men: First Class. The thing is in filming right now with Matthew Vaughan (he of Layer Cake and Stardust—and Kick-Ass, though I have not seen that) directing. It’s about the beginnings of the X-Men, and apparently focuses on the relationship between Professor Xavier and Magneto.

And that may be cool, and the director has proven he’s got talent, and Bryan Singer is producing and writing. Yes, all this points to success.

But I just can’t get excited.

It is likely because X-Men: the Last Stand and Wolverine both sucked ass. They had their good moments, but overall they were crap. This movie? Could be awesome, but right now the taint spread by the other two is all over it.

Stinky.