Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a release date. Fox has announced a July 23, 2013 release date for The Wolverine, the second solo movie for cinema’s favorite X-Man, directed by Girl, Interrupted and Walk The Line‘s James Mangold and starring – of course – Hugh Jackman. As the Hollywood Reporter notes, this means that it’s opening the same day as the Dirty Dancing remake, so feel free to start working on your jokes about “nobody puts Wolverine in a corner” right now. This date also make The Wolverine the third superhero movie of the year; Iron Man 3 is scheduled to open on May 3, with DC’s Superman reboot Man of Steel opening June 14.

After premiering Monday afternoon at a promotional event simulcasted in several cities across the globe, the second Amazing Spider-Man trailer is now on YouTube. And here it is:

Our bicoastal write-up of Monday’s event — with plenty of more details about the footage shown and comments from the cast and director Marc Webb — is here.

Reloading on dip while the Avengers Super Bowl commercial debuted during the second quarter of the Patriots/Giants match-up? Just want to relive it frame by frame? Well, here it is!

And here’s the 1:05 extended version, posted on Marvel Studios’ Avengers Facebook page:

For everyone excited about The Avengers movie this summer, it’s worth remembering that things could’ve been very, very different indeed. Here’s an excerpt on Marvel’s movie plans as was, from 1985′s Marvel Age Annual #1:

Stan [Lee] is mostly involved with live-action movie projects, featuring the Marvel super heroes. Dr. Strange is currently being worked on by the same folks who brought you the movie hit “All of Me,” which starred Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin. Also in the works is a Captain America film, a Spider-Man film, an X-Men film, and even one starring Howard The Duck (Can you imagine Howard The Duck in live-action??). And last but certainly not least, a Fantastic Four live-action feature is being worked on by the same producers who did the highly-acclaimed film “The Neverending Story.” With all that in progress, no wonder Stan is always so busy!

Just think: Of all of those potential movies, only Howard The Duck made it to the big screen. Sadly, the Marvel Age piece doesn’t have any more information about what the other movies would’ve been like, but I can’t help but wonder if the Cap movie ended up as the much-derided 1990 release from the director of Cyborg and Brain Smasher… A Love Story. “What If…?” as the saying goes…

Director Matthew Vaughn is returning for an X-Men: First Class sequel, Deadline reported Monday.

The news was tucked into a post on Fox production president Emma Watts sticking with the studio through 2015, along with word that Bryan Singer is returning as producer, and that Simon Kinberg — a First Class producer and co-writer of X-Men: The Last Stand — will write the screenplay. Though no other details are yet available — like possible storylines, actors returning or an estimated start time for production — in the same article Deadline speculates that Chronicle director Josh Trank might be tapped for a Fantastic Four reboot, also at Fox.

X-Men: First Class, released last June, grossed $146.4 million domestically, for a worldwide total of $353.6 million.

If you really can’t wait until this summer to see footage from The Amazing Spider-Man, then you’re in luck. Posters started appearing this weekend directing fans to go to TheUntoldStoryBegins, a site that allows you to reserve tickets for sneak footage screenings on February 6 in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Mexico City, Moscow, Rio, Rome, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo (Perhaps unsurprisingly, more events are already fully-booked). According to Deadline, those attending the events should expect “other surprises,” but your guess is as good as mine as to what that means.

For everyone who can’t make it to one of those screenings, take some comfort in the fact that, with the event happening a week today, I figure we’re at most two weeks away from the footage making it to YouTube…

Mark Millar would like you to know that, despite rumors that his various movie projects are in trouble – with Jane Goldman confirming that she would not write a Kick-Ass sequel, and Nemesis being mentioned as possibly being put on hold for a time – everything is going just fine:

How many times do we need to go through this? [Matthew] Vaughn is producing [Kick-Ass 2] and Jane was taking about this 2 weeks ago in an interview. He’s got a new director and is doing a George Lucas, guiding the whole thing as he and I work on The Secret Service (which we’re writing at the moment). Could we stop with the scare-mongering please?

Also, Nemesis is fine. Fox deal was just signed off shortly before Christmas and there is no story there beyond an idiot with a blog who follows every tweet I write and whoever writes to me. As Joe Carnahan said himself in all the video interviews last week, Nemesis is doing fine.

Wanted 2 and War Heroes both fast-tracked as reported last November by Universal (google it), Supercrooks screenplay done and ready to get moving after Nacho finishes Windows and Vaughn just bought the rights to Superior. All is well.

Elsewhere in the same thread, Millar says that Kick-Ass 2‘s director will also write the screenplay, and that the project is in good hands, adding “Now RELAX. Empire Strikes Back worked out fine.” Reading between the lines, clearly what Millar is actually telling us is that we should expect Kick-Ass 3 to suck and feature Ewoks.

Want to know more about the co-creator of pretty much all of your favorite Marvel Comics characters (Note: claim void if your favorite characters were all created post-1970 or so)? Well, keep your eyes on the pay-per-view screen because, according to Deadline, EPIX is close to buying the rights to With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, a documentary feature that traces the life of Lee from childhood to the modern day, with interviews from various Marvel movie stars, as well as other comic creators. The movie is expected to appear on the pay cable channel and EPIX’s website later this year, following its debut at the Slamdance Film Festival tomorrow.

The Adventures of Tintin won Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes Sunday night, beating out Arthur Christmas, Cars 2, Puss in Boots and Rango. Tintin getting the edge over Cars 2 means that it’s actually the first non-Pixar film in the history of the award to win (past winners, in reverse chronological order, were Toy Story 3, Up, Wall-E, Ratatouille and the original Cars).

Director/producer Steven Spielberg accepted the award, but in his speech, neglected to mention Hergé, the late, legendary Belgian writer and artist who created Tintin. That fact wasn’t lost on multiple observers, including Fear Itself artist Stuart Immonen, who tweeted the following:

The natural next question is whether or not Tintin will earn a similar recognition at this year’s Academy Awards — nominations are announced on Jan. 24, just a tad more than a month before the Feb. 26 show.

Anne Hathaway, who, if you don’t know by now is portraying Selina Kyle/Catwoman in next summer’s The Dark Knight Rises, spoke to LA Times Hero Complex with some interesting things to say about how her portrayal will be different from other versions, but still true to the essence of who Catwoman is and how she is influenced by Gotham City.

“What’s come before doesn’t limit or even affect this new version. It doesn’t affect me because each Catwoman – and this is true in the comics as well – she is defined by the context of the Gotham City created around her. Catwoman is so influenced by Gotham and whoever is creating Gotham at the time… You have to live in whatever the reality of the world is and whatever Gotham is.” She continues with how Heath Ledger’s now legendary performance is on par with what she’s aiming for. “Gotham City is full of grace. You look at Heath’s performance as the Joker, there was a lot of madness there but there was also a grace and he had a code there. There’s a lot of belief and codes of behavior in Gotham and my character has one, too. A lot of the way she moves and interacts with people is informed by her worldview. Chris has given us all such complex, defined, sophisticated worldviews that it’s just a matter of doing your homework and getting underneath the character’s skin.”

Interesting way of putting Ledger’s performance. Something I hadn’t ever really thought of since Joker practically got rid of any beliefs about criminals and their methods as he brought a more chaotic feel to the crimeworld. Hathaway also goes into her motivation of the way she’s going about the character as film siren Hedy Lamarr was a key influence on the Catwoman character. “I know this sounds odd, but her breathing is extraordinary,” Hathaway said. “She takes these long, deep, languid breaths and exhales slowly. There’s a shot of her in [the 1933 film] ‘Ecstasy’ exhaling a cigarette and I took probably five breaths during her one exhale. So I started working on my breathing a lot.”

Also over at the interview, there is a scene synopsis that is only hinted in the newest trailer that gives more details about Catwoman and Bane’s rapport and that DKR might draw more influence from the Batman arc “Knightfall” than I had certainly anticipated. Spoiler Alert now has been initiated.
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News that breaks on a Saturday morning already has a tendency to slip through the cracks, but when that Saturday happens to be Christmas Eve, that’s a near-guarantee that a story will be under-reported.

Which is why you may have not heard yet the news that Deadline broke three days ago: Alan Taylor, a veteran of acclaimed TV shows including Mad Men, The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, is now on board to direct 2013′s Thor 2. Taylor is replacing Monster director Patty Jenkins, who left the project earlier this month amid reported “creative differences.” Jenkins herself was to replace Kenneth Branagh, director of the original Thor.

Taylor has prior feature directing experience — 1995′s Palookaville, which had a very limited release but appearances from Frances McDormand, Vincent Gallo and Boardwalk Empire’s William Forsythe. Thor 2, from Marvel Studios and once again starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston, is scheduled for Nov. 15, 2013.

To the surprise of no-one, the most recent trailer for The Dark Knight Rises has broken the record for the number of views within the 24 hour period following its release. According to ICv2, the trailer was viewed a staggering 12.5 million times in the day after it went live on Apple’s site, over 2 million more times than the previous record holder, Marvel’s Avengers. Of course, there’s no way of telling how many of those views came from people trying to make out what Bane was actually saying underneath that mask of his, but still: Consider the battle for 2012 superhero movie supremacy fully on.

It’s the new Dark Knight Rises trailer. Merry early Christmas, everyone.

Though this trailer is only 25 seconds longer than the original Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance trailer, this one counts as the  “Theatrical Trailer” while the other one was just a “Teaser.” And what a tease it was, ending with a shot of Ghost Rider gleefully urinating fire. The tone of this one is far more serious and plot-heavy, with barely a hint of the over-the-top humor seen in the teaser — but what it lacks in that, it makes up in Idris Elba.

Here’s the trailer:

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance — the sequel to 2007′s Ghost Rider and once again starring Nicolas Cage in the title role — is scheduled to debut in theaters on Feb. 17, 2012.

It’s a big day for trailers previewing comic book-related movie sequels.

This morning, the Men in Black 3 trailer debuted. So the 1969 version of 65-year-old Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K is… 43-year-old Josh Brolin? I demand realism in my space alien comedy!

Then late this evening came the Rock-filled G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation trailer, which is exciting the Twitterverse as we speak for generally looking way better than 2009′s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Here’s what Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis said about the G.I. Joe trailer on Twitter: “so when cobra went to the drapery and ordered the cobra drapes for the white house windows, no one was suspicious?”

How do the trailers look to you? Let us know in the comments!

Something that’s pretty much died out in recent years – recent decades, really, as video and then DVD and blu-ray made movies available for audiences to rewatch at home – has been the comic book adaptation. Comic fans of a certain age probably share my fond memories of comics based on movies like Alien, Blade Runner and even the Star Trek and Star Wars adaptations. So, imagine my surprise when, while re-reading old Legion of Super-Heroes issues the other night, I saw this in one of the publishorial columns:

And then, a month later:

Now, this comic clearly didn’t happen. But why? I reached out to Marv Wolfman, who sadly didn’t remember what happened to the project. Part of me cynically thinks “Maybe someone at DC realized how weird a Lethal Weapon comic would have been for 1980s DC,” but presumably if it got far enough to have a creative team attached, that has already been addressed. So, internet! If anyone out there knows more about this never-seen project, get in touch! The world wants to know what it missed.

Patty Jenkins is out as director of 2013′s Thor 2, Deadline reports.

The Monster director is said to be leaving as a result of “creative differences,” though she may end up working on a superhero movie after all — just not, apparently, this one.

Jenkins was officially announced as the director of Thor 2 back in October, following a few weeks of speculation. Jenkins would have taken over from Kenneth Branagh, director of the original Thor. It would have been her first foray into the genre, and a rare example of a female director helming a superhero film.

A new director is expected to be chosen quickly, in order for Marvel Studios to make the previously announced release date of Nov. 15, 2013. Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston are all on board to return for the sequel.

If you’re hoping to see the six minute “prologue” for The Dark Knight Rises that’s accompanying Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in theaters December 16th, you’d better hope that your local theater has the right IMAX set-up. Warner Bros. is only releasing the preview scenes to theaters with specific equipment, leaving a lot of fans destined for disappointment. The full list of the theaters that will get the prologue is under the jump. Everyone else: I feel your pain; there’s no theater near me, either. (more…)

We’ve learned by now that news often comes from the strangest of sources, and in the tradition of the full “New 52″ Justice League lineup — which still hasn’t been seen in actual comic books — being revealed via a drinking glass company, today we have our first look at The Amazing Spider-Man‘s Lizard, courtesy of a PEZ dispenser:

Of course, there’s some inevitable degree of translation between plastic PEZ dispenser and CGi creature in a big-budget live-action film, but that should at least give us an idea of the overall Lizard visual; the parts that don’t involve arms, legs and a lower torso, of course. Kudos to ComicBookMovie for sniffing this one out.

The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Rhys Ifans as the Lizard and Andrew Garfield in the title role, is scheduled for release (in 3D, natch) on July 3, 2012.

It was recently announced that Dr. Who would finally make his way to the big screen in what appears to be the start of a movie franchise. Director David Yates, who was behind the last four Harry Potter movies would helm the project. Now, it doesn’t have a release date just yet as Yates told Variety they are now looking for writers and it may take “two to three years” to get it just right. He and Jane Tranter, head of L.A.-based BBC Worldwide Productions are making sure they appeal to long-time Whovians, as well American audiences not that familiar.  However, the “British sensibility” won’t be lost, “but having said that,” notes Yates, “Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too.”

No word yet if current Doctor, Matt Smith, will be involved to some capacity, but since this is being seen as a big budget reboot exclusively for the big screen, I doubt it. Especially Yates made it clear that his movie adaptation would not follow on from the current TV series, but would take a completely fresh approach to the material. I’m sure a plethora of Who fans feel confused and concerned about this, but it gives non-Who fans a chance to jump on without worrying about 40 years of continuity. Then again, one of the characters greatest attributes is his continuity and how he draws from his previous lives, but if you can have Smallville and Superman Returns at the same time…

So if they are starting over again, and having an older Doctor, can we just sign Alan Rickman or Ian Holm up already?