Thought you’d have to wait until the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this Friday to see the first full Man of Steel trailer? Well, this is the Internet in 2012, where everything happens a little early, and the trailer is now online — completely above board, too, as it’s been posted by Warner Bros. Pictures themselves. But really, this is ultimately just a bunch of stalling, so watch the trailer here:

So, what did you think? Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, is scheduled for release on June 14, 2013.

Latino Review claims to be in the know about the identity of the villain in the mooted 2015 Justice League movie, and it’s exactly who everyone thought it would be…:

Yes folks, Darkseid. The supreme monarch of the planet Apokolips and the greatest threat to the DC Universe. It’s kind of obvious if you really think about it. I mean for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and others to come together in a summer tentpole movie to face a threat, well, that threat better be planetary. Who were you expecting? Lex Luthor?

Speaking as a massive fan of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics, this is good news – Although, I admit, I’m a little concerned that we’ll see the wrathful, one dimensional villain of the first Justice League arc in the New 52 than Kirby’s more layered take on the character…

Even despite the end of The Dark Knight Rises, this still comes as a surprise:

According to sources, Joseph Gordon-Levitt absolutely will be appearing in “Justice League” as the new Batman. Now here’s where things get interesting.  The more insistent the drumbeat has become, the more poking around I’ve been doing, and it’s looking like we may see Gordon-Levitt in the suit earlier than that.  They’re a long way from filming anything “Justice League” related, but they appear to be solidifying deals for Gordon-Levitt and, potentially, at least one other actor from the Nolan films to do… something.

That something, HitFix suggests, is a cameo appearance in Man of Steel. Which… might be great, really.

Mark Millar is talking about the upcoming Kick-Ass 2 movie, currently shooting in London:

What can I say? Let me tell you that yesterday as I was sitting in Eddie Hamilton’s edit suite (think James Coburn’s apartment in Our Man Flint) I literally for the first time thought this might actually be BETTER than the original. This was a huge moment for me because there is no bigger fan of the first movie than me. I think it’s pretty close to perfect. But there’s so much in this, the whole thing so rich, that I honestly think this might be the Empire Strikes Back to Star Wars. I’d seen over 40 mins before, but seeing the edited version of the next 20 mins gave me a very comprehensive look for how the finished movie is going to look and I was actually quite shocked. I won’t spoil scenes for anyone who hasn’t read the source material (the Hit-Girl series and Kick-Ass 2 comic), but there are so many great moments here. Kubrick said that a great movie has eight terrific moments. I lay in bed this morning and counted fourteen genuine movie-moment scenes. You can look at the book and probably guess these, but they’re articulated so beautifully. I was really happy when I came away a couple of weeks back, but the Millar Gang and I were ecstatic when we left Eddie’s suite yesterday. People are going to LOVE this and we all had a feeling that this was going to go really wide when it opens next June.

There’s so much more at the thread on Millarworld. Kick-Ass 2 is due for release next year.

From the Warner Bros. press release:

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures announced today that director Zack Snyder’s upcoming action adventure “Man of Steel” will be presented in 3D in select theaters, as well as in 2D and IMAX®, so fans of the iconic superhero will be able to experience the much-anticipated movie in their format of choice. Snyder stated, “The film is going to be a visually exciting experience in all formats: 2D, 3D and IMAX. Anticipating how audiences today embrace 3D, we designed and photographed the movie in a way that would allow ‘Man of Steel’ to captivate those movie goers, while respecting fans who prefer a more traditional cinematic experience. We’ve taken great measures to ensure the film and the story come first, and 3D is meant as an enhancement.”

Not being sarcastic, but wasn’t this already announced as being a 3D movie? Am I just assuming that all superhero movies will be 3D these days (apart from the ones directed by Christopher Nolan)?

Why did Matthew Vaughn leave X-Men: Days of Future Past? Turns out, rumors that he wanted to concentrate on The Secret Service were right on the money, according to co-creator (and executive producer of the movie) Mark Millar:

We thought Matthew was going to do X-Men first, but we found out there were actually a few imitators of ‘Secret Service’ in the works. People think you’re lying when you say you’re not trying to get your comics made into movies so quickly, but the two reasons it happens like that is first because it’s the best ad for the comic you’ll ever have. And for me, selling the book is the most important thing. The second reason is because people are always trying to rip you off. Somebody will start to work on a spec screenplay about your idea. There are three other projects I know of now about a James Bond kind of guy taking a street kid and turning him into a spy. Three screenplays were already going through Hollywood about this! So Matthew and I said, ‘Fuck this. We’re not letting anyone steal our ideas.’

So, I wonder how quickly we’ll see a Secret Service movie in theaters, if they’re planning on making this as soon as possible…?

Elfquest is going to the big screen, according to Variety. Wendy and Richard Pini’s comic book series kicked off in 1978, and has the unique distinction of having been published at one time by both Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

The tribe of elves will be brought to the big screen by Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes, who made a short film based on the series already entitled Elfquest: A Fan Imagining. Check it out below and see if you’ll like their interpretation.

So, can we take this as confirmation of the Locke & Key movie rumors, then…? From producer/screenwriter Roberto Orci’s Twitter:

(Via.)

You can just tell that Disney have been dying to do this for awhile, can’t you?

As I said on Twitter, the scariest thing about this advertisement is hearing “The Imperial March” turned into “Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO.

That’s just wrong.

Bad news for those expecting a repeat performance of X-Men: First Class with 2014′s X-Men: Days of Future Past, it seems:

Matthew Vaughn has decided not to direct the sequel to 20th Century Fox’s hit spinoff X-Men: First Class. Ready for the next shocker? Atop the studio’s replacement short list is Bryan Singer, who launched the X-Men feature franchise with the first two superb films, and who has been a guiding influence in this spinoff by writing the treatment and producing. If this works out, Singer and Vaughn would essentially be switching roles.

According to Deadline, Vaughn is stepping down to free up his schedule to make the movie version of The Secret Service, the comic book he dreamt up with Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.

If the trailers for Lego Batman 2 were your thing, but you didn’t want to actually play the videogame, perhaps you’ll find yourself interested in this…

Yes, it’s the cut scenes from the game re-edited (with new material, I’m guessing) into a DVD/Blu-ray movie release, Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes United, which is due to be released next year. I have to admit, I’m in if only because Lego Flash and Lego Martian Manhunter look awesome.

Via Bleeding Cool, these leaked rough cut (Note the lack of footage from the actual movie) advertisement of Mattel toy tie-ins to next year’s Man of Steel seem to offer some potential plot details for the movie itself… Robot armies? Black Zero spaceships?

I can only hope that the finished versions do something to the voiceover as well as fix the footage, because right now, these feel like parodies of real toy ads, not the real thing… Doesn’t anyone know that this is what a superhero toy ad looks like?

Newsarama alum Alan Kistler isn’t a fan of Warner Bros’ live-action superhero adaptations ditching fidelity to the comic book:

Marvel Studios, on the other hand, has fully embraced the costume aspect and heightened reality of superheroes, to the point where the characters play them up on screen. Tony Stark customizes the colors of his armor in “Iron Man” simply because he likes “hot rod red.” The Asgardians in “Thor” don’t wear realistic Viking armor; they rock out exaggerated Jack Kirby-like apparel. While Steve Rogers’ battlefield costume in “Captain America: The First Avenger” is utilitarian, it still shouts “superhero.” He even gets a new, brighter outfit in “The Avengers.” Why? Because he’s Captain America and evidently S.H.I.E.L.D. thought he shouldn’t operate without a costume. It’s worth noting that embracing these costumes, capes and heightened realities of technologists in high-tech armor who co-exist with radioactive rage monsters and aliens has not prevented the Marvel Studios films from finding successful box office results.

I’m not sure that the costumes were necessarily selling points or otherwise for the Marvel movies, nor that the lack of costume hurt Smallville any. Kistler points out that fans seemed to dislike the David E. Kelley Wonder Woman pilot costume, as well as the Green Lantern movie outfit, though, which would seem to point out how difficult it is to get superhero-faithful costumes on screen… For my part, as long as the characters work, the costumes aren’t a big deal for me. Far more than the outfits, it’s Marvel’s commitment to the character that is what brings people around, I think… But then, Marvel’s characters are arguably more relatable to most people than DC’s…

Jennifer Blood and occasional Judge Dredd writer Al Ewing takes on the Dredd 3D movie:

In its ultraviolence, its clinical brutality, its stylist flourishes, its desire to be everything every other ‘comic book movie’ isn’t – apart from 3D, of course – Dredd takes its cues from 2000AD, but also from an older source – ACTION, the ‘boys paper of the seventies’.

ACTION was brought into being by Pat Mills, at the request of John Sanders, in an attempt to create a comic that was different from what was out there – grittier, more realistic, harder-hitting. (Find out more about it here.) It took the cultural touchstones of the times – Jaws, Rollerball, ‘kids apocalypse’ shows like The Changes – and distilled them down into hard punches of story and art that were the precursor to the idea of ‘thrill-power’ as we (attempt to) define it today. I’ve ended up calling it ‘the aggro style’, but it’s probably already been named by someone smarter than me.

Dredd 3D is an ‘aggro style’ film. If you were to boil it down to four or six pages, those pages wouldn’t look like an episode of Dredd as we recognise it today. It might look like one of Dredd’s first episodes, maybe – except it’d be harder, colder, R-rated.

Well, hell. Now I want to go and see the thing.

Sean Howe, whose Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is out next week, looks at the transformation of Marvel from bankrupt publisher to movie studio success over at Slate:

But the final piece of the puzzle involved both math and some creative curating. The innovative deal that Marvel and Merrill Lynch slowly put together, and finally announced in April 2005, was nonrecourse financing. That meant that Marvel wouldn’t have to put up any cash, but would receive $525 million over an eight-year period to make movies from 10 characters: Ant-Man, the Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Power Pack, and, lastly, Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu. Unless you’re a comic-book fan, chances are that you’ve never heard of half those characters. That’s because Marvel’s collateral to their financial backers, if the first four of the films failed, was simply the movie rights to the remaining six characters. (Even if Marvel lost those rights, they’d still retain merchandising revenues.)  “If [the backers] wanted to make films of those characters, they still had to pay a service fee of 5 percent of the gross,” says Maisel. So even if the plan failed entirely, “we were no worse off than current situation.”

It’s a good read. If you’re not already looking forward to Howe’s book, this might convince you. And if this doesn’t, then his blog surely will.

On his message board, Mark Millar responds to the announcement of his new job as Fox’s Joss Whedon:

It’s way too early to talk about plans just yet, but as you can imagine the idea here is to make exactly the kind of superhero movies you and I want to see most. There literally isn’t a more talented bunch of film-makers to be working with and the team at Fox are incredibly excited about this bold new direction too. I also want to post this here to say thanks for the hundreds of emails I woke up to this morning and the thousand-plus tweets I got overnight from well-wishers. I wish I had time to reply to them all today – I usually reply to most of my tweets @mrmarkmillar – but this morning was an AVALANCHE and so I just wanted to so a big thanks, that I’ve read every one and that they’re hugely appreciated. A highlight, I think, was well-wishes from Stan The Man himself. That’s like the Pope sending a message. Couldn’t have been more exciting.

But my biggest thanks has to go to director Joe Carnahan, I think. It was Joe who suggested me to the bigwigs at Fox for this role as he’s always been a supporter of what I did in comics like The Ultimates and so on. He and Matthew Vaughn – both of whom have a very strong relationship with Fox – really pushed for me to get this gig and I just want to publicly thank them both for their support.

Joe Carnahan was, of course, the director behind Fox’s mooted, now dead Daredevil reboot.

Millar also used the post as a chance to update progress on his own Millarworld books; apparently, the first issue of Kick-Ass 3 is now written, as well as the second issue of his collaboration with Frank Quitely, Jupiter’s Children.

With Avengers now on Blu-ray and DVD, it’s also the latest film to get an “Honest Trailer” pointing out some of what they perceive as the film’s inconsistencies. Captain America fans might not want to take the video to heart.

Here it is:

A little PR birdie tells me through email that Marvel’s The Avengers has another feather in its cap as of Monday: It has become Amazon.com’s most pre-ordered title in history, with pre-release orders for both physical and digital versions combined totaling more than the previous record holder, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Part 2. People just couldn’t resist the idea of taking Mark Ruffalo home with them, I guess.

I wonder how long it’ll be before we start getting updates about how well the Blu-ray, DVD and downloads are selling? Somehow, I foresee some records being broken in that direction, too…

Bleeding Cool has a very unexpected name being attached to Warner Bros’ Justice League movie, thanks to what sounds like a very awkward undercover comic store incursion by some WB marketing people:

The biggest give away for the [comic store] staff was when they asked what impact films had on comics sales. The staff replied that it was very little, unless it was an unknown character. Their immediate response was “Oh, like Jonah Hex” which didn’t fit with the rest of their limited knowledge – and they didn’t seem aware that the Green Lantern and Jonah Hex movies were not well regarded.

The staff explained how Marvel could make a movie out of any character but because it would tie into the bigger picture, it stood a greater chance of success. The interlopers were really interested in what obscure characters there were realated to the league… and then they asked the big one.

“What would fan reaction be to a Justice League movie with Frank Miller’s name attached?”

Oh, wow.

On the one hand, you can definitely understand Warners’ excitement about getting the guy who did The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City to do their big superhero movie. On the other, that’s also the guy behind Holy Terror and The Spirit movie. Potential for complete and utter disaster: Vast. Then again, they also put the guy who did Watchmen and Sucker Punch in charge of Man of Steel…

This is a fascinating attempt to try and work out what Marvel and Disney’s actual profit is from the $1.5 billion take of Marvel’s The Avengers in theaters:

Well, the studio first has to recoup the cost of production.  Given that The Avengers cost $220 million to make, movie’s profits come down to $530 million.  Additionally, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek article by James Ellis about another $100 million was spent on marketing this movie; bringing the film’s earnings down to $430 million.

However, we’re not done yet.  At this point, Disney needs to start paying Box Office-bonuses to people who get a cut of the movie’s gross profits.  For instance, after Iron Man became a huge hit, Robert Downey Jr. had his contract re-negotiated so that he’d get a cut of the final profits.  Few people will ever know how much money Downey Jr. has coming to him, but according to an article from The Hollywood Reporter by Matthew Belloni insiders have estimated that it could be as high as $50 million.  Meaning, that Disney/Marvel will have about $370 million dollars of profits from The Avengers.  This is less than 25% of the film’s total box office haul.

Much, much more at the link, but it’s worth remembering: $370 million may be less than 25% of Avengers‘ take, but it’s still an amazing amount of money.