All hail screenwriter Christopher Markus. Why? Well, he co-wrote Captain America: The First Avenger, which is nothing to be sneezed at, but it’s his dream villain for the follow-up that has entirely won my love:

I love MODOK and I think you could make a terrifying movie with MODOK but nobody seems to be on my side at the momentum.

Dear Everyone At Marvel Studios: YES PLEASE TO THIS PLEASE. It gets better; Markus sees Peter Dinklage in the role:

I will win you over to Peter Dinklage as MODOK. If he came around the corner and you saw him floating there you would be terrified. It would be amazing… In [the first] movie, the great thing is [the visual effects and makeup team] really pulled off the Red Skull. It doesn’t look like a mask. it looks like it’s fully integrated into his flesh. And I want to see what they can do with MODOK.

Seriously, do we have to kidnap Joe Quesada to make this happen? Because I know enough hardcore Kirby fans that that could probably happen, if it needs to.

When the shadowy first image showed up from Superman: Man of Steel, we wondered, along with many fans, if the well-placed shadow was hiding the red trunks or not. Turns out, not.

The image, from Superhero Hype (click the name for a couple more), shows clearly that like his DC “New 52″ counterpart, the new movie Superman will not have red trunks as part of his costume. On the right side of the image is the black-clad villainess Faora of Krypton, as well. The guy between them dressed like Metamorpho is likely not, but dang, that’s uncanny isn’t it?

So what do you think now that we can see the full costume clearly, folks?

The Hollywood Reporter is stating that Stan Lee Media Inc is suing the producers for the newly-released (and box office disappointing) Conan the Barbarian and seeking to get 100% of the movie’s gross. The reasoning behind it is because SLMI had the Conan rights since 2000 and when the company went bankrupt, the rights were protected, however, a former attorney for Lee allegedly made an illegal deal to grant the rights to Nu Image/Millennium Films, which produced the new “Conan”.

The company claims that the transfer of the “Conan” character is void because at that time in 2002, “the shares of Conan Properties and all other assets of SLMI were part of a bankruptcy estate and protected from unauthorized transfer by the automatic bankruptcy stay.”

SLMI says that the defendants obtained relief from the automatic stay in March 2002 by getting a judge to sign off on a “Settlement Approval Order” but that this order was itself void because the defendants didn’t provide notice and give 1,800 SLMI shareholders an opportunity to protect their interests by opposing the motion to transfer Conan.

Yet, in 2002, after Conan Sales Co. reacquired the rights to Conan, it sold those rights to a Swedish company called Paradox Entertainment, which has spent the last decade attempting to revive the character in video games, comics, etc. In its lawsuit against Conan Sales Co., Paradox, and others, SLMI is demanding it be restored the rights over the franchise and the defendants turn over all the proceeds from the movie.

Most interesting of all, SLMI is still in the process of suing Stan Lee himself and Marvel Entertainment for the rights to such their most prominent (read: marketable) characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Fantastic Four and many of the other major characters in the Marvel Universe.

So what’s your take on this, readers? I thought the estate of Robert E. Howard owned the rights to Conan and his world. Just bizarre. As of today, Conan The Barbarian has only grossed $10 million, a tenth of its budget. I haven’t seen any marketing for the movie, either, so that’s not a surprising number, but disheartening as I kind of dug it.

Marvel Studios may have Comic-Con in San Diego this year, but they made a strong showing Saturday afternoon at the D23 expo, the second-ever convention held by their parent company, Disney.

May 2012′s The Avengers closed out the nearly three-hour Walt Disney Studios presentation, including an exclusive clip and surprise appearances from Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill) and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, duh) — director/screenwriter Joss Whedon, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo and the rest of the cast were busy filming, with Feige noting that there are two weeks left in production. The show had advertised appearances from “Avengers cast members,” but didn’t announce any individual actors in advance.

Avoiding Avengers movie news all together? Don’t click through to the jump. Interested in a description of a cool (yet not especially spoiler-y) sequence shown at D23? Go right ahead!

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Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is still busy filming in Cleveland and as expected, more footage and images have surfaced. These feature stars Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans in action.

The picture comes once again from ComicBookMovie.com and shows Thor and Captain America not only in their costumes but in a dirty fight. (The site has several other shots posted, some more spoiler-y than others.) Thor’s costume looks roughly the same from the one he wore in his solo film but the biggest complaint about Captain America’s new costume in the first image we showed you from the set was the characters helmet. Interesting that it’s not on during the fight, when he’d need it the most. Of course, he does look pretty roughed up so it could have flown off at some point.

The video, via the Huffington Post, is basically the images in motion. I won’t say too much but it’s a fight scene with villains so watch at your own risk. (There’s also an aerial view of another take on their website.)

What do you think of the footage (if you watched)? And what do you think of footage from The Avengers as well as several videos from the set of The Dark Knight Rises surfacing online like this so far away from the release date of both films?

The Avengers, starring Hemsworth, Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlet Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and more hits theaters May of 2012.

The first trailer for the Nicolas Cage-starred, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor-directed sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is now online, and, well, it’s definitely worth a view for the last clip alone.

Here it is, prefaced by a short introduction from Neveldine and Taylor:

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is scheduled to hit theaters on February 17, 2012.

The young actress chosen to play Selina Kyle in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Dark Knight Rises may enjoy playing the role but that doesn’t mean wearing the costume is easy.

The Hollywood Reporter posted a video of Hathway from an appearance on Chelsea Lately (although the video isn’t working for me) recently where she discussed her fitness regimen. ”I’m like living on kale and dust for training,” Hathaway told the late night host. “The catsuit’s unforgiving, man.”

Every woman who’s worn the Catwoman costume knows that but Hathaway also mentioned that it takes a lot of motivation just to get into it every day. “It takes three of us, and the movie shoots a little over six months. It’s not just focus my efforts for one day, I have to really get into it,” she said.

Though it sounds like she’s having a tough time, the actress did say she’s now enjoying her workouts to stay in shape for the skin-tight role. ”The last time we talked about how much I really don’t like working out, and I’ve kind of fallen… I really like it now. Ugh, I’m that person, like I came to L.A., got a bikini wax, went blonde and love working out!”

When host Chelsea Handler asked if she’d given up alcohol for the role Hathaway said, “I gotta have a little fun. My character is [bad], so if I were perfectly behaved, I wouldn’t be honoring her.”

Hathaway has also been recieving extra attention from the paparazzi thanks to the high-profile role. She rapped about it on Conan. Seriously, watch it:

Here’s a bit of a left-fielder: Sally Avril, also known by her alias as the attempted crimefighter Bluebird, will be appearing in 2012′s The Amazing Spider-Man feature film. Kelsey Chow, from Disney XD’s sitcom Pair of Kings, will be playing Avril.

Bluebird would definitely be one of the more obscure characters from Spidey canon to appear in a movie. She was a background character that appeared as part of Flash Thompson’s entourage back in Amazing Fantasy #15, and was then fleshed out as a major supporting player in Kurt Busiek and Pat Oliffe’s acclaimed ’90s series Untold Tales of Spider-Man, where she misguidedly took on the superhero identity of Bluebird.

It doesn’t look like we’ll see that side of Avril in the movie, though. In an interview with Daemon’s TV, Chow calls the role a “very small, little thing” that only took a day to shoot. Still, it’s clear that the film, directed by Marc Webb, reached deep into the bench to round out it’s cast. Could Jason Ionello be far behind?

The Amazing Spider-Man is scheduled to be released on July 3, 2012.

Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. I showcased some fancy Catwoman art last week in honor of the reveal of Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises. This week the remake of Fright Night hits theaters and instead of using this as an excuse to search for David Tennant related items on Etsy, I chose to stick with the film’s theme of hunting vampires.

You won’t see the Boys and Girl Scouts of America handing out this merit badge. And that’s exactly why you need it. User StoriedThreads will help you inform everyone of your accomplishment with this Vampire Hunter Patch. Measures three inches and runs $7.  (more…)

You’ve seen Captain America come to life on the big screen thanks to director Joe Johnson and actor Chris Evans but that was a period piece. How will Cap look in modern times in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers film? Now we know.

Celebrity-Gossip.net captured pictures of the actor on set in Cleveland, Ohio recently where The Avengers has been filming. “The Captain America hunk donned a pair of sunglasses along with a black cloak as he shot scenes on the mock 42nd Street set,” they wrote. But of course, he did eventually have to take them off to shoot and that’s how we get our first look. Three more shots after the jump! (more…)

Pictures of a camouflaged Tumbler — the Batmobile-equivalent in the Christopher Nolan-directed Batman films — from The Dark Knight Rises showed up online earlier this month, and the past few days have brought fan-shot videos of what appears to be a flying vehicle (for lack of a better term at this week, let’s call it a Batwing) on the Dark Knight Rises set. Here are two:

Following last week’s reports that Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman stunt double crashed and took out an IMAX camera, the new Batwing has already been involved in an on-set accident. Movieweb reports that the Batwing hit a street lamp, damaging the right side of the vehicle and prompting an hour’s worth of repairs. No actors were hurt in the crash.

The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012, so we’ve still got months of photo and video leaks to look forward to.

Jason Todd may not be too worried about what his nether regions look like in costume but actor Andrew Garfield certainly gave it a lot of thought when he took on the role of Spider-Man in Marvel’s latest film.

It seems with great package comes great responsibility when talking about how to deal with the male crotch in superhero film. Entertainment Weekly (who were the ones who brought the actor’s parts up at Comic-Con) writes, “When asked if there were long conversations about whether to err on the side of being too Ken-doll androgynous vs. too bulbously revealing (especially since the film is in 3-D!), Garfield laughed and blushed.”

“Um, yeah, there are long discussions about this stuff,” Garfield said. “There has to be because it’s got to be handled with sensitivity. It has to be non-offensive, which takes some tools.”

Garfield told THR that he and director Marc Webb were cautious about this. ”I don’t think it should be the main attraction of the costume.” he said. “I don’t think it should be what people are focusing on.”

Besides dealing with his Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Wang, Garfield wanted to focus on how to actually move in the costume. For this, he studied of Muhammad Ali and soccer star Ronaldo, as well as the 2008 documentary Man on Wire. “The non-fiction account of tight-rope walker/daredevil Philippe Petit, who snuck up to the top of New York’s World Trade Center in 1974 and crossed on a rope from one building to the other,” wrote THR.

“Man on Wire was something I wanted to capture in playing Spider-Man,” said Garfield. “The feeling that it gave me of this human being giving something so spectacular and hopeful and magical to a mass of people for nothing other than generosity.”

The Amazing Spider-Man (and his Spider-Wang) swing into theaters July 3, 2012.

I’m usually one to avoid spoilers if I can help it but for some reason I click on anything and everything The Dark Knight Rises related lately. This video is a behind-the-scenes look at a fight between Christian Bale’s Batman and Tom Hardy’s Bane, rehearsal and shooting, so if want to go into the film fresh, don’t watch.  (more…)

GK Films has picked up the rights to Image Comics’ The Vault by Sam Sarkar and Garrie Gastony, the first issue of which, just hit stores last week.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The underwater sci-fi story centers on a group of divers who, off the coast of Nov Scotia, uncover a sarcophagus with unusual remains and inadvertently unleash an ancient evil.” They also mention that Sarkar and Gastonny previously created the supernatural Western graphic novel Calberfor Radical Publishing.

Johnny Depp and his production company, Infinite Nihil’s, president Christi Dembrowski will produce the adaptation along with GK’s Graham King and Tim Headington.

Anyone pick this up last week? It’s apparently only a three issue series so it will be interested to see how it’s adapted.

We may have little, shy of a teaser trailer and some production shots, from The Amazing Spider-Man, due in theaters in 2012, but the sequel is already underway, with a release date announced by Sony Pictures today.

May 2, 2014, less than two years after the July 3, 2012 release date of the first film, is the tentative release for the sequel.

Now that we’ve looked 3 years in the future, let’s all take a step back and let the first Marc Webb directed, Andrew Garfield starring film come out first, shall we?

Now that the first image of British actor Henry Cavill as Superman has been released (and dissected by the internet), the star can share his own thoughts on the famous costume and the work it involves.

“They just put it on, I turned around and look in the mirror and you can’t really play it cool – you sort of guffaw and laugh. I thought ‘OK, holy hell, this is real, it’s not a joke anymore. This is it…you’re doing it, you’re right in the middle of it,’” Cavill told TotalFilm.com. He also said wearing the costume is “extremely cool” and, “There’s no other feeling like it.”

Being in the iconic suit requires a certain degree of physical fitness to say the least and the actor, who also stars in the upcoming Immortals, has had to stay quite toned for a while thanks to the back-to-back roles. Speaking to Newsarama a few months ago, Cavill said, “Biggest challenge on [Immortals] was maintaining the physical shape because it was extraordinary difficult with the hours we had and like I said, fourteen hours minimum with a half hour lunch and you can’t eat that much and you’re in every day. There’s no time to sit back and relax and settle and then have your recovery day and have to go back in. It was nonstop brutal.”

Since this was before filming started on Man of Steel, he also looked to the future, “I think on Superman it will be slightly different because I’ve approached it with the experience of Immortals and I’ve said, ‘Look, guys, I’m going to need recovery time and I’m going to need this, I’m going to need that, if possible, please, please.’”

For his role as Superman, Cavill told TotalFilm, “I’m on 5000 calories a day… You’ve got to eat protein first, then a little bit of carbs…you’ve gotta keep your hunger levels going. I’m training two and a half hours a day, pushing my body beyond its normal limits, putting on a lot of muscle mass and just making myself look like Superman.”

When speaking to Newsarama about taking on such a famous character Cavill said, “I think the most difficult thing with Superman is going to be making everyone…doing a true justice to the role while reimagining it.” The actor couldn’t give any plot details at that time or now to TotalFilm but did say that he’s focusing on “being as true as I can be to the original character and who the character is.”

The fact that a British man was going to play an American superhero ruffled a few feathers but Cavill told TotalFilm, “I’m very proud to be British and playing an iconic American superhero…it means I’m doing something right somewhere.” When speaking to Newsarama he said, “Superman is, I think these days he’s such a universal idea. And yes, he was raised in America as a character but I don’t think the Brits see it any different, they see him as the coolest, biggest and best superhero out there.”

Man Of Steel is set to hit theaters in June 14, 2013.

Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive, actor Laurence Fishburne has been cast as Perry White in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel.

Needless to say, this is going to be a hot button topic. “White has traditionally been a hard-charging, old fashioned newspaperman, who relies on his ace reporters, Clark and Lois, to get the big scoop,” said EW. The news comes less than a day after Marvel announced their new, non-traditional casting for Ultimate Spider-Man in the comics (Read that spoiler here).

EW writes, “The casting resolves the question of what Laurence would be up to following his departure this May from CBS’ long-running CSI after just over two seasons.” White has previously been played by Jackie Cooper, Frank Langella and Lane Smith just to name a few. Fishburne joins actors Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe and Julia Ormond already cast in the new Superman film, Man of Steel, which starts shooting in the fall and is scheduled for a June 14, 2013 release.

So Superman fans, how does this casting sit with you? Can you see Perry White as anything but a graying, white man? I’m kind of liking this idea.

Does the date February 16, 2007 bring back any fond memories for you? Wrangling up a group of friends, heading to the cinema, sitting down with popcorn in hand, and watching an opening night screening of Ghost Rider? Well, we’ve got your plans for the five-year anniversary of that auspicious occasion: Deadline reports that sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance has an official release date of February 17, 2012, a half-decade since the debut of the original film, almost to the day. I actually think that date was set for a while, but now it’s officially official. Nicolas Cage is returning as the title character, but the rest of the cast and crew are pretty much all new.

There aren’t a lot of promotional images out there for the movie yet, but here’s a bike prop that was on display at Comic-Con:

Cully Hamner compares the opening of RED the comic (which he illustrated, from a Warren Ellis story) to RED the movie:

The most overt thing that survived the translation was the opening scene featuring Bruce Willis’ retired agent character, Frank Moses (Paul Moses in the comic). Now, the beats of the sequence survive: Moses is alone and lonely, marking time in his retirement, when he is suddenly attacked by what’s called a “wet team”—assassins who expect to get bloody. Moses dispatches them like the professional killer he’s always been, gathers supplies, and escapes into the night to…

What, exactly? In our comic, it’s simply to exact revenge, which Moses does with cold efficiency before finally committing what is essentially suicide. In the movie, it’s to protect the woman he loves, reassemble his old team, and discover the reason for the attack. These are wildly different results from what is essentially the same scene.

But let’s look at that opening scene again. As I said, the beats are all still there, but the subtext is very different.

It’s interesting to me to see creators talk about movies based on their work that end up so different from what they’d originally created; this is a (too) short piece, but worth taking a look at – Now, if only we could get a series of these for movies like A History of Violence, Whiteout and so on…

Marvel Studios are on a speeding bullet train it seems. Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger have done well at the box office and footage from The Avengers seems to indicate the trend will last. Now it looks as if Marvel is turning their gaze to the Sorcerer Supreme – Doctor Strange.

According to the website Twitch, the writing team of Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Donnelly have turned in a Doctor Strange script and Marvel is going forward with the property. “Marvel has drafted a short list of directors to approach on the title and is forwarding the current script to each to try and sign someone up to ‘oversee continued development,’” writes Twitch.

Oppenheimer and Donnelly previously worked on the Conan reboot, soon to hit theaters, Dylan Dog and Cowboys and Aliens. A good chunk of Marvel’s main hero properties have been utilized at this point and while there’s been a great deal of science-fiction involved with those properties, fantasy for the most part has been steered clear of. Was Doctor Strange really the next natural choice or would it have been a bolder move for Marvel to give one of their heroines a solo shot?

This early in the game nothing is certain but there is one bit of information that may lead us to believe this Doctor Strange movie will happen, Strange’s Orb of Agamotto was one of the artifacts seen in Odin’s vault in Thor. With Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 scheduled for release in 2013 it seems unlikely we’d see this one for a while.