I missed this Ivan Brandon piece from The Awl about superhero movies and comics when it first went live, but caught it now thanks to a Tweet from Tom Spurgeon:

Today, the comics industry’s seen as a sister to the movie industry, but she’s the sister who carries the mop. Or to use another metaphor, comics are seen as a farm. Scraps of raw idea to be grown and processed elsewhere for “bigger and better” things. Look at last year’s top ten bestselling American movies, and you’ll see that nine of them were sequels. Seven were adaptations from another medium. Out of the top 10 biggest films in Hollywood in 2011, not a single one of the stories was created there.

Hollywood has become a lumbering mountain made of red tape that absorbs enormous other-media worlds like Kirby’s and then distills them down for viewing with Parental Guidance. It took 20 years to figure out how to make Spider-Man into a movie. A distillation of a single piece of literally thousands of stories told every single week in Kirby’s world. The act of emulation drags behind the speed of Kirby’s creativity.

Now more than ever entertainment is a snake scarfing down its own tail. As the box-office records collapse, the comics are imitating the movies that are imitating the comics. We size our giants down to fit in the world they were built to tower over. We’ve removed the escape from our escapism.

Good stuff. And the more Kirby adulation, the better, says I.

And this is what happens when you let smart political writers have a go at the politics of a superhero movie:

The Dark Knight Rises does indeed endorse a kind of Burkean small-c conservatism — a preference for incremental reform over convulsively deconstructive revolt. But that’s hard to square with the modern American conservative/Republican movement, which just produced a budget seeking to dismantle many of the social institutions Americans have relied on since the New Deal and the Great Society. Shoehorning Occupy into a “the Dark Knight movies are conservative” narrative requires a reductive stereotyping of the Occupiers, simplifying the nebulous movement into a collective of radical anarchists and ignoring its respect for liberal democratic forms — as demonstrated by the general assemblies — as well as the fact that it hasn’t really damaged anything other than public grass.

That’s from Jeff Spross and Zack Beauchamp’s take on the politics of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, in particular the most recent Dark Knight Rises; you should go read the rest.

Cornered during an appearance on the current Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, Anthony Russo – one of the two (with his brother Joe) directors of 2014′s Captain America: The Winter Soldier – has opened up slightly about the project, offering tantalizing hints of what’s to come… and all manner of things that he’s not allowed to say just yet (For example, “Marvel would shoot me if I answered” whether or not there are other Avengers appearing in the movie, he says).

When asked if the movie is based on the existing Ed Brubaker story, Russo answered with “In a way. I mean, they’re all sort of rooted in what’s come before, but they’re all also their own jumping-off point as well,” circling back to say that the script was what attracted him to the movie in the first place:

Well, we like the [story]. I can’t talk too much about specifics, that’s the way Marvel handles things. I can say in general that there’s sort of a darker, edgier sensibility at work there that we found appealing, and that is going find its way into Captain [America] in the modern day.

He also adds that he and his brother are “going to have lunch with Brubaker soon,” and that “certainly everybody is aware [of what's in the comics], has read everything, is aware of all their other material. But [Marvel Studios does] like each thing to be its own, organic process, which is nice.”

Amongst other avoided spoilers, Russo ducked the question of whether Hayley Atwell will make an appearance as Sharon Carter, whether we’ll see another side of SHIELD (Although he admitted, “I’m very interested in that, but yeah, I can’t really say more”), and whether or not we’ll see some more flashbacks to the 1940s (“Certainly, Cap has this complicated history,” he says).

He also addressed the nervousness some may feel about two directors more known for their relationship with NBC’s Community than anything else being hired for the movie:

There’s a little-known side to my brother and I, which is, we didn’t start out as comedy directors. We started out in the mid-’90s — we made this credit card movie that made the festival circuit in ’97, that Steven Soderbergh saw at the same time he [was showing] “Schizopolis” on the festival circuit. He loved our movie and offered to produce something for us, so we went into a cycle of writing — we wrote three scripts, only one of which was a comedy. That was “Welcome to Collinwood,” and when he formed his company with George Clooney, he wanted to make something with us, so we showed him these three scripts and he picked “Collinwood,” and from that point forward, we were comedy directors. And we’ve loved doing it, but we’ve always had another side to ourselves… Marvel is this incredible machine with all these amazing people who work there. That’s part of their confidence and why they can go outside the box [in choosing] directors, because they have people there who know everything. They said to us early on in the interview process, “We don’t expect you to know anything [about special effects and so forth] — you don’t have to know everything about this stuff, because we’re here for that.” They’re very respectful of directors. They’re an amazing company to work with.

And don’t worry; they’re also fans of the source material, just like us:

We were comic book geeks from a young age and big fantasy geeks. We got to talk to [Marvel] in detail about that history. They knew that we understood the brand really well and the characters really well. It was a long process, actually, of talking to them over and over again, through a series of meetings over a long period of time. And I think they just — we were really passionate about the movie, incredibly passionate about the movie. They felt that, and they felt like it was the right match.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is due for release in April 2014, with production due to start next year.

You will believe a man can fish in the Man of Steel trailer that’s been attached to The Dark Knight Rises in theaters. I have to admit, I really, really like this teaser; it’s far more subtle and beautifully shot than I would’ve expected from a Zack Snyder movie, and gives me hope that the finished version will be something more than Sucker Punch. But what do you think? Too slow? Too abstract? Or just enough to make you look forward to next summer…?

Everything about this seems fishy: Latino Review, the blog that broke the news that Marvel’s second 2014 movie release was going to be Guardians of The Galaxy, is claiming to have received an email from a “security expert” working with Marvel attempting to find out who leaked the information in the first place. The letter, if genuine, is surreally “good cop”:

The executives at Marvel are extremely upset regarding the release of this information and they have instructed me to find you and ascertain how you received it.  My goal is to accomplish this in a quiet manner. I do not want to see you or anyone else get into trouble nor do I want to see anyone’s career be tarnished because of this.  However I am very confident that through your efforts and mine, we will be able to work through this together.

“If you provide me with your source, I will make it worth your effort,” the letter says at one point. For some reason, I can’t shake the feeling that this seems like a prank – If only because the letter seems so over-the-top, I can’t take it seriously – but if not, I guess that we know that Marvel Studios takes its secrecy very seriously…

Did The Avengers finally disprove the traditional belief that comic book movies not actually moving the needle on comic book sales…? According to Tom Brevoort, yes:

It did happen with AVENGERS, big time. The sales of, for example, the INFINITY GAUNTLET collection went through the roof as people came out of the theaters interested in finding out more about that guy at the end of the film. Just because you don’t see the result from your limited vantage point doesn’t mean that it’s not there.

It strikes me that Watchmen was said to benefit from its movie, too; I wonder if the secret is to have one, core tie-in book for movie audiences to go to before/after the movie, as opposed to multiple books to fit a variety of tastes? Is flooding the market with, say, Thor or Captain America collections ultimately giving people too much choice, so they end up walking away…?

Excited about The Dark Knight Rises? You’re not the only one:

Several days before it debuts, ”The Dark Knight Rises” is generating more audience excitement than the three-highest grossing movies of the last 12 months.

Pre-release research shows director Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie is exceeding mega-hits “The Avengers,” “The Hunger Games” and the final “Harry Potter” film in the critical “first choice” category that studios use to gauge moviegoers’ interest in their upcoming releases.As a result, “The Dark Knight Rises” is expected to generate more than $180 million in ticket sales this weekend, according to people who have seen the data but are not authorized to speak publicly. It even has a chance, these people said, of beating the $207-million opening weekend record set by “The Avengers” in May.

What is likely to keep Avengers on top is that it was a 3D movie and could charge higher prices for tickets than the non-3D DKR. So, even if DKR sells more tickets, it could still make less money overall. In a strange way, that could be a best case scenario for any conflict between the two movies: Everyone could win.

Only two days now…

The Man of Steel panel had all sorts of reveals, including a minute and a half teaser that will debut before The Dark Knight Rises next week, along with teaser poster was also revealed and later released on the internet soon after.

Where as Superman Returns took a minimalist approach and just unveiled the symbol on its first poster, we get a half glimpse of the Man of Steel and a closer look on the material on his costume. The dark pallet still does nothing for me, but from what I’ve read of the teaser itself, this take will be something VERY different from anything we’ve seen before, but still familiar.

Does the poster whet your appetite, readers?

Man of Steel is scheduled for released on June 14th, 2013.

Does a nine second clip really constitute enough of a first look at a new movie? If so, here’s your first look at Item 47, the new short that’ll accompany Marvel’s The Avengers on DVD and BluRay, as Lost‘s Titus Welliver sends out a SHIELD agent with a familiar name to retrieve an artifact lost during Loki’s invasion…

…Agent Sitwell? Jasper, is that you?

(Via)

The Dark Knight Rises had its first screening for critics on Friday… Except, well, it didn’t, really:

The computer device that syncs the picture and sound broke about 1 hour into the screening. Junket reporters, local press, and members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association were at the IMAX at the AMC at Citywalk to see the film. A strict no-guest policy with wristbands were issued for entrance. The movie started promptly at 7 PM. But at about 8:15 PM, as a new reel began, the dialogue between Christian Bale and Michael Caine was clearly out of sync - with a full 5- to 10-second lip-flap after lines were spoken. After a few minutes the crowd shouted for a projectionist. The movie was stopped and the lights went up. A 40-year employee of IMAX said that this has never ever happened to him before. After 20 minutes the man came out again and said the sync computer had failed and could not be rebooted.

Critics had to return at 8AM the next morning to try again. The computer failure is unusual, but it’s not unique; the same thing apparently happened to screenings of Prometheus and, yes, The Dark Knight at the same theater previously. Here’s hoping that it doesn’t end up being a common problem when the movie is released a week on Friday.

(For those wondering, advance word from the Saturday screening is very positive, although time will tell if it stays that way; Prometheus also had great early buzz after screenings, as well, remember.)

With this film, the last in his Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan completes the story arc he commenced with 2005’s “Batman Begins.” He recalls, “We were all very excited to bring this tale full circle; that was our chief inspiration for returning to Gotham. We also felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to fulfill expectations based on the first two movies while giving the audience something they hadn’t seen before. It was a tricky balance.”

What’s that, you say? You’d like to read the Production Notes from The Dark Knight Rises for yourself? Oh, okay – Look at the far right of the menu here, then. Be warned: There’re a lot of spoilers in there.

Congratulations, webhead:

Sony Pictures’ superhero reboot  The Amazing Spider-Man opened with $35M Tuesday. (Of that $35M, IMAX took in $4 million.) It easily set a new domestic record for a Tuesday opening – helped by its 3D premium pricing – and is ahead of the original 2D Transformers ($27.8M) that debuted on Tuesday July 3rd, 2007. ”That is one huge number,” a Sony exec gushed to me last night. “Unbelievable start to what should be a very exciting 6 days.”

The reviews have been mostly positive, and Cinemascore reports suggest that the word-of-mouth about the movie is very good. Is the movie going to upend low expectations and become a smash to rival The Avengers…?

Update, 7/6: The Marc Webb-directed Amazing Spider-Man netted the second-highest Fourth of July in box office history, Deadline reports, leading to a likely better-than-estimated six-day total. Box Office Mojo lists the Spidey reboot at a current domestic total of $58.4 million, which they say is on track for a $140 million stretch over the film’s first six days, which is above Sony’s forecast of $110-$120m in that period — which puts it well below the six-day take of 2004′s Spider-Man 2 and 2007′s Spider-Man 3, but close to the $144 million made in six days by the original Spider-Man film in 2002.

Update, 7/3: Amazing Spider-Man had an impressive midnight opening last night, making $7.5 million according to Deadline. Though that’s well short of the $18.7 million earned by Avengers midnight showings earlier this year (or the record $43.5 million made last year by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2), as the article notes, it’s consistent with major earners like Iron Man 2, Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 and Spider-Man 3.

Original story: So much for my fears about the ol’ Parker Luck. Deadline reports:

Sources are telling me that Sony Pictures‘ The Amazing Spider-Man swept the Asian box office this weekend as the much-anticipated actioner opened early in a handful of international territories… In its first weekend of release, The Amazing Spider-Man grossed an estimated $50.2 million in 13 overseas markets in Asia while Europe remains under the influence of the Euro Cup football championships until tonight, with school vacations in full effect starting tomorrow.

KOREA earned $13.4M on 1,213 screens, capturing a 71% market share. The KW15.8B total for Thursday to Sunday is the 3rd biggest of all time for a Hollywood film, behind only the 2nd and 3rd Transformers films. This is 24% bigger than Spider-Man 3 and 10% more than Avengers… INDIA grossed $6.0M on 1,236 screens, the biggest opening ever for a Hollywood film, 74% bigger than Spider-Man 3, 73% more than Avengers, and more than double the lifetime box office of The Dark Knight.

It’ll be fascinating to see if it manages to have similar success here in the States. Just imagine a superhero movie even bigger than Avengers…

There’s a spectacularly interesting conversation between the two chief movie critics at the New York Times about the dominance of super-hero movies, why it happened and what it means in the NYT today, and it includes this great bit from AO Scott:

What the defensive fans fail or refuse to grasp is that they have won the argument. Far from being an underdog genre defended by a scrappy band of cultural renegades, the superhero spectacle represents a staggering concentration of commercial, corporate power. The ideology supporting this power is a familiar kind of disingenuous populism. The studios are just giving the people what they want! Foolproof evidence can be found in the box office returns: a billion dollars! Who can argue with that? Nobody really does. Superhero movies are taken seriously, reviewed respectfully and enjoyed by plenty of Edmund Wilson types.

We’ve made it, people. It just might not have been the “it” that people were expecting, is all. Seriously, go read the back-and-forth.

Another hero from Marvel comic books is coming to the big screen, but it’s not from Marvel Studios — and it may not be a character you’re familiar with.

Deadline reported Wednesday that The Human Fly is in development as an independent production executive produced by Eisenberg-Fisher Productions, with a screenplay from Cirque Du Soleil historian Tony Babinski. The Human Fly ran as a Marvel series for 19 issues starting in 1977, featuring a hero based on real-life stuntman Rick Rojatt — thus the tagline “The wildest super-hero ever — because he’s real!” The character is unrelated to the long-running Marvel villain of the same name, who recently appeared in Venom.

Though the Human Fly interacted with Marvel Universe characters including Ghost Rider in Human Fly #2,  like Micronauts, Rom: Spaceknight and other licensed ’70s Marvel titles, the publisher no longer has an association with the property.

Superman and Batman will be in a movie together. But it’s not Justice League — at least, not yet.

As reported by Variety, the Lego minifigure versions of both characters will be part of the forthcoming live-action/animated hybrid film Lego: The Piece of Resistance, scheduled for Feb. 28, 2014. Thus far, the film has cast Up All Night/Arrested Development actor Will Arnett as Batman, and is looking to court Channing Tatum as Superman, who hasn’t yet committed — Tatum previously worked with Lego directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller on this year’s successful comedy 21 Jump Street. Robot Chicken’s Chris McKay will co-direct.

Parks and Recreation co-star Chris Pratt will voice the lead character Emmet, an “ordinary, law-abiding Lego mini-figure who is mistaken for the most extraordinary Masterbuilder. He’s drafted into a fellowship of strangers on a quest to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the universe together.”

Lego and Warner Bros. have previously partnered on several projects featuring Lego versions of DC characters, including the Lego Batman video games, the second of which was released earlier this month. (Review here.)

(Art shown from Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes game.)

Looks like moviegoers are still into the idea of watching superheroes on the big screen:

Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man is expected to cast a wide net as it debuts over the long July 4th frame. Pre-release tracking is impressive for the superhero reboot, suggesting a six-day opening of $125 million or more, the best showing of any summer film outside of box office goliath The Avengers.

Interestingly enough, that $125 million opening figure puts the movie below the openings of both Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3; the second Spidey movie in the Raimi series made $180 million in its first six days, and Spider-Man 3 made $151 million in its opening weekend alone. Is this because the movie is trapped between Avengers and Dark Knight Rises, and can’t get the air to promote itself properly…? Come on, people: Andrew Garfield looks great and who doesn’t want to see Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy?

Hey, look: It’s the trailer for the new Dredd movie:

…Okay, I have to say: I have no idea how I feel about that. The drug plot seems very “un-Judge Dredd-y,” but the “Judges in a block that they have to fight their way through” idea…? Yeah, that works. Guess the end result will rest on whether or not Karl Urban manages to make Joe Dredd come to life or not…

Dredd is released in September. I can only hope that this’ll lead a lot more people to pick up the various 2000AD collections that’re out there these days…

Following a couple of months of reports, it looks to be nearly a done deal for Joe and Anthony Russo to direct 2014′s Captain America sequel, according to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter.

THR says the two are “close to finalizing a deal,” after F. Gary Gray and George Nolfi were also considered. The Russos are definitely an unconventional choice to helm a superhero sequel — they’re best known for their work directing many episodes of acclaimed sitcoms Arrested Development, Community and Happy Endings, and their major feature film credits are limited to the little-seen Welcome to Collinwood and the critically reviled You, Me and Dupree. But as many have pointed out, that fairly consistent with past choices by Marvel Studios. it was a bit of a surprise for Jon Favreau to direct the original Iron Man, after all, and that seemed to work out pretty well for everybody.

Whether or not this means that Britta from Community, Gob from Arrested Development and Max from Happy Endings will join Steve Rogers as the new Cap’s Kooky Quartet remains to be seen, but one can certainly hope.

Captain America 2 is scheduled for release on April 4, 2014. The original film, released last summer, was directed by The Rocketeer‘s Joe Johnston, and, as you may have heard tale of, Chris Evans’ Captain America also appeared in current mega-monster-super hit The Avengers.

It looks like the success of Marvel’s The Avengers has, once again, pushed Warners into taking another pass at their own superhero team franchise: The long-awaited Justice League movie is, apparently, underway again with Will Beall now attached as screenwriter. Beall is Warners’ current go-to screenwriter, already working on reboots for Logan’s Run and Lethal Weapon for the studio, so at least we know that Warners is as serious about Justice League as they are about old Mel Gibson movies, which is… something…?