Tuesday 9 November 2010

Superhero Gossip Corner/ November

2012 is shaping up to be the year of the Superhero movies. Superman: Man Of Steel, the sequel to The Dark Knight, the reboot of the Spider-Man franchise and a much anticipated Avengers movie, all set to be released in the summer of that year.

With all films set to start shooting next year, gossip and internet rumours are spreading thick and fast. Here’s some recent gossip surrounding some of them movies....





The 411....
Batman

Well rumours come and go more flippantly with this one than any other Superhero at the moment due mainly to a tight lipped director not wanting to spill much on his projects, of course I mean the outstanding Christopher Nolan.

What has been confirmed for 2012’s most anticipated sequel to the Dark Knight is it’s title, The Dark Knight Rises. Now I for one am not keen on the title, suggested titles like Gotham, Caped Crusader, The Long Halloween etc sounded much better, but it is just a title so not much fuss from me.

Fans of the Nolan Batman franchise will know by now that all the big players are back from previous outings, Batman will be played again by Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman will reprise his role as Lucius Fox, Michael Cane reprising as the beloved Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon will be reprised by Gary Oldman. Also the recent announcement of Tom Hardy being cast, although his role unknown has fans very much excited.

The big shock this week is that Christopher Nolan has announced that The Riddler is not appearing as the villain in the next outing, which had been the main rumour that has been dominating the sequel for the last two years. With that announcement comes a flurry of more gossip and speculation on just what villain he will use out of Batman’s huge gallery of rouges. Catwoman, Penguin, Hush and Black Mask all being the favourites amongst fans.

He also confirmed that Warner Brothers have agreed with him that The Dark Knight Rises will not go with the 3D format that’s dominating the cinema world right now, Nolan had stated many times that he is not a huge fan of the format and would rather experiment more with IMAX cameras, as he did with Dark Knight.

And finally, there is gossip surrounding a couple of female roles, one being a love interest for Bruce Wayne in the form of Julie Madison with reports of Vera Farmiga (Up In The Air) suggested for the role, and the other being a love interest for Jim Gordon, Detective Sarah Essen, rumoured at Charlize Theron (Monster) being up for the part.
These are very interesting female roles in the Batman universe if you follow the comics. The character of Julie Madison, engaged to Bruce Wayne in comics, is unaware of Wayne’s alter ego, she is a socialite and later becomes associated with the villain Clayface.

And with regards to the character of Detective Sarah Essen, in some comics, Essen is partnered with Gordon who later have an affair and a child, that child being implied as Barbara Gordon, A.K.A Batgirl.

The rumours and gossip with this movie are constantly changing, and I would only believe the confirmed at this point, especially in regards to the love interest with Commissioner Gordon as he was portrayed as a loving family man in the last outing.

Personally I’m still holding hope Harley Quinn makes an appearance in The Dark Knight Rises as some sort of revenge for the Joker, but anything can happen with this sequel, a reappearance of Scarecrow is likely, Harvey Dent/Two Face may live, Bane, Hush or Black Mask have just as much chance being a main villain, we will all just have to wait and see for more official announcements.


Superman Man Of Steel.

Confirmed details for this are very much the same as a few weeks ago, Zack Snyder directing with Christopher Nolan producing, General Zod will not be the villain, and it will be some sort of origin story.

The big speculation still surrounding this movie is just who will play the iconic DC superhero? And now its certainly heating up! With all the gossip surrounding The Man of Steel, I suspect that an official announcement on just who will don the red cape is just around the corner. Although many fans maybe still crying out for Tom Welling (Smallville) and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), who are still being considered, focus has shifted to True Blood star Joe Manganiello.

I wrote about him in a much earlier post stating he was very interesting and could see him playing the part well. He has been approached by Warner Brothers about the role in recent days, and although he has stated on his twitter account that negotiations are over, doesn’t mean e is out the running, in fact quite the opposite. He also tells his followers to keep their fingers crossed for him, for what? For the part!

Now Joe has the physique and presence to play a great Superman, too Italian looking for the part? I don’t really think so, although it concerns many Supe fans on web gossip forums. I like the idea, it’s definitely interesting and I like Joe as an actor.

With hope fading from a once strong rumour of Jon Hamm (Mad Men) playing Superman because of his age , other names thrown in the mix are the wrestlers The Rock and John Cena, and I can’t help but think this is someone’s idea of a bad joke and for me certainly the most unlikely.

Movieweb puts Patrick Wilson, who played Night Owl in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, in the running for the part, and although certainly sounding better than the Rock and John Cena, and himself more or less saying he would love to be considered, I don’t think he fit’s the bill for this one at all and is my least favourite choice out of the bunch of serious contenders.

One thing is for certain, development is being pushed along for the Superman reboot by Warner Brothers, much due to a legal battle over origin storylines, and they need to have this movie out by 2013. Official announcements can’t be to far behind of who will play the lead, and what villain/s the Man of Steel will have to overcome, Bizarro, Braniac and Darkseid all being popular choices amongst fans.


Spider-Man

The latest news on the Spider-Man reboot is that Sally Field has been offered the role of Aunt Mae, and Martin Sheen is in Final Talks to play Uncle Ben, official announcement will be any day now, but its safe to say at this point it looks pretty air tight for both.

Rhys Ifans who has been cast as the baddie is still not allowed to say exactly who he is playing, but The Lizard would be a pretty safe bet, he is excited about the role and can’t wait to begin shooting his scenes.
What are your views on these movies? Leave your comments below!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I love that you are always up on the latest info, Dempsey.

So glad that Vera and Charlize, two stunning, talented "women" are up for the love interests. I would have hated to see one of those godawful, minxy starlets in the roles. Usually you can count out on 30 and 40 something men having 18 or 20 something love interests in these movies. Please no Catwoman or Penguin for the villain. Tired of them.

Sally Field is interesting for Aunt Mae. Kind of cool to see a hipper aunt instead of the elderly assisted living/nursing home candidate we usually get in film and in cartoon.

Have never seen True Blood so I have no idea who this Joe guy is, but he looks like the right person to maybe sex up the Man of Steel, who is really the most unrelatable of the three heroes here. Tom Welling did a great job of making him accessible. Chris Reeve was pure and wholesome as was Brandon Routh. I'd still like Tamoh Penikett though.

DEZMOND said...

I feel my presence throughout this post ;P

Patrick Wilson for the win!!!! :)

Dempsey Sanders said...

re: Melissa Bradley
Thank you, True Blood is not bad, but you will have no doubt seen many series like it, nothing new to the table although the cast are quite eye candy

re: Dezmond
really Dezmond, whys that? are you thinking of becomming Superman lol?

DEZMOND said...

or Aunt Mae :)))

Dempsey Sanders said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dempsey Sanders said...

ahh Dez your too cute to be Aunt May ;)

levian said...

i enjoyed the last sequel but only because joker was so entertaining n intimidating! somehow him playing batman kinda lack of something, all i saw was "macho", n that was it.

Anonymous said...

'The Dark Knight Rises'??
Lame!
Also, stop making Batman death-growl so much, please!

But yeah, I hope they pick a bad guy(s) who can make an impact as much as those before them did.

Not at all interested in them reboots whatsoever, man (though seeing Bizarro would be way neat).
It may have "worked" with The Hulk, but they need to stop fucking around like that if they want to sell their product to me.

Jaccstev said...

"The Dark Knight Rises” is a quite decent title. Look at it like a fairy tale, it starts off in dark days where everything is going wrong in the world. Then one person decides enough is enough and wants to change the world to make it better, hence Batman. And at the end of a fairy tale is the happily ever after, so the title suggests that The Batman finally gets a break and rises and everything is good. :))

Unknown said...

Usually the title comes as a final touch to the completion of a script. So while not hinting too much of what the sequel will be about, it could also mean that the sequel is a direct continuation of The Dark Knight.

So I'm guessing the plot probably will not be too far off, perhaps Two Face and Joker (played by a new cast) may still have a part in it.

Yeah and Tom Hardy's potential here sounds really exciting!

RaShelle Workman said...

Hey Dempsey - Came by to say hi. Not sure how I'm feeling about any of these, really. We'll see. =D

TanausĂș Vilches said...

Another great post, Dempsey. I'm still not very excited about the Spider-man reboot but the fact that they might cast Sally Field has just made the film interesting. She's such a wonderful talented actress, and I'm sure she will do very good if she signs to the project.