Ed Norton Says ‘Hulk’ Sequel Not Happening

We interviewed Edward Norton at SXSW for the Tim Blake Nelson directed Leaves of Grass, in which he plays straight-laced philosophy professor Bill, and then his redneck, pot growing twin brother Brady. It’s a great movie, and Brady deserve to stand alongside lovable stoners like Jeff Lebowski and Spiccoli. Look for a review later.

Anyhow, you can read the full interview with Norton and Tim Blake Nelson soon, but in the meantime, he did give us a nugget of info on The Incredible Hulk sequel, which he and Tim Blake Nelson were both attached to. As in, is it happening?

"I don’t think so. I think it has got more to do with what Marvel is doing. I get the sense they have this grand vision of unspooling a lot of their characters and then starting to put them together. I think they can only do so many at a time. Obviously, they are doing Iron Man 2 and then getting some of the new ones out."

Which isn’t great news, considering how much I enjoyed The Incredible Hulk. How are they going to make an Avengers movie without the Hulk? Me smash.

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Jack Kirby Estate Goes After Marvel Properties

It’s as inevitable as the tides. Once something becomes a genuine industry to the tune of a $4 billion dollar marriage, the lawsuits quickly follow. On the heels of the Siegel and Shuster lawsuits that dismantled the world of Clark Kent comes a lawsuit from the estate of Jack Kirby that targets all things Marvel. According to The New York Times, the Kirby heirs have sent 45 notices of copyright infringement to Marvel, Disney, Paramount, Fox, Sony, Universal, Hasbro, and just about everyone else in the world. Kirby created (or co-created alongside Stan Lee) just about all the big Marvel characters so anyone using them must now face the the Kirbys and Toberoff & Associates. (The same law firm that handled the Siegel and Shuster lawsuits, which is no coincidence.)

The Kirbys seek to win the copyrights back to Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc., and claim some (or all) of the profits. If they win back the copyright, it wouldn’t kick in until 2014 so presumably they wouldn’t be able to claim the “back profits” the characters have made, but anything going forward would be a problem. As Bleeding Cool notes, Disney and Marvel will always own the trademarks, and the movie studios would probably also be safe in their acquisitions, but continuing to publish anything Kirby created would be problematic.

The attorney Marc Toberoff declined to comment on the case, but Disney released an official statement that shrugged off the lawsuit, noting “the notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights 7 to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.” This will undoubtedly be a case fraught with as many tangles as the Siegel and Shuster suit was. Will Marvel end up owning Iron Man’s armor, but the Kirbys will own Tony Stark and Pepper Potts? Will it create problems for Marvel Studios down the line? We shall watch and see.

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Teasers For Wolverine And Iron Man Anime From Madhouse

About a year ago, we reported that Marvel had tapped the famous animation studio Madhouse to create four anime series for release in 2010, the first two of which would be based on Wolverine and Iron Man. The anime projects will be written by renowned writer Warren Ellis, who most recently wrote the kick-ass G.I. Joe: Resolute web shorts. Now that we’re getting so close to the release dates we can finally catch a glimpse of these projects in action, and they certainly look interesting.

Twitch has dug up the teasers on Youtube, which you can find embedded after the break.

First up is the Wolverine trailer, which unfortunately looks a tad generic. The only way you could tell this was a teaser for Wolverine is from the Marvel bumper at the beginning, and the fact that the main character has three claws coming out of each hand. The main character doesn’t look like any version of Logan I’ve ever seen, and honestly he just looks like any typical big-haired anime character in a generic samurai anime. As an admitted Wolverine fanboy, this teaser disappoints.

The Iron Man teaser looks more intriguing, especially since the action lends itself so well to anime like Macross. We see Stark blowing things up good in Paris, and a villain character who is apparently also a Navy captain that has a suit of his own. Anime logic, indeed.

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Chris Hemsworth Has Been Cast For The Lead In ‘Thor’

Chris Hemsworth has been cast as the title character in Kenneth Branagh’s big screen adaptation of Marvel’s Thor. Hemsworth will also be playing the mythic comic book character in the Summer 2012 superhero team-up film The Avengers.

You might be wondering, “Who the hell is Chris Hemsworth?” While you might not recognize his name, you saw him on the big screen last weekend in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek as George Kirk. Some of my critic friends had a big problem with Hemsworth’s performance in the opening sequence, but I did not.

Nikki Finke reports that Marvel and Branagh made the final decision earlier today after reviewing Hemsworth’s test footage, which was described as “Oh my god.” Chris is currently in production on the Joss Whedon-written Drew Goddard-directed horror film The Cabin in the Woods. The Australian actor was also just cast as the lead role in MGM’s Red Dawn remake last week.

He’s a virtual unknown in the United States, but he was a star on a successful television series back in Oz (171 episodes of Home and Away) and was on the 2006 Australian version of Dancing with the Stars.

Written by Mark Protosevich, the story has been described as being “like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god”.

Marvel will self-finance the production, and the film will be distributed by Paramount Pictures. Marvel has announced a June 17th 2011 release date for the film.

Discuss: What do you think of Hemsworth as Thor?

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Marvel’s Updated Movie Release Schedule

There’s been some rumblings about “Iron Man 2″ and “Thor” in the news lately.  If things go according to plan, Marvel is going to become a movie powerhouse with all the projects they have coming out.

Marvel has just released a press release stating the new dates.
Iron Man 2 on May 7, 2010 (unchanged)
Thor on June 17, 2011 (changed from July 16, 2010, that makes sense)
Spider-Man 4 on May 6, 2011
Captain America on July 22, 2011 (changed from May 6, 2011)
The Avengers on May 4, 2012 (changed from July 15, 2011)

The plan is to have all the movies (except most likely the Sony produced Spider-Man) interwoven together for the release of The Avengers.  We will get a Marvel superhero movie each summer from 2010 to 2012.

Start saving your money for popcorn…

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New Comics Shipping For The Week Of 3/11/09

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #11 DKR
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT WOLVERINE
RESIDENT EVIL #1 (OF 6)
WALKING DEAD #59
MARVEL YOUR UNIVERSE #1

Marvel Gets Samuel Jackson For Nine Movies!

Here’s a bedtime story about, amongst other things, economies of scale.

After appearing in the post credits geek-tease on Iron Man, Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury was slated for a bigger, better showing in the next installment. Seemed like a sure thing, until Jackson himself cast the assumption into doubt. Other stories started surfacing about cost-cutting or, at the very least, an unexpected sense of budgetary pragmatism in the Marvel movie bursary (Don Cheadle in, Terrence Howard out, Mickey Rourke in, out, in, out and shake it all about). Our collective popcorn dreams of more Samuel-powered Fury seemed to be a burst bubble…

Not any more. The Hollywood Reporter are telling us that Jackson has been signed for appearances in nine more Marvel motion pictures - including Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, possible sequels to these and, perhaps most interestingly of all, the lead in their in-development S.H.I.E.L.D movie.

Samuel L. Jackson really does have better things to do than spend nine times the typical tentpole schedule mucking about in an eye patch, but by keeping eight of these appearances down to managable cameos, or so I’d assume, he at once gets to keep his integrity, his comic book cred, and blank pages in his planner for more exciting things.

And, I hope, a reasonable slice of greenbacked recompense.

There’s mild intrigue in the list of films we can expect to see Fury cropping up in. Appearances in Thor and Captain America pretty much confirm that previously rumored directions for the projects - being Valhalla bound and period set respectively - are now scrapped in favor of cross-over-tastic contemporary settings.

Getting Jackson to ink for all nine pictures now means Marvel can offer him a decent enough payday with the promise of repeated returns on this investment in the future. The only risk is the off chance we all fall out of love with Jackson - maybe if he’s caught plying kids with Jesus Juice or burying a body in the woods this might happen, but other than that: fat chance.

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Trailer

The trailer is out for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and it looks to be a ‘Civil War’ this time around…

Lines are drawn as Iron Man leads the Pro-Registration side while Captain America leads the Anti-Registration side. You must pick a side and fight to determine the fate of the Marvel Universe and humankind.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 will be released on the following platforms:
Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, Wii, Nintendo DS

Trailer after the break… Read more

Marvel, Perlmutter, Lee and Arad Sued For $750 Million

Shareholders of an ill-fated Stan Lee venture are seeking more than $750 million in profits from films and other works based on Marvel comic characters such as “Spider-Man,”"X-Men” and “Iron Man.”

The lawsuit was filed Monday in a Manhattan federal court on behalf of shareholders of Stan Lee Media Inc. Defendants include Lee, his partner Arthur Lieberman, Marvel Entertainment Inc. and its chairman Isaac Perlmutter, and former Marvel Studios president Avi Arad.

The suit names four shareholders who live in Florida, California and Canada. Their lawyer, Martin Garbus, said the suit is aimed at reclaiming money for all Stan Lee Media Inc. shareholders.

The lawsuit claims profits from Lee’s comic creations belong to the company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2006. The suit claims Lee, Marvel and others have violated Stan Lee Media’s copyright interests and that the firm is due profits from all properties, including blockbuster films that were made after 1998 and based on Lee’s creations.

The lawsuit’s allegations were immediately rebuffed, with Marvel issuing a statement that said the lawsuit is filled with “ridiculous claims.”

Lee’s attorney, Mark W. Williams, said: “We look forward to a positive resolution for Stan Lee and his family.”

Marvel also claimed the lawsuit features claims that have been pursued in previous cases.

Garbus said Monday’s suit differs in that it names Lee, Arad and Perlmutter. “It’s a very different lawsuit,” Garbus said. “It’s different money.”

He said he suspects that Lee, who once sued Marvel over profits from his creations, entered into an agreement that deprived Stan Lee Media of the windfall from blockbuster movies such as the “Spider-Man” and “X-Men” trilogies.

“He made a deal,” Garbus said of Lee’s confidential settlement that led to his reconciliation with Marvel. “That money should have gone to the corporation.”

Source: ComingSoon.net

Captain America, Daredevil Comic And Film News

Ed Brubaker, who writes Captain America and Daredevil comic books for Marvel, told reporters to expect a big shock in the upcoming 50th issue of the Captain America series he writes. Leading up to that, the stories of the new Captain, Bucky and Sharon Carter (who killed Steve Rogers while brainwashed) will get complicated. Brubaker also has news about the coming Captain America movie, as well as other Marvel films he may be involved with.

“Lots of big stuff is coming,” Brubaker said in a group interview last week in Universal City, Calif. “This summer’s going to be really exciting, big stuff with Captain America coming up. Currently in the storyline, Bucky is sort of the new Cap, and he’s being faced with this horrifying past as the Winter Soldier. So that’s all sort of coming to a head. We’ll have a whole issue soon devoted to Sharon Carter and her memories of the day that Captain America died and starting to see things from a different perspective, actually; maybe learn some new mysteries.”

In the Daredevil universe, a familiar villain will return. “Kingpin’s about to come back to town, and it’s not going to be pretty,” Brubaker said. “I just saw some pages this morning from an issue that’s all the Kingpin, that’s a solo issue about the Kingpin in Spain.”

Brubaker added that he’s also busy starting a new comic-book series. “[I] just launched a new book called Incognito that is about a guy who’s like sort of a pulp villain living in witness protection,” he said. “That’s a huge sellout nationwide, actually, and we’re going back to print on that. I’m [still] writing Captain America. Daredevil, just finishing up a big storyline in that, and a couple special projects for this coming summer that I can’t talk about yet. Really big Marvel stuff, not crossovers, but big Marvel stuff. You’ll like it if you read comics.”

As more Marvel movies go into development, Brubaker expects to be involved in a Captain America film as well. “I think I’m going to,” he said. “I’ve talked to the Marvel Studios guys, and I think I’m going to be part of the brain trust on that, like they had for Iron Man. They’ve talked to me about it already. I talk to those guys a lot.”

As for the rumored Daredevil movie reboot, Brubaker is not in the loop. “I mean, I’ll be involved if they want me to be, but no,” he said. “I’ll be involved in any of that stuff they want me to be. I’m just trying to weasel my way in on as much of it as I can.”

The movie Brubaker really wants to see is Iron Fist, which was one of Marvel’s earliest movie proposals in a version Kirk Wong would have directed, starring Ray Park. Lately, Iron Fist has been on the back burner with director Steve Carr.

“I’m really, really pressuring them to do an Iron Fist movie, because I think that would just be awesome,” Brubaker said. “With our take on it, it’d be great, I think. They’re interested, so we’ll see. I’m hopefully going to meet with them tomorrow and just try to push them some more. They’re interested in it. Marvel Studios has a lot of plans, though, so I’m just trying to sort of get my way in as soon as I can.”

Source: Scifi Wire

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