Christopher Nolan says his next "Batman" movie will be his last

Bad news for those who wanted the "Batman" franchise to continue on forever. Chistopher Nolan, whose recent hit "Inception" went on to gross more than $800 million at the box office, has admitted that his next time helming the series will be his last.

"I must say that I'm glad - I'm very, very glad - to be embarking on the last chapter of our 'Batman' saga without any sense of obligation or duty to the studio," he told Entertainment Weekly.

The next "Batman" action-adventure, titled "The Dark Knight Rises," is currently in pre-production. It will once again star Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Michael Caine as his beloved butler, Alfred.

While most moviegoers are yearning for news of a possible "Inception 2" film, Nolan wouldn't confirm or deny any plans. However, the director explained that it was a relief to have a break from writing a completely original screenplay.

"I love working within the realm and rules of our 'Batman' world. It's kind of nice to have someplace to go that I'm super-excited about," he told the news outlet.

http://www.familyvideo.com/entertainmen ... e-his-last

Hmm, we'll see...

Thor Movie Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7qku9Qj6ts

Films are so bad these days you can nearly tell how it's gonna go by the trailer, but I'm happy to say that wasn't bad at all

Marc Webb's Spider-Man reboot nabs another villain and another set of parents

Director Marc Webb is continuing to fill out the cast of his 3D Spider-Man reboot ahead of the movie's impending shoot.

Heat Vision Blog have broken the news that Irrfan Khan, best known for playing a police inspector in Slumdog Millionaire, is in discussions to appear as an unspecified villain in the movie.

Annie Parisse (Law & Order, and more recently The Pacific) is in talks to play Khan's villain's wife.

Roger Dodger's Campbell Scott and Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) are being lined up to play Peter Parker's parents. It's not yet known if they'll be appearing in flashback, prologue or some other guise.

The as-yet-untitled reboot is due for release in 2012, and already has Andrew Garfield as the webslinger, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. Rhys Ifans was the first villain to be cast, and he's playing Dr Curt Connors (AKA The Lizard).

Parker already has some adoptive parents lined up in the form of Martin Sheen and Sally Field.

Iron Man 3 will be sequel to Thor and The Avengers

Jon Favreau has talked again about the status of Iron Man 3, stating that the threequel will be a continuation of the big screen adventures of Thor, Hulk, Captain America and The Avengers.

While promoting new movie Cowboys & Aliens, the director discussed how the story of Iron Man 3 would be entirely dependent on the fall-out of the other Marvel movies coming out next year.

“Kevin Feige, who’s been involved with superhero movies with Marvel movies since the X-Men films, is very aware of his path and how to weave [things together],” says Favs.

“So in theory, Iron Man 3 is going to be a sequel or continuation of Thor, Hulk, Captain America and Avengers… This whole world… I have no idea what it is. I don’t think they do either, from conversations I’ve had with those guys.”

This much we pretty much already knew, but it’s good to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Though Favreau is still yet to fully commit to a third Iron Man, we assume he’ll need to get started on a script soon if he wants to avoid a repeat of Iron Man 2 – which was criticised by audiences for not having a strong enough story.

Iron Man 3 is scheduled for release on 3 May, 2013.

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Still haven't seen IM2, but God help them if those other films don't leave them much breathing space...

Marvel's Kevin Feige talks about the studio's upcoming projects

Avengers, Ant-Man, Black Panther...


In a live-chat with Hero Complex, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has revealed a number of details on the studio's upcoming projects.

The comments are short and succinct, but they provide in interesting glimpse into the future of Marvel's big screen output.

Talking about Iron Man's suit in The Avengers, Feige stated: "Joss would kill me if I gave anything away, but I will say that the evolution you saw his armour take in IM2 will continue in The Avengers."

On Thor's alter ego, he claimed: "People looking for a reference to Don Blake in the Thor film will find one."

Feige also said that the studio is thinking about what to do with the recently re-acquired Punisher rights: "Punisher's back in house, and various plans are in the works."

When pressed about a potential Iron Fist feature, he said: "A very talented writer is currently working on a draft... The movie is definitely inspired by that great run [the Brian Michael Bendis/ Matt Fraction series]."

He also shot down the suggestion that Marvel are planning to introduce certain characters to the screen via short films: "The shorts rumour was just a rumour, but we do like the idea."

Feige also confirmed that Edgar Wright is still working on Ant-Man: "Edgar was here a few days ago. He's already working on the next draft."

Regarding other Marvel characters that could have their own movies, the honcho said: "Moonknight's a challenging, but extremely interesting character. We've been discussing various versions of it for years." On Black Panther, Feige cryptically stated "Things are in the works."

He also showed a sense of humour when handling the Isaiah Mustafa as Luke Cage casting cheers, saying: "Love the Old Spice guy!"

So, as expected, the Marvel movie juggernaut is showing no signs of slowing. Here's hoping that Ant-Man will be Edgar Wright's directorial follow-up to Scott Pilgrim...

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/marvel-s- ... g-projects

@ The Punisher alone...

More stuff from the aborted Superman Lives project -

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/13/more-superman-lives-bad-designs-tim-burton-nicolas-cage/

Never has. never will make a good movie adaptation. There's not enough meat on the character. All he basically is 'the mafia shot my family, so now I wonder about being all tough and shooting criminals'. There is absolutely no depth to the character. Even Arnie's robot character in T2 has a wider emotional range.
And if you're looking for 'costumed vigilante' movies, there's plenty that are more interesting and better written.

This comes from an ex-Punisher fan, FWIW. Still got a ton of the comics.

In some ways, the lack of Punisher depth has a slight appeal to me. But he does seem one-dimensional at times. I've read only the Punisher MAX comics so I don't have any authority but he could easily been as deep as Batman. The Punisher Warzone film IMO explored a little more with the aspect of redemption.

The Punisher is a problem movie-wise, though I think they could do what they've done with recent comics and tie him in much more with other characters, eventually (Daredevil, Kingpin etc). I doubt there's any real intention of telling his origin story all over again; even the recent reboot settled for flashbacks.

The other 'bulking up the character' possibility to my mind would be to have him go international, a hint of Bond, where he's trying to shut down a wider organization or something. Again, you could tie that into events in NY...

He travels extensively in the comic. He's been in stories with Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Spidey, Batman... During Gulf War I he even went to Baghdad to give the ol Ay-Rabs a what for.

I know, I've read a fair few of them, some were quite good IMO

He's even been to Belfast

I love the idea of Punisher taking on the Marvel Universe - just never read it.

Some worked better than others - he's best kept away from the more 'out there' characters. I've a book where he's in Africa with Wolverine - just on the edge of plausibility for the character, I think.
The story with Wolverine and Ghost Rider in it was a cracker, but I don't know if supernatural heroes and baddies quite fit the Punisher's world.
The Batman crossovers were great, as they're both similarly motivated characters with hugely different approaches.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marvel-Universe ... 336&sr=1-5

And there's others IIRC (There's that many reprints and title changes that I haven't a clue what's happening any more ), one of my favourites was a gn where he'd pissed off Daredevil, who brought in some help... Wish I knew off-hand which book it was