After 18 years of films, people have grown conditioned to have zero expectations for an upcoming X-Men film. Most people anyway, as famed comic book writer Chris Claremont is really setting himself up here as he recently proclaimed X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be to the franchise what Casino Royale was for James Bond. Claremont must’ve raised an eyebrow or two in his interview, because he immediately offered justification in his quote (via Screen Rant):
Amazon Studios is in development on a Conan the Barbarian series, based on the classic books by Robert E. Howard, according to Deadline. Conan comes to us from Ryan Condal, co-creator of Colony, Miguel Sapochnik, who directed some of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Game of Thrones, including “Hardhome” and “Battle of the Bastards,” Warren Littlefield who executive produced Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale, Pathfinder Media and Endeavor Content. Conan was created and written by Condal. He will executive produce with Sapochnik and Littlefield, with Sapochnik directing. Fredrik Malmberg and Mark Wheeler will executive produce as well through Pathfinder Media.
Production has begun on New Line Cinema‘s Shazam!, directed by David F. Sandberg (Anabelle: Creation). Shazam! stars Zachary Levi (Chuck) as the titular DC Super Hero, along with Asher Angel (Andi Mack) as Billy Batson, and Mark Strong (Kingsman) in the role of Super-Villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana. Peter Safran (upcoming Aquaman, The Conjuring and Annabelle) serves as the film’s producer.
Wesley Snipes is up to return to the silver screen as Blade…or really anybody in the MCU for that matter. The actor recently spoke to THR and said he’s down for whatever Marvel may want to do with him, be it reprising his old character or casting him as a new one:
I am very much open to all of the possibilities. If Blade 4 comes along, that is a conversation we can have. And there are other characters in the Marvel universe that, if they want to invite me to play around with, I am with that too. I think the fans have a hunger for me to revision the Blade character, so that could limit where they could place me as another character in that universe.
“It’s time you learned what it means to be a man.”
With the release of DC Comics’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, superhero fans around the world have witnessed the tense battle between Batman and Superman where Batman uses his skills and intelligence in order to fight the god-like Superman. Today, Sideshow and Hot Toys are excited to introduce the new sixth scale collectible figure of the Armored Batman (Battle Damaged Version) as a Toy Fair Exclusive item only available in selected markets!
Inspired by the fierce battle between the Bat of Gotham and Son of Krypton in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the collectible figure is fastidiously crafted based on Ben Affleck’s image as Batman in his battle damaged armored suit, featuring a newly developed battle damage armored head sculpt with single LED light-up eye, meticulously sculpted armor with battle damaged parts, muscular body with improved articulation, a LED light-up Kryptonite spear, a grapple gun, a grenade gun, and a specially designed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice themed figure stand. Batman fans, now’s the chance to bring this exclusive Armored Batman home to your collection!
Jason Statham‘s wildly action-packed Crank films were a blast to watch. They are some of the most adrenaline-fueled films that have ever been made and director Brian Taylor wants to expand the franchise and build a cinematic universe around it! And you know what? I would actually like to see how that would turn out. This could be absolutely insane!
This information came out of a conversation with Movie Crypt Podcast while talking about the possibility of seeing Crank 3 and some of the concepts he’s planning for it. After joking that “prospects for Crank 3 would be much improved if the second movie had made more than $12 at the box office,” he said:
“My feeling about Crank 3 is that Crank 3 should be as exponentially more f—ed up than Crank 2 as Crank 2 was Crank 1. Obviously, there’s been talk here and there but I’ve never really felt that creatively it was f—ed up enough to really do. Because the studio will get in contact with us: ‘What do you guys think about this?’ ‘What do you guys think about that?’ And the scenarios are always very tame compared to what I think it should be.”
Ever since Disney bought Fox and we learned that Marvel would be getting the rights to the X-Men and The Fantastic Four back, fans have been wondering, talking about, and speculating what Marvel plans on doing with these characters and when they will actually start to play with them.
During a recent interview with Vulture, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige shed some light on where he stands on all of this at the moment. After claiming that he found out about the big deal in the press like the rest of us saying, “These are big deals” and they are above his pay grade, he explained:
“The truth of the matter as I understand it is the deal has to be figured out. There’s been no communication. We’re not thinking about it. We’re focusing on everything we’ve already announced. If and when the deal actually happens, we’ll start to think more about it. Until then, we have a lot to do.”
