Marvel Entertainment is expanding their roster for Freeform as the network and ABC Signature have today announced Marvel’s New Warriors, a comedic live-action adaptation of the popular Marvel comic featuring young adult heroes. This marks Marvel’s first foray into comedy for a television series. The network has ordered ten 30-minute episodes slated to debut 2018.
The Hollywood Reporter brings word that the filmmaking team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will write, direct, and produce a big-screen adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible for Universal Pictures.
“For nearly a decade I’ve had to endure the ‘what about Invincible?’ question as fans have watched The Walking Dead grow into the multi-media monstrosity it has become over the years,” The Walking Dead creator said. “The answer was always that we were waiting for the right team to partner with. That team has arrived! The esteemed misters Goldberg and Rogen have proven themselves to be top-notch directors with a keen collective eye for stunning visuals after slumming it by writing hit after juggernaut hit.”
Kirkman added, “Invincible’s surprising, edgy, shocking, and oftentimes blood-soaked story couldn’t be in more capable hands. With the team of Rogen, Goldberg and Universal, I’m very confident this will be another superhero movie, in a long line of superhero movies that continues to prove that it’s a viable, thrilling genre that will keep people coming to the cinema for years to come.”
“No matter how much damage it causes our bodies, minds, and our most intimate relationships with those we love, we will not rest until Invincible is as great a movie as it deserves to be,” Rogen and Goldberg said.
In the series, which has been running continuously since 2003 thanks to Kirkman and artists Ryan Ottley & Cory Walker, Mark Grayson was a normal high school senior with a normal part-time job and otherwise normal life, except his father Nolan is the superhero Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet. At the age of 17, Mark begins to display superpowers, which come from his father being a member of the Viltrumite race, who, according to Nolan, pioneer the galaxy on a mission of benevolence and enlightenment.
Rogen and Goldberg made their feature debut with 2013’s This is the End and went on to direct The Interview. No strangers to comic book adaptations either, the pair have executive produced AMC’s Preacher, based on the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon series, and are also developing an adaptation of The Boys for Cinemax.
Warner Bros. Pictures and director James Wan (Furious 7, The Conjuring) will begin rolling cameras on Aquaman later this month, and actress Amber Heard (Magic Mike XXL, The Danish Girl) has released a video of herself training with the 87Eleven stunt team (John Wick, Captain America: Civil War) to kick a lot of butt as Mera in the film. Check it out below!
So about a month ago, we all were shown an interesting image of a Hulk looking thing with Wolverine looking claws in a test tube. Well, some new light has been shown on what many are calling ‘Hulkverine”. That sounds terrible. Please say they get a better name for it.
Anyway, the largest mystery was who or what this creature is considering Banner is dead and original Wolverine is dead. Now granted, this could be some weird resurrection cult. In a different issue of comics, namely Uncanny Avengers some ninjas from the Fist which is like a weird offshoot of the Hand stole Bruce Banner’s body and tried bringing him back to life as a Hulk Ninja. Ya. Kindof the worst combo in the world. Take what is quite possibly the WORST stealth character in Marvel and make him a ninja. That’s like turning Spiderman into a responsible adult… which I guess they did. Ok, it’s like turning Deadpool into a Pacifist… which they also did kinda recently. Fine, it’s like turning Iron Man into a Kindergarten Teacher. Am I good? Has marvel done that yet? Oh. Iron Man’s dead? ok then. We good.
This new image which was posted on Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso posted on Twitter a few days ago shows a blueprint on the Hulk with claws. Now, the biggest flaw I can imagine right from the get-go is does the Hulk stay the hulk,? Because if he shrinks and the bones are adamantium he’s gonna rip up.
We now have a little more info about where this Hulk/Wolverine is going to fit in. There is a new Weapon X that is in the comics and they are messing with all things crazy. Namely Batch H. It will play a main role in a crossover titled “Weapons of Mutant Destruction”. This crossover of the Totally Awesome Hulk and Weapon X comic series will have current Hulk, Amadeus Cho, teaming up with a team of mutants led by Old Man Logan trying to stop Weapon X from killing the mutant race. Finally, back to stories that make sense. The team that Logan leads includes Old standby’s like Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Domino and Warpath. We’ll have to see where this all leads to in April when the crossover begins but you can start reading the first issue of Weapon X and Amadeus Cho now.
Comic books aren’t known for shying away from strange subject matter. But even among brain-meltingly convoluted story lines and utterly bizarre characters, Marvel somehow managed to whip up a few moments that went further than we’d ever imagined possible. These things are meant for kids, after all. Here’s a look at the most disturbing moments in Marvel comics. Some of these events caused major controversies while others flew below the radar, but all of them haunted us after we put them down. Continue reading
ABC and Marvel screened Tuesday’s upcoming episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD at WonderCon in Anaheim, California. The episode revealed that Mallory Jansen will play Madame Hydra (AKA Viper) in the Framework. It’s the third role that Jansen will play on the series, having previously portrayed Life Model Decoy Aida and the real person she’s based on, Agnes Kitsworth. The first look above comes from EW.
“Since we’re bringing back Hydra in the Framework, we thought we’d bring it back with a force to be reckoned with,” executive producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen told the magazine. “Madame Hydra is a villain with the perfect combo of strength, sexy, and scary. We’ve thrown many challenges Mallory’s way and she’s always up for the task. We’re excited for fans to see how she makes Madame Hydra come to life.”
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Season 4 is back on Tuesday, April 4 with an all-new arc. Titled “What if…,” the episode is described as follows:
Hail the New World Order! Daisy and Simmons uncover secrets and lies in a world gone mad. With Hydra in control, they are our only hope to save everyone.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD stars Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May, Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson, Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Jemma Simmons, Henry Simmons as Agent Alphonso “Mack” MacKenzie and John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe.
Guest starring are Brett Dalton as Grant Ward, Mallory Jansen as Aida, Manish Dayal as Vijay Nadeer, Brandon Morales as Agent Pinsky, Taj Speights as Burnell, Chad Wood as Agent Slate, Jade Harlow as Julia Price, Jim Hanna as guy, Heather Olt as woman, Jason Medwin as Hydra guard, Richard Pierre-Louis as Hydra agent, Andrew McGinnis as Hydra agent #1 and Skyler James as Chris Adler
The Expendables franchise appears to have lost its leading man today as Deadline reports that Sylvester Stallone has exited the big screen action series. Although a fourth Expendables franchise entry was being planned for 2018, today’s report indicates that disagreements between Stallone and and Millennium Films‘ Avi Lerner have led to the star stepping away.
Holy female empowerment, Batman! Variety is reporting that none other than geek legend Joss Whedon (Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) has signed to write, direct and produce a Batgirl movie for Warner Bros. and DC Films!
Whedon, of course, directed The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron for Marvel Studios, grossing nearly $3 billion dollars in the process. He also co-created/shepherded the ABC series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now he’s jumped over to the competition, as it’s confirmed that his Batgirl movie will be part of the ever-evolving DC Extended Universe that includes the upcoming Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman and The Batman solo film, as well as another female-centric entry in David Ayer’s Gotham City Sirens.
No other producers are attached to the Batgirl movie, though Toby Emmerich, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns will oversee the project for the studio, which apparently only came into being within the last month.
Batgirl’s first comic appearance in 1967 was as Barbara Gordon, daughter of Commissioner James Gordon, and she later became an ally of Batman and Robin in Gotham City. She was previously portrayed by Yvonne Craig in the campy ’60s Batman series, then by Alicia Silverstone (as Barbara Wilson, Alfred’s niece) in the equally-campy 1997 flop Batman & Robin. She was recently voiced by Rosario Dawson in The LEGO Batman Movie.
Whedon, who had previously written a treatment for his own Wonder Woman movie a decade ago, was last said to be working on a World War II horror movie, but he has stated previously that he would like to make a Batman film. Whether he will take a larger role overseeing the DCEU as he did during Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains to be seen, but for now that role belongs to Geoff Johns.
The latest DC Comics small screen hero has today made a colorful debut. Black Lightning, starring Cress Williams (Hart of Dixie) in the title role, has officially started production in Atlanta. In the gallery viewer below, you can take a first look at the Black Lightning costume in a piece of art from the upcoming The CW pilot. Greg Berlanti, Salim Akil, Mara Brock and Sarah Schechter are executive producers on Black Lightning, from Berlanti Productions and Akil Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Salim Akil is directing the pilot from a script he wrote.
When Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures worked out a deal for Spider-Man to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, none of us really knew what that deal entailed. I thought Marvel would get to play with Spider-Man as much as they wanted to, but that doesn’t sound like that’s the deal that was made. It sounds like Spider-Man could only be a part of the MCU for a limited time.
Spider-Man made his big debut in Captain America: Civil War and is set to get his own film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. After that, he will appear in Avenger: Infinity War, and that will be followed by a second solo film. According to former Sony Pictures head Amy Pascal, after that sequel, Sony Pictures will regain full control of the character. When talking to CosmicBookNews, she explained:
“One of the things that I think is so amazing about this experience is that you don’t have studios deciding to work together to make a film very often. In fact it may never happen again, after we do the sequel. Because Sony, and Disney, and Marvel all decided that the right thing to do was to allow Peter Parker and Spider-Man to be in the MCU and to work with the Marvel guys and have them produce this film.
“I think that was a very rare thing for three companies to do, and a very brilliant thing for them to decide to do because there are only so many stories that you can tell again and again and again about Spidey, and this is something that we would have never been able to do in any other way.”
It sounds to me like after the Spider-Man sequel Sony will have to decide whether or not they want to stay in business with Marvel. That’s obviously not a guarantee. It would be a pretty big bummer to see Spider-Man leave the MCU after we get used to him being a part of it. But as you know, Sony is developing their own cinematic universe that will launch with Venom, and if that does well they’ll probably going to want to include Spider-Man in it. I don’t know why else they would want to yank him out of the MCU.
We’ve still got awhile to go before these decisions need to be made, but I hope that Sony will want to continue this Spider-Man sharing relationship with Marvel.
