For the fourth week in the row Warner Bros. deliver the top story of the past seven days with the long overdue confirmation that both Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Marion Cotillard are to reunite with their Inception director Christopher Nolan on next year’s The Dark Knight Rises. JGL had been linked to everyone from Robin to Hugo Strange and Alberto Falcone, while Cottilard was expected to portray Talia al Ghul, but speculation once again proved wide of the mark with the release of an official press release on Tuesday stating that: “Cotillard will appear as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham. Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon.” So, could there be more to these roles than what we’re being led to believe? The possibility still remains that ‘Miranda Tate’ could be a cover for Talia al Ghul, especially given the double-identity of her father in Batman Begins, and of course the news that Josh Pence has been cast as a younger Ra’s for a flashback scene. As for John Blake, JGL is a pretty big name to have as an inconsequential character so you have to expect him to have an important role within the story (as Bleeding Cool discovered, the name does have history in the Batman comic line although something tells us it’s not the same guy). The Dark Knight Rises really is assembling an A-list cast with Gordon-Levitt and Cotillard joining the likes of Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman for Nolan’s final outing in Gotham City, which starts filming next month [and, if you’re desperate for anything TDKR-related, you might want to check out this purported set photo featuring a bulked-up, shaven-headed Tom Hardy].
In other big news for Bat-fans, THR revealed some details about the upcoming DC Universe Animated Original Movies adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal comic book series Batman: Year One (as well as a couple of first-look images that you can see here). Executive produced by Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series) and directed by Sam Lui (The Batman) and Lauren Montgomery (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse), the cast will feature Ben McKenzie (The O.C.) as the Caped Crusader alongside Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) as Gordon, Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) as Detective Sarah Essen and Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Catwoman. The animated film is expected to premiere at the SDCC in July before a home-video release towards the end of the year. Meanwhile there’s also been talk back over at Bleeding Cool that work is already underway on an animated version of another of Frank Miller’s classic tales, The Dark Knight Returns. Here’s hoping (and hoping it's done right).
Shifting now to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which as you’d expect has been working overtime in the wake of Thor’s world premiere in Sydney this past weekend. Naturally the cast and crew have been doing a host of promotional interviews (if you're interested, there's one at the bottom of this post featuring Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston), while a poor-quality video has hit the net revealing the post-credits sequence – check it out here if you really want to spoil yourself. Despite losing out at the top of the Australian box office to Fast Five, Thor has been picking up plenty of positive reviews and one thing’s for sure, it’s not going to face much competition from The Asylum’s latest knock-off, Almighty Thor, that features a ‘stellar’ cast including Kevin Nash as barely-comprehendible Odin and Cody Deal as an Uzi-wielding God of Thunder.Elsewhere, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also had a few words about the future of the Cinematic Universe post-Avengers in an interview with D23: The Official Disney Fan Club (via IGN): "Thor will go off into a new adventure, and Captain America will continue to explore the modern world in another film of his own. We hope that holds true for the characters appearing in that film — Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. —all of whom are more than worthy and capable of carrying their own films. And, we've got a lot of other characters we're prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts, these great cosmic space fantasies, Dr. Strange, and the magic side of the Marvel Universe. There are many, many stories to be mined." Let's just hope that by 'mined', he doesn't mean 'milked' - throw into that mix Iron Man 3, an Avengers sequel, and mooted projects such as the Inhumans, Black Panther and Luke Cage (a part which Isaiah Mustafa – a.k.a. the Old Spice Guy – continues to lobby for in a recent chat with SuperHeroHype) and it really looks as if the Disney machine is about to go into overdrive.
Another Marvel property that’s been busy this past week (as always) is X-Men, with Fox releasing yet another new poster (pictured) and a second international trailer for X-Men: First Class that gives us a sprinkling of new footage and a good look at the story between Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender). The trailers have done a pretty good job of selling the upcoming prequel, which is fortunate seeing as the poster campaign has been average at best. Meanwhile IGN posted an interesting interview with Bryan Singer in which the First Class producer discusses the inspiration behind the film, the inclusion of the Hellfire Club, character selection, the series’ continuity and potential sequels.Wrapping up the best of the rest...
...A tweet suggested that construction is underway on a Fortress of Solitude for Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel, featuring Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon and Amy Adams...
...Green Lantern continues to step up promotion ahead of its arrival this summer, with Warner Bros. releasing an extended TV spot and a couple of new posters featuring Hal Jordon (Ryan Reynolds) and Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush)...
...It seems as though it's not only Adrianne Palicki's costume that's undergone some last minute changes on the Wonder Woman pilot, with io9 reporting that David E. Kelley's teleplay was heavily rewritten during the shoot to beef up the action...
...And finally, while last week brought word that The A-Team's Bradley Cooper was being lined up to star in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's proposed reboot of The Crow it now seems that The Weinstein Company have thrown a spanner in the works by threatening legal action over Relativity's attempts to sell the distribution rights (to anyone but themselves, you'd guess).
Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston on Thor...
Gary Collinson
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