Is anyone else feeling superhero fatigue yet?
1. Marvel fans can rest easy! Samuel L. Jackson will be back as Nick Fury after all – not once, not twice, not thrice, but in nine different movies, including Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and possibly an entire movie devoted to Fury’s organization S.H.I.E.L.D. – Hollywood Reporter
2. Iron Man director Jon Favreau has apparently indicated that Emily Blunt will not be in the sequel after all. Meanwhile, the filmmakers have sent out an “ethnically diverse” casting call, and a sneak peek at the first page of the script has fans speculating that the next movie will follow the ‘Demon in a Bottle‘ storyline from the comics. – MTV Splash Page (x2, x3)
3. The Spider-Man musical being developed by Julie Taymor and U2’s Bono and The Edge now has a title and an official opening date: it is called Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and it will open February 18, 2010. Bono previously co-starred in Taymor’s Beatles musical Across the Universe (2007), and prior to that, U2 contributed a song to the soundtrack for Batman Forever (1995), the score for which was written by Taymor’s husband Elliot Goldenthal. – Hollywood Reporter
4. Watchmen had its world premiere in London Monday night, and the reviews are mixed, ranging from “this really will be a blast” to “spirit-crushingly disappointing”. Producer Lawrence Gordon “might have the most complicated feelings” about the film’s box-office performance, given that he is entitled to a fair chunk of the revenues but he could also be sued by Warner Brothers for his part in enabling the recent 20th Century Fox lawsuit. Meanwhile, director Zack Snyder has talked to MTV News about nine key differences between the book and film versions of this story. – Hollywood Reporter (x2), MTV News
5. Warner Brothers has announced a bunch of brand-new release dates for its upcoming films, including the comic-book adaptations Jonah Hex (August 6, 2010) and Green Lantern (December 17, 2010). – ComingSoon.net
6. Warner Brothers is developing a movie based on the DC Comics supervillains series Suicide Squad. – Variety, Hollywood Reporter
7. Michel Gondry, best known for offbeat films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Be Kind Rewind (2008), is in negotiations to direct the new version of The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen and Stephen Chow. One of the directors who didn’t get the job – and briefly made his feelings known via Facebook – is James Wan, who is better known for rather grim films like Saw (2004) and Death Sentence (2007). – Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, MTV News, MTV Splash Page
8. Freddie Highmore is in talks to star in Superhero, a fantasy drama based on Anthony McCarten’s novel Death of a Superhero. Combining live-action sequences with animation, the film will concern “a teenage comicbook artist suffering from leukemia who escapes the harsh realities of life via his illustrated adventures, in which the indestructible Miracle Man battles his arch-nemesis, a mad scientist known as the Glove.” – Variety
