Jon Favreau premiered the first Iron Man 2 footage at this years Comic Con. Many descriptions have appeared online, I’ve included two in-depth descriptions in the full post and summarized below.

- The footage opens in the giant donut and a conversation between Tony Stark and Nick Fury – Stark doesn’t want to join the team.
- It then cuts to a courtroom scene that sees the government attempting to strip Stark of his Iron Man suit
- Rhodey enters to testify against Stark.
- Whiplash is out to get Tony as revenge for the Stark families’ atrocities, explained by a voiceover whilst Rourke constructs a suit of his own.
- There’s a quick shot of Black Widow in action and then Whiplash flicking his two great electro-whips.
- Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is now seen, talking about Iron Man suit modifications “firepower” – retrofitting guns and armor. Rhodey says he’ll take it.
- Then there’s a quick shot of the complete War Machine suit.

(more…)

We had a sneak preview of a Prince of Persia movie poster via a shop window reflection in Confessions of a Shopaholic, said poster does not resemble the oddly futuristic ones recently released. The intense black and white posters are garnished with strong typography that I don’t rate highly – it feels somehow that they have missed the point? “Deny the future”. Although some are arguing that this stops the movie looking like a video game to movie adaptation – it is sleek and slick and could help the film find its audience.

Prince of Persia movie posters

Click for high resolution version:

Gemma Arterton minus text

Ben Kingsley

Expect a Ben Kingsley poster shortly, not our first viewing, but this one is particularly menacing! Scoop via Coming Soon.

More of Jake as Prince

The EW also have a new shot of one startled looking Jake Gyllenhaal,

Thanks Suzy, Jerry, Javier and Ivan!

What with Comic-con and all there’s a lot of Iron Man 2 news floating about; we’ve got new officially released pictures of Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Don Cheadle as Rhodey and Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer.

The first trailer for the official Iron Man 2 video game has turned up, although don’t expect to see any movie footage or plot arc secrets; the video game is based upon a wholly different storyline.

This brand-new tale takes gamers deeper into the world of Iron Man, adding to the excitement of the upcoming Marvel Studios film. Iron Man 2 offers fans a chance to play against epic enemies not found in the film of the same name, such as the unforgettable Crimson Dynamo. In the game’s original story, Tony Stark has gifted the world with new technology in order to make it a better place. His philanthropic nature isn’t enough to keep evil at bay, however, as Iron Man’s enemies have crafted their own devious designs based on the technology. Ultimately, Iron Man will face epic battles against huge enemies, as the fate of the world is left in his powerful hands.

The World of Warcraft movie is officially on the move, after many months of stagnation we thought the project may have died a quiet death. However, behind the scenes it seems there were some exciting discussions and today, two years since the initial announcement, Blizzard and Legendary pictures have named their director, one Sam Raimi.

Raimi has directed both the Spider-man and Evil Dead series, and may be a perfect choice, as someone that can take a huge wealth of core material (with a strong fan following) and deliver something phenomenal.

Raimi is currently set to direct Spider-man 4 which is due for release in 2011, production hasn’t yet started on the fourth movie, which gives the World of Warcraft movie a release date, at the earliest, sometime in 2012. (Assuming Spider-man 4 begins early next year, takes one year to complete and meets its release date, and that the WOW movie has a similar schedule).

Press release

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – July 22, 2009 — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures announced today that Sam Raimi has signed on to direct the eagerly-anticipated major motion picture based on Blizzard Entertainment®’s award-winning Warcraft® universe. Raimi has, in the course of his career, clearly demonstrated a genius for developing and adapting existing fictional universes for mainstream audiences while staying true to the spirit of the original content.
Raimi directed the Spider-Man trilogy, which has broken box-office records around the world and garnered five Academy Award® nominations. Known for his imaginative filmmaking style, richly drawn characters and offbeat humor, Raimi wrote and directed the cult classic, The Evil Dead and produced 30 Days Of Night. He most recently wrote and directed the supernatural thriller, Drag Me To Hell.

“At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story,” said Raimi. “I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen.”

Charles Roven’s producing talents were recently seen with last summer’s blockbuster The Dark Knight, which grossed in excess of $1 billion, was nominated for eight Academy Awards® and won two. His body of work also includes the widely acclaimed Batman Begins and the sci-fi classic 12 Monkeys. Roven, with Atlas producing partner Alex Gartner, will be producing with Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull, Legendary’s Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni, Raimi and Raimi’s producing partner Joshua Donen. Raimi’s partner, Robert Tapert, will be an Executive Producer and Blizzard Entertainment’s Senior Vice President of Creative Development, Chris Metzen, a Co-Producer.

“Partnering with Sam Raimi exemplifies Legendary’s mandate of marrying the highest quality intellectual property to world-class filmmakers” said Legendary’s Tull. “Sam’s passion for ‘Warcraft’ is undeniable and we know that he will create an incredible film worthy of Blizzard’s phenomenal franchise. We look forward to collaborating with our partners at Warner Bros. and continuing our successful relationship with Chuck in bringing this rich new world to the screen.”

“Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures have a shared vision for this film and we searched at length to find the very best director to bring that vision to life,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “From our first conversation with Sam, we could tell he was the perfect choice. Sam knows how to simultaneously satisfy the enthusiasts and the mainstream audience that might be experiencing that content for the first time. We’re looking forward to working with him to achieve that here.”

News has been slow, and that’s an understatement – it’s been almost a year. I apologize that the content of the blog hasn’t been updated more often, but the truth of it is, there hasn’t been any news. The Gears of War movie has slipped into production hell; we can only speculate as to why – interest, finance and scheduling are some of the biggest contenders.

The video game adaptation as such is still in very early stages, despite having announced that Len Wiseman would direct; news that may no longer hold true given the length of time since the last update. We certainly won’t be meeting the rumored 2010 Summer release date, if production ramped up this coming January the best we could hope for is Spring 2011.

Some fan art

To lighten the mood a little I give you some fan art produced by Brian Speer, depicting Batista as Marcus and also featuring The Rock, inevitably, comments on this post will now turn into a casting discussion.

MakingOf have posted a great interview with Harold Ramis with exclusives on the Ghostbusters 3 project. A very insightful look into the development of the potential sequel.

Back in March we commented on the possibility that Natalie Portman might play a “strong female lead” in the Thor movie adaptation.

An official statement from Marvel reports that Natalie Portman has been cast as Jane Foster, Donald Blake’s nurse. With such a big casting set in present day planet Earth, it’s possible that a good proportion of the movie may take place here, rather than Asgard – giving us a lot of the human version of Thor.

Marvel comments,

Even the Mighty Thor can be thunderstruck by affairs of the heart!

Marvel Studios announced today that Academy Award® nominated actress Natalie Portman has been cast to star as Jane Foster in the studio’s highly anticipated movie “Thor.”

In the early “Thor” comics, Jane Foster was a nurse who became Thor’s first love. The character will be updated for the feature adaptation.

Portman will star opposite Chris Hemsworth who will play Thor and Tom Hiddleston who will play the villain Loki. Kenneth Branagh will direct the film.

Marvel Studios expands its film universe with a new type of super hero: “Thor.” This epic adventure spans the Marvel Universe; from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Thanks Leroy!