X-Ray Vision

Happy Guy Fawkes Day everybody! For those of you who aren’t history buffs, Guy Fawkes planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and get rid of the Protestants. He is now widely known as a symbol of anarchy.

Of course this isn’t a history blog, this is a comic blog. It is more likely that you remember the 5th of November from V for Vendetta. The exact lines were:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

So go get your anarchist on tonight if you feel the need, but I will be celebrating by watching Natalie Portman and her shaved head. If you haven’t seen the movie I highly recommend it. I haven’t read the comic, I recommend it even more. I think both of those are better options for celebrating than trying to overthrow your local government.

According to the blog MarketSaw The Lizard will be the villain in Spider-Man 4. Not only that, but he will be the only villain! No more mucking about with 4 different supervillains like in Spider-Man 3. Sam Raimi seems to be doing everything in his power to make us forget that atrocity.

The thing I really like about The Lizard being chosen as the villain is it will allow us to see another side of Spider-Man. It is often overlooked that Peter Parker has a very high IQ, I mean come on he was the nerd stereotype before he got bitten by that radioactive spider. It is about time we see him use his mind along with his brawn to defeat an opponent. The Lizard gives us the perfect opportunity to showcase this aspect of Spider-Man. Not only will he have to beat up The Lizard, he will have to find a cure to revert Dr. Curt Connors to his normal self. I am now officially pumped up for this movie.

Anthony Hopkins has officially been announced as Odin in the upcoming Thor movie. This came as somewhat of a surprise, since there were rumors circulating that Brian Blessed was a lock for the role of Odin. Apparently this was an example of why not all rumors should be heeded.

Hopkins brings some big star power to Thor, the man certainly has some acting credentials. I’m just not sure how well he will fit the role of Odin. I think Blessed has a more Odin esque look to him, but I’m sure Hopkins will do a good job. He is a high caliber actor, I’ll just have to try hard to not picture him as a cannibal or saying anything about Clarice.

As far as Blessed goes, he has seemed to have some sort of connection to the film, so who knows? We might see him as Volstagg since Fandral of the Warriors Three has already been announced to have a role in the film. This is just another rumor, so it is entirely possible the only connection Blessed will have to Thor is watching the movie. I would like to see him as Volstagg though. Mainly I just want Volstagg in the movie.

It has already been reported that the upcoming Green Lantern movie ran into some monetary issues and had to move the shooting locations out of Australia. Well the good news is that it seems Green Lantern has a new filming location, New Orleans. It is great to see this film moving forward, I need a new Ryan Reynolds movie.

Some more interesting news is that Green Lantern might be the first of 3 movies leading up to a Justice League movie. If this rumor is in fact true we can expect a Flash movie and a Wonder Woman movie as well. Maybe Ryan Reynolds will play Flash too. Heck, at this point he might be cast as Wonder Woman. After these three movies are released, the characters are expected to team up with Superman, Batman, and, everybody’s favorite, Aquaman. This sounds like a good idea by DC, as long as they execute it well. It definitely seems like a necessary move with Marvel building up to the release of the Avengers movie, we’ll just have to see how it turns out. I know I will not be satisfied until the Martian Manhunter makes an appearance on the big screen.

That’s right, Gonzo and Ozzy has officially started! Check it out at Gonzo and Ozzy and let me know what you think. There’s also a link to the Gonzo and Ozzy store on the webpage in case any of you feel like supporting the comic (which would make you awesome).

For some more traditional comic news, Bruce Campbell has been confirmed as having a significant part in Spider-Man 4. Splash Page , in a talk with Sam Raimi, announced that Campbell would indeed have a prominent role. A lot of speculation has Campbell as Mysterio, but nothing that specific has been confirmed at this point. I hope he ends up as cooler character than Mysterio though.

Ian McKellen has already announced that he will not likely be back for any length of time to reprise his role as Magneto in the X-Men movies. Now it is sounding like the X-Men Origins: Magneto movie might not be getting made at all.

This is a shame, Magneto has one of the richest backgrounds in comics. He is a Holocaust survivor and one of the first known mutants, and he tried to do good work with Charles Xavier. Then there is the huge falling out they have and adventures in the Savage Land. I feel like a movie detailing these earlier years of Magneto’s life could make for a very compelling movie, one that I would prefer over X-Men First Class. The script for the Magneto movie has also been praised for its quality, so I’m not entirely sure why the studio decided to just stop this movie. I guess they just feel like they have enough mutant related movies coming out with X-Men First Class, Deadpool, Wolverine, and potentially a fourth X-Men installment. I was kind of excited for a Magneto movie. Alas, according to producers it is not meant to be. At least we still have a Deadpool movie to look forward to!

With the 4th installment of the Spider-Man franchise in the works people have started discussing which villain the webslinger will face off against next. I wrote an article about this at BamKapow which I will now shamelessly self promote. Hint, I vote for the Lizard.

Some Avengers news has also been released. Jon Favreau, the director of Iron Man and Iron Man 2 has been discussed as a potential director for the Avengers movie. He just confirmed the he will in fact not be directing the Avengers. He will be an executive producer however, so his input will be heard. Favreau justified his decision not to direct by saying he didn’t want his work on Iron Man to make the Avengers movie focus too much on a single character. I fully agree with that decision and remain confident that a good director will be found. Now I just need the Thorand Captain America movies to come out!

MTV’s Splash Page has done it again, bringing more great comic news. Splash Page had an interview with Thomas Jane that reveals Jane would come back to the Punisher franchise if the movie was right. He wants a dark and gritty Punisher, more like the Dark Knight and less like Spider-Man.

Thomas Jane has a point. The Punisher is one of Marvel’s more realistic characters and a movie should reflect that. It is no surprise Thomas Jane wanted no part of Punisher War Zone, where the Ray Stevenson punches a man in the face so hard his head explodes. That is not a Chuck Norris joke. That happened in the movie. He also blew up a parkour burglar with a missile launcher as the burglar did a front flip across the rooftops. It was a groan inspiring moment and I’m glad Thomas Jane wasn’t involved, it definitely would have tarnished his image.

A more realistic and dark Punisher movie could be great, especially if Thomas Jane comes back. He fit the role perfectly. I can only hope that this movie will be made, in the meantime we will have to settle for watching Thomas Jane be a male prostitute in the new series Hung. Not quite the Punisher, but I’ll take what I can get.

That title might be a bit of an overstatement, but all things considered, it doesn’t sound like Edward Norton is really that into the idea of reprising his role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers movie. Check out a recent interview he had at BamKapow to see his reaction first hand.

Edward Norton says he likes Marvel and the Hulk, but if he is working on another project when the Avengers movie comes around he won’t be making much effort to accommodate it. I wish that they would have had Norton sign on for future movies when he was first cast as Bruce Banner, but I guess it was not to be. The most disappointing part is that Norton did a great job as Norton, and made me forget all about the debacle that was the first Hulk movie.

It almost goes without saying that the Hulk will make an appearance in the Avengers movie, just because Hulk is so integral to the founding of the group. It also seems like we might be treated to our third Bruce Banner in as many movies. On the plus side Marvel now has lots of Disney Dollars to use to find a good actor to play Banner, but dammit, I still want Norton back.

Oh Spider-Man 3…I hated so many things about you. Hoping to redeem some favor from fuming fanboys, Sony has announced that there will indeed be a Venom movie. We can only hope that they are smart enough not to have Topher Grace reprise the role.

The guys who wrote Zombieland, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, are working on writing the Venom movie. Zombieland looks awesome, so I am cautiously optimistic at this point. Plus Venom is just an awesome character, I would definitely rank him as my favorite Spider-Man villain. My biggest hope at this point is that the movie somehow addresses Venom’s love for brains, and subsequently eating chocolate in place of brains.