by A.J. Focht
With The Amazing Spider-Man set to release this coming July, it might seem a little early to be thinking of a spin-off movie for the series, but it looks like Sony already is. The company is negotiating with Josh Trank, director of this year’s indie superhero hit Chronicle, to take the lead on the Venom movie. The idea of a Venom movie has been tossed around by Sony since 2008, but they are hoping to use the success of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man to launch the spin-off. Trank has already shown us he knows how to handle the hero-to-villain transformation so a Venom film should come as natural to him.
Speaking of The Amazing Spider-Man, last week, Stan Lee revealed he is a playable character in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man videogame. There is no word on who Stan Lee’s character in the game will be, or if this will tie into his cameo in the movie. But fear not true believers, The Amazing Spider-Man game will be released on June 26 and all will be revealed then.
The Avengers have broken their own record with the trailer released last week. Surpassing the numbers achieved for most times viewed on iTunes in a twenty-four hour period by The Avengers super bowl trailer, the newest clip was viewed 13.7 million times in just one day, and that’s just on iTunes. With numbers like that showing for the trailers, there is no doubt that The Avengers will be setting the bar pretty high for all the superhero movies released this summer.
The DC Nation programming block on Cartoon Network premiered this last weekend. It brings exclusive DC cartoons including Green Lantern and Young Justice to the Saturday morning line up. Alongside the cartoons will be several shorts featuring less known heroes. In recent interviews, some of the shorts were previewed including Thunder and Lightning, a take on DC’s first black super hero, Black Lightning, and his life raising super powered daughters. These shorts will focus more on the comedic side of the DC heroes compared to the more serious cartoons.
From Scorpion King all the way to Hercules, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson will be playing Hercules in the upcoming Brett Ratner adaption of Steve Moore’s comic, The Thracian Wars. The comic is about Hercules leading a group of mercenaries in a revolt against the insane king. Not much more is known about the story as this particular comic hasn’t been published yet.
While The Avengers might be Joss Whedon’s most anticipated project of the year, his horror film, Cabin in the Woods, releases first on April 13, and a new trailer has been released for it. It’s pretty apparent that there is a lot more going on than your traditional cabin in the woods horror story.
Joss Whedon isn’t the only one releasing a bunch of films this year. Tim Burton also has his hands in on three different movies. With Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter being the most publicized, two of the others nearly slipped through the cracks. In a recent interview, Burton discussed his upcoming Dark Shadows. He didn’t tell us much, other than it will be a dark family story, along the lines of Beetlejuice. With no trailers, posters, and minimal press coverage about Dark Shadows, it’s unknown what we should expect, other than Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. But don’t be dismayed by the lack of info on that project, the first official preview for Burton’s other project, Frankenweenie, has been released. This Disney CGI film follows the heartwarming tale of a young boy and his undead dog.
FOX has sacrificed their first TV show of the year, Terranova. After just one season, the Jurassic time travel tale is getting cut. It’s not a huge surprise, considering the low audience and high costs. This is likely only the start of the cancellations to be announced over the next few months, and it looks like genre based shows are in the cross hairs.
