Jessica Biel won’t be playing the Viper in The Wolverine. The actress was offered the role but talks broke down and the studio is looking at other stars according to Collider.
Now Svetlana Khodchenkova is in talks with Fox according to Twitch. The Russian actress recently appeared in the remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Hugh Jackman’s next film is based on the limited series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller and focuses on Logan falling in love with a crime lord’s daughter in Japan.
The Viper is a mercenary of Eastern European descent who works for the Silver Samurai. He is mutant, half brother of the woman Logan loves, and heir to the clan. The Viper eventually becomes Madame Hydra, leader of the organization led by the Red Skull in the Captain America movie. In the Wolverine comic book Viper forced Logan to marry her in an effort to avoid an all out war between Hydra and The Hand.
This is Dark Knight Dedication! Rufus Schell and Marcus Baker arrived at 8:30am for what’s become their Bat-tradition only to find two other fans ahead as they wait for the midnight show of The Dark Knight Rises at the Boeing IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center in Seattle.
“I’ve done this for four years running now,” Marcus Baker tells Jill Russell of KOMONEWS.COM.
The Bremerton resident and his friend took their seats on a bench in front of the theater at 8 a.m. and haven’t moved since. Only two people managed to beat the pair to the front of the line. They got there at 6:30 a.m.
“We came for the seats,” Schell said. “I love the feeling of opening weekend when everyone’s together in the theater.”
“The crowds are electric. It’s so much fun,” Baker added.
“This movie is our generation’s Star Wars. It’s encapsulated everyone,” Schell said in his Bat-swag. He belief is so strong that he wrote his final English paper on the merits that Batman is the best story ever told. He proudly admits he received an ‘A’ on the paper.
This is the final film by Christopher Nolan but these fans are ready for more.
“If Nolan says he wants to make a movie again, I’d say ‘here’s my money,’” says Baker.
It’s hard to believe but the final Batman film by Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale here. The legend ends.
You can buy advance tickets and collector gift cards for The Dark Knight Rises via Fandango links on the site. Choose from Batman, Catwoman or Bane! Just look on the sidebar.
Hope you enjoy and feel share your thoughts on the film.
Kitty Pryde and Colossus are my all time favorite comic book couple. Death. Trapped in a space bullet for eternity. Demonic possession. Writers have ripped apart and reunited Kitty and Peter so many times. The two lovers split most recently due to the events of Fear Itself and Schism. Kitty took off the co-found the Jean Grey School with Logan in Wolverine and the X-Men. Colossus is now one of the Phoenix Five in Uncanny X-Men and AvX.
Jason Aaron raised our hopes when Kitty was pregnant. Fans like me were hoping against hope it was Pete’s baby but once again hopes were dashed when it turned out Kitty was impregnated with Brood. Thank you Dr. McCoy for saving her!
In the upcoming Wolverine and the X-Men #14 looks like Kitty agrees to a date with Peter and he’s using his Phoenix Force to woo her…but will they reconcile? Will either of them be around after AvX?
A 6-year-old girl from Seattle now has a Time Lord watching over her! Sydney Telling was in her dad’s arms at a Doctor Who forum at San Diego Comic Con when asked Matt Smith, “Are you scared of the Weeping Angels?”
The actor replied by asking Sydney if she was scared of the creepy aliens and she responded with a shy shaking of her head ‘yes.’
“But don’t worry because I’m here to fight them off,” Smith added and inspired cheers from the crowd.
Take a look:
A sweet life imitating television moment! During Matt Smith’s first season of Doctor Who he meet his future traveling companion Amy Pond when she was a frightened but curious little girl.
The upcoming season will be the final one for companions Amy and Rory and those scary Weeping Angels will be back! The Doctor will protect Sydney and all of us!
The Dark Knight Rises one sheet courtesy Warner Brothers
The Dark Knight Rises is the finale of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale’s Batman trilogy. The executive producer of the franchise talked with my friend Elisa Jaffe on 570 KVI Seattle Smart Talk Mornings. Michael Uslan says “I am walking in a dream!”
Uslan’s lifelong love of Batman is because “his greatest superpower is his humanity and that’s why I identified with him,” and calls the new film “the greatest superhero movie ever.”
Uslan reveals how he finally launched the Batman franchise, his geeky collection, teaching comics in college and his encounter with Adam West and more in The Boy Who Loved Batman.
Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy from X-Men: First Class courtesy Marvel.com
Director Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Simon Kinberg are working on the script for a sequel to X-Men: First Class. While promoting Elysium at San Diego Comic Con writer Simon Kinberg gave Collider hints of what to expect in the mutant sequel.
“I wish I could tell you about it, but literally, it’s like the most guarded state secret I’ve ever been around. I can tell you that it’s going really well, and I can tell you that I’ve been working closely with Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman on the script of the movie and that we hope to be shooting in Spring of next year to come out in July of 2014 and that I’m really excited about it, because the only thing I can say, because I have to be extraordinarily vague about it, because the last time I talked to anybody about it, I got in trouble…big trouble…what I can tell you is [that] it’s extraordinarily ambitious. It is unlike the other X-Men movies and yet very much a celebration of the X-Men movies.”
“I don’t know enough of what he [Vaughn] has or hasn’t talked about. I can tell you it’s been a very fluid process in the sense of we really went into it, Matthew, Jane and myself, just wanting to create a movie that was as…I’m very proud of First Class…as dramatic as that movie, I think it is as dramatic as that movie, but more epic, mythic in a way as well. So, there are ideas that we’ve started with that haven’t survived, there are ideas that we started with from conversations we had from making First Class that are going to be in the sequel. So, it’s vague but…”
The Cast of X-Men: First Class courtesy Marvel.com
“It’s one of those movies that, because it’s such a big deal for the studio, they have some sense of what it is that we’re writing and they are ambitious about the movie, too. I don’t know what the budget’s going to be, we’ve got to finish the script before we have a budget, but I would assume that it is a bigger movie than the last in physical scope, and that we have the license to do that because of the success of First Class. And because I think Fox has had success with interesting movies in the last couple of years in the genre, like Planet of the Apes was a really good movie, Chronicle was a cool movie, First Class, they’re just narratively or creatively a little bit more ambitious. So they’ve encouraged us to do that with the sequel.”
For more of this interview here’s the Collider link.
The full cast is on signed on to return. I’m still hoping we may see Magneto’s children: Polaris, Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver. I wonder if the success of the prequel inspired the Marvel NOW! decision to bring the original five X-Men into the current time in All-New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis?
Carol Danvers flies solo in a new series by writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Dexter Soy. Carol is sporting a new uniform and finally accepts the mantle she earned a long time ago in this week’s Captain Marvel #1.
DeConnick kicks off the issue with Carol and Captain America in a showdown with a classic bruiser that’s packed with action and wit. Carol is a Colonel so she really does outrank Cap! The two Avenging friends also share a moving debate over Carol taking the title. Carol show she has the heart of a fighter and a humble hero.
There’s a scene that really hit me. I just fly home to take my mom to her first chemo treatment so the scene with Carol caring Tracy is moving and ironic. Tracy was Carol’s editor and is now going through chemo. That encounter leads to tragic news concerning the woman who was Carol’s biggest inspiration. DeConnick takes inside Carol’s mind as she remembers meeting, says goodbye and pays tribute to the female pilot who sparked her dream of flying.
I loved the old costume but as DeConnick told me earlier this year, Carol is a pilot and needs a uniform. Jamie McKelvie designed the sleek new look worthy of a Captain. Dexter Soy shows great promise. I think the art was too dark and Carol’s hairstyle was inconsistent.
Captain Marvel #1 courtesy Marvel.com
I commend Marvel for a bold rebirth for one of their leading female heroes. Carol assumes her new identity and is ready to push herself. Kelly Sue DeConnick gives Carol a dramatic premiere filled with action, humor and emotion and sets the stage for an exciting new era for the high-flying powerhouse.
A Geek can dream: Dwayne Johnson could be playing a Greek demigod or an alien bounty hunter next but I think he was born to play another famous comic book alien. Johnson is in talks to play Hercules based on Radical Publishing’s Hercules The Thracian Wars and Lobo of DC Comics.
After reading Wolverine and the X-Men #13 it came to me how Johnson would be perfect as Gladiator, the ultimate Shi’ar warrior turned Emperor. I don’t want to spoil the ending of that issue so I’ll go back in time.
I was a young geek when I first marveled at Gladiator and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin had already blown my mind with what would become the Dark Phoenix Saga. As I opened Uncanny X-Men #137 to see my favorite heroes on a Shi’ar spacecraft surrounded by Empress Lilandra and her Imperial Guard. This elite squadron of warriors was led by a muscle-bound alien with mohawk. Gladiator (real name Kallark) is a Strontian warrior created by Claremont and Dave Cockrum. Strontians have the capacity for incredible strength and various powers as long as they are completely devoted to a sole purpose. Kind of a Zen Superman.
Wolverine and the X-Men #13 courtesy Marvel.com
Gladiator has fought with and against the X-Men to protect the universe from the Phoenix. Emperor Kallark now leads the Shi’ar Empire and his son is at Wolverine’s school – protected by Warbird. The Phoenix is back on Earth. Gladiator and his Shi’ar army arrived to save his son and take on the Phoenix Five in a cosmic throwdown.
Only the Marvel editors know the final fate of Gladiator after this week’s Avengers vs X-Men tie-in but the Marvel Universe would not be as amazing without him in it.
Fantastic Four #249 courtesy Marvel.com
Given the cosmic direction Marvel movies are going maybe we’ll see the Shi’ar Empire in an Avengers sequel or the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Dwayne Johnson has the powerhouse body and presence to portray one of the coolest aliens to grace comic books and may be it’s worth considerating a Gladiator series and solo movie. Thanks for reading the casting dream of a devoted geek.
