Second Movie Twist: Rian Johnson To Write, DIrect Star Wars: Episode VIII

So given how generally excited fandom has been that J. J. Abrams was chosen to take over Star Wars from George Lucas for Episode VII, the consensus that, given Abrams’s work on Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, he was the best possible choice to work on the franchise, and that Abrams has said that directing Star Wars was a dream gig, it’s probably safe to say that he’ll be helming the movies well beyond Episode VII, right?

Right?

Rian Johnson will write and direct the eighth “Star Wars” movie, inheriting the franchise from J.J. Abrams, according to two individuals with knowledge of the director’s plans. Johnson will also write the treatment for the ninth movie, but he will not direct it.

Huh. Okay, that was fast.

You Just Want To Suck The Joy Out Of Everything: UK Guardians of The Galaxy Trailer Features All New Footage

Yeah, I know that just yesterday I said that we couldn’t guarantee that we’d post every day… but it turns out that tonight was a little slow, and there was a cool thing that I wanted to take a minute to share with you.

Most of this summer’s comic book movies have come and gone, but there is one biggie still left in the pipe: Guardians of The Galaxy. Not just because it’s a Marvel Studios flick, and not further just because it’s the first wholly original Marvel Studios movie since Captain America: The First Avenger in July, 2011 (seriously: since then, it’s been all already-seen characters in Avengers, and a pile of sequels).

No, it’s because it’s directed by James Gunn. Gunn is a killer director of fun genre flicks (seriously: if you haven’t seen Slither and Super, you are robbing yourself of joy like a common vegetarian or teetotaler), and here at Crisis On Infinite Midlives, we are fans of genre flicks by auteur directors (hi, Edgar!).

Gunn is a dude who packs his movies with genuine tension and pathos, along with ripping dark humor. If he wasn’t doing Guardians of The Galaxy, we’d be waiting impatiently for whatever else he was doing.

Thankfully for we who are impatient, there is a new British trailer for Guardians of The Galaxy that features almost all unseen footage, along with dialogue from Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon and Vin Diesel as Groot, that was just too awesome not to share. And you can check it out after the jump.

With One Magic Word: DC Movie Schedule Possibly Leaked

We don’t have a lot of time this evening – we are preparing to, for the first time, take the podcast out of the studio and on the road to have a couple of guest hosts, which requires the testing of a bunch of new portable equipment and packing it up – but this seemed like a thing we should mention, even if it turns out to be a rumor.

Apparently Hollywood gossip reporter Niki Finke is claiming to have obtained the release schedule for the next several years of DC live action superhero movies, including and beyond Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. This schedule was reportedly meant to be announced at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con in about five weeks – and we might hear something different from DC / Warner Bros. then – but supposedly, here is the schedule of DC Universe movies coming out between now and 2018… and there are one hell of a lot of them.

Ant-Man To Be Directed By Dude Who Did Bring It On, Written By Auteur Of A Public Statement From Anthony Weiner’s Penis

It has been a bloody couple of weeks following the announcement that Edgar Wright had walked away as director of Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man movie, with rumor after rumor of proposed replacement directors on the project. First it was Adam McKay of Anchorman, who announced he wasn’t gonna take the gig almost as soon as his name was floated to the press. Then there was Ruben Fleischer (who directed Zombieland) and Rawson Marshall Thurber (who directed We’re The Millers), but Thurber noped out of the job a couple days ago, while in the meantime Paul Rudd has presumably been at some undisclosed location, lifting weights and eating skinless chicken and steamed broccoli, and possibly wondering if he can use his new superhero physique to beat his fucking agent into oblivion.

But as of today, Marvel Studios’ (if not our) long national nightmare is over, because they have officially announced that Peyton Reed will be directing the movie. To which we, and I presume much of fandom in general, gave a loud and resounding… “who?”

Desperate Times: Ant-Man Director Search Continues While Guardians of The Galaxy TV Spot Is Released

I was originally gonna write another story about the trials and tribulations of the Ant-Man movie since Edgar Wright has abdicated on directing the film, but there’s still nothing but rumors.

One of those rumors is that, since Rawson Thurber and Adam McKay have passed on the project, Marvel Studios has approached Nicholas Stoller and Michael Dowse to take over the movie. Dowse we can kinda get behind, since he directed Goon which was actually pretty funny and featured one of the guys who played Sabretooth, so there’s a least a glimmer of hope that he can handle a superhero flick. Stoller, the director of the recent Seth Rogan movie Neighbors,  is also attached to a superhero movie… unfortunately, it is as the writer of Captain Underpants. I have less hope for that choice.

Regardless, every day that goes by makes Ant-Man look more and more The Island of Misfit Career Choices, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time wondering who is gonna direct the movie when the more pertinent question is who the hell will want to watch it.

Instead, here is a new TV spot for a Marvel Studios movie where they made an unorthodox directorial choice, stuck with it, and wound up with a movie that looks better than the unknown source material would lead one to believe. That movie is Guardians of The Galaxy, directed by Slither and Super director James Gunn, and you can check the latest TV spot for that movie, featuring actual dialogue from Rocket Raccoon, after the jump.

Enjoy it, while Marvel Studios tries to find someone to direct a movie about a character that exactly two people care about: departed director Edgar Wright, and Stan Lee, who stands to make a million bucks if he can get just one more person to give a fuck about Hank Pym.

Pay No Attention To That Man…: Dr. Strange Director Announced

So Marvel  Studios has spent a week and a half dealing with the aftermath of Edgar Wright leaving as director of Ant-Man with just over a year to go before the thing opens in theaters. And some of that dealing has been frantically trying to line up a new director for the project before someone gets the genius idea to start lobbying the masses to begin shipping crates of Cornetto ice cream cones to Kevin Feige… but so far, that hasn’t gone so well.

So what do you do if you’ve got a public relations mess, that you can’t solve right away, about a movie currently in production? Well, how about you make a snap announcement about a long-rumored future movie that isn’t currently in production?

To wit:

Sandbox For Ant-Man Replacement Directors Gets Smaller

Well, as quickly as rumors that Anchorman‘s Adam McKay was to step in to direct Ant-Man, they have just as quickly been put to sleep. McKay is said to have made the decision alone and claims that it is because he is already committed to other projects.

Certainly, not because it has the stench of death upon it. Nope.

Meanwhile, this leaves Ruben Fleischer and Rawson Marshall Thurber in the running for the position. Fleischer is known for Zombieland…but, also, Gangster Squad. Thurber is known for Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story…but, also, We’re The Millers.

It’s Not Even Past: Every Comics Reference In X-Men: Days of Future Past

There’s an Internet service provider truck out in front of the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, which means we have at least intermittent Internet service this morning. Serves us right for setting up shop in a neighborhood where local entrepreneurs advertise their wares by chucking Air Jordans at the utility lines.

So with potentially limited time available on the wire today, we wanted to at least share this: there’s a dude who watched X-Men: Days of Future Past and took note and found video for almost all of the Easter Eggs and references to the original comics in the flick. He caught a couple that even Amanda and I missed (Hell, I forgot Spike even existed, and I loved Peter Milligan’s and Mike Allred’s X-Statix back in the day), and it’s a reasonably entertaining way to kill six minutes of a Friday while you wait for Beer O’Clock and / or for your Internet service to become reliable.

I’ve dropped the video after the jump. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll see what new wares my enterprising neighbors might have for the weekend.

Pym Particle Fallout: Joss Whedon and James Gunn Comment on Edgar Wright’s Departure From Ant-Man

It is Saturday of the American Memorial Day long weekend. This means that, in general, there is fuck-all going on in the way of genre news other than redundant tales of heavy drinking by comic creators (and comic bloggers), and Edgar Wright’s departure from Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man movie.

There’s a dearth of actual hard news about what actually happened to lead to the split. Latino Review has a story based on a bunch of anonymous sources saying it had to do with the script, but with no names attached, I’m just gonna link to it and let you draw your own conclusions.

Wright himself hasn’t said anything, and his Twitter feed has been silent… except for a re-Tweet of a wordless picture post Avengers and Avengers 2: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon threw up earlier today, and which you can check out after the jump.

Small Change: Edgar Wright Out As Ant-Man Director

Let’s face facts: nobody really gives a shit about Ant-Man. Despite being a founding member of The Avengers (And notice nobody at Marvel Studios bent over backwards to try and get him in the Avengers movie), the first thing Hank Pym ever did that anyone paid any attention to was tune up his wife in Avengers #213, and by then he was Yellowjacket, which was about his fourth ineffectual alter ego. And don’t even bring up Scott Lang and Eric O’Grady, who were each killed in separate team books to advance minor plot points.

Which is why it was a somewhat strange choice for Marvel Studios to go with the character as the first movie in their Phase Three of major motion pictures, but it didn’t matter. Because Marvel Studios had announced that Edgar Wright, the director of my favorite movie of 2013, The World’s End, was going to be directing the flick.

The key word in that sentence, however, is “was.” Because he ain’t gonna be doing it anymore.