Awful, Speculative Rumor Regarding Wonder Woman In New Superman/Batman Film

With Gal Gadot on board to play Wonder Woman in the new Man Of Steel sequel, it hasn’t taken long for the rumor mill to crank up about what that role may entail. Someone named Jett from a site called Batman On Film is speculating that Wonder Woman may get a new origin story:

With all that said, I’d bet a year’s pay – in MONOPOLY money, of course – that the “Amazons” of this cinematic DCU will be descendants of those “ancient Kryptonians” who attempted to set up Kryptonian outposts throughout spacedom thousands and thousands of years ago. Furthermore, I say that Wonder Woman will be powered-down, if you will, relative to Superman because these Amazons have evolved and adapted to living on Earth for hundreds of centuries. And since Kryptonians are produced without any “He’n and She’n” – Jor El and Lara excluded – couldn’t this original Kryptonian on Earth have used this reproductive science to create an all-female race? I say yes!

That statement was in response to answering mailbag questions on the site:

Responses to reader’s questions are based on inside information, industry scuttlebutt, and my opinion. Nothing should be taken as confirmed news unless explicitly stated as such.

Well, I’m hoping that Jett’s speculation turns out to be a nonstarter. Given that so far WB has managed to stick, more or less, to canon with the Batman franchises and much (though certainly not all) of the Arrow TV show, there is no reason for a script to toss out Wonder Woman’s origin story beyond complete and total ass-hatted laziness. I’m not interested in a “powered down” Wonder Woman, evolved from Kryptonians. Frankly, I didn’t like the Asguardians as more evolved alien race when Marvel did that for the Thor movies. It’s a cop out.

Hey, True Believers – Stan The Man Introduces New Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer

Happy New Year, everyone! While I am still in the midst of composing my list of favorite, and least favorite, comics for 2013, I wanted to share with you the brand new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 that was released last night while the rest of us were getting shitfaced celebrating. In this one, Stan Lee, possibly fresh from his 91st birthday, gives us True Believers a quick intro. Then, we get another shot of the Rhino’s armor and lots of looks at Jamie Foxx’s Electro, in various action poses. Also, we see Spidey do what he does best when up to his neck in danger from his enemies – sling quips (and webs!).

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be released in the US on May 2, 2014.

Robots, Dragons and Sandworms, or: Stephen Colbert in The Hobbit

Yeah, I’m not gonna lie to you: not only is there still a baffling lack of comics news today with it being two days before New Year’s, but today I had to bring the Crisis On Infinite Midlives mascot, Parker The Kitten, to the vet, and not only that, but I took delivery on, installed and configured a top-of-the-line robotic vacuum to clean up after Crisis On Infinite Midlives mascot, Parker The Kitten. And those activities in and of themselves would have led to a busy day even if making the robot chase Parker around the house while I shrieked, “Exterminate! Exterminate!” didn’t lead to hours of hilarity.

But they did lead to hours of hilarity, and I am still working on my Best of 2013 piece, which means that there is fuck-all of genre news to report today. But there is one nifty little thing that I found today: anyone who watches The Colbert Report on Comedy Central knows that Stephen Colbert is a world class J.R.R. Tolkien fan. The man can argue the vital nature of Tom Bombadil the same way I can argue what a shame it is that Frank Herbert dropped dead halfway through writing Children of Dune, making that half-book the final word written about the Atreides family.

However, it is unlikely, despite my fandom, that I will be cast in the Dune movie, since it was released when I was 13 years old and, in the way I can argue that Children of Dune was the final book, I can argue that there was actually no Dune movie.

Colbert, however, was cast in a Tolkien movie, specifically the most recent Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug. He wasn’t cast as one of the major players (not even one of the major players that director Peter Jackson and his writers made up – hi, Kate from Lost!), but as some dude in the background, easily missed. But we have found some screen grabs of Colbert’s appearance, which you can see in more detail after the jump.

Vin is Groot: Vin Diesel’s Role In Guardians of The Galaxy Made Official

So when I saw my comic news wire blowing up earlier today with the news that Vin Diesel was portraying Groot in the upcoming James Gunn directed Guardians of The Galaxy, I was honestly surprised. Not that Diesel was playing the role, but that the fact that he was playing the role was news.

Seriously: there were rumors months ago that Diesel was in talks with Marvel to do something with them, and I follow Gunn on Twitter, so I was pretty sure I had read Gunn reference Diesel in there somewhere along the line. And normally someone only references admiration for Vin Diesel when they are working with him, or else accompanied by the word, “homoerotic.”

So I have taken it for granted for months that Diesel was playing Groot… but apparently I had no basis for that opinion because yeah: now it’s official.

I Love You, (Ant) Man: Paul Rudd Cast In Edgar Wright’s Ant Man

So Marvel made it official yesterday: Paul Rudd has been cast as the lead in Edgar Wright’s (The guy who directed The World’s End, which was, bar none, my favorite movie of 2013) movie version of Ant-Man.

When Edgar Wright came to us with the idea of Paul Rudd, we felt a huge sense of relief because the first step in creating any Marvel Studios film is finding the right star,” said Marvel’s Kevin Feige. “We knew early on that we had found the right person in Paul. When he not only agreed to do it but became as enthusiastic as any actor we’d ever met with about doing the work, we knew we’d found the right guy. We couldn’t be more excited for our audiences to see what he’s going to do to bring Ant-Man to life.

Yes. He’s enthusiastic about “the work,” Kevin. He’s certainly not considering Robert Downey, Jr.’s percentage of the gross of Avengers and envisioning finally being able to tell Judd Apatow to fuck off when he calls at 3 a.m. with an idea for a gross, yet sweet, comedy about some experience Apatow lived through at some point.

Look: I like Paul Rudd. But I can’t address whether or not he’ll be a good Ant-Man. Because we still don’t know which Ant-Man he’s gonna be playing.

The Book Was Better: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Neil Gaiman To Produce Sandman Movie

I love comic book movies, but it is a love like John Hinckley Jr.’s for Jodie Foster: just because a feeling borders on obsession doesn’t mean that the object of that affection will ever love you back.

It is a hard-fought love, as I am 42 years old, and therefore lived in a dark time when genre fans hoping for a movie to their tastes would have to bite the bullet and pretend to be excited about things like Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man and then find a way to convince ourselves that we were worthy of sucking breath in the morning. And if you wanted a comic book movie? Well, there was the first Batman movie that opened just after my 18th birthday, sure, but before that? Well, in the five years before Batman, the only comic book flicks that were released were The Return of The Swamp Thing, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, Supergirl, and Howard The fucking Duck. That’s a real murderer’s row of movies. In the sense that I want to line them up and shoot them.

So we comic book fans truly live in an amazing time, in the sense that there are many movies based on comic books, and most of them are pretty damn good. Sure, there’s the odd X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3 out there, but there are very few real stinkers. Sure, there are still arguments about Watchmen (which I rewatched recently and still like a lot), but that comic was so dense that it would have been well-nigh impossible to do a really killer adaptation of the thing. So while I like it, I can understand the argument that everyone involved should have left well enough alone. After all: some comics should just stay comics.

Which is one hell of a long way to go to report that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has announced via Twitter that he has signed on to produce a movie adaptation of Sandman with Neil Gaiman and David Goyer.

International The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer Has Some Previously Unseen Footage

Greetings from the snowbound headquarters of The Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office! While we spend the day digging out, please enjoy this new international trailer of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. There are some differences from the US version, notably Gwen almost outing Peter Parker’s identity at 1:44 and a good look at the Rhino’s armor at 0:54. Meanwhile, I’m going to try an convince Rob that you can’t clear snow from an icy sidewalk by pouring lighter fluid on snow to light it on fire. You need at least one beefy hobo for that lighter fluid, so that the flames can get some traction in a solid fat source to keep the fire burning longer and melt more snow over a larger surface area. I’m pretty sure that won’t violate the condo agreement, right?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will open on May 2, 2014.

Descending Again Into Sin: Teaser Poster For Sin City: A Dame To Kill For Released

We are battening down for our first winter storm here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office. These preparations are not really rigorous – as a wiser man than me once said, all a man needs to weather a blizzard is beer and toilet paper – but we need to get to it while the getting’s good.

So in the meantime, let’s all reflect on a place where it never snows (although it always rains when you need to take a long walk to ponder the priest you just shot), which is a good thing because the cars are all convertibles and the babes are all wearing exactly enough to avoid arrest… although it doesn’t really matter because the cops are all dirty anyway.

I’m talking about Basin City, or Sin City to the locals. And Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez are taking us back there in the sequel to 2005’s Sin City, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, which is due out on August 22, 2014. And Dimension Films has released a new teaser poster for the flick, which you can check out after the jump.

Dissecting Spiders: Commentary Track For The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer

I know I’ve been writing a lot about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 this week, but that’s because there’s a lot to write about it. Between the poster teasing the appearance of Green Goblin to yesterday’s teaser trailer, it’s been a big week for the movie… and if I’m honest, after a year of watching Doc Ock pretend to to Spider-Man, it’s nice to see good ol’ Peter Parker again for a few minutes… although considering it’s a British guy pretending to be all-American, wheatcake-eating Peter Parker, you could argue that Otto is a more authentic imposter.

But anyway, yes, there is still more to talk about the movie. Total Film has put together a commentary track for yesterday’s trailer, including comments from director Marc Webb, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Jamie Foxx. Which turns the three-minute trailer into a nine-minute video, but it does contain a few tidbits about the flick.

And you can check the video out after the jump. But if you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, fear not: I took a few bullet-point notes while watching it that I’ll include after the video.

Teasing Evil: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer Released

Jesus Christ, was that Doc Ock’s arms and The Vulture’s wings on the wall at Oscorp?

Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, last week the first big promotional poster for next summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released, and it showed not only Rhino and Electro as antagonists, but possibly the Green Goblin. Well, today the first full official trailer for the movie dropped, and it looks like we should be getting at least some ol’ Gobby – or more accurately, probably young Gobby – and at least a teaser for two more villains for the inevitable The Amazing Spider-Man 3.

And that “the inevitable” isn’t weary sarcasm over a perceived future money grab, it’s literally inevitable – movies three and four have already been greenlit and have release dates… but once again, I’m getting ahead of myself. How about that trailer, huh?

Well, you can check it out after the jump.