“All Hail The King” – Watch One Minute Of This Marvel One Shot

Who is Trevor Slattery? If you saw Iron Man 3, you will recognize that name as the supposed real identity of The Mandarin, at least, in the movie. This clip from “All Hail The King”, a one-shot Marvel short that will be included in the Blu-ray/DVD release of Thor: the Dark Work, sets itself up as a documentary that purports to answer the question. My guess? He’s actually The Mandarin. This whole befuddled actor thing is a ruse, a long game. He intended to get caught but, for what purpose? I suppose it will all bear itself out over the course of Marvel’s Phase 2 and 3 movies.

Or maybe he’s a starving actor who just figured this was the easiest way to score three square meals and a roof over his head. Beats the bus stop men’s room, I guess.

The Blu-ray/DVD of Thor: The Dark World hits stores February 25, 2014.

Via The mary Sue.

Intellectual Property Expansion: Marvel Studios News Roundup

It has been a big couple of days for news out of Marvel Studios – or at least potential news out of Marvel Studios.

First of all, it has been announced that Lee Pace has been hired to play the antagonist in James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy, to which I think I speak for many of us when I utter a resounding: “Who?” And before you start: yeah, yeah; I know Pace played Thranduil in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, but I’m gonna go on record as not having seen it. We all know full well that Jackson will release a nine-hour extended version of the flick on Blu-Ray, and I’m holding out for that version. Anyway, it has not yet been announced exactly who the bad guy in Guardians of The Galaxy is going to be yet. With the reveal of Thanos during the credits of The Avengers, it doesn’t seem like Marvel Studios would shoot that wad just yet, but the Chituari are probably still floating around somewhere, as are the Kree (and what better way to introduce, say, Captain Marvel for Marvel Studios’ Phase Four?)… and considering Pace read for the Star Lord part, maybe we’re looking at Mar-Vell here. Or considering the presence of Rocket Raccoon, possibly a snap-on trash can lid.

Second: Marvel Studios’ President of Production Kevin Feige has confirmed that they have reclaimed the movie rights to Daredevil from Fox. Fox released the 2003 Ben Affleck version of Daredevil (and I still maintain that the director’s cut DVD version of that flick is at least a little underrated), and the terms of that deal stated that Fox had ten years to put a sequel or a reboot into production or lose the whole shooting match. And they came close – last year, director Joe Carnahan pitched a grindhousey version to be set in 1973 with a pretty damn cool-looking sizzle reel… that he then released online after Fox spiked the deal.