Thor: The Dark World Featurettes

Thor: The Dark World could be a mega-blockbuster when it opens in theaters November 8, 2013.

From Hollywood Reporter

If pre-release tracking is any indication, Thor: The Dark World could enjoy one of the best November openings of all time at the North American box office, particularly for a film opening earlier in the month.

. . . Thor 2, like Iron Man 3, is expected to benefit from 2012 global blockbuster The Avengers, the crown jewel of Marvel's superhero film empire. Avengers, which features Hemsworth as Thor and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, among other Marvel characters, earned $1.5 billion worldwide to become the No. 3 film of all time after Avatar and Titanic.

Thor 2 is sparking interest among all quadrants of the movie-going audience. Interest is high among younger females for a superhero film, likely due to Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, who likewise returns for the follow-up alongside Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, and Idris Elba. Thor 2 is also tracking well among Hispanics.

Kenneth Branagh directed the first Thor, while the sequel is from filmmaker Alan Taylor.

Thor 2 takes place one year after the events of The Avengers, as Thor reunites with Jane Foster (Portman) and tries to save his planet from a mysterious enemy. Thor also forms an uneasy alliance with his adoptive brother, Loki (Hiddleston).

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Premieres Next Week

Excitement - the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiere is Tuesday September 24 at 8 p.m. EST!!!

Key Phrase: A Rag-Tag Team

More Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Mania at Comic Con

Fans React to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Pilot (Minimal Spoilers)



Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor's panel interview:



Marvel Highlights Reel:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Premiere and Panel at Comic Con

Lucky fans got to see the complete pilot episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. at Comic Con in San Diego!

Entertainment Weekly Has the Scoop ~ *S*P*O*I*L*E*R*S*

From USA Today

SAN DIEGO -- ABC took the wraps off Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Friday, giving the new drama its first public screening at Comic-Con. It premieres Sept. 24.

What the pilot showed was a team of highly skilled but not superpowered agents under the suddenly alive and kicking Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who died in The Avengers movie.

The episode explained the revival of the character, who appeared to have a grand time getting around, whether by team plane or his vintage, souped-up Corvette, Lola.

. . . Avengers director Joss Whedon is an executive producer of the series, which started shooting last week. He co-wrote and directed the pilot and the episode reflected his style, down to its humorous touches.

"I have that feeling that I have not had for a long time where I have assembled this extraordinary ensemble of ridiculously talented and soon-to-be-very-full-of-themselves people," Whedon said after the screening. "The endless possibilities that we have between them, among them, in their pasts, in their futures ... the things we've taken from the Marvel universe, that we're bringing to the Marvel universe, this is a show that has so much history and so much to make. I guess I'm a little excited."

Marvel-ous News ~ and I'm in Love with Agent Coulson Now

I love the new promo for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Agent Coulson Rocks - and I think I'm in love with him.

Fall TV is going to make me happy!

Watch the Featurette at SuperHeroHype.com

More stuff about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as upcoming Marvel movies in these informative Comic Con Previews:

Spoiler Alert!

Robert Downey Jr. Signed for Avengers 2

Robert Downey Jr. WILL Definitely appear in Avengers 2, which is good news since Director Joss Whedon recently said the movies couldn't be made with him.

Whedon Via Daily Beast

He is Iron Man. He is Iron Man in the way that Sean Connery was James Bond. I have no intention of making Avengers 2 without him, nor do I think I’ll be called upon to do that. I don’t think it’s in my interest, Marvel’s interest, or his interest, and I think everything will be fine. But I know that this is Hollywood and you roll with things. You have to be ready for the unexpected. But I loved working with Robert, and everybody knows he embodied that role in a way no one else can. The day he was cast, I went up to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige and said, “You brilliant son of a bitch.”

EW Inside Movies

Picture a big pile of money in that metal hand.

Robert Downey Jr. has reached a two-picture deal with Marvel Studios to appear in The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3 — but notably

He reportedly earned more than $50 million for The Avengers, and although his multi-picture contract with the comic-book moviemakers was fulfilled by Iron Man 3, everyone involved was moving forward as if a deal for more films was inevitable.

“I’d go start another one tomorrow, but it’s not tomorrow,” Downey told EW when Iron Man 3 was debuting. “And there are a lot of other considerations. But I also don’t like the idea of leaving people hanging or leaving people in the lurch.”

Whedon Talks Avengers in The Daily Beast

Joss Whedon on Shakespeare, Female Superheroes and Feminism (and lots of other stuff) via Daily Beast

Excerpt:

Where does your fondness for heroines come from?

I was raised by a hardcore feminist. I was also much smaller than my brothers and bullied a lot, so I identify with the feeling of helplessness.

Why do you think there’s a lack of female superheroes in film?

Toymakers will tell you they won’t sell enough, and movie people will point to the two terrible superheroine movies that were made and say, You see? It can’t be done. It’s stupid, and I’m hoping The Hunger Games will lead to a paradigm shift. It’s frustrating to me that I don’t see anybody developing one of these movies. It actually pisses me off. My daughter watched The Avengers and was like, “My favorite characters were the Black Widow and Maria Hill,” and I thought, Yeah, of course they were. I read a beautiful thing Junot Diaz wrote: “If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.”

. . . The Avengers 2 is on the horizon, and Robert Downey Jr. is technically not signed yet. How crucial is he to the franchise? His Tony Stark is almost Shakespearean.

He is Iron Man. He is Iron Man in the way that Sean Connery was James Bond. I have no intention of making Avengers 2 without him, nor do I think I’ll be called upon to do that. I don’t think it’s in my interest, Marvel’s interest, or his interest, and I think everything will be fine. But I know that this is Hollywood and you roll with things. You have to be ready for the unexpected. But I loved working with Robert, and everybody knows he embodied that role in a way no one else can. The day he was cast, I went up to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige and said, “You brilliant son of a bitch.”

How did you get to direct The Avengers?

I’d known Kevin for a while and was brought on just to read the script and advise the way I have with plenty of people. Eventually, I thought there was a story that I’d like to tell, and Kevin and I were on the same page about that. I took a big financial hit doing that movie. They know it’s your [big] break. Plus, you don’t do it for the money—even if there is the money—because people will know. They’ll smell it. But I fell in love with the story and they liked my version of it.

Preview of Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D. Show Sunday May 12

ABC has confirmed that Joss Whedon's show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." will join the network next Fall. And there will be some type of sneak preview tonight, Sunday May 12. When a video becomes available I will post it here.

UPDATE - Here's the video. Looks Good!



Via Wired

Viewers will get their first chance to take a look at the show this Sunday, when a special trailer for the series (which leaked online yesterday, before being quickly removed by Disney’s ever-vigilant lawyers) airs during the season finale of Once Upon A Time on ABC.

Here's the official show description via Wired:

Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel’s feature films as he assembles a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Together they investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary. Coulson’s team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage, Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) expert pilot and martial artist, Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker); brilliant engineer and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) genius bio-chemist. Joining them on their journey into mystery is new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet). From Executive Producers Joss Whedon (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” ”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”); Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” pilot co-writers (“Dollhouse,” “Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”); Jeffrey Bell (“Angel,” “Alias”); and Jeph Loeb (“Smallville”) comes Marvel’s first TV series. “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television.

Joss Whedon Talks Avengers II

Joss Whedon's modern update of Much Ado About Nothing opened in Ireland today, and he did a press interview which mentioned his attitude towards The Avengers II:

From ComicBookMovie:

Responding to questions about doing more Shakespeare, Whedon says he doesn't want to do another one exactly like he did Much Ado About Nothing. He says that he needs to keep trying different things from a creative standpoint. From there, the discussion turned to The Avengers sequel.

Whedon: When I first considered doing Avengers 2, my first question was what can I do that's new? Because I can't make it bigger....but I can make it better.

The moderator asks about his philosophy for Avengers 2.

Whedon: Death, death and death. (Crowd applauds madly.)

Whedon Talks About S.H.I.E.L.D.

From ComicBook.com

Joss Whedon said, “I’m excited about the show because it’s a very hopeful show. It’s not about murder, and it’s not about crime, and it’s not people looking into their own belly buttons. It’s about people who are trying to help each other, and that’s one of the things I loved about comic books. They had costumes and the villains were cool [but] they stood for something, and I like doing a show that does that.”

More from TVLine

“We’re trying very hard to be true to [Marvel's] ethos and also to the structure of their universe,” Whedon shared. “So it is definitely a Marvel show.”

That said, Whedon says to expect “not a ton” of familiar faces from the Marvel-verse, though “there’s a little bit of talk of that” for any possible future the project has in primetime. “Right now, I want to involve people in the characters that we’ve created for the show,” Whedon said, “and then we’ll worry about [the other stuff].”

. . . Currently, the cast for S.H.I.E.L.D. — which wrapped filming on the pilot last week and is being fast-tracked by ABC — includes ER alum Ming-Na (as former soldier Melinda May), Clark Gregg (reprising his big-screen Avengers role as Agent Phil Coulson), Nashville’s Chloe Bennet (playing superhero culture-obsessed Skye), British beauty Elizabeth Henstridge (science expert Gemma Simmons), Scotsman Iain De Caestecker (tech whiz Leo Fitz) and Brett Dalton (rising star Agent Grant).