Welcome to Hero Express, your one-stop shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.
This is the Hero Express for July 12, 2011:
The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Poster Arrives! – (/Film)
The first official poster image from Christopher Nolan‘s upcoming ‘final’ chapter to his Bat trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, has arrived. Check out the poster below:
That is pretty epic. It gives nothing away, but maybe it tells us more than we think? You can check the article for some suggested ideas concerning the teaser. I think it’s awesome, definitely of a brighter nature than the previous movies posters. All I know is I just read the Knightfall saga again, and really can’t wait to see Tom Hardy as Bane. Totally pumped. Bring me this movie now.
Catwoman’s Costume in The Dark Knight Rises – (GeekTyrant)
We heard about some wardrobe malfunctions on a previous Hero Express, but now we get a little description of Catwoman‘s costume in TDKR. Personally I can’t wait to see our first look at Anne Hathaway in tight, form fitting… goggles.
Anne’s outfit is more tactical, like the comic book, than the previous Batman movies. She will definitely be wearing the goggles and it’s going to be less sexy than Halle Berry and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman costumes. She’s going to look more like a robber….But fan boys shouldn’t be worried. This costume is going to be form-fitting enough to make Anne look smoking hot….Everything from the looks in her eyes, her head movements, her body–everything is so feline. The role is taking her to new places.

Batman: Year One Includes Catwoman Short – (Splashpage)
I’ve been waiting to see which character would be getting the DC Showcase treatment when Batman: Year One comes out, and thankfully I don’t have to wait any longer. Joining the other stars of DC Showcase (Green Arrow, The Spectre,Jonah Hex, Captain Marvel). Catwoman will be released with Batman: Year One, and will have Eliza Dushku reprising her role as Selina Kyle/ Catwoman. I’m sold, especially since it seems to be artistically based on Darwyn Cooke‘s take on Catwoman, which I am a huge fan of. And Catwoman seems to be the hot ticket item this year so it makes sense to tap into that market in every way possible.
Man of Steel Set Photos – (SuperHeroHype)
It took a long time for us to see anything concrete come out of TDKR, so I was a little surprised to see so much coming from Zack Snyder‘s upcoming Superman reboot. Here we get a look at some battle damaged buildings, as well as what could be the Kent Farm, although it looks more like Forrest Gump‘s house.
There’s more pics at the links above.
Marvel Studios To Start Producing Short Films? – (/Film)
While still a rumor at this point, it looks like Marvel could be looking at featuring some of the second tier characters (Dr. Strange, Cloak & Dagger, even Luke Cage, to name a few possibilities) in a shorter film format. I think this would be a great way to test the waters on some characters and see how the general movie audience reacts. The article goes on to talk about two short films featuring Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) which we’ll see on the DVD/ Blu-Rays for Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Thor 2 Headed to Theaters in July 2013 – (THR)
No big surprise here. Thor was pretty well received, made a swell amount at the box office, and is full of franchise potential. So mark your calenders, Thor 2 hits theaters on July 26, 2013. It will not be directed by Kenneth Branagh, as FilmDrunk reports.
New Captain America: The First Avenger International Poster – (Splashpage)
Doc called this the worst poster ever, and I have to agree. Kind of makes me think of a war time Power Rangers. Right? Am I right? With a red Zordon in the background? Fine, I’ll leave it alone…

Tyrese Gibson Pleads for Luke Cage (Splashpage)
Certainly no short list of actors who want the role of Marvel’s most badass character, Luke ‘Power Man’ Cage. We already told you about the Old Spice guy‘s desire to play the character, but now you can watch Tyrese Gibson (Transformers, Baby Boy) beg for the role:
“Listen, to Marvel: this is Tyrese Gibson. Get it together. Let’s go ahead and shoot this comic book,” he told MTV News at the premiere of “Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.”
“Luke Cage is one of the original Marvel characters. Show some more respect,” he continued. “Go ahead and get some traction going on Luke Cage.”
And lest you think he’s not serious about the role, Gibson reiterated that all he’s waiting on is the paperwork. In fact, he’s already got his headwear picked out.
“I’m ready. I’ve got my headband ready, baby,” he laughed. “What’s the problem, officer? Go get it!”
You can watch the video at the link. Honestly, after watching Transformers: Dark of the Moon, I would much rather my Luke Cage smell good then act bad.
The Wolverine Begins Shooting in October – (Splashpage)
Last edition we heard that James Mangold was being considered as director for The Wolverine, which is the last chance I have for a good Wolverine movie, but now we have a shooting date. And it comes straight from Hugh Jackman, who should pull a Jonathan Frakes and just direct himself and get it over with.

Ryan Reynolds Discusses the ‘Pretty Nasty’ Deadpool and its Small Budget – (Splashpage)
With all the Green Lantern buzz lately, we haven’t heard a lot of news from the Deadpool movie, except for the addition of Tim Miller as director. So Reynolds had a little to say about the movie featuring everyone’s favorite Merc-with-a-mouth:
“I love Tim,” Reynolds told MTV News. “Tim is someone who we all vetted through and through. He’s a guy who captures the spirit of it, and he’s also an incredible visual artist.”
“He was also the first guy we met who came up with a huge presentation for it,” he added. “That was something I hope to able to show you at some point.” Reynolds added one more comment about Miller’s attachment to the project that could shed some light on the type of film “Deadpool” is likely to be. Basically, if you’re hoping for a massive, budget-busting blockbuster, you might want to adjust your expectations.
“Also, Tim came cheap, which helped as well,” said Reynolds. “In order to do this movie the way we want to do it is pretty nasty, and pretty hard. You can’t exactly have a $200 million budget when you want to do a movie like this.”
There’s video at the link.

Guillermo Del Toro Moving Forward with Hulk TV Show – (Splashpage)
I don’t quite understand how Hulk has done so well over the years despite certain failings. The old TV show is a classic, but both Hollywood movies were widely panned by critics and fans alike. Yet we still hear news about Hulk projects all the time. The latest is the proposed TV show produced by Guillermo del Toro.
It was first announced last year that “Hellboy” director Guillermo del Toro and “Battlestar Galactica” executive producer David Eick were planning to bring the Hulk back to the small screen. Now that some months have passed, Fear Net asked Del Toro if “Hulk” was still happening.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” the director responded. “We turned in the outline to ABC about four weeks ago. And then we did a rewrite for ABC on the outline, and now we are lining up the pages.”
Asked if his Hulk would be different from other versions of the iconic green character, Del Toro said, “I think so. Or we wouldn’t be trying it. Actually, one of the points of this project early on with Marvel, was ‘We’re going to do this thing different, and here’s how. Are you interested?’ And they were.”

Blade Anime Trailer and Character Designs – (Splashpage)
Joining Wolverine, Iron Man, and X-Men in getting the anime treatment is none other than Marvel’s vampire hunter, Blade. You can check out some of the character designs at the official website. Here’s the trailer… in Japanese.
Probably the best character in the Marvel U. to adapt to an anime. Swords, vampires, leather, perfect fit. As to the trailer, I think I heard them say Vampire Hunter, so I get the gist of it.
More RED Sequel Plans – (Splashpage)
I definitely enjoyed RED, and it seems like others did as well, as we are hearing a lot more news regarding the sequel. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who produced RED, spoke about some sequel plans.
“We’re trying to put it together,” he told MTV News. “We just got a script and it’s really good. We’re all just now discussing how to put it all back together again.”
“You know, it’s so much fun to work with that much talent,” said di Bonaventura of the first film’s star-studded cast — which included Mirren, Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Dreyfuss. “It’s amazing how much people love that movie. It’s caught us all off guard a little bit. We’re all very proud of it, but it’s over the top how much people love it. We want to go back and play with those characters, because it was so much fun to do it.””
As for what form the sequel will take, the producer indicated that fans can expect to see a mix of familiar faces and new characters in the sequel.
“I think the audience would be disappointed if we didn’t bring back the crew, but we’ve got to freshen the crew,” he explained. “We’ll bring in one or two characters that’ll play a really big part — maybe three, but definitely one or two.”
“You know, Marvin and Frank and Sarah, you want to spend more time with those guys,” he continued. “Sometimes there’s a tendency to want to do too much of a good thing so you don’t really service anything, so we’re really trying to stay focused on our core crew with one or two new additions.”
Once again, theres a video at the link.
And that’s it for this edition of Hero Express! You can check out past editions here, and I will have an all Spidey edition coming soon!