Marvel: 75th Anniversary Special, Age of Ultron Footage, & Agent Carter

Comic book fans have probably now had time to regain their sanity. DC Comics dropped a bombshell with news of their planned slate of upcoming films. Then Marvel Studios came into the picture and dropped the mic themselves by announcing their next slate of movies. The comic medium is really taking over film and television in a big way – and next up, Marvel’s ready to celebrate their 75th anniversary (it’s Batman’s 75th too!). To celebrate its three-quarter century of existence is a TV special – Marvel 75 Years: From Pulp to Pop!

This hour-long documentary will delve into Marvel’s humble beginnings in 1939, all the way up to their current reigns as media darlings. Emily VanCamp (star of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and ABC drama Revenge) will host this introspective look into the comic book entertainment juggernaut. You can expect to see plenty of archival footage, interviews with the company’s most noteworthy personalities, and a peek into the future of the brand.

Do yourself a favor and pay homage to Marvel by checking out this Tuesday night special (November 4) at 9 p.m. EST on ABC. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will have the week off, which sadly means no Adrianne Palicki in that awesome Mockingbird costume, but it should be interesting none the less.

Also coming to Marvel Tuesdays, during SHIELD‘s mid-season break, we will see Haley Atwell reprising her role from Captain America as Peggy Carter. We got our first trailer this week.

#AgentCarter is coming to ABC Tuesdays this January. https://t.co/SjrLrVABgM

— Agent Carter (@AgentCarterTV) October 29, 2014

And speaking of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they were set up for a nice ratings boost as the first trailer for May 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron was supposed to premiere during their show. However that was blown when those pesky Hydra operatives leaked it online last week. So on Tuesday night, we instead got this extra bit of sneak peek awesomeness. You gotta love the way Thor squirms as Captain America almost lifts his hammer.

Finally, as with any footage that is beloved by the internet in general – we’ve got a couple fun ones. First, the Pee Wee Herman voice over. Jimmy Fallon always finds fun stuff for his guests to do.

And in our last piece of Marvel news, check out this perfect mash-up of the 1st Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer backed by Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. Yeah, that song. The theme from Titanic, the movie your Mom forced you to go see with her.

We gotta admit, though – this song gets us just a wee bit more amped than a Pinocchio song. Celine Dion – 1, Pinocchio – 0.

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 Images: Marvel, ABC

Ben Affleck Responds to his Batman Casting Internet Backlash

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will be aware that Phantoms star Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel follow-up, currently titled Batman Vs. Superman. The internet has been up in arms about the casting, and so far the man himself has remained relatively tight-lipped. However, Ben Affleck appeared last night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to promote his upcoming movie Runner Runner, co-starring Justin Timberlake, and the subject of Affleck playing Batman inevitably came up:

Affleck talks about how he was warned about the internet backlash following previous casting choices. “They said, ‘Just don’t use the Internet for a couple of days,'” the actor told Fallon. “And I said … ‘I handle shit!'” Ben fAffleck’s curiosity couldn’t prevent him from having a little peek when the news was made official. “I saw the announcement, I look down the thing. The first comment? … ‘Nooooooooooooo. And I was done! We’re going to be Luddites for a while.'”

Affleck still seems very pleased with his casting and told Fallon:

[quote]It’s so awesome, man. I’m so excited. They called me up and asked me if I wanted to do this. And I said, ‘I’m not 25, man, are you sure about this?’ And they said, ‘Come down, we wanna show you what we’re doing.’ Zack Snyder’s directing it and he has this amazing take on it. Obviously you can’t do what Christian [Bale] did, those movies were amazing. But Zack wants to something different but still in keeping with that.[/quote]

There is mixed feeling over here at Grizzly Bomb over Affleck’s casting, I for one am on team Affleck. He is a solid actor and in recent years has proved his salt both in front of and behind the camera. At least the rumor that pop star Justin Bieber being in the running to play Robin in the movie has now been quashed. The Wrap reported on Sunday that the whole thing was potentially set up for an upcoming Funny or Die sketch.

Affleck will next be seen on the big screen alongside of Justin Timberlake in gambling thriller Runner Runner on September 27. Batman Vs. Superman is aiming for a July 15, 2015 release.