Capone: First Trailer For The “Bonkers” Tom Hardy Gangster Flick

Vertical Entertainment has released the first trailer for the long-overdue Al Capone film from director Josh Trank.

It’s Clobberin’ Time: FOX Reveals New Fantastic Four Teaser!

Of all the super hero films announced for 2015, Fantastic Four has been the most elusive of them all. Without showing footage at any of last year’s cons and keeping “leaking” under control, all fanboys received was a brief synopsis of the film (one that certainly made us scratch our heads.)

Hero Express: Spidey’s New Suit, Nolan Producing ‘Justice League’, & Matthew Vaughn on ‘Fantastic Four’!

Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top stories in comic based Film & TV news!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Chris Cooper as Osborn, Marc Webb Reveals Set Photos, and the New Spidey Suit!

Horse whisperer – check. Homicidal closeted gay man – check. Traitorous spy – check. Orchid poacher – check.

What on earth is left for Chris Cooper to play? Apparently it’s Norman Osborn, aka The Green Goblin.

Cooper will join Jamie Foxx as Electro and Paul Giamatti as Rhino as they tackle Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield, of course) in the upcoming sequel. Will Cooper’s Green Goblin be on par with Willem Dafoe’s from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man? That will be difficult as Dafoe plays the unhinged supervillain so well, but if anyone is up to the task, it would be Chris Cooper.

If you follow no one else on twitter (besides Grizzly Bomb of course), make sure you follow The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s director, Marc Webb. He’s been tweeting photos from the set everyday and it’s always fun to get a look behind the scenes, and commentary from the director isn’t too shabby. Yesterday he sent out a picture of an upended car on top of a crushed cab… Rhino’s handiwork? [Ed. Note: I’ve included a shot of Shailene Woodley as MJ from the set. No reason.]

In addition to the day to day photos, some pics of the new Spider-Man suit have been released. Now you aren’t going to make everyone happy, and there were quite a few people displeased with the suit in the first film of this trilogy, but I like this one. The eyes look great, much better than the first attempt.

Now that filming is underway, I’m sure there will be plenty more in the way of news and such from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so stay tuned!

Justice League

Christopher Nolan is Allegedly Producing with Zack Snyder Possibly Directing, and Christian Bale Might be Batman! But Probably Not.

I can not be the only person who feels like this movie has been in the works for decades now and with every passing day comes another rumor only to be shot down the following day. At this rate, my grandchildren might get to see a Justice League movie, but only if they are lucky.

The latest of these rumors was that Christian Bale was going to be returning as the Dark Knight, but that has been apparently dismissed. However, it was confirmed that Christopher Nolan is involved in some capacity, most likely as a producer. Also a producer is Man of Steel director Zack Snyder and there are hints that he might be directing Justice League as well.

Of course the biggest statement in the ComicBookMovie report is that we will probably not be getting much Justice League news until after Man of Steel is released on June 14th of this year. What that really means is we won’t be getting any “official” information but if it’s like anything else in the internet age, we’ll know plenty. It may not be completely factual but we will know it!

Fantastic Four

Vampire Hunter Scribe Takes a Stab at the Script, And a Producer is Named!

What do Pride and Prejudice, zombies, Abraham Lincoln, vampires, and Mr. Fantastic have in common? Well, thanks to the Fantastic Four reboot, Seth Grahame-Smith. He’s taken on the task of “polishing” the script and one can only hope that means this reboot will be much better than Rise of the Silver Surfer because I think we can all agree, that is a movie that just needs to be forgotten about, for all eternity. Burned from the annals of geek history. Grahame-Smith wrote the screenplay to last year’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer based on his novel of the same title (he also wrote the incredibly popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and the Johnny Depp vampire movie, Dark Shadows. Also of note, he is the writer of the hopefully upcoming Beetlejuice 2.

Matthew Vaughn has been announced as the producer of  the FF reboot, directed by Josh Trank. Vaughn is obviously no stranger to the geek world with a resume including Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, so I think we can rest easy knowing that the Fantastic Four family will be treated right.

Speaking of Matthew Vaughn and X-Men…

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Peter Dinklage, Richard Nixon, and Halle Berry!

Ever since Game of Thrones (and the movie Station Agent,  that everyone should see) actor Peter Dinklage was announced for X-Men: Days of Future Past, there has been speculation as to who he would be playing. Now it appears as if there’s a character emerging from the rumors as a front-runner.

[quote]But thanks to a tipster who prefers to remain anonymous, but is extremely reliable, we can tentatively confirm: Dinklage is playing Bolivar Trask, inventor of the mutant hunting robot Sentinels in the movie sequel. -MTV[/quote]

Obviously fans have been waiting for the Sentinels to feature into the story for a long time, and Peter Dinklage as any character in the world is fine with me.

While that is fun news, it’s still technically a rumor so it could easily change. However, director Bryan Singer has said that there is one person we are sure to see in Days of Future Past and that is none other than the 37th President himself, Richard Nixon. Apparently part of the movie is based in the ’70s, and Singer has promised that Tricky Dick has a role in the story. If I have no other reason to watch this movie, it will be to see how Richard Nixon factors into the X-Men universe.

Also official? Halle Berry is returning as Storm. Is there really much more to say on that besides an underwhelmed “that’s good, I guess, for her, maybe?”

Didn’t think so.

That about does it for this edition of Hero Express! Let us know what you think of these stories in the comments and we’ll see ya next time!

Josh Trank’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot Gets Release Date

The Fantastic Four franchise never really got up and running, mainly because it was just not well received among fans [Ed. Note – That’s an understatement]. So the decision to reboot the product came as no surprise to anyone. Now this reboot has an official release date, but do not get excited quite yet as it is a while.

ERC Box Office have it down as March 6^th 2015, a year that will put it in competition with the likes of Avengers 2, Justice League, and the final installment of The Hobbit (probably). I do not know if I would take this news as real either, because it is far enough away that it could get set back if problems arise. This release date also means that there is going to be a lot of time before we find any juicy news about the movie. The positive of this is that because of the luke warm response of the first two movies and the eight year gap there will be before we see another one, it seems the right time for the fab four to fly back into action. As good as I felt Amazing Spider-Man was, Sam Raimi’s version was still fresh in people’s heads when it came out this year.

We already know that Chronicle director Josh Trank is on board and newbie Jeremy Slater is on hand with the writing. This information came out during Comic-Con, so the project is slowly coming together, which is probably a good thing. Trank has a superb eye and his visuals are stunning, as well as him having a good grasp on character interaction. So here is hoping that this translates over to the reboot as the original suffered greatly from miscasting and no real chemistry between the cast (aside from Michael Chiklis as The Thing, he was fantastic). So now us fans have to play the waiting game. Will this keep fans excited about the franchise or will the long wait make them forget about it and move on to the next big super hero flick? Only time will tell, but I do not mind waiting for a bit to see how it all pans out.

CCI 2012: “Fantastic Four” & “Rust” Directors Confirmed While “Daredevil” Director Drops Out

‘Chronicle’ Director in Talks for ‘Venom’ Movie

Amongst the greatest movie atrocities ever committed, aside from Jar Jar Binks and all of George Lucas’ terrible Star Wars alterations, Spiderman 3 stands alone from many others. I don’t remember being quite so disappointed by a movie in my life as Peter Parker went Emo, Sandman was just a “guy trying to get his kid back” and Venom? Venom was saved as the closing act jobber played by That 70’s Show’s ‘Eric Foreman’ – Topher Grace.

What happened? Where was the Venom from the comics who was cold, calculating and basically a mountain of muscle? Instead, we get possibly the most whiny Eddie Brock imaginable, and a Venom who sounds like a velociraptor and has to peel back his face to show us Topher Grace with sharp teeth every time he wants to talk. It was a complete and utter betrayal, and nauseating display of a studio grabbing for the almighty buck right out of our pockets. Sam Raimi himself even let everyone in on the secret that this wasn’t even his vision of Venom at all, but the studio wanted him in there because he was sooooooo cool to the fans. Nevermind story or any of that kind of shit Sony, just fit him into your already horrible movie during the last fifteen minutes because, ya know… it’d be cool. UNCOOL!

But anyways, onward to the subject at hand.

Even after the debacle that was Venom in Spiderman 3, the powers that be have decided to give our favorite symbiote a second chance and are even attempting to place it in very capable hands. Josh Trank, the director of the newly successful movie Chronicle, has reportedly been tapped to take on directing duties for the newest Venom movie. Chronicle was a found footage approach movie that let us have a look at three young fellas who stumble upon telekinetic powers and then proceed to use them to dick around. There’s a tad bit more to it, but in the long run the movie cost 12 million to make and ended up grossing over 100 million. So, there’s definitely no reason a Venom movie should be terribly hard to make on a modest budget and still be profitable because let’s face it; the days of big budget films that don’t already have a huge fan base may be pretty much over. John Carter and Green Lantern are prime examples of that. Why not start off small and see where the box office revenue takes you before you determine whether or not there will be a sequel.

Next is the question of whether or not the Venom movie will tie into the forthcoming The Amazing Spider-Man movie and what Venom’s origin will be. In the other Spidey movies, they didn’t even bother utilizing the space shuttle angle, even though they had already used John Jameson in Spiderman 2. Instead, filmmakers decided that it would be a good idea to just have it fall from the sky like a meteor in the general vicinity of Peter Parker. In the new Venom, I’d think it would be a better idea to follow the Ultimate Spiderman comic book link of Peter and Eddie Brock being old childhood friends and Venom being a creation of both their parents. Of course they can change it up a little more but that seems like a simple, yet better way than a blob of black good falling from the sky. Only time will tell what direction the Venom movie will take, or if Josh Trank will indeed helm the movie. Rest assured, we will bring you news as soon as it hits!

Chronicle: Super Powers Done Right

This February director Josh Trank releases his first feature film, and it looks pretty damn sweet. Chronicle tells the story of 3 friends who acquire super powers, and then follows as they learn how to use, and eventually abuse them. As you can see in the trailer, things get out of hand…

The most recognizable actor in the movie is easily Michael B. Jordan who you may recognize from Friday Night Lights or Parenthood, but the movie also features character actor Michael Kelly and up-and-comer Ashley Hinshaw. Considering how good the effects looks, that’s not bad on budget of less than 10 million dollars.

To me this looks sort of like the early episodes of Heroes, but better. The only thing that I’m unsure of is the whole ‘Blair Witch’ camera work which can get old quick when in the theater. But I guess we’ll find out February 3rd.