It's a wrap!

Iron Man 2 finishes principal photography.
--
MMB: IRON MAN

And now the crispy clean first high-res image of Scarlett as Black Widow

Check it out on EW.com!

The accompanying article is pretty interesting and worth reading. Take for example this passage:

...Rourke, for his part, wanted to instill some lightness into the role of the heavy. "I told Favreau, 'I don't want to just play him as a one-dimensional p----,'" he says. "He let me have a cockatoo, who I talk to and get drunk with while I’m making my suit."

--
MMB: IRON MAN

First blurry image of Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow

Thanks to FirstShowing.net!

She looks great! Rourke looks badass, Downey Jr. looks like Tony Stark come to life, Favreau is the best...this movie is going to rock.

--

MMB: IRON MAN

Natalie Portman is Jane Foster

It's been rumored for a while, but now it's official: Natalie Portman has been cast as Jane Foster in Thor.

Two immediate thoughts:

1) She's perfect for the role. My 'mind's eye' summary of Jane Foster is: graceful, intelligent, energetic, beautiful, thoughtful and classy. In other words - Natalie Portman.
2) This says a lot about the growing clout of Marvel Studios. Robert Downey Jr., Ed Norton, Mickey Rourke, Samuel Jackson, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and now Natalie Portman. Big, big names for what is essentially a new independent film company.

What are your thoughts? Yay, or nay? Leave a comment.

--
MORE: NATALIE PORTMAN ON IMDB
MORE: JANE FOSTER ON WIKIPEDIA
MMB: THOR

Ant-Man being pushed back even further?

Edgar Wright spoke to Empire Online and it seems like Ant-Man may be moving further and further back in the pipeline. A quote from Wright in regards to Baby Driver, his next project:

"So once I’m doing one thing, like this, I’m only doing this. Other things – like Ant-Man and me and Simon’s next film – have all gone away until I’m done with this."

So we'll see what happens.
--
MMB: ANT-MAN

Favreau twitters link to video of Iron Man 2 giant green-screen set

Favreau's twitter feed here.

Marvel continues to expand its empire

Marvel is really shaping up to become the next Disney. You see their characters everywhere. The licensing opportunities are endless, as evidenced by one of their newest pacts with Hallmark.

Spider-Man 4 script being re-written for the second time

So we all know that Gary Ross is rewriting the Spider-Man 4 script (he's the third writer to work on the project). But what we don't know is how this will affect the final outcome. Do several re-writes indicate trouble with the script? Or are several rewrites just a typical part of the movie making process? I did a ridiculously brief google search and it seems that rewrites are somewhat common and not necessarily a bad thing (it happened on Iron Man and look how that turned out).

The next thing to look at then would be the quality of the writer (or in this case, the writers). The first writer, James Vanderbilt, is listed on iMDB as having writer's credit on Darkness Falls, Basic, The Rundown, and Zodiac. I've seen Rundown and parts of Basic. Neither seemed horrible to me, but I wasn't overly impressed either. The Rundown was fun and delivered a bit more than I expected (which wasn't much). The second writer, David Lindsay-Abaire, is listed on iMDB for Robots and Inkheart, neither of which I've seen (and neither of which were critically acclaimed). Ross has, among others, Big, Dave, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and The Tale of Despereaux under his belt, all fairly large productions, most critically acclaimed. I've seen all of these except Despereaux and I was generally impressed with each one. He is a quality writer.

Can he do superhero? Nothing in his resume comes close to the superhero genre. But does that matter? Well, Batman Begins had David S. Goyer, an experienced superhero/comic-book character scribe, and the film was great. But Dark Knight had only the Nolans, with almost no comic-book writing experience (outside of BB) whatsoever, and that film was spectacular.

So I'm going to go with the general rule that solid writers, with a good grasp of character and story, can do superhero, despite lack of pertinent experience. Anything they don't know about the super-hero genre, they can learn. Fundamentals of storytelling - that, they have to bring with them.
--
MMB: SPIDER-MAN

Aerial shots of Iron Man 2 set

Check them out here.
--
MMB: IRON MAN

I guess we can blame Twilight for this

Evidently a Deacon Frost film (a Blade spinoff/prequel) is in the works.
--
MORE: DEACON FROST AT WIKIPEDIA

Spider-Man 4 villain revealed via slip of the tongue?

I know it's not a movie, but Marvel.com has a new web page up about the Spider-Man Broadway musical. The reason I'm writing about it here is because the first video on that page (embedded below) may contain what could be a verbal/mental slip regarding the villain of Spider-Man 4 (or more likely could just be me reading waay too much into things).

When director Julie Taymor discusses her approach to the Broadway show and how it will differ from the approach taken by the films, she mentions that rather than just pick one villain and work a story around that (as they did in the movies), she wanted the show to somehow encompass the conceptual totality of the Spider-Man/Peter Parker experience that spans 40 years worth of comics.

It is during her discussion of this topic that she makes what could be a telling slip of the tongue: she quickly rattles off the villains from the movies in an offhand manner, mentioning the Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and...the Lizard?!

Now this could simply have been her throwing in another villain as a random example of someone they might have discussed using at some point.

But...I would imagine that someone in her position could be in on Marvel's high level plans for the film series. Does she indeed know that the Lizard is the villain for Spider-Man 4? And did she accidentally let that slip while she was discussing a different yet related topic?

Again, I'm aware that it's more than likely I am reading waay too much into this, but you never know...



---
MMB: SPIDER-MAN

Sam Jackson on Nick Fury in Iron Man 2

Could be considered a very mild spoiler in a reverse sort of way - basically Jackson is saying that [very mild spoiler alert] Nick Fury sees no real action in the film.
--
MMB: IRON MAN

Rourke wraps his shooting on Iron Man 2

Favreau says of Rourke on his Twitter page: "We have quite a villain".
--
MMB: IRON MAN

Nukethefridge.com claims scoop on Stan Lee cameo in Iron Man 2

The site claims that [mild spoiler alert] Stan Lee will be playing Larry King (or perhaps a Larry King type character) in the sequel, interviewing Tony Stark.
--
MORE: LIST OF STAN LEE CAMEOS IN MARVEL FILMS
MMB: IRON MAN
MMB: STAN LEE