Eva Longoria In The Avengers?

Here's a bit of 'Avengers' casting buzz that's sure get fans talking. Eva Longoria as Janet Van Dyne, aka The Wasp.

Oh No They Didn't celebrity gossip and paparazzi blog snapped some incriminating photos of the 'Desperate Housewives' star that suggest she may be taking on the part.

In the photos, Longoria is seen in the parking garage of the building where Marvel Entertainment keeps their Hollywood offices. Presumably, Longoria has just met with the filmmakers. Clearly visibile in her hands a stack of Avengers comics.

Now we know the 'Avengers' movie is supposed to include Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor and Ant Man, each of which character is or will be top-lining its own movie before 'Avengers' comes out. But the above roster makes for kind of a sausage party and Ant Man's sugar mama The Wasp has been part of the roll call since issue #1.

So, if Eva was meeting with Marvel and the meeting was about 'The Avengers' then it's pretty easy to imagine Longoria wearing the wings of the winsome Wasp. Her tough-but-pampered 'Housewives' character Gabby isn't too far removed from the long-suffering Wasp after all.

Does this mean she'll be appearing in Edgar Wright's 'Ant-Man' movie as well?

'IRON MAN 2' PLOT DETAILS REVEALED

Tony Stark will next grace the silver screen on April 30, 2010, and while that's not tremendously soon, it ain't that far off either. Still, Favreau admits to Sci Fi Wire that scripting is still in the early stages.

"Pages are coming out, but it's really more of a conversation than actual writing," Favreau says of screenwriter Justin Theroux's progress. "They are never really what they are going to be in the movie until the day you're shooting."

To get a sense of the film's plot, fans need to look no further than Matt Fraction's current work on Invincible Iron Man.

"We want to talk to [Fraction] and get him out here," Favreau says. "The Fraction series seems to be informed as much by our movie as by what happened with Iron Man before."

He also indicates that one of the main bents of "Iron Man 2" will be the rise of Tony towards the forming of Nick Fury's Avengers. Fans should also keep an eye out for a certain ring-obsessed super-bad...

"We'll see how that basic group of four people moves forward towards the inevitable 'Avengers' that's coming and how the Mandarin, how largely he looms in the next one, that's mostly what we're doing," Favreau teases.

And, of course, you can't have another "Iron Man" without touching on that other Iron Man.

"We're figuring out [War Machine]," Favreau promises. "We're talking to Terrence to see if he can take some time out of his new life as a musician to be War Machine. I think Terrence and the character of Rhodey were smaller in the first movie than we had anticipated. But it does set the table very well for this character."

War Machine, the Mandarin and the Avengers? Throw an excessively drunk Tony Stark in the mix and that's one hangover we can't wait to nurse.

IRON MAN 2 on IMAX in 3-D ?!?!?

Updated at bottom of article

Just a few minutes ago, I finished a mini press conference with Stan Lee and Jon Favreau. Stan went first, and then we got Jon…each was about an hour. They were both promoting the upcoming “Iron Man” DVD/Blu-ray.

Anyway, while I’ll have a lot more in the next day or two, the highlight was Jon saying he’d love to do Iron Man 2 in 3D! He also called the IMAX “Dark Knight” footage a game changer and he said he’d love to shoot part of “Iron Man 2” in IMAX. Regarding the 3D, he said it’s all about the cost, but if they can make it happen he’d like to do it. He talked about getting to see the armor in 3D and how cool it would be.

While he was a bit cagey about specifics with “Iron Man 2,” he did mention Mandarin a lot and he said we can expect a lot more surprises in the sequel in terms of other comic book characters.

He also said he hopes to keep the story relatively simple in the sequel, but he hopes to raise the emotional and technical side of the story. Meaning, he wants the stakes to be raised for all the characters, but he’s not going to make it hard for a new audience to understand the story or make it so complicated that you have to work to follow it. He actually mentioned “The Dark Knight” and said they can keep that side of the playground. He wants to keep “Iron Man” light and fun.

He did talk about War Machine and mentioned Terrance Howard and his busy schedule. I think he’s definitely going to put on the armor in the sequel….but that’s just my vibe from the way he talked about it.

With the script still being worked on and a budget still up in the air, everything is subject to change. But the concept of “Iron Man 2” being in 3D sounds very cool. More very soon from the press day. I’ll try and get the audio up later today….

Update – while I don’t yet have the time to transcribe exactly what Jon said, I do have the audio for you to listen to right now. If you click here, you’ll get the entire interview, which is about 1 hour. Or you can click here and listen to the last 5 minutes where I asked Jon about the budget for the sequel and the IMAX question. This is the part where he bitch slaps 20^th Century Fox and the way they make sequels and talks about 3D.

source: http://www.collider.com/entertainment/news/article.asp/aid/9129/tcid/1

Marvel Talks About The Future

David Maisel, Executive Vice-President, Office of the Chief Executive, and Chairman of Marvel Studios, spoke at the 2008 Merrill Lynch Media Fall Preview today about Marvel’s transformative year. This year saw the launch of an independent movie studio, beginning with blockbuster Iron Man, the 21st biggest movie of all time. The movie’s $318 million domestic gross was simply a building block towards the $575 million gross worldwide – with Japan still to open on Sept 27. The Incredible Hulk was another winning title with $216 million in worldwide revenue and $135 million domestic gross. The Incredible Hulk has opened in Japan and China; it is the largest movie distributed by Universal in China to date.

Marvel will continue its focus on Iron Man with a sequel scheduled for release April 30, 2010. Maisel also mentioned a third Iron Man film but did not provide a release date. Continuing the build-up to the year of the Avengers is Thor, set for release in June 2010. Marvel hopes to capture the excitement that surrounded the Lord of the Rings trilogy with its focus on Thor, a Norse god struggling with his half-brother and father. The movie features significant and interesting character development juxtaposing Thor’s deity and his human personality.

Captain America will have his turn at the silver screen in early May 2011. The movie’s working title is the First Avenger: Captain America, capturing Cap’s place as the leader and founding member of the all-star Avengers. The team of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor will come together in Avengers, scheduled for release in July 2011. Marvel will continue to inter-connect the movies with cameo appearances of the Avengers characters, similar to Tony Stark’s appearance at the end of Incredible Hulk. Marvel’s vision of the Avengers’ movies mirrors the Star Wars saga where characters are fundamentally connected and story lines lead from one movie to the next.

Marvel’s introduction as a movie studio moves in parallel with the company’s continued force as the fifth largest licensing company in the world based on retail sales. The company negotiated a profitable licensing deal for toys with Hasbro, and Maisal announced new video games based on Captain America and Thor to be released by Sega. Marvel’s licensing extends into the world of theme parks with a multi-billion dollar deal for a park in Dubai, set to open in 2012, and two more parks in South Korea. These parks present no financial risk for Marvel while the company retains significant creative control and economic participation.

Even with the furor surrounding Marvel’s movie, toy, and video games, the company has not forgotten its core; it is poised to take advantage of the interactive potential for comics as they move to the Internet, cellular phones, and iPhones. Marvel plans to continue efforts to digitize a 70-year library of comics and hopes to deliver these titles to an entirely new audience around the world.

Source http://enewsi.com/news.php?catid=190&itemid=13939

Will to power 'Captain America'? Nope!

MTV Splash Page blog drops an intriguing rumor this week regarding the 'First Avenger: Captain America' movie. The rumor comes from actor Derek Luke who stars in Spike Lee's upcoming WWII pic 'Miracle at Santa Anna'.

"I heard they offered Will Smith 'Captain America,'" Luke told MTV, adding that the intriguing casting rumor "just shows you how times have changed."

MTV's write-up doesn't question of investigate the rumor beyond that statement, so it's hard to say where Luke heard it, or whether there's any truth to it at all.

For his own part, Luke seems enthusiastic about the superhero game and is interested in certain roles.

"I would love to jump into Green Lantern," said Luke. "There are a lot of stories I'm into… [like] Black Panther."

UPDATED: Ain't it Cool checked Luke's story with "multiple sources from Marvel" who say that whatever the actor may have heard is completely wrong. According to AIC's report "Marvel never offered the part, nor did they approach or entertain a conversation about Will Smith for 'Captain America'.