Samuel L. Jackson’s brief cameo at the end of Iron Man in 2008 forever changed the possibilities for superhero films. No longer did every franchise have to be a distinct entity – multiple movies could now take place in the same fictional universe, and the collective imagination of fans everywhere exploded at the potential for a massive crossover event bringing everyone together in one film.

With The Avengers, Marvel has achieved a seemingly impossible task: not only did they spend years building the foundation that supports this film by bringing together A-list stars from different franchises, but they managed to turn a project that could have collapsed under the pressure of its own ambition into one of the most crowd-pleasing superhero movies ever created.

Look no further than the 2002 series “Firefly” and its spinoff film Serenity for proof that Joss Whedon was the perfect choice to corral all of these monumental heroes into one storyline. Whedon is one of the best writers in the business, and he really excels at crafting meaningful relationships among ensemble casts and writing strong female characters, two things that were a requirement for a successful film adaptation of The Avengers. He was helped here by a terrific stable of actors, veterans of the industry who understand one of Marvel’s greatest strengths in these properties: the ability to keep the story critical to the film but allow enough humor that it won’t suffocate under its own seriousness.

The character work in The Avengers is fantastic, especially considering this particular team-up is jam-packed with characters that have already had entire films devoted to their singular adventures. Whedon gives each of them multiple moments to shine, and everything that we loved about them in previous films is on display here (and oftentimes it’s even improved). Even in scenes near the beginning of the film that contain massive amounts of setup and exposition, he manages to insert little “Whedonisms” to lighten the mood; there’s a gag with a $10 bet between Captain America and Nick Fury that’s a really small moment overall, but it brings a lot of humor to a sequence where people are just sitting around spouting information. Tony Stark has never been wittier, and Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner actually has a personality outside of sulking in corners and fighting the beast inside him. (The Hulk is funny this time, too!) Natasha Romanoff is far better drawn than she was in the disastrous Iron Man 2, so ScarJo fans can rest easy.

The action sequences are spectacular and choreographed so that we know where our heroes are at all times. (That in itself is a pretty incredible feat because the sheer scope of this movie is so huge.) The climax is breathtakingly constructed, mixing spectacle and destruction with legitimate character moments and not letting the (admittedly awesome) visual effects take over the movie. There are memorable setpieces spaced throughout the movie, resulting in easily the most entertaining Marvel film so far.

Because there is so much ground to cover, I did feel a little like Loki’s villainous intentions were a bit unclear. He’s working with some sort of alien race, but we don’t ever find out why the destruction of Earth is so paramount to their greater mission. Also, how did Thor even arrive on Earth for this movie? At the end of Thor, they establish that the bifrost has been destroyed. I understand how things wrap up at the end of The Avengers, with the Tesseract from Captain America playing a key role in the travel element, but there was so much happening that they didn’t have time to get into the hows and whys of things like that. Granted, I’m not sure that I would have wanted them to if it meant cutting out anything from what we see in the final film; it’s easy to see how Whedon’s first cut was over three hours long, and I’d love to see that movie in its entirety at some point if it ever gets released.

But ultimately, the few tiny gripes I have are cancelled out by the sheer geeky thrills in this movie. Marvel is the new Babe Ruth: they called their shot, and freaking blasted it out of the park. At long last, The Avengers finally came together on screen and, thanks to the only man who could have made it succeed, it surpassed all the hype. I probably don’t need to tell you that this film deserves to be seen on the big screen to get the full impact, but I guess I just did (and you can skip the 3D – it’s passable, but not great). The Avengers is everything I wanted it to be and more, and I sincerely hope that a few years from now I’ll be writing about The Avengers 2 written and directed by Joss Whedon. But until then, we can thank him for giving audiences the most fun movie of 2012. Until next time…

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Elijah Wood, well known by fantasy fans for his role in The Lord of the Rings, is aiming to please yet another niche. Wood is adapting Elliott Chaze’s 1953 crime novel Black Wings Has My Angel, and he has some intriguing talent attached. Screen Daily confirms that Anna Paquin, most notable for her role in True Blood, will co-star opposite the antagonist of Thor and The Avengers, Tom Hiddleston.

The thriller centers around a thief and a call girl whose lives are changed by an armored car heist, which in a way sounds like a historical noir version of The Town. That alone makes it a must-watch in my book, but it is a bit more complicated than that. Paquin will play the call girl Virginia, who follows a deadly but charming ex-con by the name of Tim Sunblade (most likely played by Hiddleston) to Colorado for a robbery, after meeting in a Mississippi motel.

The film is being written by both Barry Gifford and Christopher Peditto, who spent over a decade trying to secure the rights to the novel that’s been out of print for 50 years, with Alfonso Pineda Ulloa being attached as director. Wood, who is also producing, is slated to co-star in the film but his role remains a mystery, but with both Paquin and Hiddleston in the mix, Black Wings Has My Angel, which is expected to shoot in September, will be a welcomed revival of the often overlooked crime noir genre.

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Last year we heard that Marvel were aiming to begin production on the Thor sequel in April but since then there has been a director change, with Alan Taylor replacing Patty Jenkins, and in a recent interview Tom Hiddleston confirmed shooting is still planned for later this year.

From Empire:

“All I know about Thor 2 is that we’re supposed to film it in London in the summer and that it is being directed by Alan Taylor.”

It seems the director issues have caused a slight delay in production, but nothing that will prevent the movie hitting its November 2013 release date. Don Payne, co-writer of the first film and one of the writers on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, wrote the first draft of the script which will now be going through re-writes. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman will return to star in the film, and we’re hoping Anthony Hopkins and the rest of the original cast return too.

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Earlier this month a German trailer for The Avengers hit the web and gave us some new snippets of footage. Now a Russian trailer has been released which is a mix of both the German and US trailers, but contains more shots Loki, the villain of the film once again played by Tom Hiddleston.

Watch below:

The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, will star Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and will be released May 4th, 2012.

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In October Marvel announced that Patty Jenkins, director of Monster and The Killing pilot, would be directing the Thor sequel after Kenneth Branagh decided against returning. Now Deadline reports that Jenkins has left the movie due to “creative differences” and Marvel is now in search of a new director.

The Thor sequel isn’t expected to start filming until next April so there’s still over 4 months for a director to come on-board and work on pre-production, but it’s never a good sign when a director exits. Earlier this year Chris Hemsworth said Jenkins “has a great take on the story and a solid grasp on that kind of universe” but something obviously didn’t work out somewhere. Deadline says the director make take on another movie for Marvel, just not a sequel.

Don Payne, co-writer of the first film and one of the writers on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, is currently working on the script and Marvel has a release date set for November 15, 2013. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman will return to star in the film along with Tom Hiddleston.

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Yesterday Disney released a brand new TV spot for War Horse on their YouTube channel that’s more the length of a standard trailer than a TV spot, but if that’s how they wish to brand the preview, then that’s how I will present it.

This “TV spot” gives us a few new clips from the movie along with shots of the cast explaining what War Horse is all about and trying to sell the family aspects. With War Horse opening December 25th, exactly on Christmas Day, DreamWorks are pushing the family side to maybe turn this into the “must see” movie of the holiday season.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hiddleston (Thor), Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), David Thewlis (Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter movies), Emily Watson and newcomer into the world of feature films, Jeremy Irvine, War Horse is the story of a young man and his horse. When that horse is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War 1, the young man, despite not being old enough to enlist, heads to France in order to save his beloved friend.

Again, War Horse opens wide on Christmas, leaving little over 3 weeks for DreamWorks to start rolling the marketing campaign in full force, that is if they want to make this the hit it probably should become. Strangely enough, another Steven Spielberg directed movie opens just 4 days before War Horse in North America. I’m obviously talking about The Adventures of Tintin, already an international hit at the box office. This should make for a very interesting Christmas since you rarely see two movies from the acclaimed director opening so close to each other.

So what movie you think will win both the hearts of people and their pockets, War Horse or The Adventures of Tintin?

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Since setting a July 2013 release date for Thor 2 Marvel have been searching for a director to replace Kenneth Branagh, who decided against directing the sequel as he has other projects in the pipeline he wants to work on. Earlier this month we heard Game of Thrones director Brian Kirk was in talks, but now another director has entered the frame. Patty Jenkins.

According to Deadline Marvel will be making a decision soon and they may go with Jenkins, who directed Charlize Theron in Monster (for which Theron won an Oscar) and directed the pilot for AMC’s The Killing. Hiring a female director to take on a big budget sequel will be a surprise move, but a welcomed one.

Whoever takes on the sequel will have to pick up from where The Avengers finishes off, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gave EW a few hints about the direction of the next film:

Kevin Feige recently told EW that plans were developing fast for the sequel, which he said would “take Thor literally to other worlds.” While moviegoers will next see Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-swinging hero in The Avengers next May, Thor 2 would “primarily be the journey of that character, of he and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and how the new dynamic with his father (Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins) is working out, as well as what are the broader stakes for The Nine Worlds,” Feige said.

This suggests both Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman will be back (if not there characters will be).

Don Payne, co-writer of the first film and one of the writers on Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, is currently working on the script, and Marvel aim to begin shooting next April.

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A few weeks back we heard Brian Kirk, best known for directing episodes of HBO’s Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, as well as episodes of Dexter and Luther, was in talks to take on the Thor sequel.

Well in a recent interview with MTV Tom Hiddleston, who will also be seen as Loki in The Avengers next May, said a spring 2012 shoot was likely (confirming his return) but he spoke to Kevin Feige last week and a director has not yet been set.

This could be because talks with Brian Kirk are ongoing, however they could also be looking at other potential directors. Hiddleston went on to discuss Loki’s state of mind in The Avengers, and hopes to see Thor and Loki team up in Thor 2.

“In ‘The Avengers’ he’s really dark and kind of sociopathic, or maybe even psychopathic is the word, in a deluded way. Obviously I haven’t let go of the spiritual damage at the heart of him, it still comes from that lost place, but he’s just incredibly nasty. I think that probably in ‘Thor 2′ his previous actions will, he’ll have to take responsibility for what he’s done. The great thing about Loki is there is potential in him for greatness and awfulness, for great heroism and great villainy. There are still, even within ‘The Avengers,’ there are moments where you see within Loki a glimmer of hope and that possibility of redemption. It makes it fun to play and it makes it fun for the audience. Nobody is black and white, there are shades of grey in all of us. We all have potential for greatness and we all have flaws. I for one am championing the redemption,” he added hopefully, along with a wish for a future Thor and Loki action scene: “This isn’t definitely going to happen, but I think there would be nothing more awesome than seeing Loki and Thor fight somebody side by side.”

That would be interesting, as it paves way for a new villain to enter the frame. Hopefully in the sequel we get to see more of Asgard, and Natalie Portman said she’s signed on for more films so Thor could be heading back to Earth at some point.

Don Payne, co-writer of the first film and one of the writers on Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, is currently working on the script, and Marvel have set a release date for July 2013.

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The first teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic War Horse has today been set free by DreamWorks. The film, based on the 1982 novel, traces a friendship between Joey, a horse sold into the British army and sent off to serve on the battlefields of France in World War I, and Albert, his young owner. The two become separated but “continue to be intertwined” as they try to survive the horrors of WWI.

The trailer opens with a horse galloping through a battlefield surrounded by explosions, and we are then guided through a montage of footage to the music of John Williams. It’s classic Spielberg, and an awards contender for next year, no doubt.

Watch the trailer below:

Newcomer Jeremy Irvine has landed the lead role of Albert, with Emily Watson and Peter Mullan playing his parents. David Thewlis (Remus Lupin from Harry Potter), Benedict Cumberbatch (Atonement), Stephen Graham (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki in Thor) are also among the cast.

War Horse was pushed back from August 2011 to a more Oscar friendly December 2011 release. Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn will also be released in December 2011, on the 23rd, which is 5 days before War Horse will hit screens.

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When Marvel confirmed last week that Tom Hiddelston would reprise his role of Loki in The Avengers it confirmed speculation that he would be the villain (or one of them) in the film.

In a recent interview the actor said he was told Loki would be in The Avengers from the beginning, but it wasn’t made official until he’d finished filming Thor. He also spoke about meeting with director Joss Whedon, and is “flattered” Marvel chose him to take on their superhero team.

From Vulture:

Well, I think it was a plan from the get-go, but it wasn’t really dead-set until near the end of Thor. What was wonderful is that about four days after I wrapped on Thor, I went out for a cup of tea with Joss Whedon. We sat down at two o’clock in the afternoon, and we were still sitting there at six o’clock. He said, “Listen, you’ve lived with this guy for six months. I want you to spill the beans and tell me all of his dark secrets. Who is this guy? Why is he who he is?” Ken had already shown him a rough cut of the film, and mercifully, everything I had done accorded with Joss’s idea of the character, too. I’m really so flattered that Marvel and Josh think I can take them all on. In Avengers, it’s going to be me versus seven of them, and I say “Good luck to them,” frankly.

The Avengers will also star Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and will be released May 4th, 2012.

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