AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON IS OUT
In the UK and Ireland at least!
Ahhhhh!! LET’S HAVE AN ALL MARVEL BIG SCREEN SCOOP AAAHHH!!!
ANT-MAN’S ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN IS TINY, ADORABLE
Ahem. Sorry about that. Despite the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe being stronger than ever, with almost everybody being delighted with Daredevil‘s shocking violence and the Avengers cast’s press tour dorkiness, the next Marvel film Ant-Man has become a bit of a hard sell. Between the acrimonious departure of Edgar Wright as director, the silly-but-not-cool-silly-like-with-a-raccoon premise and the stodgy first trailer, audiences don’t seem to have the same hype for this film, which will be released on July 17th. They might be starting to turn the corner on that one though, in no small part thanks to marketing like this (shoot me).
Redditors have noticed tiny, ant-sized billboards for the film in locations all over Australia, which even have little battery-powered lights so that they can be seen at night time. It’s a clever move to make the film stand out in the crowded release schedule of superhero movies and I really want one of those little billboards. It looks like Marvel are showing something something “size doesn’t matter” joke.
IF THEY CAN’T SAVE THE WORD YOU CAN BE DAMN SURE THEY’LL DEFEND IT. WAIT WHAT
The Marvel-Netflix partnership is already going pretty well. The aforementioned Daredevil has already been confirmed for a second season, with shows for Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist all still to come, and now before the Defenders even assemble there are rumours going around about their involvement in an Avengers film.
Screen Crush has addressed this talk, and has said that the contracts for tv actors like Charlie Cox or Krysten Ritter (who will be playing Jessica Jones) have 5-6 year contracts with Marvel that contain clauses for them appearing in MCU films, whereas the big hitters of the movies don’t have anything the other way around, one of the many reasons that you won’t be seeing Iron Man in Agents of Shield any time soon. A story like Infinity War calls for a large cast and especially with that film being split into two parts it’s believable that we could see Daredevil, Luke Cage et al rubbing shoulders with the whichever of the original team are still around at that point, added to Phase 3 characters like Captain Marvel, Black Panther and Doctor Strange. Critics be damned, if they think there are too many superhero movies the only possible solution is to give some of them TV shows instead and then PUT THEM ALL IN ONE BIG MOVIE
MARVEL LOVES ADAM MCKAY, IS A COLLEGE FRESHMAN
And speaking of those Phase 3 players, it seems quite possible that one of their films is going to be helmed by Anchorman director/Hollywood bigwig Adam McKay. McKay was reportedly in the running when Wright quit Ant-Man (my God, these news stories are all part of a shared universe!), ending up making some contributions to that film’s script and Marvel Studios president Keven Feige is evidently keen to get him on board for something.
Speaking about McKay in an interview with Collider, Feige called him a “great, great writer and director” and said that he’s in the running for “everything”. Feige said that Marvel have held meetings with McKay, so him working on one of their films sooner rather than later seems likely.
Having a comedy director like McKay working on superhero stuff isn’t that strange when you consider how the Russo brothers have been given the keys to the Marvel cinematic kingdom and how this whole business got started with Jon Favreau, but I have a hard time thinking where he would fit. He would be a pretty awful choice for Captain Marvel (and an unlikely one, as they’re almost definitely going with a woman to direct that one) and Black Panther. Maybe he could do that Inhumans movie? He can cast old buddy Will Ferrell if he wants, as long as he’s playing Black Bolt and we don’t have to hear him talk.