Week Links: Posters, Thor, and more

Still working on the 2011 recaps, so don't worry about that. So this week, it's another collection of links. There're more pictures from The Avengers, a couple pieces of news from Thor 2, a new promo for The Amazing Spider-Man, and a few other pieces of non-superhero movies news, including a film version of one of my favorite musicals. Also, I got a chance to see Martin Scorsese's Hugo, since its star is going to be playing Ender's Game, and I'd heard the 3D was actually well done. Turns out it was pretty good movie (#11 for 2011), though I had some trouble with the tone. Hugo was clearly made as a celebration of film, and made great use of 3D in juxtaposition to the works of Georges Méliès, but it jumped from fantastic to historic and back. Also, Hugo is a family film, so it's a little strange to see from Scorsese, but now I'm waiting to see him make a Departed-style film in 3D. He seems to understand the format better than most other directors, so you will believe you are being splattered in blood! Everything else is after the jump.

Avengers promo posters in hi-res

More Avengers promotional material keeps turning up, take a look at this poster of Hawkeye, and all the others are right here, and you can see all the images free of text (except Hawkeye) and in super hi-res right here. They should be coming in giant standee form to a theater near you any day now.

Another look at LEGO's Lord of the Rings

LEGO has released another poster, this time for Return of the King featuring Aragorn. It's a brick version of Viggo Mortensen in all his blocky plastic glory. You can can compare it to the poster from the original film, and check out this video showing the preliminary sets. I'm hoping the entire fellowship will appear in the first line, assuming that

Thor 2 gets another writer, Sif will return

Now the director issues has been fixed (again), Marvel has hired Saving Private Ryan writer Robert Rodat to rewrite Thor 2. They're claiming this was planned, and hopefully that's the case, though with the creative issues the Thor sequel has seen so far, there's plenty of reason for concern. In better news, Sif actress Jamie Alexander has confirmed she'll appear in the film, and left the door open for a cameo in The Avengers.

Into The Woods coming to the big screen

Rob Marshall, director of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha will be directing an adaptation of Stephan Sondheim's Into the Woods, the fairy-tale mash-up story to end all fairy-tale mash-ups. It goes well in keeping with the current trend of fairy tale films, and could turn out well. Or badly. The first act of the play tells a bunch of familiar stories (Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Red Riding Hood) and the second act goes totally crazy. The stage version is streaming on Netflix.

Wrath of the Titans will be ridiculous

As in "redonkulous," as in "insane," as in "what the heck is up with Sam Worthington's haircut?" Confused? Well, io9 sums things up pretty well.

New Spider-man banner changes tone

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the teaser poster for The Amazing Spider-man, commenting that the tone seemed fairly dark for a Spider-man film. Well, these new banners seem to correct that problem, showing Spidey in his red and blue glory.