First look at Captain America 2

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has begun filming, and Marvel has released the first official image, along with a press release confirming many rumors about the film. Anthony and Joe Russo are directing from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Captain America: The First Avenger). Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers/Captain America, along with Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury). Robert Redford has joined the cast as Alexander Pierce, a senior leader within S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set for release in the U.S. on April 4, 2014, a month earlier than the norm for Marvel films, but the first weekend in May has been claimed by Amazing Spider-Man 2.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” will pick-up where “Marvel’s The Avengers” left off, as Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and teams up with Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, to battle a powerful yet shadowy enemy in present-day Washington, D.C.

The supporting cast includes Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Frank Grillo as Crossbones and Georges St-Pierre as Georges Batroc, with Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola and Emily VanCamp as Agent 13.

Pepper Potts to the Rescue in new Iron Man 3 TV spot

Fully revealing a rumored plot point from the LEGO sets, here's the latest TV spot for Iron Man, showing Gwyneth Paltrow getting into the action (via ComicBookMovie).

News: Jurassic Park, Norman Osborn and more!

There's some awesome news this week for several franchises, starting with one of my childhood favorites: Jurassic Park 4 has finally found a director. Plus, Guardians of the Galaxy has cast another character and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has added yet another major character, and we can finally see Amy Adams as Lois Lane. It's after the jump.

New Iron Man 3 trailer confirms the awesome

The theatrical trailer for Iron Man 3 is here, and it confirms, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the presence of the many rumored suits of armor. Heartbreaker, Hulkbuster and more. Not only that, but they seem able to fly autonomously (or Tony found a shit-ton of trusted pilots somewhere). Less than two months until release.

Christian Bale rumored to return for Justice League, potentially sets fans up for massive disappointment

It's the mother of all rumors for the long-suffering Justice League film. After failing to get Ben Affleck to direct the film (a move that would also have seen Affleck take over as Batman), a new report from LatinoReview (via ComicBookMovie) has Warner Bros. trying to secure the return of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, and bring back Christopher Nolan as a producer (Zach Synder too, so this would clearly depend on the success of Man of Steel). Bale has previously said he'd consider returning provided Nolan was on board, while Nolan has said he wasn't interested. However, Warner would probably be willing to move Heaven and Earth to get this done, as such a move would allow the film to overcome the hurdles that other options would face. Basically, this would let the Nolan films serve as setup for the Justice League, instead of requiring audiences forget everything they've seen in those films. Unfortunately, even if rumor is true, it doesn't mean Warner is going to be able to pull off the deals, as they'd likely be be looking for a long-term commitment from both Bale and Nolan. There's a spoiler for the end of The Dark Knight Rises below. You've been warned.

Future Past giving X-Men the Star Trek-style reboot?

As you may have heard by now, the next X-Men film will be titled X-Men: Days of Future Past, a name that reveals--for those in the comic know--a massively awesome plotline for the next X-film. Technically, the film is a sequel to X-Men: First Class, but it looks like it will be much more than that. First off, director Matthew Vaughn has been replaced by the director of the first two X-Men films, Bryan Singer.

So, comic-related spoilers ahead. You've been warned.

New Iron Man 3 poster has all of the armors

Yahoo! Movies has revealed a new poster for Iron Man 3, and it finally has official confirmation of the rumored suits of armor that'll be appearing in the film. There's seven new ones here (well, the one in the top left corner might be from a previous film). The armor on middle-right is said to be a Deep Space armor (a toy calls it the Starboost Irom Man), possibly tying into Guardians of the Galaxy. Here's leaked concept art for the space armor and a heavy Hulkbuster suit. And don't forget the Heartbreaker. This movie is looking more awesome by the day. A new trailer will be out on March 5.

Iron Man Heartbreaker revealed?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the Iron Man 3 Heartbreaker armor that was revealed in the tie-in LEGO sets. Now, ComicBookMovie has a piece of concept art from the film that seems to confirm--and give a better look at--the armor. Rumor is there's a new trailer for the film dropping soon that will show of several new armors, and based on the LEGO sets, this heavy duty suit could be the one Tony Stark takes into battle against the Manderin.
Also, Here's the Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) poster I guessed was on the way. She's holding Iron Man's worse-for-wear helmet. Or is she? Just waiting on the Robert Downey Jr. one to finish the set.

Ben Kingsley is a badass in new "Iron Man 3" poster

Check out today's poster for Iron Man 3 featuring Ben Kingsley's Manderin (or, as I like to think Evil Gandhi) looking like an actual badass. The sunglasses add that extra "I'm gonna blow shit up" vibe. Director Shane Black previously criticized the character for being a racist caricature so it'll be interesting to see how he deals with that in the film. In the hands of Sir Ben, I'm not particularly worried. This is the third character poster revealed so far, we've already seen Guy Pearce (Momento, Lockout) as Aldrich Killian and Don Cheadle as War Machine. Over the next few days, I expect we'll get one for Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) and of course Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark himself.

My favorite movies and comics of 2012

Time to look at my favorite things from 2012, a follow up to last year. It was an eventful year. We had a presidential election. The world failed to end. The economy did bad stuff. You know, the usual. World and political stuff isn't what this blog's about though. This was the year of Call Me Maybe and 50 Shades of Gray. More importantly to me, it was the year that The Avengers, The Hobbit, and The Dark Knight Rises all hit the silver screen. Creatively, I was on stage a few times, and even on camera. I've started a new novel (YA fantasy) and I'm working on a comic (superheroes). I'll post updates on both here in the future. Anyway on to the things I loved about 2012.