AVATAR Actor Matt Gerald Joins The Male-Heavy Cast Of Edgar Wright's ANT-MAN

Deadline reports that character actor Matt Gerald (Avatar, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Escape Plan) has taken a villainous role in Edgar Wright's Ant-Man. This isn't Matt's first Marvel role, as he took the part of White Power Dave in the Marvel One-Shot All Hail The King. It's unknown if he'll be reprising the role of Dave in new film.

The rest of the cast includes Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit, Real Steel, Hurt Locker), Michael Douglas (The Game, Black Rain, Wall Street), Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, A-Team, Insidious 1-2, The Conjuring), Michael Pena (End of Watch, Crash) and Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Non-Stop, Midnight In Paris). Production is set to being at Pinewoods Studios in Atlanta, the first Marvel film to be shot that facility. It's release date is the old Batman Vs Superman spot, which is slated for July , 2015

I'm loving the cast Edgar is putting together, but it's a giant sausage-fest at the moment. Currently, there are six-seven male cast members (Clifton Collins Jr. might be the seventh actor), while only one woman has been cast in the film. You'd think after The Winter Soldier having five female characters in the film, Marvel would be adding more ladies among the Ant-Man cast. Here's hoping that we end-up seeing more women join the Marvel film, because it's a bit shameful if they don't.


SOURCE: DEADLINE

Chiwetel Ejiofor Wanted For Villain Role In BOND 24?

British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave, Children of Men) is being linked to a bunch of major productions lately, being one of the many actors linked to Star Wars: Episode VII. The doesn't seem to be only huge franchises he's being eyed for, as TheWrap reports Bond producers are interested in him for the untitled Bond 24. Apparently, the role isn't a supporting one, as Chiwetel could play a Bond villain in the 24th installment. This wouldn't be new for the actor, as he's played villains in sci-fi films Children of Men and Joss Whedon's Serenity.

Jeff also mentions two major female roles that are being cast as well. One being a Scandinavian woman with a troubled past, who ends up a love-interest for Bond. A few names that come to mind include Swedish actresses MyAnna Buring (Kill List, Downton Abbey), Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) and Noomi Rapace (Prometheus, Dragon Tattoo, The Drop, Sherlock Holmes 2). My bet is on Noomi, since her ex-husband Ola Rapace had a role in Skyfall and she would be a different kind of Bond girl.

Director Sam Mendes looked at a lot of unknown actresses, when casting Skyfall. I'd suggest an unknown like Danish actress Mia Jexen for the role as well.

We don't have many details on the project, but at one point Bond 23 was said to focus on the heroin-trade in Afghanistan. That plot was ultimately scrapped for Skyfall. Yet, it's possible they could weave the unused elements in the final two films in Sam Mendes' trilogy. The returning cast includes Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw, with the release date set for November 2015 (October UK).

SOURCE: THEWRAP

BIG SPOILERS: How Does WINTER SOLDIER Effect AGE OF ULTRON And CAPTAIN AMERICA 3?

SPOILERS!!! I've been noticing that a lot of people aren't expecting Captain America: The Winter Soldier to be as impacting to the MCU as whole, which it is. I'm going to rundown a couple of theories on how this film might effect both Age of Ultron and Captain America 3. There entire write-up is filled to the brim with spoilers, top to bottom. So unless you've seen Winter Soldier, other released Marvel films or just don't care, please wait to read this. It's also possible there a major spoiler for Age of Ultron as well.

AGE OF ULTRON

The biggest shake-up revealed is Hydra being active since the end of WWII, spending the last 70 years infiltrating SHIELD and feeding the World Organization false information for their own gain. By the end of the film, SHIELD is sacrificed to keep Hydra spies out of play, leading to it's disband. Maria Hill ends taking a job at Stark Industries (possibly teasing her fling with Tony). I'm not entirely sure if this also means that Agents of SHIELD will have much a shelf-life after this. If SHIELD is gone in the MCU, how will they explain the show's title? I'm assuming that a group like HAMMER (Justin Hammer substituting for Norman Osborn?) might take on the role that SHIELD had.

The twins are being controlled by Hydra and Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. His method isn't actually new, as he's using Loki's mind-control spear to keep the pair under his thumb. It's possible that Strucker has been slowly turning many people against the Avengers (Hulk anyone?) and SHIELD, while in possession of this cosmic weapon. Basically as long as he's able to touch someone with the spear he might be able to turn them into a sleeper Hydra agent. It's very likely that the twins will eventually break free of this spell, and team-up with the Avengers.

Fury mentions heading to Europe to begin taking-out the rest of Hydra, which could lead him to Strucker and asking the Avengers for some back-up. The Italian fort being used for the film, might actually be the Hydra stronghold (Strucker's liar in the end credits scene?) which is expected to be the opening sequence of the film. This fort could actually belong to Zemo, as we've seen in the comics Hydra has takeover or seized the family's property, as Zemo was a rival of Red Skull.

We find out that Dr. Zola has willingly turned himself into A.I. back in the 70's, and this could be the real seeds for the development of Ultron. As we know that Zola is now capable of developing evil complex programs, creating Ultron while deviating JARVIS might be the work of Hydra and Zola, not Tony Stark or even Thanos. Ultron will eventually attempt a takeover the world, while taking on his mission becomes self-aware. Zola having this program backed-up somewhere else, is a strong possibility as there are a bunch of locations that data could be stored.

Hydra is also very interested in killing Stark and had him as a prime-target for assassination. I assume that they want Stark's tech but will use Zola's programming, leading to the killer robots making a giant mess of things. Instead of using helicarriers to kill masses of people, Hydra could try to highjack JARVIS who can replicate Iron Man suits at a very quick rate. Tony (outside of the suit) would also be one of the few people that could stop an army of robots, if the situation ever came up.

Programming Ultron to carry out the Terminator-style assassinations of millions of people, who will become threats to Hydra. Somehow effecting JARVIS with Zola's program (future threat algorithm could be what set's off Pandora's Box. It's possible the people targeted for destruction (along with Meta-Humans) in Winter Soldier could be similar to Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, whatever they turn out to be. As Hydra is known for ethnic cleansing, trying to wipe-out mutants, Meta-Humans or inhumans, might be their new master plan.

I wouldn't be shocked to find out that Iron Man villains  have been also members of Hydra. Specifically Stane and Killian, who have histories with Stark but also possible Hydra connections. We know that Stane was a longtime friend of Howard Stark, but it's revealed that Hydra had him killed. It's possible that Stane knew or even helped with this assassination, to gain more power within Stark Industries. Killian is a founding member of Advanced Idea Mechanics, which is a splinter group of Hydra and is also started by Strucker. This might be even more reason Hydra wants Tony out of the picture, as they seem has one of the biggest threats to their plans (along with Bruce Banner and Stephen Strange).

I'm sure Hydra was also the group that helped Loki with his takedown of SHIELD in Avengers. Making the whole MCU world even more sinister, thinking that Hydra pretty much has had a hand in a majority of the Earthbound villains. As Hydra is now in the open, it could lead to formation of a villainous super-group (Masters of Evil?), that could consist of Zemo/Strucker/Hydra, the Ten Rings/real Mandarin and whoever is now running A.I.M. (possibly Modok, who has been teased by the screenwriters). Ultron might not be the only threat towards the Avengers in the film.

Of course, the wind might change with what happens in Guardians of The Galaxy, but we've been told that Winter Soldier has the greatest connection to Age of Ultron. Guardians could possibly be it's own thing, opening the door to the cosmic universe while still in the same world as the Avengers. I'm going to be that Marvel is saving that crossover and cosmic threat for Avengers 3. Allowing Age of Ultron to have more personal and Earthbound threats for the heroes.

CAPTAIN AMERICA 3

Strucker and Hydra have been excellent present day villains for Cap, so it's expected that they'll return in some form. We have no idea if Strucker has a bigger role or not in Age of Ultron, but if he survives it having a part in Captain America 3 sounds about right. The world pushing forward with a new world defence origination (to combat possible homegrown and cosmic threats) in the wake of SHIELD being taken down, might lead to HAMMER or SWORD, with Hydra pulling the strings. Red Skull returning is something obviously fans are hounding the studio to see, but Cap luckily has one of the better MCU rogues gallery. Playing around with staple villains like Strucker or even introducing Baron Zemo, seem like better options.

Bucky finds himself without a handler or his mind being erased, as he discovers his true self (via his exhibit at the war museum), it's possible he might try to reconnect with Rogers. Leading to Bucky becoming a member of the Avengers. Although, membership is getting larger by the film. Since Sebastian Stan has a nine-picture deal with Marvel, we shouldn't rule out an appearance in Age of Ultron too. We've all been speculating that Bucky will take-on the Captain America mantle at some point in the future, as he does in the comics.

Brock Rumlow is badly burned at the end of Winter Soldier but still alive which means he could be picked-up by Hydra and put back to work. Maybe giving him another type of super soldier formula, one that Zola originally used on Bucky. I would expect Batroc might be returning as well, since we don't actually get to find out what happens to him, after being captured by SHIELD/Hydra.

The Captain America 3 theories and speculation are expected to be less detailed, as the directors and writers are just breaking the story at the moment. Trying to predict where the third film will be going is a bit harder than Age of Ultron, since we have more details on the Avengers sequel. However, it seems like Marvel is going to be using the Captain America franchise as the new launching-pad for bigger stories that effect the entire MCU. We might see the third film having a bigger impact on the rest of Phase Three projects, similar to this giant plot shake-up in Phase Two.

Possible IRON MAN Suit Concept Art For AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

While it's been confirmed we'll be seeing the Hulkbuster in Avengers: Age of Ultron, we haven't actually had a good idea of what to expect with Stark's other armors. There was a shot of a stand-in wearing a prop suit, which might have been placed there for ILM and the actors on set's sake. However, a new image might actually be concept art from the new film. It might also be leftovers from Iron Man 3 concept art, but this could be what Iron Man looks like in his regular armor.

Judy Greer Nabs Another Cool Role With JURASSIC WORLD

Jurassic World is quite finished casting roles, as TheWrap reports that funny lady Judy Greer has joined the production. Greer recently took a action-heavy part in Dawn of The Planet of The Apes, playing motion-capture ape Cornelia (an homage to Cornelius). It's possible she might not be on the sidelines, as it's expected a bunch of the human characters will be running for their lives by the second act (as per usual with Jurassic Park films).

The rest of the cast includes Chris Pratt (Her, Wanted, Guardians of The Galaxy), Bryce Dallas Howard (Terminator Salvation, Spider-Man 3, 50/50), Nick Robinson (Kings of Summer), Ty Simpkins (Insidious 1-2, Iron Man 3), Jake Johnson (New Girl) , Irrfan Khan (Amazing Spider-Man, Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi), B.D. Wong (Jurassic Park) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Men In Black). The production is already underway, taking place in Hawaii and Louisiana, with the release date set for June 12th, 2015.

SOURCE: THEWRAP

AGE OF ULTRON SET PHOTOS: Chris Evans And Black Widow Stunt Double Sport New Costumes

Chris Evans has finally joined the production of Avengers: Age of Ultron, as he was spotted on the set in South Korea. Evans was sporting a new costume with the Avengers logo. Scarlett Johansson hasn't showed-up but her stunt double was riding on a motorcycle and was also wearing an updated costume.

JACKASS Johnny Knoxville Will Voice Leo In TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

Following a mixed reaction to the recent trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Paramount has hired Jackass (the films are setup at Paramount) founding member Johnny Knoxville to be the new voice of Leonardo, according to Deadline. While Tony Shalhoub will replace Danny Woodburn (Watchmen, Seinfeild's) as the voice of Splinter. Tony recently working with producer Michael Bay on Pain And Gain, might have had something to do with his casting. I'll be interesting to see if the studio looks to hire another well-known actors to voice the other turtles.

Here's hoping they also land Steve-O for Donatello.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Holly Hunter, Callan Mulvey And Tao Okamoto Join BATMAN VS SUPERMAN

While their characters are unknown, Deadline reports that Holly Hunter, Callan Mulvey (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 300: Rise of An Empire) and Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine) have joined the cast of Batman Vs Superman. The trio will join Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Jesse Eisenberg and Jeremy Irons. The film is still set to go head-to-head against Captain America 3 on May 6th, 2016.


SOURCE: DEADLINE

Toby Kebbell Front-Runner For Dr. Doom Role In FANTASTIC FOUR

Variety reports that Fox is closing-in British actor Toby Kebbell for the role of villain Dr. Doom in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four. He's currently the front-runner but a deal hasn't been finalized. Toby is an excellent actor who could breakout in this project. Production beings soon with Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell as the four leads. The studio has already set a release date for a sequel, so they're are betting the first film will be very successful.


SOURCE: VARIETY 

Byung-Hun Lee And Others Roundout The TERMINATOR: GENESIS Cast

THR reports the rest of the Terminator: Genesis cast has been hired. They include Korean actor Byung-Hun Lee (G.I. Joe 1-2, I Saw The Devil, Red 2), J.K. Simmons (Juno, Thank You For Smoking, Oz, Spider-Man 1-3), Sandrine Holt (House of Cards) and Michael Galdis (Mad Men). Most of their roles aren't being revealed, but Simmons will play a cop.

Production is about to begin with Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Jason Clarke (Dawn of The Planet of The Apes, Zero Dark Thirty), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dayo Okeniyi (Hunger Games) and Jai Courtney (A Good Day To Die Hard, Jack Reacher) in lead roles. It's release date is set for July 1st, 2015.


SOURCE: THR

John Boyega And Chadwick Boseman Talk BLACK PANTHER Role

Black Panther has been a hot-topic in development project at Marvel for years now, at one point Wesley Snipes was considered for the role. More recently, Mark Bailey completed a draft for the script which seemingly impressed insiders and the Marvel offices. However, the studio has pushed it back to make way for projects like Guardians of The Galaxy, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. Kevin Feige stated last year, that they were indeed still developing the film. It's a bit more reassuringly than the shutdown on the Black Widow film.

When it comes to grilling potential actors about Black Panther, none are betting than BlackFilm. They've been getting a bunch of responses from actors over the last year or so. Another T'Challa candidate (according LatinoReview) is up-and-comer Chadwick Boseman (Get On Up, 42), and he commented on the possibility of doing Black Panther. He starts out coy, but eventually gives the impression the character would have to standout for him to do it. We currently don't even know if he's even in the running anymore.

Could you see yourself playing Black Panther?

Chadwick Boseman: I could see myself doing anything in terms of comic book, action, or anything like that. Black Panther, in particular, I’m not going to answer that.

If not, then which character?

CB: Let me put to you this way. If it’s character driven, I’ll do it. As long as it’s character driven, I would love to do it. If it’s just you in a suit and you with powers, then it doesn’t interest me, no matter how big it is. As long as it’s character driven, I’m totally into it. If they could figure out how to do Black Panther and make it fit the original or adapt to the times we’re in now and be new and innovative and be character driven and has the sense of what the comic book is supposed to be, but not bound by it, then yes, of course, I would want to do it.

As he finished speaking on the record, he asked if folks wanted to see a Black Panther film and I said yes. Then he asked, “What about Green Lantern?”

Attack The Block's John Boyega has been more vocal about his desire of playing a Marvel role. Speaking to FlicksAndTheCity he mentioned inspiring actors which included Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2), Anthony Hopkins (Thor 1-2), and fellow Star Wars candidate David Oyelowo (also a favorite for Panther). He was also asked about Marvel and Joss Whedon calling, and he specifically names Black Panther and Blade as dream-roles.

"First of all, if Joss Whedon called. I would leave my life behind and fly out to L.A., and train for the role...But I'm a big Marvel fan and I'm a big DC fan, so I'm into all that stuff. I know of what film is auditioning, I can tell you right now and futuristically speaking, that's just because I'm a fan. So, obviously I'd be very happy if that happened. And, I'm pretty sure hopefully if everything goes well, it might just happen."

"So..I'm just going to be specific.. I would play the Black Panther in Marvel, Joss Whedon if you're listening make a good choice. I don't know there's loads, there's Black Panther, there's Blade, they want to do a Blade reboot. If Wesley Snipes handed the baton to me, that'd be good."

Back in December, John spoke to Metro explaining why the Black Panther story speaks to him.

"The Black Panther, the Marvel character. For me it’s the back-story. My family is originally from Nigeria and the Black Panther comics are about this African nation that is wealthy and healthy and totally cut off from the world. It’s never known slavery, it’s the ultimate nation – it neither buys nor sells oil. The Americans and the British want to know: ‘What’s the deal with these people?’ – they see the Black Panther as a kind of panther god. If I ever got that role, I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven."

It doesn't hurt his Marvel connections working with Ant-Man's Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish on Attack The Block. Walking the red carpet to support Joss Whedon (Avengers) and Drew Goddard's (Daredevil) horror hybrid Cabin In The Woods, which co-starred Thor's Chris Hemsworth. Having experience at Comic-Con and being a comic book fan might be asset as well.

He was recently connected to roles in both Star Wars: Episode VII and Terminator: Genesis (didn't end up with the part). The former could allow extra international exposure which would be needed for the Black Panther lead role (similar to Hemsworth's Star Trek exposure prior to Thor). At the moment, we don't expect the Panther solo movie to show-up until Phase Four, allowing Boyega to knock-out a couple of Star Wars films first (if he ends up landing a role). ThePlaylist has also made the case to consider John for the T'Challa role.


SOURCE: BLACKFILM

Gambit And Nightcrawler Teased For 80s-Set X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, Will Channing Tatum Play Gambit?

While speaking to CinePremiere (via ScreenRant) Singer confirmed X-Men: Apocalypse would be set sometime in the 1980's, which is a little further into the future than we were expecting. The reasoning behind it is that Bryan wants to include characters like Gambit and Nightcrawler (we assume others such as Cyclops, Jean and Storm would also be on the table as showing-up). The pair of X-Men would be around in that timeline, which would make them somewhere in their mid-late 20s or early 30s (if Nightcrawler was born in the 60's). Depending on how Singer approaches Nightcrawler in the end, as the film's script is still being developed/written.

“I’m considering a Gambit and potentially a young Nightcrawler for Apocalypse. [We were] going to have to Nightcrawler [in Days of Future Past] and even wrote a scene, but I felt that we were forcing too mutants known history.”

Louisiana actor Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, This Is The End, White House Down, Magic Mike 1-2, Haywire, Jupiter Ascending, Foxcatcher, Lego Movie) has already been campaigning for the Gambit role (via SlashFilm), and Lauren Shuler Donner has gone as far to hint new talk of a Gambit movie. She even seemed excited on the prospective of Channing in the role. His film Foxcatcher is expected to gather a lot of awards talk, which could ease fans apprehension of casting him in the role.

“I would like to play Gambit. Gambit’s my favorite. I’m from New Orleans, around that area. My dad’s from New Orleans, and I like to do a Cajun accent. I could do it for real. No knock on Taylor Kitsch [who played the character in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'], though, ’cause I actually like his Gambit, but I’ve always lived around Cajun people. [...] Gambit was always like the woman-loving, cigarette-smoking, drinking [guy]. He was the punk rock of all the superheroes. He’s a thief. He kind of rode the line.”

At one point the X-Men franchise producer was actively considering a Gambit film, but after the poor reception of Origins, that talk quickly slowed down. I assume even more so when Taylor Kitsch, ended up leading two massive box office bombs (John Carter and Battleship), the negative stigma that actor brings to the table might be the reason they never brought him back. Along with Matthew Vaughn/Bryan Singer's timeline update clean-up via First Class and Days of Future Past. Lauren's recent quotes to Empire give the impressive the studio could consider Channing's offer, which could lead to a spin-off feature. We already know that a mystery Marvel film is set for release in 2018 (July 13th) at Fox, it's possible the Gambit film could be the mystery project. Given that X-Force will likely happen before 2018, Jeff Wadlow's script has a completed draft.

"I'm dying to do a Gambit movie with Channing Tatum," Shuler Donner reveals. "That doesn't have to be a great big movie. It's a thief in New Orleans, it's a whole different story. He's on board, and I have to get the studio on board. How can anyone resist Channing? He's such a sweetheart."

While we sort of have an idea of where Fox might go with casting with Gambit, but they haven't really mentioned names for Nightcrawler. It's safe to say they'll be recasting Alan Cummings for the role. Since the teleporting offspring of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) would be a lot younger than he was in the 2002 film.

I know that Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter, Dredd, Never Let Me Go, True Grit, Frank, Ex Machina, Unbroken, Anna Karenina) has been mentioned for a role (possibly Dr. Doom) in Fox's Fantastic Four, but if that doesn't pan-out he'd make a solid Nightcrawler. It doesn't hurt he just worked with Michael Fassbender (Magneto) in the punk-rock comedy Frank. That film, and Angelina Jolie's WWII bio-pic Unbroken are expected to be major award contenders in 2014-2015. We haven't really seen Fox make the attempt to cast awards caliber actors for actual X-Men.

Another solid actor in my opinion would be Ben Wishaw (Cloud Atlas, Skyfall, Bond 24, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Layer Cake, The Hour).

If Singer ends up going young for the role (a bit risky to the tone of the film), which makes sense since Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique is the character's mother. Game of Thrones actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright might be a good fit. He's been growing like a weed lately, by the time production comes-together he might be towering over the rest of the cast. My biggest problem with adding a teen into the lineup would lose the edge that has been established with Days of Future Past. Having characters that can be thrown into the fray without hesitation, might be a better move. At least until something like New Mutants comes around.

Should Gambit and Nightcrawler be apart of the sequel's lineup? Who would you want to see playing Nightcrawler? 

New Trailers And Poster For X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Fox is full-steam-ahead for their promotion of X-Men: Days of Future Past. The studio has released a bunch of trailers (Domestic and Japanese), the first TV spot and finally a decent poster (even if it's a photoshop nightmare). More of the plot is revealed in the TV spot than the two trailers, and we also get to see Quicksilver in action.

New AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 Images Tease The Fate Of Gwen Stacy

HUNGER GAMES Actor Dayo Okeniyi Takes Final TERMINATOR: GENESIS Lead Role

Variety reports that Hunger Games actor Dayo Okeniyi has landed a lead role in Terminator: Genesis. He'll play Danny Dyson, the son of Skynet key-creator Miles Dyson (last seen in Terminator 2). As a boy Danny was exposed to The Connors and the terminator, when Sarah went rogue and tried to assassinate his father. Miles went-on to help destroy his work and sacrificed his life. I assume that Danny's role will be action-focused.

Dayo apparently was up against John Boyega (Attack The Block) for the part. It's unknown if John's rumored participation with Star Wars: Episode VII casting had anything to do with not landing the role.


SOURCE: VARIETY