The Week In Geek: Avengers Villains Revealed, Trent Reznor Vamps Out & Superman/Batman Casting

Lots of Spoilery bits for upcoming comic book adaptations in this week’s column, so you Spoiler-phobes might wanna sit this one out. Everyone else, please read on….

Avengers Villains Revealed?

Ever since this movie was announced, the long standing question has been just who the hell are the Avengers all gonna gang up and fight in their first movie outing anyway?  Way back in the first issue of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Avengers in 1963, the team was formed due to the machinations of Thor’s evil brother Loki. In Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s new millennium version of the Avengers called The Ultimates, the first big bad they took on was an alien race called the Chitauri, a shape shifting  species who were clearly a version of the classic marvel aliens the Skrulls, but simply with a different name.  According to a report this week at Latino Review, it seems we are getting a combination of both Avengers origin stories.

Considering that the movie version of the Marvel Universe is a mix of both classic and Ultimate Marvel continuities, it is only fair that the big screen Avengers mix both versions of their origin story too. According to reports, the big bads in Avengers will be Tom Hiddleston reprising his role in Thor as Loki, who uses the Cosmic Cube (which will be introduced in the Captain America movie) to bring the Skrulls to earth to fight our heroes. Right now, the thought of all these super heroes fighting not only an evil Norse god but an alien invasion sounds like the coolest movie ever, or an epic clusterfuck. But in director Joss Whedon I trust.

Blade Runner : Legacy?

The Replicants Are About To Get Replicated

It seems a recurring theme in this here column is news that a beloved geek property is about to get remade/rehashed/re heated. But I don’t make the news, I just report it. Someone has gotta break the bad news, right?

Warner Brothers, who currently has the distribution rights to Ridley Scott’s classic Blade Runner, is looking to buy up all the rights to the property from producer Bud Yorkin for prequels and sequels to the original film. For those of you Blade Runner purists out there who are foaming at the mouth at this piece of news, there is a silver lining; the rights are only for sequels and prequels, and stories within the universe set up by the first film. This means someone like Brett Ratner will not be making an actual remake of Blade Runner any time soon. The original classic will remain untouched…at least for now.

Maybe you can blame the (relative) success of Tron: Legacy. Both Blade Runner and the original Tron were expensive sci-fi movies that tanked hard back in 1982. Eventually, cable and home video would help both those movies find their audience, and now both are considered to be classics (especially Blade Runner, the other one is more a guilty pleasure) Now Disney has more or less successfully re-launched Tron as a brand, not only with Tron Legacy but with the new animated series on Disney XD coming up next year. It looks like Warners is trying to take a page out of Disney’s book. It also has been reported that Warners is looking to Christopher Nolan (an avowed huge fan of the original movie) to have some kind of hand in these movies, but I could just as easily see Nolan wanting nothing to do with it. But who knows, money does talk after all.

Dark Knight Rises Spoilers Begin To Emerge

We’ve known for awhile now different casting bits and character names that are set to show up in Christopher Nolan’s third Batman installment, but what we haven’t had leak is an overall idea of just what the damn story is going to be. Well, it seems that Devin Faraci at Bad Ass Digest got a big scoop this week on just who is who and what is what with The Dark Knight Rises, including the main villains.  Here is what he had to say:

 “As she herself confirmed, Anne Hathaway will be Catwoman in the movie. I can’t tell you what role she has in the beginning, but by the end of the story Catwoman isn’t a villain but rather an ally of Batman. And who are they teaming up to take out? The League of Shadows. Headed by Talia Al’Ghul. With Bane, who is her muscle/possible love interest. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in tow. Is he playing Black Mask? My source didn’t know, but did know that Levitt is certainly an antagonist and involved with the League of Shadows.”

Well, that’s something to go on, right? I guess the last major piece of the spoiler puzzle is just who JGL will be playing. A lot of people seem to be convinced he is playing the Black Mask, mostly because he is a villain who has had no face time in any live action Batman movies as of yet, but it could just as easily be Deadshot for all we know. Lord knows my guesses are sure as hell not always right…a few weeks back I said Catwoman and Talia would feel redundant appearing in the same movie together. Shows what I know.

Hanks & Allen Re-Team For Jungle Cruise

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are re uniting for Disney, but not for a fourth Toy Story flick. Instead, they are being looked at to star in a live action version of the classic Disneyland ride, The Jungle Cruise. Considering how much money the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has made for the House of Mouse, it only makes financial sense they would mine every ride they possibly can for movie potential. As un exciting as this project may sound, I am excited for one reason and one reason only; maybe if this movie makes bank, they’ll invest a little money into updating the 1955 animatronics in the actual ride at Disneyland with something a bit more 21st Century.Lord knows that is one ride that needs some TLC.

Trent Reznor To Get His Vamp On

He may look all cleaned up and growed up now, with his short hair, all accepting Academy Awards in his nice tux and what not, but as a teenager growing up in the early 90’s  Trent Reznor will always be Mr. Pretty Hate Machine to me. This guy’s got goth in his blood; he once lived in the house where Sharon Tate and four others were brutally killed by the Manson family, and even recorded The Downward Spiral in that house. In adherence to his dark and gothy roots, Trent Reznor will not only be scoring the upcoming Tim Burton produced Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, but he’ll have a small role in it as well as (what else?) a vampire. You can take the boy out of the dilapidated graveyard, but ya can’t take the dilapidated graveyard out of the boy.

Ma Kent Gets All MILFy On Us

And More Man of Steel Casting Bits

Last week it was Kevin Costner as Pa Kent, now it seems Clark is getting his Ma in the form of Diane Lane for Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman movie. Also rumored for the part of General Zod is Viggo Mortensen, although his participation has yet to be confirmed. I personally hope Zod ends up being just a rumor; Superman has a lot of cool villains who have never seen the light of day in live action, most notably Brainiac. Having Superman fight yet another villain used in one of the Richard Donner movies is going to seem like yet another rehash of an older movie, which Superman Returns got raked over the coals for. Also rumored for an unspecified role is Daniel Day Lewis. I would say this is a long shot, as DDL is an actor who is very picky and choosey  about his parts, and isn’t known for doing movies just for the paycheck. To me, he seems an obvious choice for Jor-El, but he could just as easily be a villain too. Brainiac maybe? Can ya tell I really want Brainiac in this flick?