Curiouser and curiouser…The Village‘s Bryce Dallas Howard joins Spiderman 3 as none other than Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s doomed childhood sweetheart. I find this somewhat strange, since they’d basically turned Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson into Gwen Stacy in the first film (#6). (Plus, they’ve switched hair-colors, but ah well.)
Category: Marvel
Howlin’ Mad Murdock.
“There’s no going back. From that moment on, the series’ hero is in a morally untenable situation, and everything he does makes things worse. The only thing Murdock can do is to start lying, and make all of his allies lie for him, too…The second half of the Bendis-Maleev run fills in the gaps of the missing year bit by bit, and suggests what happens when a hero chooses to rule in hell (or its kitchen) rather than serve in heaven.” Salon‘s Douglas Wolk sings the praises of Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev’s work on Daredevil.
The Flaming Lips.
Want to see Nicholas Cage as Ghost Rider? Are you sure? From over here, he’s looking pretty straight-to-video. (Then again, Ghost Rider is a pretty straight-to-video character.)
The Real McCoy? / Snikt.
From Beauty and the Beast to a Beast of a different color, USA Today posts some stills from X3, including one of Kelsey Grammer in costume. I for one never imagined Beast as an irate leprechaun. Update: The brand-new teaser for Ratner’s X3: The Last Stand (Yep, that appears to be the title) is now online. Keep an eye out for Juggernaut and Callisto (also both in the official photo gallery), Dark Phoenix hangin’ with Magneto’s crew (the Brotherhood), and what looks to be a fastball special.
X, XY.
In other comic-film news, more X-Trouble on the horizon: In keeping with schlockmeister Brett Ratner’s earlier-professed desire to sex up the X-Men, X3 adds two come-hither mutants: Mercedes Scelba-Shorte of America’s Next Top Model as M/Monet St. Croix (from Generation X, which is after my time..they’re the new New Mutants, I guess) and Ashley Hartman of The OC as Emma Frost, the White Queen (formerly a villain, until reconceived during the Grant Morrison run.) I guess this means we’ll never get a full Hellfire Club X-film, which is particularly depressing after reading a fanboy dream-cast Deadwood‘s Ian McShane as Sebastian Shaw, the Black King, in the AICN talkback. That would’ve been ten kinds of perfect.
Enter Sandman.
The first official pic of Thomas Haden Church in Spiderman 3 is released, and, sure enough, he’s that candy-coated clown they call the Sandman.
Or is it Bucky?
Two Fresno climbers discover a frozen WWII pilot on a Sierra Nevada glacier. As a friend of mine pointed out, this could be terrible news for the Red Skull…
Of Sand and Symbiotes.
Oops. While promoting Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown, Kirsten Dunst seems to have revealed the villains for Spiderman 3: Sandman and Venom. (Let’s hope, for Spidey’s sake, that MJ is less flippant about disclosing Peter Parker’s identity.) Thomas Haden Church as the Sandman was a gimme, but, given Sam Raimi’s purported affinity for the classic villains, I felt pretty sure Topher Grace would be Electro.
King of the Hill.
Ok, I know I was hating on a possible Ant-Man film only yesterday, but that’s before word got out that Shaun of the Dead writer-director and self-professed Ant-Man fan Edgar Wright was rumored to be helming the project. I take it all back (well, at least on the Ant-Man front.)
Make theirs Marvel.
Marvel Comics signs a deal with Paramount on film rights to ten characters or groups. Ok, Captain America and the Avengers seem like gimmes, but is there anyone out there waiting in line for the Power Pack, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, or Cloak & Dagger movie? Why not throw in Star Brand or Dazzler while you’re at it? This reminds me of the old e-trade ad where the two dot.com guys sign a huge venture cap deal just because they have a website.