Random News of the Week (September 8 - September 14, 2008)

Favreau talked a bunch about IRONMAN 2 this week and gave away a few interesting tidbits. The entire first film’s cast will all be reprising their roles. Everyone is talking about “The demon in the bottle” storyline from the comics. Favreau has said it will most likely be included but will be the 3rd films focus. It is highly likely that Terrance Howard’s character will get to wear the armor in this film and become War Machine. They will be upgrading Iron Man’s armor for the film. He’s hoping to shoot a portion in IMAX (DARK KNIGHT was very successful in IMAX) but the budget is tight and these scenes are very expensive in IMAX. Captain America and Hulk will have background roles in the sequel. He is currently writing the script with Justin Theroux.

Abrams talked about Bill Shatner’s involvement in the new Star Trek. They had a flashback scene all set for William Shatner to make a cameo in for the film but "the truth is, it didn't quite feel right.” Shatner was "very vocal that he didn't want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling."

There was a disturbing rumor that Will Smith was asked to be Captain America (I like Smith a lot but that just didn’t make sense to me). Luckily, Marvel has confirmed that it was totally false.

A big screen adaptation of the 80’s TV series THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO has the greenlight. Many members of the original cast will have roles in the film. A director has been hired and a script is being written currently.

The Coen Brothers began shooting SERIOUS MAN this week. It will focus on a University teacher whose life is unraveling. Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg (whose films include "The Grey Zone") stars as Larry; Fred Melamed ("Suspect") plays Sy; Richard Kind ("The Visitor") portrays Arthur.

There are some reports that Colin Farrell is in talks to play Dr. Watson in the Warner produced Sherlock Holmes. Robert Downy Jr. is already set to be Holmes.

Danny Boyle would really like to do a musical for his next film. I think this could be amazing. This guy is so good and yet so underrated.

Variety reported this week that Fox is looking to further ruin their super hero films. “Though Fox has no plans for a major overhaul, the studio has scheduled a strategy meeting to assess the status of its superheroes, a group sorely missed this summer. On the agenda, Fox will mull the possibility of more "X-Men" spinoffs, including a young-X-Men project as well as "Deadpool," based on a character played by Ryan Reynolds in "Wolverine." The studio is even considering reviving the "Daredevil" property.”

Producer Leonard Goldberg talked about the status of WONDER WOMAN this week. Since foolishly jettisoning Joss Whedon and his script, he has a few things to say about the future. “We've tried that route. We've had a writer-director work on it. But I'm old school. When we have a script to present to directors, we'll sit down with them and see who has a take that blows us away. I hope that we don't finally wind up doing the same story again: Steve Trevor flying, and his plane crashes onto the island [of Themyscira, Wonder Woman's matriarchal homeland]. He's supposed to be executed, and she saves his life. Perhaps we'll do that in a very abbreviated fashion up front, and then come up with a story that no one has seen yet."