Marvel Bits: 'The Avengers' Halts Production Due To Script Theft?; 'Thor' Scores $93 Million Internationally; Idris Elba Wants To Be 'Luke Cage'; Kevin Feige Talks Future Marvel Movies And TV
Here's some potentially frustrating news.
Last week, someone got possession of Samuel L. Jackson's copy of The Avengers shooting script, and attempted to sell it to any film sites and bloggers who were willing to pony up the cash. The good news: It appears as if nobody was thoughtless enough to do so.
We've resisted posting about the screenplay leak for fear that it would provide the seller a podium off which to auction his goods. The bad news: A site that shall not be named didn't think their actions through, and posted several photographs worth of evidence of the script to prove the offer was legit. The images, which feature massively watermarked script pages strewn across a table, very clearly detail a scene where the Hulk transforms in front of Black Widow as Iron Man and Captain America frantically search a large boiler room. I suppose there's no harm in telling you that now, since evidently the scene won't be appearing in the film.
According to FilmFanReview (who have since updated their report with claims of additional confirmation), the studio has decided to halt production of the film until the scenes that were leaked are rewritten. This is irritating for a variety of reasons, chief among them being that the actions of some unethical opportunist has directly affected the outcome of a major creative enterprise, while also compromising (however slightly) its shooting schedule.
Badass Digest, meanwhile, posits that halting a production of this cost and magnitude wouldn't be feasible, and claims that a number of sources have backed up his suspicions. They later updated the article with word from a Disney publicist, who says that this is the first they've heard of the news.
So has The Avengers halted production or hasn't it? I fail to see why such a thing would be necessary, given how little general audiences pay attention to film scripts. But if it has stopped, and they are reworking scenes over this incident, that would be a shame. [via MovieWeb]
On a brighter Avengers note, here's a recent pic of Scarlett Johansson attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner, showing off what is presumably her new look for Black Widow.
Gone are the bountiful locks of long curly hair, in favor of a hairdo that's short and sleek. [Stylelist via Superhero Hype]
Forgive that minor aside; now onto something more substantial.
Thor is performing huge overseas. US audiences won't have a chance to see the film until it releases on Friday, May 6, but the pic has already opened in 56 markets worldwide, and took in an estimated $83 million over the weekend (the biggest international opening of the year thus far). Add on the earnings from when the film premiered in Australia the weekend prior, and the film has grossed $93 million worldwide in just ten days. Impressive. [Coming Soon]
In other Thor-related news, Idris Elba (best known as Stringer Bell on The Wire) is the latest actor to throw his name into the ring to take on the role of urban-youth-turned-superhero Luke Cage. When asked at a press conference for Thor (in which he plays the mighty Heimdall) if there are any other Marvel characters he'd be interested in playing, he responded, "I'd like a stab at Luke Cage."
That's a casting possibility I can get behind, and with Marvel's relationship with Elba, it's more likely that they'd get behind it, too.
Previously, Old Spice spokesman Isaiah Mustafa also voiced his desires to play the character. Tyrese Gibson and Jamie Foxx are some of the actors that have been officially considered for the role. [Geek Tyrant]
If all of the above wasn't evidence enough, Marvel has been pretty busy lately, and that doesn't look to be changing anytime soon. Marvel President Kevin Feige confirmed as much when discussing, in an interview with Collider, the profusion of new movies, sequels and other prospective projects that they have in the works. He also shared some insight into Thor, giving audiences something to keep an eye out for during the scenes featuring Odin's Vault (which is where a number of the most dangerous relics of the Nine Realms are kept).
...everything in that vault and everything you might see if you pause and look behind people's shoulders or as the Einherjar soldiers are walking past – everyone of those has a story and it is from the books. There is Thanos' glove, or certainly a glove that looks like it could be Thanos' gauntlet, is in there for sure. The Warlock's Eye thing [from the first Tales of Asgard stories] is in there. There are some swords. There is a sword there that may or may not be eternal. There are a number of things. There is even one, and in fact I'm not sure if you can see this in the movie or not, but there is one that is empty. There was one sort of subchamber of the vault that didn't have anything in it. So the question is "What used to be in it?"
Having seen Thor, I suspect that the answer to that question lies in the film's post-credits sequence.
Even more exciting is the current status of Edgar Wright's Ant-Man, which Feige says may be ready to go. He revealed that he was meeting with Wright the next day and that "he has the best draft yet and I think we could be in shape to do it".
As for Marvel's biggest bet, The Avengers, Feige mentioned that "the first day of The Avengers included Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson", and also addressed needing to match the spectacle on display in something like the latest trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
You look at something like that and you go, "That is gigantic. That is huge. That is awesome. Wow. Boy, we have to equal that." Literally an hour later I go into the dailies of The Avengers from the first few days of dailies. I saw Sam Jackson as Nick Fury in a slightly redesigned outfit with the eye patch turning around on the bridge of the Helicarrier and I went, "Oh. That is cooler than anything else. That one shot. That one thing." I'm not worried anymore.
Other items discussed were possibilities for a theatrically-released animated film — Feige says, "I think there will be a Marvel animated movie at some point", possibly by Disney — and Marvel TV shows.
I think Marvel on television went from a "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we got to that someday?" to "it's going to be happening in the not too distant future."
You can read the full interview over at Collider.