While Monster director Patty Jenkins would have been a fascinating choice to direct the upcoming Thor 2, she dropped out after some creative disagreements with Marvel. C’est la vie. Now, after a brief search, the job falls to Alan Taylor. According to Deadline Marienville, the Game of Thrones director will be telling Chris Hemsworth where to point his hammer. What else is there to be said here? The first film had a classically trained Irish talent better known for his Shakespearean work (and for his ridiculous mustache-beard combination in Wild Wild West). The sequel now has an extensive television resume in the driver’s seat – work that spans from the action drama of Game of Thrones to the sassy whatever of Sex and the City to the dry wit of Bored to Death. If Taylor’s previous work is any indication, the second film might become something of a true adult drama. Of course, his feature film work to date includes the historical comedy (that was actually pretty damned funny) The Emperor’s New Clothes. Otherwise, it’s mostly dramatic work at play here. The film is scheduled for release in November of 2013, so they’ve got some breathing room. Plus, Thor will be seen next in The Avengers next summer, meaning we can’t go a year without seeing that cape. We just can’t get away from it. It’s also funny how much the feel of this article would change if the headline had been “‘Sex and the City’ Director tapped for ‘Thor [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

We live in a movie-making world where performance doesn’t matter nearly as much as it used to. The audience as judge and jury is an outdated concept, and if you’re movie doesn’t earn its money back, that doesn’t mean the funeral pyre needs to be erected. Green Lantern wasn’t exactly dead as a doornail when it hit the box office – it just didn’t shoot up through the stratosphere the way Warners undoubtedly hoped it would. Now, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the studio wants to move forward with the franchise even while admitting their disappointment.

Brimming with bleak melodrama, the new X-Men: First Class trailer has hit, showing off the glowering characters and huge action that will hopefully add up to a hell of a movie. It builds on the previous trailer by adding in a little more character detail and the reason why they fight. Check it out for yourself:

With shooting under way for The Avengers, the world is one step closer to seeing Marvel’s ultimate plan come to fruition. To celebrate the occasion, Marvel shot out a press release featuring the first official photo from the set as well as an incredibly long synopsis that nonetheless doesn’t really say anything at all about the picture. However, it does confirm casting suspicions that have been floating around as common knowledge, and it highlights the creative staff in a great way. Plus, chairs!

The Green Lantern movie has an uphill battle from the start. Why? Because it’s not starring Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, or anyone remotely near that level of recognition to the average viewer. The first question many may ask when hearing there is a Green Lantern movie is “Why?” The second is probably “What?” or possibly “Who?” I’m willing to give The Green Lantern the benefit of the doubt and not just because I have a huge man-crush on Ryan Reynolds. Well okay, yeah, mostly because of that. And so far, much of what we’ve seen looks pretty good. The trailer was fun. And the costume is… Well… Uh…

Anyone, including me, that wrote about the downfall of the comic book trend was just proven dead wrong. Warners president  Jeff Robinov just took anyone curious about the future of comic book movies, asked them where the drugs were, and then shoved them face down into the gutter as rain water poured over their nose and mouth. Announcing a Batman reboot before cameras even start to roll on the current Batman film is a bold move. I’m still trying to wrap my cowl-less head around what it fully means, but there are at least four major shifts that just occurred, and they all affect movie goers.

There’s nothing like seeing a super hero fire a gun. It breaks all the rules but still makes sense, especially if that hero is firing a weapon against Nazi(-like) scum. There are a few things that stand out in this first trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger, but you should watch it for yourself first:

In all fairness, Daredevil is not a bad movie to take a mulligan on. Plus, if the rumor is true, they’ve got a solid talent at the wheel. According to Variety, David Slade will be directing a new entry into the Daredevil world for Fox. Call it a reboot, a sequel, a redo, a second shot or whatever you want, but the film won’t feature Ben Affleck or make mention of the previous film. So, it’s a reboot. Just for fun, if we consider the Spider-Man retooling going on and this new announcement, the timeline for when we’ll see other reboots becomes clear. The 2002 Spider-Man is now a 2012 version. The 2003 Daredevil will now probably be 2012 as well, meaning that we might see reboots of 2004′s Hellboy at some point, followed next by 2005′s Sin City, and 2006′s V For Vendetta. The new Superman puts a dent in that imaginary timeline, but the point is clear: the cycle must start over. We’ve run out of comic books to make. That’s just a best guess as to what order they’ll come around again in. Hopefully we’ll hear word of the Batman rebooting no more than ten minutes after The Dark Knight Rises premieres.

Since the most recent character posters for X-Men: First Class were so abominably bad, we decided to sponsor a little contest to see which of our design-minded readers could do better. The bar was low, but everyone went far above and beyond the call of duty, and the result was a squad of really great posters. Some went with Saul Bass inspiration, others played off the comic books, one found inspiration in The Social Network, one changed the director (see above), and still others chose to go their own way entirely. Sadly, no one chose to improve on the floating head in crotch concept. That’ll be a new contest entirely, but without further ado, here’s the winner (who will receive a 1999 lithograph recreation of the first “X-Men” cover done by comic artist/legend Alex Ross) and a gallery of some especially great runners up:

When I was in 3rd grade, I discovered the magic of the merry-go-round at a local park. Shortly after that, I discovered the magic of throwing up after going around one too many times. I can’t help but remember heaving behind my elementary school when hearing the news that Ray Stevenson has spoken to Marvel about taking another go-round on The Punisher. It’s not that Stevenson was bad as Frank Castle, it’s that the Punisher films have been so terrible so far. Like the Keaton/Bale debate, Tom Jane brought the acting to the pain of Frank Castle while Stevenson brought the bad ass, but overall, both movies were lacking for other reason. War Zone especially. It all felt like a badly drawn cartoon from a meth addict. In a way, it feels like they already took “another shot” at The Punisher and they ended up with a worse movie, so why hop on the ride again? We all know that’s not true, though. The truth is that Columbia and Lionsgate already took a second shot at it, but Marvel hasn’t even been up to bat. That’s the real news here. With The Avengers somehow already on the horizon, Marvel is looking to branch out, and they’ve snagged the rights to Frank Castle’s story back from Lionsgate. Seeing The Punisher in house at Marvel might be the key to success. It has been for other characters so far. Now if they could only splice Jane and Stevenson together, they’ll have the [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Somewhere hidden away in the mid-1990s, there’s a young man reading a “Star Log” in his bedroom foaming at the mouth at the words on the glossy magazine page. There they are. The words “Watchmen” and “Terry Gilliam” right next to each other like a pair of star cross’d lovers finally exchanging vows. The iconic comic books that he grew up reading are finally going to be seen on the living, breathing, bloody brilliant big screen. Then it doesn’t happen. There are a lot of reasons why it doesn’t happen (too many to dive into right now), but that young man is eternally disappointed when those words he once reveled in start to fade away. With the announcement that Universal has passed on Guillermo Del Toro’s At The Mountains of Madness, a lot of fans might be finding themselves in a similar position, and it’s not just Lovecraft devotees. It’s movie fans of all stripes who see this as another defeat of the auteur in service of the bottom line. Is it Universal’s fault? Sure. Much in the same way that everyone shares a little blame. It does, however, shine its silver lining as a spotlight on the disease of the studio system that’s been picked at and mulled over and puzzled for the past few years. Luckily, it also exposes the solution: Failure.

Iron Man 2 wasn’t a mess. It was a Jenga tower that had already been played with for too long. Scenes and motivations didn’t quite fit together, but the real problem was the lack of fun. If you’re going to go all Empire on a sequel and dig your character deeper, it needs to be done with less alienation. If you’re going to keep the tone light, more power to you. Either way, watching that flick felt like carrying an elephant up a steep cliff without rocket boosters. The failure should be spread out amongst Marvel, Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr (in measures that only they personally know), but all of that is in the past, and we all look forward to a bright future where Tony Stark can come back with the energy of the first movie. Choosing Shane Black to write and direct was a massively good first move for Marvel, and he’s already saying all the right things.

With DJ Caruso directing Preacher, it becomes the second cult western literary adaptation to be taken on by an averagely talented, workhorse director (although Caruso doesn’t even come close to Ron Howard’s league). This might be the natural evolution of “geek” properties being co-opted by Hollywood. A decade ago, it was Sam Raimi bringing his Evil Dead prowess to a web-slinging comic of note. Now, the grittier material is getting notice, but middling directors will start earning the paycheck. So it goes. The list of directors who could bring the story of a Texas preacher man whose been imbued with the power of pure goodness and pure evil (and the power to command people to do his bidding) to life is a long one. So is the list of directors better suited than DJ Caruso. Here are just seven of them (ranging from the obvious to the not-so), but feel free to brainstorm more:

That comic book all the kids seem to love, “Preacher,” has been tied with “Y: The Last Man” for Closest To Becoming a Movie Without Actually Becoming a Movie for what seems like a few years (because it has been). Now, / is reporting that D.J. Caruso might be the man for the job if I Am Number Four does solidly at the box office. Is he the best choice? No. Is he the worst? No. He’s exactly in between. Disturbia was a middling thriller, Eagle Eye was a convoluted mess, so there’s nothing in Caruso’s current body of work to show that he could pull this off. Making Preacher would take brass buttons and would be a harder R than Caruso has probably seen let alone directed. If done right. The other option is for Caruso to take over the helm and water everything down until the story about an ex-Man of the Cloth hunting down God with a vampire and hit-woman because a PG-13 delight that all the kids can enjoy. I suppose this all might mean that Joe Carnahan never worked out. Just like Tank Girl director Rachel Talalay. Just like Sam Mendes. Caruso simply hasn’t shown that he could handle the subject matter which makes him a boring choice. It would be a shame to hand over an explosive property to a director who’s avoided adult situations like avian flu (especially since it would most likely mean neutering a great script from John August and a [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

As disappointed as some might be that Hugo Weaving won’t be wearing the Halloween costume made for his character Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, this look seems to be doing him a lot more favors. The only question seems obvious. Why the fake human face? Why can’t you just be comfortable being yourself, Red Skull? You’re cool being a Nazi, but you can’t go out in public with what looks like a wicked case of Rosacea? We’ll accept you the way you are, Skull. Then, we’ll cheer when Captain America puts you in a head luck and shoves his fingers where your nostrils should be. What do you think of Red Skull’s look?

We announced a year ago that Universal was pushing to get R.I.P.D. off the ground in a major way. If they can close Zach Galifianakis for a co-starring role, that ground is going to be a memory. According to the LA Times, Galifianakis is discussing playing the sidekick role to Ryan Reynolds’s Nick Cruz character – a man murdered who makes a deal to give a century of service to the Rest In Peace Department in exchange for the shot at revenge. Based on the Dark Horse comic by Peter Lenkov, the movie should have an action comedy and feature a lot of souls who don’t want to cross over just yet. This all re-raises some questions about Reynolds’s schedule. He’s said before that he would either do R.I.P.D. or Deadpool, but not both. If this ends up shooting this summer, does it kill Deadpool for Reynolds? Plus, even though David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) isn’t directing R.I.P.D. anymore (Red director Robert Schwentke is), Reynolds is set to work with Dobkin this fall on The Change-Up which features him switching bodies with Jason Batemen so Batemen’s character can score with Olivia Wilde. Regardless of the other projects, R.I.P.D. is a flick I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’s a different brand of comic book movie, and it could be darkly comedic like a version of Lethal Weapon done by way of Constantine. Galifianakis makes a great addition.

We reported yesterday that a Captain Canuck movie might be in the works (according to the creator), and it might ring in for a $15 million budget. Now, the story gets weirder as Richard Comely (said creator) claims that he might change the title for its US release out of fear that Americans won’t want to go see a movie about a Canadian superhero. And you thought female superheroes had it bad. The Hollywood Reporter is right to point out that some overseas markets will change Captain America: The First Avenger to simply The First Avenger, which is fair. This is a similar case, if the movie ever actually gets made. Also if it does, Comely wants to write in a part for Justin Bieber to capitalize on his Canadian-ness and his super stardom. Maybe he can play Bucky. I’m sure Captain America wouldn’t mind sharing with his Great White Northern counterpart. Our countries have always had an open trade agreement. This all comes with an entire rock of salt because the creator of a property slinging press about interest in his property is not the most reliable source for forthcoming productions. This, especially with the Bieber comment reeks of that sort of unreliability. Still, the question remains. If it gets made, would you avoid seeing Captain Canuck because he’s Canadian or because you have no idea who he is?

It’s 1993, Canada has become the most powerful country in the world, and their fair land is protected by the red and white spandex of Captain Canuck. It’s a world far different from our own, but the good Captain might be coming to save us from the repetition of the same superheroes getting reboots and more movies. Creator of the popular indie comic Richard Comely is claiming that he’s in talks with a Canadian production company to film a $15 million movie featuring the eh-grade super hero. Toronto-based Sinking Ship (which is a foreboding name if there ever was one) had the option up until last year, but according to the LA Times, it’s unclear which production company Comely is in talks with. The prospect of seeing Captain Canuck anytime soon is a slim one, but it seems logical to assume that the character’s continued appeal, coupled with the Captain America movie might have stoked the fires a bit. This news at least means that the character is one step closer (again) to hitting the big screen with his alien-granted powers. Although, it’s important to note that the comic book creator sharing the news is the worst possible source, so until a production company comes out and waves their intentions proudly, it might just be Millar-style bluster. On the bright side, it would be nice to see a hero being extra polite while kicking ass.

Wake The Dead has had a moderately long road to production (and it’s not there yet) which is why news of a new company taking it over should be taken with a pinch of bittersweet salt. Steve Niles’s comic book pass at the Frankenstein story that features med students fooling around with the dead was at Dimension for a while, then Jay Russell (Ladder 49) was going to direct it, and now it’s landed in the lap of Slash. Yes, the guitarist from Guns N Roses. The awesomely talented one with the top hat. According to Hero Complex, the axeman has started his started his own production company called Slasher Films, and Wake The Dead will be one of the first productions. This is great news. An adaptation of the comic could be like Flatliners and Dawn of the Dead met somewhere in the middle of the operating table, but Niles is quoted in the piece as wanting to evoke the tone of the 1970s horror flicks. Maybe he should call up Ti West. Slasher will be partnering with Scout Productions (Session 9) to make the movie.

From the moment Marvel announced The Avengers and their vision for it, we knew it would be massive. There’s a baker’s dozen of major actors involved, and a healthy stockade of them will have super powers (or super suits they invented in a cave). There is also a lot of ground to cover to bring all those heroes together. Now, Chris Hemsworth has spoken to MTV and revealed his thoughts on the script, getting used to his co-stars, and the two characters that spoiler-ily get their Irish up against each other.