There were a surprising amount of baddies in Iron Man 3. Director Shane Black‘s Tony Stark adventure put the idea of multiple villains being a bad idea to rest. One of those villains — or henchman, if you want to get technical — was played by a familiar face, James Badge Dale. Badge Dale chewed on every piece of Black’s dialog and his character’s eccentricities. Even with the technical challenges, it’s a role Badge Dale wanted to let loose with. The actor used to work construction, and he wanted to bring that mentality to the character. A Shane Black henchman isn’t the only role we’ll see James Badge Dale in this summer, as he has both World War Z and The Lone Ranger next on dock, and they represent a chance for the actor to reach an audience that maybe doesn’t frequently watch Shame or The Pacific with their free time. They’re certainly all physical roles, which, according to James Badge Dale, is a part of the job that he loves:

Remember when Tim Blake Nelson‘s noggin started looking all funky in The Incredible Hulk? Well, if you don’t, it happened around the point where the Hulk and the Abomination starting ripping each other apart. While those two worked out their problems, Dr. Samuel Sterns was having a makeover. Before the finale, we saw Sterns crack a smile while making his transformation into The Leader, the brilliant green-skinned Marvel baddie. He’s a villain favorite for some, possibly even the makers of The Amazing Spider-Man, who used one of his more famous schemes for The Lizard’s grand plan. The Leader is a very comic book-y type of villain, one that could have been too much for Marvel’s Phase I, but now that the studio has pushed the boundaries of its scientific status, bringing back actor Tim Blake Nelson to terrorize The Hulk or The Avengers is a solid idea. Louis Leterrier would seem to agree. Speaking with him recently, I asked whether there was ever serious talk over using The Leader in future films.

With a ton of classic films and an Oscar under his belt, producer Walter Mirisch joins us to talk about The Great Escape, Steve McQueen and the key to producing great movies.  Plus, with so much news landing, Geoff and I offer opinionated insight and some insightful opinions on Ray Harryhausen, the future of a potential Downey-less Marvel, a delayed Jurassic Park IV, and the best trailers of the week. For more from us on a daily basis, follow the show (@brokenprojector), Geoff (@drgmlatulippe) and Scott (@scottmbeggs) on the Twitter. And, as always, we welcome your feedback. Download Episode #18 Directly Or subscribe Through iTunes

Robert Downey Jr. isn’t contractually obligated to appear in any more Marvel films as Tony Stark. That’s the only concrete fact as of right now, even as contract negotiations are underway to bring the actor back into the suit for The Avengers 2 and 3. Those seem fairly likely, but it’s unclear how committed to Iron Man 4 Downey Jr. would be. Marvel head Kevin Feige has vaguely promised more stand-alone Iron Man movies, hedging the claim by adding, “Who will be in that movie and who will be a part of that movie? Who knows. And how far down the line will it be? Will it be right after Avengers 2, will it be a few years after Avengers 2? Who knows. For as advanced as we are in terms of the advanced planning that we do, we’re already looking out to 2015, 2016 and that’s further than most people look out. Beyond that, we’re still not sure.”

If Marvel’s movie dominance has proven anything, it’s the difficulty that other studios have had in handling their material. Despite billions that have been made on the back of the superhero film movement, several outings (most notably from Fox) have proven to be terrible for fans of the comic books (and of good movies). Daredevil is just one example, and for those wishing desperately that Marvel would be able to get their hands back on the character for future projects, good news just crested the horizon. According to Collider, Marvel head Kevin Feige announced that his company has the rights to Daredevil back after Fox failed to get a new production off the ground. We recently got some yellow-spandex covered details on that failed attempt, but even though that sounded potentially fantastic, it’s great to see the character back home where he belongs. This means that Marvel not only has the power to create their own stand-alone Daredevil movie, they can also use the character within the rest of the giant movie universe they’ve created. So who’s looking forward to the post-credits sequence when Nick Fury visits the offices of a bright young lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen because S.H.I.E.L.D. is looking for new talent?

As we all know, Michael Rooker is fantastic. The man who got his filmic start as a murderer in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer has gone on to redefine intensity in a ton of roles and has most recently anchored The Walking Dead with a bizarre brand of lovable racism. According to Deadline, he’s now re-teaming with director James Gunn for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Slither reunion! Get excited. He’ll be playing the alien Yondu Udonta who rocks blue skin, a bitchin’ red mohawk and both of his original hands (until he, no kidding, gets his right one replaced by a device that converted into several different weapons). So this past season of The Walking Dead may have been one big audition tape. The character is also one with nature and kills with a bow that features arrows that can change direction at the archer’s command. Yet again, Marvel shows its superiority in casting.

Spider-Man fans know that the original version of Electro had a kind of jiggling starfish on his face (as you can see above), the power to control electricity, and (obviously) a deep and abiding love for all things Brazilian. The character has been updated several times — including a flaming skull look and a brief stint as Red Skull’s son — but for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it turns out that Marc Webb and company are going with the Ultimate version of the character. “News organization” The Daily Mail recently published some candid shots of Foxx in full effects make-up as the villain (which you can see below). There’s a little bit of Avatar going on and a little bit of Schwarzenegger-style Mr. Freeze, but it seems clear that they’re going all out with the design. Of course, Peter fought a giant lizard last time, so the door’s wide open for treating the villains as insanely as the comics did. Check out the pics for yourself and please offer your own descriptive combinations:

20th Century Fox’s re-adaptation of Daredevil had been kicked around a bit too long. After the 2003 film came out, the studio never seemed sure how to move forward with the Man Without Fear. There were talks of a direct sequel, but those were squashed when starting from scratch came into the equation. But how do you start fresh? Hiring director David Slade (Hard Candy) was a good start. There were rumors of taking the character into a darker direction — which hopefully meant fewer playground romance fights and a soundtrack featuring far less Nickleback — and Slade’s sensibilities would have suited that more faithful, grounded take on the character. Then again, dark and edgy aren’t adjectives we generally associate with 20th Century Fox. Unsurprisingly, the Slade reboot never happened. Speaking with Slade about his work on NBC’s new series, Hannibal, he told us what we missed out on.

If you haven’t had your coffee yet, now’s a good time to take it ocularly. For the most part, this Phase Two featurette from Marvel (via Superhero Hype) is a keen look into the world of Iron Man 3 with an eye to how they’re deepening the well while returning to it in order to make Tony Stark a richer character post-Avengers. The cast and crew, alongside Marvel head Kevin Feige, weigh in on how this trilogy entry is also a piece of a much larger puzzle. Then, they show some of the other pieces. The briefest of footage from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World is joined by test footage from Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man, concept footage from Guardians of the Galaxy and a few comments from the filmmakers. At any rate, let’s stop pretending that you’re reading this and get to the video:

On May 3rd, Tony Stark gets a fourth chance at a first impression. Despite three films where Robert Downey Jr. has brought Marvel’s Iron Man to life in a way that owns his shoot-from-the-hip personality, there have also been three very different Starsk so far. The first was a surprise. A serious take on what could have been a cartoonish character, pushing personal limits and regaining his stature. The second was a boozing failure who captured redemption at the cost of a messy story. The third came in The Avengers where the Stark we always knew existed finally broke through his sarcastic shell to prove selfless in the face of daunting impossibilities. And now Shane Black has entered the picture. The stellar writer/director will undoubtedly have yet another avenue for Stark to head down in Iron Man 3. To get a glimpse of that avenue, here’s the brand new trailer:

Marvel and Joe Johnston did an incredible job with Captain America, making a fun film with a main character that eventually acted as a counterpoint to Tony Stark in The Avengers. Fingers should be crossed that they can manage the same kind of entertainment with The Winter Soldier, but it’s encouraging to see Marvel chief Kevin Feige talk about the movie in terms beyond the overused Superhero Action genre. In a conversation with Variety, he hinted that action won’t be the primary focus. Instead, the sequel will play out more like, say, House of Cards. “There’s an opportunity to graft almost sub-genres onto them. Our first Captain America film was a World War II picture, and the next is a political thriller. They all have their own textures and patinas, and that’s what is exciting about it.” Of course, if the first one was a WWII flick, it certainly had plenty of action to it as a result. A political thriller doesn’t immediately bring action to mind, but it might be a welcome ingredient. Think Captain America by way of The French Connection. Yes, it sounds awesome, and so does this news. Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be in theaters April 4, 2014.

After conquering the summer, millions of people want to know what Marvel has planned for its next phase and how they’ll manage to pull it off. Iron Man 3 is coming this year alongside Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits in 2014, so we’re firmly set for broody post-Avengers insight. Plus, Ant-Man still looms alongside Guardians of the Galaxy and a host of other conceptual character projects — so the comic book brand is looking ahead to its next crop of heroes. But where does that leave The Hulk? That’s the question El Mayimbe was asking over at Latino Review, but instead of talking to himself, he set out to find some answers (which could prove incredibly spoilery). According to his inside source, Marvel isn’t just interested in another attempt at a stand-alone Hulk movie; they’re intent on building their next universes around the character.

It’s amazing Mark Millar has been appointed the coveted position of handling Fox’s Marvel adaptations and has yet brag about it or give us exaggerated news stories to scoff at. Millar actually seems to be taking this gig rather seriously. Based on his still slightly cryptic plans, we can see why. Considering Millar just signed on for the job, there isn’t a whole lot of news in what he had to say about the future for Fox’s Marvel properties. If there’s anything newsworthy in what Millar had to say about the future it’s regarding the obvious spinoffs from the X-Men franchise, “Fox are thinking, ‘We’re sitting on some really awesome things here. There is another side of the Marvel Universe. Let’s try and get some cohesiveness going.’ So they brought me in to oversee that really, so to meet with the writers and directors to suggest new ways we could take this stuff and maybe new properties that could spin out of it, because the X-Men alone feels like a universe of itself; there’re so many characters, there’re so many great potential spin-off characters.” The X-Men world is currently the only universe Fox has set up, but could Daredevil work in an X-Men world? The rumor was Fox wanted an unsurprisingly “gritty” take on the man without fear, and after the tone Matthew Vaughn established with X-Men: First Class, would the two styles mesh together well?

A strange thing happened when it was announced that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm and was intent on continuing the Star Wars franchise: people forgot how shitty Lucasfilm has been. That’s the only explanation for many of the reactions. Our friends at /Film gathered up some celebrity Twitter responses that seemed to be at best cautiously optimistic, though potentially terrified at what could be coming and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why it’s not all ewoks banging drums and fireworks in the sky before a billion tons of metal rains down on the forest moon of Endor.

Development has really been heating up the over that Justice League movie. A few months ago, Gangster Squad writer Will Beall was hired to handle script duties, there was word Warner Bros. was eying Ben Affleck to direct, and then we got a director short list including the Wachowskis, Ruben Fleischer, and, who could forget, Brett Ratner. Today the project became even more real, thanks to a resolved legal dispute. The Los Angeles Times is reporting the studio is gearing up fast for a 2013 shoot and a 2015 release, which would pit the film up against The Avengers 2. After that, mostly depending on whether the film’s a hit or not, Warners would then follow up the film with a reboot of Batman and solo films following whatever heroes they decide to put in the movie. So if any of you have been holding your breath for a Hawkman movie, then perhaps your big dream may finally come true.

For our 150th episode, we decided to go back to the first show’s conversations, and we discovered something mildly depressing: that the discussions are pretty much the same. In 2012, we’re still talking about the topics of 2009; Transformers (a fourth is on the way), G.I. Joe (a delayed sequel is coming), Avatar (a dozen follow-ups will keep James Cameron busy until he retires), Marvel flicks (which have dominated) and remakes (which have not). Good thing we changed the format of the show a while back. Beyond the great repetition, reviewing the news from 3 years ago reveals a lot about the state of modern filmmaking through the lens of hindsight. Werner Herzog is a highlight, and revisiting the releases (Drag Me To Hell and Up) gives us an idea of what might actually endure. On this week’s show, we re-form the team from that pilot episode – site publisher Neil Miller and associate editor Rob Hunter – to dip ourselves in the cool waters of nostalgia and try to figure out what, if anything, is different about the movie-making landscape after 150 shows. Download Episode #150

Real talk: my knowledge of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is deeply limited and I completely loathed James Gunn‘s Super, yet the news that Gunn was potentially being tapped to helm the feature film for the studio quite pleased me. At the very least, the filmmaker is a bold, interesting choice who clearly has an affection for “comic book movies” (and Troma and cartoons and zombies and a whole bunch of other cool stuff), which can only serve fans of Marvel properties well. Also, the guy apparently also likes raccoons, so I might have to stop being so harsh on him. Gunn has now taken to his Facebook page (via ComingSoon) to confirm his involvement with Guardians, writing in a post just this morning:

At this point, it’s not surprising when Marvel picks a left field director for their movies. They’ve practically made a formula of choosing filmmakers that the public would scratch their head over. In that grand tradition, Marvel is reportedly looking at James Gunn (Slither, Super) to handle their forthcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. This is awesome. A protege of the Troma School of Movie Mayhem is going to graduate to Marvel. Repeat: the dude who made PG Porn is a few negotiations away from getting a big budget and bunch of superheroes to play with. Can’t beat that. Of course, Gunn was also the writer behind Scooby-Doo and the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, so he’s not exactly a stranger to the mainstream, but the bulk of his work is not the kind that would inspire non-ironic action figures. That’s part of what makes this a genius idea. The other part is Gunn’s sense of humor and clear love of genre work. This choice may be from beyond the bleachers, but it’s inspired, and it could lead to a hell of a movie. Plus, it probably means at least one of the heroes gets to use a wrench on his enemies.

Coming off yesterday’s announcement that Marvel has tapped Joss Whedon to return to their Avengers cash cow for another round of writing and directing on the currently-simply-titled The Avengers 2 comes further clarification on Whedon’s role in the Marvel universe. In short, it’s a big one. The LA Times reports that, in addition to yesterday’s report that Whedon was set to get back into the Avengers world while also helping to develop Marvel’s live-action series for ABC, the filmmaker has also “signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Studios for film and television through the end of June 2015.” Beyond just his work on the Avengers sequel and his development of the new TV series, Whedon will also “contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe,” so expect the next round of Marvel’s films to have some Whedonesque fingerprints all over them (a good thing no matter how you slice it).

According to Deadline Hollywood, the formidable Christopher Eccleston has signed on to play the main villain in Thor: The Dark World. He’s an excellent addition, bringing a severe acting talent and genre experience to the Marvel universe as Malekith The Accursed. The character is a major villain in the Asgardian realm who is not above deception (which might echo Loki). In fact, it’ll be interesting to see where Loki is during this sequel considering his involvement in the larger film universe. Or at least how he will fit in with a new villain taking the larger spotlight. In the comics, Loki and Malekith have worked together on more than one occasion. Hopefully they won’t change the design at all. Eccleston with purple and black half-face and giant gray hair? Genius. It’ll make up for him having to say that horrendous, “It never rains but it pours,” pun line in Gone in 60 Seconds.