When Sony released the “Untold Story” tagine for The Amazing Spider-Man, it rang about as true as a career politician and lobbyist claiming to be a Washington Outsider (or, for a less current joke, like Hot Pockets claiming they wouldn’t cause your bowels to erupt). It’s a rebooted franchise – essentially a remake of an earlier film that came out of the same studio a decade ago. However, there were always elements that hinted at Sony and direct Marc Webb going big instead of going home. A new synopsis, uncovered by the Times of India (via Screen Rant), shows off exactly what they mean by an untold story, and as it matches up to the original Sam Raimi film – it’s pretty damned untold. Sure, there are the teenage elements of angst and that certain feeling of being lost in a sea of hormones without a rudder or a helping hand. Hopefully there will be some playfulness and some sarcasm. Of course there will be a spider bite. All of it rings familiar, except the rest of the plot. In fact, much like a comic book, it reads like an alternate history of a character delivered by a new writer. Check it out for yourself:

It’s always refreshing to hear a filmmaker talk candidly about the concerns and difficulties of creating something as large as, say, a blockbuster comic book movie that’s expected to draw in millions of fans and even more millions of dollars. Today’s burst of honesty comes from The Avengers director Joss Whedon, who told Empire Magazine (via Comic Book Movie) a ton about the project. Check out the link for more. The money quote: “It was an up-all-month job. Finding the characters’ voices was not only easy, but glorious fun. It doesn’t suck to write Tony Stark, yet finding the structure was just brutal. I haven’t had that much trouble making a screenplay work since Serenity and, embarrassingly, for the exact same reason: there’s just too many characters.” It’s fair to say that’s also a concern for fans, but it’s less that there are so many characters and more that there are so many massive, super-powered, enlarged egos in the film. How do you give them all space to shine brightly? Fortunately, the best reason to be optimistic that Whedon stuck the landing with the script is his work on “The Astonishing X-Men,” a comic book series that might just be the best X-Men storyline in Marvel‘s catalog. If the man can handle that universe and that many larger-than-life characters, it seems reasonable he can do it in the condensed format of film. It’s also fantastic to see him talk about how much fun he had crafting the heroes. Joss Whedon [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]

Although the real question keeping Hollywood awake in 2012 is “Does Winston Wolf clean up dead hookers on Yom Kippur?”, the fine folks over at HitFix have put forth a handful of queries of varying importance which filmmakers, studios and fans might have on their minds this year. It’s their 15 Questions Keeping Hollywood Awake in 2012. With concerns from Lindsay Lohan’s possible last chance to Joss Whedon’s first real shot with The Avengers, it’s an intriguing list that might prove 2012 to be both an endlessly fascinating and completely irrelevant year in the stories behind the movies. Will Smith, Found Footage, Hunger Games, Dark Knight Rises and more. HitFix has questions, and here are the answers:

Take a gander at what the conceptual artists for The Avengers have dreamed up for the team of superheroes to fly around in and what Iron Man will be flying next to. It’s unclear which artist is directly responsible for the design of the Quinjet, or how Coming Soon got the image off of a Russian website, but here it is nonetheless, and the look is spot on. The really cool part of this addition to the film, for those whose noses are buried in comic books, is that it opens the door to introduce Black Panther as a character since his design firm was the one that created the jet. Will he make an appearance? Or at least be mentioned? A role for Panther hasn’t been announced, but Marvel has always enjoyed leaving surprises up their spandex sleeves. Of course, the movie could also leave the designing up to Stark Enterprises, or it might simply be a toy the government had made for the Avenger Initiative. Time will tell, but this looks damned cool.

Since moving to Germany, I’ve gotten used to watching movies overdubbed in Deutsch (last night was Charlie und die Schokoladenfabrik). Still, there’s no amount of dubbing that could prepare me for hearing Samuel L. Jackson say “We get ready,” in a deep, Russian baritone. Мы получаем готовый! The Russian trailer for The Avengers is essentially the same one from our shores, but they shine a bigger spotlight on Black Widow (which means extended footage of Scarlett Johansson looking like an ice-veined killer in black latex while explosions happen all over the place. It’s no surprise they’d treat native daughter, and former KGB operative, Natasha Romanoff with such respect. Now check it out for yourself:

There has long been a debate in the comic book world about what’s fair as far as creator’s rights are concerned. If you self-publish or work for one of the smaller companies, it’s possible to maintain the rights to any characters that you create while working in comics. If you want to work for one of the big guys like DC or Marvel, however, what you’re doing is work for hire. That means you’re just an employee of said company and any of the characters that you create while writing a Marvel or DC book are not your property, but the property of the company. While young comic creators are more than happy to agree to terms like this when they’re starving and hungry for work, regrets can sometimes develop later on if a character gets popular and starts to bring in huge amounts of revenue. This is especially true now that comic book properties are routinely being developed into big budget films that bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. DC has famously had troubles dealing with the estates of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, who have been trying to get back control of the Superman pie for many years, and recently Marvel has had its own batch of troubles thanks to a man named Gary Friedrich. Friedrich worked as a freelancer for the House of Ideas back in the early 70s, and part of his output was the creation of a character named Ghost Rider, 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]

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]

It’s not often that movie news makes you sit up and go “whaa-haa?” but that’s just what happened when this story popped up over on Deadline Mannheim – that director Patty Jenkins has left her latest, and most high-profile film, directing the Thor sequel. Jenkins was confirmed for the gig in October, a job that would have made her only the second female director to helm a Marvel property (the other is Lexi Alexander, who directed Punisher: War Zone in 2008). It’s reported that Jenkins left the project thanks to the always-popular “creative differences” excuse. However, Deadline also reports that “the feeling is that she’ll probably end up working on one of these superhero films, but perhaps not on a sequel,” so it’s possible that those differences weren’t of the knock-down-drag-out variety, though leaving a job that was buzzed about and presumably set in stone for a few months is still a pretty eyebrow-raising move. Marvel is already looking for a new director (duh), as the sequel is working under a set July 26, 2013 (update: whoops, makes that a November 15, 2013) release date. Any ideas on a pick for a new hammer-wielding helmer?

How bad do I want the sequel to X-Men: First Class to be called X-Men: Second Class? Not that much now that I really think about it, but there’s almost no way that would happen, so we’re in the clear. Who’s not in the clear – as in, he’s got a lot of work ahead of him – is Simon Kinberg, a producer on the first film who has now been hired to write the second. This is amidst his continuing work as writer, producer or both for This Means War, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium. His past credits sadly don’t include a lot of winners – Jumper, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Sherlock Holmes – but those films were all messy for different reasons, and it’s unclear whether the writing was really to blame on any of them. Still, they were messy. On the other hand, Kinberg also wrote the airtight Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In a way, this hiring seems to prove that Fox wants to keep some of the same tone of the original while making it a bit more commercial (keeping in mind that First Class has made $350m). Kinberg is the kind of writer who does solid, popular fiction that’s digestible for the masses, and with his previous experience with the characters (and as a producer on the original), he’s a strong choice for the job. Hopefully Fox and Kinberg both realize that First Class was so successful because it was good, [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]

The Avengers and The Walking Dead weren’t the only highlights from this past Saturday at NYCC. While some were walking the show floor and enjoying many of the smaller panels going on throughout the day, a majority had one goal… Get their ass to the IGN theater. And while a fair amount were merely their to squat a seat for the two big events that would go on later that evening, I was there to enjoy some really awesome panels, the first of which was for the new FOX show Terra Nova.

When the first public trailer dropped for Joss Whedon’s upcoming Avengers film, it was met with a collective sigh from many, including yours truly. It wasn’t very exciting and the only thing it had going for it was some pedestrian banter that relied solely on the charm of Robert Downey Jr. Even on a visual level, the trailer failed to deliver the scale expected from an Avengers movie. It’s with that attitude that I entered the IGN theater at the New York Comic Con this past Saturday. When the panel started, moderator Chris Hardwick walked out to a crowd that was already coming down from the high of The Walking Dead panel and introduced the film’s producer Kevin Feige. Feige commented on how the teaser just recently dropped, but that it was on the computer and then proceeded to ask the audience if they would like to see it played on the three giant screens in the theater. This was met with great enthusiasm.

Comic-Con. A place of joy. A place of wonder. A place of really awesome costumes. Thursday marked the start of New York Comic-Con 2011. Not nearly as land mark as SDCC (which some would say is a benefit), but certainly not at the bottom of the scrap heap. In a city bustling with the creative minds from all walks of life, it would only make sense that once a year, those creative minds come together for one giant weekend of awesomeness. And we’re here to bring you all of it.

We reported previously that Marvel was close to securing Patty Jenkins as the director for Thor 2, and now Deadline Shackleton has announced that Marvel has made it official. The Monster writer/director will be picking up where Kenneth Branagh left off with Chris Hemsworth as the title superhero. That means that, depending on when they start filming for their November 2013 release, Hemsworth will have worked as Thor for 3 different directors in the span on 2 years. Jenkins is an interesting choice, not only because she’ll be the first woman taking on a comic book movie of this size, but because her resume is short but sweet. Monster was a phenomenal, performance-driven drama, but she’s also directed episodes of Arrested Development and Entourage. It’s a range that’s a mile wide and an inch deep considering that it’s been nearly a decade since directing her only feature film to date. She mirrors Branagh in the sense that she’s more known for working with actors than creating large scale action beats, but her skill set might signal that some darker drama is set for the sequel. Still, bringing on a feature director with one film under her belt, and no big budget experience is absolutely an experimental gamble. It’s fortunate that they chose someone who has displayed a keen understanding of cinematic language, but it’s a gamble nonetheless.

It’s not quite hyperbole to say the The Avengers is the most eagerly anticipated film of 2012. The ensemble superhero film features several characters who have already proven themselves in their own movies (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor) as well as a few who haven’t (Hawkeye, Black Widow), but the idea of bringing them all together into one adventure has been a dream of Marvel’s and the fans for quite some time. And now it’s almost here. We’ve seen some images and a very brief teaser, but Marvel and Paramount have released the first real trailer this morning. It’s still teaserish at only two minutes, but it offers up a good idea of what we can expect from director Joss Whedon’s upcoming blockbuster. Check it out below.

Work on getting a Thor sequel in production seems to be well underway. It was just yesterday the news broke that Monster director Patty Jenkins was getting looked at very closely to direct the hammer-wielding god’s second movie, and now Entertainment Weekly has some quotes from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about what direction the plot will take. Once this sequel goes into production, Thor will already have furthered adventures here on Earth alongside his Avengers buddies, so according to Feige, it’s time to “take Thor literally to other worlds.” In the Norse mythology that Thor plays around in there are nine different worlds. When I looked up the nine worlds over at Marvel, I learned that three of them share the same planet as Thor’s home Asgard, one of them is where we live (Midgard), and the other four are called Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Hel, and Muspelheim. That’s a whole mouthful of words, and a whole heap of worlds full of elves, demons, and who knows what for Thor to smash with his hammer.

The big budget 3D film Captain America: The First Avenger was one of the summer’s huge movies. Few remember, however, the 1992 direct-to-video release of Captain America, starring Matthew Salinger and Ronny Cox. Now, Fox has released a new DVD of that ’92 film for a new generation to enjoy… or make fun of… take your pick. So until Captain America: The First Avenger hits DVD in a couple months, you can enjoy this film with a drink in hand. It’s either that or a drinking game for The Vampire Diaries or Desperate Housewives this week. Trust me… this film will be more fun.

Wow. The trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance contains a lot of chain whip cracking, a lot of skulls on fire, and that wacky flaming vomit/urine combination that got Fure so hot under the collar. Considering the history of the movie and the weight of the first film’s failure that Vengeance carries around its neck, it’s probably a great idea to watch both trailers side by side to see what each production was going for. And whether they achieved it:

Back in the Spring of 2010 word got around that Marvel was beginning work on a film adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s well regarded comic about teen superheroes “The Runaways.” The screenplay for the film was to be written by No Heroics creator Drew Pearce and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist helmer Peter Sollet was going to be directing. But something with that plan went wrong, because before the project could begin production, Marvel removed it from their schedule. And seeing as they went on to hire Pearce to write the script for Iron Man 3 after that, it didn’t seem like the reason The Runaways got cancelled was a problem with the script. So what happened? While attending a recent panel conversation, The Playlist asked Pearce just that, and he revealed that the reason The Runaways got taken off the schedule was Joss Whedon’s upcoming superhero team-up movie The Avengers taking up all of Marvel’s attention. Pearce said, “Basically, The Avengers came along and everything else at Marvel got put on hold for a year. But the script is there, we’re good go. It’s kind of like [being] at the airport when you’re waiting for your slot to take off with Marvel, and we’re hoping we get a slot next year. Fingers crossed. They’re very happy with it, so hopefully it happens.” Marvel definitely has plans to release two films in 2014, one on May 16th and one on June 27th, but nobody knows which titles are going to [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]

Gwen is on a bit of a vacation this week, so I’m taking over writing duties for the one column on the site that forces us to ogle and think deeply at the same time. Hopefully I do it justice. Hopping into a cinematic time machine to set a film in a different decade is always a precarious occupation, but for X-Men: First Class (a movie that doesn’t seem exactly topical despite coming out two months ago), the danger of portraying the men and women of 1962 was even more difficult. Sure, Mad Men had come along and made the sleek chauvinism of the 60s chic again, but Matthew Vaughn and company had to juggle the suspension of disbelief inherent in spotlighting mutants alongside the possible cartoon that forms whenever a guy in a tight cummerbund slaps a woman on the ass and goes back to enjoying being white and male in America. So is X-Men: First Class anti-feminist or a sexy love note to the powerful women of our world? That’s a tough call. And since it’s a tough call, here’s an attempt at giving both arguments equal weight.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, 30 Minutes or Less star Nick Swardson stops by to talk action comedy, and John Gholson from Movies.com makes the case for more female Avengers. Plus, Fat Guy Kevin Carr battles Stan Lee Sound-a-Like Jim Napier from Geek Tyrant in the Movie News Pop Quiz, and the results would make children weep. Listen Here: Download This Episode