People have been talking about making a Doctor Strange film for years now. But seeing as how the Sorcerer Supreme isn’t as well known a name as, and is a whole lot weirder than other super heroes, the project has never emerged as a priority over at Marvel Films. That might be ready to change though. Marvel’s real heavyweight franchises are Spider-Man and The X-Men, but Sony and Fox are still controlling their film rights respectively. They had a series of second tier characters that they are in direct control of, but at this point they’ve already brought most of them to the big screen and have them poised to team up in next year’s The Avengers. With all of their biggest names out of their hands or already starring in movies, the only option they have to create new movies at this point is to start moving forward with more obscure heroes. It comes as no surprise, then, that Twitch is reporting the long rumored Doctor Strange project is beginning its first stages of moving forward in a real way. The last news on the subject of a Marvel made mystical movie was that Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer had been tasked with the job of coming up with a script. Reportedly, that script has now been turned in and Marvel is shopping it around to potential directors to “oversee continued development.”

Here’s something cool for your Monday morning. Or afternoon, depending on your time zone and commitment to sleeping in. Marvel.com has revealed a full promotional banner for The Avengers, which is now the next big Marvel film event. In short, it’s going to be the Marvel event now that Captain America is out in the wild. Prepare yourself for months of inundation in Avengers, Avengers, Avengers. Anyone have objections to that? I didn’t think so. Moving on…

He might not be the richest Avenger. It’s pretty hard to compete with the billions upon billions Tony Stark living on, but Captain America does hold the 2011 title. At least for opening weekend numbers. Captain America: The First Avenger topped Thor by just over $100,000 to have the biggest opening for a super hero movie this Summer. Yeah, that’s a pretty in-depth quantifier that only puts it in contention with three other movies, but when those movies are Thor ($65.7m opening), X-Men: First Class ($55.1m opening), and Green Lantern ($53.1m opening), you can go ahead and hand out the bragging rights. Of course, The First Avenger came nowhere near the opening numbers for either of the Iron Man movies, and Marvel and Disney may start moving towards pimping Robert Downey, Jr. in their Avengers marketing if they want next Summer’s film to have massive numbers.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr goes retro this week and injects himself with strange chemicals in an attempt to become a World War II era super soldier. Hop over to the Fat Guys at the Movies page to see if his physique has reached the pinnacle of that of Chris Evans from Captain America. After recovering from the procedure, Kevin randomly wandering the streets, looking for hot ladies like Mila Kunis who just want to have sex but with no emotional baggage of a relationship. Sadly, this will probably end up as empty and worthless as his similar attempt last January when No Strings Attached came out.

The films of Marvel Studios have come full circle, and not a moment too soon. What began with a flurry of excitement over Iron Man, their opening salvo into the world of being an independent studio, has lately been listless in its Avenger-assembling agenda. In their last two outings — Iron Man 2 and Thor — they’ve spent more time focused on the future of the heroes than the heroes themselves. With Captain America: The First Avenger, they take full advantage of the ability to leave all the distractions out of it, allowing them to deliver their most confidently crafted, complete film yet. Sure, the story of Captain America feels bookended by his role in Marvel’s forthcoming team-up movie, and from what we’ve been told, The Avengers is your reason for sticking around after the credits. But in between all that, director Joe Johnston has set out to tell the simple story of a hero named Steve Rogers. The year is 1942, and after five unsuccessful attempts to join the fight against Adolf Hitler, a scrawny Rogers isn’t ready to give up. Luckily his heart and determination catches the eye of a government scientist whose work includes making a Super Soldier serum that will turn an ordinary man into a super-human fighting machine. Desperate to get in on the action, the young patriot from Brooklyn signs on the dotted line. A few doses of steroids later and this scrawny little dude, created with brilliant CG-enhanced, Benjamin Button style effect that [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 other night I had the pleasure of seeing the newest Marvel Studios film, Captain America: The First Avenger, and while I don’t yet have the pleasure of telling you about it, I can tell you about other people who told me about it. Say what? I’ll tell you what: today was the press junket for Captain America where I was afforded the chance to partake in a press conference with the filmmakers and studio heads and sit at round-tables with a few of the stars. Unfortunately Chris Evans declined my arm wrestling invitation. Rewinding to the night of the screening, as the film ended I, like most of those in attendance, stayed seated, ready to pop my 3D glasses back on for an after-credits sequence. This is, after-all, a Marvel Studios film. They’ve got a strong history (recently) of teasing us, at least a little, with something after the credits. Surely we’d have to see some little tidbit of The Avengers, right?

So pleased they were with the performance of the first, they’ve decided to make another. Disney and Marvel Studios have set a release date for Thor 2, a sequel to this summer’s Kenneth Branagh directed, Chris Hemsworth starring superhero film. Usually when a sequel to a comic book movie gets announced, it’s immediately time to start speculating on what’s going to happen in the next one. With Thor 2, however, things are a little bit more complicated. Before this movie ever happens, the Thor and Loki characters are already set to appear in Joss Whedon’s upcoming Avengers, so the people in charge of writing Thor 2 are going to have to make sure that what they do jives with the characters’ appearances there. And we’re going to have to wait to see it before really going wild with theories on what’s next for the Odinson.

Marvel Studios may be getting into the short film business to help boost their already bustling feature film trade. According to a source close to Marvel Studios, the company is setting some of their staff writers to developing smaller characters in the Marvel universe for future projects. These projects, only proposed as short films at this point, could lead to certain ancillary characters making appearances in future features or even becoming popular enough to headline their own film.

Prepare yourself to be dazzled by a blurry image of a test poster for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. Taken on the floor of the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas by the folks at Coming Soon, this first attempt at marketing Marvel’s big superhero team-up film is a colorful indication of what is to come. Or it’s just a first crack at it, with an artists representations of what the characters will look like. This includes the Mark Ruffalo Hulk, who looks more like the comic version of Hulk, and will likely not look anything like that in the film. Also, note Captain America’s modern day suit, complete with some brighter colors and that famous winged helmet. Thor is still bearded, still without his winged helmet. It all has an Ultimates vibe, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

What is Movie News at Sunrise? Due to some site maintenance late last night, Movie News After Dark could not be completed before it was my bed time. So I’m up early to bring you its cousin, Movie News At Sunrise. This slightly less witty, marginally more tired column should serve as the perfect pinch-hitter just in time for your morning commute. Powered by a Chick-fil-a breakfast sandwich and a hope that spelling errors will be kept to a minimum at this ungodly hour, I am here to bring you the news. Director Sam Raimi has cast Rachel Weisz as an evil witch in Oz: The Great and Powerful. She will star opposite James Franco and alongside Mila Kunis. They will play Evanora and Theodora, respectively. Weisz’s Evanora, however, becomes the Wicked Witch of the East. Sadly, we all know how things work out for her. For Raimi, the remaining major character to be cast is Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Olivia Wilde, Amy Adams, Kate Beckinsale, Keira Knightley and Rebecca Hall are said to be on the shortlist. Hall sounds like an awesome choice, to me.

Earlier this week, director Jon Favreau told MTV that he had no clarity on what another sequel in the immensely successful Iron Man franchise would look like. “In theory, Iron Man 3 is going to be a sequel or continuation of Thor, Hulk, Captain America and Avengers,” said Favreau at the time, “This whole world … I have no idea what it is. I don’t think they do either, from conversations I’ve had with those guys.” Flash forward to today, when Vulture has confirmed with sources close to the situation that Favreau has informed Marvel that he will not direct Iron Man 3.

Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema; we can’t apologize enough. This is the internet column which thankfully you only have to bear once a week. I am an indiscriminate consumer of film and gorge myself on terrible b-movies as often as the AFI Top 100 fodder. Therefore each week I will showcase a bad film near and dear to my heart. I will list its sundry faults while simultaneously lavishing adoration upon it. When you are done duly vomiting, that’s the exact moment where I swoop in and present you with an appropriate junkfood item in an effort to inappropriately ease your cinematic indigestion. This week’s film may be a bit obscure, and difficult to find, but well worth the diligent hunt. It is a Chinese film called Dragon Tiger Gate. It is the story of two half-brothers, not-so-ironically named Dragon and Tiger, who are separated as children but not before being given a two-part pendant. Their shared father is the master of the Dragon Tiger Gate; a martial art academy that, like a Transformer, is more than meets the eye. Dragon ends up being raised by a ruthless Triad and Tiger remains loyal to the academy. But when the leader of an evil cult, who secretly controls the Triads, sets his sights on the academy, the brothers must band together for the greater good.

With this week, Summer 2010 has officially gone. We are into September and here in Austin at Reject HQ, the temperature is back down into the 90s and we’re looking forward to seeing all of our genre-loving friends at the end of the month for Fantastic Fest. As you’ll begin to notice, we will soon become very preoccupied with what’s happening in the war room over at the Alamo Drafthouse, where the final slate for Fantastic Fest 2010 seems to be coming together quickly. But for now, there are still films in theaters and news from around the globe that have caught our interest. That interest was quickly turned into articles filled with biting commentary. Those articles are assembled here, in a weekly column we like to call The Week That Was…

Three days ago, Marvel Studios assembled its team of Avengers. And right there on the stage in Hall H of the San Diego Convention Center, they lit fires in the hearts of 6,500 fans present and countless others as word began to ripple across the internet. I’m sure that it was a sight to see. And from a distance, even I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of anticipation for the superhero team-up — one that will put Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) on screen together. The 2012 film will be a cinematic event unlike anything ever attempted before. There’s no doubt about that. Never has a studio embarked on a comic adaptation quite so ambitious. Then again, there’s never been a studio making comic adaptations quite the way young Marvel has done. It all seems as if planets are aligning, deities are smiling and harmony between the world of comics and the world of movies has finally come to pass. But when we wipe away all of the manufactured bliss created on stage by Marvel Studios on Saturday, we realize quickly that there are still plenty of questions on the road ahead. In fact, there are more than questions — for Marvel, there are giant speed-bumps in the form of two films yet to be finished and released, and an entire team-up film to be planned and executed. It’s no small task. And even though 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]

If you are headed to San Diego this weekend for Comic-Con 2010, chances are that you’re a fan of the world of superheroes. It seems to be a pre-requisite. So while some very cool films like Tron: Legacy and Scott Pilgrim will be on display this year, you might be more inclined to take a look at Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern or the two big selections from Marvel Studios, Thor and Captain America. I know that’s what we’re looking forward to. However, it’s not out of blind excitement that we look toward the two new Marvel movies, it’s out of curiosity. Up to this point, all of the photos from Thor have looked rather plastic and cheesy. Like something you’d see in the mid-80s. Then again, maybe that’s the point. We hope not, but maybe. Check out a full gallery of Thor pics after the jump, including a very cool look at the big guy with his famous hammer.

Marvel Entertainment is heading to the small screen. Today they announced the creation of Marvel Television, a division that will take its popular characters and bring them to the ever-growing world of tubes and fiber optic cable. The division will be headed by Jeph Loeb, who is probably best known for his work as co-executive producer on NBC’s Heroes.

Patrick Dempsey is cinematic poison. Sure, the guy has had a good run as an object of television audiences’ affections on Grey’s Anatomy, but when he moves over to the big screen, it’s usually disastrous. Save for Enchanted (the success of which had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Amy Adams), I haven’t seen Dempsey in a quality film in the last decade. So why anyone would ever mention him in the same breath as the inevitable Dr. Strange film is beyond me. Unless of course, that person is Patrick Dempsey.

Earlier today we remarked on Marvel Studios’ intent to make short films for some of their lesser known characters, giving them a Pixar-like release model in which their big features — Captain America, Thor, Iron Man 3 — would be preceded by a look at something that might not be known to mainstream audiences. For my money, this included Dr. Strange. It looks like that might not be the case after all.

Moviegoers across the world are nothing if not sheep. The most recent works of Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich have proved this to be true. If you make it loud and shiny, you will find a big audience. Although, when it comes to comic book movies in 2010, the sheep seem to be frozen stiff. From Kick-Ass to The Losers to this weekend’s Jonah Hex — if you aren’t Iron Man, you aren’t making a splash. It’s enough of a mid-level comic franchise catastrophe to have companies like Marvel Studios rethinking their strategy.

Marvel Studios announced today that Stanley Tucci, the Oscar-nominated actor most recently seen in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, has been cast in the Joe Johnston directed Captain America: The First Avenger. He will play Dr. Abraham Erskine, a German scientist who in many of the early comics was behind Project Rebirth, the secret experiment that created the Super Soldier known as Captain America.