Though Jon Favreau brought us two installments of the Iron Man franchise, he’s stepped away for the greener pastures of films like Cowboys and Aliens and Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Marvel is still planning on bringing us more movies.

The hunt has been on for a director to fill in for Favreau and with the May 3, 2013 release date for Iron Man 3 not getting any closer, they need to find someone fast.

The Hollywood Reporter is claiming that Shane Black is being circled to fill in the post.

From their report:

Shane Black is in contention to direct Iron Man 3 for Marvel Studios.

The writer/director has powwowed with Marvel execs about his take on the third installment in the blockbuster franchise. As of now he is being considered for the directing job, but the assumption is that if he gets the gig, he would also write a draft.

Insiders said that Black’s involvement is far from a sure thing, and that other filmmakers were being looked at.

You’ll remember Shane Black for writing the still dynamite script for the first Lethal Weapon movie and writing and directing the incredible Robert Downey, Jr. film Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. He has a rapport with the actor who is Iron Man and he is a great screenwriter and has already proven himself capable of handling the tone that Jon Favreau set in the first two films and, I think, he’s able to even amp it up exponentially.

He’s a fantastic writer, his directing work has been fun to watch, and as long as Marvel didn’t get too far in the way, this could be just the jolt in the arm that Iron Man 3 needs to remind people that there is life after an Avengers movie.

Other filmmakers are up for the part, though. Who do you guys think would be the perfect director for the Iron Man gig? Or is Shane Black a great choice?

A week ago there were some rumors circling about that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in talks with Christopher Nolan to have a role in The Dark Knight Rises, and now there is a rumor go around regarding exactly who that character may be. Accoring to an anonymous tipster over at Comic Book Movie:

Well he has signed on to the film in a villainous role previously undisclosed until now. Levitt will be portraying Alberto Falcone aka the Holiday Killer. He is the estranged son of former mob boss Carmine Falcone (portrayed by Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins) who returns to Gotham to take over the underworld once fiercly ruled by his father before the arrival of Batman.

I do know that Nolan wants to complete his Batman story with this film, and it would make sense for some things to come full circle like this. I could see JGL as a great up and coming mobster type-villain with some personal vendettas to go with it. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen, but I kind of like this idea.

Do you like the idea of this role for Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Do you like the idea of this character? Sound off in the comments below!

So, late last night we ran a story about possible cast appearances during principle photography of The Avengers in New York City. (You can read the original report here.)

The press release excerpt we were sent is as follows:

S.H.I.E.L.D. invites you to join the AVENGERS initiative

Meet the cast of S.H.I.E.L.D. and join the Avengers initiative! Marvel Studios to announce an S.H.I.E.L.D. Assembly in New York City for spring 2011. During principal filming, S.H.I.E.L.D. will be out in full force in NYC to recruit and find new members. Cast members on hand include Samuel L. Jackson (Director Nick Fury), Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson), Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill) and Kevin Pennington (Agent Wendell Vaughn). Fans will get the chance to meet the stars and get their photograph taken with them at the event.

The source is untested and we haven’t heard anything first hand about the report since we printed it.

But we’ve received an alarming amount of mail about it. We’ve received a few independent confirmations that this press release did come out, though we still haven’t seen anything first hand. According to these additional sources, the press release was sent with confidentiality agreements and there were intimated threats that if the news leaked the events would be cancelled since it was difficult enough to get Samuel L. Jackson to agree to these public appearances.

It was also speculated (and it makes sense) that the excerpt of the press release that we were given was not verbatim from the actual release. The source put the details of the event in his own words in order to further separate the original from him so that he might not be identified. Those that called out the release because of its wording had cause to.

Another bit of information left out of the version we received is that another event like this was planned with the cast for Comic-Con.

There has been no word from Marvel about the truth of any of this, and we’ve not been contacted by them in any way. We’d love to hear from them directly about the validity of the story, one way or the other. Had they included us in their press blast in the first place, we would have been bound by any embargo they set for the information and you wouldn’t be reading this from us. If it’s actually true. But we haven’t heard from them one way or the other, before or after the fact.

So, who knows? But we have been contacted by a number of other people reporting that they got the same initial press release email.

I’d like to hear from you guys your take on all of this. And do you think it would be smart of Marvel to cancel the event if this information was accurate but was leaked prematurely?

UPDATE: We’ve reached out to Marvel for comment. When we get one, we’ll let you know.

Zombietron and Arse-bot have broken down for you why they think the Roku is a great little device in their review of the Roku XD|S, so now they are going to give you their top ten list of best Channels (so far) you can get on the Roku! Along with the obvious necessities, they will also give you a few of their personal favorites that have enhanced their Roku experience!

10. MP3 Tunes – Genius idea, free for limited amounts of storage, and a subscription fee to boost your library size on the cloud (20 gigs for $20). Those of us with life on the go and not a ton of storage to take with us can link to the cloud through the Roku and mobile devices to access our media.

9. Kung Fu Theatre – I’m going to copy and paste in the channel description from Roku’s website as justification enough to download this work of genius.

A growing collection of lost Kung-Fu treasures with all the badly dubbed voices and over-the-top action you could hope for.
For just $1.99 per month, you can watch all you want.

8. IMAX – For the reasonable price of $19.99 (one time payment, not a monthly subscription) you can purchase the IMAX Channel on Roku and you’ll get 12 full-length documentaries that were featured in IMAX theaters – perfect for those of you out there with 65 inch flat screen TV’s. The only thing preventing this Channel from being a bit higher on the list? The sound quality sounds hollow and leaves something to be desired. Other than that though, still some very good content for a reasonable price.

7. Roku Newscaster – You’re not missing out on your national news if you cancel your cable. You can watch all of your favorite news programs from CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, and more. Includes full shows like 60 Minutes, Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, and Rachel Maddow.

6. Amazon Video on Demand – Amazon offers a “pay-to-rent or buy” service via this Channel on the Roku. Essentially taking the place of Comcast on Demand (and other similar cable and satellite services) Amazon offers the ability to rent newer movie and television titles for 48 hours for $3.99 (SD) or $4.99 (HD) for movies, and $.99 (SD) or $1.99 (HD) for television shows. The nice thing about this channel is there are always weekend deals they offer at a reduced price (i.e. you can rent “this” new release for $1.99 in HD instead of $4.99 this weekend). You also have the ability to purchase movies and TV shows and the Channel will store them right there in your Amazon account for you to watch any time.

5. My Media– Although limited in its current platforms and application this is the first of what I’m sure will be many media streaming solutions for the Roku, as long as you’re running windows and a wireless network you can push content to any tv without plugging anything in. Enough said

4. Hulu Plus – Only appearing at number four on our list has nothing to do with the Hulu Plus interface on Roku. The user interface is clean, easy to navigate, and updates you right at start up what’s new and popular on this Channel. Dropping Hulu Plus to number four is the service itself. In order to view Hulu on any other device than a desktop or laptop computer they require you to sign up for Hulu Plus at $8/month – not completely unreasonable, except that this is the only paid version of a service that I know of that has less content than its free counterpart. Due to distributing rights, some shows are only available from a computer on Hulu and remain to be unseen on other streaming devices running Hulu Plus. For instance – Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show from FOX’s “Animation Domination” line-up are all available on Hulu Plus, but The Simpsons is nowhere to be found. That all being said, there is a lot of content to be viewed on this Channel and the folks at Hulu seem to be making all of their content available on both – the free and paid versions – as quickly as they can. It’s still well worth the $8/month price tag – but there’s a lot of room for improvement.

3. Pandora – I’m not sure I even need to justify this choice.. If your tv has any sort of decent sound system attached, why wouldn’t you shuffle your favorite artists?

2. USB Channel – Finally available as a public channel this speaks for itself for those using the Roku XD|S, plug in any format hard drive and watch your movies.  As stated in our review, blu-ray rips anyone?

1. Netflix – The juggernaut of online video streaming has a strong presence on the Roku, and it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that it takes our number one spot. With a simple and easy to use UI and ability to manage your instant queue your Netflix experience on Roku will be far from lacking. With the Roku remote you have the ability to of course pause, fast forward, and rewind; if you can’t finish a movie in one sitting the Netflix Channel will start you right where you left off – even if you have since watched other titles.

You can check out ALL of the Channels that Roku offers and what they consist of to see if their programming is right for you!

Own a Roku? Tell us what your favorite channel is and why in the comments below!

Cable and satellite television can get to be pretty expensive. You start adding on additional channel packages and next thing you know you can be paying well over $100 or $150 so you can watch all the channels you want. Well, Arse-bot and Zombietron got tired of paying ridiculous amounts of money for our cable service so we began to look for alternatives. Apple TV seemed to be okay for what it is, but we were looking for something more than a vehicle to purchase movies and TV shows from iTunes with some Netflix mixed in. Google TV seems to have not quite gotten things with Hulu and Netflix squared away, especially since you can’t even access Hulu on it (at least, not without a little hacking), and the price tag is quite higher than we cared to pay. These are the two big name devices out on the market, and neither one seemed to offer what we were looking for in a streaming device, it was looking like we were going to have to be content with hooking up laptops to our TV’s with an HDMI cable to stream reasonably priced television – until we stumbled upon a wonderful little device called Roku.

We checked out the specs; HDMI Hookup with full 1080p support? Check. USB port to watch and listen to stuff you’ve downloaded to an external storage device? Check. Wireless and ethernet internet connection capability? Check. Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video on Demand, MLB  and a bunch of other apps to access all sorts of video and music content any time you want all with a simple little remote and a price tag of less than $100? Check, check, and double check! We placed our orders, told our cable provider we were done paying their ridiculous prices, and starting getting our TV and movie entertainment via Roku! We’ve had our Roku’s for about three months now, and we’re going to break down the pros and cons of this device for all of you out there looking for an alternative to cable or satellite TV services!

Arse-bot: I’m going to leave all the technical specs to our resident techno-geek, Zombietron (below), and just touch on the basics. I consider myself to be an “average” Roku user, I took it out of the box, plugged it in, and started streaming, and frankly, that’s what’s so great about it.

Upon receiving the Roku, setup was simple. You don’t need to be a wiz at hooking up electronics – I hooked up my HDMI cable, plugged the Roku into the outlet and I was ready to start setting it up (this is all after I happily yanked my cable box out). Upon first start-up your little Roku box will walk you through step-by-step how to set it up. “Ethernet internet connection or wireless?” Wireless. “Select your network.” Selected. “Enter password” Entered. BOOM! My Roku is ready to roll and now it’s time to download the “channels” (or “apps”) you want!

The Roku has this handy little application that lets you download what they refer to as “Channels”. I got to downloading the necessities: Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Video on Demand. You simply install the Channel, enter your login information for these services, validate your hardware online and you’re ready to start streaming! It literally took me about 15 minutes to set up the Roku before I was watching Arrested Development on Hulu Plus. The user interfaces for all of these channels are simple to navigate via the handy Roku remote, and you’re streaming your favorite shows in no time.

For the life of me, I can’t think of any cons with regards to the Roku. I’m a standard user, and aside from the Roku freezing up once or twice (afterwhich it automatically resets itself and has you back to enjoying your movie in about a minute), I have had zero problems. I can honestly say I haven’t missed cable one bit since I cancelled it and opted for a Roku – I can access and manage my Netflix and Hulu Plus queues and order newer movies on demand from Amazon. For the slightly advanced user the Roku XD|S includes a USB slot to plug in an external hard drive to watch all the content you’ve downloaded, and while the video format options are a bit limited, it hasn’t proven to be a big problem.

I can easily say I don’t hesitate in saying I highly recommend the Roku for anyone out there looking for an alternative to cable, or even just a simple, small video streaming device to enhance your television-watching experience.

Zombietron: When I gleefully opened my Roku box on Christmas day, yeah Christmas, thanks mom. I had in my head this long list of things I was gonna do with this beautiful device. I was gonna stream my media from a central server, watch Netflix, play with Amazon Video on Demand, and so much more, I’ll leave most of that for our list of top Roku apps. The technical beauty of the Roku really comes in its open source applications, with a little programming knowledge anyone can grab the SDK and begin getting their apps released to the public. Being a huge fan of open source discussion and theory myself I have to come the conclusion that any device that allows creativity from its user community has great things in store. This alone is directly key to the success of the iPhone and any Android device. I’ll reiterate Arse’s thoughts that the ease-of-use for this machine rivals that of Apple’s connectivity. As long as you know your network name, password, and how to operate a remote you are on your way to being a Roku power user. That being said, anyone who reads my tech rants knows that I can’t give a compliment without filing some form of complaint. Although there are independent media server apps available, with simple enough use for technologically minded people such as myself, they still have yet to release a solution straight forward to the average person.

Ok, griping round 1 completed let’s continue with the praise:

The HDMI out alone makes this device worth its weight, especially for us feverishly stashing blu-ray rips for our entertainment demands. You may not stream in true HD, but even in the streaming world the nerd in me enjoys the pure digital signal. If I would have written this article up a few months ago I would have complained that the independent USB reading app didn’t support enough file formats, (seeing as from the beginning it only supported .m4v). The recently released Channel that you can install through store now supports additional formats including: avi, mpg, and WMV. At first the Roku also refused to recognize my HFS+ formatted drive that I use to back up my mac book but alas, that complaint has been satisfied. Even though the media format support has grown from a dastardly 1 filetype to 5 or so, they still need to work on getting all video and audio compression types supported.  As I’ve seen stated in developer forums, “if this thing supported as many media formats as VLC Player it would be unstoppable.”  I more than agree with that statement.

With consistent updates coming I’m sure that soon the wants of its community will be satisfied, and all in all this is a great open source product that really drives home the idea that TV is no longer cable driven, those of us with an internet connection can cancel cable, and simply utilize our own media outlets to feed our addiction. There’s a reason that Roku has sold 1 million units, and i’m sure this year will be just as successful for them.

Specs:

Interested in purchasing your own Roku? You can order one online at Roku.com! And be sure to check out Arse-bot and Zombietron’s top ten Roku Channels!

Now, I am not 100% sure about the reliability of this spy. No offense to him, but he’s a reader and I don’t know him from Adam.

But he works at a television station in New York and got an email press release about a chance for fans to meet the cast of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Avengers film during principal photography in 2011. Clearly, the spy wanted to remain anonymous, just in case the studio gets angry at the television station, so that’s why we’ve removed any identifying information from the release.

But this also implies that a portion of filming will be done in New York, which seems unusual. Most of the Marvel movies have had cities like Vancouver fill in for New York since it’s so damned expensive. But it’s not impossible that they could have some limited shooting there.

Additionally, this states that Quasar will be in the film and played by Kevin Pennington. Will he be in his superhero guise in the film?

I just want to reiterate that this is a spy report from an untested source, but it was interesting enough to toss out into the ether.

Here’s the press release:

S.H.I.E.L.D. invites you to join the AVENGERS initiative

Meet the cast of S.H.I.E.L.D. and join the Avengers initiative! Marvel Studios to announce an S.H.I.E.L.D. Assembly in New York City for spring 2011. During principal filming, S.H.I.E.L.D. will be out in full force in NYC to recruit and find new members. Cast members on hand include Samuel L. Jackson (Director Nick Fury), Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson), Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill) and Kevin Pennington (Agent Wendell Vaughn). Fans will get the chance to meet the stars and get their photograph taken with them at the event.

According to the spy there was no specific dates or times mentioned, but this was just a general heads up for these events in the Spring.

If you’re in New York or the industry and get more word to confirm or deny this, we’d love to hear from you. And if you’re a reader and this happens and you manage to get a chance to meet the cast during principal filming, we’d definitely love to hear from you.

UPDATE: Word from Jerk-bot is that he hasn’t heard anything to this effect, though he speculates that the Ms. Marvel rumours lend credence to the idea that this might be a Kree-Skrull war picture.

Other sources say this wasn’t supposed to hit the news until April.

What do you think?

UPDATE 2: Here’s an update with some second hand confirmations!

Star Wars is all about certain points of view, and each time I watch the films I have a new lens on, shading the events, arousing new questions, and coming to new understandings about the mythology as a whole.

One of the things I strive to do is imagine what it would be like watching the saga unfold from Episode I through to Episode VI as though I’d never seen a Star Wars movie.  It’s a hard thing.

But I’ve found something as rare as a Unicorn, a person who has never seen a Star Wars movie.  And they’re willing to let me ask them questions and probe them about it and write up their first hand experience and my vicarious experience through them.

The young lady who agreed to give up her Star Wars virginity with me explained to me what she knows of them going in:

I kind of know the basic story line of the original trilogy and I’m fairly familiar with the characters. I know the basic story because I love spoofs, and because of Fanboys. I know the first one is based on either The Odessy or The Illiad, I don’t recall which. I never saw it because I’m a die hard Trekker and I think Luke Skywalker seems like a whiny little bitch. I would have rather watched the spoofs than the real thing. I absolutely loved the Ewok movies when I was little, though. I still want them on DVD.

So tonight we’re watching The Phantom Menace.  She seems like a tough audience, but we’ll see how she reacts.

Why did she agree to watch them with me? She told me, “I’m willing to watch it with you because it means so much to you. I share the movies I’m passionate about with my friends, and I know how it feels when they’ve never seen it and they end up loving it. I am also breaking down and watching it so I can answer your damn pub quiz questions. Also, so FanBoys will be even funnier to me.”

We’ll check in in the next day or two and get her impressions of The Phantom Menace and her predictions of what is to come.

This should be quite the interesting experiment.

I wasn’t aware of this until today, but apparently there is a huge fanboy push to have Chuck star Yvonne Strahovski  play the part of Ms. Marvel in the upcoming Avengers film.

Let’s back up for a moment. I don’t know about most of you readers out there, but I wasn’t even aware that there were rumblings that Ms. Marvel would be in The Avengers. We know that Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Black Widow are all set to join the team under the guidance of Nick Fury and Maria Hill (rumored), but this is the first time I’m hearing the name Ms. Marvel dropped in the mix. I’m familiar with the rumors that The Wasp may be included in that cast, but that remains to be a rumor.

Apparently, there has been quite the campaign of Strahovski and Ms. Marvel fans for her to be in the film, and today, the Yvonne Strahovski fan site, Strahotski.com, received an anonymous “insider” tip:

Though it’s not often that we get the scoop on anything here, I’ve just received information from a protected source inside Marvel that points to Yvonne Strahovski being cast in the upcoming Avengers movie as Ms. Marvel.

That would be great and all, and as much as I’d like to see Ms. Marvel on the big screen along side the Avengers, there’s a little voice in the back of my head concerned about a bloated cast. Putting together an ensamble cast for the Avengers is a big task, and so far Mavel has done everything right. We have two movies establishing the character of Tony Stark/Iron Man and Bruce Banner/The Hulk, and we have movies establishing Thor and Captain America coming out this year. Using the Avengers movie to introduce a main character (or maybe two) such as Hawkeye is fine because fans want to see something new brought to the table as well, but the last thing we want is a bloated roster that takes away focus from the established characters. The problem is you start introducing a huge Avengers line-up there’s going to be a need for some character establishment and if you need to do that for more than one or two anscillary characters this film could end up losing focus.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of Chuck, and Strahovski would more than do justice to Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel, but I’d rather not see an Avengers movie that has to focus on introducing a handful of new characters into this Marvel movie universe, I wouldn’t mind a few cameos to potentially kick off some other stand-alone character movies to perhaps join up with the Avengers in a sequel, but I think it may be best for this Avengers movie to get too ahead of itself in introducing a bunch of new heroes.

I have all the faith in the world in Joss Whedon and whatever it is he plans to do with the Avengers movie, and if he feels there’s a place for Ms. Marvel and/or other heroes to be introduced in this film, then I trust it’ll make the movie better. There’s just that cautious optimism in me that hopes the writers and directors don’t feel too obligated to include five new Marvel heroes into this movie when one or two would do just fine.

For now, this story is filed under the Rumor category – with a capital ‘R’. This could just be some jokester trying to get the hopes of a lot of fanboys up.

So what do all of you Marvel fans think? Do you want to see Ms. Marvel make an appearance in The Avengers? Any concerns that this cast could end up “too large”? Sound off in the comments below!

Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams have teamed up to bring us a movie that until recently was a total mystery. The initial trailer showed us a train de-railing and monster escaping from one of the compartments. This lead to our local robots scratching our heads and saying….it could be good.. It’s J.J. Abrams… but what is it?  This new trailer shows more of the town and the story, and even reveals a bit of the reasoning for its titling. The Hero Complex Blog at the L.A. Times has an interview with Abrams where he reveals more exact information about the movie. When discussing the title he explains:

“Super 8″ takes its name from the Eastman Kodak film format that became a sensation with amateur movie-makers in the late 1960s and represented a rite of passage for several generations of aspiring directors, among them Spielberg and Abrams. The Paramount Pictures release is set in Ohio in 1979 and introduces a troupe of six youngsters who are using a Super 8 camera to make their own zombie movie. One fateful night, their project takes them to a lonely stretch of rural railroad tracks and, as the camera rolls, calamity strikes — a truck collides with an oncoming locomotive and a hellacious derailment fills the night with screaming metal and raining fire. Then something emerges from the wreckage, something decidedly inhuman.

This trailer has me foaming at the mouth, or jaw servo… or… well I guess that’s just oil, the point is I’m excited. This bot will be in line on June 10. It’s right up my alley! Young kids making a zombie film?!  Sold!  Trailer Below

Last week we shared that after Samuel L. Jackson mentioned he was getting a faithful side-kick for the Avengers movie – and other Marvel films going forward – there was a rumored “short-list” of actresses up for the part, along with plenty of speculation as to who this character may be.

Well, according to Deadline, Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) has been cast for the part of Nick Fury’s side-kick and that character is Agent Maria Hill. As with any of this type of stuff, nothing is official until someone from either camp makes an official statment about it.

I’m not so surprised by the character choice as I am by the casting choice. Not that I don’t think Smulders can handle the role, in fact I’m sure she’ll do just fine, but it’s not often we see an established sitcom star like this beat out other contenders! So, as much as I would have loved to see Baccarin in the role (she’s already got the short hair!), it looks like Cobie Smulders will be playing the part of Agent Maria Hill. Now the question is, what type of Maria Hill will we get? Will there be some drama about her trying to undermind Nick Fury in order to work her way to the top? Or will she just be a side-kick type character that does little more than serve as Fury’s right-hand woman? Obviously we will have to wait and see!

Production on The Avengers starts in April and is slated for a May 2012 release!

Update: Variety is reporting that this casting has been confirmed and that Cobie Smulders will in fact portray Agent Maria Hill in The Avengers!