Marvel Hinting Towards 2014 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Film?

By Albert Ching, Source: Newsarmama.com

***This article discusses the mid-credits scene of Avengers, and if you haven’t seen it yet and have managed to avoid spoilers, well, that’s impressive and we don’t want to ruin it for you.**

Nearly a year ago, reports surfaced that Marvel Studios was looking at Guardians of the Galaxy as a potential future movie property. Though it excited fans, it also seemed like ultimately a long shot — it’s a relatively unknown commodity to all except hardcore comic book fans, and one that has only existed since 2008 (since it’s the present-day cosmic team that’s in development, not the 31st century superheroes that have been around sicne 1969). Plus, the last superhero/sci-fi movie was Green Lantern, a major financial and critical disappointment.

Following a few recent developments and the continually escalating success of Avengers, it seems like a Guardians of the Galaxy movie might just happen, potentially as soon as 2014.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige himself mentioned it as a possibility last month at the Avengers press junket, expressing his fondness for the property and listing it among Inhumans, Doctor Strange and the long in-the-works Ant-Man as non-sequel films being considered.

Guillermo Del Toro says Prometheus killed his Mountains of Madness`

By Don Kaye, Source: Blastr.com

Director Guillermo Del Toro has revealed that his personal dream project, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, may finally be dead once and for all. And Ridley Scott killed it.

As previously reported, Del Toro spent 12 years developing a big-screen version of Lovecraft’s classic novella only to see Universal Pictures pull the plug last year after balking at the film’s R-rated horror content and massive $150 million budget. But although Del Toro still held out hope at the time of getting the movie made some day, that hope may now have faded for good.

Peter Jackson strikes back at The Hobbit criticism

By Nathalie Caron, Source: Blastr.com

Last week, Peter Jackson showed 10 minutes of footage from the highly anticipated The Hobbit. What should have been a moment of crowning glory for the director turned into a flurry of criticism regarding the look of the film. So what’s Peter Jackson to do? Why, respond to those criticisms, of course.

During CinemaCon last week, Warner Bros. showed off 10 minutes of footage from The Hobbit. While critics were rather ecstatic about the scenes that were shown, they weren’t happy with the look of the footage — which is apparently more “realistic” in appearance than Jackson’s previous Middle-earth opus, The Lord of the Rings.

‘Avengers’ predicted to have record-setting opening weekend

Entertainment industry insiders already are predicting Marvel’s upcoming “Avengers” film is going to have a huge opening weekend — rivaling the recent blockbuster “The Hunger Games” and maybe even Warner Brothers’ mega-hit “The Dark Knight.”

The Hollywood Reporter states “The Avengers,” which is being released on May 4 in the United States, could open north of $150 million. “The Dark Knight” took in $158.4 million its opening weekend in July 2008, while “The Hunger Games” took in $152.5 million earlier this year.

“The Avengers” is directed by Joss Whedon and will feature a large cast of superheroes, including Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

According to recent tracking figures published by The Hollywood Reporter, total awareness for “The Avengers” is about 85 percent, compared with 76 percent for “The Dark Knight” and 74 percent for “The Hunger Games.”

Grundy’s Web Pick of the Week: Rotten Tomatoes

Movies cost over $10 now. And that’s for 2-D flicks! A Hamilton may be a price that the market can bare, but not my wallet. Opportunity cost dictates that I must choose my films and the Grail Knight dictates that I must “choose wisely.” So wisely I shall choose with Rotten Tomatoes.

Disclaimer: RottenTomatoes.com isn’t exactly an obscure choice for a web pick. Most of you are probably familiar with the most popular movie review aggregation site on the ‘net. But, hey, if Hollywood has given up on being original, so can I.

Justice League: Doom. A Rant.

After watching the new DC animated feature, Justice League: Doom, I find myself bursting with nerd rage. I should make this clear up front that this isn’t going to be a fair and balanced review. This is an outlet for me to express my malcontent. If I step back, turn my brain off and forget all that has come before, Justice League: Doom isn’t that bad…but I can’t turn this pesky brain off!

Spoilers ahead

Doom is a cross between the Mark Waid story Tower of Babel and a generic Legion of Doom tale—as anyone who wants to see this film so close to it’s release date probably already knows. DC has been on a tear of adapting comic runs to animated features lately. I’m not a fan. I would much prefer original stories to rehashing the archives, but they didn’t ask me. Over all, their previous ventures stayed pretty true to the source material. Doom not so much. I’d argue each deviation from the Tower of Babel is a mark against the movie. In fact, I will argue it.

Bond is Back!!

EW is reporting that after the financial wrangling over the fate of MGM led the family that produces the 007 films to halt development of their 23rd installment last year, the project is back on track with plans for a Nov. 9, 2012 release date, MGM confirms to EW.

Daniel Craig will return for his third run as the superspy. What was more in question was whether Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, who had been attached to the movie before it was put on hiatus, would still be participating. Thoughts?

Read the story here