Sunday, March 15, 2009

Avengers and Thor delayed!

Dammit that sucks! I have no doubt that getting everything together in just the right order for The Avengers is a huge headache, but I'm still disappointed to hear this news. Marvel has announced a revised release schedule for its upcoming properties, and the only film that has stayed squarely where it was, is Iron Man 2. So now here's what we're looking at for a release timeline:

Iron Man 2 - May 7th, 2010
Thor - June 17th, 2011
The First Avenger: Captain America - July 22nd, 2011
The Avengers - May 4th, 2012

So Thor and Avengers have both been pushed back a full year! That's what I call lame. I mean I get that they want to make the movies right, but I'm still disappointed.

In other Marvel news and rumor though there have been a few juicy casting notices out there. Apparently Mickey Rourke has finally signed on as the villain in Iron Man 2. After reports that the studio lowballed him on a paycheck word is that they have come to a much more reasonable figure now and he will be playing a Russian. No word exactly on who he's playing, but as a Russian its probably The Crimson Dynamo. Rumors are also about that Emily Blunt is no longer signed on the the role of Black Widow and it is now being offered to Scarlett Johannson. hmmm... Favreau has said that casting should be confirmed by the end of next week, and that there won't be any major surprises. Good news.

As for Thor news, well as has been mentioned before the word on the street has been lately that director Kenneth Branagh has been looking at Alexander SkarsgÄrd for the title role, but IESB now says that Channing Tatum (aka Duke in the upcoming G.I. Joe film) is also in the running. The really big rumor on the Thor front though is that Josh Hartnett is interested in the role of the villain Loki. This is great news if you ask me, Hartnett would be fantastic as Thor's duplicitous brother. We'll have to see what becomes of this.

As for the Avengers, well over at AICN they're saying that the delay is partly due to financing, but also because Marvel wants Favreau to helm the film, and since hes definitely locked in to Iron Man 2, there wasn't anyway it could've happened before. That at least actually makes sense to me. Since the success of Iron Man, I've no doubt Marvel would love for Favs to take a crack at The Avengers.

So its kind of sad about the delays, but in the end I know I want them to make the best movies possible. If that means waiting one more year, then I guess, so be it. More on all of these as they develop.
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