Check out our first look at a handful of promotional posters fo Iron Man 2, Spiderman 4, Captain America, Thor, Avengers and a new animated super-hero spoof titled Oobermind.

The images are courtesy of Aint It Cool News who snapped them around the Dreamworks Licensing Show Booth at the Licensing International Expo 2009 in Las Vegas.  Click on a thumbail to enlarge.

UPDATE 7/6/2009:  It seems Superhero Hype have confirmed the Spiderman 4 poster is definitely a fake.  Lol.

Iron Man 2 will be releaesd May 7, 2010
Oobermind will be released November 5, 2010
Spiderman 4 will be released on May 6, 2011
Thor will be released Jun 17, 2011
The First Avenger: Captain America will be released July 22, 2011
The Avengers will be released May 4, 2012

President of Production at Marvel Studios, Kevin Feirge, has provided an update on the status of both Thor and The Avengers.

“We will probably be having cast announcements in the next month or so on Thor,” he told Empire.

“We’re looking to cast Loki and Odin soon, and the main female role. And we’ll also hopefully have lockdown shortly, gearing towards the beginning of production, which will be early next year. So I think there will be a lot of announcements between now and then.”

“But [Director Kenneth] Branagh’s here, we’re prepping, and he’s put together some spectacular animatics already for our first action scene. We’re digging into the second and third now, and we are just embarking on a rewrite of the draft.”

He then went on to provide an update on The Avengers:

“Zak Penn is already on board The Avengers [as writer] and he’s spending a lot of his time looking into what we’re doing with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, seeing how we’re tying it all together. And he’s beginning to outline the script now – he’ll be doing that over the summer.”

“All of the Marvel movies leading up to The Avengers will be based in our new facility in Manhattan Beach, in LA. There will be location work that will take us out occasionally, but our home base will always be here. ”

Thor will be released in theaters May 20, 2011. 

The Avengers will hit a year later on May 4, 2012.

Source: Empire

Alexander Skarsgard, Josh Hartnett, Natalie Portman to star in Thor?

Rumors abound as to who will be starring in Marvel’s new super-hero movie, Thor, and now a new rumor has joined the list courtesy of Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily.

According to Finke, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta / Star Wars Episodes I, II, & III) is in the running for the lead female role.

It’s just a rumor at this stage, but if the three key rumors turn out to be fact we’ll be seeing Alexander Skarsgard as Thor, Josh Hartnett as Loki, and Natalie Portman as Nurse Jane Foster.

Portman’s role is also a guess of mine, but having grown up reading Thor comics, it was the first thing that came to mind when I heard Portman’s name.  When I consider Portman’s excellent performance in V for Vendetta, I can really see her as the character of Foster.

For those that don’t know, Foster is a character that falls in love with Thor’s alter ago Donald Blake without knowing he is Thor, before she ends up learning the truth.  Thor then grants her immortality.  There’s a long story beyond that point, but let me just say the character of Jane Foster also ends up appearing in The Avengers.

So, I find myself speculating that if this rumor pans out, do we now have the possibility that Natalie Portman will also appear in The Avengers?

Remember, it’s fun speculating, but the involvment of all three actors are, at this stage, just rumors.

Some rumors are worth talking about, and this particular one makes the grade.  Recently Marvel announced the biggest comic movie crossover in history, which of course coincided with major changes to the scheduled release dates for the super-hero movies in question.  Now some details have emerged as to the thinking behind the release date changes that indicate more thinking went into the changes than just the chronological path of the crossover story arc.

Aint it Cool have reported that the release date of The Avengers was delayed with the hopes of opening a window to allow Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau to also direct The Avengers.  Favreau is already on board as Executive Producer and although he has in the past expressed his desire to helm The Avengers his own schedule as been prohibitive.

From Aint it Cool’s inside source:

Avengers is delayed a year because of financing issues but also because the plan is for Favreau to helm it. Everybody here loves the guy and he wants to do it, but it would have been impossible for him to do before the date change given his Iron Man 2 commitments. Also partly the reason why he agreed to do the Stark sequel on such an accelerated schedule was so he could get given first dibs on this. It would still be a punishing schedule for him, so hes not firmly confirmed yet, but he is certainly the presumptive director at this point.

Iron Man starts rehearsals in a few days, which is why the casting is finally coming together so quickly.

There remains nothing official and no guarantee that Favreau will take on The Avengers in any other capacity than as a producer, but at least now the possibility exists where previously it was almost a given he would not get the opportunity.  Let’s hope it pans out.

Marvel have made some major and uber cool announcements:

Iron Man 2 will be releaesd May 7, 2010
Spiderman 4 will be released on May 6, 2011
Thor will be released Jun 17, 2011
The First Avenger: Captain America will be released July 22, 2011
The Avengers will be released May 4, 2012

Whilst there is no change to the release date for Iron Man 2, I’ve included it in the list for a reason.  As part of Marvel’s announcement, the road to the release of The Avengers will be one that follows a continuous story arc.

What does all this mean?  It means the biggest movie crossover in history is on its way.

From Marvel:

Paving the way for the production and release of The Avengers, Marvel announced today an adjusted release pipeline for its self-produced feature film properties that reflects the first time individual super hero characters and story arcs will be inter-woven and culminate in a multi-character motion picture.

A Marvel character-based film will now launch the summer box office season for three years in a row, from 2010 through 2012.

“This new schedule strongly sequences Marvel’s movie debut dates, big screen character introductions and momentum. It maximizes the visibility of our single character-focused films, leading to the highly anticipated release of the multi-character The Avengers film in 2012″, said David Maisel, Chairman, Marvel Studios.

A great day of news for super-hero movie and comic book fans.

Here’s a summary of some of the more interesting sci-fi news of the day.

Virtuality – If you haven’t heard, Fox aren’t happy with Ronald D. Moore’s new sci-fi series pilot.  The story in a nutshell:  Virtuality isn’t mainstream enough and Fox want it dumbed down.  Well, that’s the way I see it without the sugar coating.  Here’s the sugar coated version according to Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment for Fox:  “It [Virtuality] could air as is, and there’s a certain segment of the audience that would flip over it, but it is, I think, right now a little bit too dense.  They shot a two-hour pilot, and I think the storytelling probably would have been served as a one-hour, so they’re going in, and they’re re-cutting, and we’re going to look at it. It’s pretty cool.”   Flip over it?  It’s pretty cool?  There was some doubt as to whether or not the pilot would even see screen time, but after those comments I’d say the butchering that’s been imposed upon Ron Moore is just a delay and not an ending.

Stargate Atlantis – More than 2.02 million viewers tuned in to view the final episode of Stargate Atlantis, making the finale the best performing episode of Atlantis since the finale of the previous season.  Read the rest of this entry »