With so much talk of Iron Men, Thors, Captain Americas, and Avengers, what’s going on with the movie about the costumed man who can shrink and communicate with the insect world that Edgar Wright was going to do? Still going ahead, claims Stan Lee on the Twitter !: Marvel is prepping a movie starring– Ant Man! I had lunch with the cool , young director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and, as you’d imagine, we had fun discussing the tiny hero Phew. (via /Film )

Bryan Singer, seen above desperately trying to convey that he has directed X-Men movies, is directing another X-Men movie. Says First Showing : Bryan Singer announced to reporters and an audience (including the guys at FlickChart) following the live stream of the premiere on Ustream/MySpace that he will indeed be directing the beginning of a new superhero franchise in X-Men: First Class, which confirms what we’ve suspected since October. Well, seeing as X-Men 2 was pretty good (or at least it seemed pretty good when I saw it six years ago), and that X-Men 3 set the bar impossibly low, such that any future X-Men film by anyone other than Brett Ratner is almost guaranteed to be better (please don’t test this theory by giving Ghost Rider and Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnson a shot), it’s hard to be too against this decision. Have to say, pretty boring choice, though. You don’t have to run back to your old, mediocre girlfriend just because you broke-up with your vapid new one, 20th Century Fox. Find someone new, man. You know, an Alfonso Cuarón might look nice on your arm. Just think about it.

Entertainment Tonight, still somehow respected enough by movie studios to be granted exclusives, will be airing new footage from Iron Man 2 tomorrow (or maybe tonight, since this is probably from yesterday?). Here’s a trailer for that, featuring Don Cheadle the Robot shooting things with a giant gun conveniently placed on his shoulder, where it’s most likely to deafen him:

It’s amazing what he’ll build when you give Richie Sambora a few months off tour. ‘Iron Man 2′ Poster Reveal [Apple]

About a month-and-a-half ago, someone named Jessica emailed me (that’s right, a girl emailed me; jealous?) some interesting information: My brother just waited on Sam Raimi and John Malkovich a few days ago while they were in Lafayette, Louisiana. As they were leaving, Raimi raised his tip adding “You just helped me sign John to the next Spiderman.” Just thought you should know. I was intrigued but ultimately disregarded the tip because: 1) I couldn’t think of a good way to really confirm this story. 2) It seemed questionable that the director of a massive film franchise would tell a waiter huge casting news that would obviously be passed around the internet the next day. 3) Since when do I get the kind of big-time tips that imply I’m a real news source capable of competently dispersing information, when I’m obviously not? Well, Jessica, I’m sorry I doubted, because it sounds like you were right. Movieline has confirmed that Malkovich is at the very least in negotiations to join Spider-Man 4 . As his smooth dome should indicate to all Spider-Man fanboys, the actor would be playing Spider-Man’s winged nemesis, The Vulture, which is basically the best casting choice possible for the part (besides Larry David, obviously). Not all good news, though. Movieline also confirmed that Anne Hathaway, as previously rumored, is in talks to join as well–but not in the Black Cat part she was thought to be up for. Instead, she would be playing, ugh, “a brand-new superpowered figure called the Vulturess.” Terrific. As if the actual comics world hasn’t convoluted itself with enough female mirrors of characters, now we’ve got someone else inventing new “that guy, but a lady” characters. Why not throw in a few pointless costume variations and alternate universe explanations for inconsistencies, too, Raimi? In a way, it would be the most accurate comic on screen yet. Anyway, there you have it. And again, sorry, Jessica. I’ll trust any further “your brother, the waiter” stories you might offer.

At first glance, seems like a pretty standard Iron Man 2 poster: Iron Man suit, Tony Stark, that blue nebula Iron Man always seems to exist in. But what if we take Robert Downey Jr.’s intense glare and remove the powerful uniform we’re all so familiar with. Could this image still work as a poster? As it turns out, yes, but as an entirely different movie’s poster:

So Iron Man teams up with Terminator this time? I don’t understand your movies, grandson!!! ‘Iron Man 2′ Poster [Yahoo]

Is gnome-faced actor Jeremy Renner playing Hawkeye in the the Avengers movie, and possibly in a Thor cameo prior to that??? It depends if you like to read into things, says this interview with Empir e: “I met with the Marvel guys, actually, but we didn’t talk about Captain America. But one of the writers, Zak Penn, we’ve become friends over time and he was thinking maybe Hawkeye could be interesting. He sounds like an interesting character.” “If I was a betting man, I would bet that Hawkeye would probably show up in Thor, and then be in The Avengers,” he said. “But do I know for sure? I can’t say. But I’d love for that to happen. It’d be fun.” Marvel’s interest in Renner is further proof that the Californian native has finally punched through, thanks to his wonderful turn in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. But let’s sound a note of caution: it’s by no means confirmed that Renner will actually turn out to be Hawkeye. “No offer has been made,” he confirmed. “I think there’s a little ways from that.” So what do you think about Renner as Hawkeye? Good? Bad? Don’t care? Yeah, I don’t care either. That’s sort of the good thing about casting Hawkeye: no one cares. Yeah, I know you care, internet commenter, but no one else cares. He’s Marvel’s answer to Green Arrow, a guy good at shooting a bow and arrow: another guy good at shooting a bow and arrow. Unless you have an unnatural interest in antiquated targeting skills, you don’t care about Hawkeye. Just a glorified Robin Hood at severe risk to any villain equally good at shooting a gun. That said, I’m immensely concerned with Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man movie, so I empathize with you, caring-about-a-piece-of-shit-superhero Hawkeye fan.

From the new Empire Magazine cover: it’s Iron Man’s new suit! I guess it’s a new suit? I can’t say I really notice a difference. Though, I often don’t notice when my own clothing is partially unbuttoned; horribly stained; missing sleeves; actually a wet sack I’ve punched armholes through; made of the stained, matted human hair I had been using as bedding but slowly evolved to wearing, first as a sort of shawl, later as a full suit; etc. So I’m probably not the best guy to be determining if an outfit has been altered. And it’s not even my duty. It’s each man’s own individual responsibility to determine if there are enough changes in a superhero’s sequel costume to warrant buying a new set of action figures. PS: I’m posting from a plane (hello, future) and my computer battery is rapidly dying. So if you don’t hear from me again today, now you know why. Terrorists.

Kenneth Branagh’s Thor adaptation has added more surprising credibility to its cast. Variety reports Anthony Hopkins has signed on to play Odin, father to Loki (non-biologically) and Thor and king of Asgard, which will mean something if you’re intimately familiar with Norse mythology and/or comic books. To help you understand what powers and abilities Hopkins will possess in the role, I’ve copied a paragraph from the Odin (Marvel Comics) Wikipedia entry’s section on powers and abilities, replacing “Odin” with “Sir Anthony Hopkins.” As King of the Norse Gods, Sir Anthony Hopkins possesses superhuman strength; durability and courtesy of the Golden Apples of Idunn, a greatly extended lifepsan. Sir Anthony Hopkins is capable of manipulating the Sir Anthony Hopkins Force - a source of magical energy - for a number of purposes, including energy projection; creation of ilusions and force fields; levitation; molecular manipulation and teleportation. The character has also used the Sir Anthony Hopkinspower for greater feats such as transporting the entire human race to an alternate dimension; compressing the population of an entire planet into a single being, the Mangog and taking a soul away from the arch-demon Mephisto. This Sir Anthony Hopkins Force sounds pret-ty powerful.