James Gunn Shares Yondu Concept Art on Instagram

As we know, James Gunn is a very fan-centric director. He is a comic book fan himself, so treats his films with the respect you’d expect from someone with a great love of the stimulus material. He also spends a lot of time on social media, and makes an effort to share little Easter eggs with the fans, engaging with them in the comments section. This is awesome, because it draws the audience in and gives them an investment in the movie well before it’s released. It also gives me a lot of James Gunn stuff to write about, which is no bad thing.

This week, Gunn treated his Instagram fans to early concept art for Yondu:

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Sweet early concept art for #Yondu in #GotG by Andrew Kim featuring a fantastic vision of @michael_rooker's abs.

A post shared by James Gunn (@jamesgunn) on Sep 13, 2016 at 10:43am PDT

In the artwork, Michael Rooker‘s space outlaw has a different image – something more Egyptian than intergalactic. He also has a red Mohawk (more in keeping with comic book Yondu than the one we came to love in the movie); face gills; and a fancy eye patch. The artist (Andrew Kim) also showed the character wearing a lot of heavy and ornate armour/jewellery (I think it looks like costume jewellery but my other half insists it’s armour!)

One fan asked Gunn why he doesn’t stick to the concept art, but the director advised that he does – just different concept art. He explained that while the picture is beautiful, the costuming was impractical and not the concept he had for movie Yondu.

Knowing how GotG turned out, I think the Egyptian (almost Apocalypse-esque) god figure in the artwork would have jarred massively with the cool crew of the Alyssa Milano. Thanks for sharing James, and I think you made the right choice!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is due for release in the United Kingdom on April 28 and in USA on May 5

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Agents of Shield Season 4: First ‘Sneak Peek’ Clip Released

Hot on the trail of releasing character portraits and promos, ABC has now released the first sneak peak at the Season 4 premiere of ‘Agents of Shield’. I swear they waited until I had finished my other piece before doing so, but it’s nonetheless exciting.

The clip sees Agent May pull back Coulson and Mack from field duty in order to deliver some bad news. It seems horribly mangled bodies have been popping up everywhere, and with Daisy now viewed as the outlaw Quake, all fingers are pointing in her direction. Whilst it’s most likely the work of Ghost Rider, May seems to have lost faith in Daisy’s capacity to do good and has no trouble believing it was her.

The scene worked to set up what will likely be some major storylines running through the season. Comments about the new Director seemed to be of the negative variety, whilst May’s new attitude towards Daisy will no doubt cause some strife later on. Offhand comments about the Watchdogs suggest they might have a part to play, and it looks like Daisy is hunting for Ghost Rider. Question is, will she ultimately come around to his way of thinking, or will she rejoin her friends at Shield?

‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.

Agents of Shield Season 4: Character Portraits and New Promo

Only 4 days to go now until the Season 4 premiere of ‘Agents of Shield’ and the promotional push keeps moving forward. Today we were treated to a full cast photo, as well as official character portraits for all the main members of the cast, including John Hannah as Dr Radcliffe and Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Yo-Yo, hopefully hinting at larger roles for the two going forward.

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In addition to this a new promo has been released, giving us a few brief but awesome glimpses at the Ghost Rider’s ride, accompanied by a voiceover of him. Things are heating up now with the premiere just days away, so you all best get ready for vengeance to come.

‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.

Kurt Russell Teases Fans “GotG2 Will Be Complex”

Earlier this week, Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2’s leading man Chris Pratt delighted fans by teasing that it would be “the biggest spectacle movie of all time.” (That’s a big claim, fella. I know at least one Twitter user who will have 140 characters for you if it’s not…) Veteran star Kurt Russell has followed hot on his heels, saying how good he thought the film was going to be.

Speaking to Collider at the Toronto International Film Festival, he admitted that he’d been very impressed with the footage director James Gunn shared at San Diego Comic-Con. “I was really impressed with it, really impressed with it.” he said (you see, this is good journalism… I worked out he was impressed from that alone!) “I mean, believe me, from knowing the script, to see that and what he did with that sequence, I’m excited to see the movie. I think it’s going to be really good.”

Russell said the crew felt they’d found their feet with this second film – now the characters had developed they could really have fun with it. “They really knew what they were doing and the story itself was strong” he explained.

He also teased that the story would be perhaps more complex that other comic adaptations, as it is concerned with parental/human issues. Yeah, we knew Star Lord had daddy issues, and they’re going to be front and centre for GOTG2! “It’s a very complex story, and they really get into it.” Kurt Russell told Collider, “This is going to be one of the more — probably for Marvel, it’s more connected to human issues, family issues, parental issues, and issues that sons and daughters have with their mums and dads and their family tree, where they come from.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is due for release in the United Kingdom on April 28 and in USA on May 5

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Agents of Shield Season 4: Extended Promo Released

After ABC released a short teaser for the upcoming Season 4 premiere of ‘Agents of Shield’ the other day, fans were screaming for more. Months of waiting and anticipation boiled down to a 15 second promo. Surely this couldn’t be all they had for us? As it turns out, no it wasn’t, however I think any hopes of a full season trailer have been dashed by this point. Instead, ABC opted to release a slightly longer promo for the episode.

Whilst it doesn’t show us much new footage, we do get glimpses of a few more of the main cast members. Much of the promotion so far for the premiere has singled out Daisy, Mack, May and Ghost Rider as being the principle players in the episode, however we saw snippets of Coulson, Fitz and Simmons within the extended promo, so you can be sure they’ll be there in some capacity too.

The most exciting part about the promo however was that we got to hear Robbie Reyes speak for the first time, uttering a rather ominous response to Daisy’s statement that he doesn’t get to decide who dies “I’m not the one who decides.”  It seems then that he views Ghost Rider as separate from himself, so it will be interesting to see if he gets any personality changes when he transforms, in addition to the whole skinless flaming body thing.

‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.

Comic Books Currently Being Adapted To TV​

With the box office juggernaut that Marvel has become in recent years, Hollywood is taking notice of comic book properties and are quickly trying to buy the movie and television rights to them. You can say Marvel opened Hollywood’s eyes, but another fair point is that the best content for film and TV adaptation is comic book stories, as Hollywood has failed to produce little original quality movies the past decade.

With an industry that seems only to produce sequels, reboots and remakes many of which nobody asked for, comics might be the only thing that can save the film industry and non-comic book based indie films.

Comic fans can find this recent interest in their favourite comic books being adapted to another medium both exciting and scary. Not every property that gets adapted is going to be accepted by fans and the general public. It does, however, have the potential to bring in new comic readers and to challenge the film and television industry to new ways of storytelling.

The Following is just a handful of comic book properties in no particular order that is currently being adapted. They are comics I’m excited or interested in seeing get a Hollywood adaptation.

Essex County by Jeff Lemire

First Generation Films will be producing a television series interpretation for the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Company).While I have not read Essex’s County yet, I’m a fan of Jeff Lemire‘s writing and always want to support a fellow Canadain.

Sinatoro by Grant Morrison &  Vanesa R. Del Rey

 Chris and Paul Weitz and Universal Television are working with Grant Morrison on the TV series adaptation of his Black Mask Studios comic that has yet to be released. Adam Armus and Kay Foster, co-creators of the NBC drama American Odyssey, are writing the script with Grant. The show has not yet been picked up by a network or streaming service. Anything involving Grant Morrison is worth checking out. His writing is always entertaining and takes you on a crazy ride a lot of the times; I expect the show to do the same.

 

The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson 

 

The same creative team behind Garth Ennis‘s Preacher adaptation for AMC of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Neal Moritz are also doing The Boys TV series. The series is set to air on Cinemax. Once again another title I have yet to read. As a comic fan and reviewer, I have a never ending list of comics to read, and it grows weekly. If you have ever read, Preacher or Garth’s Punisher run you know you’re in for some excellent action-packed storytelling.

Deadly Class by Rick Remender and Wes Craig

The Deadly Class TV series announced this past summer at SDCC here is my original article on it and a preview of Rick Remender’s new comic out on September 21st, 2016 Seven to Eternity (no reported adaptation for this property)  Deadly Class TV Series

Ronin by Frank Miller

Syfy picked up the rights to Ronin back in 2014. Production and news have been slow and minimal. Hopefully, we will see it in 2017. It’s Frank Miller I don’t think I need to say anything else.

Those are just a few of the dozens of comic properties in the works for TV translation. It’s an exciting time for comic adaptions lets hope they all turn out as great as their source material.

Agents Of Shield Season 4: Official Poster Released

We are just one week away now from the Season 4 premiere of Marvel’s ‘Agent of Shield’ and the reveals keep on rolling in. The latest is the release of the official poster for Season 4.

The poster contains all the principal cast members, as well as the ominously fiery form of Ghost Rider hovering above them all. It’s not long now before we discover what havoc he will wreak for our Agents, and I for one am very excited to see it all play out.

In light of the Sokovia Accords, and with Hydra obliterated, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been legitimized again and no longer needs to operate in the shadows. Since the world presumes that Coulson is dead, the organization needed a new Director to be the face of the organization. Coulson finds himself back in the role as an agent and teamed with Mack, and together they are tasked with tracking down and confirming the presence of Enhanced people, aka Inhumans. They have been trying to track down and capture Daisy, aka Quake, who has gone rogue in an attempt to atone for sins from the past. But with the world believing that Daisy is a dangerous outlaw who has taken down banks and bridges, the new Director has no qualms about taking her down for good. Agent May is tasked with training specialist strike teams, and Fitz and Simmons have taken a big step forward in their relationship. But with Simmons’ new promotion as Special Advisor to the Director in Science and Technology, Fitz, as well as her former team members, finds it hard to confide in or trust her since she’s now the Director’s confidant.

 ‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.

Agents of Shield Season 4: A Fiery First Look At Ghost Rider

The news is coming thick and fast now for ‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4, with the latest piece being our first proper look at Ghost Rider (Gabriel Luna), and it is AWESOME!

Yahoo TV has our first look at the hellraising antihero bringing the first instance of mysticism to the MCU. As well as the blazing body parts, Ghost Rider will be proud owner of a flaming 1969 Dodge Charger. In a world where traffic’s already a pain, driving a speeding inferno around the streets seems plain rude.

Ghost Rider is the most notable exclusive character to ever appear on the show. Whilst the likes of Nick Fury and Maria Hill have made appearances, the biggest character to be introduced exclusively to the show is likely Daisy Johnson, and she was around two and a half seasons before we actually knew who she was.

Still, if this doesn’t bring the new viewers the show is looking for then I don’t know what will. According to Chloe Bennett (Daisy Johnson) the show isn’t going to shy away from the unique issues Ghost Rider brings.

“If anyone’s familiar with the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider, they know that the show will have to deal with issues of vengeance, penance, the line between good and evil, and who deserves to die. These massive themes are being threaded throughout our season.”

With the later timeslot also being a factor, this could end up being one of the most exciting seasons of the show yet!

‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.

Charlie Cox “Excited” for Iron Fist Collaboration

There are few things that make me want to drop everything, lock the doors and power through a Netflix boxset in a weekend – the Marvel series fall in to that category. While fans (such as myself) are eagerly counting down the days until Luke Cage hits the screens (30th September – you’re going to want to clear your schedule!), Charlie Cox has been telling fans what he’s looking forward to in the future of the Marvel Universe.

Cox, who has just signed on to reprise the role of Matt Murdock in season 3 of Daredevil, will be a key player in the upcoming Defenders series. The highly anticipated show will draw together the characters from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist in one superhero extravaganza. Fans are keen to see how Murdock will interact with last year’s solo project star Jessica Jones, but Cox is more excited to explore his relationship with Iron Fist.

Speaking at the 2016 Toronto Fan Expo recently, Cox told fans, “The relationship I’m most interested in seeing fleshed out is the Matt Murdock and Danny Rand stuff. I just met Finn Jones the other day and I just think in the comics, that’s a great relationship so I want to see how that works out on screen.”

It will be interesting to see how the two martial artist get on with the brute force of Cage and Jones – how will Hell’s Kitchen cope!

Also, Cox dropped some personal future excitement into the mix at the Canadian convention – his girlfriend (producer Samantha Thomas) is due to give birth to a baby Daredevil any day now. Let’s hope that Charlie can get plenty of sleep before The Defenders launches (potentially next year)

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Agents of Shield Season 4: First Promo Released

After months of eager anticipation, ABC has finally released a short promo for the upcoming 4th Season of Marvel’s ‘Agents of Shield’. Clocking in at only 15 seconds, the promo offers fans a tantalising taste at what both Ghost Rider and the show’s new later timeslot will mean going forward. The prevailing opinion? It’s going to be more awesome than ever before.

For seasons 2 and 3 Marvel added a subtitle to the show giving a significant hint at what the Season will generally be about. Season 2 was ‘Inhumans’ as we saw their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whilst Season 3 was entitled ‘Fallen Agent’, referencing the build up in the season’s 2nd half to the death of a beloved agent in the finale. This season they’re going all out with Ghost Rider, and judging by the limited footage we’ve seen so far, that can only be a good thing. The moment we first see Robbie Reyes transform will be a special one indeed.

Overall the trailer didn’t show much, but it has certainly got myself and plenty of others hyped for the show’s return. Hopefully ABC will go all out with the marketing for the show now, as it needs all the viewers it can get to ensure its survival.

 

Marvel’s ‘Agents of Shield’ Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 20th 10pm on ABC.