We already know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has no problem departing from the comics when the story demands it.  The trick is appeasing comics fans while still carving out a new world, and I’m absolutely fine with the MCU going in its own direction.  The comics are still the comics, and it doesn’t break my heart if Hank Pym doesn’t invent Ultron in the movies.  What’s important is finding the best way to tell the story and focusing on the bigger picture rather than getting OCD about details from the source material.

I say all of this as a lead-up to Avengers: Age of Ultron origins for new characters Ultron (James Spader) and Vision (Paul Bettany).  Hit the jump to find out how the upcoming sequel will handle them.  The film opens in 3D on May 1, 2015.  [Warning: Spoilers Ahead]

Now that The Expendables franchise is done, Sylvester Stallone is returning to his old, reliable characters.  First up is the Rocky spin-off Creed, which will focus on the grandson (Michael B. Jordan) of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) being mentored by Rocky Balboa.  The movie will mark a big leap for director Ryan Coogler, who previously directed Jordan in the heartbreaking Fruitvale Station, and I’m curious to see how much of the story will belong to Creed and how much goes to Rocky.  Stallone is fairly generous with his co-stars, but he never let anyone forget that while Expendables was a big ensemble, he was the lead.

Stallone recently tweeted that he was headed to Philadelphia to start shooting on Creed, but he also provided a surprising revelation about keeping the Rambo franchise alive with “Last Blood: Rambo“.  Hit the jump for more.

In what might be the most unnecessary poll in recent memory, Fandango conducted a survey to find out the most anticipated film of 2015.  The result: Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  Thanks, common sense.  The other four most anticipated movies were (in order): Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, Fifty Shades of Grey, and Jurassic World.  Fifty Shades is definitely the big surprise on that list, and it makes me wish Fandango had broken down its survey into demographics.  That would actually be informative as opposed to telling me that people are excited about a new Star Wars movie.  The site also ranked actors, rising stars, and family films.

Hit the jump for all the lists, and sound off in the comments about your top five most anticipated movies for 2015.  I’m curious to see how many of you say Star Wars.

You want to know how an Academy Award nominee comes up with the concept for his next movie?  You’ve got to check out what writer-director J.C. Chandor told me about his latest, A Most Violent Year.  The film takes place in New York City in 1981 and stars Oscar Isaac as Abel Morales, the head of Standard Heating Oil.  All Abel wants to do is run a successful, reputable business, but in such corrupt, violent times, that might not be possible.

With A Most Violent Year due for a December 31st limited release, I got the opportunity to sit down with Chandor to discuss how he went about putting this movie together.  I only managed to squeeze two questions into our 10-minute interview, but it was well worth hearing the complete story of how he decided to make A Most Violent Year his All Is Lost follow-up.  Hit the jump to read about that and Chandor’s next project, Deepwater Horizon.

We run a lot of trailers on Collider.  I know because I scrolled through 365 days of them, and on average we run at least one a day.  Trailers are valuable.  The marketplace is incredibly crowded and people need guides.  There are films people can’t wait to see, and trailers can satisfy the itch.  Trailers can also satisfy curiosity (important reminder: we still haven’t seen a single thing from The Fantastic Four).  There are times where I’m worried that fans see a trailer as a goal rather than a means to an end, and mistake marketing for a movie.  Trailers are part of the journey, not the destination.

I’ve collected what I feel are the ten best trailers of the year.  Some have the benefit of still being a mystery, but I’ve tried to keep my appraisal based on the effectiveness of the trailer rather than how well it lines up with the finished feature when it comes to quality or accuracy (i.e. if lines or moments in the trailer appear in the final cut).  Hit the jump for the Top 10 trailers of 2014.

I could watch or listen to Danny Huston do just about anything and, sure enough, he turns up the charisma big time as gossip columnist Dick Nolan in Tim Burton’s Big Eyes.  Dick’s under the impression that he can make folks famous with his work and that’s exactly what Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) is looking for, so the two strike up a partnership of sorts.  But, little does Dick know, Walter doesn’t deserve the attention he’s about to get for those big-eyed waif paintings he claims are his because he didn’t make them; his wife Margaret (Amy Adams) did.

Shortly before Big Eyes’ Christmas Day limited release, I sat down with Huston to talk about his love of Tim Burton’s work, what it was like working with Burton as an actor’s director, his unparalleled narration skills, what’s coming up on American Horror Story: Freak Show and more.  Check it all out in my video interview after the jump.

Yesterday, we got a new Avengers: Age of Ultron image, and now some new marketing has come online with a collection of promo art.  Like the new still, none of these images show new characters Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), or Vision (Paul Bettany), but by the time the film rolls around in five months, I’m sure we’ll have seen more than enough.  In the meantime, we can enjoy new images of the old team along with a couple renderings of Ultron (James Spader).

Hit the jump to check out the new Avengers: Age of Ultron promo images, and click on the respective linksfor Steve’s set visit interview with director Joss Whedon, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo, The film opens in 3D on May 1, 2015, and also stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Stellan Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Don Cheadle.

At this point, it’s clear that some people will never accept another Ghostbusters movie.  The original is a classic and a reboot will always pale in comparison.  And while that may be true, if Sony is hellbent on making another entry in the series, then I suppose an all-female reboot directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) and written by Katie Dipold (The Heat) is a solid option.  Nevertheless, it’s still a difficult challenge, and they’ll have to convert legions of skeptics, which includes people who don’t want another Ghostbusters and those who want another Ghostbusters, but think that an all-female cast is nothing more than a gimmick.

In a recent interview, Feig addressed some concerns and also laid out what he and Dipold are aiming for with their movie.  Hit the jump for more.

You may have noticed that Pixar didn’t release a movie this year.  This is the first time that’s happened since 2005, and it’s due to the fact that the studio instituted a director change on its original 2014 film, The Good Dinosaur, fairly late in the game, resulting in a pretty significant overhaul of the story.  The film will finally hit theaters next fall with co-director Peter Sohn stepping into the director’s chair to tell the story of a dinosaur named Arlo who, after a traumatic event unsettles his family, sets out on a journey with an unlikely companion—a human boy.  The buddy comedy takes place in world in which the dinosaurs never went extinct, and this new piece of concept art offers up a striking tease of the kind of visuals we might expect.

Check out the new The Good Dinosaur concept art and official logo after the jump.  The voice cast includes Lucas Neff, Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris, John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, and Judy Greer.  The Good Dinosaur opens in theaters on November 25, 2015.

In offering a preview of its upcoming 2015 slate, Disney has released a new Avengers: Age of Ultron image from writer/director Joss Whedon’s Marvel sequel.  The image comes from a scene we glimpsed in the trailer in which all of The Avengers (plus a couple of old friends) are seen having a bit of a get-together in Tony Stark’s pad.  It’s all fun and games until an evil robot crashes the party, and this image looks to be the reverse shot of the gang watching James Spader’s Ultron monologue away.  The image is a solid snapshot of the sheer enormity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and this doesn’t even have new additions Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch), plus it offers a closer look at new Age of Ultron character Dr. Cho, played by actress Claudia Kim.

Check out the new Avengers: Age of Ultron image after the jump, and if you missed it be sure and check out Steve’s revealing and candid on-set interview with Whedon.  The film also stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Don Cheadle.  Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in theaters on May 1, 2015.

For the final episode of The Collision for 2014, we’re offering up a triple threat as we talk about Unbroken, Into the Woods, and The Interview.  That’s right: three movies for the price of one podcast that you didn’t pay for.  Briefly, Adam and I disagree about Unbroken, both liked Into the Woods, and then we talk about not only our feelings regarding The Interview as a film, but also the resolution of this bizarre saga surrounding the movie.  As always, we finish up with our recommednations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and the Sony Hack”), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg and @AdamChitwood.

A new Marvel TV series is poised to debut on ABC very soon with the period spy thriller Agent Carter, but 2015 will also see Marvel premiering its first foray into the world of Netflix with Daredevil.  There series boasts Spartacus alum Steven S. DeKnight as showrunner and will introduce the world of Hell’s Kitchen, as Daredevil acts as the first in a series of Marvel Netflix shows that will debut over the next few years (the next being A.K.A. Jessica Jones in 2016).  The premiere season of the Daredevil Netflix show will follow the origins of blind defense attorney/crime fighter Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), and while we don’t have a firm debut date for the show just yet, DeKnight and executive producer Jeph Loeb recently spoke a bit about what fans can expect from the series, including the prevalence of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin and when we’ll see Bullseye.  Read on after the jump.

The Disney XD animated series Star Wars Rebels has been a delightful surprise.  I never got into Clone Wars because I didn’t see the point of spending more time with prequel characters I didn’t like.  But Rebels takes place a few years before Episode IV, and the show is filled with likable characters and smart storytelling.  If you brushed it off because it looked like a cheap, animated cash-in, I highly encourage you to give the show a chance, especially since the mid-season premiere will have a welcome voice.

Hit the jump to watch the new Star Wars Rebels clip, which features the return of Frank Oz as the voice of Yoda, as well as an additional clip and images from the new episode. [minor spoilers ahead]

Last week I landed an exclusive video interview with Weta Digital’s Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Letteri.  During the wide-ranging interview he talked about making The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, working with Peter Jackson, if they’re working on the extended cut, if he’s heard about more deleted scenes from The Lord of the Rings being included in the eventual ultimate Blu-ray box set for all six films (which I’ve heard is being worked on right now), the Avatar sequels, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (says they’re working on a sequence in the film that’s self-contained like the Krypton sequence from Man of Steel), the future of motion-capture technology, what other projects are they’re working on (the Maze Runner sequel, Spectral, Fantastic Four), if they have already started on the next Matt Reeves Apes movie, and so much more.  If you’re curious about movie special effects it’s a must watch interview.