Marvel makes it look easy. That’s what kept running through my head while watching Iron Man 3 Thursday night. Pumping out one solid standalone film after another with the overall goal of creating a whole that is equally, if not more, entertaining than its formidable parts can’t be that easy. And yet, Marvel makes it seem that way. In a medium outside of their native reach no less. Granted, Iron Man 3 isn’t without its flaws. But it doesn’t have to be. It succeeds on the exact level it’s meant to: in moving both the individual character and universal stories ahead in an entertaining and logical way. If “Marvel makes it looks easy” was my primary takeaway from IM3, “DC has their work cut out for them” isn’t far behind.

But enough Marvel love for one opening paragraph. In this week’s Top 5 we’ve got Iron Man 3 interviews with director Shane Black and more, a video blog review for Star Trek Into Darkness, the Pacific Rim trailer from WonderCon, Fox’s courting of Michael B. Jordan the the role of Human Torch in its upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, and the new trailer for Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx‘s White House Down. A brief recap and link to each is a “Continue Reading” click away.

The casting machine is starting to gear up for Josh Trank‘s upcoming reboot of Fantastic Four.  Yesterday, we reported that Girls star Allison Williams was on the short list to presumably play Sue Storm/Invisible Woman in the film.  Today, we have even more exciting Fantastic Four news as The Wrap is reporting that Michael B. Jordan is being considered for the role of Johnny Storm/Human Torch.  Jordan previously played a super-powered individual in Trank’s Chronicle, and the actor has received rave notices for his heartbreaking performance in the award-winning film, Fruitvale (now titled “Fruitvale Station“).

Hit the jump for more. Fantastic Four is set to open on March 6, 2015.

Girls star Allison Williams is making the move into features.  Williams, who plays Marnie on the polarizing HBO comedy series, has booked a starring role in an upcoming feature film and has landed on the short list for a highly anticipated superhero reboot.  Deadline reports that Williams will topline the Romeo & Juliet reimagining Rosaline, which tells the classic Shakespeare story from the point of view of Rosaline, Romeo’s jilted ex-lover.  Michael Sucsy (Grey Gardens) is directing the period pic from a script by (500) Days of Summer scribes Scott Neustader and Michael H. Weber.

The Shawn Levy-produced project was previously set up early last year with True Blood star Deborah Ann Woll in talks to play Rosaline alongside Dave Franco and Lily Collins as Romeo and Juliet, but that version of the film did not move forward.  There’s no word on whether Franco and Collins are still attached, but the project is said to be mobilizing at 20th Century Fox.  Hit the jump for news concerning Williams possibly starring in the Fantastic Four reboot.

20th Century Fox is doing a bit of polishing on their Fantastic Four reboot script.  Jeremy Slater was tapped to pen the redo last summer shortly after Josh Trank (Chronicle) signed on to direct, and with a March 2015 release date looming, the studio is ready to start heading towards production.  Just the other day we learned that X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn is joining the project as producer, and now word comes that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer author/screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith has done some script work on the film.  Hit the jump for more.

Though Matthew Vaughn was previously set to direct the X-Men: First Class sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past only to step down and let Bryan Singer take the helm instead, it looks like he might be involved with another upcoming 20th Century Fox superhero property.  Vaughn remains a producer on Days of Future Past, and now proverbial Chatty Cathy Mark Millar has revealed that Vaughn will also be producing Fox’s upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, which will be directed by Chronicle helmer Josh Trank.  Hit the jump for more.

As we look forward to a number of superhero films hitting theaters this year, there’s also plenty by way of costumed characters heading our way in 2014 and 2015 as well.  One such anticipated property is 20th Century Fox’s reboot of Fantastic Four.  The studio tapped Chronicle director Josh Trank to take the helm, and the project was recently given a March 2015 release date.  As comics guru Mark Millar was just hired on at Fox as their creative consultant on all things Marvel, the talkative creative has been privy to all the in-the-works projects, including Fantastic Four.  Now Millar has spoken up a bit about the reboot, teasing what fans can expect from Trank’s iteration of the characters.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Stan Lee, arguably the greatest single contributor to comic book movies, is celebrating his 90th birthday today.  Although most of Lee’s executive producer credits on feature films have come within the last decade or so, he’s been in the TV and movie business since the late 80s.  Oh and he dabbled in comics for a little while too.  Lee boasts co-creator status on the likes of Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor, Daredevil and many others.  As a figurehead, Lee led the transformation from Marvel Comics into the multimedia conglomerate it is today.  So send him a birthday wish over @TheRealStanLee and hit the jump to check out all of his cameos in Marvel movies over the years. 

If all goes according to plan, 2015 will be one ridiculous year for movies.  Currently, The Avengers 2, Justice League, Ant-Man, Star Wars: Episode VII, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 are all tentatively slated for 2015 release dates.  Now Fox is throwing one more highly anticipated title into the pile, as their Fantastic Four reboot now has a March 6, 2015 release date.  Titled The Fantastic Four, the film has Chronicle director Josh Trank at the helm and Jeremy Slater penning the screenplay.  Plot details are practically non-existent at the moment, but with two promising gents creatively spearheading the project, there’s certainly hope for a fun take on the comic book property that will help us all put Tim Story‘s overly cheesy films out of our memory for good.

Additionally, Fox has announced that a number of their upcoming films will be post-converted to 3D.  Hit the jump for more.

Mark Millar has been the source of an abundant amount of (fairly inaccurate) information regarding his comics properties and feature film adaptations over the years, and now he’s set to formally consult on 20th Century Fox’s Marvel properties.  The studio announced today that the Kick-Ass creator will serve as a creative consultant on Fox’s upcoming projects based on Marvel Comics properties.

Fox owns the rights to a number of Marvel characters, and Millar has some experience with the comics outlet having written books like The Ultimates, Civil War, and Wolverine: Old Man Logan.  He also wrote the comics Kick-Ass and Wanted, both of which were adapted for the film medium.  Hit the jump for more regarding Millar’s duties at Fox.

Yesterday, we reported on the interesting possibility of Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox possibly trading comic book characters for the benefit of both studios.  In short, Fox’s rights to Daredevil are set to expire on October 10th unless the movie goes into production before then (which is highly unlikely to happen).  Marvel would extend Fox’s rights to the character, if Fox allowed Marvel to use Galactus and Silver Surfer from the Fantastic Four universe.  It would be a neat trade, and hopefully open the door for Marvel being able to use some of the characters they licensed off before the studio could develop movies independently.

However, Deadline is now reporting that this trade is far from a reality.  Hit the jump for more.

With the rights to Daredevil set to revert to Marvel on October 10th, 20th Century Fox is anxious to start production on a reboot.  With director David Slade having exited, Fox is now looking at Joe Carnahan (The Grey) to helm.  While solidifying a director is a step in the right direction, the deadline still looms.  Luckily, Fox has been in talks with Marvel for a character swap of sorts, an arrangement that, if both studios agree, could keep the “Frank Miller-esque, hardcore 70s thriller” version of Daredevil at Fox while bringing some big players back to Marvel.  Hit the jump to find out who.

Hot on the heels of the news that Fox’s planned reboot of the Fantastic Four will be helmed by Chronicle director, Josh Trank, the studio has tapped Jeremy Slater to pen the project.  The first family of Marvel that features the Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch and the Thing previously appeared in two movies, 2005′s Fantastic Four and the sequel, 2007′s Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Neither of those properties were particularly good and didn’t make a dent in the same way that other Marvel or DC properties have in recent years.  Attaching the director for the surprise superhero hit, Chronicle and now Slater, who has a Lovecraftian spec script for Tape 4 set up at Lionsgate, may go a long way in giving the remake some geek cred.  Hit the jump for more on Fantastic Four.

Fox has moved a step forward on one superhero franchise and a step back on another.  First up, Deadline confirms that Josh Trank (Chronicle) will direct the reboot of Fantastic Four.  The studio is trying to get all of its superhero franchises back up and running, but right now X-Men is the only one with any gas.  The Wolverine is due to start filming next month, and the sequel to X-Men: First Class will shoot in January once Jennifer Lawrence has wrapped on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  Progress on Fantastic Four could mean that the studio has at least one new superhero movie every year.

However, the studio may not have much time left for Daredevil.  Hit the jump for more.

Steve sat down with 20th Century Fox CEO recently at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and we’ve been bringing you highlights from their wide-ranging conversation.  We already shared what Rothman had to say about a New Mutants movie and the rating for Prometheus, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, and now we wanted to share the CEO’s updates on a few highly anticipated Fox properties.  Rothman talked about the status of the studio’s Fantastic Four reboot, Daredevil, and a sequel to this year’s hit superhero pic Chronicle.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

On the surface, it may be easy to dismiss Josh Trank’s debut Chronicle as little more than a get-rich-quick mishmash of the two most popular genres of the moment (superhero & found footage flicks); but underneath it’s admittedly franchise friendly exterior, Chronicle seems as fatigued with the inundation of shaky cams and male (always male) heroics as there are films prescribed to the genres. Many critics have bemoaned the use of the found footage conceit in Chronicle, complaining that the movie could exist without and would be better if played “straight”, but these reviewers seem to miss that their objections are exactly the point (the camera being rendered moot about midway through as a meta-textual dismissal of the entire genre). When the picture climaxes literally with a cacophony of cameras and multi-POVs, it’s as if Trank’s putting the entirety of “recorded” films on notice. Just because you shake the camera or shoot a bunch of footage out of focus or chop people’s heads out of frame, doesn’t make your film more “realistic” or a descendent of Cinema Verite; all it means (Chronicle and by proxy Trank implies) – is that you’re a really shitty cinematographer.

In the following interview, director Josh Trank discusses Chronicle’s variations from the typical found footage film, rejects Nietzschean “Superman” philosophy and talks about those pesky Fantastic Four rumors.  Hit the jump to watch.