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.

Columbia Pictures has released a new trailer for director Roland Emmerich’s White House Down.  The story follows a rejected Secret Service applicant (Channing Tatum) who must save the President (Jamie Foxx) when a heavily-armed paramilitary group takes over the White House.  While the first teaser trailer played up the severity of the situation, this full trailer shows that the film has a much lighter tone than we initially thought.  It looks to be along the lines of a buddy cop movie, only in this case one half of the team is the President of the United States.  As for comparisons to Olympus Has Fallen, whereas the Gerard Butler-fronted actioner was all doom and gloom (and a heavy amount of “dumb”), this new trailer for White House Down makes Emmerich’s take on the same premise look like a whole lot of fun.

Also starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, Jake Weber, Lance Reddick and Jason Clarke, White House Down opens on June 28th.  Hit the jump to check out the new trailer, and click here to catch up on Steve’s set visit coverage.

A couple months ago, Beasts of the Southern Wild star Quvenzhané Wallis was tapped to star in the remake of Annie.  For those unfamiliar with the musical (or the comic strip on which it was based), Annie centers on a poor orphan who is adopted by Daddy Warbucks, a wealthy benefactor.  According to Heat Vision, Jamie Foxx is in talks to play “Benjamin Stacks”, who is “a variation of the Daddy Warbucks personage” and in case you couldn’t figure it out, his name comes from stacks of $100 bills.  While I understand that it’s appropriately updated, I couldn’t help but hear a needle-scratch when I read that name simply because of how corny it sounds.  Hopefully, it works better in the context of the movie and the tone director Will Gluck and producers Will Smith and Jay-Z are going for.

Foxx is currently filming on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and is developing a horror series for SyFy.  He’ll be seen later this summer in the action flick White House Down.  Annie is eyeing a fall production start for a 2014 release.

The deluge of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 set photos continues.  Last week, we got our first official look at Jamie Foxx in his non-Electro form, and these unofficial set photos provide more shots of the antagonist and his atrocious hairstyle.  I’ll caution that these set photos are moving us closer to understanding the character’s arc and his relationship to Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield), so spoiler-phobes should consider themselves warned.  Director Marc Webb has also released a couple of innocuous set photos, and we’ve thrown those in as well.

Hit the jump to check out the set photos.  The film also stars Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Shailene Woodley, Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones, Chris Cooper, and Sally Field.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens in 3D on May 2, 2014. [Update: We've added behind-the-scenes video]

With production currently underway in New York on director Marc Webb’s sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, we’ve seen our fair share of grainy set photos.  We hadn’t really gotten a look at anything super revealing, but then last week images surfaced of a very different looking Jamie Foxx as the pic’s villain Electro.  The actor was covered head to toe in blue body paint and was sporting some luminous markings on his skin, making for a rather unique take on the comics character.  Now that those images are out there, Webb has decided to share some official images of the actor in character as well as our first look at Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn.

Hit the jump for more, including the images.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens in 3D on May 2, 2014.

Yesterday, we got our first look at Jamie Foxx as a very blue Electro in Marc Webb‘s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  Today, more set photos have surfaced to show the villain wearing a parka, and it could be part of the costume since the set photos also show co-stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in winter coats.  It’s also possible that he’s wearing it to cover up his costume to prevent it from being seen in leaked set photos such as these.

Hit the jump to check out the set photos.  The film also stars Dane DeHaan, Shailene Woodley, Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones, Chris Cooper, and Sally Field.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens in 3D on May 2, 2014.

Jamie Foxx blue himself.  Set photos of Foxx as The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s villainous Electro have leaked online, and they are somewhat surprising.  Foxx commented on the look of his character back in December saying that the costume would be black, and the filmmakers wanted “to try new things, like a liquid rubber and things like that, and there are all these bolts and stuff in my arms when they are hanging me upside down and trying to figure out what happened.”  That still didn’t prepare us for the look of his clearly mutated character.  The scene appears to take place before Electro gets his full costume, but the hoodie looks like it has tracking dots to add special effects in post production.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Shailene Woodley, Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones, Chris Cooper, and Sally Field.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens in 3D on May 2, 2014.

Syfy has just unveiled that Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and his production company Foxxhole are bringing a high-profile horror anthology series to the small screen later this year.  In fact, Foxx is doing just about everything: he plans to executive produce, write and direct the series’ five episodes, which are set to debut in the fall during Syfy’s month-long celebration of all things Halloween.

The as of yet unnamed series will riff off of classics such as Tales from the Crypt and The Twilight Zone, focusing on creepy tales of woe for those engage in bad behavior (as Bela Lugosi would say, “Beware … beware!”.  Hit the jump for more on the series.

Director David Yates—who helmed the final four Harry Potter films—is having a bit of trouble getting a post-Potter project off the ground.  He was initially attached to direct the small-scale drama Your Voice in My Head with Emma Watson and Stanley Tucci attached to star, but was subsequently forced to drop out of the director’s chair for personal reasons.  After briefly flirting with a large-scale adaptation of The Stand, Yates then moved on to a reimagining of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan as his next project.

The filmmaker has been developing Tarzan since last summer and recently set True Blood star Alexander Skarsgard as his lead.  We learned last month that Jessica Chastain was circling the Jane role, but now Warner Bros. is putting the brakes on the project due to budget concerns.  Hit the jump for much more.

The first trailer for director Roland Emmerich’s presidential thriller White House Down has been released.  While the trailer (and plot) have lots of elements in common with Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen, our first introduction to White House Down comes through the lens of various news outlets reporting an attack on Washington, D.C. rather than centering on the heroic lead; we don’t even seen Channing Tatum until about half-way through.  Emmerich’s usual flare for the dramatic is evident, but then he goes and does something interesting by allowing silence to fill a good portion of the trailer.  It also looks like the danger will come not from an outside enemy, but from within.  There are moments that appear to be more Die Hard in nature (and a few glimpses that could be considered spoilers), but there’s just enough here to warrant some interest even after a movie with the exact same plot was just released.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Jason Clarke, Jake Weber, Lance Reddick and Joey King.  White House Down opens on June 28th, 2013.

Aaanndd… they’re back!  Made at around $35 million and grossing north of $209 million worldwide, it’s no joke calling Seth Gordon‘s 2011 workplace comedy Horrible Bosses a hit.  Starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudikis as down-trodden buds who plot to kill their maniacal bosses, studio New Line justifiably wanted a sequel despite the premise feeling somewhat sequel proof.  Well, when there’s a will, there’s a way as the principal cast will return for Horrible Bosses 2.  Though when that will involves hefty sums of money for the film’s stars, sometimes everyone involved has to wait.  And now, after more than a half a year of negotiations things look bright for more “boss-bashing.”  Hit the jump for more.

Twentieth Century Fox has announced their full voice cast list for Rio 2, the sequel to writer/director Carlos Saldanha’s 2011 film.  Saldanha returns for the sequel, as do Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Jamie Foxx and wil.i.am, who will each reprise their roles as the Brazilian birds, along with Rodrigo Santoro who will once again be voicing Tulio.  New additions to the cast include Andy Garcia, Kristin Chenoweth, singer Bruno Mars, NBC Today Show news anchor and South American native, Natalie Morales and Grammy-winner Janelle Monáe, who will provide original music for the film and also voice a character.  Heat Vision also reports that Rio 2 will incorporate Rio’s 2014 FIFA World Cup into its plot.  The animated sequel opens April 14, 2014.

As Sunday’s 85th Annual Academy Awards loom closer, we’ve using this week as an opportunity to take a look back at how the past year’s Oscar race has played out in a number of categories.  We first took a look at the ebbs and flows in the Best Supporting Actor category, and then we chronicled the road that lead us to the Best Supporting Actress nominees.  Today we’re examining the Best Actor race, which actually seemed to be all wrapped up months before the nominees were even announced.  Hit the jump to read on.

Earlier today, we reported that Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 began production in New York.  Now, we have the full press release that reveals the first official synopsis and the principal cast.  We knew that Paul Giamatti was in talks to join the production and can confirm that now, but his role has yet to be specified.  Another new name that joins the sequel’s cast is Colm Feore (Thor), but his role is also unspecified (Norman Osborn?).  Hit the jump to check out the synopsis and read the press release.

While Jamie Foxx plays the title character in Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio steals the show as the villainous plantation runner and slave owner, Calvin Candie.  This new featurette shows director Quentin Tarantino and cast members Foxx, Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson commenting on the amazing performance by DiCaprio.  It interesting to see how the veteran actor approached the difficult subject matter and to hear the actors talk about his transformation.  The featurette also highlights some footage from the movie, so if you haven’t seen Django Unchained yet, this may have a few spoilers for you.  Otherwise, hit the jump to watch the video.