For all the Tom Hiddleston fans who need another Loki fix, you’re going to have to make due with Thor: The Dark World, because the baddie won’t be making a return in The Avengers 2.  Speaking to Empire on their podcast, writer-director Joss Whedon explained, “Everyone is going to be looking for the Loki-Hulk smash moment and you’ll be looking for [a quim moment]. First of all, imitating what I did before is the surest way to do it not as well. Second of all, Loki’s not there to say those terrible things. Although I do think we should bring the word back, not as an insult, it’s just a nice word.”  Obviously, he’s right—both about the dangers of repeating himself and the quality of the word.  Also, if you want to raise the stakes, it’s best to go with a villain where failure isn’t in his nature.

If you need more Hiddleston in your life, keep an eye out for his upcoming movies Only Lovers Left Alive and Close Enough.  The Avengers 2 opens May 1, 2015.

When Shakespeare meets Joss Whedon for Much Ado About Nothing, the result is a contemporary spin that was shot in just 12 days in his house.  The story of sparring lovers Beatrice (Amy Acker) and Benedick (Alexis Denisof) is a series of comic and tragic events that offer a dark, sexy and, at times, absurd view of the game of love.  The film also stars Clark Gregg, Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz, Sean Maher, Reed Diamond, Tom Lenk and Jillian Morgese.

During this press conference at the film’s press day, co-stars Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion and Clark Gregg joined Joss Whedon to talk about why Much Ado About Nothing out of all of Shakespeare’s plays, the advantages of doing this in black and white, delivering Shakespeare dialogue versus Whedon dialogue, why Shakespeare is relevant to today’s audiences, the rehearsal process, deciding how much of the original text to trim, and what they took away from the experience.  Whedon also talked about going from doing a movie as big as The Avengers before switching gears to do a film as small as Much Ado, getting his dream cast, telling a story where no one dies, and the pressures of doing pop culture TV versus the classics of literature.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Much Ado about Nothing opens today in limited release.]

With a few exceptions, William Shakespeare‘s trips to the big screen have been sumptuous affairs. The plays favor an expansive vision by the director, so we get films like Julie Taymor‘s Titus and Kenneth Branagh‘s Hamlet. But one of the many beautiful things about Shakespeare is how flexible it is in terms of setting. You can set it on a modern battlefield (Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus), in a high school (Tim Blake Nelson‘s Othello adaptation, O), or in the case of Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado about Nothing, in an upper-class home. Whedon’s Much Ado is a bold challenge for the director not because his adaptation lacks fancy costumes or production design, but because he removes two of his greatest assets: his dialogue and a budget. Of course, nothing Whedon (or anyone else) could write would surpass the Bard, but it’s an entertaining exercise seeing the director speak only in a visual language, and then having his budget limit what visuals he has available. With no money and another author’s work, Whedon finds his film’s strength in the superb cast, clever staging, and an expert understanding of dialogue.

Marvel’s The Avengers was a success on many levels.  Not only did the film rake in over $1.5 billion at the box office worldwide, but it also enjoyed positive critical reviews and widespread fan acclaim.  Bringing such a beloved property to the screen in a way that pleased diehard fans and general audiences alike seemed like an impossible task, but writer/director Joss Whedon knocked it out of the park.  Furthermore, Whedon crafted a unique entry in the superhero genre in that The Avengers involves well-rounded, three-dimensional female characters that serve a purpose larger than being eye candy and/or acting as a human MacGuffin that needs saving from the male hero; a foreign concept, I know.

Whedon is currently hard at work on prepping The Avengers 2 to start production early next year, but the filmmaker recently took a moment to comment on the depressing state of female superheroes in cinema.  Moreover, Whedon also discussed the notion of Robert Downey Jr. possibly not signing on for more Marvel films, saying he has no intention of making Avengers 2 without RDJ.  Hit the jump to read on.

The twin brother-sister superheroes Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have been likely contenders to join The Avengers 2 since April when Joss Whedon teased, “I’ve got these two characters, two of my favorite characters from the comic book, a brother-sister act. They’re in the movie.”  Kevin Feige followed that even though the characters fall into a legal grey area (The characters are mutants, Magneto is their father, and Fox could have possession since they own X-Men), they would be available.  Today, Whedon has confirmed that the characters will be in The Avengers 2.

Hit the jump for more including what Whedon had to say about bringing Iron Man into The Avengers 2.

Earlier this week, we got our first look at the highly-anticipated new series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  The new series takes place after The Avengers, and has Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) leading a new team of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives against supernatural forces.  Today, seven more seconds of precious footage have been released, and Coulson announces “Welcome to Level 7″.  Some may wonder, “What is Level 7″?  I wonder if these incredibly brief snippets of footage will be a consistent thing throughout the summer.  If so, that’s incredibly obnoxious.  The people who would watch seven seconds of footage are already going to see the show.  Provide real trailers or keep the show under wraps (I suspect the next major look at the show will come during Comic-Con).

Hit the jump to watch seven seconds of footage because you’re already going to see the show.  The series also stars also stars Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Chloe Bennet.  Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres Tuesdays this fall on ABC. [Update: ABC has released a full 3-minute trailer for the series, which is now included after the jump.]

When you get to talk to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, you never have enough time.  After all, he knows everything that’s going on behind-the-scenes at the studio, including which projects are getting ready to be announced.   So when I recently landed an exclusive phone interview with him for Iron Man 3, I tried to use the time to find out about a million different things.

During the wide ranging conversation, we talked about how long he’ll be staying at Marvel, how the studio goes about choosing directors, whether The Avengers sequel be called The Avengers 2 or if it will have a subtitle, whether they have considered casting Dwayne Johnson in a Marvel movie, the status of the Doctor Strange movie, if anyone is currently working on a Falcon or War Machine spinoff movie, whether they have cast Thanos yet, if they be at Comic-Con, D23, or both, and so much more.  If you’re a Marvel fan I promise you’ll enjoy reading this interview.

There’s no such thing as too much Marvel news, right?  With Iron Man 3 hitting theaters this weekend, a bevy of details regarding Marvel’s upcoming films have been making their way online.  While it’s exciting to look ahead to Marvel’s Phase Two slate post-Iron Man 3, all roads lead to one of the most anticipated sequels in recent memory: The Avengers 2.

Steve recently spoke with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and during their extended conversation Feige talked quite a bit about how Iron Man 3 gives audiences an idea of what to expect from The Avengers 2.  He also talked about writer/director Joss Whedon’s script for the follow-up (which he describes as hilarious, awesome, and moving) and whether or not the film will have a subtitle.  Hit the jump to read on.

The wait is almost over for Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, which debuts in the States on Friday, May 3rd.  However, if you’re looking ahead to the rest of Marvel’s Phase Two slate of films, we’ve got a few nibbles of information to pique your interest.  Since there’s currently no Iron Man 4 on Marvel’s lineup, it’s looking like Robert Downey Jr.’s next appearance as the armored Avenger will be in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers 2.  But who else will be joining him?

Hit the jump for more on Iron Man 3 from Downey Jr., Black, Gwyneth Paltrow and Marvel’s Kevin Feige, along with updates on The Avengers 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Spoilers ahead.

Marvel: Phase Two hasn’t even started to hit theaters, but sometimes you just want to rush to desert.  While walking the red carpet at the Iron Man 3 premiere, writer-director Joss Whedon was asked a couple questions regarding The Avengers 2.  First up, since it sounds like Robert Downey Jr. is considering retirement from the Marvel Universe, some may be wondering if we’ll see Iron Man flying around in Whedon’s film.  Whedon responded, “I am not the guy who has to worry about him being replaced. He is Iron Man at this point. When I heard that he was cast I knew that something had just changed, and I usually don’t know stuff like that.”  It sounds fairly certain that Downey is on board for The Avengers 2, but beyond that, Whedon doesn’t know if the actor will continue with the series.

Hit the jump for more including what Whedon had to say about Thanos’ presence in Phase Two.

The U.S. premiere of Iron Man 3 was held last night in Los Angeles, and pretty much everyone from the Marvel Cinematic Universe walked the red carpet.  Though the various actors, actresses, directors, and producers didn’t exactly have time for lengthy interviews while making their way into the theater, a couple of them did drop some interesting tidbits about some upcoming Marvel films.  Gwyneth Paltrow, for one, seems to think that there isn’t going to be an Iron Man 4, and Joss Whedon provided a few more updates on The Avengers 2, even hinting at two new characters he says are in the film.  Hit the jump to read on.

While The Avengers 2 is still very much in the pre-production stage and we haven’t heard much movement recently on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series, everyone will have their Joss Whedon fix very soon.  The UK trailer for his new movie, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, was just released, showing a bit more of the film than the first trailer.  Much Ado tells the story of two stubborn individuals, Beatrice and Benedick, and their haphazard journey to finding love with each other that involves a ridiculous amount of deception and wit.  This one gives glimpses into the interwoven drama with jabs of comedy Whedon is more known for, and I for one am very excited to see him take on an updated but understated version of this classic.  I like that he’s kept the original text, but is playing with the tone and creating a new feel for it.

The cast includes many of Whedon’s mainstays, such as Amy Adams, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg, Sean Maher, Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz, Tom Lenk, Reed Diamond, and Ashley Johnson.  I love seeing Whedon bring back his beloved roster of actors, and I have no doubt that the combination of the cast he’s chosen and his distinctive style of filmmaking and directing will provide something fun and entertaining.  The film is set for a June 7th release.  Hit the jump for the trailer.

While Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicks off in earnest next month with the release of Iron Man 3, fans are understandably clamoring for information regarding the next team-up film The Avengers 2.  We still have four Marvel movies to go through before we see the Avengers sequel—in addition to Iron Man 3 there’s Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy—but writer/director Joss Whedon is already quite deep in development on The Avengers 2.  The filmmaker revealed in January that his first draft of the script should be done “in a couple of months,” and a few weeks ago we learned that filming is slated to take place in the U.K. in early 2014.

Now Whedon has offered a bit of an update on the superhero sequel, revealing that he already had an idea of the plot of The Avengers 2 before he had figured out The Avengers and confirming that production will likely begin in February.  He also talked a bit about being privy to all of the Marvel goodness that’s yet to come.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Joss Whedon brought his version of Shakespeare’s classic comedy Much Ado about Nothing to WonderCon in a special presentation.  Much of the cast of the impromptu production joined Whedon on stage in order to screen the recently-released trailer and two exclusive clips from the film.  The panel also shared behind-the-scenes anecdotes about how Whedon recruited them for the film, the experience of contemporizing Shakespeare and just how many of them were drunk during filming (off-screen…of course).

Much Ado about Nothing stars Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Clark Gregg, Tom Lenk, Ashley Johnson, Reed Diamond, Riki Lindhome, Sean Maher and Nathan Fillion and opens in limited release on June 7th.  Hit the jump for our panel recap.

“Coulson Lives”.  Clark Gregg, who has been doing terrific work throughout his career, finally found a devoted fan following for his beloved performance as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson.  A minor character who still managed to steal scenes with only a few lines, Coulson really got to stand out in The Avengers, and his death left fans reeling.  Then a S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series was announced, and it turned out Coulson wasn’t quite so dead after all.  Fans rejoiced, and while a pilot for the show has been filmed, details are still scarce.  Now that Coulson is back in the world of the living, Gregg spoke with Steve at WonderCon about joining the TV series, how it will explain Coulson’s return, working with a smaller budget, and if Coulson will come back to the movies.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.