Last night I turned to Xbox Live to check out Shane Carruth‘s Upstream Color for the first time. While not quite as impenetrable after one viewing as its predecessor, 2004′s Primer, Upstream still demands the utmost attention of its viewers in exchange for the slightest hint of clarity. The dialogue is sparse, the setting is ever-changing, the editing is heavily dependent on juxtaposition as a way of creating meaning, and the sound design/foley work is turned up to “11″ at times. Whereas Primer played more to the intellect behind making time travel a reality, Upstream is an extremely visceral experience that is more interested, or at least more successful, in eliciting an emotional response than explaining how a rare organism can be harvested, used as a method of mind control, and ultimately link humans to pigs. The exact degree to which it succeeds will vary from viewer to viewer but it’s ultimately an experience I recommend taking in.

Of course a movie like Upstream lends itself to more than a few lines of my humble analysis, but that’s not actually why we’re here. In this week’s Top 5 you can check out the first trailer and poster for Alfonso Cuaron‘s Gravity, a generous number of set pics from director Jonathan Liebesman‘s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, Steve’s exclusive phone interview with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, the first trailer for Ender’s Game, and a look at Iron Man by the Numbers. A brief recap and link to each will greet you 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.

The folks at Marvel are no doubt celebrating the massive opening weekend for Iron Man 3—which currently stands as the second highest of all time behind The Avengers—but the studio still has a very large question mark lingering over its future.  With the release of Iron Man 3, star Robert Downey Jr. fulfilled his contract with Marvel.  He is not contractually obligated to appear in any more Marvel films, and thus has a rather sizable amount of leverage over Marvel going forward given that he is, to the moviegoing public, the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Iron Man is the most recognizable character in Marvel Studios’ roster, and the character is now synonymous with Robert Downey Jr.

As such, everyone has been wondering whether RDJ will be back and if there are any more standalone Iron Man films in the future.  The negotiations have now begun, and things are, well, a bit complicated.  Hit the jump for much more.

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.

With writer-director Shane Black‘s Iron Man 3 now playing around the world, I recently got to speak with the cast and filmmakers here in Los Angeles.  During my video interview with Don Cheadle, we talked about collaborating with Black, the awesome dialogue, filming the action, changes on set, the collaboration with Marvel on Rhodey, if he’s talked to Joss Whedon about The Avengers 2, will he make an appearance in Captain America 2, and the future of Captain Planet.  Hit the jump to watch.

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.

Kicking off the blockbuster movie season, Marvel Studios is releasing Iron Man 3 on May 3^rd.  This time out, brilliant billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), aka Iron Man, faces a terrifying enemy, known as The Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley), whose reach knows no bounds, and he must rely on his own instincts to protect those that he loves.  From director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), the film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow (“Pepper Potts”), Don Cheadle (“James Rhodes”), Guy Pearce (“Aldrich Killian”), Rebecca Hall (“Maya Hansen”) and Jon Favreau (“Happy Hogan”).

During this press conference at the film’s Los Angeles junket, co-stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Sir Ben Kingsley talked about the biggest challenge in making Iron Man 3, the transformation of Pepper Potts, how Rhodey has evolved, how much of The Mandarin was actually in the script, what director Shane Black brought to this installment of the franchise, finding the right tone, how much they wanted the aftermath of the events in The Avengers to affect Tony Stark, what they hope people get out of the film, and the future of the Iron Man franchise.  Check out what they had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers.

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.

As we move into Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this shared superhero world is starting to be fleshed out a bit more now that the principal characters have some experience working together in The Avengers.  While fans are excited to see how Tony Stark, Thor, Steve Rogers, etc. will be interacting in future films, there’s also the possibility of supporting characters from the standalone Marvel pics crossing over.  One of the most likely cases is that of Don Cheadle’s Jim Rhodes from the Iron Man films, as it looks like his alter ego War Machine will be getting a significant amount of screentime in the upcoming sequel.

Steve recently spoke with Cheadle in anticipation of the release of Iron Man 3, and the actor talked briefly about the prospect of him appearing in The Avengers 2 or Captain America: The Winter Soldier, noting that “conversations have been happening” with regards to the Avengers sequel.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

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.

We’ve got a couple of brief Marvel-related stories for you this morning.  First up, Screen Daily reports that The Avengers 2 will be filming at Pinewood-Shepperton Studios in early 2014, and pre-production will be underway later this year.  The U.K. studio has already developed a strong relationship with Marvel by playing host to Thor: The Dark World.  They’re also setting up to house filming on Guardians of the Galaxy this summer.

In other Marvel news, hit the jump to check out a sneak peek of the upcoming Phase Two featurette that’s on the new Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One box set.  The Avengers 2 opens May 1, 2015.

Rumors have been flying around that there are/aren’t plans for Marvel to make a stand-alone Hulk movie some time in the near future.  Marvel’s own Kevin Feige put two potential source materials for a Hulk film on the table last year.  Then we got news on possible plot details for not only a stand-alone Hulk film after The Avengers 2, but what may turn out to be a Hulk-centric plot for The Avengers 3.  About a month after that, writer/director Joss Whedon (The Avengers) put the kibosh to the rumors.  Now, the face behind the Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo, has taken to the Tweets to comment on the state of Hulk.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

In addition to recently talking about Iron Man 3, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige also spoke about Phase Two and Phase Three of the upcoming Marvel Movies.  First, he talked about how Phase Two and The Avengers 2 will be about taking these characters deeper.  Speaking to SFX Magazine, Feige says “Almost whatever the heck else is happening is gravy in that franchise, because all I care about is Bruce and Tony, Tony and Steve, Widow and Bruce – and how Thor fits into it, because he’s always the outsider amongst outsiders. So I think that’s where the value lies. And going deeper amongst those characters in those relationships.”  So it looks like when we finally come back around to The Avengers in 2015, we’ll be seeing the same team but with a different mood based on what happened to the characters earlier in Phase Two.

However, we might be seeing some new members on the team as well.  Hit the jump for more including what we might see from Doctor Strange.

Last month, it was rumored that The Avengers 2 would involve the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) being deemed too dangerous to live on Earth and he would get shipped into outer space.  From there, Hulk would get a solo Phase 3 movie based off Greg Pak‘s comic book arc Planet Hulk.  In the comic, Hulk becomes enslaved on the planet Sakaar, is forced to participate in gladiatorial games and eventually becomes a hero of the rebellion against the Red King.  Then the rumor continued that The Avengers 3 would have Hulk and his subjects returning to Earth and wreaking havoc, which would be based on Pak’s World War Hulk storyline.

At some point, it’s difficult to tell how carefully Marvel Studios has mapped out their movies and at what point it’s just fanboy dreaming masquerading as a serious possibility for future films.  Since Joss Whedon is one of the Marvel Movie Universe overseers now, IGN asked him about the Planet Hulk rumor.  Hit the jump for his response.