With writer-director Shane Black‘s Iron Man 3 now playing around the world and opening in America this weekend, I recently got to speak with the cast and filmmakers here in Los Angeles.  During my video interview with Black and Marvel President Kevin Feige, we talked about if they considered doing the demon in the bottle storyline, deleted scenes (they’re going to save some for the eventual Phase 2 box set), what’s the status of Black’s Doc Savage movie, and more.  In addition, Feige reveals that it was Robert Downey Jr. who helped come up with the tag at the end of the credits.  Hit the jump to watch.

It appears that Marvel Studios has secured the rights to another very popular comics character.  While 20th Century Fox’s 2003 take on Daredevil was a bit of a misfire, the studio had been trying to move forward on a new iteration of the character in recent years.  30 Days of Night director David Slade came onboard to direct a Daredevil reboot in the spring of 2011, and Fringe scribe Brad Caleb Kane was subsequently tapped to pen the screenplay.  Movement on the project was quiet for a full year, though, and the following summer Slade left the film to helm the pilot for NBC’s Hannibal.

When Slade exited the project, however, Fox was facing a ticking clock.  The studio had to move quickly to get a new Daredevil movie into production before the rights to the character reverted back to Marvel.  Well, a new Daredevil film failed to materialize in the ensuing months, and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige confirmed today that Marvel now holds to the rights to the character.  Hit the jump for more.

A new featurette for the Shane Black-directed sequel Iron Man 3 has been released online.  Its primary focus is to explain Extremis, the technology used by Ben Kingsley’s The Mandarin to pull off his terrorist tactics and inflict chaos in the world of Tony Stark.  Black and producer Kevin Feige explain the basics of Extremis and how it works in the human body to generate a new breed of unstoppable human beings.  We also get a bit of insight from James Badge Dale on why this new technology appealed to him in relation to his character.  Robert Downey Jr. seems particularly amused by the concept, citing it as one of the things he’s most excited about in the film.

Hit the jump to watch the new featurette.  If you missed the first two clips, you can check them out here and here.  The film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle, Rebecca Hall, and Jon Favreau.  Iron Man 3 opens in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D on May 3rd.

Disney has released a couple of new images from director Alan Taylor’s (Game of Thrones) Marvel sequel Thor: The Dark World.  We’ll get our first look at footage from the film tomorrow when the debut trailer is released, but for now these images do a nice job of teasing the God of Thunder’s return as well as Natalie Portman’s role in the follow-up.  It’s clear that Portman’s Jane joins Thor in Asgard in the film, and I’m interested to see how the character adjusts to life in the realm.

Hit the jump to check out the images and for some rather revealing quotes about what to expect from Thor 2 storywise, and check back here tomorrow to catch the first trailer.  The film also stars Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins.  Thor: The Dark World opens in 3D on November 8th.

The marketing campaign for director Shane Black’s superhero pic Iron Man 3 has kicked into high gear with only a couple of months to go before the film’s release, and we recently got a great look at the sequel by way of a new trailer that showed off some exciting new footage from the pic.  We’ve gathered that the story will find Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark in a rather precarious and vulnerable position, but a couple of shots of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts in the new trailer had people wondering about her character’s arc in the story.

Marvel’s Kevin Feige recently spoke at length about Potts’ crucial role in Iron Man 3, revealing a rather surprising love triangle in the pic and hinting at a twist on the tired “damsel in distress” plot device.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say, which includes some thoughts on the pic’s lighter tone despite the dramatic trailers.

I realize that it’s a little too March to be discussing my favorite holiday gifts, but I only recently had the opportunity to dive into one of mine and, as a result, I feel the need to share it’s greatness with our readers. The ESPN 30 for 30 Collector’s Set Blu-ray is an outstanding collection of sports documentaries that is rife with social commentary and almost sure to have something for sports and/or documentary fans alike. Before I get accused of paid programming, I’ll disclaim that all thirty of its films aren’t home runs (that’s right, a sports pun). Moreover, I’m fairly sure that all of the series’ entries are available to watch instantly on Netflix right now making the physical collection redundant for some. Regardless of how you partake, I encourage you to sift through the series, find a topic that interests you, and give it a shot.

All recommendations aside, this week’s Top 5 features a healthy portion of Iron Man 3 coverage (including the new trailer), Oz the Great and Powerful interviews with Sam Raimi, James Franco, Mila Kunis, and more, the first trailer for The Hangover Part III, a sizable Justice League movie rumor, and the new trailer and poster for Will Smith and Jaden Smith‘s After Earth. As you may be expecting, a brief recap and link for each of the above waits after the jump.

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.

Earlier today, we posted a bounty of Iron Man 3 goodness including a new trailer, a video blog recap of seeing 15 minutes of the film, and interviews with Robert Downey Jr. and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige & director Shane Black.  Those interviews have tons of interesting tidbits about the film and Marvel’s Cinematic Universe from Downey, Feige, and Black, but in case some of you don’t have time to read the full articles, we figured we’d direct your attention to a fascinating—if a little obvious—nugget gleaned from Feige regarding post-credits sequences in Phase Two, and specifically whether there will be a post-credits sequence after Iron Man 3.

As you well know, all of Marvel’s Phase One films have a post-credits sequence that in some way builds towards the events of The Avengers.  Now that Phase Two is starting a new set of stories, the question becomes what kinds of scenes—if any—will be appearing after the credits of this next slate of Marvel movies.  Hit the jump to see what Feige had to say about the subject. 

If you were somehow nervous Shane Black (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) couldn’t handle directing Iron Man 3, it’s time to relax.  Right before the Super Bowl, Marvel invited a number of domestic and international reporters to a special screening of footage from the highly-anticipated sequel.  Normally when they do footage screenings, it’s a sizzle reel, meaning you see brief moments from a number of scenes.  However, for Iron Man 3, the presentation started with Kevin Feige (the President of Production at Marvel Studios) telling us what happens in the first 20 minutes of the film, and then he showed us what happens in the following 15 minutes.  We saw a ton of action, heard some fantastic Shane Black dialogue, learned what kind of impact The Avengers had on Tony Stark, and witnessed the power of the Mandarin.  When the lights finally came up, I was smiling ear to ear and desperately wanting to see more.

Continued after the jump.

While Marvel and Disney have been trying to keep the buzz on Iron Man 3 on a low hum, that’s all about to change.  With the film’s release date fast approaching (May 3), the studios have started unveiling the merchandise and they also recently held a long lead press day where they showed selected members of the press about 15 minutes of the movie.  In addition, right after watching the awesome-looking footage, we got to interview Robert Downey Jr. as well as Iron Man 3 director Shane Black and Kevin Feige (President of Production at Marvel Studios).

During the interview with Black and Feige, the two talked about creating the film’s iteration of The Mandarin, how the film’s plot came together, the connective tissue between The Avengers and Iron Man 3, how Downey, Black and Drew Pearce worked together on the dialogue on set, the way Iron Patriot plays a role in the sequel, the stunt-heavy filming of the Air Force One attack sequence, and so much more.  If you’re looking forward to Iron Man 3, I promise you’ll love this interview.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to what they had to say.

While DC and Warner Bros. are still trying to figure out what to do with their superheroes, Marvel already has the path laid out for “Phase Two”: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Granted, all of the films except Guardians are sequels, but Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige says we shouldn’t be expecting more of the same.  Fans should anticipate new approaches, different sides of the characters, and trying to build it all to The Avengers 2.

Hit the jump for more.

With the release of Marvel’s Iron Man 3 looming closer and Thor: The Dark World hitting theaters this November, the studio is set to begin production imminently on the third film of Phase Three, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  While we know quite a bit about the film’s casting—Anthony Mackie is Falcon, Emily VanCamp is the female lead, Frank Grillo is villain Crossbones, and Sebastian Stan returns as Bucky Barnes—we actually know very little about where directors Joe and Anthony Russo plan to take the film’s story.  A tiny hint came today by way of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who describes the film as a political thriller.  Hit the jump to read on.

Though Marvel Studios is incredibly secretive when it comes to developing projects, we’ve known about director Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man for quite a long while.  Wright has been working on the script alongside co-writer Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) for the past few years, but he’s understandably been busy with his other directorial projects.  The studio finally announced a release date for the film late last year, and at last summer’s Comic-Con Wright unveiled a test reel that demonstrated his fantastic visual approach to the character’s unique fighting style (ie. switching between normal size and ant-size within the blink of an eye).

With a 2015 release date approaching, Wright is gearing up to begin production on the film fairly soon.  He recently provided a bit of an update on the film, talking about its relationship to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and why it took so long to come together.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Marvel’s The Avengers was a success on nearly every level when it hit theaters last year, and so it sets a high bar for Marvel’s other superhero films going forward.  In addition to trying to top the quality of the Joss Whedon-helmed epic, future standalone films now have to face the problem of “Well if he just called in his pal Thor, this whole problem would be solved right away.”  The first standalone movie out of the gate post-Avengers is director Shane Black’s sequel Iron Man 3, and Marvel president Kevin Feige has been adamant about IM3 being its own thing in relation to The Avengers.

During a recent interview, star Robert Downey Jr. was asked if we might see any cameos from his Avengers buddies in the upcoming sequel, and he may or may not have provided a bit of a hint.  Hit the jump for more.

In a recent interview, Kevin Feige confirmed that Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man would be the official starting point of Marvel’s “Phase Three.”  What other films will be included in the post-Avengers 2 grouping?  For starters, none other than the long-rumored Doctor Strange adaptation.  Feige mentioned Doctor Strange in the same sentence as the “Phase Two” film Guardians of the Galaxy, since both pictures will be somewhat outside of the normal realm of core characters we’ve come to know and love.  Hit the jump for more on “Phase Three” from Feige and an update on Iron Man 3 and Avengers 2.