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.

One of the biggest question marks regarding the future of the Iron Man franchise is how much longer Robert Downey Jr. will be playing Tony Stark.  When Downey first signed his deal with Marvel, it was for almost ten movies and he was still considered a big risk given his unproven status as the leading man of a major tentpole property.  Cut to now.  Downey is known the world over as Tony Stark and his amazing portrayal as the genius billionaire is one of the main reasons Marvel movies have exploded in popularity.  I honestly can’t see another person playing the role.  Thankfully, it seems that Downey is still having fun playing the character as he told me during a recent group interview that:

“the agents and the lawyers are having a bit of a ball right now.”

Meaning they are working on a new contract!  In addition to talking about a possible new contract, Downey discussed what fans can expect from Iron Man 3, what working with director Shane Black has been like, the action sequences, what Joss Whedon‘s Avengers did for the Iron Man franchise, how Jon Favreau‘s Happy Hogan character is an integral part of the story, and so much more.  Hit the jump to read or listen to what Downey had to say.

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.

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.

We’ll dedicate more time to this topic after the jump, but in just a few sentences I want to share a quick thought I had while watching Netflix’s House of Cards last weekend. It’s not just that I think the show is great. When you involve talents like Kevin Spacey and David Fincher, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where quality work is in short supply. It’s that this level of material was birthed by and is only consumed via the Internet. I’ve been in debates where the question was whether or not the web would foster an age of amateurs. A future in which the training and dedication required to further perfect one’s craft would fall by the wayside leaving audiences with less than stellar work produced by those made lazy by the eased production and distribution technologies afforded by the Internet. While the fact that I’m writing to a considerable audience today via this site is evidence to that very argument, the overall quality of HOC is a strong rebuttal against those concerned about the quality of entertainment work in a digital age.

All thinking out loud aside, this week’s Top 5 features an editorial response to Disney’s announcement that Star Wars spinoff films are in the works, Side Effects interviews with Steven Soderbergh and more, a word about Hulk’s movie future, Matt’s editorial on Netflix and the affect time shifting has on viewing habits, and the latest news out of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 camp. As you’re probably expecting, a brief recap and link to each waits after the jump.

As we move closer towards the 85th Annual Academy Awards, a number of other awards ceremonies are taking place to honor the best of moviemaking in 2012.  One such ceremony is the 3D Creative Arts Awards which were held Wednesday night, and director Ang Lee’s Life of Pi swept a number of categories including Best Live-Action 3D Feature and 3D Sequence/Moment of the Year for the fish flying over the boat scene.  The ambitious adaptation is coming off a strong showing at the Visual Effects Society Awards earlier this week, and looks to be a solid contender at the Oscars in the technical categories.

Elsewhere at the 3D Creative Arts Awards, Brave was named Best Animated 3D feature, The Avengers won Best Use of 2D to 3D Conversion, and Transformers: The Ride won Themed Attraction.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

As part of the team nominated for Best Visual Effects at this year’s Academy Awards, Jeff White was the Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM on Marvel’s The Avengers, having worked on a little over 700 shots in the film.  After working as a Creature Technical Director on such films as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Lemony Snicket’s: A Series of Unfortunate Events, White served as Digital Production Supervisor on Transformers, and then was elevated to Association Visual Effects Supervisor on the subsequent sequels Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon.

During this recent exclusive interview with Collider, Jeff White talked about how incredible the Oscar recognition is, which sequences ILM was involved with, collaborating with director Joss Whedon and Marvel, how he ended up working at ILM, and the shots that he’s most proud of pulling off.  He also talked about starting pre-production on Transformers 4, which he says has some really exciting stuff in it, his hopes to be involved with The Avengers 2, and what it’s been like to be involved with Transformers: The Ride, which is at Universal Studios Hollywood.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

The Avengers was the highest-grossing film of 2012, so it’s no surprise that some of its cast would be presenting at this year’s Academy Awards.  The film is nominated for Best Visual Effects (although the momentum seems headed in the direction of Life of Pi), and the Academy has sent out a press release announcing that most of the superhero team will be presenting this year’s awards.  Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo will be presenting together, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re presenting for the technical categories (Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing).  I assume Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson were unavailable.  In any event, I hope the guys will have some witty banter, and even if they don’t, I’m sure Downey will make it entertaining anyway.

Hit the jump for the press release.  The Academy Awards will be held on February 24th at 7pm (EST) on ABC.

Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk in last year’s The Avengers was certainly a highlight of the superhero assembly movie, but fans were left wondering what Marvel’s plans are for the green meanie going forward.  We already know that sequels to Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers are slated for release over the next two years (Marvel’s Phase Two) as well as new properties Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange and Ant-Man.  So where’s the Banner love?  We’ve previously reported that Marvel’s Kevin Feige has stated that no new Hulk standalone movie will take place until after The Avengers 2 has opened and that popular comic arcs Planet Hulk and World War Hulk are not off the table.  Now, some intrepid reporting from a reliable source has shed some possible details on the future of the Gamma Giant.  Hit the jump for more, but consider this your spoiler warning. 

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.

News of ABC bring a S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series to pilot was all well and good, but the inclusion of Clark Gregg’s character Agent Phil Coulson had us scratching our collective heads.  Events that occur in The Avengers would make it rather difficult for Coulson to have a very active role in the series.  This casting announcement led many to believe that the television show would be a prequel or, at the very least, a parallel story to The Avengers.  Now ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee has confirmed that the series occurs after the battle in New York at the end of the Marvel mash-up and that Gregg is still going to be involved as Coulson.  Hit the jump to find out just how that might work.

Phase Two of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is set to kick off this May with the release of Iron Man 3, and fans are understandably eager to see what’s in store for this next set of superhero films.  In addition to the excitement of seeing sequels to Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers onscreen (as well as the addition of Guardians of the Galaxy), we can also take comfort in knowing that there’s one highly talented man overseeing the creative side of it all: The Avengers writer/director Joss Whedon.

Following the ridiculous success of The Avengers, Marvel signed Whedon to write and direct The Avengers 2 and to act as a creative consultant on all of the studio’s other upcoming comic book films.  If that wasn’t enough, Whedon is also writing and directing the pilot for ABC’s S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series.  The incredibly busy Whedon recently spoke a bit about all of the aforementioned projects, offering an update on the status of the Avengers 2 script, when S.H.I.E.L.D. starts filming and his goal for the series, and his involvement on the other upcoming Marvel films.  We also have news regarding when and where Guardians of the Galaxy will be filming.  Hit the jump for your Marvel fix of the day.

When the Academy Awards nominations were announced yesterday, some were a tad surprised to see that Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises was completely shut out of the race.  The superhero movie that did make the cut, however, is Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, which is nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar.  Industrial Light & Magic has released a video that’s basically a “best of” for the film’s visual effects, and it quickly shows how some of the film’s visual trickery was pulled off.  This is likely the video that was shown to Academy voters when they were considering the contenders in the Best Visual Effects category, and it’s a neat compilation of how some of the film’s more impressive visuals were put together.

Hit the jump to watch the video.  The 85th Academy Awards will be held on February 24th. 

The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards have been announced, and it’s quite a whirlwind of nominees.  As expected, Lincoln landed the most nominations with 12, followed with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi which nabbed 11.  The big story here, though, is the Best Director category.  Shockingly, only two (two!) of the DGA nominees for Best Director made the Oscar cut: Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.  The rest of the category was filled out by Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, and Michael Haneke for Amour.  It was almost guaranteed that Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow would be landing nominations for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, respectively, but shockingly neither made the cut.  Apparently those films just directed themselves.  Based off today’s nominations, it now looks like it’s (surprisingly) down to Lincoln vs. Silver Linings Playbook for the big win.

Hit the jump to check out the list of nominees, and click here to check them against my predictions (somehow I predicted the Best Picture and Supporting Actor categories perfectly).  The 85th Academy Awards will take place on February 24th.