Author: Simon Andrews

If there’s one thing that the comic-book industry loves, it’s the idea of an alternate universe. Both Marvel and DC have run some of their most successfully storylines on the back of the idea that there are an infinite number of parallel universes that neighbor our own, where Earth’s greatest and mightiest heroes are still in existence but differ slightly to their mainstream versions in a variety of intriguing and often somewhat controversial ways. Alongside this, Hollywood’s own history is littered with the stories of films that ‘might have been’ and actors who ‘nearly made it’, but not for the…

Everybody knows what a ‘Hero’ is, right? By their very nature, they’re people that do what’s right and proper, and in doing so they display ‘heroic’ traits. You know the kind of thing? Honesty. Idealism. Courage. Morality. Generic hero stuff. But the pages of comic books are also populated with another group of people that do what’s considered ‘the right thing’. Only these people aren’t quite as idealistic or virtuous as their heroic counterparts. More often than not, due to a variety of reasons, these protagonists are quite flawed in some way, maybe even displaying all the traits of somebody…

One  of the possible hazards a performer faces when attaching themselves to a major film franchise is the risk they run of that one role defining their entire career. And so, to a certain extent, it’s frustrating that Anton Yelchin ever managed to bag a role of in the ‘Star-Trek’ reboots. Following Yelchin’s tragic and senseless passing yesterday, nearly every news report and social media post have cited the light-hearted character of Ensign Chekov as his most memorable role. Which is unfortunate. Just as with his predecessor Walter Koenig, Yelchin was pretty soundly derided for his comically improvised Russian accent…

There’s any number of ingredients that come together to make each individual Marvel film a thing of brilliance. Movie after movie, in quick succession, the company has built an Expanded Universe which is simply like no other in the industry. It’s the benchmark. The one to aspire to. The reason that DC executives have trouble sleeping at night… The most obvious strengths in each of the movies are in the slick script treatments and the inspired casting decisions that come about at their outset. The franchise has an innate skill in creating acting pair-ups and performances that easily overshadow and…

You could be forgiven for not having heard of Scott Adkins, but the chances are you’ve probably already seen him on screen, and might not even realize it. Heralding from the West Midlands over in the UK, the fighter-turned-actor already has an impressive CV of work under his belt, and has gone on to notch up big budget appearances in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, ‘The Expendables 2’ ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ and more recently ‘Grimsby’. The imposing Midlander also famously screen-tested for the role of Batman, losing out to fellow Brit actor Christian Bale, but it’s his role as another superhero that…

Superhero Teams are a safer way for studios to take weaker or more outlandish characters from a franchise, and develop/test them to a point where a final decision can then be made on how to ultimately employ them in the larger vision for the project. The way teams have been used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a case in point. They took the non-powered members Black Widow and Hawkeye, who weren’t considered strong enough for a solo movie, and developed them over multiple pictures to a stage where they could now both support a solo project. They also took…

Why we all need to stop worrying about ‘Rogue One’… Well. That’s it then. The internet’s gone and decided. The first Star-Wars prequel, ‘Rogue One’, is officially doomed. It’s a disaster waiting to happen, and Disney ain’t happy about it…. Which is a little on the unexpected side, and certainly very different to any feedback that the project has been receiving up until this point. So what’s going on? Well, according to a number of online news sites, audience reactions to test screenings of the movie have been poor, which has lead to Disney ordering four weeks of reshoots. They…

Both Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter are in the process of filming new episodes, and with Daredevil (I, for one, would love for there to be some truth in the rumors about the Stath circling Bullseye…) and several other new Marvel Netflix projects either in production or planned, it’s clear that we’ll be seeing more and more previously unseen Marvel bad- guys on screen. Now, when you’ve been around as long as the Marvel Comic Universe has, you have to create a hell of a lot of villains to face off against all the heroes you’ve come up with.…

Put down your keyboards, conspiracy theorists, because some promo work that’s just been released online for ‘Rogue One’ has put some of your ideas to bed. The forthcoming release ‘Rogue One: A Visual Story Guide’ has been previewed online, and it’s unveiled a great deal more information about some of the main players and vehicles that are going to be involved in December’s Star Wars heist flick. Firstly, a number of the more outlandish theories about the film have been blown out of the water. There was some speculation that Ben Mendelssohn might be playing a new version of either…

Even without the quite brilliant and titillating post-credits scene that the ‘Deadpool’ movie gave us, it was obvious to any discerning comic-book fan that any sequel to the film would have to contain one key element.. Cable. Wade Wilson’s bromance with Nathan Summers is the stuff of comic legend, and well before the release of this year’s runaway success story, there was already rampant Internet speculation as to who might end up playing the grumpy mutant warrior. There’s been a number of possible actors put in the frame already, and as soon as they’ve been named, fan mockups have quickly…