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• Series: Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The First Avenger, Daredevil 2, Jonah Hex, Priest, The Dark Knight Rises (Batman 3), Iron Man 2

CAPTAIN AMERICA, The Red Skull and The Invaders!

The Red Skull, The Invaders, casting rumors: the 'Captain America' hype machine is now open for business. Plus: Goyer writing 'Batman 3' already? Scarpa writing 'Daredevil' reboot. New 'Jonah Hex' reshoot photos and more! Like Mardis Gras in February, it's your Comics2Film 10.2.8!

PRIEST Goes 3D

The filmed adaptation of the Hyung Min-woo's manhwa 'Priest' is now slated for a January 14, 2011 release, according to a statement issued Friday by Sony Screen Gems. The reason for the delay is to prep the movie for 3D.

Commenting on the announcement, Clint Culpepper, President of Screen Gems said, "We're thrilled with the way 'Priest' has come together, and we saw some spectacular sequences in the film that we all believed would be even more amazing in 3D. Scott, as well as the producers, couldn't be more excited to make the film available for audiences in both 2D and 3D."

In 'Priest,' a warrior priest disobeys Church law by teaming with a young sheriff and a beautiful priestess. The three band together to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped the priest's niece before they turn her into one of them. The film stars Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Karl Urban, and Maggie Q, and is directed by Scott Stewart. The screenplay is by Cory Goodman, based on the graphic novel series "Priest" by Min-Woo Hyung. The film is produced by Michael DeLuca, Josh Donen, and Mitchell Peck.

DAREDEVIL Reboot Gets a Writer

Now, C2F loves Deadline.com and the news that they break, but sometimes they throw the word exclusive around as if they don't know what it means. For example, a few weeks back they exclusively reported that Daniel Craig was starring in 'Cowboys & Aliens' after Collider.com broke the news days earlier.

Which brings us to the latest "exclusive". Deadline.com has filed a report that Fox plans to reboot one of their three Marvel franchises: 'Daredevil'. But wait a sec? Wasn't that news already out in the wild? Yep. IESB broke the news that Fox was working on it over a year ago.

To be fair, Deadline's article does contain some new information which you'd call exclusive. Regency, who produced the original, is on board for the new film. Peter Chernin, one of the top dogs at Fox's parent, News Corp, is producing the film.

Most interesting, David Scarpa of 'Day the Earth Stood Still' fame is writing the script.

In spite of the critical drubbing the original 'DD' too, a sequel or reboot is practically a given. Marvel properties have proven to be box office gold and there are no opportunities for studios to strike new licensing deals, like the ones Fox holds on this property, as well as 'X-Men' and 'Fantastic Four'. So Fox must keep exercising their rights in order to retain those rights, and to do that they have to pump out a film every so often. It's been five years since they worked the 'Daredevil' film rights (via the 'Elektra' spin-off) and the meter is running.

Thanks to CaptainSigma for the submission.

Goyer Already on BATMAN 3?

Is filmmaker David Goyer already at work on the script for 'Batman 3'? A recent article at Deadline.com seems to indicate that that is the case.

In discussing Goyer's flight from the TV series 'Flash Forward', Nikki Finke mentions that Goyer is "now writing" the script with Jonathan Nolan. Nolan, brother of director Christoper, previously collaborated with Goyer on the script for 'The Dark Knight'. He also wrote the script for 'The Prestige' and the story on which 'Memento' is based.

"As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions," Goyer said of his departure from the show. 

Hopefully this is a good sign that, once 'Inception' hits this summer, Christopher Nolan will be ready to start work on the bat-sequel.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry and CaptainSigma for the submission.

Josh Brolin and Megan Fox during the February 2010 filming of JONAH HEX

JONAH HEX Set Photos

The 'Jonah Hex' movie is undergoing its re-shoots in Los Angeles this week. The primary cast has been reassembled with director Jimmy Hayward and consulting director Francis Lawrence to film 12 all-new script pages.

SpoilerTV.com has a series of photos from the reshoots, featuring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox in full costume and makeup.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry for the submission.

Matt Fraction says IRON MAN 2 is a Real Movie

Comics scribe Matt Fraction (currently responsible for Marvel's 'Invincible Iron Man' comic) recently spoke with the New York Post's Game Report blog about a number of things, including his involvement in the 'Iron Man 2' film and video game. He talks briefly about  his visit to the set of the film and the consultation he had with director Jon Favreau. Here's an excerpt:

Game Report: What do you think of [Iron Man 2 director Jon] Favreau?

Fraction: He's making a real movie, you know what I mean? He's not, like, "Well, it's a sequel, we gotta have three villains. We gotta-" I mean ... they start with the character, they start with the story, and then grow out from there.

Game Report: I think that's what everyone was saying about the first Iron Man film, especially after the Ratnerization of the X-Men. Like Marvel went, "Oh, Christ, we need someone who's actually talented to get behind this thing.

Fraction: I mean, It's clear when you're making a movie and when you're just making a spectacle. You don't have these actors [Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle] and this director when you're just making a spectacle. It speaks very much to Kevin Feige - the head of Marvel Studios - his vision for this.

Click through for the complete report.

Thanks to CaptainSigma for the submission.

Casting! Red Skull! The Invaders?! CAPTAIN AMERICA Mega Update!

With 'The Wolfman' howling into theaters this month, director Joe Johnston has been spending plenty of time out in front of the press. As such, the cone of silence over his next film, 'The First Avenger: Captain America' is starting to lift.

In an interview with SciFi Wire, the director talked a bit about his plans for casting the lead role.

"Absolutely," Johnston said of whether or not he'd cast an American in the lead role. "Oh, yeah. I don't think we could make the film without an American playing the part. But we may not be casting in America, because we're going to London. I think we'll probably shoot in the U.K. for most of it, because it takes place in Europe. But, yeah, we'll definitely be casting [an American]."

He also said that a casting renouncement will come by March 1 and it'll likely be an unknown. "I hope it'll be somebody that we discover and who's never been in ... —he's probably been in something, but you won't know who he is," Johnston told SCI FI. "You won't recognize him, and we'll surround him with more prominent names. That's who we're looking for."

In a separate interview with the Hero Complex blog, Johnston got a little bit more specific. "We're testing five or six guys. The youngest is 23, the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London."

And, it turns out, actors have already been auditioning for the part.

Moviehole confirmed with athletic 'Chuck' actor Ryan McPartlin that he's auditioned for the role. Moviehole had heard a rumor and asked the actor directly. However, McPartlin was cautious in his comments about the experience.

"The one thing I can't stand are these actors that are twittering about auditioning for Captain America. It's really tacky," McPartlin said. "With that said, it is in the casting process and like many other actors, I read for it, so we'll wait and see what happens."

A more dubious report comes from blog site BigShinyRobot.com who says that Chad Michael Murray has read for the role as well. Murray is best known for a recent run on 'One Tree Hill' and also for appearing in the movie 'House of Wax'. Robot's story is only sourced as coming from an "anonymous fellow who frequents some forums" which is hardly a ringing endorsement for credibility. But the story does dovetail with the casting of a relative unknown and McPartlin's admission that many actors are in the mix.

Meanwhile, Johnston told Hero Complex that the film will seek to explain why a World War II soldier would actually wear a brightly colored costume on the battlefield.

"The costume is a flag, but the way we're getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit. After he's made into this super-soldier, they decide they can't send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He's the only one and they can't make more. So they say, 'You're going to be in this USO show' and they give him a flag suit. He can't wait to get out of it."

Of course, this is the kind of Hollywood twist that can make C2F a little nervous, but movies like 'Batman Begins' have demonstrated that it pays to figure out how the costume might make sense in a grounded, real world setting.

"So he's up on stage doing songs and dances with chorus girls and he can't wait to get out and really fight. When he does go AWOL, he covers up the suit but then, after a few things happen, he realizes that this uniform allows him to lead," Johnston further explained. "By then, he's become a star in the public mind and a symbol. The guys get behind him because he embodies something special."

Johnston also told Hero Complex that the costume will evolve throughout the movie. The flimsy USO costume will give way to a version that's more like battlefield armor.

So who will Cap be fighting in the film?

The Motion Captured blog at HitFix has revealed that Red Skull is definitely the primary villain in the film. This also comes from Johnston himself.

"We will see the Captain America villain, the main villain, the Red Skull.  But it's the origin story.  It's how he became Captain America in World War II.  There are present-day bookends, but it's really... it's his origin story.  And we decided you only get one shot at telling an origin story, so you might as well tell it first," the director said.

He also revealed that most of the story takes place in Europe, due to the World War II setting.

Of course, if you have Captain America and you have World War II and you have the Marvel universe, one might also expect Marvel's WW2 era super team to appear. Well, Johnston confirmed to CHUD that The Invaders are also part of the 'Captain America' story.

Back in the pre-Marvel age of Timely comics, it was not unusual to see stories teaming Cap, The Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch (along with sidekicks Bucky and Toro) against the Ratzis. This trifecta later became known as the Invaders and the mythology was expanded to include other WW2 era heroes such as Union Jack, Spitfire, The Blazing Skull, The Whizzer and others.

Marvel Chief Kevin Feige had mentioned the Invaders in a previous interview and CHUD revisited the question with Johnston.

"They'll be in the entire second half," the director said. However he would not reveal which of the Invaders would appear nor would he comment on to what extent they'd resemble their comic book counterparts.

Union Jack seems a natural as he could sort of be played Britain's answer to Captain America. Marvel has been trying to launch a Namor movie for years, so it might be a good way to introduce this character to moviegoers. The Human Torch seems less likely since the modern age counterpart to that character is tied up at Fox in the 'Fantastic Four', and they'd most likely run into trouble if they tried to light him up on the big screen. Spitfire could make a nice substitute for him. Of course, the Marvel well of characters is deep and they could easily cobble together a an All-Winners Squad of allied supermen the fill out the roster.

What do you think, Maniacs? How psyched are you for CAPTAIN AMERICA? Post your comments below...

Thanks to CaptainSigma, AntoBlueberry and sarCCastro for the submission.