Robert Downey, Jr. reveals some new Iron Man 3 clues. Plus Bryan Singer on X-Men: Days of Future Past!

A producer for The Wolverine explains precisely why Logan ends up in Japan. Sam Raimi talks about the relationship between Oz the Great and Powerful and previous Wizard of Oz stories. One of cinema's greatest batshit insane directors wants to bring Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan back to the screen. Plus a bunch of new photos for upcoming superhero movies!

It's all spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Oz the Great and Powerful.

Iron Man 3

Star Robert Downey, Jr. discusses a sequence from the movie and what returning costar Don Cheadle brings to the part of James Rhodes, otherwise known as War Machine:

We've just been talking about one sequence –- the top-secret name is the Boot/Glove Sequence, I can tell you that, just between you and me -– it's where Tony only has one gauntlet and one boot and he has to escape multiple captors. It's really fun, dude. We're taking everything from his first gauntlet test in the first movie up through the most extreme stuff we thought up for Iron Man 2 and The Avengers and pulling on all of it and making this one big, extended challenge of physics...

Rhodey is much more in the dead center of things. He's much more dynamic. We've made this decision that while Tony is a technical guy, he's not really a trained guy. There's a lot of fun to be had with Don because he's really good with hardware and he's a martial artist, so it's been really fun exploiting this possibility of Tony having moments like the one in Avengers, like the one with Cap where he decides, "Oh screw it, he probably knows what he's doing." So there's a lot of that and a lot more fun and a lot more depth to Rhodey this time around.


Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Iron Man 3 writer-director Shane Black discuss with Empire Magazine the new character Maya Hansen, as played by The Town's Rebecca Hall:

Feige: Maya is a scientist who makes a pretty astounding discovery that leads her to places - and some are healthier than others. It's not dissimilar to what Tony's been through, and it's a great parallel.

Black: It's one thing we loved about the comic book, which was that it's someone Tony meets in one capacity at one point in his life, and he proves to be touched by that encounter. We needed a snappy and exciting actor to play the part, and not make it this 'female scientist who takes off her glasses and suddenly she's beautiful!' There's a certain element about her being the female Robert Downey Jr in a way.

[Comic Book Movie]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

While the big casting news is that Marc Webb is apparently trying to build a Sinister Six composed entirely of stars of the 2004 Best Picture Nominees — next up, expect to see Thomas Haden Church back as Sandman, plus Leonardo DiCaprio as Mysterio, Johnny Depp as Morbius, and Clint Eastwood as Vulture, obviously — there are also reports of another new cast member. British actress Felicity Jones, who is probably best known in the US for her main role in the 2011 romantic drama Like Crazy, is reportedly in negotiations for an undisclosed role. [Heat Vision]

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Returning director Bryan Singer discusses what to expect from the First Class followup:

"It's epic. I don't think people realize how big this movie's going to be. We get to bring both casts together. We've cracked it in a way that it makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick wtih them. That's why Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions and characters, that make this possible. It has a lot of aspects of the comic. The actual comic of Days Of Future Past had a whole ton of stuff going on, so it's like any of these things; you have to distill it. But I think the fans will be pleased that some of the most exciting parts of Days Of Future Past are going to be connected to this movie."

He also reveals that the film will acknowledge the continuity of all previous X-Men movies, including The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, even if no one particularly required that of him:

I'm taking into account every movie – I'm not just grabbing my first two movies and First Class and smashing them together. I'm taking into account the entire universe as it's been laid out so far on the screen, and really respecting it and trying to work with that. People took things in various directions, so there's some clean-up. But ultimately I'm not just ignoring them either."

[Empire Online]

The Wolverine

Producer Hutch Parker offers the most detailed explanation yet as to just why Wolverine finds himself in Japan, and he also confirms that the World War II prison camp seen in set photos is part of a flashback sequence:


[Comic Book Movie]

View gallery »

A bunch of new promo photos — albeit not always super high quality — have surfaced for various superhero movies. Let's run through them, starting with The Wolverine. [/Film]

Thor: The Dark World


Next up, the Thor sequel. [/Film]

Man of Steel

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And now onto Zack Snyder's Superman movie. [/Film]

Kick-Ass 2

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Finally, a couple photos from the Kick-Ass followup. [/Film]

Oz the Great and Powerful

Spider-Man director Sam Raimi explains how his Wizard of Oz prequel connects both to the 1939 film and L. Frank Baum's original books:

"I think The Wizard Of Oz is such a great film and I would never attempt to [remake that]. You could call [Oz] a prequel, that would be accurate - but I didn't have to re-invent any of that fantastic history. Mitchell [Kapner, screenwriter] took about 40 per cent of the events that were sprinkled here and there about Oz from Baum's books and really created the other 60 per cent himself out of his imagination, because there just wasn't enough there. I gave him notes, I brought aboard a second writer to help fill out some other areas of the story, my brother did a little work on the script, and all the actors contributed. It really was a very big collaboration."

[Total Film]

Here's a teaser for the movie's upcoming Super Bowl ad. Yes, it's a commercial for a commercial. [Coming Soon]

The Legend of Conan

As a general rule, I try to avoid stories where it's just some random, unconnected person saying they would like to be involved in a project. But when it's Paul Verhoeven saying he wants to reteam with his Total Recall star Arnold Schwarzenegger to make a new Conan the Barbarian movie, well... yeah, exceptions must be made:

"If they asked me, I'd certainly love to — let's put it that way. But I don't know what the script is. I don't know what Arnold wants. I'm a big fan in fact of Conan. That's a great movie and I found that the composer, Basil Poledouris, basically inspired many of my movies [the soundtracks] like Flesh and Blood, RoboCop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall. The score of Conan is great. The style of editing that Milius used was very beautiful, and Arnold does a great job. He was really the perfect choice."

For what it's worth, the creative team has said they want an A-list director to helm Schwarzenegger's return to one of his more iconic characters. Verhoeven probably doesn't qualify as A-list these days, but he's got the kind of style and cachet that distinguishes him from a lot of other likely contenders. [IGN]

Person of Interest

[gallery 5979414]Here are some promo photos for this Thursday's episode, "Dead Reckoning." [SpoilerTV]

Once Upon a Time

Here's the description for episode fourteen, "Manhattan", which airs February 17:

WHILE MR. GOLD GOES IN SEARCH OF SON BAE IN NEW YORK, CORA ATTEMPTS TO TRACK DOWN ONE OF RUMPLESTILTSKIN'S MOST TREASURED POSSESSIONS, ON ABC'S "ONCE UPON A TIME" – While Mr. Gold, Emma and Henry go in search of Gold's son Bae in New York, Cora, Regina and Hook attempt to track down one of Rumplestiltskin's most treasured possessions. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Rumplestiltskin realizes his destiny while fighting in the Ogres War.


Here's a promo for season two.

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Here are some promo photos for episode three, "Enemy of My Enemy." [SpoilerTV]


Here are two promos for tomorrow night's episode, "As Time Goes By."


Here's a pair of promos for this Wednesday's episode, "Vertigo."

The Vampire Diaries

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Here are some promo photos for this Thursday's episode, "A View to a Kill." [SpoilerTV]

Being Human (UK)


Here's a cast photo of the series five cast. [SpoilerTV]

Here's an extended promo for the fifth series premiere, "The Trinity."

Being Human (US)

Star vampire Sam Witwer discusses what changes to expect both off-camera and on-camera in season three:


Even though there is this flu killing vampires, it still seems lighter than Aidan's brutal storyline last year.

[TV Guide]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.