The Phantom – Alex Ross paints a badass Ghost Who Walks

This is an alternate cover from a series called The Last Phantom. Due out from Dynamite in August.

Source: Bleeding Cool

Wolverine vs The Invisible Man

Captain America – Toby Jones to play Arnim Zola

It was recently confirmed that Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, The Wolf Man) was to play the Red Skull opposite Chris Evans’ Captain America. Today news is out that Toby Jones (The Mist, Infamous) is to play the evil Nazi scientist, Arnim Zola. Joe Johnston’s film is shaping up to have a great cast of actors.

Arnim Zola was a biochemist during World War II who became one of the first human genetic engineers in history after finding papers and equipment used by the offshoot race of humanity, the Deviants. He found a ready home among the Nazi party, who saw his actions as the ability to ensure the existence of a master race.

One of his first accomplishments was the creation of a brain pattern imprinting device, which would allow someone’s mental essence to be projected into a cloned brain. Zola presented such a gift to Adolf Hitler, creating the Hate-Monger.

Born with a frail, dwarfish body, Zola used his scientific skills to genetically fashion a new stronger body for himself. Having done so, Zola used the mind-transferrance technique he devised to project his mind into the cloned brain of his new body, a brain that he situated in the chest cavity where it would be more protected. Since the brains of all of his genetic creations were grown from cells of his own, he can mentally project his intelligence into any of his creations.

As you can see from the figure by Bruce Ross above, he looks sort of like Krang from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the 80s. I don’t think he will have that look in the Captain America film (well at least not at first) and will probably be a normal human mad scientist until some kind of accident or maniacal scheme. To be honest I think it is great that they have Zola involved as it may well give the necessary reason for the Red Skull to survive into the present day. However, it does mean that we may well see Toby Jones crop up in other Marvel Studios films and I could see him in The Avengers having created some kind of crazy looking army of genetic freaks.

Iron Man 2 – Heart Core T-Shirt

I’d rather have one which has a unit that lights up as it does in the film, but this is still pretty cool.

Iron Man 2 Heart Core T-Shirt

* Get to the heart of the matter with Iron Man!
* High-quality t-shirt featuring Tony Stark’s power center.
* Wear your favorite movies!

Iron Man 2 Heart Core T-Shirt. Show your own proof that Tony Stark has a heart with this 100% cotton, high-quality black t-shirt. Machine washable. Order yours today!

You can order it here.

Bruce Wayne is heading back to the present day

For those who didn’t know, Bruce Wayne didn’t die he was simply sent back to caveman times by Darkseid’s Omega Beams. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make any sense. This is comic book excellence and you just go with it.

He has been rumoured to return and that finally begins to happen next week with issue 1 of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne from Grant Morrison and Chris Sprouse.

This is the first of six time-hopping issues and starts in the caveman times.

Andy Kubert did the cover and it should be one hell of a journey.

CBR have a preview of the first image.

Howard Stark may be in Captain America

If you have seen Iron Man 2 (opening today in the States) you will know that Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr) father is in it. He shows up briefly on some old films that Tony watches.

As you may also know, the Captain America movie is going to be set mainly during World War 2. This means that Howard Stark (John Slattery) would have been in his prime back then. Plus being a mover and shaker in the technology world he would probably have been involved in some way with the Super Soldier project. Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) even mentions that Howard was involved in the formation of SHIELD.

MTV news spoke to director Jon Favreau about the possibility of Howard Stark showing up in the Captain America movie.

“Yeah, because he was around then,” confirmed Favreau.

“[‘Captain America’] is World War II,” he explained. “It wouldn’t be that same actor, probably, because he would be much younger.”

“[Howard Stark] was starting out during that time, and [he] was involved with the war effort, much like Howard Hughes,” said the filmmaker.

The Walking Dead – Laurie Holden joins the cast

The cast of Frank Darabont’s adaption of the Rober Kirkman apocalyptic zombie drama The Walking Dead has got more brains.

Laurie Holden (The Mist, The Majestic, The Shield, Silent Hill) will be joining the AMC production in the role of Andrea who is good with a sniper rifle and hooks up with Dale in the comics..

Newcomer Steven Yeun has been added to the cast as Glenn. He and Holden join Andrew Lincoln, Jeffrey DeMunn, Sarah Wayne Callies and Jon Bernthal on the show.

Do you think Holden is the right choice for Andrea?

Come on now. Show us the zombies.

Source: THR

X-Men: First Class gets Matthew Vaughn

I hadn’t reported on this earlier as there had been lots of conflicting news about it. However, Fox has closed a deal with Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) to direct X-Men: First Class and has set a release date of 3rd June 3 2011.

According to Heat Vision, Bryan Singer, who conceived the story for First Class and was to initially direct the movie before choosing to focus on Jack the Giant Killer for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, is producing along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg. Apparently he has also been doing some stealth casting for the film while casting for Jack the Giant Killer.

According to Fox, the film will “chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.”

Now I love the X-Men comic, well the one from a few years ago. Been tricky to keep up with it and I initially enjoyed the X-Men movies. The third was the poorest, but recent rewatches of them all have shown that they haven’t really aged that well. Not sure what it is, but I think the stories used a really slight. I would have loved for Fox to lose the rights to the characters so they would revert to Marvel Studios and the X-Men could be thrown into the mix of Iron Man, Thor etc. That’s just me and looks like it won’t be happening anytime soon.

I wonder if Vaugn will bring along his buddies Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher for the film? Maybe Mark Strong could play Xavier, although he’d be great as Magneto.

Instead we have the X-Men early days. What characters do you want to see in the film and who should play them? Should they have Wolverine in it?

Survival of the Dead – Cool poster by The Walking Dead’s Charlie Adlard

A very nice piece of artwork by Mr Adlard.

Immediately following the events of “Diary of the Dead,” “Survival of the Dead,” is the 6th film from George A. Romero to look at a world where Humans are in the minority and the zombies rule.

Off the coast of Delaware sits the cozy Plum Island where two families are locked in a struggle for power, as it has been for generations. The O’Flynn’s, headed by patriarch Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) approach the zombie plague with a shoot-to-kill attitude. The Muldoons, headed by Shamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick), feel that the zombies should be quarantined and kept ‘alive,’ in hopes that a solution will someday be found.

The O’Flynn’s, who are clearly outnumbered, are forced to exile Patrick by boat to the mainland, where he meets up with a band of soldiers, headed by Guardsman Sarge (Alan Van Sprang). They join forces and return to the island, to find that the zombie plague has fully gripped the divided community.

As the battle between humans and zombies escalates, the master filmmaker continues to reinvent the modern horror genre with wicked humor and pointed social commentary.

Source: MTV

Cowboys and Aliens – Sam Rockwell saddles up

Sam Rockwell working with Jon Favreau again in the adaptation of the comic book, Cowboys and Aliens

It starts shooting in June and Rockwell, who can currently be seen in Iron Man 2 as Justin Hammer, will be joining Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde and Harrison Ford.

Rockwell will play a bar owner named Doc who joins in the pursuit of the aliens. Once Favreau and the writers — Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof — learned that Rockwell was interested in the movie, they reconceived and expanded the role, which initially called for a heavy-set man.

Rockwell’s previous experience with Westerns was in 2007’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

I’m made up Rockwell will be in this sci-fi Western as I think he is a brilliant actor. From Lawn Dogs, Galaxy Quest through Charlie’s Angels Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Moon and more he is always great to watch.

Source: Heat Vision