Sci-Fi Movies Thursday: Captain America, Tron Legacy, Clash of the Titans, X-Men, Avatar 2, Transformers 3 + more

In Sci-Fi Movies this week we finally have our Captain America. There is also more fun viral stuff for Tron Legacy, news on sequels to Avatar and Clash of the Titans, casting for Transformers 3, director updates for Avengers and X-Men: First Class, and more genre movie news. Plus we have all the images and videos.

GENRE MOVIE NEWS

Chris Evans is Captain America
After weeks of rumors (including one about Chris Pine), Chris Evans ("Fantastic Four") has accepted Marvel’s offer to play Captain America / Steve Rogers in Joe Johnston’s "The First Avenger: Captain America". The deal reportedly calls for Evans to appear in up to three ‘Captain America’ movies plus appearances in "The Avengers" and other Marvel movies. "The First Avenger: Captain America" starts shooting this summer in the UK and is scheduled to hit theaters on July 22, 2011.

New Tron Legacy viral event
Disney has announced a new arm of their Viral marketing campaign for Joseph Kosinski’s "Tron Legacy".  They have scheduled a new meet up at WonderCon in San Francisco next Friday [Encom International]:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

ALAN BRADLEY TO HEADLINE MAJOR ENCOM PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT

Newly-minted Executive Consultant Alan Bradley will introduce the latest addition to the Encom International product library on April 2 in San Francisco.

Software giant Encom ushered in the digital age with an unrivaled library of gaming titles. Now, Encom International circles the globe with advanced software systems that include communications, sports, entertainment, navigation, agricultural, health care, construction, weather, military and governmental applications on every continent.

Read the rest of the release here. In related news, IGN has posted a video interview with Bradley (played by Bruce Boxleitner). Watch it below.

Disney monorail featuring Tron art [DisneyParks Blog]

Clash of the Titans sequels already written + Leterrier on shortlist to direct Avengers?
"Clash of the Titans" director Louis Leterrier told First Showing that he originally signed on to make a trilogy for Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures and has written an entire story for the three movies:

"…I wrote two other movies… It was three movies. Warners came to me and said ‘we’ll greenlight your movie if you promise us [two more.]’" He continues, "You can tell that that story the story doesn’t end at the Clash of the Titans… And I said ‘thanks a lot’ because I love doing that. And I had to write two stories. So Clash of the Titans is, and especially ‘Titans’ is, actually a bigger movie. So ‘Titans’ are coming…I actually love wanting more out of a movie," he says.

Of course before we see any sequels, ‘Clash’ will have to perform well at the box office when it hits this Friday. One thing that Warner Brothers is hoping will help increase that box office is their decision to convert the film to 3D.  On that front, WB showcased about 7-10 minutes of 3D clips from the film at ShoWest and some found it to be underwhelming: [/Film]:

I will be completely honest — it did not look great. It looked passable. General audiences might not notice the difference, but they will feel it.

To me, the live-action post-converted 3D footage looked very unnatural. At times the characters appeared to stand out like cardboard cutouts, while other times they appeared to be graphed to a computer generated 3D model, and it just looked odd. The computer animated elements look a bit better, but as a whole it was a subpar experience.

In other news, Louis Leterrier revealed that he is on the shortlist to direct Marvel’s "The Avengers": "…but I’m at the bottom of the shortlist, I’m sure. (Laughs) I don’t know who the other guys are, but I have a great relationship with [Marvel], and I’ve been very vocal to them and everyone else that I am the one to direct it."

Promotional stills [more at /Film]

Could Jack and Giant Killer keep Singer from directing X-Men: First Class?
Bryan Singer may not be directing "X-Men: First Class" after all.  HitFix is reporting that 20th Century Fox is "actively searching for directors to step in and helm the film, with discussions with at least two other filmmakers as recently as last week."  The problem relates to Singer’s commitment to Warner Brothers’ "Jack the Giant Killer" which means he may not be free to direct ‘First Class’:

The filmmakers that they’re approaching now about directing "X-Men: First Class" are good names, guys who either have real experience in the comic book movie medium or who have heavy credibility with fan audiences. Names that would make fanboys happy from the first moment they’re announced. I’m curious to see who else they meet with in the next few weeks now that their first few choices have passed. Those meetings, exclusively reported by HitFix, make it seem like no matter what public face they’re putting on things, Fox is making plans as if Singer will not be free.

James Cameron talks Avatar DVD/Blu-ray, Avatar 2 and Battle Angel
The April 22nd DVD/Blu-ray release of "Avatar" will contain just the movie, but director James Cameron talked about what fans will have to look forward to with this November’s special edition release. Cameron says the special edition will include an extended cut with six minutes of footage back in, plus options to watch an earlier cut of the film with about 30-35 minutes of additional footage (although not all of it will be completed):

If you do that one experience, you’ll watch a movie that’s only about six minutes longer, but it’s seamless. If you do the other experience, you’re going to watch a movie that’s much longer and has a lot of stuff in it that you won’t recognize, some of which won’t be finished. It will be a little bit more like some of the Disney stuff that they do where they leave pencil tests in for scenes that were never done. That’s really more of a fan’s exploration of what the movie might have been, or a lot of the ideas that fed into it.

The Blu-ray will also feature a picture-in-picture mode:

We’ll literally have a parallel cut, where you can watch it just in the reference cameras…the essence of it and the moment is exactly what you see in the final film. It’s just people in black leotards. It’s pretty wild. It’s pretty amazing. The thing that I think is really cool is when you do it in a picture-in-picture, so you see the final image of Neytiri and you see what Zoe is doing, and it’s identical.

A 3D Blu-ray version is also expected, although probably not until next year when there’s more market penetration for the new technology. Cameron also revealed that there’s a deleted scene from the film which he may withhold until the sequel:

"There’s a scene that I’m specifically not putting in the deleted scenes in any form because it’s a scene that I want to preserve for a future film. I’m not going to say what it is, but that’s absolutely a consideration."

20th Century Fox also announced a new initiative to plant 1 million trees for the DVD/Blu-ray’s Earth Day release. Details here. In other news, Cameron says he’s still deciding between whether to move on to another project such as "Battle Angel" or move right into "Avatar 2":

"I’ve got to decide," Cameron said. "Do I want to go back and do Battle Angel and come back to Avatar later, or just plow on with Avatar? Do I want to go do something completely different like this Mars project that’s been floating around out there for the last 12 years that I actually started making the 3-D cameras in the first place in order to shoot? There are a number of options. I haven’t decided. Dive’s another possibility. I’ve got too many possibilities, not enough time."

Inception footage described
Christopher Nolan debuted footage from his upcoming "Inception" at ShoWest last weekend, revealing a few more details about the secretive project.  Here’s an excerpt from CinemaBlend’s report:

Perhaps the biggest plot detail revealed is that Leonardo DiCaprio’s investigator character isn’t just using technology to jump into peoples’ minds, but into their dreams– as he sees it there are people who would use this dream-investigation technology for evil, and it’s up to him and partner Joseph Gordon-Levitt to stop them. One of the few dialogue scenes involves the two of them explaining their job to Ken Wantanabe’s character, though it’s unclear exactly who he is and if he’s on their side during the action scenes we see later. And despite initial speculation that Gordon-Levitt may be a villain character, he and DiCaprio seems to be partners– though DiCaprio does let him have it in one scene, which might mean a rift develops between them that makes Gordon-Levitt the villain in the end.

"Inception" is scheduled to hit conventional and IMAX theaters on July 16, 2010.

Wes Craven to direct Scream 4; Set for April 2011
Dimension Films has confirmed that they are moving forward with "Scream 4" and original trilogy director Wes Craven will return to direct. Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette will all return, but they’ll be joined by a new younger cast.  The film will begin shooting this spring and is scheduled to hit theaters on April 12, 2011.

Malkovich, McDormand and Jeong join Transformers 3 + Bay unhappy with 3D post-conversion
"Transformers 3" director Michael Bay posted a message on his official website announcing that John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and Ken Jeong have joined the cast and also revealed a new Autobot vehicle; the Ferrari 458 Italia. Deadline New York reports that Malkovich will play Shia’s first boss and McDormand will play the National Intelligence Director.  It’s unknown what role Jeong ("The Hangover") will play.  Bay also revealed that the film begins pre-shoots "in about one month" and they will shoot in LA, Chicago, Washington DC, Florida, Texas, Africa, Moscow, and China.  In related news, a set report obtained by Superhero Hype! seems to indicate that the movie will be going to the moon:

"There’s some big stuff being built here, man," says the spy. "One end of the soundstage had some wooden structures. Another area they were chopping away at Styrofoam to create a rocky terrain. And the crew was rolling along something that looked like a giant gear. I breezed on by the ‘model’ shop and, while I couldn’t get a good look inside, there were a lot of moon reference photos and NASA moon lander pics. I could have sworn I saw a Transformer, again, didn’t get a good look."

Meanwhile, Michael Bay told Mike Fleming of Deadline New York that there isn’t enough time to shoot "Transformers 3" in 3D if they stick to its current release date and he is not interested in doing the 3D conversion in post:

"I shoot complicated stuff, I put real elements into action scenes and honestly, I am not sold right now on the conversion process,” says Michael Bay. Paramount and DreamWorks are pressuring him to allow Transformers 3 to be dimensional-ized after the fact, because there simply isn’t enough time to shoot with 3D camera and post the film between now and its July 1, 2011 release date.

"I am trying to be sold, and some companies are still working on the shots I gave them," Bay said. "Right now, it looks like fake 3D, with layers that are very apparent. You go to the screening room, you are hoping to be thrilled, and you’re thinking, huh, this kind of sucks. People can say whatever they want about my movies, but they are technically precise, and if this isn’t going to be excellent, I don’t want to do it. And it is my choice."

In related news, Josh Duhamel confirmed that the script is finished and says he’s read it and says he "was really pleasantly surprised and happy. They did a great job." Duhamel dodged a question when asked if we may see Dinobots in the movie: "I can’t tell you," he said. "Transformers 3" is scheduled to hit theaters on July 1, 2011.

PREVIEW Videos & Images

A Nightmare on Elm Street

MTV/Nightmare on Elm Street TV commericial interruptions [via Shock Till You Drop — behind the scenes images here]

Watch two more here and here

Beastly

Promotional stills [one more here]

Despicable Me

New movie trailer [Trailer Addict]

Hot Tub Time Machine

Promotional stills [more at IGN]

Red band clip [YouTube]

Watch two more clips here

Iron Man 2

International movie poster [Marvel.com]

Kick-Ass

Clip: "Meet the Mist Mobile" [MTV]

TV spot [YouTube / via Superhero Hype!]

Watch another TV spot here

The Losers

New movie poster [/Film]

Predators

Interview with Robert Rodriguez at SXSW [IGN]

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

Teaser trailer [Trailer Addict]

Toy Story 3

New characters: Dolly and Mr. Pricklepants [via /Film]

Character animations for Dolly and Mr. Pricklepants [YouTube & YouTube]

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Sneak peek [YouTube]

Watch another clip here

New movie poster [/Film]

Wanted 2

Mark Millar talks about the potential sequel [MTV Splash Page]

MOVIE BITES

• Warner Brothers president Alan Horn has confirmed that the studio is working on a fifth "Final Destination". [ComingSoon.net]

• There was a fire on the set of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", but it wasn’t as bad as originally feared. There was no damage and no one was hurt. [SCI FI Wire]

• "300" director Zack Snyder has revealed that Warner Brothers converted about 10 minutes of the film to 3D and that the studio may possibly re-release it in 3D sometime in the near future: "I saw maybe like a ten-minute section that they’d just done," he told us. "I haven’t seen the whole movie but they’re talking about doing the whole movie…"

• …In related news, Snyder revealed that he expects to see something from Frank Miller on his "300" prequel "Xerxes" and after that he’ll "take it and I’ll adapt it and make it into a movie and I’ll write a screenplay, but I want him to do whatever he thinks". [ComingSoon.net]

• Tim Burton’s next 3D animated project will reportedly be "Frankweenie". [AICN]

• Paramount Pictures is remaking the 1987 film "The Monster Squad". Rob Cohen, who produced the original, hopes to direct the remake and will produce with Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. [Deadline New York]

• Did Mickey Rourke, who plays Whiplash in "Iron Man 2", give away a big spoiler? Judge for yourself from this quote: "Well, the only thing I can tell you is that they had decided to kill me and we did film it with Gwyneth Paltrow. And then they came to New Mexico and re-shot it and now it’s left up in the air…". [Total Film via Comic Book Movie]

• Sam Worthington says he would like to reunite with director McG and star Christian Bale in a "Terminator Salvation" follow-up and even has an idea about how to go about doing it: "I had an idea that we’d go back in time to when Marcus was first put in jail," the actor explained." [MTV]

• Add Kristen Stewarts and Dakota Fanning to the list of ‘Twilight’ stars in favor of Gus Van Saint directing "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse": "Oh my god! He just makes stunning movies. I just love his work…I don’t know exactly what he would bring to the film but he’s [great]." [MTV Movies Blog]

• Disney has released the official synopsis for the Shawn Levy-directed futuristic boxing film "Real Steel" starring Hugh Jackman. [MovieWeb]

• "Batman Begins" / "The Dark Knight" composer Hans Zimmer says he would be in favor of having rumored villain The Riddler in Christopher Nolan’s third "Batman" film: "For me, I’d have an enormous amount of fun with The Riddler…There is such a wealth of fun to be had with a character like that." [MTV Splash Page]

• "Tron" director Steve Lisbeger talked about his cameo in Joseph Kosinski’s "Tron Legacy": "I’m a bartender at this place, [the] End of the Line Club. And that’s just Joe and Sean having fun with me I think. But I have a certain confrontation with Flynn in this club. I end up having to face my own creation. It’s all subtext. It’s not like I have a scene or anything like that." [Cinematical]

• Disney and writer Linda Woolverton are teaming for "Maleficient", a live-action adaption of the evil queen from the 1959 animated clasic "Sleeping Beauty". [Heat Vision Blog]

• Jane Godlman wrote the screenplay to Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of "Kick-Ass" and talks about her script in a new interview with The Guardian.

• Paul W.S. Anderson ("Resident Evil") has been signed to direct a 3D version of "Buck Rogers". "Iron Man" scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway will write the screenplay. [Deadline New York]

• Dimension Films has confirmed that "Piranha 3D" will hit theaters on August 27, 2010… [Variety]

• …and Robert Rodriguez’s 3D "Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World" has been set for August 19, 2011. [BOM]

• 20th Century Fox is reportedly going to release both "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (December 10, 2010) and "Gulliver’s Travels" (December 22, 2010) in 3D. [ComingSoon.net]

• Check out two reports from the set of Warner Brothers’ upcoming comic book adaptation "The Losers". [SCI FI Wire & Superhero Hype!]

• Longtime Peter Jackson collaborator Richard Taylor (art director at WETA) says Jackson gave up the director’s chair on the two ‘Hobbit’ films because he "probably felt a director such as Guillermo [del Toro] could bring something passionate and unique and original and new to the content for the sake of the fans." [Associated Press]

CASTING BITES

• Kellan Lutz has joined the cast of the Universal’s Greek mythology film "War of the Gods". Lutz will play Poseidon, lord of the sea. [Variety]

• Penélope Cruz will play Johnny Depp’s love interest in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides". [MTV]

• Olivia Munn has revealed that she has been given another role in "Iron Man 2": "Jon Favreau called and was like, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news: This is what’s happening in editing but we all really like you.’ Marvel and Jon had to add another character from the Marvel universe to keep me included." [Complex]

• Will Smith is reportedly torn between doing "Men in Black III" for Sony or 20th Century Fox’s fantasy-adventure "The City That Sailed". [Variety]

• Robert Downey Jr. revealed in an interview at SXSW that he’s ready to suit up for a third "Iron Man". [Associated Press]

Follow Russ on his blog: Your Entertainment Now and on Twitter: Twitter.com/YourEntNow.