Welcome to Issue 2 of ‘The Marvelous Da7e!’
Real quick mission statement: this column is for discussion of superhero movie news and superhero movies. Titular allegiance aside, this sphere includes non-Marvel properties.
This week: Directors free up the PR gridlock on information we have on Marvel properties outside of Marvel Studios, so what do we know?
It’s been an interesting time to meander into the second week of a column about superhero movies while my LR colleagues have declared a Scoop War on (ostensibly) my favorite comics movie studio. Superhero movies should know the side effect of being the biggest, most-expensive game out there is that everyone wants a piece of you. Just ask Michael Jackson, who died four years ago this week: he knew a thing or two about increased scrutiny bringing out the extremes in a person and that person’s audience.
We didn’t ruin the Mandarin for anyone in Iron Man 3 nor was there enough information about Guardians of the Galaxy at the time we started Marvel-ing for to be spoiled, but still I received that letter, and we still had that choice moment where /Film discovered that Kevin Fiege is considering “punishment” possibly just for us.
Chances are I will not be on set for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and although I’d love to go see Guardians filming, I doubt I’ll be headed out to London anytime soon, because Marvel Studios does not think you should know anything about their movies, really.
On the flip side, we as fans want to know everything about these movies and if you’re here, you do too. Which makes us something like addicts when it comes to the splinter franchises with Sony and 20th Century Fox. Both studios have Marvel properties that will be tentpoles next year and both studios should be bringing something to Comic Con next month (though I’d imagine Fox is sweating out their arbitrary definition of “spoiler” since it’d be easier to have people talk about things than devote render time to footage). The Spider-Man and X-Men franchises have large fanbases that have proven they are willing to stick with the characters through lackluster installments in the franchise (in the case of X-Men, no luster installment(s)). Not only do we pay to see these movies, but we surf the internet to find more information about them.
One of the ways Marvel Studios and Sony/Fox differ in their relationship to their fanbase we can attribute squarely to the directors on the project: the twitter accounts of Marc Webb (director, Amazing Spider-Man 2) and Bryan Singer (director Days of Future Past). Both directors tweeted (slash-are-still-tweeting) pictures from set and neither cleared this with their parent studio beforehand. I’d suspect 20th Century Fox wants Singer to stop, but they can’t actually stop him, so dissemination of information is back in the director’s hands. This fan/writer is happy about that because it shows there are things to enjoy from production that the director is happy to share (*cough* Eric Snider’s “Why Can’t We Let Filmmakers Tell Stories On Their Own Terms?”)
We got a bunch of beautiful shots from Marc Webb during the now-finished production of Amazing Spider-Man 2 even though we got the majority of our “spoilers” from spy-photos captured during outdoor scenes, those are only spoilers as far as informed speculation takes us. While the official word was in the tweets with Sony, Fox and X-Men have decided to shoot a bunch of indoor stuff, taking over an entire arena in Canada to keep the future free of spy photos.
So, knowing that Singer is the number one source for X-Men: Days of Future Past news, let’s find out some stuff we’ve learned and see if I can help interpret and/or elaborate.
Picture before picture. Tomorrow it begins. @SirPatStew #XMen #DaysOfFuturePast pic.twitter.com/tj1oMGfcZW
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) April 14, 2013
DA7E SAYS: Behold Future Charles Xavier. Please note that he is standing, as he will be in the film. Future Charles has learned to manipulate his surroundings to a greater extent than the 1970s, James McAvoy version who was paralyzed at the end of X:Men: First Class. Reports that James Mangold filmed a post credits sequence for The Wolverine in an airport with walking Patrick Stewart meeting Hugh Jackman suggests both the walking and this other thing…
Fitting @RealHughJackman pic.twitter.com/LwhpJ6lSCj — Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) April 30, 2013
DA7E SAYS: We seem to be seeing a lot of Wolverine. Wolverine on set, Wolverine and Beast (below), Wolverine in 70s clothes leaning against a car in set photos. Ellen Page’s Kitty Pryde is great, but let’s stop all the speculation: Wolverine is our main character. He’s the only one who has been established as being in both timelines and since time travel in Days of Future Past takes place not physically, but IN THE MIND, Wolverine is the constant vessel. That’s going to be the first in many departures from the comic book version of this story.
Welcome to 1973. @RealHughJackman @NicholasHoult #XMen #DaysOfFuturePast pic.twitter.com/4IP4ftZejc — Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) May 13, 2013
DA7E SAYS: A super-powerful Professor X tosses Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to 1973 and… BEAST IS HUMAN AGAIN?!??! This was something I had to run by my well-placed sources as soon as possible. Have no fear: I’m assured that Beast being able to transform from human-to-blue at will is not happening. However, Beast will show signs of evolution, much like his comics counterpart. That’s how cat-like Beast becomes this movie’s wolf-man Beast and could presumably become Kelsey Grammar’s X3 beast. This, if Nick Hoult is actually going to appear as a human and this isn’t just some sort of set-up shot before makeup comes in, could be a mental illusion by a powerful telepath or it could have something to do with the cure child from X3 (named Jimmy in the film, called Leech in the comics) who is still in-canon and appears in the Days of Future Past comic. Don’t know exactly what this photo is, but I can calm your nerves: I don’t think they’re messing with Beast.
Reviewing tomorrow’s work on the flight back to Montreal with #PeterDinklage #XMen #daysoffuturepast pic.twitter.com/8uh8SNLYY0
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) May 20, 2013
DA7E SAYS: Here’s director Bryan Singer with Bolivar Trask, the inventor of the Sentinels, but not the black version of Trask we saw Bill Duke play in X3. I guess they haven’t officially announced that Peter Dinklage is playing Bolivar Trask, just that Trask will be the villain, but you can trust me and I’ve had it confirmed: Dinklage = Trask. The original comic book Trask design had him modeled after Walt Disney so giving Dinklage a mustache (though not a Walt/Hitler) is a nice touch, almost as nice a touch as a little person designing giant robots to kill mutants (people born different…like him!). If Trask is the big bad and that ‘stache keeps him out of the future, the plot starts to fall together…
#xmen #DaysOfFuturePast pic.twitter.com/pZMvY5G4VM
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) June 18, 2013
DA7E SAYS: Something bad happens in Paris, that causes President Nixon to call a press conference where he’ll likely start/activate Sentinel Program…or get assassinated…or both? The Days of Future Past comic has Kitty travel back in her own mind to prevent the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly, the guy we saw turned to jelly in the first X-Men movie. Assuming Kelly’s out and Black Trask doesn’t exist, we’re nowhere closer to knowing what event Wolverine has to prevent in the movie is. In the comic storyline House of M, Trask is shown as the Vice-President in an alternate reality. Could Trask be trying to get into government somehow? Or am I just grafting Iron Man 3‘s Vice President plot into another movie?
Every mutant needs a place to sit #XMen #DaysOfFuturePast https://t.co/hRHc7Q8zMR
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) April 24, 2013
DA7E SAYS: BISHOP?!?!?! This Vine still haunts me, because Bishop is the “Terminator” in the cartoon adaptation of Days of Future Past. He actually goes through a portal, as opposed to the comics’ mind-travel. The existence of Bishop in this movie could be awesome, or it could be an X-Men Origins: Wolverine level throwaway for one of the X-Franchises most beloved time-warped characters. Best case scenario, the inclusion of a Warpath chair means the future X-Men we see might be X-Force, which is…just cool. Worst case scenario, someone yells “Bishop, watch out!” right before a black time-traveller gets vaporized by a Sentinel.
There you go: Some of that was informed conjecture and some of it was sourced, but the important thing is the directors of these films are fanning fan flames in a way that we love to endlessly discuss as studios get mad at them for doing it while threatening to “punish” those of us that don’t mind some speculation.
The thing about the phrase “Make Mine Marvel” is it stops being alliterative AND true if you try to say: “Make Mine Marvel Studios.”
PS -
I highly recommend getting "The Uncanny X-Men" Days of Future Past storyline digitally.
Even if you've read it in the past.
It's fun to relive with actors faces on there (in your imagination).