Free Republic

Two years ago, Wonder Woman proved a female-led superhero movie could reach the highest levels of the genre, with Gal Gadot proving robust and redoubtable, yet also charming and feminine. I spent Captain Marvel waiting for Gadot. What I got was Brie Larson: charmless, humorless, a character so without texture that she might as well be made out of aluminum. Captain Marvel might be the first blockbuster movie whose animating idea is fear. Every page of the script betrays terror of what people might say about the film on social media. Give Carol Danvers a love interest? Eek! No, women...

"So after careful reflection, it looks like I was entirely wrong in my thinking about this movie, and now I've seen the light. The following is an explanation of my mistakes, and a heartfelt apology to Marvel and Brie Larson."

The latest instance of Marvel Studios wringing out every last drop of ink they can is “Captain Marvel.” Never heard of her? That’s because this is the character’s first appearance in a major film. Plundering the vault for lesser-known creations has paid off for the Disney-owned company so far: “Black Panther” made over $1 billion and scored a Best Picture nomination. “Captain Marvel,” on the other hand, made an Oscar winner best known for playing a captive mother take on a role she is 100-percent wrong for while attempting to sell Jude Law to us as an action star like...

As Marvel Studios begins its search for the cast of the 2020 feature film, The Eternals, we at That Hashtag Show have learned that they are looking to cast an openly gay actor for a lead role in the film. During the press coverage of Ant-Man and The Wasp last year, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige stated that the studio was working towards bringing a new, LGBTQ character to the mix in the near future. As it turns out, that future is nearly upon us as the studio searches for an actor, 30-49, who “physically looks like a superhero” for...

[snip] Trolls have already begun trashing "Captain Marvel," dropping it's rating to 63 percent before anyone has even seen it. At least part of the online vitriol seems to stem from fans misunderstanding "Marvel" star Brie Larson's call for more inclusivity during press tours into an attack on white men overall. [snip] Below are just a few examples of the kinds of comments that are dropping her RT scores and note that virtually none of these have anything to do with the content of the film, which is the point of the site. Instead they are largely attacks on Larson...

Avengers: Endgame came out on top in Atom Tickets’ ranking of the most anticipated 2019 film releases. The survey by the social movie ticketing app, whose backers include Lionsgate, Disney and Fox, placed Captain Marvel and Toy Story 4 second and third, respectively. Endgame, though, finished on top of several lists (for most anticipated overall movie, ensemble cast and superhero movie) by “wide margins,” the company said. The preview list follows a forecast last week from Fandango, which also had Avengers leading the pack. “Although we expect to see some movement in preferences as release dates near and studios ramp...

l“Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up,” Marvel’s David Gabriel said. At October’s Comic Con in New York, Marvel was confronted by comic book retailers who blamed the diversity push for killing sales.

The clothing chain Forever 21 said they were sorry for hiring a white model to sell its new “Black Panther” sweater, which has the words “Wakanda Forever” on the front. Of course, the film “Black Panther” broke ground, not only in the box office, but for being the first Black superhero movie to get major studio backing. The predominantly Black cast was also a different look for a superhero film, so many believed the person who modeled the sweater should’ve been Black....

The first Avengers: Endgame trailer hit the Internet on Friday morning, swiftly becoming the most-viewed movie trailer ever in just 24 hours. According to The Walt Disney Company, which owns Marvel Studios, the preview garnered a stunning 289 million views the first day. It beat the previous record holder — Avengers: Infinity War — by more than 50 million views.

Part of the journey is the end.

HONG KONG — An angry Chinese public is accusing Marvel Studios of “insulting China” after learning that its first Asian superhero on the big screen will be the son of Fu Manchu, the offensive fictional character who has become a shorthand for racial stereotyping. Chinese-American screenwriter Mr Dave Callaham, whose movie credits include 1984’s Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2, is working on a script for a film showcasing Shang-Chi, who first appeared in Marvel’s comics in the 1970s. According to Hollywood Reporter, Marvel is expecting Shang-Chi, also known as the Master of Kung Fu in the Marvel...

Marvel Studios is fast-tracking Shang-Chi to be its first superhero movie tentpole franchise with an Asian protagonist. The studio has set Chinese-American scribe Dave Callaham to write the screenplay, and Deadline hears Marvel is already looking at a number of Asian and Asian-American directors who want to do something as potentially monumental as was accomplished in Marvel’s first viable Best Picture candidate, Black Panther. That film tied into African and African American cultures and the sensibilities of its nearly all-black cast, with a black director in Ryan Coogler and writer in Joe Robert Cole. The goal here is to do...

Forty years ago the big holiday hit was Superman, Hollywood’s very first superhero blockbuster. Warner Bros marketed the movie by promising the sky to moviegoers: “You’ll believe a man can fly.” Now, four decades later, that promise should be rewritten to reflect a new era of superhero blockbusters: “You better believe a woman can fly, too.” Deadline broke the news this week that Sony is ramping up a Spider-Women film that will feature three female iterations of Marvel’s wall-crawling Spider-Man and a script by Bek Smith. The project joins a growing wave of female superhero projects in the works that...

Stan Lee, the man who co-created Marvel Comics, has died ... Stan's daughter tells TMZ. We're told an ambulance rushed to Lee's Hollywood Hills home early Monday morning and he was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. We're told that's where he died. Lee had suffered several illnesses over the last year or so -- he had a bout of pneumonia and vision issues. Stan started Marvel with Jack Kirby in 1961 with The Fantastic Four. He went on to create Spider-Man, Black Panther, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man and The Avengers. Stan made cameo appearances in all of the...

Hollywood rode a powerhouse summer lineup to post double-digit gains in box office and attendance, setting itself up to hit a new full-year record haul in 2018 as long as the holiday season delivers. According to figures just out from the National Association of Theatre Owners, summer box office totaled $4.398 billion, up more than 14% over the previous year. Admissions hit nearly 483 million, up 12%. Each of the top five grossers in the third quarter qualifies as an upside surprise: Mission: Impossible – Fallout; Ant-Man and the Wasp; Crazy Rich Asians; Hotel Transylvania 3; and The Meg. For...

Just a week after Marvel announced at New York Comic Con that Star Wars author Chuck Wendig would be penning a Darth Vader miniseries, Wendig says that he’s been removed from the series as well as from an unannounced Star Wars book after he was temporarily suspended from Twitter earlier this week. In a series of tweets, Wendig noted that he was fired from the remainder of the series “because of the negativity and vulgarity that my tweets bring... It was too much politics, too much vulgarity, too much negativity on my part.” A Marvel spokesperson confirmed that Wendig had...

Tom Hardy's Spider Man spin-off movie Venom was labelled a 'complete failure' by critics and audiences alike following the world premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Critics scathingly tore into the movie as they claimed it felt 'dated', with one reviewer warning other people to steer clear of the film at the cinema. Starring Hardy as the lead, the superhero flick tells the story of journalist Eddie Brock who becomes infected with an alien symbiote that gives him powers.

[Snip] Captain Marvel could be another $1 billion+ worldwide grosser. However, that’s not remotely a guarantee at this premature juncture. It may not even match the domestic ($413 million) and worldwide ($821m) totals of Wonder Woman. Unless Marvel and Walt Disney went uncharacteristically over budget, it won’t have to. Should Captain Marvel find itself on the defensive when it “only” earns about what Ant-Man and the Wasp ($621m) pulled in? Wonder Woman benefited from rave reviews and a narrative of Gal Gadot’s female superhero “saving” the DCEU after the critically-slammed Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. It offered a solo...

Marvel Studios has unveiled the first full trailer for the MCU’s upcoming and highly anticipated installment, Captain Marvel. The 1990s-set film serves as Marvel Studios’ first prequel, as well as its first superhero movie with a female lead as Oscar-winner Brie Larson plays Carol Danvers, a pilot with superhuman powers who gets caught up in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races Larson is joined by Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D. members Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, both of whom will be getting the digital de-aging treatment in the 90s-set storyline. Other familiar faces...

In this week’s special Variety issue on transgender Hollywood, Caitlyn Jenner talked about how she’s secretly meeting with members of Congress to fight for equality. But just as surprisingly, she also revealed that she might be open to acting. Jenner said that her dream role would be a comic-book villainess. “In a Marvel movie, I want to play the baddest-ass lady you’ve ever seen in your life,” Jenner said. “They got the wicked queen or the wicked lady. Just do the makeup and the outfit. And I got the deep voice.” Before she transitioned, Jenner co-starred on TV’s “CHiPs” and...