Hugh Jackman Officially cast in an upcoming....Peter Pan film Project

News out of Warner Bros picture

An official announcement  has been made today confirming that Hugh Jackman will play the villain pirate Blackbeard in Joe Wright's upcoming untitled Peter Pan film. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, and Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Wright will direct the as-yet-untitled Peter Pan adventure from a screenplay by Jason Fuchs.

The film is set for a worldwide release on July 17, 2015

Warner Bros. new take on Peter Pan, now casting Hugh JAckman as vilain

From Variety

The casting for Joe Wright's take on the Peter Pan origin story, called simply Pan, has been coming together to start filming soon for its summer 2015 release date. The first major bit of casting news is that actor Hugh Jackman is in talks to play the villainous pirate Blackbeard, who will play the antagonist role normally filled by Captain Hook.

According to Variety, Warner Bros. had originally gone to Javier Bardem to play the role of Blackbeard but when he passed they went to the actor who had gotten critical praise for his performance in their thriller Prisoners earlier this year.

 Blackbeard is an interesting choice of villain since that's actually the name of a real pirate who plagued the high seas during the early 1700s, the nickname of one Edward Teach, and he recently appeared on film in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as played by Ian McShane.

Based on a screenplay by Jason Fuchs (Ice Age: Continental Drift) and produced by Greg Berlanti, the movie acts as an origin story about an orphan taken into the world of Neverland where he becomes a hero to the natives by leading a revolt against the pirates who terrorize them. While Blackbeard would be the antagonist, Hook would still appear in the film as Pan's ally before turning bad. (Reportedly, Ryan Gosling has already passed on the role of Hook.)

The studio has begun an open casting to find a young new actor to play the title role as well as looking for a mid-20s actress to play his love interest Tiger Lily.

Pan is already scheduled for a release date of June 26, 2015.

New images from upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past

Coming out of French (France) magazine, Studio Cine Live, new images from the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past.
The cover of the magazine shows what looks to be the new Wolverine swagger...not the better known blue and yellow which may have been reported earlier but a rather darker attire.
See image below

The Wolverine Alternate Ending with different original blue & yellow costume

In an interview with Superherohype, The Wolverine director James Mangold talks about the upcoming DVD release as well as an alternative ending for the film...he also answers the questions about why the blue and yellow costume came about.

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Superherohype: Oh definitely. Now before I let you go, I have to ask about that alternate ending where we see Wolverine's classic costume (pictured below), was that your idea and why didn't it make the final cut?

James Mangold: It was my idea and it was something I tried, I improvised on the set. The box was actually empty on the set when shot the material with Hugh and Rila, but I tried it out because I was just curious. I had also felt the fans' desire to see something like that, obviously the fans' desire to see something more than that. The trick was that I felt like, and I think the studio felt strongly that I was kind of handing a hot potato to whatever films followed in the sense that it's one they couldn't fulfill or one that we didn't know if they could fulfill since we hadn't even scripted them yet. So this implication that he would be wearing them in the next film which I couldn't guarantee since I didn't even know where I or who or what would be making one, and I certainly didn't want to burden Bryan (Singer, director of X-Men: Days of Future Past) with suddenly based upon the last six seconds of the film throwing a wrench in the works of what he was up to. But I also have to say, for Wolverine fans I felt it would be hugely rewarding, but when we screened it, and we did with that ending on, it was very interesting that 60% of the audience didn't understand what was in the box. So you also have the fact that you're going to be ending a movie with a moment where a huge majority of the audience was going to be going “Huh?” So that definitely wasn't a feeling I wanted, but I was very torn about it and thought it worked. It also bumped a little when I went to Montreal and shot the credit scene that kicks you toward “Future Past,” it seemed to bump against that. You're showing him open the box and have a costume in the end and then you're coming from black and having him wearing street clothes. It just seemed like we were creating more questions than we were answering and maybe it wasn't the most responsible thing to do.

X-Men & Avengers CROSSOVER news and Marvel Avengers: Age of Ultron casting news

Joss Whedon was recently asked about his thoughts about the possibility of an  X-Men and Avengers crossover movie.
Anyone who has read the comics will know that it has happened and that both teams share on many occasions the same nemesis
When asked about a possible crossover Whedon states "“That’s not the plan. It would be cool but I think right now I already have a ton of very talented actors in my movie playing a ton of characters, and I’m about to add a few more. So I’m not like, ‘How can we get more licensed characters because I want to kill myself and make a nine-hour movie."

For all you Avengers fans out there, the casting of Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch has to be a pretty interesting announcement.
Not because Elizabeth Olsen is cast, but because the famed comic book villain-ess  Scarlet Witch will be in the film.
Best known for her association with The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants,  Scarlet Witch is twin-sister to Quicksilver and (in the comics) she is a well known nemesis to the X-Men more-so than The Avengers...

I for one, would certainly not bet against studios working together to bring you a crossover film in the future.

Review of: The Prisoner

The Prisoner, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal is a suspenseful kidnapping thriller director by Quebec's own Oscar nominee, Denis Villeneuve (Incendies)
It is an ambitious film, that combines a similar story-line as Taken (Liam Neeson), with some twists and turns along the lines of No Country For Old Man. Be warned that this film is quite long, roughly 2hrs 30minutes and it feels it. The Prisoner has a strong script and great acting by Gyllenhaal and Jackman, it is also a very original take on a kidnapping movie.  The only issue I had with The Prisoner is that it tries relentlessly hard to make the audience ask themselves how far would we also go to protect the ones we care for.
I wanted to love The Prisoner, the same way I  loved The Place Beyond the Pines & No Country for Old Men, and at times it did flirt with greatness...I did however feel like it tried to hard to please the audience.
The Prisoner is good, solid and a thrill ride, there is a feeling that some scenes do drag on, but I as sum,e this is done on purpose to create a sense of unnerving-ness . Good job by Denis Villeneuve and the entire cast.
7/10