Okay everybody, you can stop worrying — there’s going to be another Wolverine movie.

The fate of “The Wolverine” has been uncertain for a while. Hugh Jackman had too many other things going on, and the gym bag funk of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was still hanging around the franchise. Well, apparently things are back on track because The Wolverine is slated to come out July 26, 2013.

This next Wolverine movie will take place in Japan, which seems promising. Wolverine can have some sort of attractive Asian sidekick, cut through some samurai swords with his claws, make funny faces will eating an octopus or something — yeah, it could work. As long as Wolverine doesn’t spend an hour of the movie sitting around in some old guy’s barn it’ll be better than Origins.

via Blastr

Two observations:

- Olivia Thirlby looks pretty stoned.

- That helmet is faithful to the comics, and looks f-ing ridiculous.

Comics Alliance has a few pictures up of the new Judge Dredd movie, and it…well…it looks about like what we expected from a movie that doesn’t even have an IMDB page yet. that doesn’t use its title for its IMDB page (thanks, ScottBaiosGhost!) The director drama aside, though, so far this doesn’t look terrible, just not very creative in the cinematography. “Dredd” will probably be out in 2013: in addition to not having an IMDB page yet, they also don’t have a US release date, but we’re sure Lionsgate will release it. Eventually.

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“Chronicle” gets the occasional comparison to “Akira”, mostly because of the ending, and that’s a serious mistake. If anything, “Chronicle” is “Carrie” as a superhero comic instead of a horror novel.

But no matter what you want to compare it to, one thing’s undeniable: it’s a great superhero origin story. In fact, it’s a little surprising that a movie like “Chronicle” got made. It’s well-balanced between drama and special effects, and engaging in ways a lot of movies based on actual comics fall flat.

Surprisingly, the movie doesn’t focus on semi-cool kid (and somewhat pretentious tool) Matt, but Andrew, the guy the trailers have made clear is the villain. Here’s the thing: Andrew doesn’t ultimately lose it and destroy most of downtown Seattle because he’s inherently evil. He loses it because he’s humiliated, scared, abused and finally, he just can’t take it. Within the first five minutes, we learn Andrew has no friends, is constantly abused in school, has a dying mother, and an emotionally and physically abusive monster of a father. In its own way, “Chronicle” is a tragedy about a young man who loses his way and can’t find it back.
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This is how you know a studio has failed to properly market a movie: they put out a minute long YouTube video explaining what the movie is actually about, complete with pop music and a jokey narrator.

Look, guys, it’s not like the “John Carter” series is complex. Wacky, yes, but complex, no. It’s about a dude who goes to Mars and gets in a bunch of fights.

Mostly this seems to be an attempt to shift the tone of the marketing and make it clear that this is not a self-serious action movie, but does actually have the occasional touch of humor to it, although the presence of the giant CGI bulldog is probably generating screams from nerds as we speak.

Anyway, the full condescension fest under the jump.
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So, you may have been hearing that Namor is the villain for “Iron Man 3″. This is based on three things:

• They’re shooting at a studio in Wilmington, North Carolina, that happens to have a huge water tank.
• There was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to Atlantis in “Iron Man 2″.
• Shane Black, like, totally dissed The Mandarin.
• Fans desperately want “Iron Man 3″ to center around “Demon In A Bottle”.

Well, sorry to burst your bubble, fanboys, but we can think of a couple of very good reasons why, in fact, this won’t happen.

First of all, there’s no guarantee they’re adapting “Demon In a Bottle”, or that they’re using the water tank extensively. Secondly, Namor just isn’t that popular a character: witness his recent ongoing bombing after less than a year in print. Thirdly, considering he’s a part of the Defenders, and Marvel has a Doctor Strange movie coming…

We’re not ruling out his showing up; Marvel loves throwing in little cookies like this. But it seems unlikely they’re going to try and pull a “Catwoman” with one of their most popular franchises.

[ via the Atlanteans at ComicBook ]
image courtesy Marvel Comics

Sony Pictures, in order to drum up interest for their movie starring the obscure comic book character Spider Man, will be running a sizzle reel across the world on February 7th. And if you don’t live in New York or LA, you can go suck a webshooter as far as Sony is concerned.

True, this thing will be on the Internet precisely ten seconds after the last frame hits screens. But the marketing of this, where it only screens in New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Moscow, Sydney, Tokyo, Rio De Janeiro, and Seoul, is pretty asinine. It’s not like there’s no built-in audience for this, Sony. We’re not going to be jealous of other people going to a theater for an extended trailer we’ll see on the Internet anyway.

Although this does have us talking about the movie, so we guess it did its job.

image courtesy Sony Pictures