Calling all Iron Man fans

It has been announced today that Robert Downy Jr. has extended his deal with Marvel, so we’ll be seeing a lot more of him as Tony Stark in the future. This means that there will now be at least two sequels to last Summer’s fantastic Iron Man. Good News.

However, what is even more exciting is that we will also see ‘Bob’ in The Avengers, which is scheduled for release in 2011. Don Cheadle, who will replace Terrence Howard as Stark's right-hand man, James Rhodes, will also appear.

This is the first major casting announcement for the Avengers and, in my humble opinion, it’s a great one. Choosing Robert Downy Jr. was one of the best decisions in comic book movie history and I think it will only get better as he explores Stark’s character floors in the coming films.

News on who will play the Hulk, Thor and Captain America are expected in the coming weeks. It looks like the budget for this one is going to get BIG!

My name is Bruce

It's a film staring Bruce Campbell as himself, what more could anyone want?

New Harry Potter trailer

The film has been made. It's been in the can for months, but we don't get to see it until next summer because Warner Brothers are worried that they don't have enough good films for next year.

There are so many things wrong with that I don't know where to begin.

Oh well, at least we can expect loads of trailers and sneak previews until then which, if nothing else, will give me something to write about.

Bayhem under fire

I know that Mark Kermode can come across as a little pretentious, but I usually find him to be one of the best judges of whether or not a film is good or bad.

I also know that he's a man who loves a really good action movie, which probably explains why he launches a tirade against all things 'Michael Bay' in his latest video blog:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2008/10/review_eagle_eye.html

Now I'm as guilty as the next person of enjoying Bad Boys and Transformers, so perhaps it makes me a bit hypocritical to agree with Mark on this one, but I think he has a good point to make here.

While I love the excitement and explosions, the problem here is that they are now being used at the expense of plot, rather than in addition to it. If we're not careful we're in danger of returning to the 80's style of action film which, with a few exceptions, was not a good experience.

But I may well be in the minority. Last I heard, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift made over $150million...

Satchmo

According to Variety, Forest Whitaker is set to direct and star in What A Wonderful World, a biopic of Louis Armstrong.

This sounds like good news to me. His performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland showed that Whitaker is right up there with the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman as one of this generation’s great character actors – even if the film itself was a big disappointment.

Other than ‘that’ song, ‘that’ voice and the trumpet, I don’t know a great deal about Louis Armstrong, so I’m looking forward to finding out a bit more (with a Hollywood slant of course).

Although I’m always going to have slight reservations about seeing a Whitaker film because I still remember ‘Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai’... shudder!

Quantum Of Solace Trailer

A far better trailer than the 'teaser' released back in the summer... but I suppose that's the point.

I am very optimistic about this one. If it's half as good as Casino Royale then it will still be a great film. Of course I'm expecting a little more than that...