Eva Longoria in The Avengers?!

And you’d think it’s still too early to talk about a movie coming out in 2011. But it’s never too early for Marvel comic book adaptations, especially after their masterstroke, Iron Man. So we do have a good idea now about what movies we can expect from Marvel, but isn’t cast speculation a little too early?

And if it’s too early for cast speculation, shouldn’t it be a little unthinkable that they’ve already started casting? Hell, Favreau only gave us fuzzy details of Iron Man 2, it would be shocking if they’ve already started putting stars as The Avengers.

Rumour is, Eva Longoria may be cast in it. Yes, that Eva Longoria from Desperate Housewives (like you were thinking of another, pfft). How does this rumour crop up? Look at the image above. Yes, Longoria was seen at the Marvel Studios offices and went out carrying a bunch of those Avengers issues. Coincidence? Sudden fandom?

Seemingly, she wasn’t too careful on hiding those, so it could either mean that it’s supposed to be a misleading hype-event or a direct declaration. Hmm.

Duke Nukem Movie in Works; Release Date Unknown

Duke Nukem

With Duke Nukem Forever right around the corner (you wish), it seems that 3D Realms has already gotten some ambitious plans in their delayed minds. Scott Miller from 3D Realms is collaborating with Scott Faye, producer of the upcoming Max Payne movie. The result will be just that: a goddamn Duke Nukem movie.

To start with, there’s the severe lack of potential for Duke Nukem. He worked as a hero back in the 90s, that too as a gaming hero fabled only among hardcore gamers and relatively obscure otherwise. Can he seriously come close to making a dent on film?

Add to that the utter lack of storyline for Duke Nukem. The whole thing was pretty much a pop culture rip-off that worked as a pastiche or a self-parody of itself (see what I did there?) and something to fill in the gaps while to blasted the next pig-faced alien. That for a movie? Go to hell.

And finally comes what 3D Realms are perhaps best known for. Will the movie even make it? Or will it spend another century “under development”?

Marvin the Martian Movie; no really

Marvin

That’s right, a feature-length movie on Marvin the Martian. Yes, that little Martian thing. Warner Brothers must be out of their minds, because I don’t see any way to profit from a movie on goddamned Marvin the Martian. It’s probably one of the most random pieces of news I’ve heard all month!

The movie will be a blend of live action and CG, which is even more confusing, because I can’t really picture Marvin in a live-action setting. Hell, I can’t Marvin well anyways. From whatever I’ve seen of him, he’s a side-character, a less important villain and mildly amusing. He would be the last person from the Looney Tunes roster I’d set a full film on. Even Taz would be a better choice! Or maybe not. No.

The plot will go something along the lines of Marvin wanting to destroy Christmas, and getting trapped in some gift box. With a plot like that, I can’t help but not get excited. I mean seriously, is that the best WB can come up with? I know this one’s for the kids, but seriously? Please, Warner: we want more superhero movies, especially like The Dark Knight and not some retarded movies on Marvin the Martian.

Vikings + Aliens = Outlander

Viking Boat!

Now, I’ve always thought that the Vikings deserve to be treated better in Hollywood. We have Rome represented over and over again and 300 made Sparta immortal in Hollywood. But for the Vikings, we had to endure the desaturated headache that was Pathfinder. But all that can change in a major way when sci-fi viking epic of pure awesome, Outlander comes your way later this year.

In the classic galactic struggle between man and alien, the ship of a human from a faraway planet crashes into the Nordic coast. Our hero, Kainan thus finds himself in the company of Vikings, but he is not alone. His adversary, an alien creature, the Moorwen also emerges from the wreckage and since he’s the monster-baddy-thing, we have him wanting to destroy everything there is. And well, Kainan and the Vikings must stop him.

To be honest, the plot sounds like a video game to me. The concept would totally work, but since there’s a movie coming out, we have to dash all our expectations there. Still, the movie can be equally awesome, because 300 proved last year that a story high on visual effects and action can actually be excused for a shallow story.

Still, who the hell doesn’t want to see freaking Vikings fighting freaking aliens! It’s outstandingly awesome! And to prove it, check out the great trailer they just released. It’s intense and totally works up on the action element. It also doesn’t seem to have the musty old-age feel most period films tend to have. With the sci-fi element, it feels a lot more slick. Check out the trailer below and there’s a great gallery of photos here.

300 Follow-up definitely happening!

Frank Miller\'s 300

Trust Hollywood to not let a money-making oppurtunity slip by. While a sequel wasn’t the first thing on our minds when we saw the epic 300, we all thought about it sometime or the other, and then rumours began. Official word came here and there, and now it’s definitely up: the 300 follow-up will happen!

Variety reports that Legendary Pictures has confirmed a 300 follow-up with Zack Snyder signed on as director (yes!) and Frank Miller working on the writing. What’s more, if the report is spot-on accurate, Miller is working on a graphic novel, which should be in every way as awesomely epic as its predecessor! This is excellent, with both Snyder and Miller on the project, it has to be awesome! I, uh think.

Snyder, however, has said that he’ll wait for Miller’s novel first before he commits anything, but yeah. Legendary is going to make sure that the story is as great as it was before, because as Thomas Tull from Legendary said, “The vision of Frank Miller’s universe that Zack Snyder brought to the screen in ‘300’ is unlike anything ever seen before.” And that’s totally true.

We wonder what the movie will be about. Will it be a prequel with Gerard Butler back kicking Persian ass as Leonidas? Will we see Leonidas Jr. become a badass king? Will we see the Spartans taking revenge? Speculation abound! We will see where Legendary and Miller go with this.

300 Prequel, War of Gods and more!

Leonidas in action

Thought Leonidas’ reign was over? The guys from Collider report that it is not: a 300 Prequel is being planned, along with a Greek epic called “War of Gods” (not to be confused with God of War, the video game). While a war between Greek deities is fun stuff to watch already, the crew will be doing it in 300-style, which kicks double ass!

War of Gods will be directed by Tarsem Singh, who is known for his earlier The Cell and The Fall, which came out this year. Singh is a decent director for the job, but I wonder what a 300-ish movie will be without Zack Snyder (who, by the way, is helming Watchmen at the moment). It has two unnamed writers working on it and is hinted to be nothing short of a truly epic movie. We sure hope it is, when it hits theaters early next year.

Meanwhile, Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari and Bernie Goldmann, who were interviewed revealed that they are talking to Zack Snyder and Frank Miller himself about the 300 prequel. Frank will most probably write it up, which is pretty good too – the last thing I’d want is a 300 sequel/prequel that appears to be nothing more than a money-milking scheme with a crappy storyline. Then again, 300 wasn’t known for its storyline either. Hmm.

Lastly, 300 itself will be converted to the Blu-ray format, which means that we will see killer high-definition Spartan action! Can’t wait for it!

This is crazy news! A 300 franchise! Who would’ve thought?!