Comic Strip: Venom Updates, More ‘Thor’ Reshoots, And ‘Kick-Ass’ Stars Talk Jim Carrey Controversy

ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie news items. From Marvel to DC and points in between, if it pertains to costumed comic book heroes, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ screenwriters weigh in on the possibility of putting Venom in a movie, Bryan Singer shows us his Sentinels, and Warner looks for a new Batman. Let’s start there.

Batman and Superman

Who is the Batman?

That was the biggest question asked this week in superhero movie world, as rumors circulated that Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder were contemplating an older actor to play Bruce Wayne in the Batman-Superman team-up/throwdown. Several names started circulating over the weekend, with Josh Brolin rising to the top of the studio’s mysterious "want list." Ryan Gosling, Matthew Goode (‘Watchmen’), Max Martini (‘Pacific Rim’) and ‘True Blood’ co-star Joe Manganiello also are reportedly in the mix, if this is to be believed. Just don’t ask Armie Hammer, because he ain’t interested.

I’d be very surprised to see Brolin emerge victorious. He handed two stinkers to Warner with ‘Gangster Squad’ and ‘Jonah Hex,’ and I can’t see the studio rewarding him with a franchise role like Batman. And all of this is premature, as reports claim the script isn’t even close to being finished.

But this rumor is just another hint to the fact that they want to bring in a seasoned, veteran Bruce Wayne to go toe-to-toe with Henry Cavill’s Superman. If it isn’t a straight adaptation of Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ comic, then that plot at least will establish the tone of Snyder’s sequel.

Speaking of Miller, Snyder is supposed to meet with the man behind the seminal Superman-Batman story as he shapes his sequel. Will that help?

‘Kick-Ass 2’

We’re two weeks away from the release of Jeff Wadlow’s ‘Kick-Ass 2,’ which continues the reign of the homemade crime fighters Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz). In the sequel, which arrives on August 16, our original heroes team with several new faces as they try to take down their true nemesis, The Motherf----- (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

In preparation, several NSFW clips arrived online. Turn up the volume and get ready for some bone-crunching superhero comedy:

Not enough for you? SlashFilm also shared 10 minutes of ‘Kick-Ass 2’ B-roll the other day.

The cast, meanwhile, had to address the “Jim Carrey question" repeatedly during the recent press weekend in New York City. As you can imagine, most responses were politically correct, and resembled what Moretz told CNN International when she said:

"Here's the thing: you know, it's a movie. I think if you are the type of person who's going to be affected by a movie, you shouldn't go see anything. You shouldn't go see a princess movie because then you're going to think you're a princess! ... I make movies for fun. And I think movies are for people to escape and to see stuff that is completely unrealistic. …

I'm not playing myself, you know? And as Chloe, I would never in a million years do it, and I know that difference. Even when I was 11, I knew that difference."

Will you be able to tell the difference when the movie comes out? Find out on August 16.

‘Thor: The Dark World’

Marvel Studios plans to have ‘Thor: The Dark World’ in theaters on November 8. So fans might be concerned to learn that the production -- which has produced rumors of behind-the-scenes troubles -- is bringing the cast back for reshoots. Reshoots? Weeks from release date?

Kat Dennings confirmed to IGN that she is heading back to shoot a few extra scenes. At the very least, we know that they have enough footage to cut a new trailer, which is scheduled to debut on Wednesday, August 7. We’ll have that on the site as soon as it drops.

In addition, as Marvel preps the ‘Thor’ sequel, this new poster – which gathers the full cast into a montage pose – arrived late last week. Do you like?

‘The Secret Service’

Last week, we caught you up on the casting for Matthew Vaughn’s ‘Secret Service,’ with young actor Taron Egerton potentially joining Colin Firth and Michael Caine in the adaptation. Variety now says that Samuel L. Jackson will play the chief villain, with the movie starting to film in the fall. Jackson next will be seen in Spike Lee’s ‘Oldboy,’ as well as Marvel’s own ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier.’

‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’

‘X-Men’ news blew up over the course of last week, starting with ‘Days of Future Past’ director Bryan Singer offering another Sentinel goody in the form of a “to-scale” photo to show the size of the mutant-hunting robots.

Shortly prior, Singer shared an image of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) taking out a foe with a serious leg kick to the throat.

Lucas Till recently opened up to SuperHeroHype about his role as Havok in the upcoming sequel, which is going to unite the casts of Singer’s original films with the ‘First Class’ kids.

Basically, a war is taking place in one of the timelines. In the ‘First Class’ cast's timeline there's a war during around the time of President Nixon you may be familiar with. That I may or may not be involved in. [Laughs.] That's kind of my involvement there. It was fun to just show up and use my blasts and get to go back to my other movie. It was a nice vacation."

And Singer also addressed where the action would take place, given the fact that director James Mangold included a ‘DOFP’ tease at the end of this own movie, ‘The Wolverine.’

It takes place about 10 years, give or take, after ‘X-Men 3;’ and in the past it takes place about ten years after ‘First Class,’” Singer told Empire Online. “I’d say it’s not a sequel to one of the others. It’s an inbetwequel — that’s what I call it, for lack of a better word."

And if you happen to be in Montreal tonight (Monday, August 5), swing by Fantasia International Film Festival, where Singer plans to screen two minutes of ‘DOFP’ during the Rated-'X’ panel. It will be held at the Imperial Theatre. Click here for details.

‘The Fantastic Four’

Everyone interested in Josh Trank’s ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot needs to start following the director on Twitter … immediately.

Following in the footsteps of Marc Webb and Bryan Singer, Trank is starting to use social media to address rumors about his production. The other day, The Wrap floated the idea that Miles Teller of ‘Footloose’ and ‘The Spectacular Now’ for the lead role of scientist/stretchy-hero Reed Richards. But Trank replied that the rumor “isn’t true.”

The Wrap wouldn’t let it go, saying that thanks to Trank’s Twitter response, the “plot thickens.” To which Trank replied, “ ‘… the plot thickens?’ You’re nuts.”

Awesome. Nip that nonsense in the bud. Trank’s going to have to finalize his casting soon, as ‘Fantastic Four’ reportedly will begin filming in September in Louisiana. But Teller doesn’t appear to have Richards in the bag.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’

Are you following Dane DeHaan on Twitter? You might want to, if you are interested in seeing the latest materials from Marc Webb’s ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ While the director has gone into radio silence, DeHaan, who plays Harry Osborn in the upcoming sequel, tweeted the above image of corporate Harry and Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) as the two possibly noodle through the formula that cost Richard and Mary Parker their lives.

The actor also opened up to SuperHeroHype about the preparation he did for Webb’s sequel, stating:

It a really great experience and a really great luxury to have four months to prepare for a movie and then six months to shoot it. I'm an actor who likes to work, you know? And I was able to work on this one more than I've been able to work on anything so I had a really amazing time shooting it. I worked with really great actors and a really great director and the script was really awesome, and I left completely fulfilled in a way that I didn't think I would be and I think the fans are really going to love it.

Though the site pumped him for more information, all DeHaan would say was, "You'll just have to watch the movie and find out."

If DeHaan goes evil in a Spider-Man movie, he’ll play a Goblin. But Spider-Man fans might want to check out this fan-made film ‘Truth in Journalism,’ which documents an alternate Venom origin. It’s pretty spectacular.

I share that because ‘ASM 2’ screenwriters Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman opened up to IGN about their mutual love for Venom, stating:

We're fans of Venom. Venom is an amazing character. Venom is a brilliant character. Part of what's interesting about Venom is that Venom can do all of the things that Spider-Man can't do, in a lot of ways. And I don't know, I guess that's why I respond to him.

Could this be a hint as to which villain we might see in the already-announced ‘Spider-Man 3’ or ‘4?’ We’ll see.