September
9 "Wolverine" woes confirmed, Caine spreads Bat rumors, and Cap casting debunked

Tatiana Siegel's report for Variety on Fox's summer b.o. woes contains plenty of good tidbits on its upcoming comicbook properties and confirming the widespread rumors of turmoil on the set of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine":

"Wolverine" helmer Gavin Hood was nearly fired, according to sources, because of squabbles with the studio, and two backup directors were in place before Richard Donner -- who is married to the film's producer Lauren Shuler Donner -- flew to the Australian set to smooth things over. At the time, Fox insisted that Richard Donner was on-set because he is a producer on the film. However, current credits for the film list various producers, but Donner is not one of them.

Piece also talks about the studio looking to rectify its superheroless summer this year with more X-Men spinoffs, including a possible "Deadpool" film and a possible second chance for "Daredevil," whose first bigscreen outing in 2003 failed to impress fans.

* Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin in the next Batman movie? That's what actor Michael Caine, who plays Alfred in the series, told MTV's Splash Page he's heard from WB execs. But is that what director Christopher Nolan has in mind? Nobody knows for sure as Nolan is on vacation. During press for the film, Nolan spoke frequently about how he takes on one movie at a time, saying he did not even begin to think about doing a sequel to "Batman Begins" until months after its release because he had to make sure a second film would be better than first — a task that will be even tougher going forward. Given that m.o., it seems unlikely that Nolan would have such high-profile plans already in place. though that kind of casting would surely make a lot of people very, very happy.

* Back in Marvel land, a rumor that the studio offered "Captain America" to superstar Will Smith turns out to be false. Original info came from actor Derek Luke in speaking to MTV's Splash Page, though AICN's Harry Knowles reports his Marvel sources tell him it's just not true.