You didn’t think Marvel was going to let you off the hook that easily, did you? Nope, the comic book company is already planning Phase Three of its sprawling media empire. Sounds sinister, doesn’t it? It’s not! We promise.

Phase One began with “Iron Man” and culminated in “The Avengers.” Similarly, Phase Two just kicked off with the release of “Iron Man 3″ and will end after a total of five movies with 2015′s “The Avengers 2.” Even though Marvel is still knee-deep in Phase Two, studio prez Kevin Feige gave EW a very early preview of what’s coming down the pipeline.

Feige said, “I’d say 99 percent of our time right now is purely spent on Phase Two… It’s five colossally giant motion pictures that we have to produce. So that’s taking up the time. But within the next year or so we’ll start the advanced planning for post-’Avengers 2.’”

The Marvel honcho was fairly forthcoming for details on movies that are still in their nascent stages. We do know that Edgar Wright’s “Ant-Man” is a sure thing, and “Doctor Strange” is “one of the prime candidates.” We all know that “Iron Man 4″ would go over like gangbusters, but also that Robert Downey Jr. is still in talks over his part in the future of Tony Stark. “Black Panther” is still just a hope and a dream, though eagle-eyed writers have noted that Marvel might be filming some of “The Avengers 2″ in Cape Town, a hint that, followed to conclusion, leads some to believe that BP could be a new recruit. The rest of the Marvel cast of characters — Daredevil, Ghost Rider, zombies, and so on — are either very unlikely or still in the wishful thinking stages.

But what about The Hulk, you say? Feige told EW, “Mark [Ruffalo] could stand in his own movie. … We’re talking about it. We’re excited to sit down and go, ‘What is a stand-alone Hulk movie?’”

We’ve got a few years to find out.

[via EW]

EARLIER: Comic-Con 2012 Marvel Panel: ‘Iron Man 3′ Trailer, ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Announced

If there’s one thing that is very, very, very clear, it’s that “Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan loves James Bond.

Ever since he decided to do massive movies, he has included sequences that could have been lifted directly from one of the dashing adventures of Britain’s most suave superspy. Nolan knows how to mimic James Bond set pieces in tone and intensity. There’s the Hong Kong sequence from “The Dark Knight,” the whole third act of “Inception” (with the snow fort, which seems to have been a hodgepodge lift of various Bond tropes), and the opening sequence of “The Dark Knight Rises,” which had more jaw-dropping spectacle than all of “Quantum of Solace” combined.

Now, Nolan may get his chance to do a 007 entry himself.

According to the UK paper the Daily Mail (so please, find the biggest grain of salt you can and take it), “informal talks have begun” between Nolan and the Bond powers that be — namely producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson — for him to helm the next chapter in the franchise.

After the worldwide critical and commercial success of “Skyfall,” it was assumed Sam Mendes would be game to direct another Bond outing, but commitments to theatrical productions, as well as the exhausting amount of effort that it takes to get a Bond movie off the ground, sidelined those plans. It would be fascinating if the series entered an “auteur” phase, with big name directors, known for their singular artistic visions, took on a series known for its workmanlike dexterity more than its creative adventurousness.

Right now Nolan is in the middle of prepping “Interstellar,” his big-budget space exploration film that will star Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey, and (of course) Michael Caine. That film will be out on November 7th, 2014. It’s unclear whether Nolan would have the time (or the energy) to jump from one gigantic project to the next, but we’re crossing our fingers that this isn’t simply tabloid chatter.

[via Daily Mail]

“Star Trek Into Darkness” beams into theaters Thursday, May 16, facing very little competition.

The follow up to J.J. Abrams 2009 “Star Trek” reboot catches back up with the USS Enterprise and its illustrious crew as they zoom off on another epic quest. This time around, Spock (Zachary Quinto), Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and Sulu (John Cho) are summoned home, only to find Starfleet in ruins. The crew soon ventures into the war zone to find villain John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) responsible for the devastation. The 3D spectacle lands in theaters Thursday, May 16, and also stars Alice Eve, Simon Pegg, and Karl Urban.

As we mentioned, “Into Darkness” holds somewhat of a monopoly over the box office this weekend. The sci-fi flick’s only notable competition are two small limited releases, which happen to star some big-name actors. (Then there’s always the previously released “Great Gatsby” and “Iron Man 3.”)

The thriller “Black Rock” and drama/comedy “The English Teacher” both open in limited release on Friday, May 17.

“Black Rock” follows three childhood friends on a weekend getaway, all in hopes of reconnecting. Their trip to an island off the coast of Maine takes a disastrous turn after they befriend three men they meet on the island. One wrong move turns the girls’ vacation into a scene out of “The Most Dangerous Game,” and they are forced to fight for survival. Kate Bosworth, Lake Bell, and Katie Aselton star.

“The English Teacher” stars Julianne Moore, Nathan Lane, and Lily Collins. Moore plays a 40-year-old, single high-school english teacher whose life takes an unexpected turn when a former student, now in his 20s, comes back into her life.

What will you be seeing this weekend?

James Franco and Seth Rogen were just yanking our chains when they released a fake trailer for “Pineapple Express 2” on April Fools’ Day (see above). While the clip ended up being another promo for their upcoming apocalypse comedy “This Is the End,” it turns out that that spoof wasn’t just wishful thinking.

Franco revealed in a recent interview that he and Rogen very much want to make a follow-up to “Pineapple,” the beloved 2008 comedy, which starred the pair as stoners whose love of weed takes a dark turn after they witness a murder. A reporter for GQ asked Franco why there weren’t any current plans for a sequel, and the actor had this to say:

“As far as why ‘Pineapple Express 2′ has not been made for real, I don’t know what the holdup is. I would do it, Danny [McBride] would do it, Seth [Rogen] would do it. I think Seth and [co-writer] Evan [Goldberg] just need a fire lit under their asses.”

Rogen has no doubt been busy, starring in a string of recent films, including “The Green Hornet,” “Paul,” “50/50,” and “The Guilt Trip,” and even making cameo TV appearances on shows like “Eastbound and Down” and “The Mindy Project.” Plus, he’s in the midst of promoting the aforementioned “This Is the End” (due out June 12) alongside Franco, who’s also had a lot on his plate. (Being an actor-writer-director-artist-student usually takes up a lot of time.)

It seems like the stars really do need to align for this project to get off the ground, but the fact that all the major players are on board with the idea gives us hope that it could become a reality some day. Based on Franco’s statements to GQ, one original member of the project probably won’t be back: director David Gordon Green. When asked about his role in “Your Highness,” a film also directed by Green, Franco had a few choice words about the project.

“That movie sucks,” he said.

[via GQ]

Brad Pitt is calling fiancee Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy “absolutely heroic.”

Jolie, whose mother died of ovarian cancer in 2007, revealed today (May 14) in a NY Times op-ed that she chose to have the preventative breast cancer surgery to reduce her risk of the disease from 87. The actress’s “World War Z” star beau later gave a statement to the London Evening Standard saying, “Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for their care and focus,” adding, “All I want is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.”

Jolie wrote that she made the decision after genetic tests revealed she carried a “faulty” gene called BRCA1, which made her chances of getting both breast and ovarian cancers very high. The three-month process, she revealed, began on February 2 and ended fairly recently on April 27 with reconstructive surgery.

In the piece, Jolie also spoke about Pitt and the support he gave her throughout those three months: “Brad was at the Pink Lotus Breast Center, where I was treated, for every minute of the surgeries. We managed to find moments to laugh together. We knew this was the right thing to do for our family and that it would bring us closer.”

[via Evening Standard]

On paper, “Tyler Perry Presents Peeples” should have done decent business this weekend. Even though he didn’t write or direct it, the meet-the-parents comedy had Perry’s name on it as producer and promoter. It features two popular TV stars, Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington, in the leads. It’s a movie that caters to older women and comedy fans at a time of year (summer superhero season) when both are underserved. It opened on Mother’s Day weekend, a good time to catch the family business that Perry targets so effectively. Most of all, as a movie with an all-African-American cast, it seemed like smart counterprogramming to “The Great Gatsby,” a movie about white people throwing parties.

Perry movies typically open at around $20 million. Pundits predicted “Peeples” would earn at least half that. Instead, it debuted in fourth place, with a meager $4.9 million in estimated sales. It’s Perry’s weakest opening ever (eclipsing “Daddy’s Little Girls,” which debuted with $11.2 million in 2007), and it looks like it’ll be his first real flop.

What went wrong? Here are a few possibilities:

Perry’s name alone isn’t enough. Writer/director Tina Gordon Chism is no slouch; her previous screenplays include “ATL” and “Drumline,” so she clearly knows how to write effectively for the same viewers as Perry’s films (African-American, middle-class). Still, having “Tyler Perry Presents…” above the title isn’t the same as having “Tyler Perry’s….” Ticketbuyers noticed the difference.

No Madea. Perry’s movies in which he appears in drag as the gun-toting grandma do better at the box office than those without the popular character.

Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington aren’t box office draws. Robinson (“The Office”) and Washington (“Scandal”) are talented actors from hit TV shows, but neither has ever carried a movie on the strength of his or her own name. “Peeples” may have been too tame for those who saw Robinson in such raunchy screen comedies as “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” and “Hot Tub Time Machine.” Washington’s biggest film to date may be “Django Unchained,” but “Django” fans may have been more likely to spend this weekend seeing Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Great Gatsby.”

The movie sat on the shelf for two years. That alone doesn’t mean much, but it suggests a lack of confidence on the part of distributor Lionsgate, which, in a worst-case-scenario, might have simply dumped the movie as unceremoniously as possible on a weekend when few would notice. The studio gave the movie better promotion than that (it does, after all, have to keep Perry happy, since he’s its most reliable hitmaker), but not by much. Certainly, critics, and sometimes audiences, can smell the desperation behind a picture that’s been allowed to grow musty in distribution limbo.

Word-of-mouth was weak. Not that critics’ opinions mattered much, as Lionsgate didn’t even screen the movie for critics. (Though that’s also usually a sign that a movie isn’t any good.) Perry’s movies typically rely more on audience word-of-mouth than professional reviews anyway. But “Peeples” didn’t do well even by that standard. Its CinemaScore grade was just a B-, indicating lackluster word-of-mouth. Viewers were not recommending “Peeples” to their friends and relatives.

Mother’s Day isn’t Easter. Perry often capitalizes on holiday weekends to grab family audiences. It’s been just a few weeks since “Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” opened on Easter weekend, raking in $21.6 million toward a total to date of $51.7 million. (In fact, it was still on the chart this weekend, at No. 15, meaning Perry’s competing against himself.) Maybe Easter is a time when families decide to go to the movies together after church. Mother’s Day? Apparently, not so much.

There was still plenty of competition for the movie’s target audiences. “Gatsby” turned out to be a surprisingly strong draw for older women who might otherwise have been receptive to the “Peeples” Mother’s Day strategy. With its Jay-Z-led hip-hop soundtrack, “Gatsby” may also have been a strong draw for younger African-American audiences. “Peeples” was also competing for older African-American viewers against “42,” the Jackie Robinson biopic, still a strong draw after five weeks. (It earned $4.7 million, just $200,000 less than “Peeples.”) And then there was “Iron Man 3,” the weekend’s top movie, which pulled in an estimated $72.5 million. It drew such a huge general audience that no other movie, save the well-promoted “Gatsby,” could compete.

So maybe Perry can chalk it up to bad timing. Certainly, one flop isn’t going to stall his career. No doubt his next release, “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas” (due on Dec. 13), will press all the right buttons and avoid all the mistakes of “Peeples.”

The heroes of the original “Star Wars” trilogy have been dropping hints left and right about their reported -– and still unconfirmed –- involvement in J.J. Abrams’s upcoming “Episode VII,” and Mark Hamill has been one of the most vocal.

The actor behind Luke Skywalker fielded audience questions at the recent CapeTown Film Festival, discussing his experience filming the original series, his disagreement with fans’ negative reactions to the prequels, and how special effects might be integrated into the new movies.

“We’ve got to find a proper balance between CGI and old-school models,” Hamill told the crowd. “I want to have a more organic look so that we don’t get into ‘Roger Rabbit’ territory.”

Hamill probably won’t have much of a say in the effects process -– and again, Disney has yet to make an official announcement about him, Carrie Fisher, or Harrison Ford joining the cast -– but his enthusiasm about the project certainly bodes well for his potential return to the franchise. Responding to a fan’s suggestion that he play a Jedi master instead of knight this time around, Hamill was all for it, saying he’d like Luke’s new role to be “heavy on the Jedi mind tricks, less on the lightsaber duels. That one in ‘Empire’ nearly killed me.”

Here’s hoping Luke lives to fight another day, in “Episode VII” and beyond.

[via Indiewire]

The explosive new trailer for “Ender’s Game” hit the web Tuesday, offering a more in-depth look at the training happening at Battle School, where our eponymous hero preps for a showdown with an alien race bent on destroying humanity.

Harrison Ford’s Colonel Graff, a teacher at the school, narrates the spot, promising that while a previous alien attack crippled Earth, the planet won’t stand for a repeat.

“If we’re going to survive, we’re going to need a new kind of soldier,” Graff says. “ … We need minds like yours, Ender.”

“I’ll do everything I can to win this war,” promises Ender, played by Asa Butterfield.

The trailer also gives a glimpse at the other characters peppering the film, including those played by Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley, and Abigail Breslin. The adaptation of the classic novel hits theaters November 1.

“G.I. Joe” screenwriters David Elliot and Paul Lovett claim their ideas for the sequel were snatched, and now they’re suing.

Lovett and Elliot have filed a $23 million copyright infringement lawsuit against Paramount, MGM, Hasbro, and production company Di Bonaventura Pictures, along with a “breach of implied contract,” according to Deadline.

Deadline reports, “Not long after that film came out, they were requested to put together some ideas for a sequel with the understanding that they would get the scribe gig on the movie if their ideas were accepted.”

Lovett and Elliot are claiming that, more than tossing ideas around, they discussed their pitch for the sequel with the producers in person, over the phone, and through email. The complaint, which you can read on Deadline.com, notes that their pitch included “original plotlines, themes, characters, relationships, settings, scenes, sequences, dialogue, mood, pacing and fictional inventions for the Sequel.”

“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” opened in March after almost a year’s delay –- everyone needs a little more Channing Tatum, although the 3D tweaking is up for debate.

Someone is coming up Snake Eyes. The only question is who.

[via Deadline]

EARLIER ON MOVIEFONE:

Black eyeliner, spiked headdresses, and fishnets were on full display last night at the Met Costume Institute Gala, where movie stars, musicians, and fashion designers collided in an all-out war for fashion supremacy.

The theme of this year’s gala was “PUNK: Chaos to Couture,” and some celebs took it as far as their stylists would allow.

Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lawrence, Amanda Seyfried, Beyonce, and Gwenyth Paltrow were among the punked-out attendees at the event at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Hathaway, dressed in an all-black see-through number, even debuted a new ‘do for the event: She went platinum blonde! Her Miley-esque locks managed to make her look edgier than usual, and we really liked it! Dare we say the new image may even convert a few Hathahaters? Only time will tell.

Hollywood’s girl crush, Jennifer Lawrence, was also on hand. She didn’t debut a new look, but she did look beautiful — not that we’d expect anything less. The Oscar Winner looked very retro in a black Dior dress, red lipstick, and a black hat equipped with netted veil. Can J. Law do no wrong? We think so.

Katie Holmes, Emily Blunt, Dakota Fanning, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and Michelle Williams were also among the stars who walked the Met Gala red carpet last night.

Check out all the couture and all the chaos in the photos below.