A couple of months ago we wrote that podcasting was under threat from a patent troll. At that time, a patent troll named Personal Audio LLC had sued three podcasters and sent demand letters to a number of others. Since then, Personal Audio has filed two new lawsuits—this time against CBS and NBC. It has also sent additional demand letters to small podcasting operations. We’ve written often in the past about how patent trolls are a drain on innovation, and this latest troll is no exception. Since many podcasters barely make a profit, or simply do it for love, a shakedown from a patent troll…

While rumors have the movie being released in 2015, as of now, no director is officially attached, and no one is sure if the movie would work without introducing the other characters in their own movies first (like Marvel did before The Avengers).  So when I sat down with Snyder a few hours ago at the Los Angeles Man of Steel junket, I asked his thoughts the Justice League movie and if that would get his attention before a Man of Steel sequel.

And Snyder said:

“I feel like you need to get Superman a little further down the road before you can do a Justice League movie.”

Here’s the…

At this point it’s no secret that Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) will be making an appearance in this summer’s Hugh Jackman reboot “The Wolverine.” What remains less clear is what role, exactly, the seemingly-deceased mutant will be playing in the story.

Director James Mangold sort of answers that question in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly (via the Playlist), in which he tells the magazine that Grey will be a “shadow presence” who “pops up to mock, comfort and advise Logan much as Number 6 tortured Gaius Baltar on ‘Battlestar Galactica.’”

Yeah, I already figured as much. Whether…

The directors of the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki are directing the next Pirates of the Caribbean film. Norwegian directing team Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg will soon sign to helm Pirates of the Caribbean 5, starring Johnny Depp, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Jeff Nathanson.

Sigh. Well, I guess we’re going to do this. I guess this is really happening. I guess the pencil pushers think they can squeeze a few jillion more dollars out of Johnny Depp.

Franchise fatigue anyone?

Award-winning composer Carter Burwell was all set to score Marvel‘s Thor: The Dark World. It would have marked his first superhero project to date. The studio even printed his name on the first official poster last month. But Deadline now confirms that Burwell is off the project altogether in what Marvel’s camp diplomatically describes as a creative split.

Huh. That’s kind of odd this far down the road. Patrick Doyle scored the first Thor film and it wasn’t great, which in my book is normal for Doyle, though I have to say I didn’t hate Thor‘s score as much as I have other work from…

Director James Mangold isn’t really interested in making a comic book movie. Not in the traditional sense. He’s not really interested in explosions or bombastic action sequences or 3D. He’s not interested in quip-spouting super heroes or nudging his audience in the ribs with a sly wink.

What he is interested in, is character. Mangold, whose previous works include Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line and 3:10 to Yuma, is an actor’s director. He’s the man responsible for Angelina Jolie’s Lisa Rowe, Joaquin Phoenix’s Johnny Cash and Christian Bale’s Dan Evans. Mangold is unequivocally sincere…

“She’s a very, very young elf,” Lilly said. “She’s only 600 years old, unlike Legolas (Orlando Bloom’s character), who’s like, 1,900 years old and Thranduil who’s about 3,000 years old. She doesn’t have quite the wisdom and pose that those two boys do; she’s a little more… gritty. A little more spontanteous, passionate perhaps.”

Lilly added that “to play this character I need to have a certain amount of grace. But I’m also supposed to be an absolutely ruthless, deadly killer.”

Tauriel does not appear in the original book by J.R.R. Tolkien and was created by Jackson. Her name means,…

Avengers 2 will not be able to use Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s code names, it has been claimed.

Only 20th Century Fox, which controls the X-Men rights, will be able to use the characters’ superhero titles, while Marvel can use the names Wanda and Pietro, according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit.

...

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the children of Magneto, first debuted in X-Men but have been important members of the Avengers over the years.

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It has also been claimed that Avengers 2 will not be able to refer to the twins as mutants.

Sigh. Can’t we all just…

The lady seated to my immediate right (very close quarters on bench seating) was fairly insistent about using her phone. I asked her to turn it off. She answered: “So don’t look.” I asked her whether I had missed something during the very pointed announcements to please turn off your phones, perhaps a special exemption granted for her. She suggested that I should mind my own business.

So I minded my own business by utilizing my famously feline agility to deftly snatch the phone out of her hand and toss it across the room, where it would do no more damage. She slapped me and stormed away…