Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 114 is brought to you by Straight Up Geek at Club 57 West in Downtown Orlando on May 14th. Dr. Vern and Company has a great line up of acts for a night of awesomely geeky rock and rap, including Marc with a C, The House of Black, and Krondor Krew, so if you’re out and about downtown next Friday night, stop in for a spell and enjoy the show! We’ll be there for sure, along with Slacker and the Man, so if you do stop by, please say hello. Hope to see you there!

In this episode we have The Man from Slacker and the Man in studio to talk about Iron Man 2, which ruled the box office with a $133 million domestic take this past weekend despite some mixed critical reviews. We do get to the review eventually-listen for it after the second break. Earlier in the hour The Man reports on his adventures at Vulcan Events Tampa last weekend, including meeting actors Christopher Lloyd and Tony Todd, and enjoying the Sci-Fried show during the convention’s Saturday night. Also we take time to talk about the Orange County Regional History Center’s “Galactic Encounters Day” and our new friends over at Next Level LAN on University Boulevard in Orlando, across from Full Sail University. I had a chance to check out Next Level LAN on Friday night while attending an OKCupid meetup, and I could not have been more impressed. If you’re looking for a location to enjoy networked gaming, XBOX 360, PS3, and Wii gaming, and table space to enjoy CCG gaming or even board games, you want to talk to Pam or Roger at Next Level LAN. Please be sure to mention that you heard about them on PTG. With all that and more, it’s a long episode chock full of good stuff, so we hope you enjoy!

Iron Man Armor photo by Rob Allstetter

PTG Episode 38 is brought to you by, well, what else: San Diego Comic-Con. Yes, we weren’t ACTUALLY there, but with all the information we’ve tried to digest over the past four days, it certainly feels like we were there … without all the cool swag, pictures with VERY cool people, and jet lag, that is.

Speaking of information, though PTG’s two volunteer on-site correspondents for this episode, Jeremy Reinhard and James Wright, did an awesome job of conveying what they had seen and heard up until Saturday evening, there was certainly so much more information that came out of this show that I know folks are going to want to read about, if they haven’t already. So here are a few links to check out for news and articles covering topics we didn’t get to cover during this episode:

From Thursday:
-James Cameron presents a first look at “Avatar” (Hero Complex)

-Superman: Two Worlds Panel, featuring Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, James Robinson, Sterling Gates, and Superman editor Matt Idelson (Newsarama)

-Mondo Marvel Panel, featuring Marvel writer/editor Jim McCann, Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, and Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker (Comics Continuum)

From Friday

-Caprica/Battlestar Galactica: The Plan Panel, featuring BSG producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, Caprica showrunner Jane Espenson, and actors Edward James Olmos, Esai Morales, and Grace Park (Newsarama)

-24 Day 8 Panel, featuring actors Kiefer Sutherland, Katee Sackhoff, Freddie Prinze Jr., and showrunner Howard Gordon (Hero Complex)

-Marvel Cup ‘O Joe Panel, featuring Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, also with writers Jim McCann, Jeph Loeb, Dan Buckley, C.B. Cebulski and Steve Wacker (Comics Continuum)

From Saturday

-DC Universe Editorial Presentation, featuring DC Comics Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio, Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler, and writers Gail Simone (Wonder Woman, Secret Six), James Robinson (Justice League: Cry for Justice, Superman), and Andrew Kriesberg (Green Arrow/Black Canary)(Newsarama)

-Iron Man 2 Panel, featuring director Jon Favreau and actors Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johanssen, Don Cheadle, and Sam Rockwell. (Hero Complex)

From Sunday

-Smallville Panel, featuring showrunners Kelly Souders and Brian Petersen, actors Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley, Cassidy Freeman, and Callum Blue, and special guests Jeph Loeb and Geoff Johns (Comics Continuum)

-DC Universe Online Panel, featuring creative director Jim Lee and writer Marv Wolfman (Newsarama)

And of course there was tons and tons more … good luck soaking it all in!

In addition to JC’s Podgnosticast report on network gaming in New York City, other highlights of Hour 2 include:

• reviews of Marvel Comics’ Thor #601, written by Eisner-award-nominated writer J. Michael Straczynski and penciled by artist extraordinaire Marko Djurdjevic, and New Avengers #52, by Brian Michael Bendis, with pencils by Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo;
• a new installment of “Felix is Fuming,” featuring an all-new intro and a pretty loud rant about Terrance Howard’s comments regarding Iron Man 2 and the new Iron Man: Armored Adventures cartoon, which quite frankly SUCKS. Enjoy the yelling. I did.

Hour 2 of Prime Time Geek Episode 12 is ALL about Marvel Comics!

Actually, no, that’s a lie. Two-thirds of this hour of Episode 12 is all about Marvel, specifically:

• Invincible Iron Man #11, written by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca;
• Marvel Studio’s revised schedule of films being produced and released through 2012, including Iron Man 2, Thor, Spider-Man 4, The First Avenger: Captain America, and The Avengers
• Prime Time Geek’s casting recommendation for the role of Thor in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Thor epic: Karl Urban!

What about that last third of the hour, you ask? Well, it’s devoted to a little, tiny event going on called the SERIES FINALE OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!!! I could write a ton about Part 1 of the finale, “Daybreak”, (and actually, I already did, but I deleted it accidentally. Doh!) but it would really just repeat a lot of what’s covered in the podcast, and why should I do that if you’re going to listen anyway? (yeah, I just don’t want to retype it all. ‘Nuff said.) Anyway, enjoy!

Well, it looks like we’re going to have to wait a little longer for a few Marvel movies whose release dates were announced just a few weeks ago.

In a press release issued this morning, Marvel Studios announced a revised schedule of films in development, a schedule which pushes Thor and The Avengers, both originally slated for 2010 and 2011 releases, respectively, back one year to accommodate for more production time and a smoother road to the multi-character epic that The Avengers promises to be.

Those who might be disappointed by this turn of events can take heart in some “good” news, possibly. The “good” news is that Spider-Man 4 now has a firm release date, May 6th, 2011. I place “good” in quotes simply because it depends on your feelings about another Spider-Man sequel based on the mess that was Spider-Man 3.

Here’s the text of the press release:

Paving the way for the production and release of its multi-character superhero film, THE AVENGERS, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL), announced today an adjusted release pipeline for its self-produced feature film properties that reflects the first time individual Super Hero characters and story arcs will be inter-woven and culminate in a multi-character motion picture. Separately, Marvel Studios confirmed today that Sony Pictures Entertainment will release SPIDER-MAN 4 on May 6, 2011. Additionally, Marvel Studios has revised the release dates for THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA as part of its release strategy for an uninterrupted road to THE AVENGERS, now debuting May 4, 2012.

A Marvel character-based film will now launch the summer box office season for three years in a row, from 2010 through 2012.

“This new schedule strongly sequences Marvel’s movie debut dates, big screen character introductions and momentum. It maximizes the visibility of our single character-focused films, leading to the highly anticipated release of the multi-character THE AVENGERS film in 2012,” said David Maisel, Chairman, Marvel Studios.

Sony Pictures’ and Marvel Studios’ SPIDER-MAN 4 is slated for May 6, 2011. To date, all three motion pictures in the phenomenally successful SPIDER-MAN franchise have generated nearly $2.5 billion worldwide theatrically.

Below is Marvel Studios’ 2010-2012 updated release schedule for its slate of self-produced and financed feature films:

Marvel Studios Feature Film Pipeline
Film/Character – Prior Release Date – Current Release Date
IRON MAN 2 – May 7, 2010 – May 7, 2010
THOR – July 16, 2010 – June 17, 2011
THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA – May 6, 2011 – July 22, 2011
THE AVENGERS – July 15, 2011 – May 4, 2012

The release date for IRON MAN 2 remains unchanged. IRON MAN 2 is the sequel to the blockbuster film, IRON MAN, which has grossed nearly $600 million worldwide.

Thanks to Newsarama for posting this.

So this year as far as “geek movies” are concerned, the BIG one is, obviously, Watchmen. More than a few people out there are looking forward to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as well. Star Trek, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator: Salvation, and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra will get us through the summer months, and in the winter we get Robert Downey, Jr., not as Tony Stark, but as someone with an even more distinguished pedigree, Sherlock Holmes. Not exactly a quiet year, by any means. However, it turns out that 2009 is just the beginning.

Warner Bros. announced their official slate of release dates for 2010 AND 2011, and when blended with the schedule that Marvel Studios has had in place for a while now … well, geez, I hope ticket prices at the box office don’t go any HIGHER. Here’s the rundown for 2010, including both Marvel Studios AND Warner Bros. genre films (thanks to Matt Brady over at www.newsarama.com for compiling all this so neatly):

Iron Man 2: May 7th, 2010
Twilight: Eclipse: June 30th, 2010
Thor: July 16th, 2010
Jonah Hex (based on the Western-style comic from DC, starring Josh Brolin and John Malkovich): August 6th, 2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part One: November 19th, 2010
Green Lantern: December 17th, 2010

Add to that The First Avenger: Captain America on May 6th, 2011 and BOTH The Avengers AND Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on July 15th, 2011, and you’ve got what amounts to a “golden age of geek” at the movies for the next three years.

I still maintain that the success of Watchmen in a few weeks is CRITICAL to this trend continuing. The buzz from overseas is VERY good – even in its theatrical version, the film is dense, compelling, challenging to viewers, everything that an adaptation of Moore’s work should be (though he himself would never admit it). Fans of the graphic novel should be pleased enough to want to see what the extended versions will have to offer when they come to DVD and Blu-Ray. The questions remain: will the visuals be enough to draw the curious non-Watchmen afficionado to the big screen beyond opening weekend? Will word of mouth after opening weekend draw new and return crowds? If the film is successful on these levels, then we should continue to see Warner and Marvel Studios continue their ambitious plans, because there will be more confidence in the bankability of pursuing less-recognized properties, as they will soon HAVE to do, as most of the “A-List” comic book properties have been done or are in production.

IF Watchmen, for some reason, FAILS to meet the studios expectations, however, then it might signal the beginnings of comic-book-movie burnout among moviewatchers, and having this deluge of genre films bombarding movie going audiences for the next two years may cause a serious backlash.

In Hour 1 of this week’s Prime Time Geek, the DC Spotlight falls on Final Crisis #7 and the “death” of Batman (no, REALLY this time!), we say a fond farewell to Ricardo Montalban, who was beloved by most for his role as “Mr. Roarke” on Fantasy Island, but was revered by Star Trek fans for his depiction of Khan Noonian Singh in the Original Series and in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and we cover Watchmen, Iron Man 2 and (oddly enough) live-action Cowboy Bebop casting news. Also, Michael Poley of the sketch comedy group Night of the Night Wolf calls into the show to talk about his group, their videos and live performances, and their particular brand of comedy. Check it out, and check back at midweek for Hour 2 …

Geek Weekly – 10/24/08