ANT-MAN

Before he was tapped to take over "Ant-Man," director Peyton Reed had another comic book flick on this plate -- one that will be competing with his movie for summer supremacy.

Yahoo's UK site has an interview up with Reed where the filmmaker talks about his abandoned plans to head up Fox's "Fantastic Four" before Tim Story did the original Hollywood adaptation: "I was a huge Marvel fan when I was a kid and knew 'Fantastic Four' inside out and felt they were always the crown jewel of Marvel," he said. "So I went in and got [hired for] the movie and I developed it for the better part of a year with three different sets of writers.

"But it became clear after a while that Fox had a very different movie in mind and they were also chasing a release date... so we ended up parting company. I felt like I couldn't make the movie I wanted to make in that environment.

"The environment at Fox in 2003 was very different to the environment at Marvel in 2015. Fox at that time had a very specific idea; they wanted to pitch it much younger than I wanted to and I always felt like they were treating those characters like b-level characters. I never felt like they understood the real strength of that property."

"Ant-Man" in theaters now.

FANTASTIC FOUR

On the more current side of the FF divide, Fox has released a new featurette focusing on the "four origins" present in the film -- really the four sides of the team origin, largely based on Marvel's "Ultimate Fantastic Four" comics.

Opens August 7

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

It wouldn't be Comic-Con without a bunch of movie stars in press rooms mouthing off on other studios' projects. And who's better to watch mouth off than Bruce Campbell?

The incomparable B movie star was at the show promoting his incoming "Ash Vs. Evil Dead" series when he put out his opinions on the premise of Zack Snyder's incoming "Batman v Superman" to the LA Times.

"My only problem with some superheroes is that they're too perfect. Batman fighting Superman? To me that's, sorry Warner Bros., it's just a mistake. Because most fans are going to go, 'Baloney, Superman, in his sleep,'" the actor said. "Batman [has armor now]? Well he's gonna need it -- he's fighting Superman! His face is exposed. Punch Ben Affleck in the face, you're done. Walk away. What's for lunch?"

There's more in the link including some fun back-and-forth with fellow Sam Rami-ite Lucy Lawless.

Opens March 25, 2016

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

Speaking of Comic-Con, Yahoo cornered the cast of "X-Men: Apocalypse" at the show and challenged them to sing the theme music from the '90s "X-Men" cartoon. This should be fun:

In more solid news, EW is rolling out materials from their upcoming cover feature on the film including this description of the first meeting between Charles Xavier and the titular villain (via):

The scene today takes place in 1983, a decade after the events of Days of Future Past, and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult), and Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) have gathered inside the halls of supercomputer Cerebro, unaware that they're about to meet their most dangerous enemy yet. Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), a 5,000-year-old Egyptian mutant, suddenly teleports into Cerebro with his new recruits-Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and Angel (Ben Hardy)-to force another mutant to join him: Charles. After the professor is pulled across the corridor in his wheelchair by Magneto, Apocalypse sizes up the remaining heroes and declares in a booming bass, "All will be revealed, my children."

Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence tells the magazine that when it comes to her future with the mutant franchise "There is hope." Despite her worries over continuing the chemically intense makeup process "I don't want to not be asked." However, producer Simon Kinberg is a long way from figuring out which stars will appear in any future X-Men films. "I just wanna finish this movie and then figure out the next one...But I do think about the next chapters of these stories. My hope is we can bring these guys back. And if we didn't then I would adjust."

Opens May 27, 2016

SUICIDE SQUAD

Fans both worried about and hyped for the next Warner Bros. superhero team movie will find little to change their opinions in the new Time profile on "Suicide Squad" co-star Cara Delevingne. Tied to her role in the John Green adaptation "Paper Towns," the story digs a bit into the casting process for David Ayer's villain-centric movie where the actress will play Enchantress.

After reading lines from the play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at her audition (in lieu of incomplete screenplay segments) again and again and again, the actress was ready to "beat people up."

"I was like, 'Honestly, if I go outside and punch people, you've got to come get me out of jail because I am so furious. He sparked a f-cking fury in me," she explained. But the anger and frustration she brought to the process won her the part of which she can now say, ""I kill people with my bare hands."

Opens on August 5, 2016

HERALD

In the rare bit of indie comics optioning news, Action Lab's series about the adventures of Nikola Tesla and H.P. Lovecraft fighting the secretive Cthulu Order called "Herald" has been optioned by Romark Entertainment. Created by writer John Reilly and artists Tom Rogers and Dexter Weeks, the otherworldly time travel series is set up with executive producers Rock Shaink and Mark Lawyer who are currently working on a number of projects including "Earthless" with Ridley Scott.