Skyfall director Sam Mendes recently elaborated on his decision to not return to helm James Bond 24.
In a chat with The Guardian (via Yahoo! Movies UK), the Oscar-winning Mendes said, "Was I willing to go back into a room with a writer and start work on the same set of characters and the same scenarios as I've been working on for the last three years? The idea made me physically ill."
The Bond producers, however, have publicly stated they remain confident they can woo Mendes back for another Bond movie down the line.
Mendes also spoke about the filmmakers' decision to -- SPOILER!! -- kill off Judi Dench's "M" at the end of Skyfall: "Ha! You can't kill him; let's kill her instead! I thought I was going to get so much (s**t) for that. But you know you shock people into rediscovering their first acquaintance with the characters…"
Deadline claims that Hiddleston merely had a conversation with the filmmakers about it and isn't in the running. Instead, they are reportedly pursuing True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard for the lead role.
The site says Skarsgard "is getting numerous offers since his plans to star for David Yates in Tarzan died on the vine when Warner Bros halted the project over budget. No formal offer yet, but it sounds to me like it’s Skarsgard’s role if he wants it in the F. Javier Gutierrez-directed film series relaunch."
Deadline claims that Hiddleston merely had a conversation with the filmmakers about it and isn't in the running. Instead, they are reportedly pursuing True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard for the lead role.
The site says Skarsgard "is getting numerous offers since his plans to star for David Yates in Tarzan died on the vine when Warner Bros halted the project over budget. No formal offer yet, but it sounds to me like it’s Skarsgard’s role if he wants it in the F. Javier Gutierrez-directed film series relaunch."
You know the week is off to a good start when it’s game release date galore out there. Did someone mention dog watching or something, cause that just popped into my mind. Weird. Anyway, have you heard about this IllumiRoom projector that might be in Microsoft’s next console? Brush up on the deets, and let us know if you want it to be a part of your gaming experience. Oh, and check out my pretty neat Sisters of Artemis shirt in today’s episode while you’re at it. Give it a watch!
Naomi Kyle is IGN's news host and on-camera personality. You can find her every day on The Daily Fix, kicking ass and taking names. You can follow her on Twitter @NaomiKyle.
Sure, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale may not have sold the best, but it’s still a great game with a loyal following, and its many odes to PlayStation’s proud heritage are about to be on sale. Starting on Tuesday, April 30th in North America only, both regular users and PlayStation Plus subscribers can expect to save some bucks (with Plus users saving even more) on the following games that inspired PlayStation All-Stars.
Oh, and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale itself will be on sale for both PS3 and Vita, too, to the tune of 50% off for PS Plus subscribers.
BioShock (Retail)
BioShock 2 (Retail)
Devil May Cry HD Collection (Retail)
God of War HD (PSN)
God of War II HD (PSN)
God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)
God of War Collection (Retail)
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
God of War Origins Collection (Retail)
Infamous (Retail)
Infamous 2 (Retail)
Infamous: Festival of Blood (PSN)
LittleBigPlanet (Retail)
LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Retail)
LittleBigPlanet Karting (Retail)
LittleBigPlanet PS Vita (Vita)
Metal Gear Solid (PSone)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD (PSN/Vita)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD (PSN/Vita)
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (Retail/Vita)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD (PSN/Vita)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus (PSP)
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One (Retail)
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault (PSN)
Ratchet & Clank HD Collection (Retail)
Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty (PSN)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PSN)
Secret Agent Clank (PSP)
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus HD (PSN)
Sly 2: Band of Thieves HD (PSN)
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves HD (PSN)
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (Retail/Vita)
The Sly Collection (Retail)
Twisted Metal (PSone)
Twisted Metal (Retail)
Twisted Metal 2 (PSone)
Twisted Metal: Black (PS2)
Twisted Meteal: Head-On (PSone)
Consider this a reminder from your friendly neighborhood PlayStation editor.
Colin Moriarty is a Senior Editor in charge of IGN’s PlayStation coverage. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
Want to show the world how much you love IGN? Good news - IGN’s Splitreason store has more than a dozen shirts and hoodies for you to choose from, including some inspired by your favorite game and movie franchises!
For a limited time, some of our most popular designs are on sale for up to 50% off, but act fast! The sale only lasts this week.
Check out a small selection of the shirts available below:
With Iron Man 3 hitting theaters this week, it's time to take an updated look at the biggest star in the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark himself.
Iron Man was introduced in Marvel Comics' Tales of Suspense back in 1963 and while he might not have always had the widespread recognition of Spider-Man or the Hulk, he still made plenty of television appearances through the years. And of course once he became a bona fide movie star and was quickly elevated to one of the world's most recognizable super heroes, the floodgates were open. In recent years, there have been as many as four different animated series featuring the character airing simultaneously!
Keep in mind this list is focused on television appearances, not feature films or direct-to-video projects.
You have to at least be amused by any incarnation of Iron Man whose theme song says, "Tony Stark makes you feel. He's a cool exec, with a heart of steel!" What exactly does Tony make us feel though? Only a few dozen ladies can say. This series is infamous for its incredibly crude animation, which simply took actual comic book frames and moved them, ever so slightly, adding in the occasional creepy moving lips.
That being said, as others have joked, it certainly doesn't get more faithful to the comics than this stories are taken directly from Iron Man's Tales of Suspense days, complete with lots of goofy but fun Silver Age villains and melodrama. For those who grew up with this show in the '60s or caught it in syndication later, it's hard not to be nostalgic for this first-ever animated version of the Golden Avenger.
In a fun nod to the character's history, Jon Favreau included the Iron Man 1966 theme song multiple times in the first Iron Man movie - it's played by the band, as Tony is given an award at the start of the film (which he fails to accept, since he's gambling at the time) and it's also Tony's ring tone on his phone.
Amazing Friends was the first animated series to feature a large cross-section of characters from Marvel Comics existing in the same universe, so it was only fitting that Shell-head make an appearance. There are brief glimpses of Iron Man on a couple of episodes, but it was on the episode "The Origin of the Spider-Friends" that the character would have a true guest star role, though almost entirely as Tony Stark.
Twice, the Spider-Friends save Stark, who ultimately rewards them in a big way, as it turns out he's the one who supplies the gang with their "own crime computer and their hidden laboratory" - explaining how three college students had been able to afford to have all those cool gizmos that popped up when they slid a trophy forward.
Spider-Man is transfixed by the power of the stache.
We actually do also see Iron Man briefly in this episode too, even if Spider-Man doesn't. As the Spider-Friends defend Stark International from the Beetle, Iceman wonders where Iron Man is the action cuts to outer space, where Iron Man is seen destroying asteroids, as Stan Lee's narration explains he's "on a secret government mission."
Iron Man (1994)
The greatest thing to come from the first-ever completely Iron Man-centric TV series are the awesome opening credits to the second (and final) season. Those credits feature a shirtless, mulleted Tony Stark using a large hammer to create his armor, while cheesy faux-metal plays, complete with a familiar refrain "I am Iron Man!" It's both awful and wonderful all at once.
As for the show, it was unfortunately a mediocre affair (though the second season is better than the first), but it does remain notable for a couple of reasons. First was that the show had a large supporting cast of superheroes, mainly taken from the then-current Avengers spinoff comic book series, Force Works. As a result, the 1994 Iron Man series in some ways is the first ongoing look at an Avengers-type team in animation, as the cast included War Machine, Hawkeye, the second Spider-Woman, Scarlet Witch and the easy to forget 90s character Century.
There was also an action figure series released in conjunction with the show, which also was the first time Iron Man alone had been used as branding for his own toy line.
Voicing Iron Man was Robert Hays, the film actor probably best known for starring in Airplane! While the Iron Man series was over by February 1996, Hays would reprise the character twice later in the year, during a time when Marvel had many animated series on the air...
The Robert Hays-voiced Iron Man guest starred on both the 1990s animated Hulk and Spider-Man series.
On The Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner comes to Tony for help, but soon enough, Banner is big, green and smashing stuff, with S.H.I.E.L.D. in hot pursuit. Iron Man is joined here by War Machine, also continuing his earlier animated series persona. This episode also featured Tony donning a version of the Hulkbuster armor he'd previously worn on his own series.
With Spider-Man, the pattern established by Amazing Friends continued, with Iron Man making some earlier brief cameos, before Tony Stark had a notable guest role on the episode "Venom Returns." And as on Amazing Friends, a Stark invention is targeted by a supervillain Dormammu, who uses Baron Mordo, Venom and Carnage (in his first animated appearance) as his agents. In part 1 of this two-parter War Machine shows up, only to be hurt badly by Carnage. But in the second episode -- appropriately called "Carnage" -- Iron Man himself, intent on avenging War Machine, enters the fray and teams with Spidey for what ultimately is a big free for all battle between the good guys and the bad guys... and a very confused Venom.
Iron Man also had a large supporting role in the "Secret Wars" storyline on Spider-Man, which featured several other Marvel heroes. Spider-Man would be the last series to include the Robert Hays voiced incarnation of Iron Man introduced in the 1994 series. The character also was briefly seen on the 1990s Fantastic Four series, but it was just a brief visual cameo.
The end of the '90s saw the first official Avengers cartoon in the form of this less than stellar series, which rather incredulously had many of the characters wearing Power Ranger type outfits. Curiously, the three core Avengers from the comics -- Captain America, Thor and Iron Man -- were not a regular part of this series, presumably because their rights were tied up separately.
However, the three were glimpsed at the end of the opening credits, and Iron Man (like Captain America) did guest star on one episode of the series. He doesn't get to do all that much though, being rescued from the Stark space station and only really appearing in a few minutes of the episode.
If Space Iron Man had a mouth, he'd totally be talking trash.
There was at least one heroic moment for him, as (in a nod to the comics) he risks his own fragile heart to reroute power from his armor at a crucial moment. The one other notable aspect of this episode is that Iron Man is seen wearing a variation of his space armor from the comics for the entirety of his appearance.
Amazing Friends was the first animated series to feature a large cross-section of characters from Marvel Comics existing in the same universe, so it was only fitting that Shell-head make an appearance. There are brief glimpses of Iron Man on a couple of episodes, but it was on the episode "The Origin of the Spider-Friends" that the character would have a true guest star role, though almost entirely as Tony Stark. 
The greatest thing to come from the first-ever completely Iron Man-centric TV series are the awesome opening credits to the second (and final) season. Those credits feature a shirtless, mulleted Tony Stark using a large hammer to create his armor, while cheesy faux-metal plays, complete with a familiar refrain "I am Iron Man!" It's both awful and wonderful all at once.
The Robert Hays-voiced Iron Man guest starred on both the 1990s animated Hulk and Spider-Man series.
The end of the '90s saw the first official Avengers cartoon in the form of this less than stellar series, which rather incredulously had many of the characters wearing Power Ranger type outfits. Curiously, the three core Avengers from the comics -- Captain America, Thor and Iron Man -- were not a regular part of this series, presumably because their rights were tied up separately.