Different writers and directors, all playing in the same sandbox.

And Kirby built that sandbox. It's not like Iron Man & Captain America & Hulk & Thor were created by a bunch of different people, and were completely unrelated stories until now.

I'm sorry, I really don't understand what's unique. I mean... Avengers is clearly part of a franchise. It's not a franchise built around a single character, but that doesn't make it not-a-franchise.

And Kirby built that sandbox. It's not like Iron Man & Captain America & Hulk & Thor were created by a bunch of different people, and were completely unrelated stories until now.

Of course not. Like Hec said, this sort of thing is done in books and comics all the time. I'm saying that it's cool to see it done in movies.

I'm sorry, I really don't understand what's unique.

Okay. I'm not really sure how else to present it, because I think it is.

Suzanne Collins had a chance to see the finished edit of The Hunger Games.

Aw, that's fantastic that Collins liked the finished product so much. It's opening soon, right? I can't wait!

March ... 23 or something like that? This month anyway.

My tickets are for 9:40 on the 24th, and my t-shirt shipped yesterday! I'll have to fit in a re-read, but otherwise, my body is ready...

I think the big thing about The Avengers is that it is, essentially, a movie work of epic scale. It was preceded by 6 movies, all huge-budget works that were necessary (well, maybe not the second Hulk or Iron Man movies) to set up the movie. At least 4 of those movies were extremely successful. And the studio had the chutzpah to make it clear they were working towards this project at the end of only the second of those movies.

I'm sure that many of the later movies, and The Avengers specifically, might have been canceled if Iron Man had been a total flop, but it still showed a lot of faith in the future of their franchise to put in teasers for a movie four years and four movies away.

Now, what will be awesome is if in The Avengers 2, they manage to have short scenes, at least, with the new Spider-Man and perhaps a few of the X-Men - at least Wolverine, since Hugh Jackman seems willing to play that role until Kingdom Come. Though I'm more excited by the First Class era of the X-Men than any more work with the older cast at this point, it would be a nice reminder that it's all one universe.

I don't so much care for a Wolverine scene (sniktbub in the Avengers is a big sore spot for me), but I would love it if a Patrick Stewart cameo were legally and logistically possible.

with the new Spider-Man and perhaps a few of the X-Men - at least Wolverine

I'm pretty sure this is impossible. The licenses on all the mutants are held definitely separately, and I suspect that Spider-Man is legally isolated from everyone, but I'd have to look it up.

It's weird when people ask "Why don't all the other NY heroes show up?" Uh, like for about the same reason Batman doesn't? Or Dr. Manhattan?

Not a lot of details, and this is Device and their source is Lockheed Martin, but....

Tom 'MAAAVERICK' Cruise to fly F-35s in Top Gun sequel

Every year since 1986 has just been another year wasted without a movie about fighter jets and the oversized pairs of aviator sunglasses that fly them. But the long national nightmare is over, as rumor has it that Tommy C. will be playing the role (the starring role) of an F-35 test pilot in the upcoming sequel to Top Gun, which is probably not called Top Gun 2: They Wouldn't Let Us Use F-22s.

Normally we don't write about Tom Cruise rumors around here, but since this one comes straight from Lockheed Martin's F-35 program manager, we're willing to let our imaginations run with it for a little bit. Apparently, a production crew will be visiting a Lockheed flight test center in Texas within the "next month or so" to begin filming airplanes in action, even though there are zero more details (not even a title or unofficial release date) to be had.