MY MOVIE WEEK... with Mike Shaw

Hayley Atwell was very good as Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger but, since then, she has kind of disappeared from the radar.

That might not be the case for long, however, if either of the rumours doing the rounds at the moment are true.

The first story is that Peggy Carter might get her own movie spinning off from the Captain America sequel, The Winter Soldier.

The talk comes from Atwell responding to the question of, if she got to play Carter again, what would she like to do with her.

Atwell said: “I’d like to revisit Peggy. If I get a spin-off, I’d like to definitely add a bit of humour in there.

“She’s very British, very uptight. Let’s hope if she gets a spin-off it’s modern-day, so she can relax a little bit, and let go of the uniform.”

Realistically, this film is never going to happen. Carter isn’t a particularly exciting character and was never a solo comic – she’s not going to get a film.

The second rumour is slightly more realistic and concerns the Tomb Raider reboot.

An online campaign has started to get Atwell the role of Lara Croft in the new video game adaptation, and Atwell has been merrily retweeting a lot of mentions on her Twitter account.

She said: “There’s some kind of online campaign for me to do Tomb Raider Reborn which I know has just come out as a game.

“MGM have the rights to turn it into a film, which would be fantastic to do because I’d get to spend a year of my life training hard and pick up all sorts of fantastic fun skills.”

Atwell already has the accent and facial features to play Lara Croft, and with enough time she can get the right kind of athletic build.

At the moment, this is all fan-driven, but there are plenty of instances in the past of studios basing casting decisions on public demand, so if the Twitter campaign continues, who knows?

There are two things going against Atwell. One is her age; at 31 she’s probably already regarded as too old. The other is a rival fan-favourite, someone called Jennifer Lawrence.

Let’s see where this one goes, but either way, we’ll get to see Atwell again in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when it hits cinemas next April.

A lot of Crowing about a remake

The remake of The Crow has been flapping about for years and years now, with so many actors attached to the main role it’s hard to keep count. The latest name, however, is probably the most intriguing of them all: Tom Hiddleston.

Best know for playing Loki in Thor, Hiddleston is in talks to play Eric Draven in the new film which follows the same basic story as the original. Adapted from James O’Barr’s glorious graphic novel about rock musician Draven and his fiancée who are murdered on Devil’s Night, Draven rises from the grave as The Crow and taking his revenge in increasingly violent ways.

Hiddleston could easily handle the darker, more dramatic side of the character, and after playing Loki, he’s obviously familiar with green-screen action.

The Brandon Lee original will be tough to top, but the horrible sequels ruined the legacy somewhat, so I hope this new version comes off, and with an interesting actor like Hiddleston in the lead.

Disney serves a star wars overdose

I didn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that Disney buying the Star Wars franchise was a bad idea, but I’m starting to see things from the detractors’ point of view.

Disney boss Alan Horn took the stage at CinemaCon the other day to talk about the company’s future plans, and alongside pretty much promising JJ Abrams’ Episode VII for 2015, he also let slip the plans to release a new Star Wars film every single year from 2015. EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.

Confirming previous rumours, Horn said the plan is to slot these standalone films – focusing on different characters from the Star Wars universe – in between entries in the new trilogy.

I’m immediately concerned about quality control and sickening the public with Star Wars overkill, but Disney seems confident that it can deliver. Maybe it can. If the talent pool is kept large enough and handled by a variety of directors, perhaps this idea has legs. It’ll never happen because Disney will want to make the maximum amount of money, but imagine if different genres were explored... a Fountain-esque existential story, or a horror set in the world of Star Wars; perhaps something where Jar Jar Binks is tortured for 90 minutes...

I’ll keep an open mind for now, but my Spidey-senses are tingling. And not in a good way.