The Bulletin: Arts & Culture Roundup | 26 July

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON ROUND-UP: X-MEN - DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, AVENGERS 2, AND MUCH MORE!
As ever, this year's San Diego Comic-Con heralded the announcement of more upcoming geek culture movies and events than you could conceivably shake a magically-powered stck at, with the cast of Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past making a surprise appearance, the prospect of a Batman / Superman punch-up in the forthcoming, Zack Snyder-helmed Man of Steel sequel, and Joss Whedon giving some tantalising glimpses into the pre-production on Avengers 2. Against a backdrop of colourful cosplayers, giant video walls spewing out spoilers, and comics creators and publishers trying not to get overshadowed by the multimedia adaptations they have spawned in recent years, the SDCC proved its worth once again as perhaps the ultimate rumour-mill on the media landscape.

First up, those Bats vs. Supes rumours - having set the blogosphere alight with speculation about the possible dimensions of a Dark Knight / Man of Steel team-up in the long-mooted JLA movie, Snyder blew the bloody doors off SDCC with his announcement that the Man of Steel sequel would be a The Dark Knight Returns-inspired versus movie, with the current working title making clear how the two would interact - it is slated for a 2015 release, and is currently called Batman Vs. Superman. With Henry Cavill returning as Supes, and Batman as-yet uncast, Snyder's announcement was treated like actual manna from Heaven. "Let’s face it," Snyder is quoted as saying by IGN, "it’s beyond mythological to have Superman and our new Batman facing off, since they are the greatest Super Heroes in the world."

The X-Men: Days of Future Past panel was a revelation-packed mutant-fest, by all accounts, with Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Halle Berry (Storm), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Anna Paquin (Rogue), James McAvoy (Professor X again), Michael Fassbender (Magneto again), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Peter Dinklage (Bolivar Trask), Omar Sy (Bishop) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) all in attendance. With a preview from the Bryan Singer-directed prequel-cum-futuristic-time-travel-epic sending fans wild, and Hugh Jackman once again throwing down the gauntlet to Marvel with calls for a Wolverine / Spiderman / X-Men / Avengers team-up movie, it was one of SDCC's most raucous panels.

If the world's comic book fans ever decided to abandon their countries of birth and set up a new society under the totalitarian control of a revered and all-powerful leader, Magneto-style, there would be only one man who they could possibly elect Dictator-for-Life. That man is Joss Whedon. His announcement that the Avengers sequel will be titled Avengers: Age of Ultron was greeted with near-rabid delerium. Below, he describes the teaser footage previwed during his appearance.

For an in-depth round-up of the other biggest stories from SDCC, including news about True Blood, Godzilla, the Whedon-helmed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Walking Dead and much, much more, head over to io9.com. For a feel of the actual madness of the SDCC floor, take a look below at some of the awesome cosplayers in attendance this year.

DESIGN A POSTER FOR NEW IRVINE WELSH MOVIE, FILTH
The new Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth stars James McAvoy, playing against his lovable, cutire-pie type as foul-mouthed, drugs-booze-and-prostitutes-obsessed copper Bruce Robertson. Lionsgate, Talenthouse and The Metro are offering graphic designers and artsts the chance to design a promotional poster for the film, which opens in the UK in October. The winning design will be chosen by Irvine Welsh himself, and Jon S. Baird, director of the film. The winner will receive a £1000 bursary, and will see their poster used in a print issue of The Metro. They also win tickets to the premiere, a signed and framed image of their work and a bag of Filth merchandise. Submissions are open until 5 September - enter here.

A BAND CALLED QUINN TO PLAY IN-STORE GIG AT AVALANCHE, EDINBURGH
On 4 August, electronic indie-rockers A Band Called Quinn will play a very special in-store gig at Edinburgh's favourite independent record store, Avalanche Records. The band will preview their Fringe show Biding Time (remix), which features a screening of a new film of the same name by Uisdean Murray, and live performance directed by Grid Iron theatre director Ben Harrison alongside music from the band. Some tracks from the band's inventive score are available for download at their Soundcloud - don't miss this intimate in-store performance, taking place at 2pm at Avalanche, The Grassmarket, Edinburgh.

FESTIVAL WATCH: SUMMERCAMP, ATP: END OF AN ERA
Summercamp (24-25 Aug) takes place smack bang in the centre of Liverpool, and features art, food stalls and family-friendly entertainment along with an impressive selection of musical talent, both locally and nationally-sourced. Mount Kimbie, Steve Mason, The Joy Formidable, Nathan Fake, Dutch Uncles and Ghostpoet all feature - details and tickets here.

A quick mention for All Tomorrow's Parties: End of an Era Part 2 (29 Nov - 1 Dec), which marks the end of the ATP 'UK holiday camp' events. The Loop-curated festival, which already features a thrilling lineup including Mogwai, Girls Against Boys, Dirty Beaches and Balam Acab, has just added post-rock giants Slint to the bill. Details and tickets here. 

NEW VIDEOS: FRANZ FERDINAND, CABARET VOLTAIRE, WASHED OUT, PINS, IKONIKA, HYETAL, STUMBLEINE
Franz Ferdinand return with new album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action on 26 August, and this week the Glasgow band unveiled the video for lead single Love Illumination, which features the band playing in some rather bizarre masks, in a black-and-white-tiled room. 

Back after a considerably longer absence thanks to a much-deserved re-release are Richard H. Kirk's seminal post-punk outfit Cabaret Voltaire, whose third album Red Mecca is to be reissued by Mute with a new master by seminal electronic musician Pole. Below, you'll find the video for album track Landslide. A vinyl and CD box-set presenting a retrospective of the seminal Sheffield band's work will follow later this year.

The new video from electronic noisenik Washed Out is taken from his hotly-anticipapted new album Paracosm, out 12 August. 

PINS, the hotly-tipped Mancehster post-punk outfit signed to Bella Union for their debut Girls Like Us (due 30 September), have a new video out, shot on Super-8. The band play Glasgow's Broadcast on 12 October, and Leaf in Liverpool on on 17 October. 

Ikonika's Hyperdub EP Aerotropolis is out 29 July - and it seems the producer has been inspired by the Grand Theft Auto games in her new video. 

Hyetal, a former collaboratir with breaks supremo Baobinga, is also inspired by video games - in this case, the futuristic, hypercolour excesses of 90s racer games such as Wip3out. 

And finally, a new video from Bristol's Stumbleine, whose Spiderwebbed (reviewed here) was much-admired by us when it dropped last year, combining ethereal shoegaze with trip-hop and post-dubstep rhythms. Here's our interview with him, from October last year. 

BJORK & DAVID ATTENBOROUGH ON CHANNEL 4
And finally, just time to give you a heads-up about a programme screening on Saturday night - Björk and Sir David Attenborough have collaborated to produce The Nature of Music, a documentary about the intersection of music, technology and biology, in part inspired by Björk's Biophilia album, which came packaged with a bespoke app. Their collaboration is one of the more inspiring and unexpected of 2013 - catch the program when it airs on Saturday.