Disney slates Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie for Aug. 1, 2014 release

Though you aren't really supposed to know about it yet, Disney has slated their upcoming adaptation of Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" for release on August 1, 2014.

Well, you aren't supposed to know about half of the above, anyway. That's because while the studio announced that the project had been moved from its previously-announced May 16, 2014 date, they've never actually confirmed that said project is "Guardians of the Galaxy." Instead, they're billing the "mystery film" as "Marvel Untitled."

Nevertheless, reports that surfaced last week indicate the film in question is indeed "Guardians of the Galaxy," and that moreover the studio will confirm that fact at the imminently-approaching San Diego Comic-Con.

In case you were wondering, the Guardians of the Galaxy are a little-known Marvel superhero team that made their first appearance in - fittingly enough - "Marvel Superheroes" #18, published in January 1969. The group later became the subject of a self-titled comic-book series in the early '90s that lasted for 62 issues, with a new version (featuring an almost-entirely new team lineup) debuting in 2008 and running for 25 issues.

Interestingly (and probably not coincidentally), the reassembled team cropped up in last month's issue of the Marvel comic-book series "Avengers Assemble," which lends credence to a proposed theory that the "Guardians" film will also, wouldn't you know it, serve as a lead-in to the "Avengers" sequel slated for release the following year.

Are you getting all this?

For those not familiar with the Guardians' in-comic back-story (believe me, you're far from the only one), a brief summary:

Led by a 20th-century astronaut named Vance Astro (a.k.a. Major Victory) who awakes from suspended animation after floating through space for a thousand years, the original Guardians of the Galaxy teamed up in the 31st century to combat a race of reptilian aliens known as the Badoons.

In the group's later (at least in normal Earth time, i.e. real life where the Guardians are only comic-book characters and don't exist as actual beings) incarnation, an almost entirely new group of intergalactic time-traveling heroes led by a guy named Star-Lord band together to police the universe. After coming across a semi-amnesiac man named (gasp!) Vance Astro - who tells the team members that he previously led a group named, wouldn't you know it, Guardians of the Galaxy - Star-Lord and company decide to adopt the name as their own, with Vance/Major Victory later joining up to help defeat more bad guys.

Ok, clear enough? No? Good.

Any Guardians of the Galaxy fans out there who have thoughts on the movie version? If so, sound off in the comments!

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