So what’s happening with Marvel Studios? We’ve got the invincible-looking Iron Man opening May 2, 2008 and The Incredible Hulk smashing into theaters June 13. But what about the other planned movies, such as Thor and Ant-Man, both rumored for release in 2009? What about other movies?
Marvel’s ultimate goal is to have total control over the filmed adaptations of their characters; mission accomplished. However, their other goal of two films per year appears to be in danger. Due to the Writers Strike debacle, things have been delayed. Unlike a major studio, which has billions to spend on 24/7 re-writes, Marvel Studios only has about $525 million from Merrill Lynch, though that number could be higher with other investments, with movie budgets ranging from $45 million to $165 million. Paramount Pictures is distributing (except Hulk, which is Universal–a holdover from the Ang Lee film).
|
|
Based on reports, it looks like Marvel may have already spent around $130 million on Iron Man and $150 million on Hulk. So where does that leave Ant-Man and Thor (still being re-written to get the budget down)? With script re-writes, apparently. Already the directors (Edgar Wright and Matthew Vaughn, respectively) are actively working on new projects.
In 2006, former Marvel Studios head Avi Arad said the director he wanted for Captain America, at the time their hoped-for debut film (now Iron Man), wasn’t available until 2009, but the strike may have hurt that (and no, I don’t know who that director was). So Cap in 2009 may not happen (Colin Ferguson for Cap!).
So if Vaughn is waiting for Thor and working on a film adaptation of Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass comic, while Wright moves onto Scott Pilgrim: Precious Little Life before making Ant-Man, what do we have for 2009? Do we even have one movie? I’d say yes, and it could very well be…Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. It’s pure speculation on my part, but if rumors are true, we’ll be seeing Fury in Iron Man, played by Samuel L. Jackson (since they based Ultimates Fury on the awesome Jackson), so why not?
I’m extremely excited for Iron Man, and Hulk is looking killer; I want to see Marvel keep up with the momentum, so let’s keep our fingers crossed that 2009 brings more Marvel Studios awesomeness! Yes, I know X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens then, but that’s a FOX movie first, Marvel second.
Source: Ain’t It Cool News (Vaughn’s next) and AICN again (Wright’s next)
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or if you want more frequent updates follow us on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Loading ...
35 Comments
Ghost Rider was a film about a guy with a flaming skull for a head.
What did you expect?
Citizen Kane…:-)
Ghost Rider was Bad.
“…there will be no sequel to Fantastic Four…”
And who cares I hated how they defiled the F4 in those movies.
I’m with ya on F4 but why did Ghost Rider suck? Can anyone be more specific?
Why ‘Ghost Rider’ sucked.
Vic
Yup, 790, I was definitely expecting Citizen Kane. THAT’s why I was dissapointed. :-p
I’d like to see another F4, the films were OK, kinda dissapointing but not even half as bad as GR, Daredevil, and Electra were, IMO. If they aren’t doing a new F4 anytime soon I say wait a few year and then…..REBOOT!! Do it RIGHT this time, close to the Stan and Jack comix.
Shame no more FF. Although it was a bit light weight it was still good fun and surely Chris Evans made a perfect Human Torch, pity he could not carry the character on in someway.
At least we got to see the Silver Surfer too. I remember reading in Marvels Foom Fan mag 30 years ago about hoping to get a Surfer movie going. I never thought that in time we’d have movies of most of these amazing creations flying out of our cinema screens.
So just a reminder that at least we have these movies now to chew the fat over.
Good one KEL, I’m sure Vic got a good laugh on that one too.
For my tastes Fantastic 4 films were very average fare. They upset the comic fans with that horrible version of Galactus. And I thought the Thing never quite looked right.
Best part of F4 was the Human Torch he was perfectly cast and executed.
Alba was bland and the guy that played Mr Fantastic was a crappy actor. (IMO).
Its clobbering time never sounded so shallow.
Alba? Bland? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Thanks, 790.
I, obviously, REALLY dislike their takes on Galactus and Dr. Doom, being a big comix fan and all.
I thought the Thing in ROTSS looked pretty good, MUCH better than in the first one.
And yeah, Evans was great.
Not Marvel or Dc, but I think if anything deserves a reboot and would sell tickets like crazy I think it would be a new Spawn movie. As a huge fan of Spawn despite the sick and twisted things in the comics, I still am a big fan.
I don’t know who was the bigger let down after so much hope/hype, Venom in Spidey 4 or Galactus from FF2!?
At least they left Galactus a bit of a mystery and so we can hope he’ll get a better show next time where-ever that may be.
Shame about Venom too, hated how Eddie Brocks face kept coming back to say some crappy dialogue.
As good as some parts of spidey 3 were,they did come very close to ruinning the whole spidey series.
Cap = John Cena.
Before you go nuts saying ‘No.’ check out ‘The Marine’ on DVD… THEN come back and give you’re thoughts. The guy could pull it off and already looks the part! (Glad he doesn’t fit in the War Machine Armor…) -Stark
snowdog wrote:
{{outside of faithful fans of the comic books, no one knows of Antman and Thor.}}
Look at the issue number counts of Thor and Avengers compared with Deathlok, Luke Cage, and Morbius. The first two are for sure major characters (Although Ant-Man also showed up as Giant-Man and Yellowjacket…)
I will give you this–Deathlok & Luke Cage would be great movies.
Ant-Man was only Ant-Man, He may have been Giant-Man, but that guy died then the yellowjacket guy has used his formula and all that jazz to make several identities.
Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, and Yellowjacket, were all the same man, Henry (Hank) Pym.
Nkeg… Cap = John Cena…. no… No….. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!
I understand your thinking. Cena did an ok job for the Marine, but it’s just a bad movie with bad acting. Marvel is thinking Block Buster for each and every movie. RDJ and Ed Norton have now set the bar higher for Marvel heros. What most people are thinking is that they need to cast this big buff WWE dude to pull off the hero role. That is not how they are going to cast this. Look at RDJ and Ed Norton. Small, meek guys… but Excellent actors. The hero role is played by computers. So all of you thinking HHH is going to play Thor… it is NOT going to happen. You are going to get A-list actors WANTING the roles of Thor and Cap. Brad Pitt, Marc Walhberg, Matt Damon, Clive Owen. Josh Hartnett and Paul Walker are some of the suggestions I have heard or come up with. These roles need to be cast based on the hero’s alter ego. That’s why HHH will not work for Dr. Donald Blake, or John Cena will not work for Steve Rogers.
My pick for Dr. Blake is Paul Walker
My Pick for Steve Rogers is Brad Pitt or Marc Walhberg
only time will tell, but my guess is they will not go with any wrestling actor wanna-bees.
What's your opinion? Leave a Reply!
Go to Gravatar.com and upload your own (we'll wait)!