Excelsior!! The Marvel Universe on Film (Spoilers Allowed)

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I've just taken my first step into a larger universe

 

Impossible without Marvel reclaiming the movie rights. And Fox isn't going to give up the X-Men rights anytime soon and Sony will go bankrupt before they give up the Spider-Man rights.

Smaller properties might be though- Daredevil has been mentioned as one property Marvel is eyeing to remake once the rights revert back to them.

 

Marvel Seeks Writers For Second-Tier Heroes

Marvel Entertainment is readying to assemble a group of writers who will pen scripts for various properties Marvel wants to develop, reports Variety.

Marvel will invite up to five writers each year to work on specific projects. Those could include staffers behind Marvel's comic books.

The trade adds that the company will provide the specific pitches it wants the writers to tackle. Those could involve certain plot points for movies already in development or characters it would like to see in its future film slate.

The gathering of screenwriters will help Marvel come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and Vision.

So far, it has focused its efforts on more popular superheroes like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America.

A group of Marvel executives will choose the writers, with the final decision made by Kevin Feige, Marvel Studio's president of production.

Terms call for Marvel to own whatever the writers work on during the year. Company has the option to continue a relationship with the writers after that period.

 

Marvel Film Updates

-Ant-Man: Feige says the project is still in the works. Director Edgar [Wright] was in Los Angeles last week when he and Feige sat down to talk his post-"Scott Pilgrim" plans and when he can get to work on "Ant Man".

Whatever the case the project will not be going into production until next year at the earliest and certainly won't be released until after "The Avengers".

-Black Widow: There's "definitely a possibility" that Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow character from "Iron Man 2" will get her own spin-off movie.

-Captain America: Chris Evans is in London now rehearsing. Pre-production is in full swing and photos of the costume tests "are pretty stunning".

Nick Fury's "Howling Commandos", an elite special unit of U.S. Army Rangers characters from the "Sgt. Fury" comics, will appear in the upcoming film.

-Incredible Hulk 2: The sequel will not happen before "The Avengers". A scene in "Iron Man 2" indicates events in that film happen BEFORE the events in 2008's "The Incredible Hulk".

Will Hulk be a part of "The Avengers"? "I certainly think Hulk will be a player on that team." Yet if scheduling keeps Edward Norton away, Feige has a solution - "we reserve the right to say Hulk will be in it for sure, we'll see about [Bruce] Banner"

-Marvel Heroes: Talking about the minor characters in the Universe, Feige says you won't see a "Dazzler" movie as the character is part of the "X-Men" rights which Fox retains.

There's a lot of meetings right now about their post-"Avengers" projects for 2013 and 2014. As for what characters - Power Pack, Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, Runaways and Ka-Zar are all being considered for potential films.

The studio still intends a 'two films a year' release plan. 3D is being considered but will not be employed at the last minute, if they are to do it then it won't likely be a 'conversion job'.

They're not closing off the possibility of working with other studios on their characters but if they do, expect those films to exists separately - "there's only one place for connective tissue within the... Marvel Cinematic Universe that we're building and those are in the Marvel Studios movies."

Sony Rushing Forward On "Ghost Rider 2"?

A sequel to "Ghost Rider" may happen sooner than you think - with or without Nicolas Cage.

Sony Pictures, who produced the 2007 film, owns the rights to the Marvel Comics character so long as they keep using said character on film. It's a contract clause which forces Fox, Sony, Universal and Lionsgate to keep putting out films featuring the likes of the X-Men, Spider-Man, Punisher, Hulk, Fantastic Four and Daredevil or the rights revert back to Marvel who'd be more than happy to have them back.

Now, Vulture reports that the rights to 'Rider' will revert back to Marvel late this year unless Sony gets into production on a sequel by no later than November 14th. It's a tricky scenario as the first film was a critical disaster and a costly $110 million to produce. Yet despite a lack of audience familiarity with the character, it made a decent $228 million worldwide.

A large part of that success wasn't the character but rather Cage's appeal. Thus his involvement in the project is of major importance. Cage's schedule however may not be clear before the deadline as Disney wants him for a third "National Treasure" film which could begin production as early as this Fall.

The 'Rider' sequel is also simply not ready yet - Scott Gimple and Seth Hoffman have turned in a draft of the script which Sony has out to several potential directors, but that's still along way from being locked in.

Sony could use the film to shore up a rather quiet 2011 schedule and is apparently asking for an extension on the deadline, something that it's unlikely to get. No studio wants to lose a property to a rival who could make it much more profitable, so the question now is will they proceed wi

 

Dr Strange would be good- the JMS minon an unused script for a Dr Strange movie, and it was quite good and could have worked well as a film.

 

I'm sure that also motivates Columbia to work up contingency plans that don't involve Cage, sadly.

 

Also, what about the rumor that Joss Whedon will be helming the Avengers film?

 

I don't think it's a rumor at this point.

 

There's also a leaked pic floating around of The Destroyer suit on set as well.