Marvel Studios Project Slate
If I were to be perfectly honest, I would admit to being a raving DC fan any day of the week. I don’t think there’s been a character introduced in to the Batman universe that I don’t love (except for Azrael), I love Hal and Ollie, not to mention Dinah, and the 52 series was phenomenal.
But all of that fades in to the background, when you step out of the comic universe, and in to the world of comic movie adaptations.
Don’t get me wrong, Batman Begins is the best movie I’ve seen in a long time. But one movie can’t hold an entire franchise upon its shoulders. Lord of the Rings was only as big as it was because there was three of it. And, yeah, the Matrix is one example of how to build an entire franchise on one decent item and screw up the rest, there aren’t a whole heap of other examples.
So my love for the DC universe of movies is not high, but thankfully, Marvel is close at hand to pick up my scraps.
And you know why? Because they care more about their fans, than DC do theirs.
There’s a news story running around after Marvel released their latest update for the project slate; in other words, the status of all their movie productions. It’s just great, because it means I get to see what is happening with Ant-Man, Captain America and the Avengers movies.
See, I’m a DC fan, sure, but the Marvel comics are pretty darned close in my rankings. If I were to rank stuff in universes, Batman comes number 1, Ollie and Hal’s world next, but then it swaps over to Marvel with Ant-man, the Mighty 
Avengers, and cap!
The proof of my theory, as I’ve expounded upon before (and why I won’t dwell too long on it now) is in the making of their respective team movies. DC is pushing fast for Justice League to be made, so that they can ‘tentpole’ their franchise upon it. Whereas, on the other side, we’ve got Marvel who are investing time and effort in to building up their franchise so that, when they do make it to the team movie – the Avengers – they’ve already got a team out there to pull in.
All you’ve got to do is look at “Feature Film Projects Being Developed by Marvel”.
Iron Man, Marvel - Completed principal photography; May 2, 2008 release
The Incredible Hulk, Marvel - Commenced principal photography; June 13, 2008 release
Ant-Man, Marvel - Writer and director engaged
Captain America, Marvel - Writer engaged
Thor, Marvel - Writer engaged
The Avengers, Marvel - Writer engaged
Look at that, that’s essentially you’re entire Avengers team!
Over the past six months of my working with Comic Book Movie, I’ve seen a lot of rumors fly past my fingers. First of all was the rumor that there were going to be three Batman movies and three Superman movies, then a crossover between the two, then the Justice League movie. That theory disappeared, leaving in its place the crossover being the JL movie. Then that all collapsed because of the disappointment that Superman Returns was, and they brought forward JL.
Add to that Joss Whedon being dragged off Wonder Woman (and I mean that, he was a man with a vision and knew how to do Wonder Woman the best, and “management” had other ideas), The Flash got placed on the back burner, and JL became everyone’s priority.
It’s been a real cock-up. That’s all there is to the story. DC could have taken a leaf out of Marvel’s playbook and relaxed a bit. But they saw the writer’s strike coming up on them, and panicked. I think that, to be honest, that was the problem. They thought that the writer’s strike was going to put the kibosh on projects, so they hoped that a massive movie like JL would tide them through.
Am I blaming the writers? Definitely not, considering that they are only trying to get a fair deal. So, either way, I’m blaming matters on the studios. Thankfully for WB, while they suffer 85% of my blame for cocking up DC’s movies, the other studios get 15% for helping the strike situation along.
I’ll leave the rest of the Marvel production slate at the end of this post, and tell you to check out the animated stuff. Because it is the only aspect of their cinematic endeavors that DC are actually challenging Marvel in.
I am not the world’s sunniest person, there is no doubting that. But given that I’ve been tasked with reporting on global warming and movies, I have to plead for a bit of lenience; it’s not as if I was given an easy run!
Licensed Marvel Character Feature Film Line-Up
Punisher 2, Lionsgate - Commenced principal photography, slated for 2008 release
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fox - Director engaged, slated for May 1, 2009 release
Marvel Character Animated TV Projects
Fantastic Four, Moonscoop SAS (France) - 26, 30-minute episodes; Running Internationally.
Spider-Man, Sony - In development; US distribution agreement with Kids’ WB for Spring 2008 release.
Wolverine and the X-Men, First Serve Toonz (India) - 26, 30-minute episodes in development; Fall 2008 release.
Iron Man, Method Films (France) - 26, 30-minute episodes in development; Fall 2008 release.
Hulk, TBD - In development.
Marvel Character Animated Direct-to-DVD Projects
Next Avengers, Lionsgate - Targeted July 2008 release
Hulk Smash, Lionsgate - Targeted October 2008 release
Thor, Lionsgate - Targeted April 2009 release
TBD, Lionsgate - Targeted September 2009 release
Marvel Character Live Stage Projects
Spider-Man the Musical, Hello Entertainment/David Garfinkle, Martin McCallum, Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Comments
Why is Superman Returns getting such a bad rap? It was a decent film, sure a bit on the “chick-flick” side and the awkward curb-ball of having a “super-kid” tossed out at you being minor strikes against the film, it was still fairly good. For such a ridiculous myth as Superman is (I’m not trying to insult here) it’s hard to take it serious enough to apply a level of realism to the character. I’ve always saw Superman as a flat character, it wasn’t until the current TV series Smallville that I had seen someone give him some dimension to Superman beyond fighting aliens and bailing out Lois Lane everyday. The movie was great at showing off his powers in a good way (He shot-put an island full of kryptonite into space… I mean c’mon! that rocks) while maintaining the momentum of giving Clark Kent/Superman some emotional depth and some much needed over-all dimension to the character. Perhaps they’ll amp up the cool factor of Superman in “The Man of Steel”, if they ever get around to getting it off the ground and put the whole Lois Lane aspect in the backseat for this one. But Superman Returns was a good superhero film.
As for DC it is a shame they are playing fast and loose with the material while Marvel take a more premeditated approach. I’m a Marvel fan but I think DC has great characters that are perfect for outside the comic media, heck, Superman’s book sales were embarrassingly low during the 80’s and early 90’s and if were not for the revenue generated from toys, movies and shows I think the book would have been dropped. DC need to step back and ask the fans what they would like to see on a regular basis. Marvel constantly have their feelers out on the fan base for feedback. Because right now DC are acting a bit arrogant in thinking they already know what we want to see without really asking. Good example is on how they’ve been treating the JLA movie and Wonder Woman movie. I mean if the JLA movie bombs, then where is the incentive to go and see character spin-offs?
Here’s a good Q: Why didn’t they make a Cap’n America movie after 9-11? Send Cap off to Afghanistan and kick some serious Taliban butt. I always thought they could start in WW2, kill Bucky, put Cap in the iceberg in the first 20 minutes…then he gets rescued the day after 9-11 or something. What are they waiting for? Another Al-Q attack? I think thats why they ‘killed’ Cap in the book - for the same reasons they made himn Nomad during Nixon. Bush has made America what its not supposed to be. Does anyone at Marvel read these blogs?
Hi,
I’m British and I know it’s not a big market but does anyone think Marvel would ever consider a Captain Britain movie?
On the market side there is an angle - the Commonwealth - started by Britain and still headed by Her Majesty The Queen (Gawd bless ‘er) - has a combined population of 1.8 Billion citizens - about 1/3rd of the worlds population. If the story was hooked into Cap B saving the commonwealth then it could fly.
Any thoughts? And how do I start a petition and send it to Marvel?
Best Regards,
Jo
It might not be an Al-Q problem. Could be a Jo-Q problem though. Besides their going with the war in Iraq for the Irom Man movie. And also Marvel isn’t that blatant to make a spin-off movie for an even that really wounded the Nation.
I think a Cap Britain movie would be plausible. I’m a huge Spider-Man fan and really began knowing Cap Britain while Peter Parker was in college and Cap Briatain was a foreign exchange student who roomed with him.
Overall, to me, the Avengers are just not the classic thing without Vsion, Hawkeye, and the Scarlet Witch. And gee, when the avengeres disassembled and regrouped, sot that they could truly look like a brand New Avengers, who did they kill off? Vision, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch.
I didn’t know they were making an Iron Man and Hulk animated series. Looks like they are planning to drop the big Marvel bomb on the animated TV scene all at once next year huh? Seems like they are hoping Multiple Marvel series might support eachother.
It was such a letdown what happened with the Wonder Woman Project. I don’t like the approach that the studios are doing with the comic books movies with a few exceptions. I was very surprised with Batman Begins (I’m such a fan of Legends of the dark knight series), but superman was a dissapointment, x-men started fine and went downhill with the last stand (ugh, what a dissaster!) and with hulk i hope they do better next time. They are so many examples of do and don’t!
But I do agree with you on the marvel/dc approach. It looks like Marvel has more developed plans for their comic-to-movie adaptations than DC.