John Favreau is set to direct Marvel Studios' live-action feature "Iron Man," which will now be distribbed by
News is part of a wider announcement from Marvel outlining a barrage of directing and writing deals for a slate of films it is developing with aims to independently finance out of a $525 million fund from Merrill Lynch.
All the pics but one, "The Incredible Hulk," will be distribbed by Par under an existing service agreement.
"Iron Man," Marvel's top priority, also has nabbed writing duo Arthur Marcum and Matt Hollaway ("Convoy").
New Line gave rights back to Marvel last year after several years of unsuccessful development. (Daily Variety, Nov. 3)
Marvel disclosed it is pursuing a second "Hulk" pic, despite the so-so performance of Ang Lee's 2003 film. Zak Penn, who has collaborated with Marvel on several features, including the upcoming "X-Men: The Last Stand," will pen the script for what's being called "Incredible Hulk."
Universal, which handled the first "Hulk," would distribute the follow-up.
Follow-up is expected to have a smaller budget and be less erudite. "There's something very primal about the Hulk that we didn't get in movie one," said Marvel Studios chair Avi Arad.
Scribe David Self ("Thirteen Days," "Road to Perdition") has been tapped to pen the long-awaited feature version of "Captain
Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz") will direct and co-write with Joe Cornish the feature film "
Wright will also co-produce with
Marvel has tapped scribe Andrew Marlowe ("Air Force One," "Hollow Man") to pen the script for "Nick Fury," based on Marvel's military super spy.
Fresh off writing Warner Bros. "Poseidon," Mark Protosevich will pen Marvel's "Thor."
Arad said the intent is to use the $525 million Merrill Lynch debt facility to finance "Iron Man" and the "Hulk," even though those titles were not among the 10 listed when the deal with Merrill Lynch was struck last spring.
If those pics are produced, Marvel would have to either raise more money or put aside other projects in development to make room.
Budgets on Marvel pics are expected to be between $50 million and $165 million.
Marvel hasn't committed to put any of its pics into production yet, though it's hoping to release the first one by 2008. "Iron Man" and "Incredible Hulk" are furthest along and thus most likely to hit that date.
Marvel has seven other super heroes and teams in development without talent yet attached.
"These are all giant titles. Obviously, there's a lot of work to be done,"
After "Iron Man" and "Hulk," Marvel's next priority is "Captain
19 comments:
When I talked about this set of deals being a clogger ... how many superhero pictures can the film industry support? And this is just the slate from Marvel. There are going to be other pictures from DC, as well as other adaptations (perhaps unique ones not tied to an existing franchise, like Zoom Academy) and, well ... I'm certainly not sure I will support all of that ...
What say ye??
Methinks the industry will support only the ones that are good. The others will wither away and die. I have my sights set on Antman. At least it has a comedic twist. Maybe they should rename it,"Honey I Shrunk Henry Pym."
Hey you mentioned "Zoom's Academy" by my fellow storyboard artist Jason Lethcoe. He's a cool dude. Jason has sold a couple of other ideas around town and is sitting pretty. Now that's how you work Hollywood.
Methinks, Hollywood is full of stupid people who never read the source material to begin with. I mean come on. The FF movie sucked and they have the gaul to put the same director and writer back on the sequel. Anybody who wants to know how a superhero flick SHOULD be done just needs to watch the Incredibles. Nuff said.
Excelcior!!!
...hey waitaminute! I"M in Hollywood!
sonofa...
Would that I could gat "stupider" ...
Heh heh ...
Ok, let me re-phrase, Lots of knobhead producers who never read the source material to begin with.
Gimme a break. I'M RANTING!!! GO WITH IT.
I like the energy you're bringing here K-dawg. I don't know if the others that don't know you are scared off but let me assure you folks that Krayonzilla is harmless. Remember that scene in the original King Kong where he's up on stage in chains??? That's our Krayonzilla.
ROAR!!!ROAR!!!!ROAR!!!
I have my hopes that a second Hulk movie might be decent... as long as they stay away from anything having to do with his father...
Captain America is a bad idea... I don't think his outfit would ever work in reality, and changing his costume would make him something other than Captain America.
Cap should be the one that is played for laughs... can you imagine the straight-laced Cap of the 1940's thrust into the 21st century?
The FF movie was just plain old boring. Dr. Doom was pathetic, but I felt they were pretty faithful with Johnny and the Thing. Sue and Reed were dull, dull, dull... now that I think of it, they are pretty dull in the comics, too. Who would be your choice for the villian in a second FF movie? There are a lot to choose from...
Krayonzilla is harmless like King Kong up on stage in chains? The same Kong that soon breaks those chains like licorice whips and runs amok in the city destroying trains and killing people?
Villain for the next FF movie: Sub-Mariner.
What do "The Punisher", "The Fantastic Four" and "Captain America" all have in common?
No matter how bad the second attempts are, they HAVE to be better than the original films.
Oh poor Darren McGavin.
Those were bad, weren't they. I still like the Dolph Lundgren Punisher just for nostalgic reasons. I have a soft spot for 80's flicks. Went to the movies alot back then
Sub-Mariner? I heard it was Doc Doom again
HULK 2 is direct to video. Abomination is the villian. Marvel directly producing. Eric Bana is out (Probably the whole remaing cast). Will be as bad as that Man-Thing movie. My ability to see into the future has confirmed this.
I was just responding to Rick's question about who my choice for the next villain would be.
Um ... well, my thoughts would be to actually take on FF#1 and have it be a combo of Doc Doom and ... surprise ... the Mole Man.
If they made him really cool (as cool as the cameo of the UnderMiner was for The Incredibles) then you have a really good shot at outperforming some of the more over the top guys like Subby.
Just my .02 dollars...
Read today it's a toss up between 2 script treatments. 1 with Doc Doom. The other with the Silver Surfer. That means if they go with the Surfer, That means Galactus, and that means they better have a GALACTIC size budget to pull it off. Time will tell.
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