"Comic Book" Movies: Info & Rumors

[Jason Harris 31]

Before The Dark Knight came out, that thread temporarily evolved into the geek thread, as Mack said, but it went back to its original purpose once the movie was released. So I thought I'd make a thread that is specifically meant to discuss comic book movies BEFORE they come out.

Spoilers should be kept to a minimum. In other words, if a preview shows that Two-Face is going to be in the movie, we shouldn't consider that a spoiler, because people will likely see or hear about that prior to the movie's release. But to say something like, "I heard Lois Lane is going to die in this film," would really take the fun out of it.

Once a movie is released, someone can start a separate thread about it so people can discuss the scenes and not worry about giving away the plot.

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I saw a couple of interesting tidbits today, with the first being the bigger news.

1) This came from ComicBookResources. Apparently, Fox is playing hardball with Warner Brothers, claiming they own the rights to The Watchmen.

Fox's statement read: "Warner Bros.' production and anticipated release of 'The Watchmen' motion picture violates 20th Century Fox's long-standing motion picture rights in 'The Watchmen' [sic] property. We will be asking the court to enforce Fox's copyright interests in 'The Watchmen' [sic] and enjoin the release of the Warner Bros. film and any related 'Watchmen' media that violate our copyright interests in that property." An unnamed source backed up the idea of Fox taking this all the way. "When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover," said the source.

2) Another article suggests Warner Brothers may have finally realized that comic book movies succeed best when they are made to appeal to their core audiences and not dumbed down for a broader audience, since that usually ends up having the opposite affect. WB's President said future comic book movies will explore the darker side as much as each character allows. The article also says DC is going to copy the Marvel format to introduce individual characters in upcoming years with the hope of bringing those characters together in a team-up, a la Avengers or JLA. I know Marvel will be making Thor and Captain America movies, while DC is working on bringing Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman to the silver screen.

[sdcopp 1]

Marvel is also going to do an Ant Man movie for the build up to the Avengers, so Cap, Thor and Ant Man to join Hulk and Iron Man.

There's also trailers floating around for the new Punisher War Zone movie.

I'm not real sure how Fox has any tie with the Watchmen since DC owns the right and is part of Time Warner, who owns Warner Brothers. This could be interesting since the film seems pretty well done. Gotta love litigation

[Jason Harris 31]

I believe Warner sold the rights on The Watchmen years ago with an expiration date. WB is claiming the option expired, while Fox is saying they still own the rights.

[Trooper 8]

Y: The Last Man is in the works, with Brian K. Vaughn's original script being reworked. Probably will be three movies.

Ed Brubaker's Sleeper is also in the works with Sam Raimi set to direct and Tom Cruise (ackk!) set to star.

[Duder84 0]

This isn't in the works, but I thought I'd throw it out there for some discussion. I would really like to see Ex Machina made into a TV series, the way its written in the comics is perfect for a one hour show. Just have to cut out the swearing, unless its on HBO or something

[Trooper 8]

This isn't in the works, but I thought I'd throw it out there for some discussion. I would really like to see Ex Machina made into a TV series, the way its written in the comics is perfect for a one hour show. Just have to cut out the swearing, unless its on HBO or something

The movie is though.

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_4799.html

Hopefully they'll take a lot of the preachy tone out of it. I dropped that book a while ago.

[Jason Harris 31]

Magazine covers for The Watchmen, as well as a NY Times article about the tiff between Fox and WB over the movie rights.

[Jason Harris 31]

Marvel is releasing a Direct-to-DVD animated version of the Next Avengers on next Tuesday. My understanding of the story is they are offspring of the Avengers who fight Ultron with a gray-haired Tony Stark/Iron Man.

[Jason Harris 31]

Spider-Man 4/5 - The article claims a scoop that Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi have been re-signed and that they would try to film simulataneously. I felt they had botched SM3, so I find the news somewhat disappointing, although some of the comments suggested that Avi Arad backed the crew into a corner just before production by telling a Comic Con audience that Venom would be in the film.

Batman 3 - Michael Caine says he had read the rumors of who the next villians will be, so he confirmed the information with the studio. Supposedly, Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin, although I read that PSH denies his involvement.

[Jason Harris 31]

Two tidbits.

- Tobey Maguire is expected to earn $50 million in salary and profit shares for SM4 and SM5!

- It's a bit unclear, but it sounds like Favreau is saying that The Mandarin will be in Iron Man 2

[Fire0nIce228 1]

Depp as the Riddler should be quite good :)

[Jason Harris 31]

Thor had been rumored, but according to this article in Variety, it's a go with Kenneth Branagh directing. It and IM2 are scheduled for summer 2010, while Captain America and Avengers are scheduled for summer 2011.

[mack 44]

It had my interest when Vaughn was going to direct it but not anymore.

[Jason Harris 31]

What I read about his screenplay sounded cool, but apparently it would be too much money to make.

I think Marvel and DC are starting to understand what is needed for a successful movie; consequently, as long as the actors have talent, I don't think who the directors or actors are is as important.

[mack 44]

Not related to comic books but still in the nerdery vein: God of War to be directed by Brett Ratner.

[Rustpot 1]

Does Max Payne count? I am pumped for that movie, I really loved the story and gameplay for the 2 games. They made comics at one point or another IIRC.

And Toby Mcguire gets $50mil for 2 movies that are going to suck? Shit, I'll do a better job for $500,000 and they can spend the rest of the actor budget on CGI to make me handsome and hookers for the crew.

[mack 44]

How is any future Spider-Man guaranteed to suck? The first two were great, with the second argued by many to be the best comic movie ever, but even the third wasn't bad enough to seal its fate. Yes, it was bad, but publicity kind of turned against it and I still think there's good enough material to make any future film good. Hell, I'd even have gone for a reboot of the franchise so long as they got Adam Brody to play Peter Parker.

[Rustpot 1]

Yeah, 1 and 2 were really great movies, but 3 was nowhere near good. There were elements that could have been combined to make it a great movie but they killed just about any chance of that.

The next Spiderman movies can be great, but the direction Hollywood is going makes it look like any sequel past 2 is absolute trash- not that any movie has had more than 3 made yet.

I guess I just don't have faith after seeing the type of junk made in the last 5 years.

[Jason Harris 31]

I think Shia Labouf would do well as Peter Parker. He seems to have a wise ass personality.

[mack 44]

Yeah, 1 and 2 were really great movies, but 3 was nowhere near good. There were elements that could have been combined to make it a great movie but they killed just about any chance of that.

The next Spiderman movies can be great, but the direction Hollywood is going makes it look like any sequel past 2 is absolute trash- not that any movie has had more than 3 made yet.

I guess I just don't have faith after seeing the type of junk made in the last 5 years.

Last five years for comic book movies or Hollywood in general? Last five years for comic book movies have had Sin City; Spidey 2; Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. That's a good enough five years for me.

[Trooper 8]

Yeah, 1 and 2 were really great movies, but 3 was nowhere near good. There were elements that could have been combined to make it a great movie but they killed just about any chance of that.

The next Spiderman movies can be great, but the direction Hollywood is going makes it look like any sequel past 2 is absolute trash- not that any movie has had more than 3 made yet.

I guess I just don't have faith after seeing the type of junk made in the last 5 years.

Last five years for comic book movies or Hollywood in general? Last five years for comic book movies have had Sin City; Spidey 2; Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. That's a good enough five years for me.

Agree, the last five years have by far been the best for comic movies. Add Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, Hellboy, Superman Returns, V for Vendetta, and American Splendour to that list as well.

[Jason Harris 31]

Iron Man was excellent and The Hulk was nearly so.

[Trooper 8]

Iron Man was excellent and The Hulk was nearly so.

I forgot about IM. Hulk was good? I was never a big Hulk fan but Edward Norton could get me to watch it.

[Jason Harris 31]

It dragged a little bit in some spots, but I think that was more a function of a somber theme: "What do you do to keep yourself from turning into a walking nuclear bomb, particularly since you know the Army wants to dissect you to create more of you?"

So it dragged occasionally with angst, but quite well made.

[Jason Harris 31]

Official site to Punisher: War Zone, which is coming out in December. I liked the Thomas Jane version, but the preview is making this seem a bit too cartoonish.

Also, I just learned Deadpool will be in the Wolverine movie, May 2009.