Huge Marvel Movies Interview

[Kefkataran]

The Movie Reporter (http://www.iesb.net/marvel/063005.php) has a huge 40-minute interview up with Avi Arad about "all things Marvel." The interview, which is split up into 6 downloadable Windows Media files, focuses on the movies and gives a few interesting tidbits.

Not interested enough for all the downloading/listening required? Moviehole (http://www.moviehole.net/news/5876.html) has a nice little summary write-up. Kudos to Comic Book Resources (http://www.comicbookresources.com), who provide us with this even more brief summary:

...including confirming Maggie Grace's exodus from Xavier's (as noted earlier), notes on the biblical overtones of the Silver Surfer, mulling the Puppet Master as the adversary for "Fantastic Four 2," rumoring that Professor X may take a dirt nap, and optimism for Frank Castle and the good doctor Banner.

I hadn't even realized a Silver Surfer movie was in the works, but I'm excited for that. Now I just hope Marvel starts mixing the continuity of the various movies like in the comics. That could be awesome if written well.

[Morratut]

Silver Surfer movie? WTF....<squelch>...runs of to change pants.

Well if this is done well it could be a sci fi masterpiece. If not then it could blow goats.

I can just imagine Galactus voice booming out through the cinema. A bit like Unicrons from the Transformers Movie.

[Duranki]

A long time ago Vin Diesel, of all people, expressed interest in playing the Silver Surfer, if a movie was ever made. Could you imagine that?

[Ernst_Jager]

I don't see how they could do the Silver Surfer right. Vin Diesel would be a horrid....horrid
choice.

[Morratut]

I don't know who could play the Silver Surfer to be honest.Vin Diesel is too squat and heavy looking for Silver Surfer. You need someone who is taller and a more athletic to play SS. SS was strong but it was the power cosmic which gave him such strength. Unlike the Hulk.

I would love to see Thanos being the big baddy in the film. However i don't reckon it would be. The first movie will build him up, show the planet Zenn La and his love and Galactus etc. If they make them good film makers could get a trilogy out of SS :)

[Duranki]

I would love, love, love for this to succeed, since the Surfer has been my favorite character since I was a kid, but I just don't see how. It takes the right writer to make the Surfer shine. When he's good he's really engaging and compelling, but in recent years the Surfer hasn't been too lucky :( What are the odds that Hollywood will get it right?

Also, don't forget what happened with the cartoon. And they're talking about a theatrical release??

[Rommel]

Never liked the Silver Surfer. His only claim to fame is that he is a cast member of one of the greatest stories ever writter: Fantastic Four #48-50. More importantly, Jack kirby is rather dead, and I doubt anyone will ever write him close to as well as The King did.

[Last of the Red Hot Mamas]

Regarding the Silver Surfer movie: Arad has hinted (http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2005/07/will_russell_su.php) in the past that David O. Russell will be directing, describing the director as a "Zen Buddhist" who's currently working on another project (both of which are applicable to Russell). It should be interesting, at least.

More worrisome than a Silver Surfer movie is this tidbit:

Arad says there may be 4 villains in the next "Spider-Man" sequel. "Maybe five", he jokingly adds.

Is Marvel contracting Batman Sequel Syndrome?

[Cha-Ka]

I dunno much about cosmic Surfer movies, but I think the X-Men movies are in the process of jumping the shark. The new director made from Rush Hour fame and they're adding 10 new characters...sounds like they won't have time for both characterization and story. Bryan Singer...why have you forsaken us??!!?? I sure hope that superman movie turns out better than those piece of shit costume (http://superherohype.com/cgi-bin/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Superman/The_Movie/Movie_Stills&image=supermanreturnsfirstlook.jpg&img=&tt=) pictures would imply.

[Kefkataran]

I dunno much about cosmic Surfer movies, but I think the X-Men movies are in the process of jumping the shark. The new director made from Rush Hour fame and they're adding 10 new characters...sounds like they won't have time for both characterization and story.

He talks about that in the interview. He says he thinks people are blowing this out of proportion based on how early in production the new movie is. Still, I'm not holding my breath.

Is Marvel contracting Batman Sequel Syndrome?

Let's hope not. If the new X-Men does turn out bad, least they could do is the leave the Spidey series strong.

[MosBen]

This brought up a question for me...how are the rights to comic movies handled? I was under the impression that buying the rights to the heroes got you their rogues gallery as well, say with Batman, but what about a character like Galactus? He's certainly a major character in the Surfer's world, but the Fantastic Four have almost as much right to put him in their fold. I'd love a Surfer movie that established his origin and some major first encounter, then an FF sequel with Galactus and the Silver Surfer.

[Cha-Ka]

He talks about that in the interview. He says he thinks people are blowing this out of proportion based on how early in production the new movie is. Still, I'm not holding my breath.

Me neither. Good ol' Avi is only concerned with keeping public opinion about these movies as positive as possible. His job doesn't really allow him to say things like "yeah...looks like X3 will be pretty darn awful". The fact is they don't have a finished script and they're still casting for a film they plan to show in theaters may of 2006.

Again: Singer...why have you forsaken us!!??!!

[Heretic Machine]

I think they should start cutting off these franchises soon... You may be able to go on forever in the comic books with one cast of characters, but it doesn't work that way in the movies. Anything past three movies and you start losing people from the cast, having to replace them, you lose writers directors... etc. Until finally, your film series becomes a joke.

We don't need a Spider-man XIII

[TrackZero]

"Maggie Grace's exodus from Xavier's (as noted earlier)"

Whoa, what? When did this happen?

[Bone]

Fuck Avi Arad. He is going to ruin X3, I don't care how much damage control he tries to pull.

Alan Cumming, who as Nightcrawler probably gave one of the best performances in X2- gone. Why not carry the stronger characters and introduce two or three mutants per movie? Rumors are that Cyclops and/or Prof X may die (with Avad all but admitting he is killing Xavier in this one). Sadly, Cyclops has sucked so bad in the first 2 movies that his death won't even register, as they never showed him actually leading the X-Men. Now I've heard they will try to push Halle Berry's horrid version of Storm as the leader. Please fire her instead, she detests the role and the movies and it comes through on the screen.

And from all I've heard and seen, Fantastic Four is a steaming pile of crap. From some advanced reviews, I've heard that the dialogue contains such mind-blowing foreshadowing as: "Johnny, you're such a hothead!" Reed: "I'm feeling stretched too thin lately." Sue: "Nobody seems to notice me!" Ben: "I feel solid." God, kill me.

Our brief dance with quality comic-book movies has reverted back to shovelware, apparently.

[Cha-Ka]

Alan Cumming, who as Nightcrawler probably gave one of the best performances in X2- gone.
He said in interviews & behind the scenes stuff that he detested the make-up and would never repeat that experience, so odds were slim that he would even want to be in X3. Of course money has a way of making people act against their better judgement.

Now I've heard they will try to push Halle Berry's horrid version of Storm as the leader. Please fire her instead, she detests the role and the movies and it comes through on the screen.

I agree wholeheartedly. Fire Bimbo-for-hire-Berry and hire Angela Basset like you should've done in the first place. Now there's a woman with presence enough to play a storm goddess!

Our brief dance with quality comic-book movies has reverted back to shovelware, apparently.
That's hollywood's pavlovian response to seeing X-men and Spiderman movies make money. Sadly, even Marvel seems to be losing site of their own findings: that quality superhero movies make the big bucks.

[MosBen]

Except that, I believe, Marvel is in the process of putting together its own film studio so that they can make the movies themselves. Will they be high quality? We'll see, but at least everything will be under one roof and the whole comic movie scene won't be about trying to sell off the rights to every comic character you got, no matter how insignificant.

[EGO]

All I know is this...

Spiderman better have Venom.

X-Men 2 better have Phoenix.

Hulk 2 should not exist.

And what about Ghost Rider and Iron Man?

[Ernst_Jager]

A Iron Man movie would kick ass.

I was never fond of the X-Men movies myself. Halle can't act her way out of a wet paper sack and they pretty much ruined the Cyclops and Rogue characters. It gets to the point where unless you read the comics you have no idea who the hell is suppose to be who. A dozen good guys fighting 3-5 bad guys. To many characters for anyone to care.

Silver Surfer may be a good comic but seeing some guy riding a silver surfboard around in space just doesn't sound like a good movie to me. Somethings do not transition well between formats. It would be like making a live action Fat Albert or Garfield movie....

[Racknahm]

Spiderman better have Venom.

Movie would be too damn long.

X-Men 2 better have Phoenix.

It should or else the ending of X2 would be very misleading.

And what about Ghost Rider and Iron Man?
Ghost Rider is being filmed with Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze. Iron Man is announced but no one has been casted, and Solid Snake is the cowriting the movie.

[Kefkataran]

All I know is this...

Spiderman better have Venom.

X-Men 2 better have Phoenix.

Hulk 2 should not exist.

And what about Ghost Rider and Iron Man?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I hope Spider-Man 3 does NOT have Venom. I hope it builds up to Venom for a later movie though.

X-Men 2 did have Pheonix.

And both Ghost Rider and Iron Man are in the works, as was said by the above poster.

Hulk 2 could end up being good. I'm more apt to treat comic book movies as I treat comics -- that is, a property itself is never an inherently bad movie, it just depends on who ends up writing, directing, acting, etc.

I think they should start cutting off these franchises soon... You may be able to go on forever in the comic books with one cast of characters, but it doesn't work that way in the movies. Anything past three movies and you start losing people from the cast, having to replace them, you lose writers directors... etc. Until finally, your film series becomes a joke.


We may as well accept that comic book movies are here to stay now. They're basically a genre unto themselves. Obviously some are going to suck, but some will end up absolutely awesome. I do hope they stop numbering them, though, ala Batman Begins and, well, all the Batman movies before that I guess. The numbering could end up getting ridiculous.

Our brief dance with quality comic-book movies has reverted back to shovelware, apparently.

I've heard FF sucks as well (Ebert gave it a super-low one star), but that's a dumb conclusion to draw from one bad movie. Hell, even if you included a whole slew of subpar superhero films (such as Elektra and Hulk) in the mix, it's still a dumb conclusion because there've been just as many high-quality ones (Spider-Man 2, X-Men 2, Batman Begins). Like I said above, there will always be bad comic book movies, just like there will always be bad movies in general. And also like all movies, there will usually be more bad than good. That's no reason for doom-saying. We shouldn't pretend like comic-book movies have their own seperate rules where once one bad one is released, the party is over.

[MosBen]

Raimi has said many times that he does not like the character of Venom. It's almost surely not going to happen.

[Last of the Red Hot Mamas]

He's hinted otherwise (http://filmforce.ign.com/spider-man/articles/585/585132p1.html), though. Not anywhere close to a confirmation, despite IGN's claim (it's way too cloying and jokey) but there's nothing indicating Raimi hates the character (where exactly did that story get started, anyway?).

Addendum: Thomas Haden Church gave an interview with Entertainment Weekly where he referred to his character as "a horse of many colors." The Chameleon?

[Heretic Machine]

That's exactly what I was going to say MosBen, Raimi hates the symbiotes. As long as he is directing the movies, there will be no symbiotes. Look for a Venom movie shortly after Raimi abandons the franchise.

[Heretic Machine]

but there's nothing indicating Raimi hates the character (where exactly did that story get started, anyway?).

In an interview where he said, "I hate symbiotes. They'll never be in the movies as long as I'm directing them." Or somthing along those lines.

Plus, a different company is supposed to own the rights to make Venom movies. New Line Cinema I believe.

[Last of the Red Hot Mamas]

In an interview where he said, "I hate symbiotes. They'll never be in the movies as long as I'm directing them." Or somthing along those lines.

Yes, there are thousands of references to this out there, but I've never once seen an actual primary quote from the interview itself. Google doesn't turn up anything. Everybody remembers "reading it somewhere," but nobody can actually say where.

[Kefkataran]

he referred to his character as "a horse of many colors." The Chameleon?

Personally, I'd love that. I'm one of the only people I know shooting for Spidey 3 to just have a couple old-school villains like Chameleon or Sandman or Vulture. Are they as complex as Venom? No. But in the two hours the film will run, they'll be a lot more fun and provide space to set up for the appearance of Venom in the future.

[Bone]

I've heard FF sucks as well (Ebert gave it a super-low one star), but that's a dumb conclusion to draw from one bad movie. Hell, even if you included a whole slew of subpar superhero films (such as Elektra and Hulk) in the mix, it's still a dumb conclusion because there've been just as many high-quality ones (Spider-Man 2, X-Men 2, Batman Begins). Like I said above, there will always be bad comic book movies, just like there will always be bad movies in general. And also like all movies, there will usually be more bad than good. That's no reason for doom-saying. We shouldn't pretend like comic-book movies have their own seperate rules where once one bad one is released, the party is over.

I hope you're right. I'm just looking at Marvel's recent trend. X-men and X-men 2, mostly good. Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, mostly good. Daredevil, Hulk, Elektra, Fantastic Four- all crap rushed to market to fill the comic-book movie quota. I don't think it's doom-saying to recognize a pattern. Marvel needs to give us a non-stinker to break the pattern, I guess. By most accounts, X-Men 3 won't be it.

DC may have picked up where Marvel was a few years ago, with Batman Begins and now X-Men's Singer directing Superman (who still looks totally gay).

[Kefkataran]

I hope you're right. I'm just looking at Marvel's recent trend. X-men and X-men 2, mostly good. Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, mostly good. Daredevil, Hulk, Elektra, Fantastic Four- all crap rushed to market to fill the comic-book movie quota. I don't think it's doom-saying to recognize a pattern. Marvel needs to give us a non-stinker to break the pattern, I guess. By most accounts, X-Men 3 won't be it.

But that's not a pattern. Daredevil, Hulk, Elektra, and Fantastic Four didn't come out all in a row AFTER all the good movies you mentioned. They were interspersed throughout them.

[mister_slim]

I could see a Silver Surfer movie being interesting. The major hitch is that Stanley Kubrick's dead.

[if76]

I'm sick and tired of these origin stories. I really hope this comic book movie trend ends soon. Batman Begins was cool but it didn't blow me away the way the Incredibles did. Didn't even come close.

[Kefkataran]

I'm sick and tired of these origin stories. I really hope this comic book movie trend ends soon. Batman Begins was cool but it didn't blow me away the way the Incredibles did. Didn't even come close.

It's gotten past the point of trend and it's not going to end. As I said, superhero movies are basically a genre unto themselves now. And with Marvel making their own movie house and some of the movies bringing in loads of cash (Spidey, Batman, etc.) it's simple naive from a financial standpoint to think they'd stop making them.

The hope is that they'll be able to tell better and better stories once these origin tales are done and behind us.

[EGO]

I meant to say, "There better be Phoenix in X-Men 3".

There WAS NO Phoenix in X-Men 2. There was Jean Grey exerting some power, but NO PHOENIX. Phoenix has a different personality, a larger set of powers and smokin' costume (even if they update it to be only black).

There was a "hint", the same way that Batman movies and Spiderman movies "hint" at other characters and set-ups.

Anyway, no Venom=big mistake for Spiderman. There aren't many Spiderman villians that have UNIVERSAL APPEAL. I'm not talking about a fanboy's idea of "cool villans", I'm talking about WELL KNOWN symbolic characters that are uniquely Spiderman. Doc Oc, Green Goblin, and Venom are top-tier villans for Spidey. Second-tier villans are; Hobgoblin, Lizardman, Rhino, Sandman, Mysterio(sp?), Vulture and Scorpion. Of course the marketablility of these villans is questionable, when it comes to pulling people in.

A battle between Spiderman and Venom,no matter how much they'd have to change the story around (again), would put butts in the seats, guaranteed.

[Kefkataran]

I'd still largely prefer a real set-up for a good Venom story than having them rush through it to get it into this movie. They probably will though. Blegh.

[TrackZero]

Anyway, no Venom=big mistake for Spiderman. There aren't many Spiderman villians that have UNIVERSAL APPEAL. I'm not talking about a fanboy's idea of "cool villans", I'm talking about WELL KNOWN symbolic characters that are uniquely Spiderman. Doc Oc, Green Goblin, and Venom are top-tier villans for Spidey. Second-tier villans are; Hobgoblin, Lizardman, Rhino, Sandman, Mysterio(sp?), Vulture and Scorpion. Of course the marketablility of these villans is questionable, when it comes to pulling people in.

I'd consider the Lizard and the Rhino to be top-tier Spider-man villians myself. Venom still kind of floats between Tier 1 and 2 for me, he's just so....cheezy when handled improperly, I'm worried that his use would completely screw things up. Especially without the lead-in of Spider-man himself having the symbiote first, which would take quite a few movies to get fans to warm to that situation. No, it's pretty clear that Spider-man 3 will have Harry as the Green Goblin and Doctor Connors as the Lizard (since he was already in Spider-man 2), possibly one other smaller villian just as a lead-in.

[Furious Wang]

I have the completed Marvel Legends Series 7 Galactus action figure. It is big and very neat. Props to those guys.

[Furious Wang]

I'd consider the Lizard and the Rhino to be top-tier Spider-man villians myself. Venom still kind of floats between Tier 1 and 2 for me, he's just so....cheezy when handled improperly, I'm worried that his use would completely screw things up. Especially without the lead-in of Spider-man himself having the symbiote first, which would take quite a few movies to get fans to warm to that situation. No, it's pretty clear that Spider-man 3 will have Harry as the Green Goblin and Doctor Connors as the Lizard (since he was already in Spider-man 2), possibly one other smaller villian just as a lead-in.

GG is a go. Also whatshisname from Sideways as Kraven the Hunter and whatshisname from 70s show as the chameleon. Maybe lizard too. Who knows?

[Kefkataran]

No, it's pretty clear that Spider-man 3 will have Harry as the Green Goblin and Doctor Connors as the Lizard (since he was already in Spider-man 2), possibly one other smaller villian just as a lead-in.

They've already hired two new male actors who are both supposed to play villains. That means Lizard and GG might both be in it, but they would be in addition to these two, one of whom it's seeming more and more is probably Chameleon (which I think is pretty cool).

[Rommel]

Movie would be too damn long.

Why? I think that twenty minutes is more than enough time to cover all the important plot points of the Secret Wars!
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