For a time, DC Comics had the monopoly on comic-to-film adaptations. You see, the publisher is owned by Warner Bros, so that studio automatically owns the option on all DC Comics characters, making it less of a headache to make a Batman or Superman movie/tv/cartoon/whateverthefuck. Then, in 2000, Fox whipped out their long awaited adaptation of the X-Men, beginning a flood of market-stealing releases. Marvel's been selling more comics than DC for years, but now they were summarily kicking their ass in the media as well.
DC started a bit of a comeback. Batman Begins totally owned, and we'll be nice and not mention Superman Returns. There was even talk of producing a Justice League film. Marvel, however, regained the upper hand.
You see, before, Marvel would sell their properties to various studios. Fox has The X-Men, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider. Sony has Spidey. Universal had The Hulk, etc. Their characters were spread out over warring studios. Now, with their own studio owning a majority of their properties, and Paramount backing them up with distribution, they're free to market/produce shit the way they want to.
Tony Stark is kicking all sorts of ass at the box office and Ed Norton's Hulk is on its way. The coolest thing is that all of these films now exist in the same continuity/mythology, meaning Robert Downey Jr. can walk into a scene in the new Hulk movie and it would be in canon. This is all leading up to, as anyone who stayed after the credits of Iron Man can imagine, an Avengers movie.
Here, I'll run down the 5 film projects coming from Marvel that you need to be familiarized with.
1. Ant-Man (TBD)
I've been a die-hard comic book geek since I learned to read, and even I don't give a flying fuck about Ant-Man. He has zero interesting solo adventures and his only worth as a character comes from his association with The Avengers. On his own, the only decent stories anyone's ever plucked from him were mostly parody, which is probably why Edgar Wright (director of Hot Fuzz) is signed on to write and direct this film.
Ant-Man is really scientist Hank Pym, a man who invents a helmet that allows him to shrink and communicate with insects. He also made a thing that lets him grow really large as Giant-Man, but he's still a fucktard mort waste of time. As a character he's interesting because he KNOWS he's a failure. In Marvel mythology he has a gigantic chip on his shoulder as being only the 4th best scientist in the world (behind Reed Richards, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner) and his only real claim to fame is inventing a robot (Ultron) that turns into one of the Avengers' biggest villains and also getting pissed off and beating his wife, The Wasp.
Yeah, let's give this douche his own movie.
Later, as Pym went by Yellowjacket, a man named Scott Lang became Ant-Man, then blew up, then I think another guy took over, but no one gave a shit. Edgar Wright has since decided to shoot Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World first, so there is doubt that his Ant-Man would precede and tie-into the Avengers movie, perhaps waiting until afterwards to spin-OFF from it, instead.
The other shitty thing about this movie is that the best man on the planet to play Hank Pym is Aaron Eckhart, but he's going to be too busy playing Two-Face for the Batman franchise. Lametown.
2. Iron Man II (2010)
This one is a no-brainer. Favreau and the whole crew is back and we can pretty much guarantee that Raza, the leader of the "Ten Rings" terrorist cell, is going to return as the main villain. Alot of non-nerds probably didn't pick up on it, but the character of the terrorist was played up as a modern-day take on Iron Man's ridiculously xenophobic-seeming Mandarin villain, a character born of Vietnam-era politics who used ten magic/tech-based alien rings to, I don't, pretend to be Fu Manchu or something (I'm a nerd, and even I can admit that 90% of actual Iron Man comics suck balls.)
It'll be intriguing to see Favreau & Co try to ground such a fanciful villain in the reality they've created with the first film, as well as possibly adapting the "Demon In A Bottle" or "Armor Wars" stories, not to mention Rhodey becoming War Machine, which Terrence Howard all but spelled out in his late-act two scene, looking at the spare suit. I expect Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury cameo to be expanded some, along with the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., but only to tease fanboys for The Avengers, not as major plot points or anything.
3. Thor (2010)
If there is one character in the Marvel pantheon who is ridiculously difficult to properly adapt to the screen, it's Thor. The Marvel version of the norse myth is that Thor, son of Odin, is bonded to a young doctor named Donald Blake who finds a stick that, when beaten on the ground, turns into Thor's hammer and turns the holder INTO Thor and the whole thing is Stan Lee's way of allegorically slipping Christ-myth and his usually themes of ordinary people with extraordinary problems into a Kirby-drawn epic fantasy. Classic comic book stuff. Not great cinematic material.
Case in point: Casting. How do you cast a man to play an imposing, larger-than-life God and a dimunitive run-of-the-mill physician? In the comics, they just draw the same guy and add or remove muscles as necessary. You'd have to cast two actors, or settle for a slightly built God/hulking doctor-guy.
Current project screenwriter Mark Protosevich (The Cell, Poseidon, I Am Legend) sidestepped this problem altogether by AVOIDING EVERY ASPECT OF THE CHARACTER THAT MADE HIM A SUPERHERO AND NOT A NORSE MYTH RETREAD!
He basically wrote Beowulf...with a gigantic lighting-storm-starting hammer.
This was, of course, before Marvel had cemented their Avengers plans. The project, now directorless after Stardust and Layer Cake helmer left (second Marvel film he's dropped out of, after X3), is going through massive rewrites to be more in line with the comic-book mythology. I don't know why they don't just hire Beowulf writers Neil Gaiman (a comic God in his own right) and Roger Avary for the project.
There's also rampant rumors that Thor will somehow be introduced in Iron Man II which is so fucking stupid and nonsensical that I'm just going to pretend it's not true. If it's a cool little after the credits, "Hey, Stark, I want you to meet Thor." thing then maybe, but I don't really see him fitting into the story organically.
The good news is that they are currently courting Brad Pitt to play the Thunder God. This solves numerous problems, namely the size issue (Brad's an elastic, erratic performer who has yet to find a role he can't play) and the problem of star power. Now that Robert Downey Jr is Iron Man and Ed Norton Bruce Banner, Marvel has to cast these films knowing that these characters are going to be interacting in a team film.
It's a complex problem. Instead of saying "Who'd make a good Thor?" its now "Who would make a good Thor and play well with Downey, Norton and Sam Fucking Jackson?" Which brings us to...
4. The First Avenger: Captain America (2011)
I have so much shit to say about this project that I'm just going to break it up into two categories.
THE GOOD
- It's a movie about Captain America, one of the most storied, epic, legendary figures in comic book history.
- Since his story ties in so much with Avengers mythology, they're planning on marketing the movie a scant few months before the Avengers movie.
- Since the stories will be connected, there's a good chance a majority of this film will take place solely in WWII, saving the "Cap Wakes Up In Modern Times" stuff for the follow-up.
THE BAD
- It's a movie about Captain America, a character who, for all intents and purposes, was killed last year in comic book continuity.
- The project's current writer is Zak Penn. He also wrote Elektra.
- The current director is Nick Cassavettes. Other than being John Cassavettes' son, he directed The Notebook, John Q. and Alpha Dog.
- As cool as it would be to have an entire film of Cap in WWII, his awakening in the present and being a man out of time is pretty essential to his myth. Otherwise, the Cap movie will just be a two hour trailer for the Avengers movie.
THE UGLY
- Why the fuck is it called The First Avenger: Captain America? That's almost as lame as X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
I really shouldn't down Nick Cassavettes so much. Alpha Dog actually showed some filmmaking promise. This could be the material that brings out the best in him. It could also, to be fair, be another in a long line of cinematic castrations I'd rather hadn't seen the light of day. Jon Favreau really set the bar pretty high as far as awesome interpretations of Marvel characters goes, and Cap is as complex as they come. Casting alone is its own massive throbbing headache.
The man who plays Steve Rogers has to be:
- White. (race is only important in that making him black would become a whole useless story issue)
- Blonde. (if only to keep that weird dynamic of an aryan guy fighting a bunch of Nazis)
- Young-ish (technically Cap was like 25)
- Old-ish (he is also supposed to be somewhat grizzled, imposing and wise beyond his years)
- Striking (he's a poster boy)
- Physically perfect (not perfect perfect, but he's supposed to be a super-soldier)
This man also needs to be able to hold his own with some of the best actors of this generation in a film (The Avengers movie) where he's not only the leader, but a source of inspiration to pretty much the whole fucking world. You can play Superman and just be a cute guy in tights. Captain America is like Jesus Christ, Steve McQueen and John F. Kennedy rolled in a big fucking American flag. Try casting that.
At the moment, my five picks are:
JENSEN ACKLES
Young, relatively unknown, sort of 40sish facial structure, alot of potential.
MATT DAMON
Already proven as both a dramatic actor and an action hero, could fit in well with the ensemble, is fucking Matt Damon.
RYAN GOSLING
Too slight of build, but one of the best actors of his generation.
JASON LEWIS
Looks like a fucking superhero anyway.
VIGGO MORTENSEN
My real bet, but he's too edgy/subversive a performer, possibly too old as well.
This is the most sensitive of Marvel's upcoming projects. Here's hoping they don't fuck up a potential gravy train.
BONUS IRON MAN EASTER EGG:
What's that on Tony's work bench in the background? A trick of the light...or CAPTAIN AMERICA'S SHIELD?
5. The Avengers (2011)
If everything goes off without a hitch with these previous films, The Avengers has the potential to be the coolest superhero movie of all time. Jon Favreau will most likely get to direct, as he's already referred to this as this third Iron Man film in interviews. He'll probably bring an assload of writers with him to back up Zak Penn. If they want a story that works, they'll just borrow the one from the first volume of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's modern-day take on the Avengers, The Ultimates. That cartoon movie already did it, so why not?
Between the group's in-fighting, Captain America's dealing with the modern world, an early act two battle with the Hulk and then the climactic war with the Skrulls (Chitauri, whatever) you've got a perfect summer popcorn action movie. Michael Bay will be crying in a corner for not getting his hands on it. Stay tuned, kids, and 'til then, Make Mine Marvel.
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