Filmonic » Marvel

Marvel’s profits drop 60%

Liam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:11:47 +0000

As Marvel Entertainment had no tent-pole movies released in 2009 it’s not surprising to see that they didn’t make as much money this year, and they are reporting a 60% drop in profits from the 3rd Quarter of 2009. However, they did make quite a lot from the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk last year, with DVD/Blu-ray, merchandise and TV sales flowing through to 2009.

Despite the drop in profits the report from Yahoo! shows Marvel have nothing to be worried about. As we all know Iron Man 2 will be released next May which should top up their bank balance (Iron Man made $580+ million worldwide). They also have Thor and Captain America starting production over the upcoming months for 2011 releases, and then The Avengers in 2012. Marvel are also developing games with Sega to coincide with the release of all these movies. Lets not forget Spider-Man 4 in 2011 either.

Should all the above movies flop (which is highly unlikely) they still have TV shows such as a second season of Wolverine and the X-Men and Black Panther in the works. They also have a Spider-Man Broadway musical opening sometime next year, DVDs and games such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 which has already started bringing in revenue.

So an average end to 2009 for Marvel, although the best is yet to come (which is probably why Disney bought them earlier this year.)

Anthony Hopkins to play Odin in Marvel’s Thor

Liam — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:20:03 +0000

Marvel are assembling quite a cast for their next big superhero outing. Thor will start filming next year so they now finalizing the cast, and now according to Heat Vision the latest member to join is Sir Anthony Hopkins who will play Odin, Thor’s father. Odin is also the ruler of Asgard, which Thor gets cast from and he then finds himself on Earth among the humans.

Chris Hemsworth will be wielding the hammer and Natalie Portman will play Jane Foster, his human love interest.

Anthony Hopkins will next be seen playing Benicio Del Toro’s father in The Wolfman which will be released in February.

Jack Kirby’s Estate Wants Their Disney Money

Dave — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:27:54 +0000

Remember that court case that told us we’d be getting a Superman movie in the next few years because otherwise Warner Bros would be open to a bunch-o-legal-claims from the Seigel (one of Superman’s creators) estate? Well, it looks like another hero of comics is going to see his creations go to court based on the actions of his living family members: Jack Kirby.

And you know what sucks about that? Jack Kirby had a hand in creating most of the successful Marvel properties and Marvel treated him like crap when he worked there, including a well-documented fight over artists owning their original work.

Now, reports Bleeding Cool, the Kirby estate has seen Marvel sold to Disney and is ready to make some money:

The estate of Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, The Silver Surfer and Thor and has sent notices terminating copyright to publishers Marvel and Disney, as well as film studios that have made movies and TV shows based on characters he created or co-created, including Sony, Universal, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures.
Just as the Jerry Siegel estate has done so with rights to Superman, so Kirby’s estate is looking to regain his share of copyright in the characters and their use in comics and other media. the estate is using the same lawyers as the Siegels, Toberoff & Associates, who have been fairly successful in their case against DC/Warner so far.
Such claims, if found valid, would begin from 2014 and, as always, its worth noting that Marvel/Disney will still own the trademarks of the characters in comics, and the studios in movies. The likelihood is that, if successful, the Kirby estate would enter into negotiation with Marvel over terms to continue publishing comics based on his work.

This is going to be an interesting process, as the Kirby estate needs to strike a balance between accepting a low-ball offer the conglomerates will undoubtably begin with and strangling Marvel near-to-death by stripping characters or Kirby-created aspects of the characters from the comics/film zeitgeist.

The good news for us is that this process is probably going to take between 7 and 10 years of the Kirby estate actually tries to reclaim the copyright. Every Marvel superhero film you are looking forward to should still come out on schedule.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 trailer

Liam — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:22:46 +0000

If you weep at the thought of having to wait until 2012 to see a group of superheroes battling it out in The Avengers, then you will probably want to purchase Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. It’s a sequel to the 2006 game and it contains just about every Marvel character you could want. There’s Iron Man,, Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, Storm, Deadpool, Hulk, Human Torch, Luke Cage and loads more. The game allows you to choose four characters to work your way through different levels and scenarios. Characters can combine powers, level up and even change their outfit.

Here’s the trailer:

The game is available on just about every gaming platform and will be released on September 15th. You can order the game by clicking here!

Disney buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Liam — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:03:53 +0000

Disney recently looked at their finances and came to the conclusion that they haven’t had a good old spending spree since buying Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion. So they’ve decided to buy Marvel for $4 billion.

From ComingSoon:

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney.”
“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Iger said.
“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s Chief Executive Officer. “This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney’s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”

UPDATE #1: In a conference call, the companies said that the deals for movies for characters at other studios (Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.) will stay in place under the terms set by Marvel and the other studios.

UPDATE #2: John Lasseter met with Marvel last week about a possible team-up between Marvel and Pixar and got “pretty excited, pretty fast.” They say there’s definitely an opportunity there.

UPDATE #3: The deal with Paramount Pictures to distribute “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” “Captain America” and “The Avengers” stays in place as well, but Disney would like to self-distribute down the line. “When the time comes we’ll take a closer look at it.” It was actually stated that the deal still included five films, so that is one more film after “The Avengers.”

What I found encouraging about this deal is that Walt Disney President Bob Iger said that Disney will have an “if it ain’t broke…” attitude when it comes to the future of Marvel films. This means the people making Marvel films now will still be making them, and Disney won’t be stepping in to make The Avengers kid friendly. This deal also means Marvel movies will have a lot more financing behind them in the future, and Disney know how to market movies worldwide.

What do you think about Disney buying Marvel? Is it a good move?

Japan’s take on Wolverine and Iron Man

Liam — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:24:51 +0000

About a year ago Marvel made a deal with animation studio Madhouse to create four anime series for release in 2010, the first two of which would be based on Wolverine and Iron Man. Now we have teasers to cast our eyes on, and to be honest I want to pull mine out. In Wolverine’s case anyway. He/it looks nothing like the Wolverine we know and the only way I know it’s Wolverine is due to the 3 blades appearing from his/it’s hands. Iron Man, on the other hand, looks exactly the same and looks more interesting than Wolverine’s. Watch the teasers below!

Jessica Biel In Talks To Join Thor?

Dave — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:29:51 +0000

Jessica Biel is a Boulder, Colorado native, and that’s where I grew up so part of me will always be rooting for her. The film-enthusiast part of me only recognizes two things she’s done: date Justin Timberlake and languish in the underrated Rules of Attraction.

As you probably know, voracious readers, Kenneth Branagh is helming Marvel’s Thor adaptation, one of the pre-requisite movies leading into The Avengers universe-uniting super-movie. What we know thus far is that the film will take place in fictional Asgard with the god played by Chris Hemsworth. Loki will be his nemesis, as always, and the gigantic multi-picture deal Sam Jackson signed with Marvel to portray Nick Fury suggests that he might pop up as a black dude in a fantastical land populated by Norse gods.

Now, Nuke The Fridge has a report on the first goddess circling the film:

Reportedly if cast, Biel will play the love interest of “Thor.” The most probable love interest for “Thor” would more than likely be “Jane Foster,” a nurse and girlfriend of “Thor” alter ego Donald Blake. But the problem is that our source was not sure of the character’s name, but seemed to believe it was the same female character from the animated “Hulk vs Thor.” If that is the case, since “Jane Foster” was not in the animated movie, Biel is more than likely playing either “Amora, The Enchantress” or “Sif.” Those characters did appear in “Hulk vs Thor.” “The Enchantress” is a powerful sorceress who seeks to make Thor fall in love with her. When Thor rejects her for “Sif,” an Asgardian warrior whom Thor falls in love with, “The Enchantress” helps Loki in his plot against Thor.

Having not read the majority of the Asgard-based Thor comics, it looks like a chunk of our collective internet-research time will be spent finding out what we can about The Enchantress and Sif.

Or, we can hope someone with a better track record steps up to dethrone Biel’s talks.

Marvel got “three-hour one-man show” from Thor director Kenneth Branagh

Liam — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:31:33 +0000

Being both an actor and a director has it’s advantages, especially when you are presenting an idea to someone in order for them to give you lots and lots of money to make your dream movie. A recent case study for this is when Kenneth Branagh (Valkyrie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) pitched his idea for Thor to the Marvel Creative Committee. Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics Joe Quesada was there, and he recounted the event to Comic Book Resources.

We had one big creative meeting with the Marvel Creative Committee, which now works on all of our movies and I have the honor to be a part of. We sat with Kenneth and discussed the “Thor” movie and the overarching story of what that’s going to be, just to give our input before anything was put down to paper by screenwriters.
And it was one of the highlights of my time here at Marvel because not only did Branagh sit there and give you the story beat for beat, he and [Marvel Studios head] Kevin Feige formed a great team. It was performance art. Kevin would give us the establishment of the shot and the situation: “Here we are. We’re in (take your pick of location). And here’s Odin and he’s coming up to (pick a character).” And then Kenneth would come in and give you the color commentary. “Odin has an air of majesty to him” and he’d act out the Odin part or the Thor part. So we sat there and literally got a three-hour one-man show from Kenneth Branagh. It was fantastic. People pay a lot of money for that kind of performance by one of the world’s greatest living actors.
And of course, he’s got that great, charming British accent, so it makes it all go down easy too. [laughs] He could have said anything, and we would have said, “Yeah. Make that.” He has such a passion for the material, and he’s sitting there describing things from the Kirby run and things from the Simonson run, citing places where the mythology conflicted in Marvel history and how we’re going to streamline it. It was just fascinating to watch.

He also spoke about Iron Man 2 and his fondness for director Jon Favreau. Click here to read the whole thing!

Everything I’ve read about Thor so far is getting me excited, and I haven’t even read one single Thor comic. It will be a while before we get anything cool to look at as filming doesn’t start till January, but at least we know Kenneth Branagh is the right man for the job.

Marvel have their Thor…Chris Hemsworth!

Liam — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:31:46 +0000

Chris Hemsworth has been cast as Thor! Not only will he play the Thunder God in the solo film, he will also play Thor in The Avengers, so he’s scored one heck of a role. Hemsworth is relatively unknown to many, however you will have seen him if you’ve seen J.J. Abrams Star Trek as he plays George Kirk (Chris Pine’s father).

From Deadline Hollywood:

Talk about spot-on casting. I’ve just learned that Marvel’s Kevin Feigy and director Kenneth Branagh have chosen their THOR — and it’s Chris Hemsworth.
Chris had read for the part of Thor but wasn’t given a test because a casting director had nixed him early on. I’m told Chris’ younger brother Liam (who’s also a ROAR client) then tested for the role of Thor, but Marvel’s Kevin Feigy passed.That’s when Ward called up Feigy and said, “You’ve got to reconsider Chris. He’s your guy.” So Feigy let Chris read again. And once Marvel put him on tape, it was “Oh my god”. Branagh came to town last week and saw the Chris test and made the final decision today.

While trying to find a picture of Chris for this post (it was quite hard considering he’s not been in much) it dawned on me that Marvel have made a great decision. Hiring an unknown will help the audience believe the character more than if it was an A-List actor. The audience will need to let their imagination run wild a bit more with Thor as he will be a God and not a human discovering his powers (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk).

Thor will begin filming in January, so expect to be hearing more news and seeing more of Chris Hemsworth over the coming months.

Samuel L. Jackson talks about that 9 movie Marvel deal

Liam — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:44:46 +0000

When is was announced that Samuel L. Jackson had signed up to play Nick Fury in nine Marvel movies, including Iron Man 2, Thor and The Avengers, everyone was surprised…including the man himself!

From the L.A Times:

“No one was more surprised than me that it turned around,” he said. “It’s great that it did.”
“It’s always a joy to lose an eye, gain a patch and a really big facial scar in the name of character. Plus, I get to run the largest world-peace task force in the world, S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m glad that in the end we were able to reach across the aisle and put our differences aside and do what’s best for the franchise and the fans … & ME TOO!”

The deal not only pleased fans, it also showed that Marvel are planning long term. These superhero movies aren’t going anywhere any time soon!