Jarrod WalkerMARVEL STUDIOS
June 20th 2008 03:56
Marvel Comics CEO Kevin Feige announced recently that with the highly profitable release of Iron Man, a slew of Marvel comic based releases are set for production. We will soon see the reboot of The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton in the lead, after Ang Lee’s tackling of the green giant’s escapades in 2003’s Hulk ‘failed to connect’ with audiences. Duly following Warner Bros. lead and that studio’s newly rejigged Batman franchise, Marvel studios has recognised the need for visionary filmmakers helming their adaptations and were open to taking a risk on actor-turned-filmmaker Jon Favreau to direct the previously uninsurable Robert Downey Jnr in Iron Man, even going so far as to allow Downey Jnr input on the script, something which has clearly paid off given the critical and commercial reaction to the film. Similarly, in order to entice an actor of Ed Norton’s caliber to play the lead in their latest incarnation of the Hulk, Marvel also granted Norton script control. Downey Jnr will also cameo in The Incredible Hulk, as his Iron Man alter-ego Tony Stark and if audiences can tolerate sitting through the end credits of Iron Man, they’ll find a short scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, another Marvel comic character, setting up his possible inclusion in their slate of film adventures. Next year will also see the release of Wolverine, a spin-off from the X Men franchise, helmed by the director of the Oscar winning Tsotsi, Gavin Wood. In 2010 we’ll see the clamor for more cash with the release of Iron Man 2 and then Thor, possibly being brought to the screen by Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn, Brad Pitt is reportedly being considered as the titular hammer-wielding Norseman. Then in 2011, we’ll see Captain America, expected to be a World War 2 period piece presumably to accommodate the jingoistic sentiments that will no doubt abound, all culminating in the 2011 release of The Avengers, combining, as in the Marvel comic book realm, all previously established franchises into one super ‘team-up’. The uninitiated filmgoer may sneer with indifference but if the box office reception to Iron Man is anything to go by, Marvel’s immense universe of characters may prove profitable indeed, god forbid, they‘ll make geeks of us all.
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