Marvel Studios and Brian K. Vaughan Developing Runaways Movie
I knew it was going to happen eventually, Marvel Studios has announced that they will be brining Brian K Vaughn’s Runaways to the big screen. Vaughn, best known for the critically acclaimed Y: The Last Man Series (also in some stage of development with DJ Caruso and possibly starring Shia LaBeouf), created Runaways in 2002 with Adrian Alphona, and is also penning the screenplay. It should be noted that Vaughn is also a co-producer and writer for LOST.
The series follows a group of teenagers discover that their parents are an organized group of super villains called The Pride. On the run from their homes, the group bands together and begin a journey of discovery, both of their parents’ origins and of their own inherited powers.
Unlike most other books in the Marvel universe, the individual Runaways story arcs are collected in small, manga-sized trade paperbacks. In 2006, the series won the Harvey Award for best continuing/limited series. Geek god Joss Whedon, a vocal fan of the book, took over the series after Vaughan and Alphona left at issue #24 of the title’s second volume.
Marvel is not ready to set a date for this latest adaptation or the previously announced Ant Man.
source: THR
Kevin Smith to direct Comic Book Movie… Super Max?
Clerks filmmaker Kevin Smith has revealed that he may be doing a Comic Book movie after all. Smith, was originally attached to write and direct The Green Hornet, bowed out after fearing that he would not be able to handle a big budget action movie. Of course, Smith has already lined up his next two films over at The Weinstein Co: a romantic comedy titled Zack and Miri Make a Porno, followed by a horror film titled Red State. But after that, Smith says he might do a superhero flick.
“I think that by that point, by my 10th film, I’ll be ready to take on something that is very visually oriented,” Smith told Wizard. “The 10th movie I think is going to be a comic book movie - not “The Green Hornet,” though. There’s something that we’re kind of negotiating on right now which would actually be pretty cool. I don’t know what the audience for it would be, but I would dig making it because I’ve always been a fan of the character. I can’t say what it is though, because they haven’t locked it in.”
I wonder if the character in question could be Green Arrow.
UPDATE 8/9/07: Kevin Smith Responds to: Not Directing SuperMax
As you may or may not know, David Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade, Dark City) has sold Warner Bros on making a movie based on the Green Arrow DC comics character. Super Max would follow a wrongly convicted Green Arrow as he is incarcerated in a super maxim security prison for out-of-control heroes and super villains. Arrow will come face to face with some of the people he put in the prison, while he attempts to make a prison break. Goyer has said that Arrow was chosen because of “his hard-hitting, moralistic tendencies, seemed like the most interesting hero to put through the institutional wringer.” The project was being worked on by newcomer Justin Marx.
Kevin wrote a 15 issue arc for the rebirth of the Green Arrow comic book series for DC Comics in 2000. So he would be a perfect choice to pick up such a project. The project also falls into Smith’s comment that “I don’t know what the audience for it would be,” as it’s a very unconventional superhero story, at least for the big screen (a similar story was recently done in the Daredevil comic book series). And Smith’s buddy Matt Damon has also been rumored [unsubstantiated] to be involved in the project. Super Max is also on track for a 2010 release, which would also fit into Smith’s schedule.
Or may-be it’s a completely unrelated superhero project that Smith is considering. Any ideas?
Transformers Producer plans City of Heroes Movie
I’ve never really understood the MMORPG world. For those that don’t know, that stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. I tried Star Wars Galaxies, and wanted to love it, but came out with the opposite opinion. And I’ve had some friends (sadly) who spend more time on World of Warcraft (nicknamed Warcrack) than in their non-work hours real lifes. But one of the MMORPG that has always interested me is City of Heroes, which basically operates under the premise of a city filled with super-heroes and villains. Users pay $15 bucks a month to design their own superhero character and battle supervillains, aliens and other criminals.
Transformers producer Tom DeSanto has secured the rights to turn the game into a big screen movie. And that’s not all. After the movie, they hope to offshoot the series into a television series (it’s unknown if they are thinking live-action or animated).
According to Variety, the project “revolves around a group of superheroes who live in Paragon City and must team in order to fight an invasion of aliens known as the Rikti.”
DeSanto thinks this may be “the next big superhero franchise” because we’ve never seen “a big superheroes vs. aliens movie.” While I’m not sure I completely agree with that logic, the premise offers some potential. And with all the comic properties being adapted for the big screen, it will be nice to see a film which isn’t restrained from 50 years of comic book storylines and character cannon.
The game was released in 2004, has since spawned a sequel/expansion called City of Villains which allows plays to create their own super villains, and has been turned into a comic book published by Top Cow Prods.
We Predicted Spider-Man 3 Quality Issues Almost 2 Years Ago
In September 2005, I wrote a Op / Ed piece on in response to the reports that Spider-Man 3 would have three villains. I was very worried at the time about the movie based on what I had heard. As it turns out, much of what I worried about came true. Obviously at nearly $150 million in one weekend, the producers shouldn’t be worried about how the movie is doing at the Box Office. But it has gotten a lot of poor reviews, and it seems like most fans are at least somewhat disappointed in how it turned out. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Read on to see what I had to say in my original article from September 2005:
As a lifelong fan of Spider-Man (I’ve been reading the comics since I was about 5), and as a big fan of Sam Raimi’s two films, I must say that I was a little disappointed in the news about the number and identity of the super villains for Spider-Man 3. I was originally going to just post a comment to the story but realized that I have quite a bit to say about it, so I decided to write my own article.
First of all, three villains is too many. I think it’s hard enough to do a good super hero film with two villains. Batman Returns was one of the few that worked well with both The Penguin and Cat Woman. But, the subsequent films of the series (before Batman Begins) were terrible, partly because of the use of too many villains. I remember hearing rumors when Spider-Man 2 was in the works that in addition to Alfred Molina playing Dr. Octopus, Spider Man would also have to face The Lizard. I was worried about that because Dr. Octopus is such a great villain with a long history in the comics that I felt that a second bad guy would take away from him. I felt at the time that teaming The Lizard up with one of Spidey’s lesser enemies (possibly The Scorpion) in a later film would be better. So, I think two villains can work, but I am very worried about three.
Now, to the specific villains. It was clear by the end of the second film that James Franco’s Harry Osborne would be turning into the new Green Goblin. Thomas Haden Church is set to play Sandman, one of the most boring Spidey villains of all time. Sure, the special effects could be cool as Sandman changes his body into sand as he fights Spider Man, but the appeal of so many of the comic book arch enemies is their personalities, and unfortunately, Sandman is not one of the interesting ones. I would much rather see Church playing a character like Mysterio, The Scorpion, or even Venom. Speaking of Venom, I’m partially excited to see him in the movie, but apprehensive as well. In the comics, the story line leading up to the spawning of Venom is great but takes a long time to develop. It’s going to be very hard to introduce the alien costume (which should first belong to Peter Parker), have Peter get rid of it, and have it end up on Eddie Brock, while at the same time developing the fact that Brock is Peter’s rival at the Daily Bugle and that he hates Spider Man as well. That’s a lot for one movie without two other villains. It could work if the creation of Venom is just the subplot in the background of Spider Man fighting the Green Goblin. In other words, I hope that they are just setting up Venom to be the main villain in the fourth movie. There really shouldn’t be any fights between Spider Man and Venom yet. Also, Sandman should just be a minor part of the movie, perhaps the bad guy whom Spider Man has to deal with early on while Harry is transforming into the Green Goblin. If Sandman is only in the first third of the film, and the Green Goblin is the main focus while the birth of Venom is in the background while saving his fights with Spidey for the next film, then it could work. But, that is a lot of ‘ifs’. I wish they would keep it to two villains, and pick a more interesting one than Sandman (has Raimi heard of Kraven the Hunter?). And, what about The Lizard? His character (Dr. Connors) was introduced in Spider-Man 2 (and was even mentioned in the first movie). Perhaps they’re saving him for #4. I guess the point is that there are several great Spider Man villains to chose from and I think the producers of the series need to be more careful in the selection process.
So that is what I said over a year and a half ago. And I was right. Most people agree that there were too many villains and too many plot lines. The Green Goblin was the focal point, but I was right on about Sandman. He was created with great special effects, but was not an interesting villain. The whole alien costume story line was way too rushed as I feared it would be. And there was too much Venom. SPOILER ALERT! Don’t read on if you haven’t seen the film. If Venom was really destroyed as it appeared, then it is a very disappointing use of one of the greatest Spider-Man villains of all time. Yes, Dr. Connors has part of the alien and Carnage is the most likely villain for the next film, but will Venom be in it as well? And will he have to team up with Spider-Man to defeat Carnage like in the comics? Or will that be too similar to the end of this movie? I guess there are just a lot of questions left to answer.