Marvel Movie News

February 27, 2003

Marvel Comics has been a mainstay of comic shops since the 1960’s and they have over 4700 proprietary characters. And at this rate all of them will star in their own movie by the end of the year. The latest such project was announced by Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises. It was revealed that not only will Daredevil have a sequel, but also Jennifer Garner will reprise her role of Elektra in a spin-off movie.

In other news, Kiefer Sutherland may have overtaken Nicolas Cage for the lead role in the up-coming Ghost Rider movie. If true, it will be the second superhero role Cage has lost in recent years. He was attached to the old new Superman movie back when it was being written by Kevin Smith.

It has been confirmed that Doc Ock will be the only villain in Spider-Man 2. A while back Kirsten Dunst was quoted as saying the Dr. Connors a.k.a. The Lizard would also be in the movie. And if you can’t trust Mary Jane, what has the world come to?

David Goyer, who wrote Blade I and II is just finishing up the script for the third installment. Production should start soon after he’s finished with a Summer 2004 release date in mind. Avi Arad of Marvel Studios said that the latest movie would probably be the last time Wesley Snipes will play Blade. Seems the action star would like to move on to a different role: Black Panther, who is also based on a Marvel Comics’ superhero.

Ray Park, who played Toad in X-Men, will play another Marvel character. This time it’s Iron Fist, a martial artist of unparalleled abilities bent on avenging the death of his parents. There will be some changes to the story; firstly Danny Rand will speak with a Scottish accent. Second, the costume will be changed. Like we saw with X-Men, some costumes that work in comic don’t translate to the big screen. So don’t expect to see Ray Park in yellow and green spandex with slippers on. Note: This project is currently in Pre-production hell. Whether it serves its undeserved purgatory and makes it out is yet to be seen.

The writing of team of Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, creators of the WB’s Smallville (which is based on a DC Comic) are writing the Iron Man script. Iron Man, which should come out 2005, could star Leonardo DiCaprio. Although it’s too early to say for sure.

Daredevil director, Mark Steven Johnson recently stated he was interested in directing Ghost Rider or Captain America. However, Stephen Norrington (who directed Blade (based on a Marvel comic) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (another comic book adaptation)) is already slated to direct Ghost Rider.

After writing several movies and many episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Jonathan Hensleigh will get his first shot at directing with The Punisher. Originally planned for a summer 2003 release, casting is still not done, although there have been plenty of rumors: Adam Garcia, Howie Long and even The Rock. Perhaps Nicolas Cage has finally landed his coveted comic book role. Despite the casting difficulties, producer Avi Arad is confident shooting will start in May. This will be the second Punisher movie made after 1989’s disappointing effort staring Dolph Lundgren.

Speaking of previously disappointing efforts, The Fantastic Four is scheduled to begin … as soon as they can get a workable script. 1994’s version of The Fantastic Four was made for less than $2 million and was never intended to be released. The new version, planned for a 2004 release, will cost more than 100 times the first’s budget. And that’s where problems with the script come in. With several CGI heavy characters on the screen at the same time even non-action shots could costs millions of dollars per minute. The original’s budget would be sucked up before the Thing could finish, “It’s clobbering time!”

And there are many more coming out in the coming years: Prime, Werewolf By Night, The Man-Thing, Namor: the Sub-Mariner, Luke Cage: Hero for Hire, Cloak and Dagger, Nick Fury, Shang-Chi, Power Pack, etc.

Submitted by:

Source: Super Hero Hype