Marvel Studios Flexes It’s Superhero Muscles
Plenty Of Superhero Movies To Come
This month David Maisel, the newly minted chairman of Marvel Studios, was discussing plot points in his Beverly Hills office with Edward Norton, the Academy Award-nominated actor whom he has cast as the star of a new version of “The Incredible Hulk.” Until recently a little-known deal maker trained by the former kingpin Michael S. Ovitz, Mr. Maisel has quickly become a serious Hollywood player. No longer content to leave the actual moviemaking (and most of the profits) to the studios, Mr. Maisel is able to green-light movies of his choosing at budgets up to $165 million, backed by $525 million of financing.
“I don’t think there’s been a new studio making $100 million movies since DreamWorks,” he said. “We’re going Hollywood, but in a smart way.” Until now, Hollywood’s major studios have paid to license Marvel characters to create blockbuster franchises — including the three “Spider-Man” hits, and 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four” movies. By making his own movies based on other Marvel characters, Mr. Maisel hopes to transform his division of Marvel Entertainment into a true filmmaking brand, maintaining control from script to release, keeping all the profits for the company and building a film library.
If the movies are not successful, Marvel will forfeit the film rights to the characters in the deal, including Captain America, Thor, Nick Fury and the Avengers. Veteran Hollywood insiders raised other caveats about the Marvel arrangement, including the company’s dependency on major studios for setting their marketing budgets and for overseeing distribution. The studios have been known to pay more attention to their own movies rather than those made elsewhere. Additionally, Marvel’s slate of up to 10 films will be based on second-tier superheroes, who may not resonate with younger moviegoers.So far, Wall Street has already showed its approval, steadily lifting the company’s stock to Friday’s close of $26.78 from $19.43 a year ago.Movies to come: The Incredible Hulk (starring Ed Norton) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) Are they kidding? Of all the talented stars, they pick Robert Downey Jr.?
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 am
I think:
It´s a great idea!
Keep the scrip and history of character will not change a lot if marvel controls his movies in his own studio!
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:57 am
Too bad they won’t start off strong with first rate superheroes than second tier ones. It would make Marvel Studios a stronger presence in the movie industry. But obviously, if you sell your best characters, like Spiderman and Fantastic 4, youre only left with your tier 2 heroes. On a opposite note, at least they got the Incredible Hulk back.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
They could at least redo movies like Daredevil and Ghost Rider. Plus, no Captain America movie, just put him, Scarlet Witch, The Vision, and Hawkeye in an Avengers movie.
April 20th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Marvel os the best comic book company ever to be created. they should make movies on as many characters as they possibly could.