Have you seen the first Empire X-Men: DoFP cover?

Apparently, Fox is trying to out-Marvel Marvel by promoting this as "The Biggest Ever Superhero Movie."

One way they're doing it is by having Empire Magazine publish 25 different covers.

Gee, and X-Men event with multiple covers...

...haven't heard that one in a while.

Anyway, here's the first cover:

featuring a Sentinel.

If you look close, you'll see this particular model is the SNTL2.

So help me if there winds up being 42 models in this film!

It does look kinda cool though, but is the guy there just for scale purposes,

or is the joke that the SNTL's need constant upkeep?

So, Fox smartened up...

They've finally realized that they can't hold on to Marvel's X-Franchises forever.

And Warner Brothers is not giving up on DC no matter how badly they screw it up.

So FOX went and got an exclusive deal with Boom! Studios,

giving Fox first dibs on all of their future comic properties, which is good...

...since their last partnership was a success.

BUT:

* It seems the deal also gives Boom! Studios "first-dollar gross on the movies made from their properties". I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I think it involves profit dollars. I call that fair.

AND:

* Whatever money does go to Boom! Studios gets "split 50-50 between the publisher and the adapted comic's creator(s)" I added the italics there. Holy crap. That puts Fox a big one-up over Disney/Marvel, who did not act so kindly to Avengers co-creator Jack Kirby. This is big. Good job Fox. Seriously.

PLUS:

* It allows Boom! Studios access to existing FOX film franchises! When I first heard that, I thought WAITAMINNIT! Marvel owns the X-People. Fox can't go pimping them out. But that's not what they mean. What they mean is that such franchises like Predator, Alien, and Die Hard - which Fox does own apparently - are available for more (and in one case some) comic expansion through Boom! Studios.

...

Any Die Hard comics that come out are going right into my longboxes. So bravo Fox, you done good.

Monday Movie Roundup...7/15/2013

I think one of the biggest stories from the weekend is that Pacific Rim did well, just not as well as Grown Ups 2...

...but only in this country, where GU2 made an estimated $42.5 million in the U.S. vs. PR's estimated $38.3.

Internationally, however, things turned out quite differently:

Grown Ups 2 only made roughly $1.7 million in the foreign market.
Pacific Rim made about $53 million.

So from a worldwide perspective PR made around $91.3 million, compared to GR2's $44.2.

I'm not sure what that means, but I'll tell you two things -
* Mrs. Adorkification wants to see Pacific Rim...in the theater.
* There's going to be a lot more PR cosplayers than GU2 cosplayers in the near future.

Man of Steel is still in the top 10 (at #10...but that's beside the point).

Iron Man 3 (which came out the first weekend in May) is still in the top 25.

As for The Lone Ranger...

...it remains in the top 5 after two weekends, but has yet to break even on its $215 million budget. Even internationally, which is at just over $119.1 million as of today. I have no idea what Hollywood (or Hollywood reporters for that matter) define as a flop or bomb, but if TLR doesn't make its money back soon it  could very well be one...if it isn't already.

And finally, it looks like FOX isn't going to give up the X-Franchise anytime soon, as they're in talks of making as X-Force spin-off of X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Now, I don't know if they're going with this...

...or this...

...or this...

...or this...

...or even this...

...but all I want is continuity. Which is basically all I ever wanted in my comics...and comic movies...

I only ordered ONE Pietro Maximoff...

Poor Pietro...

...cast in two different films...

...with two different actors...

...for two different studios.



Fox and Marvel Studios have come to a head over this guy, and I'm not even sure why.

'Cause he's kinda a jerk.

To be fair, he didn't now his real parents for over a decade in the books.

Even though he was a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants mutant along with his real father.

When he did got himself straightened out, he joined the Avengers...

...but that wasn't enough for him.

He had to go and fall in love with Crystal, an Inhuman, who happened to be an old flame of Johnny Storm...you know...Human Torch of  Fantastic Four fame?

They even got married (Pietro and Crystal, not P and J) and lived with the Inhumans on the Moon.

They had a child together, a daughter named Luna, who in my mind is the first ever Mutant/Inhuman offspring in Marvel history.

Then things got worse...

...he went bats#!t crazy and left his family.

To be fair, it wasn't his fault.

It was Maximus - another Inhuman (and Crystal's brother-in-law) - who was behind the madness.

Of course, during Pietro's crazy-phase Crystal went and had an affair...which didn't help things at all, but that's beside the point.

Then Luna was kidnapped, and Pietro rescued her, and he fought alongside both X-Men and Avengers.

Then other stuff happened and he wound up fighting against the Fantastic Four, and with X-Factor...and then I stopped reading altogether.


Anyway, let's take a look at the Fox/Marvel Studios issue...

1) It's clear that Fox's Days of Future Past is dealing with an alternate time-line. Puck is in it...even though he won't be called Puck, so it's possible the "Quicksilver" character may wind up being another speedster...

...and even if he is named Quicksilver in the film, it will be an alternate time-line's version of the character.

2) Joss called him out first, so he's got dibs.

3) I really don't care if there's two Quicksilvers out there...as long as they're two different versions of Quicksilver out there.

4) Besides - if one keeps him Green and the other keeps him Blue, they're different characters anyways...right?

WTF? Fridays...The Wolverine Edition...5/24/2013

I was really, really looking forward to this film.

It started with some great animated posters...

next came the trailers...

...then the foreign trailers...

...followed by the cool posters, like this one...

 ...and this...

...and this...

...but then I saw this...

 ...and I thought 'Cool - the artist took some liberty with the character's name.'

Then I saw this...

...and I saw Viper...with an actual snake tongue.

W...T...F...?

See, this is where soooo many movie studios drop the ball.

There is absolutely no reason for this character to have a tongue like that.

Absolutely none.

Sure. Marvel Studios dropped a bomb on us already...

...but they were sending a message:

"'Grounded in Reality' means we can't keep all of our characters true to their roots. "

It sucks for us fans...but I'll concede the argument.

Fox needs to explain...nay defend their reasoning behind Viper's tongue.

Because I can't think of any, except to say:

"Yeah, we have the rights to these characters and we're going to screw them up as only we can."

Effin' Fox... 

WTF? Fridays...3/1/2013

Quite a bit to discuss this week...

There's casting news for the upcoming Michael Bay reboot/redux/alien-cluster...

...and I'm not sure what to say about it, except that if she's playing April O'Neil to a bunch of CGI turtles...

...she better pay f**king attention.








Speaking of casting news...

Amazing Spider-Man 2 (or whatever they're calling it) will indeed have Norman Osborn.

This is in addition to:
* Electro
* Mary Jane
* Rhino
* and possibly Black Cat.

As for who they got...

...Chris Cooper's a good choice.

I still haven't seen Amazing, and I think Willem Dafoe did a great job (it was the Green Goblin suit I disliked, but that's another day's blog).

So all in all, I may as well suck it up as watch the first film.

Stupid reboots.



Speaking of reboots...

...it's been announced that Matthew Vaughn, director of X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass, will produce Fox's reboot of the Fantastic Four.

If Fox could take their collective head out of its a$$ for just a minute, it would set the FF and X-Men franchises...

...wait for it...

...in the same damn universe!

I still hate the idea of Marvel's characters divvied up among several production companies, but since these two groups are in the same backlot for the time being they better be produced by the same guys.

Speaking of the same guys...

...there's a new poster of RDJ as Iron Stark.

You gotta give Marvel Studios credit, the're promoting the hell out of this film. There's three or four new images of this film to Man of Steel's - what - one?

Even The Wolverine hasn't had as many things released yet, and that's coming out just over two months after IM3.

That being said, I love the fact that this film is even being made.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

Speaking of what happens next...

...he's dead people.

Get over it!

Tim's way better anyway.

WTF is up with X-Men: Days of Future Past?

So, Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are reprising their roles from the previous X-Men trilogy...

I'm really not sure how to feel about this. I mean it's great to see Stewart in the role every comic geek thinks he was born to play, and McKellen's Magneto had layers of awesomeness, but right now the X:DoFP script must be a colossal cluster.

This film isn't slated to be released until 2014, so there's time to straighten things out.

And they better.

My guess is that The Wolverine will take steps to unify all the X-films.

And it better.

Otherwise Fox will keep spend the next several decades trying to "get it right" instead of selling the rights back to Marvel Studios.

I don't know man...I just don't know...

So, Mark Millar is now consulting with Fox about the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises.

It’s a smart move. Fox obviously needed one person who had knowledge and experience with these characters in their original comic-book form on their team.

Especially if there’s no way Fox will smarten up and sell the rights back to Marvel where they belong.

Having one person involved with both franchises will meld them together. It worked with Whedon and the Avengers, Jim Shooter and Valiant (VH1) and of course – Stan Lee and Marvel Comics.

But is Millar the right choice?

I’m not familiar with his work. I loved the Kick-Ass and Wanted movies, but haven’t read any of the books.

I’m not saying Millar’s a terrible writer. In fact, he was one of the creative people behind The Ultimates for Marvel...which like it or not was one of the founding elements behind Marvel Studios getting off the ground. He was also invited to the set of Iron Man to hash out ideas while they were working on the script. So he’s got experience with not just the comics, but the “Hollywood” aspect of comics.

That being said… Millar is simply not a writer I gravitate towards. Or Bendis, or Ellis. These guys are love-or-hate. There’s little in between, except for people like me who want to read only one or two specific works. These guys have a specific - somewhat mature - feel to their writing that can easily turn off a lot of people. In comics that’s no big deal. The fan base is vocal, but (still) relatively small. However, as loud as haters may get, lovers will spend all their money.

Movies, on the other hand, have a universal fan base, and their haters are exponentially loud. Plus, they won’t just not spend their money…they’ll actively spend their money against a film.

So this is “make-or-break” time for Fox.

It could work, but since I’d prefer Marvel to get the rights back, I’m just not sure I want it to.

So, the sequel to X-Men: First Class has a name...

I'll start by saying that I liked X-Men: FC better than I thought I would. It totally screwed with comic continuity, but stayed true to the continuity of the other films. 

I also liked the cameos by Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn.

And now it seems that this classic Chris Claremont/John Byrne/Terry Austin masterpiece is the basis for the next film.

If you've never read this, shame on you. It is fantastic!

But it's set in an alternate Escape From New York type future (very similar to the beginning of X-Men: The Last Stand when they're in the Danger Room) that is overrun by Sentinels, and most of Marvel's mutants have died.

It introduces Rachel Summers...

Wolverine dies...

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are in it, but this team is lead by Mystique, and includes Blob, Pyro, Avalanche and Destiny...

Magneto isn't in it at all...

Neither is Xavier (except near the end)...

So my feeling is that while the "jist" of this movie is based on this story, some significant changer will be made. 

Which is fine, but I wonder if Fox will agree to set it in the MMU...

WTF? Fox...

Two Marvel-related movie items...

1) Fox has officially hired a director for the FF reboot.

2) Fox has officially dropped the director for the Daredevil reboot.

I understand that Fox has a great many things going on at all times in all possible genres, but would it kill them to organize their moves so they can be released to the public over time?

I mean it this is all Fox can bring to the SDCC table, I feel sorry for them...very...very sorry.

Wait...Amazing was to connect to the Avengers?

Once upon a time, there was a plan to have the Oscorp Tower from Amazing Spider-Man appear in the city skyline in Avengers. The plan fell through because Avengers had be converted to 3D before the CG work could be done.

Now there's talk of doing something similar in future films...

First of all, I'm not sure how much of this is true. But if it is true, I'm on the fence about it.

My ultimate vision is for all movie rights of all Marvel characters to return to Marvel Studios...where they belong...and if stuff like this happens, my vision may wind up going with me to my grave.

However, if Sony, Disney and Fox can do this (through the use of buildings, story plot points in newspapers or events not involving actual characters owned by the various companies) I would be very impressed.

Because you know what this would mean?

It would mean that Marvel could bridge the gaps between their characters owned by various companies WHILE DC CAN'T EVEN GET A F**KING JUSTICE LEAGUE MOVIE MADE!!


In Marvel Studios I Trust

Marvel Studios + Sony + Fox = Happiness...

One of my lingering curiosities regarding Marvel Studios, now that they’ve proven to Hollywood what dorks like me have known for over twenty years, is how Sony and Fox might react to the success of The Avengers..

Here’s how I think it would play out:

1) The Amazing Spider-Man will come out later this summer – and while not being nearly as successful as The Avengers will still be a profitable hit – but after paying back what they spent making the film, what they spent promoting the film and what they owe Marvel for use of their product, Sony will look at their revenue and realize that they’ve got less than Paramount and of course Disney.

2) Wanting more money, Sony will approach Marvel Studios and propose a deal…$100 million (or some other outrageous amount) to give Spider-Man back free-and-clear, or $25 million (or some other significantly smaller amount) for Spider-Man but with a percentage of future movie profits.

Only in Hollywood…

3) Marvel Studios would want to take the $25 million deal, but Disney would step in and choose the $100 million option.

4) Seeing this – Fox would get into the action and offer a similar deal for Fantastic Four. But knowing that the FF aren’t enough to seal the deal, Fox would also throw in Elektra and Daredevil (unless they’ve already been sold back, I honestly don’t know) and various elements of X-Men to “sweeten the pot”. Fox would be stupid to let Wolverine, Xavier, Emma Frost, Magneto and Deadpool go, but possibly The New Mutants, maybe Cable and the Shi’ar.

5) Disney would again step in, and with Fox hammer something out eventually.

Not sure how it would work, but anything that brings more characters back into Marvel Studios’ hands is a win because…

In Marvel Studios I Trust