I had always thought a Marvel Avengers movie was a more likely prospect than a DC Justice League one. Shows what I know.
Come hell or high water Warner Bros are intent on making Justice League a reality. Of course the ideal way to do it would be to get individual franchises launched and lead into the big superhero team-up film. However that will never happen for the simple reason it would be too expensive to bring together several successful franchise players into one film.
Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics’ Editor-in-Chief, talked to MTV Movies Blog about the proposed Avengers film:
“Strictly speaking as a fan, who wouldn’t want to see [an Avengers movie],” Quesada enthused.
While agreeing that a Marvel’s Team-up movie would be exciting, Quesada was quick to add that the chances of that actually happening were pretty astronomical. And while he wouldn’t shed any detailed insight into its feasibility, he did offer up his own dream roster for an Avengers big-budget flick.
“It would be Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man,” Quesada stated. “You can have anyone outside of that, but if you had those three characters, you have a tremendous Avengers movie. Those three characters are sort of the Holy Trinity here at Marvel.”
The reason I don’t think this will happen, aside from Zak “not putting his” Penn to paper, is because you will never be able to afford Edward Norton, Robert Downey Jr., and the eventual Thor and Captain America guys in the same film. When you’re looking at fees of at least $50 million before a frame of film is shot then it doesn’t exactly seem financially viable. Something like Batman vs. Superman might work with Christian Bale and Brandon Routh since neither are $10 million a movie guys.
As illogical as Warner Bros’ strategy is with Justice League, their strategy of making the team-up film first, with young, hungry (possibly desperate) unknowns will likely pay off whereas Marvel will have to bankrupt themselves to get Avengers going.
source mtv movies blog
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Regardless, an Avengers movie is on marvels slate of upcoming releases. An updated slate was just released a couple of days ago which still had The Avengers as currently scripting. I just hope Marvel does go the distance and makes this movie.
Sigh. Guys, when it comes to superhero movies…
The Avengers movie is built into Robert Downey Jr.’s contract– and you can assume the same for whovever plays Thor and Captain America. And he’s NOT expensive anymore. Ed Norton probably won’t be involved because The Hulk really isn’t in The Avengers much. Salaries for those guys aren’t going to end up ANYWHERE NEAR 50 million. Come on, Will… you really think Downey is getting $17mil for Iron Man.
“As illogical as Warner Bros’ strategy is with Justice League, their strategy of making the team-up film first, with young, hungry (possibly desperate) unknowns will likely pay off whereas Marvel will have to bankrupt themselves to get Avengers going.”
Oh, I get it now. I forgot this site is still cheerleading that disaster of a movie. Good luck with that.
The most reliable source– Marvel’s Q3 Earnings Report– has the film on its development slate. This MTV blog doesn’t even have a direct quote, which tells me something was just taken wrong.
Enjoy your Justice League of One Tree Hill. I’ll be laughing til Avengers comes out in 2010 or 2011.
After JLA no studio will want another super-team movie. And as far as “budgetary concerns” go, if they can spend a quarter-billion on Spider-Man and Superman and Evan Almighty, then they can find the money for the cast of an Avengers movie. But that’s not an issue.
I agree with Scrambles –yeah, I said it!- Downey’s star has fallen, then again he’s never commanded top rates to begin with, so affording him isn’t an issue. As for Captain America, they’ll be going with an unknown, so he won’t be able to command top rates either –ditto for whomever Thor will be. Hell, even if the Hulk was in an Avengers movie Norton won’t appear because the Hulk will be in perpetual Hulk mode. Personally I’d rather see She-Hulk instead and let’s give Chiwetel Ejifor a test-run as Black Panther since he’s rumored to have gotten the part anyway.
Budget-wise this film is VERY feasible.
The only question is, after JLA sucks more @$$ than an colonic who in Hollywood will even want to make an Avengers movie, regardless of how successful their separate counterparts are? Seeing as how X-Men four isn’t even a blip on anybody’s radar I think Quesada has more than one reason to be pessimistic.
Remember, it was the failure of Aeon Flux and Catwoman back to back that sunk Marvel’s Black Widow movie and put Wonder Woman into limbo. With X-Men 3 having been lackluster (though still very lucrative!) a crappy JLA will make Avengers all but impossible for any studio to want to take a chance on.
JaySmack – You are forgetting the fact that Marvel does not need a studio to put out Avengers since they are funding it themselves, the best participation a studio would get would be distribution rights.
Tino, you are forgetting that Marvel also has the rights to Black Widow and that is –ta-da!- not going to happen. Also, Marvel “Studios” is for the most part a primary financier, that is not to say it is making movies completely without studio support. And exactly where is Marvel Studios getting it’s financial muscle from?
Avi Arad said they reached their goal of raising the $500 million he felt would be required for them to be able to finally greenlight their desired slate of movies on their own. But what he doesn’t say (often) is that they haven’t really gotten a half-billion in a bank account, what they actually have are committments from various monies interests (like Dreamworks had when it began) that they will invest when Marvel asks them for the cash.
And you’ll notice that Marvel’s head-honcho, Joe Quessada, isn’t throwing his weight around about how Marvel can finance movies all on their lonesome.He’s the main one being very cagey about Marvel may or my not make.
Their ability to independently fund a film gives them leverage, but at the end of the day they simply don’t have the cash on hand. Remember, not only do you have the MAKE the movie, you also have to promote and publicize it. That usually doubles the cost for blockbuster films, which all Marvel’s movies would be. So in truth they only have enough money (ostensibly) for two and half films. Can they go to a distributor? Of course, and that studio will immediately tell them what can and cannot go into the film, what content to cut, whether it should be for a PG-13 audience, who should star etc.
Mark my words, you can bet before long we’ll be seeing Marvel Studios “in asoociation with 20th century Fox/Warner Brothers/Paramount etc,” on these films opening credits.”
Not exactly… Marvel has a rotating line of credit through a bank (not private investors, like Dreamworks). The credit is secured by character rights, which is a unique situation. It’s a very sweet deal for Marvel. They completely funded Iron Man.
They do not distribute their own movies, but they have a long term deal with Fox to do so, similar to Lucasfilm’s deal. The distributor isn’t going to ask for any changes, because that’s not really their role.
So basically, Marvel really can make whatever movies they want, including Black Widow if they thought it would be profitable. They can do them however they want. But… they do so with some risk. If a string of their films bombed horribly, they could lose the rights to say, Captain America.
Mtv has retracted this story. Apparently, the question was whether or not we would see some kind of New Avengers/Marvel Team-Up movie. The Avengers movie is very much on their schedule and on target to happen. Period.