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| 21 June 2005 | Marvel At That
Avi Arad dishes more on the upcoming mega-slate |
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Marvel boss Avi Arad is a man with many things on his mind. About 5,000 things, as a matter of fact, and nearly all of them are characters waiting to make the leap to the big screen – and he seems determined to make sure that every one of them gets a chance. Hot on the heels of his exclusive chat with Empire, Arad has spilled more beans to those good chaps at MTV.
Perhaps the most exciting piece of the news is that Silver Surfer is now at the stage of securing a director, whom they are about to contact – but of course the mogul won't reveal who just yet. "There is a director who should make (it) – he is mentally committed to it. He is doing another movie now. What is most important to me about this guy, first, is that he is incredible with visuals. But he's also a spiritual guy, a Zen Buddhist." Oh, and then he went on to confirm that Galactacus (devourer of planets) would definitely make an appearance, albeit an all CGI one.
Also moving along nicely is Captain America, whom Arad believes to be "the most famous character out there, by name". He talks of the project needing to be "'Back To The Future' type stuff," with him coming back "as a man out of time – coming back today, looking at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town America… who are we today? Are we better?" Could this be the first Marvel satire? Ok, probably not, but it's a nice thought. The producer claims to have a star and a director in mind, and we can apparently expect announcements of this project soon, although he did warn that "the script is going to take a little bit of time, because it has to be a masterpiece." Don't they all, Avi?
A Hulk sequel (with the catchy sub-moniker "Diet Hulk", as Arad refers to it) has officially been promised by no later than the end of 2007, and with some corrections to the feel and formula of the project; "In movie one, we couldn't get into the curiosity thing…"
As for Spider-Man 3, there are no real revelations (though it's comforting to know that things are moving smoothly), but there was confirmation of Dylan Baker returning in the third film as Dr Curt Conners – whom Spidey fans will know, eventually becomes Spider-nemesis Lizard. Spider-Man 4 villain, anyone? No-one's saying just yet, although the rumour of shooting the third and fourth instalments simultaneously was quashed.
Projects a little further away include Thor ("…it's a vast sort of Lord Of The Rings universe"), Ant Man ("a 'Honey I Shrunk The Superhero' type of story", sequels to The Punisher (R-rated this time) and Daredevil ("if we can get the rights back, I'd do it"), as well as continued hints at Cloak And Dagger, Iron Fist, Nick Fury, Black Panther, and Namor ("the script is gigantic… a lot of design work has been done on it.") Whether it is with David Hayter is yet to be confirmed. What Hayter is confirmed for is Black Widow - as director. "It's going to be David's directorial debut. The script just came in, and we are doing what we always do with scripts – in this case, driving the writer / director crazy."
And then there's Iron Man. "We are very close to striking a deal," says Arad. "I had a four-hour meeting with Nick Cassavetes in my house. If everything is cool, in the next few weeks there'll be an announcement about Nick writing it."
Finally, there's the X-Men spinoffs – one dealing with Wolverine which is on track for a 2007 / 2008 release, and the other with Magneto, the latter of which he tells will be "a smaller movie, but very true the origin."
So there you have it. We recommend taking the rest of the morning off to let all of that sink in. Preferably with a cocktail. |
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