Non-Marvel and DC Comic Books on Film

[SpiderBaby]

Well, looks like I spoke too soon, and Deathstroke could be in the film.

[domino harvey]

Benedict Cumberbatch is Doctor Strange and Kyrsten Ritter is probably Jessica Jones... once again I have little to no idea who these characters are, but I'm not the target audience

[swo17]

I remember circa 2001-2002 wishing aloud that both Seth Rogen and comic book movies would become more popular. I am so sorry, everyone.

[flyonthewall2983]

Benedict Cumberbatch is Doctor Strange and Kyrsten Ritter is probably Jessica Jones... once again I have little to no idea who these characters are, but I'm not the target audience

All I can bring to this is that Matthew Modine was using his Twitter to pretty much convince Marvel that he could play Doctor Strange. Beyond that I just knew the character more as a Pink Floyd lyric than a comic book character.

[domino harvey]

Matthew Modine was using his Twitter to pretty much convince Marvel that he could play Doctor Strange.

[knives]

Cumberbatch is a good choice, but is also literally the most generic choice humanly thinkable at this moment.

[SpiderBaby]

Cumberbatch is a good choice, but is also literally the most generic choice humanly thinkable at this moment.

Agreed. I was hoping that the Joaquin Phoenix rumor came true. I also remember Tom Hardy's name up for this, but he seems to be up for every comic book film these days (was rumored for the Apocalypse role as well).

[Jeff]

Josh Trank's Fantastic Four movie is scored by Phillip Glass, and influenced, he says, by David Cronenberg.

[jindianajonz]

And "The Wolverine" was influenced by Ozu, yet look how that turned out

[Feiereisel]

And "The Wolverine" was influenced by Ozu, yet look how that turned out

For what it's worth, I found the "Ozu" parts to be surprisingly enjoyable and refreshing compared to the mecha-samurai nonsense.

(And it really saddens me to count "mecha-samurai nonsense" against a movie, but, yeesh.)

At least Trank is aiming for something, I guess.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Josh Trank's Fantastic Four movie is scored by Phillip Glass, and influenced, he says, by David Cronenberg.

Well, we have the trailer to see if he's on the right track

[dx23]

At least Trank is aiming for something, I guess.

If by aiming you mean doing Chronicle 2 using the Fantastic Four name, then sure he is aiming for something. The moment Trank said that Dr. Doom is a blogger, that's the moment I said fuck it to this movie. From everything they mentioned on interviews, the story from the film seems to be far apart from the source material by hundreds of miles.

[Feiereisel]

At least Trank is aiming for something, I guess.

If by aiming you mean doing Chronicle 2 using the Fantastic Four name. The moment Trank said that Dr. Doom is a blogger, that's the moment I said fuck it to this movie. From everything they mentioned on interviews, the story from the film seems to be far apart from the source material by hundreds of miles.

That's fair--and I'm by no means vouching for the film. It might stink. But slavish adaptation guarantees nothing, and any point of departure from the bland but functional Marvel cinematic style is worth at least considering. (I know FF isn't a Marvel Studios property, but stylistically I think it's within my point.)

Staying source-faithful to decades of comics across various fictional universes is a ridiculous thing to attempt and a lunatic standard to gauge the quality of a film by. I want more invention and interpretation, not less.

Don't misunderstand me--Doom as a blogger is a hard sell, and it may be awful, but I'd rather see a unique interpretation than endlessly rote "green Hitler" variants.

[dx23]

Spider-Man going back to Marvel and joining their Cinematic Universe after an agreement between Marvel and Sony. This means no more Andrew Garfield and another possible reboot of the franchise.

[flyonthewall2983]

Maybe they could bring back Tobey Maguire?

[Werewolf by Night]

A 40-year-old Peter Parker?

[sir_luke]

A 40-year-old Peter Parker?

No muttering of "I'm too old for this shit," no sale

[domino harvey]

What Spider-Man needs is another retelling of the origin story, with every subsequent sequel just new actors doing it again and again

[Numero Trois]

It's kind of the same problem the Christopher Reeve Superman movies ran into. At some point, what else are you going to do? There's only so many ways to "up the ante" storywise. Not that the studios will even begin to admit that until the final crash & burn happens for this particular genre. As always.

[pzadvance]

Bummer, but unsurprising: Michelle MacLaren leaves Wonder Woman over "creative differences."

MacLaren isn't exactly some visionary auteur or anything, but this seemed like a great pairing and this news just continues to make me skeptical of the direction WB's taking these properties.

[hearthesilence]

WB is trying to replicate what Marvel is doing, building a multi-crossover "universe" (i.e. endless franchises linked together) and honestly, I think the parameters inherent in that enterprise are really to blame.
Marvel is supposedly doing it "right" and it's still a problem, with Edgar Wright quitting and Joss Whedon giving up after two films, partly out of exhaustion and partly out of creative dissatisfaction.

Whedon also had to craft Age of Ultron to function as the climax to the several Marvel movies released right before it, in addition to setting up sequels and stand-alones to come. That ongoing shared universe has been the creative masterstroke of Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, but it doesn’t always sit easily with his filmmakers, who are more concerned with making their own movie than integrating someone else’s. (Just ask Edgar Wright, who left the Ant-Man directorial chair when Marvel began adding characters and through lines from its other films into his.)

“With so much at stake, there's gonna be friction,” Whedon acknowledged. “It's the Marvel way to sort of question everything. Sometimes, that's amazing. And sometimes” — and here Whedon growled his compliment through gritted teeth, the meaning clear — “that’s amazing.”

[domino harvey]

New Fantastic Four trailer

[Feiereisel]

New Fantastic Four trailer

Weirdly into the vibe of the trailer and various rumors I've seen...I like the idea that some stuff is being consciously revised from the comics...could still be a nightmare, though. I don't know. It has me curious, which is way more than I can say for some of the other super-trailers lately. Sleeper (creative) success potential?

[Ribs]

What a weird, weird choice to release this trailer now. Does Fox even have something coming out this week to push it before? Ant-Man will be before Avengers, and Star Wars probably as well, and the Batman thing is to avoid being lost in the Avengers storm in a week or two.

But looking at the schedule Fox's next thing is Poletrgeist in late May; did they honestly think that putting this out on a Sunday afternoon after a Star Wars and Batman trailer would garner more interest? I'm just totally baffled by this. It's not a particularly exciting trailer either way.

[domino harvey]

Since we live in a world where people fall over themselves to praise Robert Downey Jr, here's another perspective: Downey's take on the worthiness of indie cinema vs his big budget comic book movies