ROTTEN TOMATOES: Paramount and Marvel Partnership to Yield "Captain America" and More!

Paramount and Marvel Partnership to Yield "Captain America" and More!

by Scott Weinberg | April 28, 2005

Variety brings news of Brad Grey's first big "deal" as the new head of Paramount Pictures. The movie studio and comic book giant Marvel have signed an agreement that will lead to at least ten new movies, "Captain America" and "Nick Fury" among them.

In an arrangement that sounds a little like the one between 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm, "Paramount isn't putting up any production money; it will receive a fee for marketing and distributing an initial 10 movies, the first of which is expected to hit theaters in two years." Which means that Marvel's movie division will, for the first time, begin producing their very own films. Let's just hope they're good ones!

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(1-15 of 15 posts) | Reply

cgcbooks writes:
on Apr 28 2005 05:14 PM

Marvel only has two good characters, Spider-man and Thor. Everything else is pretty mediocre. People are going to tire of all this super-hero crap real soon.

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Scott Weinberg writes:
on Apr 28 2005 05:50 PM

I thought the same thing when I read about the "ten movies." By movie 7 or 8, they could start to look like Cannon fodder.

And by Cannon I mean Golan-Globus. (Yes, I'm old.)

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VML writes:
on Apr 28 2005 05:57 PM

Captain America? NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!!!!!!!!! That movie won't make alot of money world-wide. Sounds way too patriotic for the people in foreign countries.

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Now it's dark writes:
on Apr 29 2005 12:33 PM

Thor? Ok.

I think the modern Cap might be anti government.

It would still suck, unless they do an Avengers movie. By then you'll know they're desperate.

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poedude writes:
on Apr 29 2005 07:01 PM

[b]NICK FURY[/b]
NICK FURY is a great character; HYDRA is a great enemy... could have some cool flashbacks to Sgt. Fury's wartime days. I've wanted to see a Nick Fury, Agent of Shield movie since the 70s. Might work.

www.jerryclough.com

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jeremyd4 writes:
on Apr 29 2005 10:30 PM

If Captain America is made in the same vein as the first Robocop movie it could definately work. Needs to be tongue-in-cheek and more of a satire because if it's taken seriously it will just seem so cheesy and gay; and it will certainly flop internationally.
I don't know much about comics, but how did CA get his powers? Was it through eating 'Freedom Fries' or something like that?

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RitterRed writes:
on Apr 30 2005 01:19 AM

In reply to this comment (#821699)
[b]Captain America's powers[/b]
It's been a looooooooong time since I've read any Captain America comic books; but, as I recall, he was part of a military experiment during World War II to develop super-powered soldiers to fight in the war. He was initially the typical skinny weakling sort, but once he went through the experiment he became Captain America. I think movies based on comic-book characters are no different from any other action film. If the script develops the story in an interesting way and the director brings to it a fresh energy and concept -- and has some respect for the genre at all -- it can be good. Of course, the proper budget can be a factor, too.

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Count_Vertigo writes:
on Apr 30 2005 03:01 AM

10 films?!?! Did they not learn anything from watching the crappy "Generation X" and the David Hasselhoff dud, "Nick Fury?" Unless its "Spider-Man" or "X-Men" its going to be a difficult sell. "Daredevil," "Incredible Hulk" and "Elektra" proved that point. "Blade" got very lucky. "Man-Thing" went straight to the SciFi network. Even the prospects for the "Fantastic Four" film are iffy at best. And lets not forget the last horrible attempt at "Captain America." I may be interested in a "Dazzler" or "Cloak & Dagger" film, but that's about it. At least DC has their proven big guns, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, all in development or already on the way (still waiting on the "Amethyst, Princess of Gem World" movie...lol). Those are known internationally, while most of Marvel's characters are only known by us comic geeks.

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t-joint writes:
on Apr 30 2005 03:14 PM

In reply to this comment (#821694)
It's the writing. Marvel employs very few good writers to create interest with other characters, instead hiring hacks like Bendis to re-write everything to be more "corporate-friendly" and happy meal marketable. I've just been shaking my head for the last few years at how lost the whole Marvel company has become. I blame Avi.

Anyway, as far as your other comment, mainstream superheroes are going on their 70th year of existence, and are just as popular as they were back in the 30's. There's not going to be any letup any time soon. In fact, as the world gets more and more dark and dangerous, people will clamor for escapism and stories of heroism. Wanna get rid of the superheroes? Get rid of terrorists, wars, crime, and balance the budget. Otherwise, deal.

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ninja_iceberg writes:
on May 03 2005 10:50 AM

i think if they adapt their ultimate lines, they should be fine. an avengers movie would suck but an ultimates movie would rock. thor sucks ass. he's strong cuz he has a strength belt and a big hammer. daredevil would rock and elektra would rock if done by frank miller/maybe kevin smith.

bendis is a great writer. so is mark millar and most of marvels new writers. they're not re-writing things to be more "corporate friendly" or "happy meal marketable." i would never want a young child to read the ultimates line. what the writers are doing is updating characters and situations to fit todays society. this means meaner characters, jaded and cynical caharacters. when was the last time you saw that in a happy meal. avi arad has nothing to do with the comic books. he does the movie and media stuff.

i think a jla movie would suck but i would love to see a teen titans movie. not in the vein of the cartoon series but with the original line up

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Banana Kid writes:
on May 03 2005 01:28 PM

Excuse me? Thor is strong because he's the freaking GOD OF THUNDER.

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synergyred writes:
on May 03 2005 05:40 PM

Never liked Captain America. He's from another time. If they want it to translate as well to screen as Spidey and X-men did they'll either have to update it, pissing off thousands of fans, or write it as more as a historical piece, which would lose a lot of viewers. You really can't make a Captain America Movie or hell, a Wionder Woman movie. They're from different, set, times with different values. It just won 't work as well.

Also, I bet they'll screw with the outfit. That tends to piss people off.

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Aoiboy writes:
on May 04 2005 01:38 AM

I completely agree with the last comment. It's the point I've been making for a long time here: some characters just won't work in a movie today, either you'll have to completely reinvent them or you'll have a faithful adaptation but a cheesy film, with an outdated character that would only appeal to children. Wonder Woman... Aquaman... And Captain America. Add the patriotism of this last character to the equation, and you'll see that this is not the right time for releasing a movie about this character. It will fail internationally. When you go overseas and realise that in each and every standup comedy act 90% of the jokes are about the USA-Bush-The Americans, you'll see that the mere thought of a movie out of a superhero that goes by the name of "Captain America" will only get louder laughs internationally.

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ninja_iceberg writes:
on May 05 2005 09:56 AM

thor is nothing without the hammer. anybody who is worthy can pick up the hammer. if he loses that he has jack squat.

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Reel 2/Dialogue 2 writes:
on May 05 2005 10:43 AM

[b]Cap all the way!![/b]
Captain America would only fail if they don't treat him like a three-dimensional character. Calling him simply "patriotic" pretty much falls into the trap of shortchanging him. This goes for all the so-called second tier characters (I don't see how Cap falls in that position, considering he's lasted as long as Superman and Batman). What do any of you care what some overseas comedian will say about the movie? I'll say, [b]don't[/b] treat it as tongue-in-cheek, just put some meat into the proceedings, keep the budget tight and necessary (because Black Widow isn't gonna bring in 200 million bucks, I don't care if she's bootyazz naked through the whole flick!), and everything will be fine. If Spidey can get away with those "just the right amount of gay" red/blue tights, there's hope for everyone.

At least with this Paramount deal, crossovers will be more likely, such as an Avengers movie. Try teaming Spidey and Hulk now... ain't gonna happen! The bad flipside to this is that the DVDs will be skimpy and overpriced as usual. Gee, tanx for the... "interactive menus", Paramount (is that the studio's name... or what they do?).

As for Thor, they should get rid of the "normal guy turns into Norse God" schtick, and just tackle the story as a god among mortals. It'll certainly have a different feel than a usual superhero story. Shoot, I might even go to a theater to see that!

I, personally, cannot WAIT for a [i]Power Pack[/i] or [i]Star Brand[/i] movie!

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