To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Fantastic Four films are getting a reboot.

After two films that met poor reviews, the Fantastic Four are set to get a new movie with a new cast.  Obviously a third entry in the last series wasn’t going to happen as neither of them did well, but 20th Century Fox wants to keep the rights from reverting to Marvel/Disney, so they have to get something into production.  So long as the studio keeps something based on the property coming out every few years they can hold on to the right indefinitely, making sure that the growing Marvel movie studio doesn’t get its hands on one of its longest running sets of characters.

Who wants to bet that no one ever makes a movie deal like this ever again?

All I can hope for is that the new film is not nearly disappointing as the last two, but I’m not holding my breath for that quite yet.

Thor 2 has picked up a new director in the form of someone who is best known for their TV work.

Marvel has announced that it has picked up Alan Taylor as the new director for the Thor sequel.  Taylor is best known for his work on Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and Nurse Jackie, and directed the feature Palookaville.

The quick replacement of Patty Jenkins, who left the film earlier this month, means that the film can stay on track for its November 15, 2013 release date.  Apparently the comic company/movie studio was looking at multiple directors from the Game of Thrones series, and all one can figure is that they saw it as a similar style.

I guess what we’re learned here is being a director on a Marvel movie is a plug-and-play type situation.

[via Deadline]

Things are not off to a good start for the Thor sequel.

According to Deadline, Patty Jenkins was set to direct the sequel to the original after Kenneth Branagh decided to pass on it.  Now, with a November 15, 2013 release date hanging in the air, Ms. Jenkins has left the production over reported “creative differences.”  (Hollywood-speak for she wasn’t getting along with someone.)  Reportedly she may move on to another Marvel movie, but it will more than likely will be the first in a series as opposed to a sequel.  About the only thing certain at this point is that Chris Hemsworth will be back in Thor 2 in the title role.

This is one of the issues with the new Hollywood model of picking a release date and then working backwards from that goal.  If the slightest thing goes wrong, you then have to scramble to try to fix things as you don’t want to lose your locked date.  It’s like a 21st century version of a land rush as everyone wants to stake their claim to a weekend and hope that no one else picks it in an attempt to usurp them.  Although, in this case, I’d say move it.  November is not a month known for comic book film adaptations and November 15 of any year just seems an odd time to release a film like this.  Of course, Marvel has already laid claim to two dates in the summer of 2014 already that they haven’t even announced what the films will be yet.

Having finally watched Thor on a recent cross-country flight for business, I have to say it was a far better film than I expected, and probably the best Marvel film since the first Iron Man.  (I just watched Captain America on the flight back from England and wasn’t quite as happy with it although I didn’t hate it.)  I’m not even a big fan of the comic series and I enjoyed the movie, so I have high hopes for a strong sequel, but this is certainly not the way to get it off of the ground.

[via Deadline]

After three films that disappointed at the box office, Marvel is going to try bringing the Punisher to the small screen.

Three Punisher films never quite worked out (1989, 2004 and 2008), the media rights to the character finally reverted to Marvel in 2010, but nothing has been discussed as being in development until this week.  According to Deadline, Ed Bernero, creator of the critically acclaimed Third Watch, is working with ABC Studios on developing a television series based around the iconic character.  Fox has optioned it for a pilot with a penalty clause should it never air.

According to the reports, the summary of the series is as follows:

Frank Castle, a rising star detective with the New York Police Department who moonlights as the vigilante Punisher, seeking justice for those the system has failed.

There is so much wrong with that synopsis that I don’t even know where to begin.

The Punisher first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 published in 1974.  Since his creation, and through numerous reboots, one thing that has remained constant is that Frank Castle became the Punisher after seeing his family killed by criminals.  At no point has he been an active duty officer on a police officer by day and a vigilante by night.  He has always been a vigilante through and through with a strict code of ethics.  While I have enjoyed some Bernero’s work over the years, he has starting off on such poor footing here that I can’t even give this series a chance.  I could even deal with the idea of this being yet another procedural series, it sounds like they are going to tear out the core of this character completely for no good reason.

Also at issue is the fact that this will be on network television.  The Punisher is, by his very nature, a killer.  He shoots his enemies, he blows them up and he’ll even run them over, but on network TV?  True, Fox was the home of 24 which has a huge body count, but somehow I don’t see them getting away as easily with this due to the nature of the story.

This project has disaster written all over it to me, but we’ll just have to wait and see what comes out of it.

Hitting theaters on May 4, 2012, The Avengers is one the most eagerly anticipated comic book films of all time. So, why not start the marketing campaign now?

The first trailer for The Avengers was just released, and while it doesn’t give away everything we’ll see – rumors still persist the Skrulls are involved – it certainly gives us a lot to look forward to.  Besides seeing Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) all together, it’s nice to see that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) will be doing more than just walking around saying cryptic things.

And, yes, that is indeed Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from the Thor film in there as well.

Considering how long Marvel has taken to work up to this film with numerous movies building the mythos, here’s hoping it pays off large.  Plus, on a personal level, I would love to see director Joss Whedon just blow everyone out of the water with the work he does on this.

Filming on The Avengers continues on the streets of Cleveland, doubling for New York City, and while the other day it was just shots of Chris Evans, but this time Chris Hemsworth joins in the fun as Thor.

While this is sure to be that much more exciting once it hits the big screen, seeing such iconic Marvel characters team-up like this is thrilling no matter what the quality of the video is.  Sure, we’ve seen films like The X-Men before, but we’ve never seen a comic book team movie that was crafted in such a way that it multiple movies come before it to prep the audiences for the back-story of each character.  You have to tip your hat just a little to the way the comic book company has gone about shaping this to make sure they can deliver the most interesting team movie yet.

Enough with the talk, lets take a look at some action.

Thor and Captain America team-up to fight those guys in the motion capture suits from the other day. I’m still fairly sure they are supposed to be the Skrulls.

Click the jump for more videos and pictures.

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Amazing Spider-Man 2 will hit theaters on May 2, 2014.

I’m sorry, but, what?

The confusion here comes from the fact the first film, Amazing Spider-Man, doesn’t come out until July 3, 2012, so we now have a release date for a sequel to a film that hasn’t even been released yet.  ”I think it speaks volumes about our confidence in what we are seeing on the new film and our desire to move quickly on the next installment,” a Sony executive told Deadline.

What it tells me is you’re racing to get a lock on a weekend and make it extremely clear to Marvel that you’re never going to let these rights revert back to them.  (So long as Sony keeps production on a Spider-Man film churning every few years, the rights will never return to the comics company, or its parent company Disney.)  Do you even have a script ready?  Have you locked crew yet?  I’m sure you locked Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone (pictured to the right) for multiple films, but do you have a director ready to go?

The first film is still in post-production, and now these same folks have to get pre-production ready on the next one?  True, it’s a little under three years away, but you are definitely overlapping productions here, and that can go horribly wrong if not managed correctly.  True, the Harry Potter series kept a similar schedule up, so it is possible, but it definitely makes me nervous about what sort of quality we can expect.

Knocking the boy wizard from the top box office spot, Captain America: The First Avenger planted his flag at the top of the mountain.

Captain America took the top box office spot this weekend with $65.8 million, beating the last Marvel movie, Thor, by a mere $100,000 for a weekend total.  The latter went on to a domestic gross total of $180 million, so it looks like this film will go on to a similar total.  This is the last of the films from the company leading up to its team film, The Avengers debuting next May.

The big news this week, however, was the 72 percent decline that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2, the largest fall ever for a film that set an opening weekend record. It still brought in $48 million, and it is doubtful that Warner Brothers is to up set as it’s nine day worldwide total sits at $834.5 million.  How will they ever make payroll next week with so little income coming in?

Friends With Benefits came in third with a rather anemic $18.5 million, below the similarly themed No Strings Attached that came out this past winter and opened with $19.7 million. There are probably some nerves around this film now as it opened so low and had a $35 million dollar budget. Using the usual math the film needs to hit $70 million domestic to break even, and that seems a pretty tall order now.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon slipped to fourth place with an estimated $12 million. It’s domestic total now sits at $325 million and a worldwide total of $882.3 million.

Coming in fifth was Horrible Bosses with $11.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $82.4 million off of a $35 million budget.

And since I love a train wreck, where was Green Lantern? 18th place with $390,000 for a new domestic total of $113.9 million. Worldwide it’s now at $147.2 million off of a production budget of $200 million. And yet they say there will be a sequel? Well, okay then.

Next week sees Cowboys & Aliens, Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Smurfs.

The Avengers movie is still a little over a year away, but a promo poster at the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas gives us a taste of what we’re in for.

You have to give Marvel credit, they’ve now literally spent years prepping for this movie.  Each of the films produced by the studio have been giving us little tidbits so that the team film can just jump into the action without having to do a lot of backstory.  Since the first Iron Man movie there have been hints to this project, and now it’s all coming together.  The promo poster that was spotted at the Expo shows off Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and the yet-to-appear Hawkeye (the guy with the bow and arrow).  And, yes, all of the actors from the various films are reprising their roles, so not only will get the ultimate team movie, but it will be star-studded as well.

Big bonus to this poster?  The first look at the “modern” Captain America costume that differs from what we’ll see in his movie next month.

This poster alone is enough to get me excited.  Who ever thought we’d really see all these characters in one movie some day?  Add in Joss Whedon directing and I’m so there.

[via ComingSoon and an IM from Jon Rettinger]

Well, this really was only a matter of time when you think about it, but it looks like some sort of Marvel Comics theme park may be coming out of Disney, but it isn’t going to be where you’d expect it.

According to a report from The Telegraph last week, Euro Disney has petitioned the French government to extend its land development rights from 2017 to 2030.  Originally Disney could only build new parks and expansions around the original Euro Disney until 2017, but this 13 year extension was granted due to the recent decline in attendance credited to the recession.

Euro Disney parties said that a Marvel theme park was definitely on the table, bu if it did happen, construction may not even begin until 2020 at the earliest.

The odd part about this is that some years ago Marvel licensed some of its key characters to Universal Studios, and they can’t use them at any American theme parks until those contracts expire.  No one is sure if those rights extend outside of the country, however, and that might mean the Marvel park could only work in some place like France.  Hopefully we would see one in the United states eventually, but who knows at this point.

I have a lot more thoughts on this matter in this week’s episode of Scattercast, so make sure to check it out.

If you’ve seen the first Ghost Rider movie from 2007 starring Nicholas Cage, you probably never thought we’d be … um … “lucky”? … enough to see a sequel. Well, here it comes!

Yes, it’s true, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance has begun filming in Bucharest, Romania for a Feb. 17, 2012 release, five years and one day since the original.  The first one had a budget of $110 million and ended up doing $228.7 million worldwide, meaning that it really made next to money, and possibly didn’t even break even.

The thing is, Sony has a reason for making this sequel to an unwatchable disaster, and that is to keep Marvel from getting the rights to the character back.

In the days before Marvel was its own film studio, it would license its characters out to various studios with a clause that if X number of years passed without anything new coming out for the character the rights would revert back to Marve to shop around.  Well, since the comic book company is now its own movie studio, those studios that have character rights don’t want them to revert back, and that’s why we’re seeing reboots of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, and the most unneeded sequel in history to Ghost Rider.

Basically these companies would rather pump out bad movie after bad movie instead of letting Marvel, who actually knows what to do with the characters, have a chance to make money with them.  It’s an unfortunate situation, but one we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future.

Too bad there isn’t a “your movies suck, we get the character back” clause.

Runaways, the award winning comic series from Marvel Entertainment, looks to finally be going before the movie cameras this Jan.

Of course, this movie has been in “development hell” since 2007, so there is still no guarantee it will really happen.  However, all that being said, as a recent convert to the series, I am really hopeful it is happening.

After Marvel gave away the first issue of the series on its iPad app, I immediately ordered the first three volumes of the trade paperbacks, and I was hooked.  I’m only up to the fifth volume now, and while I so far think the first story arc was the best, it is highly engaging and unique.

Essentially the story deals with six teenagers (Okay, Molly is only 11, but oh well) discovering that their parents are evil … not as in, “my parents wouldn’t let me go out last night!”, but as in all 12 of their parents are a group of super villains known as “The Pride” that rule Los Angeles with an iron fist.  Although the kids aren’t that fond of each other, they runaway to make amends for the evil things their parents have done, and along the way they discover each has some form of abilities or tools that can make them into crimefighters.

While the movie will probably only deal with the first story arc, it actually would have worked better as a TV series as there are so many little details to deal with.  A film will still be entertaining and engaging (if cast properly), I’m not certain how much justice it can do to the story.

While it is set in the Marvel universe, as seen by appearances by Cloak & Dagger and Captain America in the first story arc), it doesn’t necessarily have to be.  They can easily make the project a stand-alone story, and I actually think it will work better that way.

We’ll see if the movie really does come to life finally, and with San Diego Comic Con being next week, I would imagine that will be where official word will happen.  It sure would be nice to see a smaller Marvel project than just the constant A-list characters.

(Disclosure: Runways link is an affiliate link to Barnes & Noble)