Black Widow News and Speculation Thread

[Ozbridge]

I'm quite averse to R-rated movies but at least I hope this doesn't have GOT-level vulgar nudity.

Rumor...

Lmao I just checked out CDAN for some Sunday trashy fun and it's already here.

So If this movie bombs we are lead to believe Feige will blame ScarJo for its failures and the R rating?

No according to the rumor the studio (not Feige) intentionally wants to make Black Widow an R-rated movie and intentionally wants it to flop, and after it flops they intend to create the narrative of a woman not being able to lead a movie (which doesn't make any sense because if that's what they want then shouldn't they have done that with Captain Marvel?)

 

[Shuri]

I'm not opposed to R-rated Black widow. I'm cool with whatever they do, I just want Winter soldier in it.

 

[Marvolo]

I think an R rating is perfectly appropriate for a spy thriller involving a woman that was trained as a killer from youth by an organization that thinks it's ok to cut them open and remove their ovaries. Widow's story and life is pretty damn dark and ****ed up. And I think after 10 years of MCU films all adhering to a family friendly
pg-13 formula it's time for the MCU to try stretching its arms a bit. Time to try to break out of the safety box its built.

 

[Yowza]

I've never heard of CDAN. What's worth checking out about it? It seems like an online blog that could be made by anybody from looking over it very briefly...

That post about Black Widow I could make little to no sense out of. The first sentence is just a negative what-if spin on things if go wrong.. That second sentence about the "A/A-" list contextualization also just a secondary what-if spin on if things go right?

Oh and also, posted by "Ent Lawyer" as if meant to establish status perhaps? I don't really care what kind of lawyer he/she may or may not be...

Ozbridge:
No according to the rumor the studio (not Feige) intentionally wants to make Black Widow an R-rated movie and intentionally wants it to flop, and after it flops they intend to create the narrative of a woman not being able to lead a movie (which doesn't make any sense because if that's what they want then shouldn't they have done that with Captain Marvel?)

The added inference of "intentionally" making to go wrong would make it seem easier not to make the film in the first place then. You inferred that one it seems to me. What do they gain from this one has to ask?

 

[Yowza]

I'm all for either rating.

R-Rated territory at some point I think could be financially beneficial at some point. How it's implemented I think is important to keep the Marvel brand kid friendly while at the same time allowing the company to branch out demographic wise into more niche territory.

This could be a feasible risk at this point. It allows the company to push more content out per year while maybe differentiating it to a certain degree that may actually benefit as opposed to hinder if more and more content is being created per year to keep things fresh.

I think if they do go R-Rated there are certain boundaries to it. It doesn't mean they need to veer into distasteful exploitation by any means.

 

[Marvolo]

Agreed. They could go for a John Wick boundary. That had reasonable gore and intensity and even had some moments of dark humor and levity. Itd still be within the neighborhood of the typical MCU film just slightly more geared towards older audiences and with slightly more adult plot material.

 

[Silvermoth]

It might be fun to embrace that sexy spy who gets around from a woman’s perspective instead of a bloke like bonds for a change. Hopefully it’s done right though, not just to titilate

 

[zephyrinthesky]

There are far easier and cheaper ways to torpedo any future female-led franchises than making an R-rated ScarJo movie. Also, why would they do that when they're moving heaven and earth to market Captain Marvel as the next face of the MCU?

Whoever wrote that sounds like a troll.

 

[Aximili86]

I don't see it happening, but hey, if you're going to venture into R territory in the MCU, Widow's the type of character for it.

If they go this way, I can't see it being too "hard R" either, nothing overly gratuitous. It'd probably be more like the Netflix show level of stuff, or Aliens or something. Few more cuss words, maybe a couple entry wounds here and there, but more like say a Russos movie +10/15% intensity rather than anything too crazy. MCU movie with two "****"s instead of a limit of one, and a scene or two of Natasha popping a dude in the head, doubt they take it too far.

 

[Web-Head]

I think an R rating could make sense. It is a prequel, so those who can't see it,.won't be lost if they don't see it going forward.

 

[Aximili86]

Right. A pre-alien-invasions-craziness story would indicate fighting regular spies & terrorists etc, with guns, that in itself is probably going to put it in Winter-Soldier-or-more territory with intensity.

You're taking on humans, in a spy setting, no magic or laser-guns or alien-cannon-fodder, it lends itself to being one of the more hardcore of the MCU stories. I doubt it has much negative effect on the box office, not like they're going to go all Paul Verhoeven boobs-and-blood-splatter with it. It'd be more "13 years olds are going to be fine with it despite the rating" type of R, like an earlier James Cameron flick, can't see Feige getting too crazy with it.

Like Terminator 2, if it didn't have the arm-peeling-off or finger-through-eyesocket scenes. R, but pretty mild R.

 

[Yowza]

It'll mainly be tonal I'd be willing to guess moreso than specific aspects of it leading to a rating. The training scenes at Leviathon depicted in Agent Carter could lead to a Battle Royale kind of vibe to kick things off I suppose as opposed to having to intercut little split seconds throughout the film to avoid making the rating go over as 1 example. Narratively things could be easier with an R but that depends on what sort of story or tone Marvel Studio's has decided to be going for during the pre-production process.

I'm just glad they seem to be carefully weighing these things before production starts as opposed to during or after. That way they can develop the kind of film they want to make from the ground up instead of trying to chop something together.

 

[metaphysician]

I don't see it happening, but hey, if you're going to venture into R territory in the MCU, Widow's the type of character for it.

If they go this way, I can't see it being too "hard R" either, nothing overly gratuitous. It'd probably be more like the Netflix show level of stuff, or Aliens or something. Few more cuss words, maybe a couple entry wounds here and there, but more like say a Russos movie +10/15% intensity rather than anything too crazy. MCU movie with two "****"s instead of a limit of one, and a scene or two of Natasha popping a dude in the head, doubt they take it too far.

One other thing I could theoretically see in an R-rated BW movie: torture.

 

[THORin]

Am I the only one who can see a potential link between Black Widow and Eternals? There are two Eternals who become KGB officers: I don’t know much about their comics but I researched that cause it sounded intriguing, and I could see potential there. They’re going for a cosmic scale going forward, and this would be a cool way to prove that the smaller street-level heroes can interact and hold their own against the cosmic level villains they’ll be facing going forward. Maybe I’m wrong, but the two movies are coming out the same year, and there doesn’t seem to be a very good reason for why we’re getting this Black Widow movie now, and not three years ago.

 

[Yowza]

I think an easter egg is possible but we'll see I suppose. It would be interesting if done right.

On a separate note, the antiaging infinity formula supposedly taken by a number of Marvel characters in the comics from Fury to Black Widow could be an interesting layer as well potentially explaining her powerset in a way none of the movies have revealed that I think could be added to go further back in time but we'll see...

 

[Yowza]

Anyway, news today of Black Widow start date now being delayed to June:
Black Widow Production Start Reportedly Pushed to June.
Either Marvel wants to take some more time to consider an MPAA rating or perhaps eye up what they can do production wise seeing where the profit margin is post-Infinity War.

Afterall, Marvel is taking a pretty massive hit financially foregoing the rights of Captain Marvel Streaming on Netflix (to the tune of 150 million just for the Captain Marvel movie Disney Will Take a $150 Million Hit to Stream 'Captain Marvel').
How far start-up costs sink them on the Disney+ service not to mention the Fox purchase I suppose leaves them in a state where Marvel Studio's may not be able to take any risks for another few years or so.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I am sure there is a reason for it like someone's availability, tweaking the script, etc. Movie is going to happen. Endgame is going to make Disney a boatload of money to off-set these costs a bit. Episode IX should help, also. Disney will be fine.

 

[ImSGirl95]

Yeah, Disney will be OK. Not the mention other projects like Lion King coming up, too.

 

[Darkprime]

I am sure there is a reason for it like someone's availability, tweaking the script, etc. Movie is going to happen. Endgame is going to make Disney a boatload of money to off-set these costs a bit. Episode IX should help, also. Disney will be fine.

Someone check Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Renners schedule. Does this mean black widow wont make the May 2020 release?

 

[BaelaTargaryen]

 

[Kev4000]

Urgh..

 

[Aximili86]

Sweet. The more cross-pollination between Lucasfilm & Marvel, the better. Marvel could learn a lot from those guys, rather than going this lazy greenscreen route with everything and having a pretty obvious "house style" to all the costumes which basically seem to be made out of the same thing half the time.

Now for the cinematographers. No Bourne-lite Opaloch crap here please. He upped his game on Infinity War, but man I hate the look of Civil War, those washed-out colors and all. With Widow you can probably go a little more stylized & visually interesting than that.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Of course... This is the dream when it comes to a sequel. For me anyway.

 

[Tg11]

I hope that it is like a Bondesque film like think James Bond meets Mission Impossible

 

[Silvermoth]

Report: Writer Ned Benson Has Been Brought In To Rewrite The Black Widow Movie

Marvel’s Black Widow movie is still in development, now with a new writer working on the script.

According to an exclusive report from Collider, screenwriter Ned Benson (The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby) has been brought on by Marvel to rewrite the script for the Black Widowmovie starring Scarlet Johansson?


Benson, whose most notable work is The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, a film that he rewrote alongside Jessica Chastain to more significantly highlight the woman’s perspective, is taking over for Jac Schaeffer