The future of comic book movies

[Isildur´s Heir]

IMO, is not good...not good at all.
For the first time, i´m really thinking that, the moment Hollywood finds the new fad, comic book movies are over, and we will return to the starting point.

This year we all realized that names don´t sell (Superman Returns), Marvel is after the "new kid on the block" (Leterrier and the rumours of Dominic Purcell in Hulk 2, Tim Story and the all cast in FF, Edgar Wright in Ant-Man, Favreau in Iron Man...) and less interested in going with the right man for the job, and the genre can´t live on Spider-Man alone.
Video Games adaptations are becoming more and more (crap so far, but they will get it right, eventually), and next year cartoons (TMNT, sure, it´s a comic, but everyone knows it as a cartoon) and toys (Transfomers) will get the cinematic treatment.

Sooner or later, all this will bite the genre in the ass, and 2007/2008 will the years that will say if the genre will survive...or die.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I don't think so.
You make it sound as if Hollywood is one big collective with a hive mentality. COmic book movies are not made by "Hollywood". They are made by individual filmmakers in conjunction with individual studios. As long as comic book movies can INDIVIDUALLY make money, the films will be made.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Hollywood IS one big collective

When something is made right, tons of movies appear in the same mold.
Sure, movies are independent, but what when no one sees it?
What about when no one want to distribute it?
I´m all for quality over quantity, but someone has to watch the movies, because you are not making it for you and your friends.

Look no further.......The Incredible Hulk.
Ang Lee´s Hulk failed.
It was an amazing movie, the best comic book movie so far (IMO), but it failed at the box office.
Now, after 3 years, when no one tought that it was going to have a sequel, TIH is in the making for a 2008 release.
And, if you read between the lines, you just know the movie is going to suck, at least, it has, at this moment, 80% of it.
How do i know that?
First, Avi Arad choosed Louis Leterrier to direct it.
I´m not saying that the man is bad, but he was choosen because of Unleashed.
Second, the movie is going to be an action movie, and not a psychological thriller/action like it should be and the first one was.
And it´s not dificult the come to that conclusion, one of the biggest grudges about the first movie was the lack of action; Arad said that this movie is going to give fans what they wanted to see in the first movie (read: tons and tons of Hulk Smash).
When talking about the Abomination, Avi Arad describe him as capable of amazing feats, which is the same as to say that he is selling the movie on his fights with Hulk.

This is, IMO, no way to make a movie, and if it fails, it´s another nail in the comic book movies coffin, and Arad is the only one to blame.

 

[boywonder13]

the future is bright with new franchises startiting and new ones beggining there are so many heroes and stories that can be told superhero movies wont start dying in this or the next decade

 

[Chris Wallace]

Why is it that every time a comic book movie fails, we look at it as a reflection on the genre as a whole? If anything, this will make particular studios leery of comic book projects.
As for Hulk, it was just poorly marketed. But it didn't stop Hellboy, Batman Begins, FF or any other comic book movies from being made. One bad (or ill-received) apple does NOT spoil the tree.

 

[XCharlieX]

If scifi/fantasy films that happen to have source material from comics lose its ability to move the audience and make a classy film, thats when theyve failed as far as im concerned. Then its dead.

 

[Chris Wallace]

But how do you make that determination? Just because a Batman film fails doesn't mean a Black Panther film will.

 

[XCharlieX]

Well trends of directors happen with different time periods.. if for some reason 99% in the film business found it cool to make shallow action reels as comic films, id personally consider it dead because odds are youre not going to get a good Black Panther film with that mindset until it comes back around again.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Okay-we're FAR from that state now.