Marvel’s been talking for years about bringing its lesser-known characters to the big screen. I remember MORT THE DEAD TEENAGER and WEREWOLF BY NIGHT being floated around as possible titles for quite a while. Actually, Ray “ Darth Maul” Parks was attached to play Iron Fist on and off for about ten years (of course, he got to play Toad and Snake Eyes, so it’s not like he wasn’t busy). Anyway, according to Chud, it’s looking like this new association with Disney might be making it a lot more likely that we’ll be seeing more characters from the lower rungs of Marvel mountain.
Ka-Zar, Power Pack, Doctor Strange, Dazzler and Luke Cage are some of the characters Marvel’s currently considering for a new avenue of lower-budgeted features they’re looking to produce alongside their bigger-budget A-characters. While productions like IRON MAN 2 and AVENGERS would typically start with $100 million, these would be in the $20-40 million range and would be an avenue for interesting, surprising talent to try their hands in the MU.
Devin Faraci brings up the interesting point that Marvel Studios’ original M.O. was that they were supposed to produce superhero blockbusters at cheaper brackets, presumably because they were cutting out the sometimes-excessive development process that typically goes behind such big movies. Needless to say, the cash needed for these movies has gone up to match the amount used by their competitors, but perhaps that’s a case of the money going more directly to what you actually see on screen, rather than in meetings you don’t see. Who knows?
What’s interesting about this is that Marvel’s current “golden age” of film actually started with a lower-budgeted movie starring a lesser-known character - - Blade the Vampire Hunter. So the question is, what characters do you, the highly-budgeted Comic Vine community, want to see and - - here’s a tougher question - - which ones would be the most feasible?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.
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