By Comic Relief
As witnessed on the web, when Andrew Garfield was cast in director Mark Web’s reboot of the Amazing Spiderman, many film enthusiasts breathed a sigh of relief. Without getting into the messy details that ended the previous Sam Rami/Toby Maguire helmed series, the doubts of comic fans were very high. This is actor Andrew Garfield expressing his misgivings [1];
- “I am terrified to take on this role because it means so much to me, so I know how much it means to other people,” Garfield told reporters on Saturday at a press conference promoting the film.”
On the other hand fans that were strictly cinephiles are well aware of Garfield’s reputation as a capable young actor. These fans all but alleviated fears that Garfield could fill Maguire’s giant acting shoes playing the geeky yet heroic character. What wasn’t so clear was what Fox/Sony film collective were planning for the character or how these plans might impact the overall super hero film landscape.
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If DC Comics/Warner Brothers studios “The Dark Knight” changed our expectations about the scope and ambition of super hero themed action movies; then Marvel Comics/Disney Studios “The Avengers” quick rise to steal of Nolan’s box office ranking signaled that super hero films were Hollywood’s new tent pole mega business. Even blockbuster veteran Sly Stallone remarked that superhero films have, in terms of blockbuster potential, replaced the action adventure genre he had been the master of: [2]
- “This genre unfortunately is becoming…let’s just say it’s fading away.”
That said with glowing pre–distribution reviews already streaming in, when can we expect the Fox/Sony collective to realize no one is better situated to topple or steal Marvel entertainment’s super hero film crown than they.
Though DC is now threatening films featuring “The Justice League,” “Wonder Woman,” “Lobo,” “The Flash,” and possibly “Batman” and “Green Lantern” reboots, which they claim is “not-in-response” to The Avengers [2]. Fan boys have to accept that a clash of the publishing titans really isn’t that certain. Why, because it isn’t clear that DC has the artistic might to succeed in producing anything other than their two most famous characters; the Dark Knight and Superman [3].
Who has Marvel’s most successful characters that would be: Twentieth Century Fox, Lions Gate Films, Columbia TriStar, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Artisan Entertainment. The X-Men is Marvel’s most successful, popular and lucrative super hero team in history; producing new spin-off X-book every month. As dominant as he is ubiquitous, Spiderman is the company’s most popular character and the feature character of over six ongoing comic books [4]. With past tent pole within comic book featuring the entire Marvel universe of characters like the “Civil War” books that united all of the company’s characters in one story. How long will it be before Fox/Sony comes up with a method to collect all (of their and other) Marvel licensed characters in one movie?
Placed in one movie, those licensed characters would be a rebooted Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Punisher, Man-Thing, Spiderman, the X-Men, and Ghost Rider. I can’t speculate on how difficult it might be to fund this event given that Andrew Garfield, Hugh Jackman, and Halle Berry, and the entire mutant clan are already are already under contract. Yet all of the as yet unrebooted character actors are not. After all this should be the expertise of the in-house lawyers and bean counters to order an event of this magnitude.
Civil War Tm of Marvel Comics
Assuming that the coveted 3rd highest grossing film ranking is a desired business objective in the comics publishing community. How long will it be before all of the separate business interests of this potential film making collective attempts to unify their objectives for what would likely be an immensely large multi-million dollar payday? And in terms of herculean effort maybe more surprising than all of that; what it would take to convince the Marvel Entertainment group to let this film making collective execute a plan of this kind.
The “New Avengers” image Tm of Marvel Comics, modification care of LIH
Please join us for a discussion Tuesday:6/19/2012@7pmEST/12UTC
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Article references:
[1] http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/10/film-spiderman-idINDEE85909220120610
[2] http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/GraphicCity/news/?a=60620
[3] http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/06/14/man-of-steel-zack-snyder-says-film-has-date-with-destiny/
[4] http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1686653/justice-league-movie.jhtml
comicreleaf
comicrelief2
Comic Relief
parisienne
littlebells
Lurker
ozzie20
Open Book
LIH
linkedinhollywood.com 
For a more exact list of companies and character licencing this one might be a little more exact:
Punisher:
Lions Gate Films, Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International,
Spiderman:
Columbia Pictures [United States] | Columbia TriStar [uk] Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), Laura Ziskin Production,
Fantastic Four:
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Constantin Film Produktion, Marvel Enterprises
Dead-Pool:
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Enterprises, Donners’ Company
X-Men:
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Enterprises, Donners’ Company
Daredevil:
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Horseshoe Bay Productions
Man-thing:
Lions Gate Films, Artisan Entertainment, Marvel Enterprises
As horrible as this omission is I forgot the character blade who started it all. These are the companies that support4d him Amen Ra Films, Imaginary Forces, Marvel Enterprises, New Line Cinema
And all of this information is From IMDB.
Wow! CR, always so informative. I’m going to read this a few more times because I have to digest all the great information. Looking forward to.the discussion!
LB,
Take your time.
ITA very informative CR!!
Q; Are u hoping DC will give Marvel a run for their money?
OB,
When I said….
“Why, because it isn’t clear that DC has the artistic might to succeed in producing anything other than their two most famous characters; the Dark Knight and Superman [3].”
I meant “no”. I do not believe they can accomplish that. When you look at all of the work of the collective of marvel licensee’s and all of the individual movies leading up to the Avengers movie, it would take DC at least 15 years to catch up.
I would be willing to return to the issue after Superman is completed but until then unless DC COMPLETELY “Nolanizes” its entire publishing line they are doomed to produce more Green Lanterns.
to be honest I really didnot think I was setting up a DC discussion article
Hello, new and returning visitors.
Here’s some information on how the old and new Spiderman have interacted with one another.
Cool video, but I wish we’d seen the two actually interacting. I’m excited to see this version. i like darker so this should be great. Also I love Emma Stone.
I agree on both, they probably did discussion over the phone or email.
Tell me, I like Emma also. Does it bother you her character has been dead of almost thirty years?
That was a giant mistake!!!!!!
Hi everyone!
CR, Why was Spiderman remade in the first place? how well did the previous films do and do think this remake will do better?
Hi LB,
I’ll get you some figures in a second. The original series did exceptionally well. If I remember right (please don’t quote me) Fox was angry raimi, maguire and dunst weren’t very reiable regarding schedules. Also it could not helped that the third film was panned by many. ….be right back with the figures.
Wait, there was a third one with McQuire?
Absolutely, MAGUIRE did three
Well, well, well. See I didn’t even see the second one.
LOL!!
LOL!! Is the 3rd one where Spiderman becomes a player? This is the one where he does his Saturday Night Fever moves!!! Check it out!!
when you say they are “threatening films” do you mean films that are being discussed to be made/pre-production???
one second….
Spider-Man:
the film earned $39,406,872 on its opening day, averaging $10,901 per theater ($5,524.25 per screen).
Spider-Man 2:
the first film’s opening day record of $39.4 million
Spider-Man 3:
Spider-Man 3 earned $336,530,303 in North America and $554,341,323 in other territories for a worldwide total of $890,871,626.
All from wikipedia
Sorry I did not know where I said that… but I probably meant. Was I talking about DC?
They are promissing films
Sorry I did not know where I said that… but I probably meant. Was I talking about DC?
They are promissing films
LB,
What did you like about spiderman? Did you watch the cartoons or did start with the movies?
You asked me about marvel super heroines once. Did you ever see the Spider woman cartoon?
mmm…I remember the cartoon and have a picture of me at 4 or 5 sitting on Spider Man’s lap. I do remember “Frederick vontrapp” playing Peter Parker…Honestly, what I liked about Spiderman was his ability to climb walls and swing on a web. hahaha!!! I never got into the later films. It seemed to cartoonish for me. Like I said, I like darker. Makes the fantasy a bit more believable as you bring in reality and a sense of danger.
/what about you?
Who is “Frederick vontrapp.”
For some reason I’m thinking about the “Sound of Music.”
U would be correct. I think his name is Nicholas Hammond..
MY GOD,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
NO, you didn’t ……
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
From the TV show…..
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I’m serious, I’m going to check into a local hospital….
That was almost cruel;
Hahaha! Glad I could make u laugh! The only thing I remember was his brown lion’s mane. Hahaha!!
O.K. So I guess you never had a web shooter. Seemed like Garfild may have had one.
Alas, I was deprived as a child. Hahaha! My son likes to pretend he can shoot webs. 🙂
You were not deprived, some other kids had a compulsion to collect things some others thought were junk. Some forms of OCD (wink, wink, OZZIE) create odd infatuations.
Just as trivia Black Widow was a kind of Spiderwoman at her inception. The current movies don’t really portray her that way anymore. She used to swing around etc.
You went to see the Avengers LB, if they collected Spiderman, Wolverine, the Fantastic Four and others in one movie would you go see it?
I honestly would but it would need a production team like The Avengers.
Ok, u may hate me for this, but I always forget Black Widow because I feel her strengthhts were watered down. Yeah she does some karate chop moves, but she didn’t do much to leave a big impression. Having her swing around would be awesome!!!
Oddly, I don’t hear that many people complaint about her big screen makeover. Her “lines” used to come out where her bracelets are. Those bracelets in recent incarnations used to shoot bullets also.
I’m had uses hand guns now because it was distracting wondering when she was going to shoot her hands off.
LB,
I have a theory that Superhero movies have tended to do well because they tend to balance CGI and special effects with plausible science fiction story telling. Do you agree or what would you define as an unbalanced use of CGI?
I agree. Especially when the cgi enhances the action AND the action has an element of realism to it.
I agree. I saw SWATH last night. All very proficient CGI interrupted by an occassional spasm enemic or really poor acting. Other wise it would have made a great effects reel, I was really disappointed.
Of course, this was discussed on another page.
Hi all!
I do love these comic articles, CR! I’m sure there’s a comic book fan girl inside of me that never got the chance to be released. That might be a good thing though because I already have OCD tendencies with books (I was brought up to love books. I love books so much that I try to read them without making dents on the spines so they stay looking brand new). In fact, I’d probably make the full transformation into Gollum if I did collect comics! I’m just joking, I don’t stroke books and call them my precious. Nope, I don’t do that at all… 🙂
Glad to hear it Ozzie, (sort of) please don’t call books “your precious.”
I never relived how fantasy deprived I was until I started spending time on the site. Now I see how stories that did not always find themselves delivered by way of pulp fiction really seem best situated in books.
Did either of you like picture books as children?
I still do! Picture books are great and u can make up ur own version to a story if u haven’t learned to read yet.
Despite having many Batman movies, iron man films, x-men, etc…I feel like super hero movies are still just at the beginning stages at the box office. Meaning: there are many, many more to come! 🙂
CR,
I need.to go for the evening but thank you for a great discussion. 🙂 I will come back,with more questions.
Sorry, I will miss you. Thanks for coming.
One of my peeves for writing the article was the first series occurred so long ago, that now they are exploring story line only rarly discussed in the original movies.
– Gwen Stacy
– peter’s parents?
– return of the mechanical webshooters versus the organic ones of the first movie
Sorry;
I’m even making double posts. So I should sign off. Thanks everyone for coming.
Talk to to you later Ozzie.
THIS is what I remember. Wow, I forgot how groovy the soundtrack was. That alone is all kinds of awesomeness!
I agree. What is that…some disco/jazz concoction. 🙂
1. What’s the story behind the SOS glow in the dark eyes?
2. I”m sure glad SM knows how to use a fire extinguisher. I’m sure the guy who works in a lab who SHOULD KNOW HOW TO USE ONE FOR SUCH CASES is glad he does too. 🙂
The following month, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Fiege stated he would introduce more characters into The Avengers and that the Hulk would factor in the film.
They certainly tried hard back then. Thanks LB.