It seems that Marvel may be planning to throw a big curve-ball in the realm of its comic book films that could give some of the "B-Team" of its roster a chance to finally shine in theaters alongside their A-List brethren. According to Latino Review, a trusted source is telling them that the recently-unified Marvel/Disney juggernaut are planning to make a series of 10-minute feature films starring "secondary" Marvel heroes like (by their example,) Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Dr. Strange.
The Marvel Universe of the big screen continues to grow at a rapid rate. While it's been a legacy of mega-hits (Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men,) it's also no stranger to the concept of fail. (Daredevil, Ang Lee's Hulk, and just about any Punisher movie.) The idea of short films was actually discussed a few months ago on CHUD. However, if LR's source is telling the truth, then it could have the potential to change the model by which comic films are released. It could be an excellent opportunity to not only expand the consistent canon of the Marvel Movie Universe that we're finally seeing take shape in the Avengers movies, but it could also be a helpful way for the studio to gauge the ever-changing moods and tastes of the movie-going audience. If you're a studio who's not willing to risk $150 million to find out if people would pay to see -- let's say, Moon Knight at theaters, then a far less risky $20-40 million venture of a 10-minute short would seem like a great compromise between a money-making project and fanboy placation.
While this is still very much just a rumor, it actually makes the field of comic films a potentially more lively place where the possibilities are nearly endless. The thought of going to the theater to catch not only a feature, but the latest "Marvel Short" evokes a very old-school kind of feel to a time (long before my time, I might add,) when a trip to the theater was an event filled with original short films and cartoons rather than just the same old trailers we see online and on TV. They're always talking about revving-up the movie industry, well this would be a nice start!
Source: Latino Review
Comments
Displaying 1–12 of 12
greenboom
Cable and Deadpool.
j31578
Theaters would not use valuable screen time for short films. These would be released with other Marvel films if any film at all. Other than that, they'd pop up on cable networks somewhere. And speaking of, Luke Cage would be an awesome TV series, like on Spike. They could make it real cost effective and not lose the essence of the show.
SSGDunigan
That's actually a pretty solid marketing idea. It worked for the Cartoon Network's original Clone Wars five minute episodes that aired a few years ago. Fans set up Tivos, VCRs and whatever else they could to record those little episodes. There's no reason Marvel couldn't do the same for all their heroes, especially if they were to make a large, over-arcing background story like they have for many years with mini-series like Secret Wars. Those mini-series crossed over into the main storylines of their other comic publications and had effects within those stories. Venom is a direct result of the Secret Wars back in the 80s. I could see a model where s chapter would take place in, say, a short dedicated to Black Widow and would continue in a short starring Captain America. In order to see the concurrent chapters, you'd have to go see the full length movies they were released with. The downside is that this would artificially inflate the sales records of movies because fanboys would go to see the short films yet not stick around to see the movies they were released with. Sort of like Meet Joe Black, where ticket sales were inflated because of (I think) one of the Star Wars prequel trailers. If I recall correctly, Star Wars fans who couldn't give a squat about Meet Joe Black, paid money for the full film just to see the trailer and then walked out when Joe Black actually started.
Halbard
I hope that an Iron Fist movie would come out sometime, I wouldn't be to upset seeing it as a short to potentially move to a full length one. Also if Ray Park starred :D
But this could be a cool way to say, make a short, and that be a prolog to a larger film?
Hope it's true, shows a rare glimpse of innovation and forethought
orange_shirt_guy
This actually sounds pretty cool. I think that making them animated would be better then live action though. Also would they be compiled together? Would they play like 6-8 back to back or just one at a time? If it was just one at a time the tickets had better be cheaper then a full length film. Not sure if I would want to drive to a theater to watch 5-7 minutes of trailers and then just a 10 minute film. It defiantly shows potential, but could also be a major fail whale...
rugggg
In my honest opinion, my biggest gripe with Hollywood is the amount of money that these actors want to get paid for doing these rolls. Like why would you get paid 20 million if the movie only made 15? lol. Spit like that is what cracks me up, I'm hoping they come out with those deadpool, magneto (and I forgot who else) origin movies like they said they were going to.
blackdisney
Funny how non white Marvel characters get a whole 2 hours.Marvel never tries to make those characters like Dr.Strange,Black Panther,Powerfist and Luke Cage more appealing. Im sure they had several oppotunities i mean decades to make the characters more appealing than to be the weak background characters they are. 10 minute short film is a croc of s@@@. at least 30 minutes each wouldnt hurt to maybe get to know more of the characters. If people like the characters they mite make a 2 hour movie after this happens.
bedrockk
not only do i think its a great idea, i believe they could do it very well and at much less than $20 million - just look at what a jaw dropper the recent Mortal Konbat short film was and that was just to tease a network to pick up the idea!!
rodwoo
Who decides which marvel films are failures? How much money they made? The new Incredible Hulk brought in no more than Ang Lee's Hulk. I know he took a lot of liberties with the story and it was too long, but there were some cool hulk moments in it. I do like the Incredible Hulk story better and Hulk's design too.
meh_siah
I heard about Marvel/Disney making films with these same characters with non-blockbuster budgets in mind. This is the first I've heard of them being made as shorts. I'm on board. I hope they make the shorts fit together in some way, Iron Fist, Powerman, Moon Knight and Dr Strange (deserves feature, imo) would be awesome! Marvel team up movie would be super as well.
tajlund
http://www.dailymotion.com/vid eo/xdpig1_city-of-scars_shortf ilms
Here's an example of how this could work.
DreamingDarklyRobin
The Spider-man reboot should be 10 minutes.
Displaying 1–12 of 12
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