Ant-Man Movie Update

Writer/director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim, Hot Fuzz) talked briefly with Box Office Magazine about his big screen adaptation of Marvel’s Ant-Man which has been long in development. Wright says he hasn’t yet started writing a second draft of the script, and won’t be able to until September. He also talks about his vision for the film. Read his comments after the jump.

I haven’t actually started the second draft yet–I’m not going to be able to until this film [Scott Pilgrim] is out–but what we wrote for the first draft, and what Marvel really liked, is that it’s funny, but it’s a genre film. It’s about the level of comedy that Iron Man has. The idea is to make a high-concept genre film where it’s within another genre. His suit and its power is the big gadget and it takes place in the real world. I just wanted to do something that was slightly different than the superhero origin film. I felt that between that and the various mad scientist, crazy doctor films that we’ve all seen, this would be a way into an origin that was slightly different. I’m not really a multi-tasker–I haven’t done anything since Marvel liked our first draft.

I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about Wright’s first draft. I’ve even heard that Marvel wants to push the project into production as soon as Wright becomes available. Read more from Wright, including why Nick Frost and Simon Pegg weren’t given roles in Scott Pilgrim, in Box Office Magazine.

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Marvel Comics Launches Television Division

Everything eventually loses steam, and I can’t help but wonder when Marvel will start to see greatly diminishing returns. There have been nearly a dozen feature films in the past ten years, Disney invested $4 billion to ensure we’d get more, and now comes news that the comic book titan will invade your TV.

The Hollywood Reporter says Marvel Television is the company’s latest venture, one no doubt sparked by the recent Disney agreement, so in tune with vertically integrating everything is the House of Mouse. In fact, a few weeks ago, it was announced that Marvel characters would have a permanent home in the Disney theme parks, which shouldn’t come as any great shock.

My initial thought was all the old Marvel cartoons and even the made-for-DVD animation we’ve seen recently, but apparently, live-action series are being discussed. And here’s where Marvel might find it has too much of a good thing.

Jeph Loeb, who used to executive produce Heroes, is running Marvel Television, and that kind of makes sense. He know TV, and even though he’s never written for Marvel and the company likes to elevate writers it’s familiar with, Heroes certainly paid an homage to superheroes, particularly X-Men. However, some early fans of Heroes don’t have many kind words to say about Loeb, so this announcement may not please them very much.

The interesting decision Disney has to make here is what characters go where. Obviously, Fox, Sony, and Paramount are bleeding dry the Spider-Man, X-Men, and Avengers universes. Do we develop shows based on characters that are really under the radar or does Disney kind of pull back on Marvel’s full-scale theatrical assault and save some of the good characters for the small screen?

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Marvel Digital Comics - Free Mondays (3/15/2010)

Welcome to FREE Mondays! Each week we focus on all of the newly digitized books you can read for FREE inside the greatest collection of Marvel comics available online: Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited! Plus, we’ll let you know what’s coming up next week for FREE, too! With each book, not only are you getting a free peek inside Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, but each free Digital Comic either gives you a look at a book featured in a recent collection or a comic that’s in stores now.

How would you like to have five free digital comics to help get you through the school and work week? Here ya go!

SPIDER-MAN: LEGEND OF THE SPIDER CLAN #1
SPIDER-MAN: LEGEND OF THE SPIDER CLAN #2
SPIDER-MAN: LEGEND OF THE SPIDER CLAN #3
SPIDER-MAN: LEGEND OF THE SPIDER CLAN #4
SPIDER-MAN: LEGEND OF THE SPIDER CLAN #5

Find out what next week’s five free digital comics will be below!

ULTIMATE X-MEN #63
ULTIMATE X-MEN #67
ULTIMATE X-MEN #68
ULTIMATE X-MEN #69
ULTIMATE X-MEN #70

‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Releases Issue #600

“The Amazing Spider-Man” hit another milestone this week-the publication of its 600th issue.

As a celebration, the issue features the return of Doctor Octopus, a guest spot by Daredevil, a wedding and the return of Mary Jane Watson.   In addition, there are several short stories by some of the iconic writers for everyone’s favorite web-slinger, including a new story by Stan Lee.

This milestone in the making will feature four different covers by father and son artists John Romita Sr, John Romita Jr, master painter Alex Ross and Marvel Editor in Chief, Joe Quesada.

The issue weighs in at 104 pages and is currently available at a comic store near you.

Diablo Creator To Lead Marvel MMO Development

We’re not ones to assume that past performance is a definitive indicator of future output, especially in the games industry (Voltition goes from Saint’s Row to the radical Red Faction: Guerrilla? Who saw that coming?). But we can’t help but be encouraged by the news that former Blizzard North boss and Diablo creator David Brevik has joined Gazillion to lead development on the Marvel Universe MMO.

We’re more excited about the hire because we hope it indicates the title’s gameplay direction. A more action-influenced MMO take on the world of Marvel sounds like it’s been bitten by radioactive awesome.

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Spider-Woman ‘Motion Comic’ Trailer Debuts

Spider-Woman is a bit of a complex character.  It also seems people either like her or don’t.  The same can be said about the Motion Comics.  I understand as much as anyone that having a hard physical comic is a tradition that would be hard to give up.  But I do like the idea of motion comics.  I’m not advocating for the medium to switch over (although with the rising cost of paper, it could be a cheaper solution).

I see motion comics as another way to enjoy something we all love.  It’s basically an enhanced version of a comic book.  What I like about them is you can often see the time and effort that is put into the production of them.

For example, check out this trailer for the Spider-Woman Motion Comic.  If I remember correctly, it will be available in printed form eventually.  The only way to see it for now will be in motion form.  It’s by Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev.  The first episode is set to premiere at San Diego Comic-Con.

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Marvel Comics Brings Back Foil Covers

In a blast from the 90s, Marvel will release variant editions of its new Ultimate Comics titles with “Foilogram” covers, combining foil and holograms. According to Marvel SVP-Sales and Circulation David Gabriel, the move was made in response to fans “who’ve been demanding this kind of variant.” He said use of the Foilogram covers would be limited to “very special occasions.”

The covers will appear on variant editions of three titles shipping in August and September: Ultimate Comics Avengers #1, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, and Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #1.

Foil cover editions were pioneered by Valiant Comics in the early 90s, and for a time they stimulated sales, but later fell into disrepute from over-use.

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Stan Lee’s ‘Iron Man 2′ Cameo Revealed

There have been a few interesting casting choices for Iron Man 2. Forget about the three-headed hydra of villainy comprised of Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Scarlett Johansson, and for the moment, don’t even consider the decision to dump Terrence Howard as Rhodey and replace him with Don Cheadle.

While those are all worthy of the many headlines they’ve received, consider, for a moment, the smaller roles: Garry Shandling as a senator, the hot-as-blazes geek girl Olivia Munn as a player to be named later, and now Stan Lee.

Yes, Stan the Man is a common sight in these Marvel movies; he appeared as Hugh Hefner in the first movie. But now he’s throwing on the suspenders and portraying Larry King.

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Is J. Michael Straczynski leaving Thor?

By the beard of Odin! Can this be true?!

Comixtreme has reported that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski will be concluding his epic run of Thor in September, with Thor: Defining Moments Giant-Size #1.

This book was not in last week’s previews, but Comixtreme says that this new solicit — which will be in July’s issue of Previews — declares that Defining Moments will be Straczynski’s bow from the series.

This may signal a shift for Straczynski, who ended his exclusive contract with Marvel in February of 2008 to pursue some writing opportunities with DC Comics. Thor, while critically acclaimed by many, has also been a perennially late title, so a creative shift may put the book on a more frequent schedule.

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Captain America Coverage - Mainstream Media

After the New York Daily News broke the Return of Captain America story yesterday morning other media outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, and CNN quickly picked up on the coverage.

Although the original Daily News story did not mention the tie-in between the Captain America: Reborn mini-series and Captain America #600, which went on sale on Monday, both the New York Times story (by George Gene Gustines) and the CNN Report (by Chris Kokenes) did mention Captain America #600.

Conan O’Brien on The Tonight Show added an economic perspective to the story, quipping: “It’s been reported that Marvel Comics is getting set to bring back Captain America. They’re going to do this as soon as they get a loan from Captain China.”

Here’s a list of other media outlets that have picked up the story:

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