Happy Cinco. It's time for everyone to bee-line to your nearest Mexican Restaurant and drink margaritas on the outdoor patio. As far as I know, that's what this holiday means to Americans and apparently that's all they need because the stature of Cinco continues to grow in the pantheon of holidays. Most of what I had for you was WSF related, but let's start it with a gigantic rant of nerd talk because that's what I do.
Superhero Overload
Amazing Spider-Man 2 hit theaters this weekend. Did you see it? I did not. ...Yeah, you heard me. The comic book geek and ultimate Marvel homer didn't go. Sorry. I just can't get excited about it. In my opinion that apathy could grow in the next 3-4 years. And believe it or not, if the superhero movie dies... Marvel killed it.
See, the problem is Sony and Fox own the rights to some of Marvel's biggest names and they are going to continue squeezing bad movies out of those properties in order to keep them. That's the way the contracts work. You make a new movie with the character within X years of the last one, or the rights revert to Marvel. But, by and large, they don't know how to make the most of what they've got. Marvel Studios has unprecedented success because they've been telling great stories with these characters for 50 years. They know what works and they don't feel the need to reinvent the wheel or let some ego driven director change the core of the character.
The even BIGGER problem is that all of these studios want their Avengers now. The cash-cow, the payday, the goldmine, etc, etc. So they're going to stretch their one property into an entire "universe" with the C-list characters that come along with guys like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. What should be a group of supporting characters are now going to be headlining major motion pictures. Even to the extent that Sony is going to give Spider-Man's villains their own film. Make that two films. The Sinister Six and Venom. ...What? Fox is going to stretch out their mutants as wide and as thin as they can with teams like X-Force and they'll eventually bring them together with the Fantastic Four's universe.
Warner Brothers is the only studio that actually has a chance to build something similar to Marvel because they own all the DC characters under one umbrella. That's exactly what they plan to do. But, unfortunately, they aren't structured like Marvel. Warner Brothers doesn't have a creative committee from the publishing side and a strong guide like Kevin Feige steering their ship. Leaders come and go. Right now they have Zack Snyder. We get Superman and Batman next, which sets up their Justice League movie and Snyder is already attached to direct that as well. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and those are just the names we know of so far. Do you see what I'm saying? It's all going to be a mess. (The DC movies will probably be fair to decent. Maybe. But it's the quantity that kills.)
In my opinion, the majority of these movies are going to be Green Lantern level messes. The superhero film movement can survive a Green Lantern or X-Men Origins now and then... but not this. This is going to be an absolute overload of garbage and fans like myself are going to pay the price. Why? Because this might be bad enough to take Marvel Studios down with the rest. Even if they could keep making good movies in the midst of the schlock and possibly stay afloat, they're going to start losing all their heavy hitters right at the time that this perfect storm hits squall. Downey, Evans, Hemsworth... they are all going to want to move on sooner rather than later. In fact, RDJ and Chris Evans have already said as much. Will people want to watch their replacements? Are they going to be as excited about a Winter Soldier-is-the-New-Captain-America movie? Are they willing to take the leap of a new Tony Stark (who would even want to attempt to fill those shoes)? Are they going to fall in love with Phase 3 characters like Ant Man and Dr. Strange? Who knows.
All I'm saying is that I'm scared for the future of superhero movies. When Marvel sold off their biggest properties years ago, they handed Fox and Sony a knife and when Avengers made a billion dollars, they taught them how to use it.
WSF Notes
- We enter a new season of productivity and creation at WSF headquarters this month.
- I'm currently editing two projects for friends, but Space Cops eps are still coming and they are amazing.
- I've typed up half of a Bizarnival 2 script on an amazing piece of free scriptwriting software. I'll tell you about it in a post soon.
- We have no less than four or five short films in some stage of pre-production right now.
I hope to bring you an Indie Wednesday this week as well as a breakdown of Agents of SHIELD; only two episodes to go for the season. Keep checking in, friends.