Marvel ratchets up slate of films

Movies News

By M&C News Apr 28, 2006, 12:43 GMT

Marvel Studios is gearing up for a full slate of live-action features over the course of the next couple of years. Marvel Comic's Iron Man

Marvel Comic's Iron ManWith a new $525 million fund set up by Merrill Lynch in their pocket, the Studio has begun to announce a slate of films along with directing and writing deals. Budgets of the projects are said to be between $50 million and $150 million.High on their slate is ‘Iron Man’ which will be distributed by Paramount sometime in 2008. The Studio has set Jon Favreau to helm the comic come to life story of Tony Stark, a billionaire who has an accident and must create a suit of armor to save his life.Writing duo Arthur Marcum and Matt Hollaway will work on new screenplay.The project languished at New Line for several years and finally Marvel took it back last year.Also announced in development was a new Hulk project, now being referred to as ‘Incredible Hulk’. Zak Penn is working on script.While Paramount will release all future Marvel pics, Universal has rights on the Hulk product.Marvel chairman and pic producer Avi Arad is reported as saying the new Hulk pic will have a smaller budget and be less sophisticated. “There’s something very primal about the Hulk that we didn’t get in the movie,” said Arad.Other planned features include ‘Ant Man’, to be directed by Edgar Wright. Looked at as a rather absurd super-hero – his power is to control ants – movie may take a comedic path.Joining Wright as co-writer will be Joe Cornish.‘Capitan America’ is in the line up with writer David Self (‘Road to Perdition’) set to pen script.Mark Protosevich who wrote the soon to be released ‘Poseidon’ will pen script on ‘Thor’.And last but not least Andrew Marlowe (‘Air Force One’) will work on screenplay for ‘Nick Fury’ - Marvel’s military spy."We are incredibly excited to be able to attract some of Hollywood's top talent to help Marvel launch the first wave of our independently-produced film slate. These screenwriters and directors are at the top of their game, and each brings a unique passion for the individual characters and projects they will be working on. Our goal is to combine great characters with exciting action, and we've assembled a team who will do just that," said Mr. Arad. "In fact, some of these writers have already helped us create major Hollywood blockbuster franchises like 'Fantastic Four' and 'X-Men'. With our independent slate, we look forward to delivering to movie-goers the same type of high-action, gripping entertainment they have grown accustomed to with the Marvel brand."