What's Next For Superhero Movies?

New submitter Faizdog writes "The Atlantic has a very interesting article on what's next for superhero movies after The Dark Knight Rises leaves theaters. DC in particular doesn't seem to have a good pipeline of readily available heroes to create movies around. The article discusses the challenges surrounding the upcoming Man of Steel movie, as well as how the circumstances around the successful Spiderman reboot may not necessarily translate to a Batman reboot. The author also mentions the necessity and viability of the comic book print medium continuing on in light of the film successes, especially in terms of revenue (the Avengers movie alone made more profit for Marvel than all comic book sales for the last two years). The article concludes with an interesting suggestion that television may be the ideal medium for comic book adaptations, as it may permit a richer and more complex story telling experience than a two-hour movie."

Comments

write a new story?

[notgm]

or has that been done before?

Re:write a new story?

[Black Parrot]

or has that been done before?

Once.

Re:write a new story?

[cayenne8]

Why don't they just keep doing more Batman movies in the same vein as the current one?

It seems well done....characters good, etc. Even if the same director wants to quit, couldn't someone else take over the reigns, but keep the same basic 'flavor' of the current movies.

I don't like this having to 'reboot' every fucking 3-4 movies. I could understand it for the Star Trek movie....and it was done well. I've not seen the new Spiderman yet, but I'm confused for the need to do the 'origin' all over again....and start over. Sure I know new actors, but you don't start the story all over again, just because you have new actors.

Hell, if they did that...James Bond movies would have been only an endless chain of origin movies....I think the audience can handle different actors playing the characters, but we don't need everything around the character to keep changing every 2-3 movies....leave the basic background story going forward and just change cast.

Re:write a new story?

[jxander]

Not just that, but DC absolutely FAILS at utilizing any of their IP not-named-Batman

Superman did well back in the Christopher Reeve days, but now it's being rebooted for the second time in short order. Green Lantern? Garbage movie. Wonder Woman? Probably the most popular female in all comics... no movie to speak of. Maybe it's all the BDSM from the source material. The Flash? Nope. Robin/Nightwing? Nope.

Sure, Marvel has more options, but DC isn't using the options it has. Before Robert Downey Jr got involved, was Iron Man any more popular than Flash? Was Black Widow a bigger name than Wonder Woman?

Re:write a new story?

[JMJimmy]

It's more than likely they reboot for contract issues. "Amazing Spiderman" is not "Spider-man" so they don't have to honour contracts/buy out individuals who have a stake in the series. Given that specific example, Tobey Maguire had signed a deal for Spider-man 4 & 5 but the director didn't like the direction it was taking or the actor so they scrapped Spider-man 4 & 5 and rebooted under the new title.

Re:write a new story?

[BillCable]

You really have to admire Marvel for how well they've handled their movie franchises the past decade, especially the Avengers arc. It's hard not to be in awe of what transpired to bring The Avengers to fruition. They made smart choices which eventually paid off handsomely. DC, outside the Nolan films, has botched everything. Warner Bros. just doesn't trust creative people to handle the material.

Re:write a new story?

[Unordained]

Wonder Woman? Probably the most popular female in all comics... no movie to speak of. Maybe it's all the BDSM from the source material.

My interest in Wonder Woman just went up.

Re:write a new story?

[kamapuaa]

The vast majority of movies that are created aren't based on pre-existing content. However, the movies people actually care about and go watch generally are. For instance, if you look at Slashdot's "Movie" tags, it's entirely comic books and Star Trek and Star Wars. Not much on "The Queen Of Versailles" or "The Imposter" although these are both supposed to be excellent movies.

Nothing wrong with that, but it's bizarre to complain that you want to see original content, and then not go see the original content that is easily available.

Re:write a new story?

[jxander]

One reason I don't see addressed below : Licensing rights.

Marvel Studios sold off the rights to the Spiderman movies to Sony back in the late 90s (before Marvel had their own movie production studio) with a "Use it or lose it" clause. Basically, Sony has to keep the franchise active, or control reverts back to Marvel. And Sony really doesn't want that, especially with what I'm going to outline below. So in the meantime, Sony grabs up some cheaper actors*, particularly in the lead role, a no-name director who won't give any lip, and churns out this quick flick to make sure they get to keep their rights.

Consider what Marvel Studios has been up to recently, and that's been in the public eye since Iron Man 1 back in '08. Also remember the minor spoiler cameo during the credits of Avengers. In the comics, that particular villain sparked a multi-series cross over, bringing together Avengers, a few XMen, Spiderman, 75% of the Fantastic Four. With all that in your mind, is there any doubt that Sony wants to make extra sure they keep complete control over Spiderman's movie rights? Marvel's probably going to want him back pretty soon, and Sony will require a LOT of money to negotiate the return of rights. They're certainly not going to let the rights lapse, and they're probably not going to spend a lot of money or effort on a franchise that they're planning on selling.

*I dig Emma Stone as much as the next guy, but a big-name star she isn't. Likewise Martin Sheen and Sally Field are a bit past their prime, and certainly aren't too expensive for background roles. Denis Leary is somewhat recognizable for the Fireman show, but the other 80% of his work in the past decade has been Ice Age and it's runty offshoots. It's like Sony was aiming for recognizable names, to help sell it, but not TOO recognizable, because we don't want to pay them too much.

Live Action Dilbert

[Spiflicator]

I think Drew Carey would be excellent.

Re:Live Action Dilbert

[sootman]

Nah, it'd be too depressing. I live a live-action Dilbert. :-)

Marvel's on it

[Black Parrot]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe

And I'm not even a comic fan. Who was this article written for?

No mention of TV?

[JDG1980]

Interesting that the article suggests movies possibly superseding the original comics, but doesn't even mention TV series based around these characters, despite the popular and critical success of many such series. Batman: The Animated Series almost single-handedly pulled animation out of its 1980s kiddie ghetto.

Re:No mention of TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed, and I agree with the conclusion of the summery that "television may be the ideal medium for comic book adaptations", as B:TAS is probably the best adaptation of Batman in any medium outside of the comics. Further, I'd say that it was better than many periods of the Batman comics.

I guess it all comes down to who is in charge and how faithful they want to stay to the source material and create stories from there.

Re:No mention of TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Go watch the Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited animated series that followed those two. They were done by the same guys and were phenomenal. The first season of JLU might well have been the high point of the DC universe in any incarnation--comics, animated, or live action. They pulled out almost every minor superhero DC ever created, gave them each their own shining moment, and tied everything together through a season-long arc that was just an awesome piece of storytelling.

Whoever that guy is who's writing the Justice League movie script had better be studying those shows religiously.

Re:Akira reboot?

[GameboyRMH]

Ohhoho, hoho, no.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-actual-live-action-akira-script-worse-than-you-think/

Disney's Answer

[Anonymous Coward]

Disney's already working on the John Carter sequel - CowboyNeal of Uranus

They will wreck it.

[khasim]

Neil Gaiman talked about it at one of his readings.
Hollywood so far as not been able to wrap its head around the concept of a single character who delivers good dreams AND nightmares.

So the scripts he sees keep having a "bad" Sandman character in addition to Morpheus. The "bad" Sandman only delivers nightmares.

Fuck Hollywood is stupid.

TV Series! (Get good writers)

[nine-times]

I'm in favor of the idea of an ongoing TV series. Heavy super-powers may drain budgets, but I think something like Batman could be done in a way that would make an excellent TV series, especially if it could get a budget approaching what Game of Thrones has. Ultimately, these characters and storylines were developed for an episodic medium, and I think you could get even better results putting them into another episodic medium rather than making a couple of big movies.

Of course, budget is only have the problem. You also need talented writers who can deal with the cultural relevance of some of these characters. I think getting good writers might be the most difficult part. I would be fine with some more high-quality animated work if they could get good writers.

Wasn't there a time when...

[ilsaloving]

I have this vague distant memory of when comics were celebrated for bursting with imagination and exploring all sorts of important social issues (racism, sexism, various other isms). With complex twisting plots

While movies, by their nature, can't get that intricate, studios seem to think that people want nothing more than brainless Bay-esque explosion festivals. Then once in a while they accidentally spit out something like Avengers (Can't comment on batman since I haven't seen it yet) where they have something resembling a plot and depth of characters. Yet can't bring themselves to accept that people are tired of the same old Hollywood cliches and want something genuinely new and interesting. Something that tugs on your emotions and somehow pulls you in so deeply that you actually care about the characters as if they were actual living beings.

Here's a hint hollywood... I saw Avengers SOLELY because it was written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is the first movie I have seen in theatre in years, and it's the first movie I have EVER seen where I can honestly say that I would happily fork over money to watch it in theatre again. Why? Because despite Avengers being another comic regurgitation, he still managed to do the above.

Can we have that back again? Please?

Re:The change of pace

[Black Parrot]

It's impossible to make a good movie from a video game.

The studios aren't interested in good; they're interested in how many people will pay to see it.