Earlier today, ComingSoon.net/SuperHeroHype had a chance to talk to Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige about the upcoming release of Iron Man 2 on May 7 and other things related to what’s been dubbed the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” It was a really good interview that we want to keep fairly intact to run next week, but we have a few things to share as a tease for it.
We were particularly curious about the status of Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man. Some may remember that Wright was announced to direct that movie way back in 2006, and he was present at that year’s Comic-Con at the same time as Jon Favreau and Louis Letterier were just getting going on the first Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Four years later, and Marvel’s four-year plan seems to be on track, but there’s been no confirmation that Ant-Man would be Wright’s next priority after finishing up Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, so that was one thing we wanted to ask Marvel Studios’ top man about.
He told us, “Edgar was in L.A. last week, we sat down, and we started working on a calendar of when to get him back into it once he finishes promoting ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ so I think towards the end of this year, early next year we’d start looking at early prep for that, but certainly for a release date after ‘The Avengers.'”
Also we wanted to quickly ask Feige about the rumors on CHUD earlier this week, reported here, about Marvel Studios looking to make lower-budget movies based on some of the other Marvel characters not currently under license to other studios. Feige kept things close to chest and wouldn’t outright confirm or deny, although it certainly seems like a viable option:
“I saw that story the other day, and I was pleased with it,” he replied. “It is something that we’re looking at the ongoing cinematic universe and where to go after ‘Avengers,’ which we look at as a beginning and not an ending. Listen, the truth is that there are thousands and thousands of characters. Can they all be movies? No, but when you go and look again at the first two movies that started this new model era. The first one was ‘Blade,’ which no one knew was a Marvel character and never had his own title, was just an interesting character in ‘Tomb of Dracula.’ And then there was ‘X-Men’ which was the top-selling comic at the time for many, many years, and that was done well. So certainly we’re making a conscious effort of looking at the characters, whether they have marquee value or not, are just interesting stories and can continue to define, which is what I’ve been trying to do, almost coming up on ten years at Marvel, to continue to push the boundaries of what a comic book movie is and a definition of a comic book movie. ”
Look for our full interview with Feige sometime next week, in which he talks about the potential for Marvel movies in 3D and some of those Marvel characters currently under option at the other studios.
