Marvel Universe (Thar be spoilers ahead.)

[UnSub]

I'm sure they've constantly got a lot of stuff in "early development". That phrase is so vague it could just mean that they have one guy scribbling ideas down in a notebook.

This.

And media / comic websites are just so happy to run any story that gets them clicks.

[jgsugden]

I'm sure they've constantly got a lot of stuff in "early development". That phrase is so vague it could just mean that they have one guy scribbling ideas down in a notebook.

This.

And media / comic websites are just so happy to run any story that gets them clicks.

While I think they have a number of series in similar stages of development, the coverage of this story does note that they've elevated the situation to having someone write a pilot.  That requires a number of substantial steps to have been taken (fleshing out the roles, developing budgets, etc...) and investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  It doesn't mean that we're going to see a series, but if the articles are accurate, they do indicate more than just a passing fancy.

[Merusk]

No, they don't.

The guy who sits next to me at the office has a brother in Hollywood. He's shot 15 different pilots, but only two have seen air time and only a few more than that even made it to the stage they were reviewed as potential series after being shot.  Writing a script is as meaningless as "someone bought the movie rights to <property>."  It's a business and that is just a part of it.

Much more important are the backers, if it's a vehicle for a trend or an actor, or has a producer with enough influence to get it pushed through.  Which all come before quality of the material, as evidenced by the number of shit shows that get aired and cancelled within a few episodes each year.

Someone else around here works directly in the business and can point out with much greater detail why 'writing a script' isn't necessarily an indicator of any serious interest in a project.

[Khaldun]

Pretty much. At least some of these kinds of rumors are also to float trial balloons or promote work they've already got coming out. Say, in this case, for example, to make fans curious about the Agent Carter short if they weren't already. Now that they've established that they do Easter Eggs and have a plan, they can stoke up fan interest at even a hint of a future possibility of an MU character or plotline making its appearance.

[Velorath]

From the original article:

I hear the project is in very early stages, one of several in the works at Marvel, and is in the process of locking in a writer. It is unclear if Atwell would reprise her role if Agent Carter comes to fruition.

So assuming any of this is true, they don't even have a writer nailed down to write the script for the pilot yet, it's one of many projects they're working on, and they don't even know if the same actress would play the character.

There was talk of Guillermo del Toro doing a Hulk TV show for a couple years, and then it was just put on hold. At the same time, AKA Jessica Jones was being worked on, then ABC mentioned a couple years later they passed on it, then the person who was doing the writing said earlier this year that she hoped it might end up on cable. These are projects that were officially announced that they were in the works (rather than just rumored), had fairly big names attached to them and 2-3 years later it was mentioned that they were put on hold (along with a number of other projects). Even if the Agent Carter thing is real, you're looking at potentially years before anything actually happens with it.

[HaemishM]

Someone else around here works directly in the business and can point out with much greater detail why 'writing a script' isn't necessarily an indicator of any serious interest in a project.

Not just the writing of a script, but the selling of a script means fuckall to whether it actually gets made into a movie. I had a guy approach me recently about purchasing the option to write a screenplay for my first novel - which would have netted me some money had he done it but peanuts compared to what he would have made by selling the screenplay. And even if he'd gotten far enough to sell it, that's no guarantee on it being made into anything. For every movie released, there's probably a thousand scripts sitting on someone's desk that someone paid for.

[jgsugden]

No, they don't.

The guy who sits next to me at the office has a brother in Hollywood. He's shot 15 different pilots, but only two have seen air time and only a few more than that even made it to the stage they were reviewed as potential series after being shot.  Writing a script is as meaningless as "someone bought the movie rights to <property>."  It's a business and that is just a part of it.

It is business.  And business is expensive.  What took place before those scripts were written, before the properties were purchased, etc...?  A lot of analysis and paper pushing.  And that shit is expensive. 

By the time Agent Carter goes to pilot script, they've had people in development, legal, accounting, and a variety of other areas massaging the situation.  All along the path they had to repeatedly make the decision: Continue to proceed or cut our losses and let it die.  The payment that goes to the writer is a small part of the entire cost.  For a project to get to that point, the studio has devoted a lot of resources.

This is obviously quite different in situations where someone is shopping a script.  However, that is not what we're dealing with in these Marvel projects.  Marvel is driving this train and they've spent a lot of time on the issue before this pilot gets written.

[Simond]

I had actually heard of Iron Man prior to the film, and Iron Man is a somewhat relatable character (relative to all these other characters). I wiki'd some of these characters and the description of Thanos reads like the sort of thing a six year old would write in a fit of sugar-addled excitement.

I'm entirely ready to be proven wrong when Guardians of The Galaxy breaks box office record and such.

Psst. Thanos was in the first Avengers film.

[Ironwood]

In much the same way as Blonde American Waitress was in the film, yes.

 

[K9]

I had actually heard of Iron Man prior to the film, and Iron Man is a somewhat relatable character (relative to all these other characters). I wiki'd some of these characters and the description of Thanos reads like the sort of thing a six year old would write in a fit of sugar-addled excitement.

I'm entirely ready to be proven wrong when Guardians of The Galaxy breaks box office record and such.

Psst. Thanos was in the first Avengers film.

No he wasn't. The cocktease segments after 15minutes of credits do not count as 'in the film'; by that point I've already taken a piss and cycled halfway home from the cinema.

[Evildrider]

So I was thinking.  With the Age of Ultron teaser finally released it brought something to mind.  What if Ultron is actually a corrupted form of JARVIS left over from the destroyed suits in Iron Man 3?  I mean the suits probably weren't all totally destroyed and there were enough for something to be cobbled together.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Welcome to five pages ago.

[sickrubik]

So I was thinking.  With the Age of Ultron teaser finally released it brought something to mind.  What if Ultron is actually a corrupted form of JARVIS left over from the destroyed suits in Iron Man 3?  I mean the suits probably weren't all totally destroyed and there were enough for something to be cobbled together.

The "teaser' isn't released. That's a clever capture from SDCC cleaned up a bit. Notice the crowd noise at the end, the relative hallowness of hte audio and how INCREDIBLY DARK the entire thing is.

[jgsugden]

[Trippy]

Cap stuff moved to:

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=23756.0

[Evildrider]

Ant-man rumors going round is that Paul Rudd is in the lead as Hank Pym and Rashida Jones as Janet Van Dyne.  I actually don't have a problem with this considering this is supposed to be a more comedic film than the other movies.

[Margalis]

Rashida Jones as Wasp is pretty inspired casting.

Paul Rudd I'm not a fan of and he doesn't strike me as right for the part either. Hank Pym is a pretty messed-up dude, need someone that can hint at being messed-up under the surface.

[Evildrider]

I have a feeling that Marvel really isn't going to go into wife-beating asshole Hank Pym.  I think there are too many kids that love the Marvel movies that they wouldn't ever go that dark.

[Velorath]

Checking the source on the Paul Rudd rumor, the story is from back in February and consists of "He was hanging out with Ruffalo and Evans at the Oscars, and Edgar Wright tweeted about him once".

[Evildrider]

There have been more recent rumors and somewhat of a confirmation.  Even AICN is commenting on it.

[Velorath]

AICN also jumped on the Planet Hulk rumor bandwagon until it got debunked. Hey, maybe the Paul Rudd thing will happen but AICN commenting on it doesn't do anything to remove my skepticism.

Edit: Which apparently brings us full circle to the start of this thread.

[Khaldun]

Yes. That zine has actually reported a lot of stuff that not only hasn't happened, but appears never ever had a chance of happening. I think a lot of this kind of early rumor-milling is basically fans making lots fan-informed guesses, calling them "rumors", and occasionally getting close by the luck of the draw.

[UnSub]

Also don't discount an actor interested in a part trying to build up his chances of getting the role by leaking rumours to selected sources. Getting a lead role in a Marvel film doesn't necessarily have a great payday for the actor (at least on their first contract) but it is great for profile building.

[Tannhauser]

Pardon the slight cross-post, but is the Ultimates universe being cancelled?  And why is the main universe called 616?  The wiki didn't explain.  The cinematic universe is 19999 I think, just wondering if these numbers have any meaning.  Lastly, the MCU is based off the Ultimates universe correct?

[Velorath]

Pardon the slight cross-post, but is the Ultimates universe being cancelled?  And why is the main universe called 616?  The wiki didn't explain.  The cinematic universe is 19999 I think, just wondering if these numbers have any meaning.  Lastly, the MCU is based off the Ultimates universe correct?

Captain Britain (and then Excalibur later) stories involved a lot of dimensional travel and also introduced the Captain Britain Corps who were tasked with protecting all of reality more or less. Presumably to more easily keep track of which reality is which, each one was given a number, and since each member of the Corps was a version of Captain Britain the numbers were used to differentiate the various members of the Corps.

As far as I know, it's unknown what the post-Cataclysm state of the Ultimate Universe will be. And parts of the movie Universe are based off the Ultimates universe, parts are based of the regular universe, and parts are made up specifically for the movies.

[Khaldun]

Essentially, yeah, they're closing the Ultimates universe down, bringing the Miles Morales Spider-Man to the main MU, but they've also been steathily redoing the "main" MU so that it is more like the Ultimates universe (and thus more like the movies)--Samuel Jackson Nick Fury, Cap is way more like the Ultimate/Movie Cap, etc.

[Teleku]

The ultimate universe really bums me out.  I really liked almost all of the Ultimate universe versions of the various comic lines very much for their first few years.  I'd say the first 5'ish years or so of the Ultimate universe was really really good (or at least way the fuck better than what the main universe had become).  Then they started doing the same shit to it that corrupted the main universe (which is what they had initially said they specifically created the Ultimate universe to get around!!!!1).  The whole thing started going to shit, then they decided to kill it in an orgy of bad plot and horrible writing.  Cataclysm indeed.

Just, gah.  Its amazing how much Marvel can swing between greatness and complete stupidity.

[Fordel]

It's just what happens when you have what, 60 years of continuity?

[Nevermore]

At least Marvel hasn't completely ruined their continuity like DC has many times over.

[Velorath]

but they've also been steathily redoing the "main" MU so that it is more like the Ultimates universe (and thus more like the movies)--Samuel Jackson Nick Fury, Cap is way more like the Ultimate/Movie Cap, etc.

I think most of the movies' resemblance to the Ultimate Universe is superficial aside from the Nick Fury thing. The Ultimates generally had a much darker and more cynical tone than anything the movies have gone for.

[Khaldun]

Yes. But there's some character notes from Ultimates that they've definitely borrowed, and they've also gone for that more 'real' sort of feeling that the early Ultimates books had (e.g., not a universe overcrowded with spandex guys.) Which, by the way, explains why I don't think they're going to use any of the cheesier kinds of costumed guys in the SHIELD show--they clearly want to be fairly parsimonious with creating super-powered people in movies.

[Margalis]

Then they started doing the same shit to it that corrupted the main universe (which is what they had initially said they specifically created the Ultimate universe to get around!!!!1).  The whole thing started going to shit, then they decided to kill it in an orgy of bad plot and horrible writing.  Cataclysm indeed.

Turns out if you do a reboot but keep all the same writers and methodologies the same problems occur!

[Khaldun]

Yup. Don't reboot unless you're interested in getting new writers and artists involved who will look at things completely differently.

And don't reboot a comic-book universe unless you have a new idea about how to handle long-term serial storytelling. Superhero movies have been very interesting in this respect: they haven't bought into a lot of the tropes that drive shared universe comic-book stories. Secret identities have been treated as being of minimal interest for the most part, and so all the recycled stories that center on the maintenance of secret IDs have fallen by the wayside. Villains are seen much more as a done-in-one, and so all the contrivances used to keep them alive and available are being dropped. I'd love to see DC or Marvel start a "pocket universe" line where every month's books advance the real-time lives of characters by six months or so--first so that their lives don't seem improbably packed with significant events or conflicts, second so that we can get genuine progression in their lives--they can marry or be injured or die or age and then that's just it, that's the status quo. Every year of story telling could be about five years in-universe. The MU movies are already almost doing about that--at least some months, sometimes longer, in between stories. 

[jgsugden]

Still rumor at this point, but I like the direction here as it makes sense of the apparent inconsistency between 10 Rings In IM I (and II briefly) and the Mandarin tale in IM III (obviously, spoilerish if true):

http://www.blastr.com/2013-10-29/rumor-day-ben-kingsleys-secret-marvel-project

My question would be where would this pay off?  Avengers III?  S.H.I.E.L.D.?  IM IV in 2019 or later?  A war machine mini-series?

[Raguel]

So under the category "news to me" Michael Rooker is playing Yondu, and I saw somewhere he's going to be one of the villians. John C. Reilly is playing Rhomann Dey(sp), which I find to be odd unless they are planning on adding Richard Rider/Nova sometime soon.

Amy Pond is going to be Nebula. I wonder if it's a random add or are they going to play up her relationship with Thanos?

After reading this new team of GotG I still don't much care for RR and Groot. I'd rather they had Moondragon, Mantis, Adam, or Major Victory/Justice (however they wanted to deal with that). If they do add a Quasar later on I'd hope it would be Wendell, or they do something fairly interesting with Phyla.

I'm still scratching my head over Yondu. Of all the characters to use from the old team, he'd be the last I'd use in a story. I can see how Starhawk, Major and Charlie may be hard sell (for a movie) on a team that already has a Raccoon and an Ent though.