MARVEL COMICS movie news

Marvel Enterprises recently held their first Analysts Day webcast, which Marvel Studios honcho Avi Arad used to give updates on Marvels slew of upcoming film and television projects. Seemingly just about every Marvel character from Spiderman to Brother Voodoo is in some kind of development. A lot of them are for animated series, but at Cinema Eye we are mainly interested in the movies. Luckily, ComixFan was in attendance to take copious notes. Here are some highlights.

Blade III
This film is currently in the middle of principal photography. This film has a bigger budget than the previous film. “Blade today is a billion dollar franchise,” said Arad.

Hulk 2
There will be a Hulk 2. However, don’t expect another Ang Lee film. Hulk 2 will go easy on the psychological depth in an attempt to please summer audiences. “We’ll call it Hulk-Lite,” Arad joked. Maybe they should call it, “Hulk 2: Not Boring.”

The Punisher
In post-production. Hits theaters in May. This began as a direct-to-video project but expanded when the project attracted a big name cast. It will be distributed internationally by Sony and it WILL be rated R.

Man-Thing
Marvel’s first horror movie has just wrapped. “It has huge production values,” says Arad. “We just finished selling it internationally in mid-February in Milan with great success.” Arad describes Man-Thing helmer Brett Leonard as a “very, very good director” who will be doing future work with Marvel characters.

Daredevil
Director’s cut hits DVD in May

Fantastic Four
Has been pushed back to summer 2005.

Also slated for a 2005 release are Iron Man, Ghost Rider and the Jennifer Garner Daredevil spin-off: Elektra