What’s next for Marvel after The Avengers? That’s the big question for me; the studio has to begin planning their post-2012 movies, but without knowing if Captain America, Thor or The Avengers work they can’t really do much in that corner of the shared universe. So they have to start looking towards other characters.
Ant-Man is one of those characters, and it’s possible that once he’s all wrapped up with Scott Pilgrim vs the World Edgar Wright will turn his attention to that. Another property that Marvel is moving on is The Runaways, perhaps the last great original series to come from a major publisher*. The concept is great and simple – a group of teens discover their parents are supervillains and band together to deal with the evil.
The pitch for the movie is ‘The Breakfast Club with superheroes,’ and some people on my Twitter feed are blanching at that, but I think it’s perfect. Each kid represents a different aspect of the comic book world, with origins ranging from being aliens to being mad scientists to being mutants to being from the future to simply being criminal kingpins. Like The Breakfast Club it’s the differences between these archetypes, along with the differences between the characters – a jock, a nerd, a beauty queen, a brain, a young kid – that makes The Runaways feel so special.
Marvel is in talks with Peter Sollett, who directed Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, to helm the movie. I’m not that fond of Nick and Norah – it’s just so slack – but I like that this is the world to which Marvel is looking. I’m actually surprised that Joss Whedon, who wrote The Runaways for a while, isn’t the guy they’re talking with.
This could be the first film Marvel Studios makes at Disney (the films up to The Avengers are at Paramount), so it’ll be interesting to see how, if at all, that new relationship impacts the process. If anything, a teen-oriented movie is a great first choice for this new partnership.
* by original I mean more or less completely invented from the ground up, not a rehashing or rebooting or reworking of a previous character or idea. The reason for this? Creators don’t get to own their creations at the Big Two, so why bother spending a lot of time coming up with something wholly original that will only benefit a corporation?
5 comments
Fun comic, but Nick and Nora was one of the worst movies I've seen in theater EVER. Truly wretched.
"I'm actually surprised that Joss Whedon, who wrote The Runaways for a while, isn't the guy they're talking with."—Why are you surprised? Wasn't Devin the one who, back when Serenity came out, correctly explained that Whedon's name meant very little outside of Whedon's own fanbase? That doesn't translate to box office dollars, and if Runaways needs a big, safe name to anchor it, Whedon's isn't it. See also "Wonder Woman". As far as his involvement with the book is concerned, Whedon's run on Runaways was pretty insignificant. For starters, it wasn't very good, and he was picking up right after series creator Brian K. Vaughan had left, after just about anything interesting that had ever happened to the team had already happened. Also, immediately following Whedon's run, which only ran 6 issues and always seemed to be late (a point that was brought up when Devin, I think, said how cool it would be if Hollywood types wrote comics that took place in the Marvel Movie U.), the book was re-launched and has since seen a change in creative teams every few months or so. Wasn't it said at some point that Vaughan himself was involved with at least the script at some point or another? Regardless of whether or not he's involved, the filmmakers would be smart to stick to just HIS Runaways run. It was his baby, and a fun, sometimes sad, stand-alone read.
sorry, i meant if they aren`t able to get any big names in FRONT of the camera, whedon (who of course is a much bigger name than the nick & norah guy) isn`t going to be a big enough name to sell the movie on to mainstream audiences if it comes down to the filmmakers themselves having to be the draw.
Along with the Preacher and Y Last Man movie news, it seems that execs have forgotten that comics can be TV series, too.
Whedon didnt write it for a while…he wrote one trades worth of it… which might be the best story in the series in the comics run…
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