Marvel/Disney & Fox Negotiate over DD & FF Characters… or Do They?
And for those of us longing for Marvel Studios to get back their characters that have been licenced to other production companies, Variety has reported some very interesting news.
So long story short, 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney Pictures have each got their army of lawyers trying to negotiate a deal to (hopefully) bring the rights of some pretty big Fantastic Four related characters back to Marvel Studios. And what does Fox get in the deal? In return, Fox gets time. More accurately, an extension of time to release their rebooted Daredevil flick.
Image via milehighcomics.com
If the army of lawyers can’t come to an agreement, and Fox doesn’t get the extension, Fox will have to begin production by October 10th or the rights to Daredevil will revert to Marvel Studios. Should the deal pan out, Marvel Studios will be allowed to use characters like the Silver Surfer, Galactus, and Uatu the Watcher in their future movies.
There are no details on how or when these characters would surface in the Marvel movies, but it doesn’t take much to realize that with the surprise cameo at the end of Avengers (do I really need to tip-toe around this still? At what point do you ignore spoilers?) and the recently announced Guardians of the Galaxy flick in the works for 2014, these cosmic characters are going to fit in just fine.
As far as Daredevil is concerned, David Slade (30 Days of Night, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) was previously attached to direct, but after departing from the project Fox has been in negotiations with Joe Carnahan (The A-Team, The Grey) instead. Fox also has plans to reboot Fantastic Four with Josh Trank (Chronicle) to direct.
These are all developments I’ll be keeping my eye on.
Image via milehighcomics.com
Update: So no sooner had I written the original piece when Deadline shook me with a vague contradiction.
Mike Fleming went on record saying:
Reports that Fox and Marvel Studios are going to do some horse-trading with its Fantastic Four franchise to keep Daredevil in the fold were being strenuously denied by sources I’ve talked to.
Flemming goes on to say that such a deal makes no sense when Fox is only “lukewarm” about a DD reboot now that Slade walked from the film. And why would Fox trade off a significant portion of Fantastic Four when they’re going full steam ahead on rebooting it?
Good points by a man closer to the source than I.
Now, I have to say, this actually excites me more than the original story. Sure my imagination ran wild with images of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy taking on the real Galactus (as opposed to the very disappointing Cloud Galactus from FF2).
But I have to say that the idea of Daredevil (and his enemies) being back at Marvel Studios makes me smile. Maybe we’ll get an awesome DD solo flick or maybe he’ll join the Avengers (as he recently has in the comics).
Either way, I’ve waited far too long to see more DD. I loved the Director’s Cut of the original flick, and as a big fan of the Kevin Smith and Brian Michael Bendis runs on the comic, it just feels right that DD return to the loving embrace of Marvel.
This is a story I’m going to be paying close attention to.
