Patrick Stewart recently spoke at Dragon*Con over the weekend. While he was there he spoke about his possible appearance in further X-Men and Star Trek films.
Stewart mentioned that he recently co-starred in a production of “Waiting for Godot” with Ian McKellen and the two agreed that they would like continue exploring the relationship between Xavier and McKellen’s X-Men character Magneto. I am still waiting for the X-Men Origins: Magneto film to get off the ground.
Stewart thought that this summer’s reboot of Star Trek was “terrific,” but didn’t see any possibilities for Jean-Luc Picard in the franchise, leaving open only that he would agree to do a cameo in a sequel. Stewart mentioned a proposed final Next Generation film, but after the disappointing box office for Star Trek: Nemesis, it never materialized.
“I feel that I have left behind a legacy as Picard,” he said. “In my head and heart, I’ve moved on.”
The thing is, and apologies for any spoilers, with the whole Trek timeline being smashed apart by Nero in the recent film we have no idea what happened to the character of Jean Luc Picard in the new timeline (although Picard was a major part in the Star Trek Countdown comic book that was a prequel to J J Abrams reboot). Of course if Stewart were to cameo then it would no doubt be from the Next Generation timeline somehow crossing over.
Would you want to see Picard in a new Star Trek film? What do you think happens to Picard in the new timeline?
That is a lot of money. So the House of Mouse now owns an awful lot of superheroes.
I personally think this may well be a good thing. The current slate of Marvel Universe films are still going to go ahead and once the contracts are up with other studios – Spiderman and X-Men – then they should return to the fold and crossovers a plenty should follow.
However, it does mean another level of men in suits to throw their thoughts in and possibly mess up what could be great.
Mind you we could see Pixar having a go at some Marvel heroes which can only be a good thing.
Worldwide leader in family entertainment agrees to acquire Marvel and its portfolio of over 5,000 characters
Acquisition highlights Disney’s strategic focus on quality branded content, technological innovation and international expansion to build long-term shareholder value
Burbank, CA and New York, NY, August 31, 2009 – Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.
Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.
Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.
thor_comic_image_02.jpg“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney.”
“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Iger said.
“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s Chief Executive Officer. “This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney’s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s properties.
Warner Bros. has closed a rights deal to remake the 1981 Excalibur, with Bryan Singer producing and developing the picture as a potential directing vehicle.
Deal comes as Singer gets serious about making the New Line-Legendary co-production “Jack the Giant Killer” his next directing effort, according to sources.
WB and Legendary Pictures have labored for months to pull together the rights to the film, which Singer will produce with Julie Yorn. Polly Johnsen, who was Polly Cohen when she was the WB exec who presided over the Singer-directed WB/Legendary collaboration “Superman Returns,” will also be a producer.
“Excalibur” is the quintessential myth-of-King-Arthur film, complete with the enchanted sword, the Knights of the Round Table, Merlyn the wizard and the quest for the Holy Grail to save Arthur’s life. The original film was directed by John Boorman and adapted from the Thomas Malory book by Rospo Pallenberg and Boorman.
Boorman’s film broke talent such as Helen Mirren (who played the evil Morgana) and Liam Neeson (Sir Gawain) as well as Gabriel Byrne, Patrick Stewart and Ciaran Hinds. WB had some of the rights as a library title; the rest were secured from Boorman.
Singer hasn’t set a writer yet. Matt Reilly is overseeing for WB, Erik Olsen for Yorn and Singer’s former partner Alex Garcia is overseeing for Legendary.
Singer recently signed on to develop to direct and produce “Battlestar Galactica” at Universal, a project he’d been eyeing since he originally made a deal to godfather a series revival in 2001. At the same time, Singer has been flirting with directing “X-Men: First Class,” a 20th Century Fox spinoff that got a first script draft by “O.C.” creator Josh Schwartz.
It looks like his next directing assignment could well be “Jack the Giant Killer,” a riff on the Jack and the Beanstalk legend developed by New Line with scripters Darren Lemke and Mark Bomback and producer Neal Moritz. The story revolves around a young farmer who leads an expedition into the land of the giants to recover a kidnapped princess.
I am going to have to say that I don’t think Singer is the right choice for Excalibur. Usual Suspects was brilliant but more and more I get the feeling he should stay away from fantastical films. X-Men was good but rewatching it I the action is sub-par and it feels very sketchy in places. Then Superman Returns shows that if he is too close to the subject matter then it can be a bit empty. He should stick with character pieces set in the real world. Just my opinion of course.
MTV spoke with Ryan Reynolds about the character of Wade Wilson and the fast tracked Deadpool spinoff film
“I love it, because I get to be involved,” Reynolds said of reprising his X-Men Origins: Wolverine role. “And I’m such a huge fan of the character.”
The actor and 20th Century Fox are looking for a director as well as someone to writer the film.
“I get to be the authentication police, in a weird way,” Reynolds stated regarding the storyline. “To their credit – the studio’s credit – they want to make an authentic Deadpool movie; they want to make it as close to the source material as possible.”
Some of the things that Reynolds and Fox have determined are that “He’s going to be the Merc with the Mouth, [we're going to give] all those answers that everyone wants,” he offered. “He’s going to have the scarred-up face, he’s going to be in the suit – and, it’s going to be incredible.”
“Right now, it’s just a question of trying to figure out what is the spine of the story,” the actor said when mulling over possible plot points. “Who is the villain? What does Wade and/or Deadpool want?”
“And how do you tell that story? Are we going to see flashbacks to his old life, flash-forwards, present-day?” he added. “We’re just trying to figure that stuff out.”
I love the fact Reynolds is so passionate about the film, but I seriously doubt he will have much control over the film once it gets the script and director. I would love and hope to see the Deadpool we all know and love on the big screen. It’s all going to be determined by who they get to direct it and how much interference the studio do. If Wolverine is anything to go by, the good intentions they set out with could well be watered down.
The voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter has joined with Pandemonium’s Bill Mechanic to turn the comicbook Deadworld into a zombie feature franchise according to Variety. I mentioned this back in February when Mechanic mentioned it during the Coraline premiere.
Hayter (X-Men, Watchmen) will write the screenplay based on Gary Reed’s comic (although it was originally created by Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith).
I’ve never read Deadworld, but I do like the sound of its take on the zombie mythos.
It starts four months after a zombie apocalypse has decimated the Earth. Humans few and far between. The main difference is the fact that the attacking dead are as sentient and intelligent as the living. One of the main characters is King Zombie, a Harley-riding corpse who holds a grudge against the survivors who made him an outcast (this also reminds me of the comic, Chopper Zombie).
The plan is to begin production next year.
Mechanic, who ran Fox when Hayter wrote the first “X-Men” film, saw the scribe as ideal to lay out what he hoped could be a multipic story arc. The offer fit in perfectly with Dark Hero, which Hayter and Benedict Carver formed as a way to put Hayter’s creative stamp on numerous films, TV and Internet properties in the sci-fi and horror genres. Aside from writing the script, Hayter will conceive and design the look of the film.
“It’s very much about the design of the Deadworld and creating cool, frightening but not necessarily gory creatures,” Hayter said. “I am a huge fan of zombie mythology.”
If this is done right it could give the zombie genre a much needed infusion of new brains.
Have you read the comic? Will it work as a feature film? Who could play King Zombie?
IGN UK recently spoke with Anna Paquin, who revealed she would like to return as the mutant Rogue for X-Men: First Class.
“Absolutely. Yeah,” she told us. “I would hope I could do a little bit more action next time, though. I kind of find it ironic that I did three big action films and did, actually, no action whatsoever. I mean I got some really amazing emotional story moments, but I didn’t really get to do the physical stuff.”
It was said that the film, which is currently being written by The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz, would feature younger mutant characters like her Rogue along with Colossus, Angel, Jubilee and Shadowcat.
I am still not sure about this whole First Class thing. One minure they say it will feature the younger version of Cyclops, Beast, Jean Grey etc and then it’s turned around to this new crowd of mutants who turned up late on in the comic book world. Surely if it is First Class then it should be Xavier’s first class of mutants? Am I silly for thinking that?
We all know that the post credits of Wolverine had a few different endings. I saw the one with Logan in a Japanese bar drinking to remember. There was another one that apparantly set up the possibility of the Deadpool spin-off.
Here is the post-credit clip in question. It is a bit dark and shaky plus it may not be on-line for too long. Have a watch and let me know what you think of it.
Patrick Stewart recently spoke at Dragon*Con over the weekend. While he was there he spoke about his possible appearance in further X-Men and Star Trek films.
