It's almost like I am actually at Comic Con (except I'm not ::CRIES::)

[trinityvixen]

Well, I guess that answers that:

When asked whether Marvel Studios might ever get some of the other characters back in order to make their own movies, [Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios' President of Production] said that there were very specific contractual obligations and he didn't think Sony or Fox would let go of Spider-Man or The X-Men anytime soon.

Yeah, that's about what I thought. If Fox was smart, as soon as they got wind of Marvel starting up its own studio, they'd have renewed their rights to films based on the X-Men forever. Seems like they have. That's a blow to Marvel because it's not just the X-Men, it's like any character associated therewith if they had even one second of screen time and no matter how bastardized the character was. Fox has the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom and the Silver Surfer because of that ridiculous sequel. They've got Wolverine in the can forever--or for as long as Hugh Jackman can keep on doing it. (Wolverine spin-off news: it doesn't sound like a load of crap! Then again, I'm just excited by the idea of Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth. FUCK YEAH. But since when was Gambit in Weapon X!?)

But the good news is that Marvel is free to make as many movies with their second-tier heroes as they like! Here comes the Ant-Man movie! SWEET. And don't count out the Hulk or the Punisher. Although The Incredible Hulk did decent-if-not-great box office, they're still sweet on him. And there's a new Punisher movie in December (check out the trailer at the bottom of this link). Punisher: War Zone looks ultraviolent, which is great because that's all that character is anyway. Frank Castle is like the Joker without the gimicks and the makeup as far as I'm concerned--if they could share a cell in Arkham, they'd either fall in love or kill each other. (Probably both.) Ray Stevenson is disturbingly hot as the Punisher, so that means my love of Julie Benz with brown hair is going to be challenged. At least they can both act so I can pretend that's why I'm in love with them, right!?

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to imply that Marvel couldn't have their characters at all, only that Fox/Sony have the rights to put them onscreen and merchandising related to that is also their purvue. As far as I've understood it, when you buy the rights to make a film based on something, those are separate rights that the printed/other media of the original. Meaning that you could make TV shows etc. but you couldn't do another movie with the same character unless Fox/Sony permitted it or the rights had elapsed.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

That's right, but it's entirely by the exclusive contract, not by a separate copyright. So Fox can only hold Marvel to its original contract, it can't extend its control over the characters.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

From what I heard, Sony was able to extend the rights on Spider-Man. I'm not sure of details (SuperHeroHype posted something about it). It's a new contract, I'm sure, and Marvel's foolish for signing it unless they didn't realistically expect to ever get around to making anything of that character any time soon. (And they might not have. They were new to the movies, they're not exactly flushed with cash from the comics, and there was no way for them to know for sure that Iron Man would be a hit.) I wonder...