Marvel’s Maisel Discusses Film Franchises
David Maisel, Executive Vice President, Office of the Chief Executive, and Chairman of Marvel Studios spoke to investors last weekend and IESB has a complete transcript up for those interested.
Highlights of the talk, though, indicate that Marvel is working hard to maximize their film franchises without blowing the budget on any single film and prefer controlling the films since that gives them the latitude to maximize scheduling.
Investors questioned if Spider-Man 4, were it to come out in 2010, would complicate Iron Man 2 and Thor? Maisel said, “It would be a nice situation to have, I think there’s room enough for all three and we’d work that out. But it would absolutely be a nice situation to have for Marvel’s fiscal results that year.” On the other hand, Sony has announced Spidey 4 as coming in 2011.
“This is one of the reasons we did our own studio,” Maisel explained to the room full of non-fans, “because not only, well, three reasons. One, we’ve got, now, the economic upside to the movies, we have 100% the economic upside from Iron Man and from the merchandise of Iron Man, whereas before we only got the small license fee and we had to share merchandising. The second reason is, we can control our destiny, we can announce, ‘hey, Iron Man 2 is this date and we’re making this movie and we’re making Thor and we’re making Avengers and Captain America.’ Sony controls that with Spider-Man and so I can’t comment on when the movies come out beyond what they’ve said. I guess all I can say is that Spider-man films have done so well, that it would be, I would assume, unlikely that we wouldn’t see a steady stream more of Spider-Man films going forward. The exact timing and year is up for them to announce.” (more…)

In the coming days leading up to Halloween, we will be reviewing each film collected in Lionsgate’s Ghost House Underground Collection. In the set are eight films hand picked by "Horror Kings" Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert who have produced films such as The Grudge, Evil Dead, and 30 Days of Night.
I was at the FallCon in St. Paul, Minnesota, a few weekends back. Nice little to medium sized Con, the sort I really enjoy these days. You get a chance to talk to the fans and see a few other friends and old pros. I spent some nice time with Pete Tomasi and sat across from Howard Chaykin at a wedding reception/dinner that was held at the Con.
Interestingly, 20th-Century Fox is seeking a fresh face to play Greg Heffley, the star of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. The casting agent is seeking Males 11-14 only. Boys coming to the open call need to be able to handle dialog and ironic comedy, and should bring a current photo and snapshot and a parent/guardian. The casting call will be held this Saturday, October 25 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Debbie Reynolds Studio 6514 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, California.
At the Spike TV 2008 Scream Awards last night, Watchmen director Zack Snyder and actors Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino and Jeffrey Dean Morgan introduced a never before seen extended trailer for the film. Highlights of the trailer include:
Slash Film
What if Star Trek was a half-hour sitcom focusing on the “lower decks” characters? That is apparently the premise for Boldly Going Nowhere, a new series from Fox.
If you thought becoming a family man would soften the Bay Harbor Butcher’s resolve, guess again.
Good Vibrations is a potential animated mid-season replacement series for Fox. Created by Pineapple Express’ David Gordon Green,
