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Noutati de la marvel despre proiecte trecute, curente si viitoare: Elektra, Fantastic Four, X-men3, Spiderman , etc

Avi Arad, Chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, and Peter Cuneo, Vice Chairman, presented an overview of the company at the Bear Stearns 18th Annual Media Conference yesterday. What follows is a complete summary and quotes from the presentation. Bear Stearns has provided audio for the press conference, which can be heard here. Cuneo made several comic announcements, while Arad made announcements and comments on 15 different Marvel films, and more, which follows.

To start out, Peter Cuneo announced that Marvel will be distributing 2,000,000 Fantastic Four comic books for free to 6,000 grade schools in the United States. Marvel is not just giving away free comics, they will be giving away a comic book written by educators, with a 6-week lesson plan included for teachers. The comics will be given away prior to the premiere of the Fantastic Four.

Cuneo also announced another deal that Marvel just put together. Marvel will be distributing comic books to 7-11 Convenience Stores. They will be distributed to a little under 6,000 stores in the U.S., in effect doubling the number of retail outlets where people can buy Marvel comic books in the United States. Cuneo calls the deal very important both financially and strategically.

Cuneo also announced that Barnes and Noble bookstores recently ran a 50-store test selling comic books, which was very successful. Barnes and Noble will now add selling comic books to 300 more stores.

Cuneo announced that Marvel will be the master toy licenser for the Curious George franchise. Curious George, the classic children's book series, is being made into a movie at Universal, a major film scheduled for February 2006. The film is being produced by Oscar winners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. An animated Curious George television show will premiere on public television in the Fall of 2006 as well. The toy line will help replace the Lord of the Rings toy line, which Marvel held the license to as well, but will fade away as the trilogy is complete.

Avi Arad followed by giving an update on all Marvel movies currently on the slate. He started off by noting how everything at Marvel Studios started with Blade, and noted that Marvel is developing a live action Blade television show.

Arad gave several updates on the Fantastic Four throughout the conference. "It is probably going to be the feel-good movie of the summer," Arad said. The cast has all signed on for multiple pictures. There will be a huge toy line for the film. Activision will be releasing a Fantastic Four game on a day-and-date release with the movie. Arad said that "...Luckily for us, Fox has a busy summer, so we are going to be attached to all the Fox movies that count, like Star Wars, like Robots, Kingdome of Heaven, all the way to July. I think we're attached to almost every movie out there." The film will be followed by the previously announced Fantastic Four animated TV series.

Arad next moved on to Ghost Rider, saying that the film would be a PG-13 rated movie. He confirmed that Peter Fonda has been cast. Ghost Rider will have a huge toy line, including things like racing systems, radio control, and high-ticket items that are fun to market.

Moving on, Arad said, "We are feverishly working on X-Men The cast is in. We will announce a director very shortly. It's a treacherous process to find the next Bryan Singer, but there are other Bryan Singers out there. ...Very very shortly everybody will get their answers. ...this one people are going to be really happy because our choices are really, really interesting, and for X-Men, that is a philosophical drama, it is important for all of us. We need someone who gets the process right." Arad said X-Men will be the next film to begin shooting, and added that "...we are developing Wolverine with a very A-List writer."

Arad moved next to Spider-Man, saying "We are feverishly working on Spider-Man 3. It's well ahead of the game this time for May 2007. Visually it's going to be a really interesting movie." Arad could not divulge the villains, but said that he expects the film to be bigger in every way: the film, the toy line, video game, publishing, etc. He also announced that they are working for the animated series to continue, and there will be new Spider-Man DVD releases as well.

Before moving on, Arad commented on the failure of Elektra. "There was a short window, there was an actress, she had two-and-a-half months to work, and everybody shoved it into the window and the movie didn't work, and it's a shame, and we'll learn from one mistake and we'll never do that again." Arad later joked, "I wear the Elektra bracelet in memory of 'Don't do that again.'"

"Sub-Mariner - Namor, with Universal is in active development," Arad said, elaborating that there is already a script, but it is currently going through the re-write process. "It's a whole new world, we call this one 'Star Wars underwater.'" Arad said Sub-Mariner will have a giant toy line, a video game, and supporting licensing of all sorts.

"Deathlok is a high-priority at Paramount. It's our version of Terminator," Arad said. "The movie is a go, as soon as possible. This one will surprise all of us. ...It has a director. ...It's considered one of the best scripts in town." Deathlok will have a video game, collectibles, and more.

Arad moved on to Luke Cage, saying, "Believe it or not, Luke Cage was supposed to be starring Jamie Foxx." He said once Foxx was nominated for the Oscar the project was put on hold, and now he's unsure if Foxx would still be interested. He called the film a "Summer movie."

"Iron Man just got a director, Nick Cassavetes. It's a huge movie. It's G.I. Joe meets James Bond meets Tom Clancy," Arad said. "It's one of these dream machines, but it's very grounded in character." Cassavetes is currently doing a re-write on the script.

"We are about to start Punisher 2," Arad said. He called Punisher a terrific movie, but blames its somewhat poor box office to direct competition with Kill Bill Vol. 2. Punisher did "incredibly well" on DVD. "We are just finishing the script and we are heading into Punisher 2. ...there's no Kill Bill Vol. 3 on the same date so we are going to do the same marketing. We'll release another DVD and the movie and you'll see Punisher next time is going to live up to its expectations." A second Punisher video game was also recently announced by THQ.

Arad added, "Daredevil for now is going to rest until we all forget Elektra."

"Hulk 2 is in active development. We are talking to very interesting writers, we are changing a lot of things. We want to sort of take a new approach to it, technically, storywise and so on. It will happen pretty soon and it will be great," Arad said.

Arad assured listeners that "I can say clearly that for the next umpteen years there will be no year without new Marvel products in entertainment." He also said that they are working on a worldwide basis to make more animated deals.

And finally, Arad said, "There is a huge library that is yet untouched, of very big characters, and you'll hear announcements about Thor, that deal is just about done, and Killraven and Captain America, and most important our deals today are top of the line. Our characters finally became the Tom Cruises and Tom Hanks of the movie industry."