20th Century Fox is preparing to batten down the hatches and revamp their Marvel properties to compete with Disney. First step is bringing on someone to shepherd the vision, similarly to how Disney has put their eggs in Joss Whedon’s basket. That someone will be Mark Millar.
Millar, creator of KICK ASS and WANTED, has worked in both Marvel and DC universes extensively. He recently was integral in the Marvel Civil War campaign that featured the death of Captain America. His Superman: Red Son is one of my favorite alternate history stories. There are those out there who do not like Millar’s style or vision of comics but he definitely can shape a distinct voice for where Fox aims to take their franchises.
From the 20th Century Fox press release: “As someone who has spent his entire life obsessed with both comic-books and movies, this is essentially my dream gig as it’s a unique combination of both,” stated Millar. “I spent ten years working at Marvel and am really happy with the work I did on the comic side of things so the idea of working with these characters now in a brand new medium is enormously exciting for me. I really like the Fox team, love this bold new direction they have for their franchises and am proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema’s biggest talents. James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn’s one of my closest pals and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone-call I’ve ever had.”
Fox currently has three Marvel projects in various stages of development: THE WOLVERINE, starring Hugh Jackman, directed by James Mangold; X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, helmed by Matthew Vaughn; and a reboot of FANTASTIC FOUR, to be directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle). They also recently passed on a DAREDEVIL reboot from Joe Carnahan. Maybe Millar can get that back on track.
Something tells me Fox may be trying to get their own AVENGERS style super-squad movie going. Who knows if it would have roots in an existing comic or an entirely new team comprised of their properties. Maybe they can even pull Sony in and include Spider-man.
What do you guys think of Millar joining Fox?
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