Fox hires Mark Millar to help develop their Marvel films.

[tazmaniak]

Mark Millar will serve as creative consultant on films based on Fox's X-men and Fantastic Four properties.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/fox...illar-to-help-shepherd-its-marvel-properties/

 

[Spider-Man]

20th Century Fox announced today that Mark Millar will serve as creative consultant for the studio's Marvel Comics adaptations. Here's the press release:

Marking an expanded commitment to some of its most important franchises, Twentieth Century Fox has brought on comics superstar Mark Millar to serve as a creative consultant on the studio’s upcoming projects based on Marvel Comics properties.

Millar wrote several celebrated Marvel books such as The Ultimates, Civil War and Wolverine: Old Man Logan, before moving on to found Millarworld (millarworld.tv), where he continues to develop existing film franchise titles Wanted and Kick-Ass, as well as newer comic properties The Secret Service, Superior, and Nemesis — the latter also in development at Fox. Millar will work with Fox on developing new avenues for its "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" tentpoles.

Commented TCF production president Emma Watts: “We are excited to be working with Mark. In addition to his groundbreaking Marvel work, he is simply one of the most original voices in comics today and will be an invaluable resource to us and to our filmmakers as we look for fresh opportunities to innovate within our shared Marvel universe."

Upcoming for the studio is 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).

“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.”

About Mark Millar
Mark Millar is the writer of Civil War, Marvel's biggest-selling series of the fifteen years, Ultimate X-Men, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four and The Ultimates (described by Time magazine in 2010 as the best comic series of the decade). His Millarworld line of comics boasts a roster of creator-owned books such as Wanted, turned into a blockbuster movie starring Angelina Jolie; Kick-Ass, which starred Nicolas Cage; and Nemesis, which Fox is presently developing as a theatrical feature. Kick-Ass 2 is currently filming in London and Toronto, starring Jim Carrey and Chris Mintz-Plasse and Universal is also developing his War Heroes series with Mike DeLuca producing. The Secret Service, co-created with Watchmen legend Dave Gibbons and X-Men First Class director Matthew Vaughn, is also currently indevelopment. In his native UK, he's the editor of CLiNT magazine, an advisor on film to the Scottish government and managing director of his film and television company Millarworld Productions."

About 20th Century Fox Film
One of the world’s largest producers and distributors of motion pictures, 20th Century Fox Film produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion pictures are produced or acquired by the following units: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox International Productions and Twentieth Century Fox Animation.

 

[defunctzombie]

Sounds like a well needed step in the right direction, but I'm wondering how far Fox can stretch X-Men even with his help.

 

[the greenman]

Sounds like a well needed step in the right direction, but I'm wondering how far Fox can stretch X-Men even with his help.

The X-Men universe is massive. They still have yet to touch properties like The New Mutants or X-Force. If all the clues are heading to where I think they're heading, they will make Days of Future Past like the last Star Trek reboot. If Patrick Stewart is talking about a return, is it possible they plan to explain the prior X-Men films timeline away, maybe even bring in Hugh Jackman for Logan? Don't know.

 

[tazmaniak]

Sounds like a well needed step in the right direction, but I'm wondering how far Fox can stretch X-Men even with his help.

Oh, you can stretch the X-Men franchise to infinity. Fox has access to all things X-Men and all things related. That's a universe all it's own. Remember the 90s, where every different team served a different function? You can spinoff countless different films from that concept.

Even though we're already on our 6th film, they haven't even scratched the surface of that universe. Think about all the villains and scenarios they haven't even touched yet. Apocalypse, Sinister, Sentinels, ect. Think of all the X-Men that haven't been used. What about the dozens of storylines that could be adapted into films? The last decade alone has a ridiculous amount of stories that would make good films.

 

[defunctzombie]

I know that the X-Men are vast. What I'm getting at is public interest. If they can pull off a James Bond like franchise, great, but there's a chance that people will write it off.

 

[the greenman]

I wrote an editorial on a British website about the lack of good franchises. In it, I explained that it takes a creative producer like Albert Broccoli, to have all his ducks in a row to know what he wants to envision from film to film. Basically any good television producer can do the same, but film producing is riskier with a lot more to lose of course.

Millar is not a studio exec like Kevin Feige, so he is really just a creative consultant in the vein of what MARVEL Studios is using Joss Whedon to do. They need to have a story to tell and a structure to complete it properly. The only villains in these franchises is not necessarily the audiences, but the studio producers/ execs that want to interfere. This is what happened to Sam Raimi and Sony with Spider-Man 4. Money squabbling, and the fact that Rami was going from film to film and not defending his vision. Honestly, he should not have done Spider-Man 3 because he was feeling pressured to change his vision, and it ruined the whole kaboodle. So when time comes around to do the next one, they blamed him, even though the film made money and so did he. Guys that do the Resident Evil and Fast & Furious films are just racking in the dough because it's making them money and to be fair those are not as expensive as CBM's.

Alot of it has to do with vision, "here's where we start, here's where we go, here's where we can end if need be." I don't know much about Millar, but hopefully he can creatively get them to structure the X-Men universe correctly. Fantastic Four has the potential to be a great trilogy of films if they reboot (which they will of course). Personally, now that Daredevil has lapsed back into MARVEL's hand's I kinda wish FOX would let go and concentrate on X-Men films alone. I would rather them make an X-Men film every two years than have to wait for them to make a FF trilogy in an isolated universe. FF is also highly expensive, so that's on them.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

I'm one of the apparently few people who's no fan of Millar at all, so I admit I'm ambivalent about this at the very best.

 

[W.C.Reaf]

I'm one of the apparently few people who's no fan of Millar at all, so I admit I'm ambivalent about this at the very best.

Same here. His involvement in any future movie has me worried. Thankfully he's just a consultant so they'll probably just ignore a lot of the stuff he has to say.

 

[tazmaniak]

I'm one of the apparently few people who's no fan of Millar at all, so I admit I'm ambivalent about this at the very best.

Same here. His involvement in any future movie has me worried. Thankfully he's just a consultant so they'll probably just ignore a lot of the stuff he has to say.

Out of curiosity, are you saying you're not a fan of his work, or you're not a fan of the man? Because if it's the latter, I think that's a common feeling amongst comic fans. That aside, I do think a lot of people put their personal feelings aside and focus on his actual work, which is pretty good.

He pretty much created the basis for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You can take every one of those movies and you will find at least one of his ideas from The Ultimates. Say what you will about the man, he has a very creative mind.

But, if you're saying you're not a fan of his work, then you may end up not being too keen on these movies he's consulting on.

As a creative consultant, I can't see them ignoring a lot of what he says. They're paying him for this job. As creative consultant, his job will be to work closely with the producer, director and writer in terms of directing them to which storylines they should adapt into films, what characters would best fit said adaptations and how the characters should be portrayed onscreen. Also, and this is something most people aren't aware of, but it's also the creative consultant's job to rewrite portions of a script, if need be.

You rarely hear about Creative Consultants and they largely go uncredited because the work behind the scenes, which leads some people to think it's not really an important job. It's just someone who gives their opinion from time to time. But it's much more than that. It's the person who tells you what you should and shouldn't be doing with your movie. The title is exactly what it sounds like. A person who consults on all creative aspects of the film.

I look forward to seeing what happens with these films, though I am curious about FF. As some of us know, Millar and Brian Bendis created Ultimate Fantstic Four. Millar has gone on record that he wasn't a fan of the original origin. That's why he altered it so much for the Ultimate Universe. I wonder how he currently feels about it and how he will help interpret it for the new film.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

I don't know much about him as a person, but I've read a few of his comics and I've never liked any of them.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

Out of curiosity, are you saying you're not a fan of his work, or you're not a fan of the man? Because if it's the latter, I think that's a common feeling amongst comic fans.

I don't think that's really a common perception, at least not among people who have dealt with Millar on a personal level. Lots of people hate Millar's work, but most of the people I've heard of encountering him say he's a nice guy. All, actually, the few people I've seen criticize him seem to be basing their opinion of the person on elements of his work.

I can definitely understand why people wouldn't like some of his work, though. It can be over the top and seem extremely cynical, especially in his less restrained indy work like Nemesis and Kick Ass. And he has characters that share some unvarnished opinions that might be unpopular with comics fans, the last page of "Wanted" being the most controversial. I get what he was saying there, but people certainly got butthurt about it. But you have to ask yourself, do you really think Millar personally believes every sociopathic thing the main character in Wanted says?

 

[Bryangst]

Same here. His involvement in any future movie has me worried. Thankfully he's just a consultant so they'll probably just ignore a lot of the stuff he has to say.

And that would be a shame. Considering he's being paid to do the job, and the good things he's done with the X-Men in the past, I'm not worried about his thoughts being tossed out the window.

Fox is taking a step in the right direction here.

 

[W.C.Reaf]

Out of curiosity, are you saying you're not a fan of his work, or you're not a fan of the man? Because if it's the latter, I think that's a common feeling amongst comic fans. That aside, I do think a lot of people put their personal feelings aside and focus on his actual work, which is pretty good.

I'm not a fan of his work. As a person I can't say since I've never met him. However given he took charge of the recent Twiiter misogynistic harassment against female comic creators and bloggers and helped stop the man responsible I'd say he seems like a sand-up guy.

My problem with his work is that it's all "shock", and quite disgusting varieties of “shock” at that, with very little substance in it, especially his creator owned works. Things like the cannibalistic Hulk of Ultimates that wanted to rape Betty Ross, or in Nemesis when he had a woman's uterus somehow rigged to collapse if she had an abortion. And that's not getting into the stuff from Kick-Ass and the sequel.

He pretty much created the basis for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You can take every one of those movies and you will find at least one of his ideas from The Ultimates. Say what you will about the man, he has a very creative mind.

And anytime someone points out one thing that was inspired by Ultimates I want to point out ten other things that are clearly based on the original comics and ideas. In fact none of the characters in the movies are anything like the ones in Ultimates, even Nick Fury who has the most basis from the Ultimates.

As a creative consultant, I can't see them ignoring a lot of what he says. They're paying him for this job. As creative consultant, his job will be to work closely with the producer, director and writer in terms of directing them to which storylines they should adapt into films, what characters would best fit said adaptations and how the characters should be portrayed onscreen. Also, and this is something most people aren't aware of, but it's also the creative consultant's job to rewrite portions of a script, if need be.

You rarely hear about Creative Consultants and they largely go uncredited because the work behind the scenes, which leads some people to think it's not really an important job. It's just someone who gives their opinion from time to time. But it's much more than that. It's the person who tells you what you should and shouldn't be doing with your movie. The title is exactly what it sounds like. A person who consults on all creative aspects of the film.

Being a consultant means the people in charge could listen to him, not that they will. There have been many stories from consultants being ignored on projects.

I look forward to seeing what happens with these films, though I am curious about FF. As some of us know, Millar and Brian Bendis created Ultimate Fantstic Four. Millar has gone on record that he wasn't a fan of the original origin. That's why he altered it so much for the Ultimate Universe. I wonder how he currently feels about it and how he will help interpret it for the new film.

Yet his Ult FF run turned the extremely great work Warren Ellis was doing with the title into bland boring FF stories. Millar and Bendis may have written the first Ult FF arc but Ellis was the only one to do anything with their set-up in his next two arcs, and the characters Millar wrote after that were pretty different than what Ellis was doing with them.

I wouldn't trust any of his FF movie ideas.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

And anytime someone points out one thing that was inspired by Ultimates I want to point out ten other things that are clearly based on the original comics and ideas. In fact none of the characters in the movies are anything like the ones in Ultimates, even Nick Fury who has the most basis from the Ultimates.

You must be forgetting Hawekeye. Movie Hawkeye is Ultimate Hawkeye down to the bone. Nearly the same costume, same government assassin status, same serious attitude, even a similar haircut. They threw the whole "laughing carny grifter" version of Hawkeye away.

This version of Cap also takes from the Ultimate Cap, too, notably in costuming in that he has no real problem with killing people if he has to. 616 Cap would have had a 12 issue moral crisis over some of the things that Movie Cap did on the Helicarrier and to the sentient aliens in New York.

The movie Nick Fuy is the Nick Fury from Ultimates. He doesn't have any of the 616 version's character traits and can't share his backstory because there is no way a black man could have been in Fury's leadership position in WWII. In fact we see the Howlers in Captain America: The First Avenger and Fury isn't with them. The movie version of Shield is the same, too, a more serious, less corny government organization.

Anyway, Millar's influence on The Avenger's Movie is clear and significant, so it makes sense that Fox would want to hire him for its own projects.

 

[W.C.Reaf]

Sigh, let's do this then.

You must be forgetting Hawekeye. Movie Hawkeye is Ultimate Hawkeye down to the bone. Nearly the same costume, same government assassin status, same serious attitude, even a similar haircut. They threw the whole "laughing carny grifter" version of Hawkeye away.

Movie Hawkeye is Movie Hawkeye. Even Ultimate Hawk had a snarky attitude and also used quite a variety of weapons; he also had a family that he spoke of a bit. He was not the stoic character from the movie. Though yes he is one of the closest to the Ultimate version.

This version of Cap also takes from the Ultimate Cap, too, notably in costuming in that he has no real problem with killing people if he has to. 616 Cap would have had a 12 issue moral crisis over some of the things that Movie Cap did on the Helicarrier and to the sentient aliens in New York.

616 Cap has no problem killing people in war, and in the movie that was war. Ult Cap was a jerk and a bully, and he was in the Cap movie, he was the guy Tommy Lee Jones wanted instead of Steve. Movie Cap did not kick beaten and defenceless people in the face; and he did not go around shouting how the A on his head doesn't stand for France. Movie Cap is everything Ult Cap should've been and utterly failed at.

The movie Nick Fuy is the Nick Fury from Ultimates. He doesn't have any of the 616 version's character traits and can't share his backstory because there is no way a black man could have been in Fury's leadership position in WWII. In fact we see the Howlers in Captain America: The First Avenger and Fury isn't with them. The movie version of Shield is the same, too, a more serious, less corny government organization.

Ult Fury was also in WWII, he was the original successful test of the Super Solider Serum, which Movie Fury is not. He also doesn't share much of Ult Fury's character traits either, and the closest he got was manipulating the team on Colson's death. Even then that manipulation would've been tame to what Ult Fury has done. Movie Fury also didn't have gadgets that let him fly or turn invisible like Ult Fury was fond of doing.

Movie SHIELD has a lot more in common with 616 as well since it's based on the Heilicarrier and they wear blue jumpsuits rather than the Triskelion in New York harbour. They also don't control the Avengers like in Ult.

While the movies share elements from Ult they also take quite a lot form 616 and are mainly doing their own thing with their own modernised takes on the characters and world.

 

[the greenman]

Millar updates us on his role at FOX:

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=68451

"The job at Fox is officially "Creative Consultant" and if there's a comparable job, I guess it's probably what Joss is doing over with Marvel Studios. It's very, very exciting. Just as a fan, to be at the heart of something like this is wonderful."

"There have been some poor decisions in the past, but you also have to remember that there have been some excellent ones too. Bryan Singer's X-Men for example, I think revolutionised superhero movies. It pre-dated Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, and I think you forget how close that was chronologically to Batman and Robin! To open with a Holocaust scene in a superhero movie was just unheard of. Fox get a lot of flak for the films which didn't work out, and quite rightly, but you forget that they've done some really great stuff too. I'm thinking specifically of X-Men, X-Men 2 and X-Men: First Class."

"The team who is running the show over there now I'm very comfortable with. I actually really like everything that they're doing, and they recognise more than anyone the mistakes that they've made in the past and they just want to do right by the fans. Hiring myself was a first step in a number of things that they're planning and they just really want to be respectful to the material I think. X-Men: First Class, which I absolutely loved, just feels like planting the flag for what they're planning to do over the next few years."

"Hiring Josh Trank for Fantastic Four...it could just not be more different than the first Fantastic Four movie from what I've seen so far. Even just as a fan, I'm very, very excited by the level of talent they have on the directors side of things."

"I can't say too much about it right now, but The Wolverine has only just started shooting really, I mean it's been shooting for a few weeks now. I really do like it and I'm really impressed by it. Days of Future Past, which is being written at the moment, is the next one up and at the same time, Fantastic Four is being written right now. In a weird way, it's just the easiest job in the world as I'm surrounded by people who are so good!"​

I think they should fast-track Fantastic Four if they want to keep the rights. They really are dragging their feet on it. Oh well, they think two years is a long time, not when you don't even have a script together.

 

[suss2it]

Movie Hawkeye is Movie Hawkeye. Even Ultimate Hawk had a snarky attitude and also used quite a variety of weapons; he also had a family that he spoke of a bit. He was not the stoic character from the movie. Though yes he is one of the closest to the Ultimate version.

Go back and read Ultimates 1 & 2. Hawkeye primarily used a bow and arrow but when needed, yes could improvise anything into a weapon, and he was pretty stoic and hardly (if ever) snarky. Although Bendis and Loeb did start to make him more snarky when Millar left, and he stuck with that characterization when he came back to write Ultimate Comics Avengers. And if nothing else, Hawkeye's suit is 100% Ultimate, but that's obviously thanks to Bryan Hitch.

Ult Fury was also in WWII, he was the original successful test of the Super Solider Serum, which Movie Fury is not. He also doesn't share much of Ult Fury's character traits either, and the closest he got was manipulating the team on Colson's death. Even then that manipulation would've been tame to what Ult Fury has done. Movie Fury also didn't have gadgets that let him fly or turn invisible like Ult Fury was fond of doing.

To be fair that's all stuff Bendis added in later. I don't think Millar ever wrote him with that in mind.

One character that we should really give props to Millar for is Iron Man. The Iron Man movies and The Avengers by extension seem way more inspired by the ultimate version of the character than the MU one, characterization wise. Although nowadays the MU Tony has been altered to more resemble the movie version.

 

[W.C.Reaf]

Go back and read Ultimates 1 & 2. Hawkeye primarily used a bow and arrow but when needed, yes could improvise anything into a weapon, and he was pretty stoic and hardly (if ever) snarky. Although Bendis and Loeb did start to make him more snarky when Millar left, and he stuck with that characterization when he came back to write Ultimate Comics Avengers. And if nothing else, Hawkeye's suit is 100% Ultimate, but that's obviously thanks to Bryan Hitch.

I should really reread Ultimates again since it has been a few years since I've done so. IIRC Millar made him more snarky in Ult Avengers, Loeb made him more shouty, angry, and trying to shoot everyone including his teammates, but definitely not snarky.

To be fair that's all stuff Bendis added in later. I don't think Millar ever wrote him with that in mind.

The character as created was not intended to be a superspy at all, just a soldier in WW2.

Even discounting everything past Millar's first Ultimates book I can't see movie-Fury as the type of guy who'd lounge around talking about who'd best play him in a film. Then again my favourite Ult-Fury comes from the Bendis/Bagley Ult Spidey run, where he was more of a 'jerk with a heart of gold' than just a jerk.

One character that we should really give props to Millar for is Iron Man. The Iron Man movies and The Avengers by extension seem way more inspired by the ultimate version of the character than the MU one, characterization wise. Although nowadays the MU Tony has been altered to more resemble the movie version.

I always saw Movie-Tony as a Robert Downey Jr/Tony Stark hybrid. Especially since RDJ has a lot of input into how Movie-Tony is written. Again I need to reread Ultimates to be 100% sure on that.

 

[the greenman]

McQuarrie updates on his ideas of FOX MARVEL U:

Christopher McQuarrie Reveals His Desire To Build Fox's Comic Book Movie Universe

Man, this sounds like the right way to go. I really wish they wouldn't be so greedy and just let FF go. Concentrate on XMen only.