Marvel Preps More 'Ghost Rider,' 'Daredevil,' 'Surfer'

Wednesday

23Sep2009

Marvel Preps More 'Ghost Rider,' 'Daredevil,' 'Surfer'

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 11:20PM

More Marvel movies on the way, but there's nothing new in the whole bunch. Variety says that David S. Goyer is "in early talks" to create a Ghost Rider sequel, which will probably not do as well as the 2007 Nic Cage unless it's a significantly better film. Cage will be back, and there's no denying Ghost Rider was successful. Goyer is not new to the character, so this could be the best possible scenario.

Now...there are other developments, too. Beyond Columbia revisiting Ghost Rider, Fox is reportedly working hard on a new Daredevil project and what I can only hope at this stage isn't a disappointing Silver Surfer film. First: The Surfer. It's just really hard to do the movie, no matter what story you use. In fact, the character was the only redeeming thing about the second Fantastic Four movie, but having seen that, I believe it's just difficult to make that character the full focus of a film. Supporting character? I can definitely see it.

Daredevil is a sore subject for me and probably for a lot of other fans of the comic book. The movie we got a few years ago was completely de-fanged. So while I hate the idea of trying it again less than ten years later, it really deserves a better treatment than the one it received.

We know why all of these movies are coming back. As we detailed over the weekend, Marvel stands to lose the rights to some characters co-created by Jack Kirby, who created Silver Surfer outright and had some hand in mapping out Daredevil initially. Plus, the Disney deal will will make it very hard for rival studios to get their hands on the money after a few more years. So, where Columbia and Fox have deals with Marvel, expect them to try to exploit them as much as possible relatively quickly.

Avi Arad, who ran Marvel for about 15 years and is still a Spider-Man producer, says that in the future, Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Power Pack, and Guardians of the Galaxy are all prime for movie stardom. But that's just the beginning.

“I had this poster of the Marvel universe, with these beautifully drawn characters, and we used to say you could throw a dart, hit a character and make a hit movie under the Marvel brand,” Arad said.

That's obviously not completely true - hence the new Daredevil - but the brand still seems to be trending up. Eventually, that bubble will burst and it could be the presence of a dozen or more Marvel movies and five or six DC movies a year that does it. But we're not there yet.

Colin Boyd |

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