Marvel Studios Boss: Female-Led Marvel Movie is a "Challenging Thing"

[SuperScrub]

Now now marvel, that sounds like something DC would say? Are you DC? No? Then give us a Miss Marvel movie or a She Hulk movie fucking today or within 3-4 years I can be patient.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Marvel can make whatever movie they want, and at this point I'm convinced they could take pretty much any comic book character and make the movie about them good (considering their track record). But of all characters, why Black Widow?

In a group of movies where the heroes have included a billionaire genius playboy who invents a suit of hyper advanced power armor, a genetically engineered Super Soldier from World War 2, a Gamma radiated rage monster, a gun-toting Raccoon, and an alien Norse God, Black Widow seems extremely dull. She doesn't really have much beyond "she's hot and is really good at martials arts and guns and stuff". Hell, even Hawkeye at least has the schtick of using a bow and arrow as his main weapon.

My point is that, if Marvel does want to make a movie where the lead is female, they have way more interesting stuff to choose from than Black Widow.

 

[Conner42]

Did he seriously just mention Divergent as a good movie?

FFFFFFUFUUUFUFUFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUFFFUUUFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU...

Anyways, at least he seems to understand the basics of storytelling to know that people don't just want explosions.

I think it's been coming down to them hiring the right guys to make these movies. James Gunn, Kenneth Branagh, and Shane Black for their respective movies were pretty risky, yet, right choices. And then they had the Russo brothers direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier...I mean, what gave them that crazy idea? It turned out that it was the right idea, though.

So...as long as they don't too hung up on Divergent, I'm more than confident that they could pull this off right now.

 

[Strazdas]

And said, grumpy white guy, raccoon and tree were a bunch of C/D listers from their back catalogue.

does not matter. they still needewd grumpy white male to be main character. thats just how the audience works. yes, there are exceptions, but this is like videogames - almost all female lead videogames failed finnacially, so statistics show that its not worth doing.

 

[Something Amyss]

They didn't make a movie that exclusively featured the talking raccoon and tree.

Okay, but unless you're pretending the tree and racoon would alienate the fanbase like a woman would, or the tree and racoon would see the limited promotion that women tend to, I hardly see why that matters.

Also, no way did Black Widow feature as heavily in promotion for Avengers as Groot and RR did in GotG.

is this actualy true? because female droven comicbooks exist...are comic book fans THAT terrible?

if your talking about the general movie going public I call bullshit....Hungergames, Frozen and Lucy have all done well and I highly doubt it was only women going to see them

I was thinking overall entertainment audiences, but comic fans can be fairly toxic. As I've said in response to others, though, I'm not sure if it's any more toxic than the overall environment.

I mean, you're already dealing with "female comedians aren't funny" thing in another thread. This is fairly common when it comes to music (outside of pop and some brands of metal). "Female singers suck." The outrage was usually pretty big when Harmonix announced music fronted by women as Rock Band DLC. Women aren't considered in games, are resisted as protagonists, and female-fronted games tend to received half the funding of their male counterparts (ironically, this comes from the same report people use to say "WIMMINZ IN GAERMZ DON'T SELL!!!!!"). DC comics (Detective Comics Comics) reportedly went so far as to berate people they surveyed who weren't in the demographic they wanted to court (not the demographic they have, but the one they apparently think they should have). Not to mention the cancellation of Young Justice because it appealed too much to girls and we couldn't possibly market action figures to them.

So yeah. Not just comic fans.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm sorry, but what? RA92 was talking about the fan base, not Hollywood execs, and the examples to the contrary DO count (the recent Hunger Games success being a prime example). People will pay money to see a good movie with a female lead - emphasis on the word "good".

Yes, congrats. You've found an exception. And since the Hunger Games became successful, you've seen wailing and gnashing of teeth from cinema in general because a handful of movies--a handful--have been tapped to cash in on this "new market." But again, that is exactly why they don't count. They're exceptions. At best, the Hunger Games has been treated as a fad. Every counter argument essentially come sdown to "But the Hunger Games!" People have to dig for another example.

But that's not the best part. "Emphasis on good?" Really? Is it your opinion that Twilight was good?

Neither of which made a dent in the critical or financial success of Thor. Hell, most people that saw the movie wouldn't have known or cared about the character prior anyway, so him being black was a non-issue.

And I'm sure you can point me to the parallel world box office figures that demonstrate that.

Taking the president's quotes at face value the answer is "YES."

And taking a corporate entity and its associated executives at face value is a good idea. EA values consumers, Wal-Mart cares about you, Microsoft is removing the Kinect because they firmly believe in consumer choice and shucks, Google really is concerned by those issues people have with G+/YouTube/privacy.

Why would you take any executive at face value?

They could easily do the same with a female-led movie, and given the president's quotes it's hard to believe they wouldn't if/when that time comes.

See, you go into qualifiers and hypotheticals. Yes, they could. Yes, IF they back the movie as thoroughly, it wouldn't be an issue. But that was the point I was questioning in the first place. Your only basis for believing it to be the case is taking an exec's PR tatement at face value.

But that goes back to the above.

 

[uncanny474]

What a load of bovine excrements.

You don't need "special" stories just because you have a female in the lead role. The movies he quoted as succesfull examples even show that. Kill Bill for example is just the Count of Monte Cristo with some rape and katanas thrown in in regards to the story. Likewise, Hunger Games and Divergent (as far as the movies are concerned) are just basic coming of age stories.

You don't need to read some mystical book called "Stories for female characters" in order to pull stuff like that off. And so far the Marvel Movies have all been very basic in regards to the story they told. It's not like each of them had an inception-like plot that was special or convoluted.

And the part about handling too many franchises? That's pretty close to the Ubisoft statement about playable female characters being too much work. "Sorry guys, we can't do a Black Widow Movie, we are too busy making Captain White Male saves the day 8!"

Don't get me wrong, I love the Marvel Movies, but when freaking Ant Man gets a Movie before Black Widow, someone really has dropped the ball.

Right, but the fact of the matter is that, unlike DC, Marvel doesn't have that many female heroes in their Avengers books. They have Scarlet Witch... which they can't do without Quicksilver. They have Wasp... which they can't do without some form of Hank Pym. They have Black Widow... who's a supporting character. They have Ms. Marvel... who doesn't have nearly the background or fan support of any of the other Avengers.

That said, the fact that there's no Wasp movie slated in that bracket does make me scratch my head, especially since they're doing the Avengers equivalent of Aquaman instead of a character who could EASILY bring in Ant Man and be an interesting story in her own right.

 

[Fairly Chaotic]

I know I won't be heard amid the cries for a Captain Marvel movie but to really mix things up from the origin of things, I would like to see an Arachne (Julia Carpenter) movie. The marvel universe can get a spider person for the avengers and movie goers can get a movie featuring a strong independent woman who is also a single parent.

 

[Something Amyss]

[They have Scarlet Witch... which they can't do without Quicksilver.

I don't see why: just don't name her brother. It's not like they've been inseparable in the comics.

They have Wasp... which they can't do without some form of Hank Pym.

If they can do Ultron without Hank, they can do Janet.

It's not as though Marvel is rigidly adhering to canon.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

They have Scarlet Witch... which they can't do without Quicksilver.

Why not? Fox already made Days of Future Past with Quicksilver and without S. Witch.

 

[Dragonbums]

Way to misrepresent what the guy actually said OP.

Honestly, where did the desire to have a Black Widow movie so much come from? I'd understand it if they wanted Captain Marvel or She-Hulk etc. but BW? She was in 3 movies that aptly showed what she can do, is the most featured secondary hero and isn't her past being unclear part of her gimmick? Hell, she's got it a lot better than War Machine, Falcon, or Hawkeye.
If they want to elevate a secondary character I'd rather it'd be Falcon, his flying ability could lead to some creative set pieces that differ enough from Iron Man's to be entertaining. And if they want a female lead than go for a heavy hitter like Captain(Ms.? Always thought Cap Marvel was Shazam) Marvel, not freaking Black Widow..grumble..grumble

The desire for a Black Widow movie probably came from people who enjoyed the hell out of her in the Avengers movie, and possibly the comics.

One has to ask, why Black Widow movie is a tall order, but a movie based around fucking Ant man gets a green light.