Rumor: Marvel plans to introduce Dr. Strange in Thor 2

If Internet speculation is to be believed, Viggo Mortensen may appear in the second Thor film as Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme.

By now you readers should know the drill. That “rumor” tag at the beginning of the above headline means that everything we’re about to tell you should be absorbed alongside a giant chunk of salt. While we have no official confirmation on the following information, the argument presented for it being legitimate is quite convincing, and the news itself is very exciting. Thus, we present the following rumor in an effort to spark discussion (and pre-emptively set ourselves up for some delicious gloating when/if this thing is proven true).

With the disclaimer out of the way, let’s jump right into today’s rumor: According to the educated speculation of oft-reliable Internet sources, it appears that Dr. Stephen Strange may appear in the upcoming Thor: The Dark World.

According to Screen Rant, a Twitter account registered under the name “Roger Wardell” (parentheses indicate that no one seems to know whether this is a real person or an alias) has been leaking information on upcoming Marvel Studios productions for months. Speculation is one thing, but Wardell’s claims have a way of coming true: For instance, Wardell stated that The Falcon would play an important part in the second Captain America film well before The Hollywood Reporter officially “broke” the news.

Most crucially for this article however, Wardell has also posited the idea that Dr. Strange would play a big role in the second Thor movie, and in an at-the-time unrelated tweet also claimed that Viggo Mortensen was in talks with Marvel Studios to assume a major role in something called “Phase Two” (which, for lack of further information, the ‘net has taken to mean the imminent wave of post-Avengers Marvel Studios movies). Intriguingly, these two claims mesh quite well with facts we already know about the future of Marvel Studios’ superhero franchises. Screen Rant throws more logs onto the fire:

Connecting the dots, is this too good (or crazy) to be true? Let’s look at what we do know:

1. Marvel President of Production Kevin Feige said he’s confident in a Dr. Strange movie at the same time he said he was confident in Guardians of the Galaxy, and we all know what happened with that.
2. Marvel Studios has a completed draft of a Dr. Strange movie script by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer that was reportedly sent out to directors over a year ago.
3. Mortensen was a top choice for the lead role in Snow White and the Huntsman and the impossible-to-get-into-production The Dark Tower, so he’s not averse to returning to blockbuster franchise roles.

Additionally, Screen Rant points out that the Orb Of Agamotto appears in the first Thor film in Odin’s vault, next to the Infinity Gauntlet (which is expected to play a role in either the upcoming Thor sequel or in The Avengers 2). As any Marvel Comics fan will tell you, the Orb has long been one of Strange’s most prized magical possessions, and its name is instantly associated with the character. While this alone wouldn’t be enough to guarantee Strange’s appearance in the film, when taken with all of the other information we outlined above, it does look increasingly likely, doesn’t it?

 

Of course, we won’t know anything official on this topic until someone at Marvel Studios decides to clear up the newly-swirling rumors, but that gives us just enough time for a spot of speculation. Specifically, we’re wondering what Strange might be doing in Thor: The Dark World. Sure, the guy is a very competent sorcerer so we see no canonical problem with his ability to travel to Asgard (or wherever this film takes place), but what then? Will he serve as a contrast to Thor himself, something of a “magic versus brawn”-type thing? Or will Strange’s appearance be a mere cameo designed to establish the character’s existence prior to his more substantial role in another future Marvel Studios project? At this point, we’ve got nothing but questions.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Luggage lawsuit blocks Avengers box set release

A luxury luggage company is suing Marvel Studios over its upcoming Avengers Blu-ray collection that comes packaged inside a knock-off briefcase.

We’ve known for quite a while that Marvel Studios, had planned to release The Avengers on Blu-ray later this month. Specifically, September 25, for those of you saving every penny in anticipation of finally being able to fire up the blockbuster film on whatever conglomeration of technologies you refer to as your “home theater.”

Alongside the relatively standard two- and four-disc Blu-ray releases, the company had also planned to release a special, limited edition 10-disc collection (see above) that includes The Avengers, all of the extra content found in the aforementioned two- and four-disc releases, as well as all of the Marvel superhero movies released prior to The Avengers that help set up that film’s background story. This means that prospective buyers would own Captain America, both Iron Man films, Thor and 2008′s The Incredible Hulk (which is not to be confused with Ang Lee’s 2003 cinematic exploration of Marvel’s giant green rage monster). That’s quite an impressive set, even at its proposed $220 price point, but thanks to a new lawsuit it seems that Marvel Studios may have to go back to the drawing board on this collection.

Rimowa GmbH, a German luggage firm, claims that Marvel’s use of a faux briefcase in the 10-disc collection directly damages one of the firm’s key trademarks. The Marvel briefcase, Rimowa believes, is based wholly on the design of its “Topas Attache” briefcase, a sharp-looking aluminum number that suggests both excellent, subtle taste and the idea that its holder is someone of great importance. It also features a $750 price tag, so as long as you’re among the set that prizes conspicuous consumption above all things the case also suggests that you’ve got tons of cash — a crucial feature when one is shopping for the adult world’s answer to the Trapper Keeper.

Those of you who clicked through that last link may recognize the Topas as the briefcase used by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury character throughout the past decade of Marvel Studios films. Rimowa has no problem with the Topas being used in the films, and even provided each movie with a set of cases to use. The problem, according to the German firm, is that Marvel Studios never received permission to recreate the suitcase for its big 10-disc collection. The idea was that the whole bundle would come packed inside a case that looks identical to the one Fury uses in the collection’s films, though obviously Marvel didn’t see the wisdom in massively jacking up the price of its collection purely so it could include a genuine Topas therein. Rimowa, in turn, believes that by creating an aesthetic replica of the Topas, Marvel Studios has directly violated the company’s trademark on the design.

Rimowa’s lawsuit alleges “trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition,” and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, seeks “all profits from allegedly unlawful conduct and an award of three times plaintiff’s actual damages to be proved.” Given how massively successful Marvel’s superhero films have been, particularly The Avengers, the actual figure Rimowa is hoping to be granted could be quite large.

As much as we usually despise the overly litigious nature of modern America, one can’t help but notice that the Topas Attache does look very, very similar to the knock-off case in Marvel’s collection. Anyone with eyes can see that. However, the design is exceedingly simple, and we could certainly see a judge going along with the idea that Rimowa can’t really have a trademark on what is effectively a matte aluminum hexahedron. On the other hand, we could just as easily imagine a judge slapping down Marvel’s design and forcing the company to pay whatever figure Rimowa eventually comes up with. We’ll keep you updated as new information is available.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Fox is not trading its film rights back to Marvel Studios

Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel Studios are currently negotiating a deal that could drastically alter the future of comic book movies.

When Marvel Comics opened a film wing (appropriately dubbed “Marvel Studios”) in an effort to grab a slice of the huge profits being made in the then-nascent comic book movie genre it was faced with a few issues. Sure the company has a massive catalogue of characters and stories to draw from to make its films, but the film rights to a number of its most popular heroes had already been sold to other production companies, long before superheroes proved to be box office gold. Twentieth Century Fox in particular had bought up a number of Marvel properties, including the X-Men, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and a large number of secondary characters important to each franchise.

Now that Marvel Studios has established itself as a major Hollywood player, ready and willing to create huge blockbusters — need we again mention that The Avengers has pulled down almost $1.5 billion at the box office? — it wants those film rights back, if only to have the freedom to use the characters created by Marvel Comics as it sees fit.

This morning word broke that Fox had agreed to give Marvel the rights to Fantastic Four villain Galactus — you’ll remember him as the inexplicable giant purple cloud in Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, or as an apocalyptic villain who eats planets in every other incarnation — as well as the Silver Surfer (pictured above), as part of a deal that would grant Fox the film rights to the Daredevil character for the foreseeable future. Fox has seemingly been planning to reboot its Daredevil film franchise in the wake of the disappointing (yet excellent in its “Director’s Cut” incarnation) 2003 Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil, but those plans have been put on the back burner ever since director David Slade stepped away from the hypothetical project. Joe Carnahan has since expressed interest in creating a Daredevil reboot at Fox, but Deadline believes that Fox’s confidence in Daredevil isn’t as high as it used to be, and that though the studio might agree to co-finance a Daredevil movie with Marvel Studios, it’s unlikely that Fox would mount the production by itself.

More crucially though, Deadline claims that its sources have strongly denied that Marvel and Fox are even having this discussion. Yes Fox is staring down a short timeline in which it must push a Daredevil film into production or forfeit the rights to the character back to Marvel, but as of yet, Deadline states, the two firms have yet to seriously discuss the possibility of swapping any of their respective film rights.

Unfortunately, the real losers in this situation are the fans. One of the cornerstones of Marvel’s popularity has always been that its characters live in a single, unified reality and that any one of them might bump into any other at any given moment. The Avengers was a great flick, but imagine how cool it would have been to see Spider-Man throwing punches alongside Captain America during the climactic fight. While we can’t really fault Marvel for selling off the film rights to its characters — these deals were all made back in the 1990s when Marvel was in very dire financial straits — it’s sad that the newly-minted Marvel Studios is unable to create a movie universe to truly rival its comic book universe simply because the publishing wing of the company needed cash during the Clinton administration.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com