Variety and others are reporting that there's big doin's in the world of Marvel movies once more: Supposedly, Marvel/Disney and Fox are in serious talks about swapping around some rights. See, while Fox is already going ahead with a "Fantastic Four" reboot from "Chronicle's" Josh Trank; their other Marvel franchise, "Daredevil," has been stalled after David Slade left the project, and Daredevil's contract is much closer to running out. So, evidently, the two studios are working out a deal: Fox can keep Daredevil (with JOE FUCKING CARNAHAN in talks to direct! Holy shit!) on an extended contract... and in exchange, Marvel Studios gets the movie-rights to bring both GALACTUS and THE SILVER SURFER to their shared-universe!
Gee, what could they possibly want to have a giant space-monster onhand for?
There's a school of thought emerging among comic fandom that people should be rooting/pulling for all Marvel movies not being produced BY Marvel Studios to fail so that Marvel/Disney will get the characters back and the Marvel Movieverse can officially add them to continuity. I'm not in that school - it'd be COOL, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that Marvel is the only studio capable of doing their characters justice and I do worry that the (at this stage) still more producer-driven, mandatory-schedule manner in which the Marvel Studios movies are being made could scare less "controllable" but otherwise well-matched directors away from certain projects. The idea that average "in-continuity" stories are preferable to good/great "non-continuity" stories because it's more fun for long-term fans to keep track of the links has been somewhat damaging to comics, I wouldn't want the same thing to become true of movies.
Besides, not every scenario is Sony/Spider-Man. Spider-Man is a HUGE property, and Sony is a massive corporate entity that regards Disney as a major economic rival; both reasons for them to fight tooth and nail to keep those rights. Fox, on the other hand, is a smaller studio that's only recently begun to turn around a losing record. It's entirely possible that they might be willing to ink a deal later, as BAD suggests, to "share" the characters - i.e. Fox gets to make "Fantastic Four," "Daredevil" and "X-Men" movies but they'd be officially "part" of the Marvel Movieverse via shared credit, profit-swaps, some references ("Hell's Kitchen hasn't been the same since Thor dropped a giant space-whale on it!") and maybe a cameo here or there.
Fox, really, would be crazy NOT to make that deal - whatever it'd cost them short-term would very likely be made up by having a comparitively minor fixture like Daredevil or the still-not-well-absorbed-by-non-fans Fantastic Four get the boxoffice-boost of being tied-in to the juggernaut that is now "The Avengers." Plus, getting rid of the whole "Fox owns all the mutants" thing would give Marvel/Disney live-action access to a lot of useful B and C-list characters... also, let's face it: Hugh Jackman would probably be more than happy to put his Logan claws back on for "The Avengers" or a cameo someplace else, since he needs that Wolverine money to support his less-profitable roles (aka any movie where he isn't Wolverine.)
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