Marvel to Sign a Hulk 2 Director Within the Next 40 Days?
With the recent hiring of Zak Penn as the writer for Hulk 2 and now Avi Arad forming his own production company to essentially produce Iron Man and Hulk 2, Hulk fans can rejoice that Hulk 2 will be in theatres by 2008/2009. Sure, that still seems like along way off, but it is better than the limbo that the Hulk sequel has been in since 2003.
As Arad states, his new role is performance based, so it is in his best interests to commit a large amount of resources and talent to Hulk 2. Hopefully when the director of Hulk 2 is announced in the next 40 days, it will be a high caliber director with a passion for the Hulk.
The following tidbit is something that I overheard last week at the Zak Penn & Simon Kinberg (the writers of X3) signing at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles. I was asking Zak a few questions about the Hulk script, when Simon leaned over and told Zak that he had recently had lunch with the director of Night Watch (Timur Bekmambetov) and that he was interested in directing Hulk 2 and wanted to be put in touch with Arad and Marvel.
Don't know if Timur ever met with Marvel or Arad, but Night Watch and Day Watch were both great films, and he would be an excellent choice as director for Hulk 2, especially if it will involve Emil Blonsky, a Soviet Cold War operative who in the comics steals Banner's Gamma Ray formula and turns himself in the Abomination.
The following information was originally posted on Reuters:
Arad said Wednesday that he has resigned as chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios and chief creative officer of parent company Marvel Entertainment and created Avi Arad Prods.
His new company has been charged with producing "Hulk" and "Iron Man," the first two films under Marvel's $525 million debt facility arranged eight months ago through Merrill Lynch and Pierce, Fenner & Smith.
Paramount Pictures is marketing and distributing films Marvel and Avi Arad Prods. are making via the financing slate -- with the exception of "Hulk," which is handled by Universal Studios -- and Arad, as producer of "Iron Man" and "Hulk," will get a percentage of the box office on those films.
"It's performance-based," he said. "If the movies do great, I do great. I'm like a commission salesman."
Arad and Feige couldn't say which Marvel character -- Hulk, for the second time since 2003, or Iron Man -- would hit theaters first under the new arrangement, only that at least one of them would be out in 2008. Jon Favreau was hired last month to direct "Iron Man," and Arad said a director for "Hulk" would be named in the next 40 days.
"This time, we'll make it the Marvel way," he said of "Hulk." Three years ago Universal Pictures released the Ang Lee-directed "Hulk" and it was largely considered a critical and commercial disappointment.
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Bruno
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