Thor Returns: Summer 2013

Man, actor Chris Hemsworth must be exhausted.

Today Deadline announced that Marvel/Disney are planning to give the Odinson his sequel in the summer of 2013.

Most of the key players are expected to return, save for director Kenneth Branagh, who may still be a producing partner.

So far, Thor is the big winner of the superhero summer season, so its only natural a sequel be ordered.

Verily, we should all be excited.

What makes all of this fun, is that fans don't have to wait very long for sequels. Most of the time its a two to three year wait, but next summer with Avengers we'll already be seeing Cap and Thor again, and then the following summer we'll see Thor and the next Iron Man film.

Keep it up Marvel. You are making us happy.

SDCC '11: The Avengers Will Not Assemble in Hall H This Year

Marvel Studios officially announced today that they will not hold a panel in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this year to promote The Avengers, reports Geoff Boucher of the LA Times Hero Complex Blog. The studio wowed all in attendance at last year's panel (including yours truly) by assembling the entire cast and director Joss Whedon on stage and together for the first time (pictured above*), but this year the studio "wasn’t prepared to compete with its own past and wild fan expectations."

Despite the lack of Hall H programming, Marvel Studios promises a strong presence throughout the rest of the convention including a booth on the exhibit hall floor as the studio opens Captain America: The First Avenger the Friday of the convention (July 22, 2011). Boucher theorizes that the studio may, however, have a presence at parent company Disney's D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center on August 19-21 and that this may be the reason they bowed out of Hall H.

Marvel fans feeling the lack of Marvel movie presence at SDCC can still look forward to Sony's presentation of their 2012 offering The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

*(Pictured Left to Right: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man/Tony Stark), Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America/Steve Rogers), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye/Clint Barton), Mark Ruffalo/Hulk), director Joss Whedon, and President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige)

Max Beckman is a manager at Pulp Fiction in Long Beach, CA and CheapGraphicNovels.com. You can follow him on Twitter @CheapGNsdotcom and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pulpfictioncomics. Pulp Fiction can be found on the web at www.pulpfictiononline.com and at 1742 Clark Ave. Long Beach, CA 90815.

Assembling 'The Avengers' Comes with a Price

Bleeding Cool is reporting that Marvel is insisting that The Avengers be a cost-effective feature film.

That seems kind of ridiculous if it’s actually true. After all, The Avengers is essentially a sequel to a whole bunch of expensive movies: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. While they shouldn’t go bankrupt to put this movie out, they should know that the budget might need to be somewhere in the realm of Avatar (not the rumored budget, but $200 million-ish).

After all, this summer Robert Downey, Jr. said the movie was going to out-ambitious Inception before officially announcing the cast at the San Diego Comic-Con. This week, while doing press for Due Date, he told Splash Page that he’s read Writer/Director Joss Whedon’s script and that it’s “fantastic.”

So Marvel, do the right thing: storyboard the hell out of the film, scout tax-cut friendly locations, don’t film anything on water, but do not skimp on the special effects. If this movie is done right, and it has the right guy behind the wheel, then it has the potential to become acrowd pleaser and a money-making machine!

Runaways Film Adaptation Slows Down

According to Deadline, Marvel Studios is delaying production on a live-action film adaptation of Runaways.  The book, originally published in 2003 and conceived by Brian K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona, is the story of six kids who learn their parents are supervillains.  Runaways was dark but its protagonists kept things light as they continued to stay one step ahead of their maniacal parents.

Marvel apparently has enough films on its current slate that this one could get pushed back, although not indefinitely.  As a fan, I think Runaways would work better on the small screen.  Vaughn gave each of the six protagonists a unique personality that I imagine would be muted on film.  Runaways is also a mystery that seems better suited to unfold slowly rather than being wrapped up in the span of two hours.  I'd like to see this property moved onto the list of scripts that Marvel Television is in the process of commissioning.

If you've never picked up Runaways, and you are enjoying Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma, I think you'll enjoy its first 18-issue run.

UPDATE: Bleeding Cool just reported that the production start date has moved to 2012 for a possible 2013 start date.