Watching the latest Spider-Man trailer gave me a thought on how to get away from the constant remakes and retelling of the same stories when it comes to superheroes.
I wish a studio would try an experiment with one of the big name heroes. Sit down and write the plot for 6 movies, then film them all at the same time. Each movie introduce a different villain, but only one! Have all subplots continue through each film, and then release them one by one for six consecutive years.
For example, let's do Superman:
First Movie - Superman's origin story. We meet Lois Lane, Jilly Olsen, the Daily Planet, etc. Lex Luthor is the villain.
Second Movie - Clark's personal relationships continue, Luthor is being Luthor, and Bizarro is the villain.
Third Movie - Subplots move along and Brainiac is the villain. This would also be a good flick for Luthor to step back into a bigger roll due to Brainiac. (There's a history there.)
Fourth Movie - Make Doomsday the villain and tell the story of the death of Superman.
Fifth Movie - Superman reborn and perhaps Cyborg is the villain.
Sixth Movie - "Son of Jar'el. You will kneel before Zod!"
If the films do well enough, you could film 4 more at once, and take the series up to 10 movies over a 10 year period. You then back off of Superman and move onto someone else and let the public cool off on Superman, so that when you come back to him again in 10-15 years, you can now do the same thing with new actors, characters, stories, etc.
Personally, I think 15 years is probably the number. 10 years seems too soon, and 20 seems too long.
Because it's Friday and I've decided it's fuck off day, here are some more characters:
Spider-Man -
1st - Origin & Mysterio
2nd - Green Goblin
3rd - Doc Ock
4th - Vulture
5th - Sandman
6th - Electro
7th - Sinister Six (the 6 above teamed up to form this group)
8th - Venom
9th - Carnage (This needs to be rated R)
10 - Kraven the Hunter (THIS IS THE SPIDER-MAN VILLAIN THAT NEEDS TO BE ON THE BIG SCREEN!!!)
Wolverine -
1st - Origin & Sabertooth (He never goes away throughout the series)
2nd - Japan & The Silver Samurai & The Hand & Yomiko (he marries her...almost)
3rd - Mr. X
4th - It'd be awesome if there was an X-Men series running alongside the Wolverine series and their 4th was Asteroid M where Magneto ripped the adamantium off Wolverine's skeleton and out of his body. This film could then be about Genesis (a character who tried to turn Wolverine in the Horseman of Death with his adamantium returned...it didn't take...)
5th - Give him his adamantium back here and make Weapon X the bad guys.
6th - Contagion
7th - The Red Right Hand
Seriously, why stop at trilogies? Filming a bunch of movies at once lowers production costs and gives fans continuity because actors aren't changing. I think it'd be worth one experimental run.
The Superhero Movie Experiment
There's no way you could write out anything resembling a basis for a screenplay more than one or two movies into the future. No studio would lock in shit like that. Even established literary franchises that become movies get fucked with.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
There's no way you could write out anything resembling a basis for a screenplay more than one or two movies into the future.
Well that's not true. I think three is the limit right now, but they do shoot multiples at once.
As for writing that many scripts, it'd be easy. For example, if you were doing Wolverine, you hire Jason Aaron to write the plot outline for one long Wolverine story with 6 chapters. Then you hand his outline off to writers to turn into scripts. Do them one by one, so the next guy in line (if they're not all done by one person) can play off the script preceding his.
No studio would lock in shit like that.
If you could shoot 6 superhero flicks with a big name property for 50% of what it would normally cost...the right name could get a studio to pull the trigger. Right now, I guarantee you that JJ Abrams could get a studio to do this experiment. Peter Jackson, Zack Snyder (post 300 - pre Sucker Punch), and a few others could do it.
Hell, give Luke Cage to Tarrantino and he'd make all 6 for under $100 million.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
As for writing that many scripts, it'd be easy. For example, if you were doing Wolverine, you hire Jason Aaron to write the plot outline for one long Wolverine story with 6 chapters. Then you hand his outline off to writers to turn into scripts. Do them one by one, so the next guy in line (if they're not all done by one person) can play off the script preceding his.
Until the studio mangles the scripts.
Exec: You know what we need in this one? A cat playing a piano. That's big on YouTube right now.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."