Big news in the world of comic book movies came recently when it was announced that comic book author Mark Millar (“Wanted,” “Kick-Ass,” “The Ultimates”) had been hired by 20th Century Fox to be a consultant on their future Marvel movies. What exactly his position would entail, however, has been largely a mystery up until this point, but apparently he has finally blabbed and explained just about every last detail about his new gig.
Millar was recently a guest on the Word Balloon podcast (via CBM) can not only opened up about what he will be doing as a consultant, but even went as far as to point out the mistakes that the studio has made in the past.
For starters, Millar says that his position his comparable to the position that Joss Whedon currently has over at Marvel Studios, where the Avengers director is helping to craft the direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for what they are calling Phase 2. Millar didn’t indicate if there are plans to have the X-Men and the Fantastic Four exist in the same world, but did talk about both the successes and failures that Fox has had with their properties in the past. Said Millar,
”There have been some poor decisions in the past, but you also have to remember that there have been some excellent ones too. Bryan Singer’s X-Men for example, I think revolutionized superhero movies. It pre-dated Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, and I think you forget how close that was chronologically to Batman and Robin! To open with a Holocaust scene in a superhero movie was just unheard of. Fox get a lot of flak for the films which didn’t work out, and quite rightly, but you forget that they’ve done some really great stuff too. I’m thinking specifically of X-Men, X-Men 2 and X-Men: First Class.
While he doesn’t mention them specifically, past less-than-stellar comic book outings for the studio include titles such as Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Speaking more specifically about the projects currently on the studio’s slate, Millar was complementary about what has been done so far with the Fantastic Four reboot and applauded the hiring of Chronicle director Josh Trank. Said the writer, “Hiring Josh Trank for Fantastic Four…it could just not be more different than the first Fantastic Four movie from what I’ve seen so far. Even just as a fan, I’m very, very excited by the level of talent they have on the directors side of things.”
He also couldn’t talk much about either of the upcoming X-Men projects, which include James Mangold’s The Wolverine and Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. He did say, though, that they are definitely already helping with his end of the work. “In a weird way, it’s just the easiest job in the world as I’m surrounded by people who are so good!”
