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EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios is moving forward on a live action feature version of Iron Fist, hiring screenwriter Rich Wilkes to draft a movie based on a martial arts expert whose battle with a dragon–ended when he plunged his hands through the beast’s molten heart–turned his fists into indestructible weapons.
Iron Fist was on the minds of many fanboys when Disney paid $4 billion for Marvel’s 5000 superhero library and vowed to turn the less obvious comic book heroes into films and TV properties. Marvel tried to make an Iron Fist movie with Artisan nearly a decade ago, as a vehicle for X-Men villain and martial arts expert Ray Park. The Iron Fist comic book mythology was created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in the 1970s, when the popularity of martial arts films was on the rise.
Iron Fist was among a bunch of Marvel superhero properties scattered around Hollywood. While tent poles like X-Men, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four and a handful of others remain at other studios, Marvel has recaptured rights to many wayward properties and Kevin Feige is hitting the reset button on a bunch of them. Marvel recently began work on Dr. Strange, hiring Conan scribes Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to generate a film from a superhero property that four studios tried to crack over the years. Both Iron Fist and Dr. Strange will be distributed by Disney. Marvel Studios has four more films under the preexisting distribution deal with Paramount, and those will include Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America, and the Robert Downey Jr.-starrer Iron Man 3. The final film will likely be the Joss Whedon-directed The Avengers, though Marvel is separately working on the youth-oriented Runaways and Ant-Man.
Wilkes is best known for writing the original XXX film that launched a franchise around Vin Diesel’s extreme sports hero character. He also scripted the Motley Crue biopic The Dirt, which Paramount just put into turnaround, and he wrote Ballad of the Whiskey Robber for Johnny Depp and Graham King. Wilkes is repped by Verve.
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Yeah Verve!
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. I thought that the studios were finally realizing that they’ve already done enough super hero flicks and people are burned out on them?! Now we get some barely known character getting it’s own flick, being written by a HORRIBLE writer no less? Good luck.
lame!
Can’t say I’m excited by this. There’s a reason why Marvel has gone bust in the past – as soon as you get outside their mainstream characters, nobody really gives a damn. A few niche comic fans aren’t enough to open a movie – just look at Scott Pilgrim and Jonah Hex. Disney is soon going to realize that buying Marvel was a great deal: for Marvel.
I’m assuming your a suit. First off the ‘niche’ comics you refer to are not Marvel. So you shouldn’t really use them when you’re making an argument against Marvel. You are right though that mainstream characters like Daredevil, Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider did not go over well with the public. Now, this is how I know you’re a suit. Your reasoning behind these movies poor outcomes was because the general masses must just not care for superheroes outside the big guns of Superman, Batman and Spiderman. That’s the reasoning of a simpleton. Before the movie, Ironman was just as mainstream as Daredevil on his good day and Fantastic Four on their bad. So why did Ironman do so much better? Maybe cause it wasn’t shitty. Maybe it was because of the studios that were involved in each movie? Maybe the studios that made Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Ghost Rider were less concerned about getting it right (story, casting, etc) and more about getting it out there to the public as soon as possible (money, money, money). What separates Marvel from every other studio is that it must appeal to the movie public AND MORE IMPORTANTLY the fanboy and comic readers as well. Why are the fanboys and comic readers so important you ask? That puts immense pressure on Marvel in getting it right (story, casting, etc) . Fanboys are more important to Marvel’s bottom line than any other studio out their. They can’t afford to royally screw up a movie. DC can cause they are owned by WB.
As long as MARVEL gets to film MARVEL properties Disney’s investment will pay off. Can you tell I’m not a fan of Tom Rothman?
You’re right – I’m so much of a suit that I even sleep in one. My dog wears a suit, my wife wears a suit, and so do my children. I even had a special suit made for my car, so that as I drive along people will say, “Look, there’s a suit”.
Only time will tell whether the secondary, niche characters can make good movies. If Marvel are so brilliant at getting it right, how do you explain Ironman 2?
And no need for the ‘crazy guy’ capitalization in any reply.
I don’t think you know what the term “mainstream” means. Anyway, this is just another bad idea. The xXx movies are terrible and Iron Fist will most likely have a small budget and cheezy look because the character isn’t widely known. What are you, a sweat suit?
“Disney is soon going to realize that buying Marvel was a great deal: for Marvel.”
I think you fail to realize that every movie Paramount releases under Marvel’s banner, Disney gets Marvel’s cut. Disney did great last quarter in part because of Iron Man 2, and when the rest of Marvel’s films are released, under Paramount Disney will take their chunk again and again, if they all do as well as Iron Man 2.
$4 billion is a big chunk of change, plus the assumption of ongoing costs and liabilities. It’s going to take a lot more than a slice of Paramount’s revenue to make good on that investment.
Great news.
By the way i think you meant Roy Thomas and not Ray Thomas
We don’t know if Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D., Ant-Man or The Runaways will be with PAR or DIS.
It’s Batman Begins meets Crouching Dragon.
.
Okay, seriously? I used to collect comic books for about 10 years. I’m well aware of Iron Fist (but waitaminute, is it racims that I don’t see Iron Fist’s African-American partner Power Man listed here?), but he was always a peripheral character with a very limited fan base.
This had better come in on a very low sub-$50M budget or it’s going to lose money.
There are about 10 trades of excellent, recent, Iron Fist comics. Written by two of Marvel’s best writers, Ed Brubaker and Matt fraction. Iron Fist is now a member of the New Avengers, and hasn’t been a “lesser known” or “sideline” character for years.
“…racims that I don’t see Iron Fist’s African-American partner Power Man listed here?”
Really? Just because you know Iron Fist as a partner to Power Man (now known as Cage), it doesn’t mean he’ll be teamed up with Power Man in a movie. If you look it up, Iron Fist had his own comic and eventually teamed up (probably due to sales) with Power Man. As a side note, Power Man had his own series at/around the same time.
In an ideal world, Power Man (Cage) will have his own movie and they’d eventually meet up in a Iron Fist Power Man movie!!
LET’S BE DIFFERENT!! Just once I’d like to see a superhero who doesn’t take Steroids.
If this were the Olympics, EVERY Marvel Superhero would be busted for illegal drug use.
Nice footies. My wife has some just like that.
Iron Fist. Ballerina Feet.
I understand that we’re all fairly burned out on super hero flicks…And that the potential for disaster is high on this one.
However:
This is exactly the kind of property in which one could put minimal money for maximum results. In theory (emphasis on theory), there’s no reason you couldn’t go after Issac Florentine (Undisputed 3) or Kim Ji-Woon (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) to direct a property like this — two guys who are making fresh action films on smaller budgets than anything Marvel’s been putting out recently.
Now, I’m 99.9% sure that’s NOT going to happen — but I for one am burned out less by superhero movies than the way certian properties are being treated. Give me the right people and I could be jumping up and down for joy on this one.
I wonder how this is going to conflict with the Eli Roth produced, RZA directed “Man with the Iron Fists”. I’m sure you’ll prob see a title change or legal battle soon. Reminds me of Avatar: Last Airbender vs. Camerons Avatar, which obviously Cameron won.
This could go the way of Jonah Hex. I don’t see Iron Fist appealing to the masses. However, there are some interesting characters within the comic book series. Misty Knight comes to mind. If she’s included I hope Kerry Washington is cast in the part. She’s a strong actress and if Iron Fist is popular, who knows, there could be a spin-off opportunity for her.
Heroes for Hire! This isnt a 2nd tier Marvel Character
Every fanboy loves Iron Fist along with his partner in crime fighting Luke Cage
Iron Fist Movie equals Luke Cage right around the corner.
Dont hate
this will be alot of fun if done right
@Anonymous – the ten years of comics you collected must have been from the 70′s, because Iron Fist had a critically acclaimed series of his own just 2 years ago, and is now on the Avengers and a well-loved A-list character. Luke Cage, who you refer to as Power Man (which he hasn’t used for 20 years, again), is the leader of his own Avengers team, and i wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the big screen in the next 5 years.
@Fan – how many people do you think knew who Iron Man was before RD Jr. had a shot at it? not many. Also; Scott Pilgrim was universally better reviewed than Expendables but did worse than it at every theater, so there’s no accounting for testosterone vs. hipsters.
I would like to direct you guys to Road to Perdition, History of Violence, 300, Sin City, and many other comic movies that you would never guess the source material; it’s a format, not a genre.
Well said, Brendan. I’ve been waiting for someone around here to point out that comic book films and superhero films aren’t always the same thing.
And in the realm of heroes, Blade was a great example of a lesser-known character that turned out to be widely accepted.
I love the geniuses who know best, though. Really, I do.
Iron Man has been front and center for Marvel for almost 50 years. That’s a huge legacy audience. Iron Fist not so much.
You’re right about Perdition, History of Violence, 300 and Sin City, but all that proves is that it is the quality of the movie that counts. Right now, Hollywood seems to need the safety blanket of underlying intellectual property, be it graphic novel, video game, remake or toy. But the reality is that people always respond to a good, well told story.
Hollywood needs to get back to originating content. Revive the spec script market and make some great, original movies. Because at the moment the town is a just a recycling center.
Unless the original content is written by someone like Cameron, don’t count on it. Hollywood’s focus has and always will be making money. They see an original (read, untested) idea/script as a huge risk to put money behind, because it is an unknown, in there eyes, it has a greater chance of failure (no matter how badly you screw up Batman, there are still going to be some diehards who go watch it, right?) If you want to see original content, look to indies.
This is Great news..is about time Iron Fist get its own Movie
I could dare to dream a 70′s style ‘spoltation Iron Fist, with Luke Cage in full afro mode…unlikely to actually happen- but that’s an Iron Fist movie I could get behind.
Agreed with the previous comment on the recent Fraction/Brubaker relaunch. That’s a pretty great book. If the film is tonally in line with that run, I can live with it.
I can appriciate the work that Marvel puts into these films but…
does anyone above 12 really give a CRAP about this??
Marvel in one of their less stellar moments, after the grand Kirby era.
I’m just so burned out on all those adaptations of novels. I’m sure the “novel genre” is going to die soon too.
FYI – comic book movies are going nowhere.
Heroes for hire, baby.
A good story is a good story. It doesn’t matter if it adapted from another medium or completely original. I’m really sick of the “no one above the age of 12 cares” bashing of comic book derived movies. Many of these films are terrible….. as are a good % of original movies or those adapted from novels, theatre, toys, and lab equipment. However, there are transcendent examples in all these categories (except, maybe, the lab equipment genre). Lots of comic book movies are being developed – so what? It’s what summer is for. 5 years ago everyone was complaining about remakes and before that, TV adaptations. It’s all cyclical……and it doesn’t stop good movies – of any genre – from getting made.
Yo, Iron Fist, your costume went out in the 70s.
This is a tier 3 ‘whitey to the rescue’ Marvel character. Never cared for him, his illustration style or the multiculti inner-city condescension of his partnership with Power Man… the Captain Planet of the GenX comics. Imagine this: a wealthy white guy travels to the Orient where he becomes the most powerful warrior of all. Disney definitely needed to pay $4B to acquire such originality.
It’s quite rich that Frank Miller and Christopher Nolan are considered geniuses for ripping off Iron Fist.
The question Disney had to ask itself is: “How much money do we want to make with this movie?” The Rich Wilkes and Steve Carr hirings seem to equal: not much.
Seriously… the guy who directed Next Friday, Dr. Doolittle 2, Are We Done Yet? and Paul Blart: Mall Cop??? WTFH? I can see Channing Tatum, maybe Paul Walker as Iron Fist. Sigh… I guess Sam Raimi and Chris Nolan can’t do every supe flick. Too bad, there is a lot of potential with this character. The dude punched a dragon through the chest to get his powers!! That could be made to look pretty freakin’ cool on the silver screen. Too bad it wont’ happen with these two half-baked movie men.
Looking forward to an Iron Fist. Has potential.