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I'm not sure Disney HBO/Showtime/Starz/Whatever is a match that can be made anymore... but please. Give us a viceral mega event miniseries... Civil War, preferably.
Last week, Comics2Film commented on a statement made by Marvel studio chief Kevin Feige regarding the Punisher. Long story short, Feige made a remark about Marvel holding the film rights to ol’ Frank Castle and that there were plans for the character in the works. As Rob said over in C2F, it’s not particularly newsworthy because Marvel has held the rights for some time and it should come as a surprise to no one that they intend on doing something with the character. But what exactly do the intend to do?
The first thing that likely comes to mind is another movie, if only because Marvel has been dominating the box office for several years and judging by that beautiful Thor footage we saw last Thursday, that trend isn’t going to stop any time soon. But it wasn’t that long ago that we heard the news of Jeph Loeb being appointed as Executive VP, Head of Television. What’s that you say? Television? Oh yes, we’ve heard of this marvelous invention known as the television… there’s plenty of potential there.
In his new position, Mr. Loeb will work alongside Dan Buckley to bring Marvel’s characters to the television medium, in both animated and live-action form. Say what you will about the man’s seeming inability to write a good story in recent years, he does come with a long list of credentials. And while we wouldn’t be particularly thrilled at the thought of him penning any scripts for a Marvel television series, we know that he’s got a background in the business and is definitely the right man for this job.
So now we’ve got Jeph Loeb as the TV guy. As ticket prices soar, more and more people are popping their own popcorn and just waiting for the DVD – after all, these days your television screen is probably as big as your refrigerator and you don’t have to wait in line or deal with jerks who insist on texting or actually talking on the phone throughout the duration of a film. Plus, you’ve got a pause button! Simultaneously, the boob tube has increasingly been gaining respect with shows like the Sopranos, Mad Men, Lost and various others that test the limits of the medium and show just how great television can be. Sure, there’s still plenty of crap on TV, but these days… well, we’re getting off track here. We’re supposed to be talking about comics. The point is, movies are awesome, but these days a lot of folks prefer to get their story arcs and character development over the course of a season rather than over the cours of two hours.
As we’re sure many of you did, our first reaction upon hearing the news of Jeff Loeb’s appointment was to pose the question “What kind of programming will Marvel create?” The Superhero Squad is already bringing the fun of the Marvel U to a younger audience and plans have been announced for a new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon with some Bendis fellow working on the scripts. And then there’s the upcoming Avengers cartoon. But what about those two magic words? Live-action.
When dealing with a television budget, it makes more sense to go with non-powered or “lesser powered” street level characters, right? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where we’re going with this… maybe Kevin Feige’s comments about the Punisher don’t have anything to do with the silver screen? Perhaps we’re going to see Frank Castle dole out his unique form of justice on the small screen?
Now, a Punisher television series sounds great, but if Marvel is smart (and we know they are), they’re not going to settle for a couple of hit animated series’ and a live-action series on prime time; they’re going to go whole hog. Take a look at the success of the Marvel film franchise. Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2. Next summer we’ve got Thor and Captain America on the way and the following summer, the big one. The Avengers. Why not use that same formula on the small screen?
Okay, we’re not actually reading Shadowland and we’ve heard mixed reviews on the series, but we just like the name, so we’re gonna run with it. The point is, the series deals with Marvel’s street level heroes such as Daredevil, the Punisher, Power Man and Iron Fist, Elektra, Moon Knight and Shang-Chi, among others. Yeah… exactly the type of characters who would work well in a television series. So if you’re gonna do one, why not do ‘em all?
In fact, why not follow the same tried and true pattern that has worked so well for Marvel in the past? Let’s say Shadowland is the main series, with 12 episodes and an emphasis on Daredevil assuming control of The Hand and turning evil (not the televsion series necessarily needs to follow the same plotline as the comics) and supporting characters like Frank Castle, Luke Cage and Danny Rand. Midway through the season, or as soon as it wraps up, we get a 5-episode Punisher series focusing on Frank. It could be taking place simultaneously with the main series, showing the heads Frank was busting while off camera, or it could serve as a sequel to the main series while the second season shoots. Next up is a 2-hour Power Man and Iron Fist movie that bridges the gap between seasons one and two of Shadowland. Next thing you know, you’ve got a full-fledged Marvel event on your hands.
Now, we don’t claim to know how fancy Hollywood contracts work, so we don’t know if this next idea is even feasible. Hell, we don’t really know if any of this is feasible, but allow a fanboy to have his dreams, okay? Here’s what we’re thinking: a shot of Danny Rand sipping his morning tea and reading a newspaper with a big article about his business rival Tony Stark - and it’s actually a picture of Robert Downey Jr. Maybe a news broadcast in the background at a bar with shots of the rampaging Hulk tearing through a college campus. Or maybe that press conference where Stark revealed to the world that he was Iron Man at the end of the first movie? We’ve already seen the Marvel films reference each other, and we’re writing this under the assumption that the televsion series’ will do the same. Why not have the big screen compliment and cross-promote the small screen and vice versa?
Of course, this is all wishful thinking and if any of it happens, it’ll be years down the road. But we’re not stupid… if we’ve thought of it, we know Marvel’s thought of it too. And maybe Kevin Feige’s statement about seeing the Punisher again “soon” was more newsworthy than we initially thought?
In addition to penning Comicscape and weekly comic book reviews, Chad Derdowski can also be found on the Zod Complex podcast, a weekly conversation and debate between four hardcore geeks. Check ‘em out at ZodComplex.com and on iTunes!
I'm not sure Disney HBO/Showtime/Starz/Whatever is a match that can be made anymore... but please. Give us a viceral mega event miniseries... Civil War, preferably.
Civil War would be a great miniseries to do but won't happen until the rights to all of the Marvel characters reverts back to the House of M. I suppose you could do Civil War without Spider-man, Wolverine and the Fantastic Four. But why would you?
Didn't Jeph Loeb got fired for writting and working for the TV show Heroes?
I might have experience with TV but, doesn't mean it's a good one.
But, again, talking about TV comics, someone like Punisher would only work as much as it could on a TV station like HBO.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, Walking Dead might be good on AMC but, on HBO, it would be excellent. Swearing, sex, violence, gore, it's all part of the story, why go to a chanel that won't allow you as much as another one would? in the book, there is swearing, gore, sex, etc..., why not do the same thing on TV?
Punisher would be great on HBO because, the guy just kills people and he takes them down hard. That's what needs to be shown if you take a character like him and show him to the world. The 616 Punisher might be cool but, he's not really the punisher. The MAX Punisher IS and always will be the only Punisher that matters because that's what the character is all about (and I'm talking more about the Ennis run).
So, just like the 616, AMC is the same, with limits. HOB is like the MAX series since, it's more free to be more realistic and true to the character.
Let's hope things get better with time.
Loeb was fired from Heroes because the producers that make everything on TV and in Movies come out far worse than it should have, wanted a scapegoat for everything they haveMessed up. It's traditional Hollywood. If you suck at your job just put out a press release saying it was the other guy. the masses will believe whatever they read in a Press Release, it's not like people can lie on paper...
Punisher on a Premium Channel would be legit, but anywhere else and its doomed for failure. I could see Iron Fist being great on any Channel though. Or Moon Knight, Perhaps Powerman, though the MOuse House guy's will probably try to make him a Gangsta Gangsta Type.
I don't think that something like Punisher could only work on HBO. To address jedibanners AMC/Walking Dead analogy, the sex, violence, and gore are not central to the story of The Walking Dead. All of these things are present though they really do not drive the story. If these "bits of garnish" are presented artistically there is no need for the show to be on HBO or some other premium channel. None of those things are overly present in the TWD comic either. You may get one big gory splash page every three or four issues, that really isn't all that much is it? TWD is about a group of people trying to weather a storm. It's not about zombies eating people. Horror is about subtlety, not about gore and a slasher leaping out of a closet. Horror is what you don't see. Read some HP Lovecraft, you'll understand. I blame the rash of "torture porn" films from the last few years for confusing people about what horror is. The Descent was a hell of a lot scarier than and of the Saw or Hostel films and it used considerably less gore and nudity. Adult language is a nonentity and totally unnecessary. The Dark Knight was gritty and hard edged and didn't have any of the gratuitous sex, gore or language. A good writer has no need to beat you over the head with these things. If you've ever watched Bones, they get away with a nice amount of gore for a network show. Put The Punisher or Shadowland series on at 10 pm and I'm sure it will be able to present these characters in all of there pulpy hard boiled goodness.
Why would you do Civil War at all? Those comics sucked!
would love to see TV shows that are true to the characters which Civil War was not.
I agree that Iron Fist, Moon Knight, and DareDevil would make make great shows.
Amen, Rheul_home! Really competent writers would be able to do the Punisher justice within the "confines" of AMC or another cable network, especially if the show aired after 10 pm.
HOWEVER, after two failed movies I think Marvel might need to face the fact that outside of the hardcore comic fans, there isn't a lot of interest in seeing the Punisher in other mediums. If there was, people would have gone to see those movies regardless of quality, much in the way people turned out for both Fantastic Four films or that god-awful travestry called Wolverine.
I'm pretty sure there have been movies about men who's families were killed by mobsters who took bloody vengence on organized crime. The story of The Punisher isn't really new or different to the mainstream audience who wouldn't know what would make him different from other similar characters.
Fantastic Four and Wolverine had fantastic advertising. Whether or not they were good films, everybody knew they were in theaters and were likely to have lots of fantastic action.
I don't believe that any Punisher film was a big release. Anyway, I don't remember when they were in theaters and whether or not I planned to see it, I would take note of any comic book based film I heard about.
I'm sure that the mainstream audience wasn't demanding an Iron Man film, or even knew who Iron Man was, before Robert Downey Jr made such an entertaining movie. If they could make Iron Man a success, there is no reason they couldn't do it for Punisher.
I'm hoping that with the backing of Disney now, Marvel will try to push more and more stuff into theaters and on TV. I just want my Iron Fist TV show.
Actually I think Jeph Loeb would be more suited for a live-action superhero TV show. His comics work as of late I would characterize as brainless popcorn movie action, which works better when you actually have live action.
Comics this week, Rebels and some other stuff. Rebels is all that matters. Double the Brainiacs equals double the awesome