‘Fantastic Four’

Earlier this week, the film industry gathered in Las Vegas for CinemaCon, the official convention for The National Association of Theater Owners. A bunch of studios unveiled their plans for the coming years, some new promotional material was released for the projects coming soon, and the talking heads dropped some hints at what fans can expect in regards to their favorite properties.

Collider had the chance to sit down with Fox CEO Tom Rothman and, in their interview, he addressed some lingering questions and concerns about some Marvel properties under the control of his studio.

First, we’ll talk about Josh Trank. The new director’s name has been attached to many projects after the success of his found-footage superhero film ‘Chronicle’. One such project is a reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise. Previously, it was only a rumor that Trank would be connected to the new film for Marvel’s first family, but now Rothman reports that the director is indeed working on it, but not necessarily directing it just yet. Rothman said:

“Josh Trank who did Chronicle, I think this has been reported, is gonna come on and work on a take, or a vision, that he has for it, so we’re very excited about that. I think there’s a possibility of [him directing].  I mean he’s gonna develop it now, and then it depends on the script.”

The bar isn’t set too high for a new Fantastic Four movie, but considering Trank’s recent successes, with him on the job, the bar might exceed the reach of the devourer of planets, Galactus.

‘Wolverine’

Moving on to James Mangold’s ‘The Wolverine’ starring Hugh Jackman, we’ve previously reported that even though the film initially wanted to shoot in Japan, natural disasters kept the productions out of the Land of the Rising Sun and they had to relocate to Jackman’s native land of Australia. But Rothman revealed to MTV that while the stage work will be done in Australia, the location work would still be done in Japan. The CEO told MTV (via /Film):

“It’s set in Japan. A great number of Japanese actors will be in it and it’s based on the very famous run of the comics… I can just tell you on behalf of [Jackman], his goal is to make the ultimate, bad ass, berserker rage Wolverine.”

This is very excellent news for everyone. We can’t have a movie about Wolverine’s time in Japan without actually bringing Wolverine to Japan. As soon as Jackman finishes up shooting ‘Les Miserables’ later this year, production will start in Australia before moving to Japan. ‘The Wolverine’ is set to open in theaters on July 26th, 2013.

‘The New Mutants’

Finally, keeping with X-Men related news, Rothman dropped some hints about a New Mutants movie to Collider. With the huge success that was ‘X-Men: First Class’, it’s no surprise that Fox is looking to explore even more mutant properties. Here’s how the conversation went:

“Collider: I know you guys have like The New Mutants and a lot of characters in the X-Men universe.  Obviously you guys are moving forward on an X-Men sequel, you’re moving forward on Wolverine, do you envision New Mutants or some of these other characters as franchises that the door can be open to?  It does seem to me that the superhero genre is bigger than it’s ever been, and you guys have some of the crown jewels.

Rothman: (smiles) Yes.

Collider: When can fans expect an announcement on some of these other properties?  Before Comic-Con, after Comic-Con, at Comic-Con?

Rothman:  In the summer.

Collider: Are you talking to filmmakers right now?

Rothman: Let me just say this.  All I have to say is, I agree with you in your assessment of the potential in a lot of these characters.”

It looks like it’s all but announced at this point. With Marvel’s massive success with their individual hero movies, and the impending success that is ‘The Avengers’, of course Fox is going to cash in as well considering that they own a good amount of Marvel heroes for film distribution. Since they’re going to town with all the X-movies at the moment, it almost makes sense that they’re looking to explore the X-Men universe that they’ve created with more Xavier Institute students and X-Men in the making of ‘The New Mutants’.

Fox certainly has a lot on its plate in the coming years. Hopefully they continue the trend of pretty good superhero movies in the same vein as ‘First Class’ and ‘Chronicle’ and leave the likes of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ in the dust.