They are going ahead with a Justice League movie

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

When Jim Carrey declined to make a sequel to The Mask, New Line offered it to Kevin Spacey at one stage. Might have been interesting.

[Captaindemotion]

^ Keep your $5.

[Guy Gardener]

I can't imagine paying even 1 dollar for Son of Mask.

I mean, I remember talking about the first one because there was this blonde girl who so pretty and talented that I was just certain that she was going to be some one someday.

[Captain Craig]

Dark Horse also got Timecop made with Jean Claude Van Damm which actually isn't bad.

[Turtletrekker]

Apparently, the already in planning stages re-boot of the Batman movie franchise is already said by sources to be a part of this proposed JLA movie franchise project.

No surprises there.

Donald Draper wrote:

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While I did like the Marvel movies leading to the Avengers, I feel the first Iron Man was one that worked as a strong standalone film. The rest just felt like a setup for the Avengers. Good thing that was done so well, it makes Captain America and Thor better. But now that they done that, future solo sequels and team ups are going to need to work as stand alone films to be satisfying.

I really have to disagree with the all of the Marvel movies save Iron Man just being "set-up for the Avengers" part of your statement. The only movie that really suffered from that was Iron Man 2 bringing in Black Widow in a part that really didn't contribute much.

Outside of end of movie sequences, Thor's only connections were a shared supporting character from the Iron Man movies and a blink-and-you-miss-it Hawkeye cameo. In Captain America, there was the cube, which had been a common thread in the movies leading to The Avengers, but story-wise it was just a MacGuffin. In The Incredible Hulk, again outside of end of movie sequences, there was some name dropping, but again, nothing in your face. Most of the "build-up to Avengers" in these movies were nothing more than Easter eggs and the movies stand alone just fine.

[Greg Cox]

Captain Craig wrote:

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Dark Horse also got Timecop made with Jean Claude Van Damm which actually isn't bad.

And Barb Wire, which I confess I've never seen.

[Captain Craig]

Barb Wire is only worth watching with the right bottle of spirits. It tanked at the B.O.

Timecop actually did decent though. This was back when the internet was still $1.99 a minute and it was easier to get news through a magazine but I recall there were talks of a sequel. Details escape me but I did like Timecop. Haven't see in it 15+yrs, wonder if it holds up?

[Christopher]

Turtletrekker wrote:

---

Apparently, the already in planning stages re-boot of the Batman movie franchise is already said by sources to be a part of this proposed JLA movie franchise project.

No surprises there.

Well, I'm skeptical of news that nameless "sources" provide to industry blogs. It wasn't that long ago that TrekMovie.com's anonymous sources "confirmed" that Leonard Nimoy would be in the upcoming Trek movie, which Nimoy soon refuted, and that Khan would be the villain, which Simon Pegg later shot down.

Also, as a rule, I'm skeptical of rumors that are exactly what you'd expect to hear, because they could easily be invented by people with no actual inside knowledge. In this case, though, I'll grant it's plausible that WB would've developed a plan like this in response to Marvel. But I'll wait for further confirmation before I assume it's all true.

I really have to disagree with the all of the Marvel movies save Iron Man just being "set-up for the Avengers" part of your statement. The only movie that really suffered from that was Iron Man 2 bringing in Black Widow in a part that really didn't contribute much.

Outside of end of movie sequences, Thor's only connections were a shared supporting character from the Iron Man movies and a blink-and-you-miss-it Hawkeye cameo. In Captain America, there was the cube, which had been a common thread in the movies leading to The Avengers, but story-wise it was just a MacGuffin. In The Incredible Hulk, again outside of end of movie sequences, there was some name dropping, but again, nothing in your face. Most of the "build-up to Avengers" in these movies were nothing more than Easter eggs and the movies stand alone just fine.

I dunno, I do think Captain America might've been a stronger film if it hadn't needed to climax with Cap getting trapped in the ice and revived in the present. It might've been nice to get 2-3 WWII-era Cap films before getting him to that point.

Still, I don't really object to the idea of the prior films being lead-ins to The Avengers. Sure, movies are usually meant to stand on their own, but the whole thing that's cool about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that it's not something that's been done before. These movies are meant to be an interconnected meta-series, and I don't see how that's a bad thing. It's great that these movies feel like parts of a greater universe, that they affect each other and feed into each other. I think there's a nice progression in the past four films -- Fury fills in Tony on the Avengers Initiative, then Coulson splits off to deal with the Asgardian incursion, which brings in Selvig, who gets introduced to the Tesseract; and then we flash back to the story of how the Tesseract came into play, which is also the backstory of Captain America; and then all those threads come together when Loki invades. It's very deftly done. If anything, I regret that The Incredible Hulk doesn't fit into the tapestry better than it does.

[davejames]

Turtletrekker wrote:

---

I really have to disagree with the all of the Marvel movies save Iron Man just being "set-up for the Avengers" part of your statement. The only movie that really suffered from that was Iron Man 2 bringing in Black Widow in a part that really didn't contribute much.

Outside of end of movie sequences, Thor's only connections were a shared supporting character from the Iron Man movies and a blink-and-you-miss-it Hawkeye cameo. In Captain America, there was the cube, which had been a common thread in the movies leading to The Avengers, but story-wise it was just a MacGuffin. In The Incredible Hulk, again outside of end of movie sequences, there was some name dropping, but again, nothing in your face. Most of the "build-up to Avengers" in these movies were nothing more than Easter eggs and the movies stand alone just fine.

I think it kinda goes beyond just the storylines and easter eggs though. To me it felt like those movies all suffered a bit from having to share the same basic style and tone as one another. They were all constrained by this grand Marvel plan, and weren't really allowed to breathe and be their own thing like maybe they should have.

There was no room for anything as bright and comic booky as Raimi's Spider-Man, or as dark and gritty as Nolan's Batman. Nothing really stood out, and it was all just a bit too.... samey samey for my taste.

Obviously it paid off well with the Avengers; I just that Thor and Captain America had felt like more than just a warm-up act.

[Guy Gardener]

Captain Craig wrote:

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Barb Wire is only worth watching with the right bottle of spirits. It tanked at the B.O.

Timecop actually did decent though. This was back when the internet was still $1.99 a minute and it was easier to get news through a magazine but I recall there were talks of a sequel. Details escape me but I did like Timecop. Haven't see in it 15+yrs, wonder if it holds up?

Timecop II the Berlin Decision

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318763/

Jason Scott Lee had to save Hitler from being executed by a rogue Timecop.

There was also a 9 episode long TV show that had one episode where Bruce Campbell portrayed a visiting Timecop who played it fast and loose with the rules.

[Greg Cox]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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Timecop II the Berlin Decision

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318763/

Jason Scott Lee had to save Hitler from being executed by a rogue Timecop.

There was also a 9 episode long TV show that had one episode where Bruce Campbell portrayed a visiting Timecop who played it fast and loose with the rules.

And there was also a short-lived line of tie-novels, at least some of which were published after the tv show had already gone off the air. Not an ideal scenario!

[Christopher]

davejames wrote:

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I think it kinda goes beyond just the storylines and easter eggs though. To me it felt like those movies all suffered a bit from having to share the same basic style and tone as one another. They were all constrained by this grand Marvel plan, and weren't really allowed to breathe and be their own thing like maybe they should have.

I didn't feel they were required to have the same style and tone. I mean, Thor's Shakespearean grandeur and Captain America's WWII grittiness felt very different to me. Yes, they share a world, but it's a large and diverse world with a lot of history.

There was no room for anything as bright and comic booky as Raimi's Spider-Man, or as dark and gritty as Nolan's Batman. Nothing really stood out, and it was all just a bit too.... samey samey for my taste.

Again, I'm not sure it's entirely fair to judge things that were meant to be an integrated series by the same standards you'd use for things that were meant to be separate, self-contained movies. Although I did feel there's been a reasonable amount of diversity within the movies, I don't count it as a negative that they feel like they fit together in the same reality, because that's the whole idea. That's what makes this something new in the feature film industry. We've had film series before, even had the occasional crossover between separate film franchises (like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man or Aliens vs. Predator, or the '40s RKO films that crossed radio stars Fibber McGee & Molly with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy), but this, a whole shared universe built from the ground up with the purpose of supporting multiple interrelated series, is virtually unprecedented (though maybe the universe of Kevin Smith's various films comes close).

[PsychoPere]

I've never been a Green Arrow fan (just never paid much attention to the character), but I'm still intrigued by that Supermax idea that was floating around a few years back.

[Captain Craig]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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Timecop II the Berlin Decision

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318763/

Jason Scott Lee had to save Hitler from being executed by a rogue Timecop.

There was also a 9 episode long TV show that had one episode where Bruce Campbell portrayed a visiting Timecop who played it fast and loose with the rules.

Wait...what??!!
I don't think it'll be good but next stop Netflix, I'll add it to the queue. Somewhere down the list.
AND there was a 9 episode TV show.
Amazing what you can miss in the blink of the internet.

[Guy Gardener]

The lead in the TV show was "Andy". Shannon Dohertry's cop love interest from the first season (or two?) of Charmed.

Not an obvious leading man, but he has his moments.