Guardians Of The Galaxy and Ant-Man hasten the day when all movies will be Marvel movies
As we cannot write a news story headlined "All Marvel Comics Being Made Into Movies, Sparking Money Tornadoes" and simply be done with it—because of professionalism—updates on Marvel's post-Avengers plans continue to be doled out one increasingly niche comic-book adaptation at a time. But we're cramming these two together, because really, there is only so much Marvel movie news hours in a day. First up, The Hollywood Reporter backs up rumors first circulated on Latino Review that Marvel's previously revealed, "mystery" 2014 project will be The Guardians Of The Galaxy, another tentpole team-up featuring the interstellar-traveling band of 31st-century cosmic heroes first introduced in 1969—though it's unclear as of yet whether the film would be based on the title's original incarnation or the 2008 reboot. Further confusing matters, THR's story lists the 1969 characters but features a photo of the 2008 group, surely garnering many hilarious angry emails.
Such details are expected to be cleared up at the studio's Comic-Con panel, but already it seems a hunt for a director is underway and a script has already been completed by Nicole Perlman, a writer who made her mark with two space-based biopic scripts—one about the Challenger disaster and another about Neil Armstrong—before moving on to drafting a Black Widow script and working on Thor. Lending further credence to the fact that it's really happening, Marvel recently snapped up the trademark rights to an incredibly far-ranging breadth of new Guardians Of The Galaxy merchandise—everything from "jewelry to beverages to furniture to cosmetics," according to Bleeding Cool. ("Oh, is that Rocket Raccoon cologne you're wearing?" your future date will purr while draped across your official, Drax The Destroyer-shaped chaise lounge, only to have you abashedly admit that, no, it is a Projectile Possum smell-alike.)
Anyway, at that very same panel, you can also likely expect an update on Ant-Man, Edgar Wright's long-gestating project about the miniature superhero with the power to become really small and ruin cereals. After more than five years of the film being about to happen, the film is apparently even more about to happen now that Wright has just completed a test reel, meaning that you can look forward to many future months of further talk of it being about to happen. That is, if you're not already consumed with anticipatory talk of all the other rumored Marvel projects that may or may not be discussed at Comic-Con, such as another Hulk movie, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Runaways, and Luke Cage, along with those that definitely will be, such as the next Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Avengers films (not to mention the X-Men and Spider-Man sequels). In the meantime, of course, you must continue to tolerate movies that are not based on Marvel characters, sort of like audiences in the late '20s were forced to put up with the awkward transition from silent films to talkies.