Where Are We Going From Here?

Written by GL

Ok, so all the movies that have come out so far have gotten a whole lot of attention; we were thrilled, the Box Office made it's money, everyone's happy. What's next on the line up? The House Of El goes on into the rumour deparment to check it out.

The top-business-suit people at Sony Pictures Entertainment will be sitting down soon to discuss the superhero franchise's future. Sam Raimi will be there. And Raimi might actually tell whether he'll handle the next Spiderman installment or not.

The one thing we have answered definitively is: there will be more Spider-Man movies. That's the good news, but as it stand, no release dates have been mentioned until scripts are written.

Needless to say, Spiderman was good. How good you ask? The franchise had netted upwards of $2 billion in Box Office receipts, as well as home video revenue and other income from things such as merchandise. But that's not unique in Hollywood today.

At Fox, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand appears to have concluded the franchise. So, the studio is developing two possible spin-offs: Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman, and Magneto, which would follow the character portrayed by Ian McKellen as a much younger man.

Also at Fox, the future of Fantastic Four is unclear after the second installment. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, opened really well with a following $58.1 million. Instead, Fox is developing a Silver Surfer follow-up and is considering another Fantastic Four sequel, but no script is in development.

The studio has been so eager to get Wolverine out next year that it has committed to go into production the instant Hugh Jackman is free for filming. "The idea is (to) get it out next summer," says one source.

For the time being anyway, it seems that Wolverine is the best hope for continuing the X-Men movie franchise. "There is no script for an X-Men 4, and there is none in the works".

The future of the studio's recent comic book adaptation, 2006's Superman Returns, is somewhat more unknown. The film cost $209 million (even after various tax rebates) and marketing costs sent expenses upward of $300 million, but Bryan Singer's picture made only $201 million in the US.

"If we do a sequel to Superman, we want it to be less expensive," says a movie producer. "I have to see a screenplay before I say yes to anything. But the studio would be willing to spend as much as $175 million if the screenplay and other factors warranted it."

Still, Singer has announced that he plans to direct a second Superman project.

We, at The House Of El, would definitely like to see a second Superman, especially after all the time that was spent finding such a great portraying actor to take over from the great Christopher Reeves (respect to him).