Marvel Television

La Marvel Entertainment ha creato la nuova divisione Marvel Television per occuparsi di tutti i progetti riguardanti il piccolo schermo: direct-to-video, serie animate, serie live-action. Al comando è stato scelto Jeph Loeb, scrittore e produttore di Smallville e Heroes.

Intervista a Jeph Loeb:

Dopo l'acquisizione della Disney è sembrato chiaro che lo studio fosse interessato a trasporre i personaggi Marvel sul piccolo schermo. C'era già una relazione in corso dentro al mondo dell'animazione, la Disney ha cosi tanti network (la Abc, Abc Family, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ESPN) e quindi un mucchio di opportunità per entrare in questo media improvvisamente sono divenute disponibili per la Marvel. [...] Loro mi hanno offerto questa incredibile opportunità con questa nuova divisione, lavorando con i network Disney, per portare il catalogo Marvel sugli schermi televivi.

Sull'animazione che vedremo da qui ai prossimi anni:

Beh, ci sono tre aree differenti dell'animazione che noi continueremo ad esplorare per lavorarci: la prima sono i film d'animazione direct-to-video, come Planet Hulk, che adoro. La seconda prevede il continuare a espandere le aree dell'animazione, attualmente hanno Marvel Super Hero Squad, che è su Cartoon Network. In autunno ci sarà Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes su Disney XD, e stiamo sviluppando Ultimate Spider-Man, sempre per Disney XD. Ci sono anche altri progetti nell'animazione che stiamo sviluppando ma di cui ancora non siamo pronti a parlare.

Loeb ha poi parlato brevemente delle serie live action che sono, ovviamente, le più attese dai fan:

Stiamo lavorando con la Abc e la Abc Family per trovare le proprietà giuste, i personaggi giusti e poi svilupparli. Per iniziare, esploreremo il campo della serie tv di un ora simile alle serie a cui ho lavorato, come Smallville e Lost.


Ed ecco quali saranno le nuove serie live-action della Marvel che sono state proposte ai canali americani ABC e ABC Family:

1) Una nuova serie de L'Incedibile Hulk
2) Cloak and Dagger (= Cloak e Dagger)
3) Heroes for Hire (= Eroi in vendita): il personaggio di Luke Cage è menzionato in modo specifico, ma non Iron Fist (= Pugno d'acciaio).
4) The Eternals (= Gli Eterni)
5) Moon Knight
6) The Hood (= Hood)
7) Ka-Zar
8) Daughters of the Dragon (= Le Figlie del Drago) le cui protagoniste saranno le supereroine Misty Knight e Colleen Wing
9) The Punisher (= Il Punitore)
10) Agents of Atlas(= Agenti dell'Atlas)
11) Alter Ego (serie con protagonista la supereroina Jessica Jones, la cui testata è intitolata Alias, ma per problemi di copyright con la famosa serie tv Alias si è optato per un altro titolo "Alter Ego").

Per il momento le prime serie su cui stanno lavorando sono L'Incredibile Hulk e Cloak e Dagger.


Ed ecco l'articolo di cui si parla di tutti questi progetti:

Hulk Smashing Back to TV
Cloak and Dagger also being developed by Marvel Television.
by Eric Goldman

Eric Bana, Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo, move over. It looks like we might be getting the fourth actor to play Bruce Banner within a decade, as Marvel is developing a new live-action Incredible Hulk TV series.

Hollywood Reporter revealed the news that Marvel and ABC were working together on a potential new Hulk show, naming it as a priority at the recently launched Marvel Television. The other project of note in the TV realm for Marvel is Cloak and Dagger, which could headed to ABC Family.

When Disney bought Marvel last year, it seemed a no-brainer that a lot more TV series would be developed based on Marvel characters, with Disney owned channels like ABC, ABC Family and Disney XD all likely homes for such series. The selection of the Hulk as the first big project is a bit of a surprise though, given that he'd been used in films in the past decade (and will be again in Avengers of course), but in some respects makes sense, given the Hulk's history. The 1978 Bill Bixby/Lou Ferigno Incredible Hulk series was a big hit – easily the most notable live-action Marvel project until the past decade, when Blade, X-Men and Spider-Man began breaking through in theaters. However, the two Hulk films both failed to make much of an impact at the box office – despite the better-received reboot film in 2008.
We have fond memories of the old Incredible Hulk show, but we're guessing they won't just paint a dude green in the new one.
The Reporter says that Marvel presented ABC with a list of potential series back in May that included Hulk along with Heroes for Hire (Luke Cage is mentioned specifically, but Iron Fist is not), The Eternals, Moon Knight, The Hood, Ka-Zar, Daughters of the Dragon (Misty Knight and Colleen Wing), and The Punisher. The Reporter also lists Agents of Atlas, Alter Ego as a title, describing it as "private investigator Jessica Jones takes on cases involving superhumans." This is a bit odd, in that the Agents of Atlas comic book had nothing to do with Jessica Jones, but there is also the fact that the Jessica Jones comic book was called Alias and would likely require a new title as to not confuse it with the former ABC (and Disney-owned) TV series, Alias.

[Update: "TitanMatrix2000" suggested in the comments that the Reporter might have accidentally combined two different titles - Agents of Atlas and Alter Ego, with the latter being the Jessica Jones concept. That sounds very likely. They also listed Moon Knight, The Red Hood as a title, which I'm sure is meant to be two projects: Moon Knight and The Hood - without the "Red" which would be a completely different DC character.]

According to The Reporter, while Hulk and Cloak and Dagger (the latter not part of that original pitch meeting) are the priorities now, The Punisher is also being viewed as a potential cable series down the line.

Unclear right now is if Marvel is going to work to interlink their TV series like they are their films, or even go further and make connections between the TV series and the films.

The Reporter describes The Incredible Hulk as being in a "showrunner wanted" position – the insinuation being that it is almost a sure thing to make it to series. Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb meanwhile is meeting with writers about Cloak and Dagger.

Last year, after the Marvel/Disney deal occurred, we gave our own list of the Top 10 Marvel Comics We'd Like to See on TV. I'm happy to see at least a couple of our suggestions were on Marvel's suggestions as well, including a Jessica Jones-led series.