Variety — X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST writer Simon Kinberg recently told Collider that 20th Century Fox is interested in possibly bringing some of their Marvel characters to the small screen, which may or may not include the X-Men, X-Force, Deadpool, New Mutants and Fantastic Four.
“We’re still in this place of figuring out what the future of the franchise will be,’ he says, “but when you look at ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ to some extent and what Marvel is doing now with ‘Daredevil’ and other shows on Netflix, it makes sense to tell some of these stories in TV partly because there’s just not enough screens to do all these characters, and also because the serialized format of comic books is better suited for TV. Because that’s it, every week you come back to the same characters different story, and in comic books every week it’s the same characters, different story.”
Can it work on a television budget?
“And that’s the challenge,” he says. “I think what they’re seeing now is with the proliferation of new kinds of visual and special effects, there’s a way to make these stories that don’t cost $300 million every time you have to make a huge movie.”
But what rights does Fox have when it comes to television properties? Their original contract with Marvel allows them to use X-Men and Fantastic Four characters in live action format, but TV is a questionable entity as Marvel has those rights in animation and possibly live action too – Fox didn’t produce 1996’s ‘Generation X’ TV movie or the rip-off ‘Mutant X’ series. Might there have to be some sort of compromise between both studios to actually make this work?
X-Men stories can work great for TV. Looking forward to seeing this happen.
Agreed, as long as it’s not done cheaply.