Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Queseda, who never knew of an event he couldn’t hype, revealed a small tidbit to Marvel fans earlier this week that confirms what we continue to doubt every day: that the ambitious Marvel Films plan is moving ahead on schedule. “Definition of ‘goose bumps.’ Pressing enter and watching a screenplay entitled ‘AVENGERS’ come out of my printer,” reads the message from Queseda’s Twitter page. He followed this with, “It’s official, I have the greatest job in the world,” which we guess means anything he says about an Avengers movie in South Hollywood will get him a free sensual massage.
This likely means, damn the torpedoes, this Marvel film plan is still on track. They have “Iron Man 2” due this year, and are currently shooting “Thor,” with Joe Johnston behind the camera for “The First Avenger: Captain America” despite no one being cast yet (DAILYCASTINGSUGGESTION we hear Ben McKenzie is available DAILYCASTINGSUGGESTION). “The Avengers,” supposedly from the pen of Zak Penn, is expected to begin with a modern day lead-in from current day bookends in the “Captain America” film, and a release date of May 4th, 2012 has already been penciled in, Mayan calendar notwithstanding. But if “Captain America” is postponed, as rumors have suggested, an “Avengers” film could be in jeopardy.
If all goes according to plan, an “Avengers” film needs to shoot in less than a year’s time. It looks like the lineup will include the characters Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, and will necessitate the involvement of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle and Scarlett Johansson, which is a tall order considering no director is currently attached (though we speculated openly here). While the films themselves don’t sound all that interesting, we remain excited, since the collective onscreen Marvel universe seems like some sort of high stakes, ambitious sequential storytelling that’s never been attempted before in strictly one medium.
