It's A Good Time To Be A Nerd
Or, as a friend of mine used to call me, a "naird". I like to think that naird is a nerd with sufficient communication skills, divergent interests, alternate hobbies, social graces and personal hygiene to pass among norms as not being a big nerd fanboy geek. I also realise that he considered it a term for someone that was a nerd in a limited scope, in my case, Marvel super-heroes and comics! Honestly, considering the alternative, both are good!
While musing over the body of my next blog entry, I happened across an interesting article on Newsarama. The focus of the piece is related to how Paramount and DreamWorks have announced a July 1, 2011 release for Transformers 3, months before Transformers 2 even hits cinemas.
But it was the very end of the article that caught my attention. A handy calendar of the upcoming comic-based and "major genre" films for the next few years, reprinted here for your pleasure, and my commentary.
Iron Man 2: May 7th, 2010
Twilight: Eclipse: June 30th, 2010
Inception (Christopher Nolan’s next film): July 16th, 2010
Jonah Hex: August 6th, 2010
Green Lantern: December 17th, 2010
Spider-Man 4: May 6, 2011
Thor: June 16th, 2011
Transformers 3: July 1st, 2011
The First Avenger: Captain America: July 22nd, 2011
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2: July 15th, 2011
The Avengers: July15th, 2012.
First of all, I love how the term "major genre" has come to include the fantasy and cult movies the geek community have been enjoying for decades. Seems the phrase "and the geek shall inherit the earth" is closer to reality then even I expected!
Marvel are filling up five of the eleven slots, four of which are part of the Marvel Studios shared universe line, building toward the Avengers release. Harry Potters release date has forced Marvel to push the Avengers movie back a full year, but now gives them the opportunity to allow Iron Man director Jon Favreau direct what will presumably be their biggest, most daring, most expensive movie to date. Favreau seems to have become Marvel Studios golden boy when it comes to their movie line, and thankfully that is backed by a huge level of fan approval.
Sony's date for Spider-Man 4 has, according to some sources forced Marvel to move things around for their own line as well. The Spidey movie francise is the single biggest comic based money maker in Hollywood, and even Marvel aren't willing to go up against it. They're not without reason; despite glowing reviews, strong casting, stunning visual effects and an all-ages appeal, last years Speed Racer tanked, almost exclusively because it opened a week after Iron Man.While DC has two movies on the list; Jonah Hex and Green Lantern, it's really only Green Lantern that people are going to recognise, and even then, he's no Superman, or even Flash.
All this and this years X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra are not even mentioned. (Observation: This year seems to be the year of the movie title format "Franchise Title, Colon, Subtitle") Truely it is a great time to be a nerd.
Even better, perhaps, to be a naird!
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1 comment:
Out of all this lot, I have to say Chris Nolan's "Inception" is - for me - by far the most important event; his first release since the staggeringly successful (and incredibly awesome) "The Dark Knight" - a huge chunk of cinema-goers will be looking on with interest as the "Incept Date" creeps ever closer... The morphology of the cinematic landscape may change yet again, but I think the longevity of The Dark Knight will be a hard act to follow.
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