More from Kevin Feige:
UGO: As you know, the internet is rife with rumors about everything Marvel. So I’m going to ask you a few. Beginning with The Hulk, since it’s being released on DVD and Blu-ray this Tuesday. First, can you confirm that Edward Norton will be back as our favorite green guy? The Hulk 2?
Kevin Feige: We’re working on four movies right now that we’ve announced release dates for between now and 2011. A specific Hulk 2 isn’t one of them...where the green guy pops up next, I’m not entirely sure but I’m almost positive that we won’t be able to keep the green guy down. In terms of who the casts are, it enters the realm of contract discussions and negotiations that we’re rarely able to talk about.
UGO: There have been screen shots from an alternate opening scene on the net. People are saying that it looks like Captain America is frozen in the ice. Can you confirm that?
KF: The fun of it to me is not in talking to behind the scenes people and getting a definite confirmation. The fun is in putting it in the DVD or Blu-ray and looking at the little image that is online and kind of deciphering for yourself…
UGO: I think it looks like it. Everyone is talking about Hulk as a villain in the Avengers. Is that something that we’re looking at?
KF: Certainly there have been great comic issues in the past...and there’s a great animated feature called Ultimate Avengers a few years ago that features really cool battles between the Avengers and the Hulk himself. I think that’s a classic element of the Avengers. When or where we would actually do that I’m not sure. The stories of all the films are continuing to be developed and pieced together. There’s nothing firm yet on the Avengers plot.
UGO: Everyone thinks that the smirk at the end of the film might be a clue.
KF: I think they’re right about that.
UGO: On the Avengers, I know there were rumors about Will Smith and a bunch of others. Are we any closer to finding out who’s actually going to play Captain America?
KF: I think we’re a little ways away from that. That’s a film that doesn’t come out until May 6th, 2011. So the first announcement that I think you will hear in the not-too-distant future is on the film making front. On the screen-writing front. As we announce the partners that we’ve brought on to bring it to life with us. And soon after that, well, maybe not soon, at some point after that, there will be announcements such as casting, but that will be a little ways off.
UGO: I know Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus have been talked about.
KF: They’ve been rumored online by numerous people. I think last I heard, Will Smith was actually going to write the script for us. I don’t know how much that would cost.
UGO: (laughs) I think he might be expensive. Talking about Iron Man and cross-overs with The Hulk, everybody’s been talking about Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard. What’s going on?
KF: I think it’s a couple beats early for me to be able to talk about that or any of the casting, as I mentioned before. But there will be clarity soon about that.
UGO: I interviewed Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead) a while back, and he said he was really excited about doing Ant-Man and that that was actually going on. We’re still seeing that online.
KF: Yeah. I mean, Edgar has been passionate about Ant-Man for years. I think it was probably three or four years ago that I first met Edgar down at Comic Con. He wanted to meet to talk about a character, and I was like, Ok, Spider-Man? What’s it going to be? And he had pictures of Ant-Man, which I was surprised about until I heard his pitch, and then it made perfect sense. And we brought him on right away. He has delivered an excellent, excellent draft with his writing partner Joe Cornish. They’re at the tail end of doing a revised draft as well. And then, of course, Edgar is going to go off and do Scott Pilgrim. So we hope at some point after that, to bring Ant-Man to the screen.
UGO: Of course, another major rumor is Kenneth Branagh directing Thor. Has that been confirmed yet?
KF: I will confirm that it is indeed a major rumor.
UGO: You’ve done this before...everyone would love to see what he does with Thor. Anybody else being talked about right now?
KF: I think the DVD release of The Hulk is coming a week or two earlier than any of the other announcements will be coming…
UGO: Stan Lee told us recently that pretty much every Marvel character was looking at a future in film. Is there any character that’s not in development that you would like to see as a film?
KF: There are lots of them. Lots and lots and lots...I’ll get together with the development team and say, pitch me a character that I’ve never heard of. Because, believe it or not, there are characters in the Marvel universe that I’ve never heard of. Even having lived with it for all of my thirty-four years and having worked with Marvel for eight years...and you look back at the very first film of the new Marvel era and it was a character that never had his own title, that just appeared in somebody else’s book, that had the seed and the core idea that was great and was able to be fleshed out into movies and TV shows and it was Blade. So there are more of those there. And it’s about finding them and letting them grow. One that I’m excited about somewhere down the line, certainly because it’s unlike anything we’ve ever done before and I think it could be an exciting challenge, would be, of course, Dr. Strange.
The Hulk is released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 21st
Saw it for the first time last night. And damn shes fine, was hoping to see more of her. Is there any other films she appeared in?
