Saturday, November 1, 2014

Sony-Spidey cinematic universe updates (Part 2).


Part 1.

So, the subject of Sony's "Untitled Female Superhero Movie", has been revealed, and it's....

*Drumroll*



All of them!

The Black Cat, Silver Sable, Spider-Girl, Silk, Spider-Woman, and Firestar.

Tentative title is "Glass Ceiling".

Essentially, if they can pull this off as high quality, and not a turkey, they've got a female Avengers on their hands.
And, if they can crank it out before "Wonder Woman", shows up, they'll upstage DC and Marvel in the feminist superhero department.
That'd be a helluva win.

But, it's Sony, so they'll find a way to screw up.
I'd love to be wrong though, because I love all those characters.

3 comments:

Paladin said...

Here are the seeds of the downfall of the comic book films.

No, not because it's female-centric. I bet the Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel films are going to be strong entries in the genre and I'm very much looking forward to them.

Here's where things are going to go wrong. You CAN'T do a credible superhero film without spending A LOT of money on it. It takes $200 million just to get in the game. So, a lot of money is at stake here.

But these six characters are ones who are virtually unknown outside of comic book circles. Hell, I've read comics for decades and a couple of 'em I don't know. The attraction FOR MOVIEGOERS will have to come purely from how compelling the characters are.

And there's SIX of them! And they're not (as of yet) very strongly differentiated. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man are all very strongly delineated characters; can you say the same for Spider-Girl AND Spider-Woman? Not as a comic reader (I'm sure their stories are very different), but as a typical moviegoer? Right now, it's just six random white chicks in spandex.

If this doesn't hit with audiences, a lot of money is going to be lost. That happens a couple of times and we could see the industry turn away from the genre. It's hard enough to make a hugely successful film with Superman or Spider-Man; lesser characters (whose films still need the big budgets) are liable to produce some very, very big bombs.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong. If this thing comes out and makes $700 million that would be awesome. Marvel has shown that it can find success with lesser-known characters; but we're talking about the studio that made Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Diacanu said...



I share the same concerns, but I've done my homework on the characters.

The resemblance between Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman goes as far as the name.

Spider-Girl is the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane from a possible future (they probably have to rewrite that), and her powers are identical to Spider-Man's. She's the only one.

Spider-WOMAN however only shares the sticky power, everything else is different.
Flight, bio-electrical energy blasts (called "venom blasts") near Hulk durability, adaptability to poisons, and pheromone seduction.

Silk is Asian (the only non-white in the mix), and has almost the same powers as Spider-Man with a key difference, she can control the chemistry of her webbing to make it do all kinds of crazy shit.
Stronger webs, bungee webs, parachute webs, corrosion, stun, etc, etc.

Black Cat and Silver Sable are just peak combatants, only differentiated by that the latter uses guns.
But, Silver Sable is a billionaire like Bruce Wayne, so the backstory saves it.

And of course, Firestar you know from the old cartoon.
Human Torch with microwaves instead of flames.
She'd have to share MVP status with Spider-Woman.

They could pull off a hit with that.
But, it would have to be in spite of themselves, it would have to be a damned good writer/director combo.
They got lucky before with Raimi. Could happen. Hope it does.

Diacanu said...


As for character differentiation, I don't think it has to be as visually stark as Iron Man, Thor, Hulk.

Charlie's Angels were all human women with normal clothing, be we told them apart just fine.
I seem to remember that flick did okay bank.

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