FOX signs SIMON KINBERG to serve as the Kevin Fiege of their MARVEL MOVIE UNIVERSE
Television shows have showrunners. Now it seems that the bloated comic book universes that are slowly coming to encompass all of our cinematic pop culture (exaggeration) will all have their own steward. Fiege for Marvel (you could argue Whedon, but Fiege seems eternal), David S. Blowhard for DC, and now Simon Kinberg for Fox’s own Marvel line.
The 20th Century Fox-owned Marvel universe has been having a pretty big day today. First it was announced by director Bryan Singer that the X-Men franchise will be back with X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016, and now The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Simon Kinberg, who co-wrote and produced the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, has inked a three-year deal with Fox to help further develop their comic book universe.
Unlike Marvel Studios, which maintains the rights to hundreds of different heroes, Fox currently only holds the Fantastic Four and mutant characters like the X-Men, but the writer/producer plans on helping Fox expand on those franchises in bigger and better ways. Speaking with the trade, Kinberg was open about his goals and blatant about where they will be taking inspiration. “I have a lot of ideas on how to built those brands and do what everybody is thinking of these days: Be like Marvel,” Kinberg said. “I want to be able to build stories over multiple movies.”
As of now Fox only has three comic book movies on their upcoming release calendar, with Singer’s Days of Future Past set to come out on May 23, 2014; Josh Trank’sFantastic Four reboot scheduled for June 19, 2015; and Apocalpyse slated for May 27, 2016. That said, the studio is also currently developing an X-Force movie with Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow attached to helm, and have had a finished Deadpool script ready and waiting for months and months now.