The Screengrab

The X-Men franchise won’t end with the upcoming Wolverine spinoff – but then, you knew that, didn’t you? In addition to a standalone Magneto movie already in development, Fox is going younger with X-Men: First Class. Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz will pen the script, “using the younger characters introduced in the previous pics in future installments -- teenagers with powers taught at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Resulting film would likely draw from elements of the Marvel comic of the same name, launched in 2006, and enlist such characters as Iceman, Rogue, Angel, Colossus, Jubilee and Shadowcat, who have appeared prominently or made cameos in prior pics,” Variety reports.

Will Smith and Steven Spielberg are collaborating on a remake of Old Boy, the 2003 Korean film co-written and directed by Park Chan-wook.

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Have we learned nothing from the Catwoman movie? Sony is hoping to have better luck spinning off a super-villain from their flagship superhero franchise – in this case, Spider-Man’s “gooey nemesis” Venom. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the studio “is hoping the character could serve as an antidote to the aging Spider-Man franchise in the way that Fox has used Wolverine to add longevity to its X-Men franchise…The studio had commissioned a draft of the script from Jacob Estes, a writer of the specialty film Mean Creek, released several years ago by Paramount Classics.” Topher Grace played Venom in Spider-Man 3, but that’s no guarantee he’ll headline the spinoff.

It’s also a long shot that Spidey director Sam Raimi will be behind the camera, especially now that he’s got a new project set up at Disney.

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As we've said pretty much every week for the last, oh, say, year and a half, we intend to bring you every single bit of news we possibly can about Zack Snyder's forthcoming adaptation of Watchmen, widely held to be the best superhero comic ever written.  (By the way, this is approximately the nine billionth article I've written about the guy, and I still have to check to see if his first name is spelled 'Zack' or 'Zach'.)  And, as we will probably continue to say for the next, oh, say, year and a half until the movie actually opens, we don't really expect it to be any good.  We could be wrong -- in fact, we're practically praying we are -- but given Snyder's previous track record, our hopes aren't exactly sky-high.

But one thing's for sure:  Snyder is unqualified in his love for the original source material, and at the very least, he seems to be dedicated to making the Watchmen movie as faithful to the graphic novel as the format of the film will possibly allow.  This could in and of itself be a big problem, leading fans to wonder why, if he's just going to film the panels verbatim, why anyone had to bother making the movie in the first place, but we do know this:  no matter how bad Watchmen turns out to be, it could have been worse.  Much, much, much worse.  

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With Iron Man looking to be a runaway success, Marvel Comics' film production arm is naturally looking to capitalize on the box office take to move ahead with production on future superhero franchises.  So what comic book superhero is next for the House of Ideas?  How about...all of them?

In its quarterly earnings report, Marvel discloses (among other things, including that it made enough money this year to buy Stan Lee a Silver Surfer-themed iron lung) that it's in the process of developing a boatload of new multimedia projects for release in the next four years.  In addition to a plethora of video games, TV shows, animated series and direct-to-DVD animated features, Marvel Film -- the company's in-house production unit -- has scheduled for release The Incredible Hulk, an Iron Man sequel, a Thor movie, a Captain America solo adventure, an Avengers team picture, and, of all things, a feature film starring perennial sad-sack second-stringer Ant-Man.  (We're hoping that this one sticks to the current comics approach to the character and plays as straight-up satire.)  In addition to all of that, Marvel has two licensed properties set to release in the next year:  a Punisher sequel, entitled War Zone, is releasing through Lionsgate this Christmas, and an X-Men prequel, entitled Wolverine, drops a year from now through Fox.  All that, and no Dr. Strange?  I guess no one wants to take on the supreme challenge of out-acting Peter Hooten.

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Typically, we here at Das Screengrab bring you all the latest news about all two billion ninety-three comics being adapted for the silver screen. Today, however, we’re mixing things up! Hugh Jackman, the Aussie thespian who became an inexorable part of 21st century pop culture after his portrayal of Wolverine in Fox’s X-Men flicks, announced that he’ll be creating his very own funny book, Nowhere Man.

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