FOX Hires Comic Writer Mark Millar as a Creative Consultant
Twentieth Century Fox has hired comic book writer Mark Millar as a creative consultant, to help them in their efforts to make good, solid Marvel comic book movies. Millar has written a ton of great comics in his career such as Kick-Ass, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, The Ultimates, Nemesis, Wanted and a bunch of other great comic properties.
Millar will help the studio develop new films for X-Men and Fantastic Four. As of right now, Fox is currently in production on X-Men: Days of Future Past which Matthew Vaughn is directing, and they are also in pre-production on Fantastic Four which will by Josh Trank (Chronicle). Millar had this to say in a statement:
As someone who has spent his entire life obsessed with both comic-books and movies, this is essentially my dream gig as it’s a unique combination of both. I spent ten years working at Marvel and am really happy with the work I did on the comic side of things so the idea of working with these characters now in a brand new medium is enormously exciting for me. I really like the Fox team, love this bold new direction they have for their franchises and am proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema’s biggest talents. James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn’s one of my closest pals and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone-call I’ve ever had.
It should be interesting to see what kind of ideas Millar ends up bringing to the table. In the end now that Tom Rothman is gone, I'm sure the movies at Fox will end up being better. From what I hear he was a pain in the ass to work with, and one of the main reasons why X-Men Origins: Wolverine sucked as much as it did.
Do you think Millar will be a solid asset to the studio?
Here's the official press release:
LOS ANGELES, CA. – September 27, 2012…. Marking an expanded commitment to some of its most important franchises, Twentieth Century Fox has brought on comics superstar Mark Millar to serve as a creative consultant on the studio’s upcoming projects based on Marvel Comics properties.
Millar wrote several celebrated Marvel books such as The Ultimates, Civil War and Wolverine: Old Man Logan, before moving on to found Millarworld (millarworld.tv), where he continues to develop existing film franchise titles Wanted and Kick-Ass, as well as newer comic properties The Secret Service, Superior, and Nemesis — the latter also in development at Fox. Millar will work with Fox on developing new avenues for its “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four” tentpoles.
Commented TCF production president Emma Watts: “We are excited to be working with Mark. In addition to his groundbreaking Marvel work, he is simply one of the most original voices in comics today and will be an invaluable resource to us and to our filmmakers as we look for fresh opportunities to innovate within our shared Marvel universe.”
Upcoming for the studio is THE WOLVERINE, starring Hugh Jackman, directed by James Mangold; X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, helmed by Matthew Vaughn; and a reboot of “FANTASTIC FOUR, to be directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle).