Writer Zak Penn didn’t really break any new ground at an LA Film Festival panel last night where he briefly talked about writing the Marvel superhero team film Avengers, but he did touch on the biggest obstacle he faces, which is also the biggest nerd dream come true: the continuity.
“I’m taking a meeting next week with the Thor and Captain America
people, and we are all going to get together, and I will see what is
going to happen. I’ll see where they are leaving the characters; it’s
pretty complicated. … There’s a board that is tracking what is
happening. [We’ll see] how this movie overlaps in that movie.”
Penn had wanted to have the Fantastic Four appear in one of the last two X-Men movies but, despite both being Fox properties, he was denied (yet further proof of how fucked Fox is). That is obviously not the case here.
Marvel’s taking this seriously and they’re ramping up to something special. I was recently on the set of of Iron Man 2 and got lots of cool, excitement-making info from Kevin Feige on the future of Marvel Studios as they work towards Avengers; hopefully I’ll be able to run it soon, but in the meantime, trust these words from Penn:
“Everyone has read every comic. They know how to make a cool movie.”