Thursday, September 24
In an article primarily focusing on a Ghost Rider sequel and other Marvel Comics movies currently in development, Variety reports that a CGI Popeye movie might be heading to the big screen.
Avi Arad, the man credited for dragging Marvel out of bankruptcy and setting it up to become a producer of its own film properties, left the company in 2007, but he hasn't left the characters behind. Arad, who is producing the Ghost Rider and Spider-Man franchises at Columbia, said that Marvel characters can be mined for movie ideas for decades.
I had this poster of the Marvel universe, with these beautifully drawn characters, and we used to say you could throw a dart, hit a character and make a hit movie under the Marvel brand. There is [a] long list yet to be unleashed.
According to the article, Arad is separately developing an adaptation of the popular Japanese anime property Ghost in the Shell for DreamWorks, and has secured the rights to Popeye, which is expected to be made as a CGI-animated feature, rather than a live-action movie like Robin Williams' 1980 box office disaster.
Posted 9/24/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Avi Arad | Popeye | Ghost Rider