Marvel to make their own movies

Which means that Captain America, Black Panther and Nick Fury could soon be hitting big screens.

Sep  7 2005

Comic book giants Marvel are to finance and produce their own movies as part of a new development deal.

The company, which will change its name from Marvel Enterprises to Marvel Entertainment, will develop pictures of between $50 and $165 million.

Once completed, the films will then be marketed and distributed by Paramount for a fee.

And while some of the company's most popular characters, including 'Spider-Man' and the 'X-Men', have already been sold to other studios, Marvel still has numerous well-known characters that could hit big, including Captain America, Black Panther, the Avengers and Nick Fury.

Marvel head Avi Arad, who cites Ant-Man, Cloak and Dagger, Shang-Chi, Hawkeye, Power Pack and Dr Strange as other heroes with crossover potential, explained: 'We are going to commission a lot of scripts and start the race to see which moves the quickest through development.'

'We are not significantly veering from what we have been doing with studios,' he continued, 'but now we have the luxury of greenlight rights and better financial benefits.'

Arad also revealed that the company hopes to release its first big screen adaptation by summer 2008.