For some time now, there’s been talk about how Simon Kinberg is Fox’s answer to Marvel’s Joss Whedon. Not in the respect that he’s directing any of their films, but that he’s serving as the creative Godfather to their franchises. As we know, aside from directing the Avengers films, Whedon oversees the creative process involved with all of the Marvel Studios films. He was even once, famously, flown in to rescue a scene or two in Thor: The Dark World with an on-the-spot rewrite. In that regard, Kinberg has similar influence as he has served as a writer for both X-Men: Days of Future Past and the upcoming reboot of Fantastic Four. He’s been tapped to be the creative force behind putting together a cohesive universe for Fox.
Now, as the Godfather of Fox’s Marvel properties, Kinberg is shedding some light on the thought process at the studio. In chats with ComicBook.com and Cinema Blend, he’s revealed that he and his cohorts are absolutely looking at what Marvel Studios as done, and is hard at work in creating its own cinematic universe.
“We are aware as we are plotting out Apocalypse and the other X-Men movies – both potential sequels in the future and standalone movies – and trying to build them all together so that there is a singularity of vision. And obviously a timeline that makes sense as well, because these movies all, well not all, but many of them take place in different time periods, so that all those things will link up and make sense for an audience.”
On the inter-connectivity of the films, Kinberg says:
“They do all feed into one another in the sense of wanting to tell this sort of massive story that can take place over multiple movies.”
Does this mean that the recently announced Deadpool would share the same cinematic air as Michael Fassbender’s Magneto? You bet!
“There’s definitely a sort of overall plan that we’ve all been talking about for the X-Men universe now, and Deadpool obviously fits into that. So yeah, I guess I would say it’s part of certainly an overall timeline and thought process that goes into these films, some of which is inspired by the comics and some which is inspired by seeing what Marvel’s done with telling a larger tapestry and linking all those movies together, even as they stand independently as well.”
While the writer-producer doesn’t specifically address an adjoining Fantastic Four and X-Men universe, it’s kind of a no-brainer at this point- considering he’s writing for both, and both are housed by Fox.
So it would appear that after years of having their franchises be autonomous, Fox and Kinberg are eager to ape Marvel’s approach, and are actively working on the big blueprint. Seems like a lot to ask of one man, though, considering that Marvel has Whedon and Kevin Feige. Feige works as the uber-producer, masterminding the overall direction they’re heading in, while Whedon functions as the guy that makes sure it’s all up to muster and will click with audiences. Kinberg is attempting to be both.
We’ll see how it all pans out.
We know Sony had similarly lofty ambitions for its Spider-Man properties yet, as of now, it doesn’t look like they had much of a cohesive plan for making it a reality prior to announcing it. Let’s see if Kinberg and Fox can crack the code.
SOURCE: Cinema Blend / ComicBook
