A great move has happened in the last few months at Marvel Studios. The Creative Committee at the company has now reportedly been disbanded. The Creative Committee, made up of Marvel Entertainment President Alan Fine, Prolific and celebrated comicbook write Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel Comics publisher Dan Buckley and Chief Marvel Creative Officer Joe Quesada, was over the years a source of great grief for Marvel Studios. It’s rumoured the committee would often be late with feedback (due to their commitments elsewhere) and would be more interested in nitpicking individual scenes than the overall layout and feel of the film.
In recent times, the Creative Committee’s contributions led to the departure of writer/director Egar Wright from Ant-Man and caused much aggravation for other film-makers as well as producer Kevin Fiege.
Accompanying the Creative Committee on the way out the door is supposedly Ike Perlmutter, the famously eccentric billionaire in charge of Marvel Entertainment. If you don’t know him, (and that wouldn’t be surprising as he is very reclusive) Perlmutter has been the source of much controversy for Disney and Marvel. His unusual management style and money handling made tensions run high: “Disney owns Marvel, but Ike gets to control every budget and everything spent on marketing, down to the penny.”.
Some might also assume that with Perlmutter’s departure there is more hope for diversity in future Marvel projects. It was, according to Birth Movies Death, ‘his[Ike] experience’ in toys that made him so sure Black Widow or other female superhero merchandise wouldn’t sell. Worse still, Ike Perlmutter was reportedly the reason behind the low financial offer that led to Terrence Howard leaving his role as James Rhodes. Following this, and the hiring of the current actor Don Cheadle, Perlmutter was reported to have commented to chairman of Disney consumer products Andy Mooney that no one would notice as all black people “look the same”. Add to this three separate cases of female African-American co-workers going to court over Perlmutter’s professional conduct and you can begin to see why Disney might be keen to sideline him.
At any rate, Marvel Studios’ creative process is much more streamlined going into Phase 3. Whilst Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange may still have the touch of the old system upon them, come 2017 it will be all on Fiege. Under the new system Kevin Fiege will report directly to Disney and will be aided in decision making by co-president/executive producer Louis D’Esposito and producer Victoria Alonso.
What do you think of the changes within Marvel? Would you like to see more diversity in the superhero genre? For more Marvel, movie, TV and gaming news stick right here on TiCGN!
