Nowadays, due to the success of the Marvel Universe, many Marvel superheroes have become high-value and famous characters.
Before the Marvel Universe, though, it was the opposite.
At that time, marvel heroes, except for Spider-Man can be said to have been "out of the circle", the rest are basically only famous in the circle of those comic fans in North America.
Looking at the passers-by audience and even the world, not many people know it, and there is not much commercial value.
Thor, the god of thunder that I want to talk about today, is such a thing.
In 1990, Sam Remy (the director of the future Spider-Man trilogy) received an offer from a man not long after filming his own film.
The man's name was Stan Lee.
Stan Lee asks Sam to come out and the two eat together, and since Sam himself likes Marvel heroes, of course he agrees.
At the restaurant, the two talk and talk, and Stan Lee says he likes Sam's movies and asks him which is the most appropriate if he wants to make Marvel heroes movie?
The answer Sam gave at the time was not Spider-Man, but Thor.
The more the two talked, the more excited they became, and they also talked about how to design Thor if they made Thor movie, how to make him handsome, how to design his story, how to retain the essence of the original comic, and so on.
At the end of the conversation, Sam and Stan Lee decided, having said so much, why not just implement it all?
So, after they had the materials ready, they went to Fox Pictures to discuss the project for the Thor movie.
However, after hearing their suggestions, fox executives said: "There is no point, we absolutely do not agree to this project, what good movie can be made with his (Thor's) comic book?" ”
As a result, Thor's first cinematic road failed, and it was rejected very crisply, without any room.
What needs to be known is that not to mention Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, the three heroes who have been famous in the world for a long time, even Marvel itself, at that time, Captain America, Fantastic Four, etc. also had a cinematic plan.
Of course, whether it was successful in the end is another matter, but at least those films will not refuse to be so direct.
Without hesitation, there is only one reason.
Your Thor commercial value is too low.
Soon, the time came to 1997.
At that time, Sony Pictures planned to spend $7 million to buy the film and television rights to Spider-Man from Marvel.
Marvel was not financially satisfactory at that time, the president made a proposal with Sony executives, 25 million US dollars, all Marvel heroes film and television rights to you how?
Sony's top brass responded by laughing and then stamping on it:
"Just kidding, which of your heroes is valuable besides Spider-Man?"
At that time, Thor was naturally classified into the "worthless Marvel Heroes" column, and was used as a rusty hammer by the producer.
Three years later, due to the film success of "X-Men", the film and television project of "Thor" was once again promoted.
Probably knowing that it was impossible to make a big-budget movie with Thor's popularity, Marvel was planning to make it into a TV series.
At that time, some television stations also expressed their willingness to screen.
However, as a result, the project was not settled for 4 years.
Why? Because there is no film industry willing to invest money.
It was not until 2004 that Sony Pictures took over the project, but it was only nominally accepted, the project basically did not advance, the two sides could not agree on the work, and there was no way to find the right director or even screenwriter.
In this way, another 2 years passed, the project was transferred to Paramount Pictures, and this time Marvel Studios planned to "personally handle the work", mortgaged its own heroes to the bank in exchange for funds, and filmed "Thor" as part of the first phase of the Marvel Universe.
However, although this is the case, the process is not actually smooth.
Mainly, Marvel had to spend energy to suppress other people's voices.
First, the original director, Matthew Vaughn, intended to make Thor into a $300 million supermassive.
Although because of the relationship between the Marvel Universe later, many people think that the hero who can benchmark Superman in Marvel is Captain Marvel, but in the original comic, Marvel's real Avenger who benchmarked Superman is Thor.
Thor, whose combat power is the same grade as Superman, must be very expensive to make a movie, and Matthew will obviously make it into a typical hit commercial movie.
But the idea was quickly rejected by Marvel executives.
The reason is also simple.
First, the budget of $300 million, equivalent to 1.5 times that of "Avengers 1", at that time, Marvel did not have much money in hand, where can it squander money so wildly?
Second, Kevin Feige has long had a relatively complete plan for the establishment of the Marvel Universe, and he also tried to avoid the situation of "standing out from the crowd".
If you Thor completely restore the original comic that rivals Superman's combat effectiveness, then what will other heroes do after the filmization, you alone will solve all the villains.
Third, with Thor's popularity at the time, it was not worth Marvel to invest so much money at all, because it was very likely to be a loss-making transaction.
Eventually, Matthew was out, and Marvel Studios, after some time, finally confirmed the new director, Kenneth Branagh.
One of Kenneth's strengths is that he is more obedient, although he also has his own ideas, but in the end it is mainly based on the ideas of Marvel's top management, so the story of "Thor" is determined to build a fairy palace and expand the worldview.
At the same time, Thor's character's combat effectiveness was greatly weakened, which was to cater to the overall combat strength of the Avengers in the first stage.
There is no ambiguity in terms of casting, Marvel does not want to find any big stars to play Thor, after all, the salary is a very realistic thing, they hope to find a cost-effective actor.
Hammer Brother Chris Hemsworth initially went to audition, but was quickly brushed off because Kevin Feige was not happy with him.
However, he was later invited to audition again, and defeated Jitterson, who also came to compete for the role of Thor.
cause? In fact, it is still relatively simple, cost-effective and cheap enough.
At that time, the hammer brother was only paid $150,000.
At a time when the "Thor" project continued to advance, the success of "Iron Man" also made Marvel executives more and more confident, and sure enough, the film also got very good results after its release.
At that time, "Thor" grossed $449 million worldwide, ranking fourth in the first phase of the Marvel Universe after "Iron Man 1-2" and "Reunion 1", surpassing "Invincible Hulk" and "Captain America 1".
And now, with Both Iron Man and Captain America retiring, Thor is still the first superhero of the new century to have his fourth solo movie.
It's also very interesting to think about it, twenty or thirty years ago, Thor was spurned and worthless, and now the personal series is out to the fourth part.
Of course, the so-called Maxima is often there, but Bole is not often there, and now Thor is behind his own family, Marvel of course knows how much his children are worth, and he does not have an iron heart to praise it.
And see what will happen after "Thor 4" comes out.