Exclusive: Future of Disney-Fox deal for Marvel characters

I attended a speaking engagement with some high-level Fox production crew members, and found out some interesting information, in particular regarding the Fox-owned Marvel characters in the wake of the Disney deal.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be the last proper Fox Marvel movie, presumably also the last in that continuity. The crew behind the camera has been thanked for their work but their services will not be needed any longer, as everything is moving to Disney. Apparently, the X-Men being integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a done deal, and merely awaiting the approval of the merger. Kevin Feige is “hoovering up” all of the Fox-Marvel characters, and is already planning for them all to go into Phase 4. This includes the X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four. In what capacity and with what actors was not discussed.

Other interesting tidbits include that everyone on the Fox side is very much up in the air about their future with the company and what will happen, again pending the merger’s approval in mid-2019. That means many projects are not being put on hold per se, but the crew going forward on franchises is undecided, as Disney may take over. For example, the folks on the production side speaking explained that they worked on the forthcoming Avatar sequels and had read the next two scripts, but Jim Cameron wouldn’t give them anything further, in case they are replaced. The sequels will be, in their words, “unbelievable,” and Cameron is using up to 16 motion capture cameras for any given scene, whereas the average CGI-heavy film typically uses one at a time.

This next part is unverified, but it seems Dark Phoenix is indeed undergoing reshoots, with entire sets needing to be reconstructed that were already taken down. This is merely conjecture on my part, but I got the impression the studio is not entirely pleased with Kinberg, as he did not plan ahead enough during the actual shoot for this eventuality, so it was incumbent upon the digital effects department to “re-build” entire sets that had already been scrapped. Not good!

We also saw some (brief) test footage from Battle Angel Alita, which looked very stunningly photo-realistic and included the big anime eyes. All the characters are being created digitally whole cloth, as opposed to the ‘real actors, Big Eyes added after’ effect that many presumed. I’m still a bit iffy, but I’ve learned, much like Spielberg, to never bet against Cameron. You heard it here first!