The MCU is one of the greatest phenomenons to have hit the Big Screen. But what if the movies in it had been somewhat different? Would it crash and burn, or rise to even greater heights?
An idea born form desperation, but an idea nonetheless.
The idea of bringing together some of the most colorful, the most popular, and the most iconic heroes ever created and bring them together in the Big Screen. An idea to once more revolutionize how people would watch movies as Stan Lee had once done for Comic Books, something no one had seen so far and would probably not see for a long time to come.
This idea would be called the MCU...
...Or at least, that was what was supposed to be. Yet it only took single change, one single choice, for the idea to nearly die before reaching its true potential. The old Idea was dead, but a different one could still take its place...
If the right person comes along...
XXXXXXXXXXX
Your name is…
[ ] Write-in the name of the main character.
And you are a…
[X] Male [ ] Female (Sorry, not good at writing female POV's)
And this has to be either the most amazing, or the most catastrophic, moment in your career. You've just come out of Ike Perlmutter's office (Lovely man) to hear him mostly complain about the executives at Marvel, before he named you the next Head Producer for the entire MCU project.
You are not ashamed to admit your first thought was "WTF?!?!"
It was your third, second and fourth as well.
Yes, because apparently not only did Kevin Feige resigned after one argument to many with the 'Paragon of Civility' in front of you, but now it had to be you the one who replaced him, who now had the unenviable task of reassuring the entire Directors, Actors, staff, etc., who were now probably running around like headless chickens, who now had to take what was considered by nearly all in Hollywood to be Marvel's last gasp of air before it went under, and make it profitable.
No pressure, right?
This...this was beyond what you signed up for. You were only here because of Kevin after all. He'd seen you previous productions, and saw some promise there, enough to be hired and aid in some of the later films. The fact that you also had a deep love for the comics and a full collection dating back decades was just another bonus in his opinion.
You're sure that's one of the reasons why you got the job, as you're one of the few who have some of the framework for what Kevin was planning for the future, plus some idea of what would anger the fans and what would make them attend in droves.
And yet, regardless of the reason, this was the situation you were in now. What should have been Kevin's job was now yours, and despite the whole negative aspects of it you would be lying if you denied feeling somewhat excited about it. You had dreamed of seeing the characters you fell in love with as a child in the Big Screen for a long time, and that dream had just recently come true with the productions of X-Men and Spider-Man among others. To give up now when you had gained what many would dream of (that is if you also removed the massive amount of debt the studio was in, and the many problems that would come at changing producers at this point) would be foolish.
Alright then! No more feeling depressed! It was time to get to work. First was reviewing what you had, beginning with yourself. Among your many productions you were sure that you mostly excelled at...
...though you would also admit your tendency to be overly intrusive in most of your projects. "Meddling" is what many would call you, but you'd made sure to at least make yourself useful, and managed to pick some skills along the way. (Pick three)
[ ] Script Quality: The writing room loves you for your input, and so do you with hanging around the writing room.
[ ] Casting Quality: Attracting big actors to your movie is easy for you. You're just naturally good at making the pitch of character roles sounds good.
[ ] Golden Tongue: You've always known the right thing to say, both in and out of the business. You've managed to get in and out of negotiations without hard feelings.
[ ] Choreography: Running, jumping, dancing, fighting. You know how to arrange actors' movements and camera for a scene and no one can deny it.
[ ] Editing: A both creative and technical part of the filmmaking production. You're excellent at manipulating those raw footages into complete sequences.
[ ] VFX: Special effect is your jam. The limitation of live footage can't hold your creativeness back from presenting itself, with digital process, of course.
[ ] Hyping: You have a flair for connecting to the fans and the regular viewers. You can make them feel the excitement and energy behind a project.
[ ] Actor Performance (pick one of the sub vote, each sub vote count as one skill)
-[ ] Protagonist. The protagonist must ooze presence and impress the audience, a role very vital in a narrative. You are skilled in extracting that presence out of the heroes of the story.
-[ ] Antagonist: Opposing the hero is the antagonist's job and they are as important as any protagonist. You demand those actors to perform well. And they better be or else..!
-[ ] Side Cast: Some people say that side cast isn't as important, well, they are wrong. They are essential as any other role and you won't let the actors underperform. "I'm looking at you, Grandma #14!"
And also...you had to face it, Marvel, if it's going to survive, needs their most popular properties, and for that they are going to need to play ball with the many other studios that have control of them. Before signing in with Marvel most of your work had been with...
[] Universal
[] Fox
[] Sony
...and still had many contacts and friends there. More than likely Marvel wanted to get as much use out of your connections to see if they could squeeze a better deal for use of their properties. It was a good idea, one that you could see if it could be expanded in some way...perhaps even regaining some of them?
...Yeah right. Then you'll see if chickens can fly.
You were still musing when your assistant contacted you about something you'd hoped you'd have more time for.
Jon Favreau knew about the change in Production.
And he was not happy.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Seeing Jon leave your office with a satisfied expression on his face you could almost congratulate yourself in how you handled that situation. Sure, you had to agree to his demands for Robert Downey Jr. to be the main lead, but you had made sure that Iron Man would remain on schedule for the foreseeable future.
Well...this...this was fine. You smiled as you felt the confidence fill your body. If you can deal with this then-
"Sir? Sorry to bother you, but Universal just called. They heard of the recent restructuring and are feeling concerned. They're talking about stopping the Hulk movie."
...Fuck your life.
[] Well, you better get right on it. You need to keep the Production on schedule after all. (Negotiation Roll)
[] You know what? No. Marvel still has many characters that could make for good movies. (Begin new Production)
- [] Which Character: Write In
The quest begins with a simple ripple; Kevin Feige quits after an argument to many with the Head of Marvel, Ike Perlmutter, leaving you as the ne Head of the MCU in a compromise decision between Ike and the Marvel Executives. You aren't a big hotshot or influential person in the world of Hollywood yet. You're a regular producer brought in who has a limited knowledge of Feige's plan for the MCU. The player, you, will have to face various challenges from handling directors, cast, crew, etc; dealing with the higher up interference of your work while also trying to please them and prove that you can make the MCU the greatest Comic Book movies ever!
And as the newest Head to lead the MCU you have to manage the fractured movie comic books universe you're trying to build that is full of characters rights issues. Don't count on studios just allowing their use either. They are your competition, unless you can convince them to work with you or sell their properties back.
Even with all the competition you can let your creative juice shines through. This is a creative media quest, craft your universe from the ground up with what you have of Marvel properties remaining. Just remember, the domino effect is real and what this timeline ends up with may be different than ours.
Discussion is encouraged in-thread to make ways for voting options and movies ideas. Write-ins are also allowed as long as they are reasonable. Omakes are certainly welcome and useful. They will be explained further down.
A project tends to start with the development of a script, be it as an adaptation of a particular comic book story or simply a character in general. This phase begins with you and the Director you selected; assisting them, taking a script that had already been written, or even only you yourself planning out the details of the script to pitch them to the higher ups at Marvel in hope for the project to get greenlit.
This process can take between 2 to 12 months, depending on the complexity of the script. GM will roll 1d100 (with varying modifiers for how difficult a certain concept or adaptation might be to get right) to determine Script Quality. If the thread feels the resulting roll isn't acceptable, you can choose to reroll up to 5 times (each adding 2 months) until getting something workable. Whatever the quality of the scripts are, you can then choose to present them to Marvel Studios, put it on the shelf temporarily or permanently, or scrap it and start the project again from scratch.
The initial script pitch as well as as other outside effects of Hollywood's climate might effect the two rolls of Appeal and Finance (both are 1d100 with varying modifier).
The Appeal roll represents you pitching the idea to the studio and the chance it gets greenlit. A success means the project is good to go, and the reverse is true. The actual budget needed for the project depends on the complexity of the script.
The Finance roll is for the extra money that went above script's budget requirement. So every subsequent actions would wage on the extra budgets (casting, allocating money to specific production part, extra effect, reshoot)
This phase is where you narrow down the options of the production, setting the vision of the projects and completing all the planning that takes place before the camera rolls. During this phase you'll work out the casting.
This process typically takes between 1 or 2 months, depending on how long the locations and set up (based on the script) take. A hidden 1d100 (with varying modifiers) to determine if things run on the schedule you've set. In addition, there will be a Casting Quality roll (1d100 with varying modifiers) to determine the list of actors to choose from.
The choice of which actors (and directors/screenplay writers) are casted can effect the modifier. There's potential benefits and downside to the choices presented.
This phase is the actual shooting of the movie and the aftermath! It's key to keep planning ahead of the daily shoot. Stick to budget, stick to schedule, and make sure there's communication between location, set, office, and all other parties involved. The bulk of post-production consists of reviewing the footage and assembling the movie (editing) for the first cut.
The entire process typically takes between 8 to 13 months (typically 10 months). Most of the rolls here are universal 1d100. A lot of these rolls does effect each other bonus and malus (as well as the previous result of script, casting choice and production come into play too).
The rolls are: Protagonist Chemistry ; Antagonist Chemistry ; Side Cast Chemistry ; (optional) Romance Chemistry ; Actor Screen Presence (Performance) ; Choreography ; Production Quality ; Sound Design ; Editing ; VFX.
This phase is where you gonna delay and reshoot/reediting the first result (if the thread choose to). The movie is gonna get delayed and more time and budget will be spent, if the thread find any dice result from the previous phase unsatisfied. They can choose to redo them, which prompt into a reroll of the result. You get three rerolls per month to finish, depending on the speed..
If the quest choose to reshoot: Pre-Production Phase --> Production and Post-Production Phase (The Voting for Additional Production Phase) --> Additional Production Phase --> Box Office and Reception Phase
If the quest not choose to reshoot: Pre-Production Phase --> Production and Post-Production Phase (The Voting for Additional Production Phase) --> Box Office and Reception Phase
Be careful with the budget as well as the delay, there are possible different consequences if this keeps happening. The studio might not be pleased, dwindling hype for the movie, etc...
There will be a roll for Fandom Buzz (1d100 with varying modifiers) to determine overall fandom reception to the movie (scale by determinate factors).
A Reviewer Buzz roll (1d100 with varying modifiers) to determine critical response to the movie (scale by how "professional" the movie is presented)
A Merch roll (1d100 with varying modifiers) to determine the number result from selling merchandise of the movie (toys, DVD, etc...).
The results of the previous phases all help contribute to the rolls as well as other third party effects in the Hollywood scenes (trend, competition movies in the same release date, etc...).
Especially in regard to Box Office (International and Domestic), there won't be any rolls for those. Box Office Results are determined by the GM through GM's owned mathematic multiplier system and chart of rolls results. All the previous phases rolls contribute to the final result of how well the movie performed.
In addition to the basic mechanics above, there will be a number of events and hidden dice rolls mechanics that may come in factor if we are lucky (or unlucky).
Omakes can help in the process by giving some bonuses the subject they are written about I.E. Actors' performance, Casting Call, Hype, Finance, etc., etc., etc., ..., or any of the different phases you may think will need help.
In the end you can write about anything, but the bonus will go to the subject of the Mmake. But only good quality Omakes will receive the Bonus, also i would prefer if at least there was a minimum of 500 words for Omake.
For butterflies, worldbuilding, or if you want an Actor, Writer or Director to have a better chance to join, then it can also work, but for that to happen the Omake will need to be longer than just 500 words.
-Script Quality: You've dabbled enough that your presence is welcmoe among the writers and their staff.
-Casting Quality: You can just recognize who is going to be great at which role.
-Golden Tongue: A lifetime of dealing with recalcitrant Directors and untractable Producers has allowed you to hone your skill at bullshit- *Ahem* convincing others.
-Fast as Lightning: Where other Productions may need 8 to 13 months to film, yours only needs 6 to 10
Worked at: Universal Studios
Characters/Actors
Iron Man Tony Stark/Iron Man-Robert Downey Jr.
Virginia "Pepper" Potts-Jessica Chastain
James "Rhodey" Rhodes-Omar Epps
Obadiah Stane-Jeffrey Dean Morgan
The Incredible Hulk Bruce Banner/Hulk-Hugh Dacey
Elizabeth "Betty" Ross-Lena Headey
General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross-Tom Skerritt
Rick Jones-Garrett Hedlund
Samuel Sterns/The Leader-Christopher Eccleston
The Mighty Thor Thor Odinson-Jason Momoa
Loki Laufeyson-Tom Ellis
Odin Borsson-Brendan Gleeson
King Laufey of Jotunheim-Ian McShane
Heimdall-Vladimir Kulich
Lady Sif-Gal Gadot
Donald Blake-Eric Allan Kramer
Jane Foster-Tatiana Maslany
Hawkeye Clint Barton/Hawkeye-Karl Urban
Nick Fury-Samuel L. Jackson
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow-Gemma Arterton
Jacques Duquesne/Swordsman-Jean Reno
Dean Helm/Silent-Yayan Ruhian
The Invincible Iron Man Tony Stark/Iron Man-Robert Downey Jr.
Virginia "Pepper" Potts-Jessica Chastain
James "Rhodey" Rhodes-Omar Epps
Ivan Vanko/Whiplash-Johnny Depp
Justin Hammer-Neil Patrick Harris
Whitney Frost/Madame Masque-Elodie Yung
Barbara "Bobbie" Morse-Margot Robbie
Howard Stark-Josh Hartnett
Wonder Man Simon Williams/Wonder Man-Ryan Reynolds
Neal Saroyan-Robin Williams
Darcy Lewis-Kat Dennings
Eric Williams-Hayden Christensen
Luchino Nefaria-Brendan Fraser
Arthur Parks/The Living Laser-Sean Patrick Flanery
Abraham Laughton/Scarecrow-Hamish Linklater
Captain America Steve Rogers/Captain America-Chris Evans
Peggy Carter-Hayley Atwell
James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes-Kit Harington
Johann Schmidt/The Red Skull-Mark Strong
Henrich Zemo-Christoph Waltz
Timothy "Dum-Dum" Dugan-Michael Cudlitz
Jim Morita-Kenneth Choi
Gabriel Jones-Orlando Jones
Count Niccolo Nefaria-Riccardo Scarmacio
Colonel Chester Phillips-R. Lee Ermey
Howard Stark-Josh Hartnett
The Avengers Tony Stark/Iron Man-Robert Downey Jr.
Steve Rogers/Captain America-Chris Evans
Thor Odinson-Jason Momoa
Clint Barton/Hawkeye-Karl Urban
Barbara "Bobbie" Morse-Margot Robbie
Simon Williams/Wonder Man-Ryan Reynolds
Bruce Banner/Hulk-Hugh Dacey
Nick Fury-Samuel L. Jackson
Maria Hill-Eliza Dushku
Miscelaneous Movies (Phase 1) Agent Phil Coulson-Clark Gregg
[X] Daniel Reins
[X] Action
[X] Script Quality: The writing room loves you for your input, and so do you with hanging around the writing room.
[X] Universal
[X] Well, you better get right on it. You need to keep the Production on schedule after all. (Negotiation Roll)
I don't think any of us want to give up the Hulk, but if anyone has any other ideas, I'm all ears.
[X] Plan: Big Bang
-[X] Sheldon Cooper
-[X] Male
-[X] Action
-[X] Casting Quality: Attracting big actors to your movie is easy for you. You're just naturally good at making the pitch of character roles sounds good.
-[X] Golden Tongue: You've always known the right thing to say, both in and out of the business. You've managed to get in and out of negotiations without hard feelings.
-[X] Choreography: Running, jumping, dancing, fighting. You know how to arrange actors' movements and camera for a scene and no one can deny it.
-[X] Sony
-[X] You know what? No. Marvel still has many characters that could make for good movies. (Begin new Production)
--[X] Wasp
Or Elektra. We could get on the ground floor with the first female superhero film. Wait, Daredevil is owned by someone else. Ugh, Elektra film, let's go!
Hmmm, we have Black Panther and iron man in 2007. Hulk is supposed to be ours in 2007, so is Black Widow and Thor.
[X] Mike Carlin
[X] Action
[X] Script Quality
[X] Casting Quality
[X] Golden Tongue
[X] Fox
[X] Well, you better get right on it. You need to keep the Production on schedule after all. (Negotiation Roll)
The secret to female POV's is that they're exactly like male POV's unless you touch on specific gendered topics.
Still I'll try my hand at getting the ball rolling on voting.
[X] Plan rolling ball
-[X] Matthias "Matt" Miller
-[X] Male
-[X] Action
-[X] Script Quality
-[X] Casting Quality
-[X] Golden Tongue
-[X] Universal
-[X] Well, you better get right on it. You need to keep the Production on schedule after all. (Negotiation Roll)
So it's not a perfect plan but it's more meant to get things going. The three skills I chose are mostly so that we could maximize getting our movie our way. Admittedly part of that is because I think the core appeal of this kind of quest is less management and more creative writing so that's why I picked what I did. Plus if we get good actors and a good script I imagine we get good performance as well most of the time and things like hyping and VFX are things we can gain with more money once we've had some time.
As for specializing in action movies most superhero stories inherently have action baked into them. In this case we're taking a generalist approach to be good at most basic superhero plots before trying to move into more niche stuff.
Lastly the choice between Fox, Universal and Sony is basically a choice between X-Men, Hulk and Spiderman. Spiderman's great but his opponents are fundamentally street level so it's harder to mix and match stuff if we want to pull them to the bigger stage. X-Men are also great characters but by this point you'd have the actual X-Men movies hanging over your head in how you'd play them so there's a bit less wiggle room in how you use them. Hulk on the other hand has a bunch of characters that can be used in new ways and given new twists since they can be used for other characters (Thor against Absorbing Man for example isn't exactly a new plot and it works so logically we could mix and match with other characters as well like Gremlin, Doc Sampson or Zzax if we really wanted to) and there's no famous movie starring them yet at this point. I think they work the best for playing around with doing stuff differently from existing source material.
The name right now is literally filler as I don't care about that all that much and I'm willing to change it if people have strong feelings one way or the other.
Edit: Changed the name to Matthias Miller as I liked it a bit better than the Worm reference.
[X] Plan: Wonder-who?
-[X] George Huxley
-[X] Action
-[X] Script Quality
-[X] Choreography
-[X] Golden Tongue
-[X] Sony
-[X] You know what? No. Marvel still has many characters that could make for good movies. (Begin new Production)
--[X] Wonder Man
Or Elektra. We could get on the ground floor with the first female superhero film. Wait, Daredevil is owned by someone else. Ugh, Elektra film, let's go!
I like this plan. I want our character to have a choreography bonus because I find it unique and interesting rather than the obvious and usual choices. Though I might change it to Marlin's plan if he changes his movie to Black Widow.
We could literally wait ten years from 2007 and still have the first female superhero movie. I'd rather introduce the characters that are going to be relevant to any overarching stories first than try to check off something just for checking it offs sake.
It's the first film of the cinematic universe whatever superhero we pick is going to have to be centrally important to a lot of the stuff that comes afterwards so we ought to pick carefully for long term benefits instead of what's appealing in the immediate.
We could literally wait ten years from 2007 and still have the first female superhero movie. I'd rather introduce the characters that are going to be relevant to any overarching stories first than try to check off something just for checking it offs sake.
Who do we have? We have no X-Men, so any character from there is a no. If I want to accept losing the Hulk, I need someone available. Who is that?
Iron Man movie just happened. What male can I use? Can I use females? I can use a female. Why should I not? "Introduce characters that are going to be relevant". No character is relevant at this time for anybody, they are all close to unknowns in the wider public, unless you are a comic bok fan.
Could I convince people voting for Plan Wonder-who? to switch to my plan if I agree to push to include him in Phase 1 of this hypothetical cinematic universe? I want to try and build an Avengers more along the lines of the old Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon (Iron Man, Captain America, Ant Man, Wasp, Black Panther, Thor, Hulk and Hawkeye) but I'd have no issue swapping out a member or just adding in Wonderman to the list especially since it can work well.
On top of that I think a Wonderman movie can work better post Captain America because then if you reveal that Wonderman's brother (the Grim Reaper) is working with HYDRA then that moment has a lot more impact is people already somewhat know of HYDRA. Anyone willing to switch votes if I promise to push to include these ideas?
She-Hulk, Wasp, Captain Marvel, Medusa, Tigra and Mockingbird all immediately spring to mind for me. Wasp also has the bonus of being part of the first Avenger's team in comics. Give me time and I could think of more. There's not exactly a lack of female comic characters when you've got 50+ years of comics to pull from.
Iron Man movie just happened. What male can I use? Can I use females? I can use a female. Why should I not? "Introduce characters that are going to be relevant". No character is relevant at this time for anybody, they are all close to unknowns in the wider public, unless you are a comic bok fan.
You seem to be misunderstanding what I meant when I said "introduce character's that are going to be relevant". That's not me saying "only pick big names" that's me saying "pick a character you want to have multiple sequels be prominent in every Avengers crossover and be a focal point for a lot of the narrative arcs of the greater movie universe".
Edit: I have no issues with having a female lead superhero movie, I have my own ideas to push for it in the Phase 1 equivalent, but my issue is with picking a character just to go "First!" as opposed to picking a character you think could work well long term.
[ ] Plan Mythology Take
-[ ] Robert E. Short
-[ ] Male
-[ ] Action
-[ ] Golden Tongue
-[ ] Choreography
-[ ] VFX
-[ ] Sony
-[ ] You know what? No. Marvel still has many characters that could make for good movies. (Begin new Production)
--[ ] Hercules
Just think we start off with a MCU steep in magic and mythology combined with technology would be fun.
Edit: Changing my vote to this because the current thread idea heading toward Wonder Man as the second film of MCU just amused me to no end.
She-Hulk, Wasp, Captain Marvel, Medusa, Tigra and Mockingbird all immediately spring to mind for me. Wasp also has the bonus of being part of the first Avenger's team in comics. Give me time and I could think of more. There's not exactly a lack of female comic characters when you've got 50+ years of comics to pull from.
Yay, suggestions! She-Hulk isn't legal blocked by Hulk? We have Captain Marvel? Medusa should be with Inhumans. Tigra and Mockingbird are literal, who for me. Going with Wasp.
You seem to be misunderstanding what I meant when I said "introduce character's that are going to be relevant". That's not me saying "only pick big names" that's me saying "pick a character you want to have multiple sequels be prominent in every Avengers crossover and be the focal point for a lot of the narrative arcs of the greater movie universe".
In February 2004, Lionsgate acquired the film rights for Black Widow,[60] and in April announced David Hayter as writer and director of the film, with Marvel Studios' Avi Arad producing.[61] By June 2006, Lionsgate had dropped the project and the rights reverted to Marvel Studios. Hayter and Marvel tried getting another financier to develop the project, but Hayter "never felt comfortable that we had found a place that was willing to take the movie, and the character, seriously". This left Hayter "heartbroken", but he hoped the film would be made "some day".[62]
