Film rights to Ghost Rider, Blade revert back to Marvel Studios

After acquiring back the rights to “Daredevil” and “The Punisher”, Marvel has once again retrieved two more popular characters and can make new films based on them.

 

These are  “Ghost Rider” and “Blade”. According to the latest issue of "Entertainment Weekly" spotlighting “Iron Man 3”, film producer and Marvel Studios’ president of production Kevin Feige confirmed that rights to “Ghost Rider” from Sony Pictures and “Blade” from New Line Cinema have reverted back to Marvel. This gives the company back creative control over the characters and using them as they see fit in their cinematic line-up of films. 

 

Under Sony Pictures, Ghost Rider saw two movie installments, in 2007 (“Ghost Rider”) and 2012 (“Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”), with the titular character played by Nicholas Cage. Both films were met with negative reactions, but performed well at the box office.

 

Ghost Rider is just one of the many heroes who have reverted back to Marvel Entertainment after licenses expired from third party studios. The Blade film series, handled by New Line Cinema, had three movies under their belt starring actor and martial artist Wesley Snipes. 

 

The first film preceded even the Spider-Man and X-Men films and was released in 1998. It was so popular it re-ignited interest in the superhero and vampire hunter.

 

Two sequels then followed in 2002 (“Blade II”) and 2004 (“Blade Trinity”), with the first meeting success and the second buckling under heavy fire and controversy. It was at this point that the character’s story was continued in a short-lived TV series on Spike TV, with actor Kirk Jones playing the role in the small screen. 

 

During the San Diego Comic Con in 2011, Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada announced that rights to Blade had reverted back to Marvel Studios.

 

The Punisher, also handled by several studios and starring actors Dolph Lundgren (“The Punisher”, 1989), Thomas Jane (“The Punisher”, 2004), and Ray Stevenson (“Punisher: War Zone”, 2008), only returned back to Marvel in SDCC 2010. 

 

An independent film called “Dirty Laundry” was released during SDCC’12, and saw Thomas Jane reprising his role as Frank Castle/ The Punisher as a love letter to fans and the unveiling of a new Punisher logo designed by comic book artist Tim Bradstreet.

 

Meanwhile, Daredevil was a recent acquisition, officially reverting back to Marvel Entertainment last April 23 after Fox gave up the rights and didn’t make a reboot or follow-up to the 2003 Ben Affleck-starrer.

 

What the future of these characters is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is anyone’s guess, but there’s room for more heroes now in the world Marvel Studios has created. – KDM, GMA News