Posted in: Comics, Current News, Ike Perlmutter, Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: brian bendis, kevin feige, Marvel's Creative Committee, mcu, Wall Street journal

Marvel's Creative Committee Kept Kevin Feige From Spending Money

Ike Perlmutter set up the Marvel Creative Committee to take an overview of all of Marvel's operations with the intent to keep everything true to the comics and the brand. It ended up backfiring.

Ike Perlmutter set up the Marvel Creative Committee to take an overview of all of Marvel's operations, in games, toys, theme parks, TV, and movies, with the expressed intent to keep them true to the comics and the brand. The members included Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Joe Quesada, publisher Dan Buckley, and president Alan Fine. But relations with some of the movie directors and Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, seem to have been rather strained along the way.

Back in July, The Wall Street Journal's podcast, The Journal, hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson, ran a series of episodes by Ben Fritz looking at the rise of Marvel Studios from comic book publisher to film studio to Disney purchase and the executive and creator battles within. It made a few headlines, but there are lots of gems that seemed to be missed, such as Marvel's initial relationship with Sony Pictures, led by our favourite Marvel executives, Avi Arad, and Ike Perlmutter, two toy manufacturers who took over the comic book company and made it profitable again. Catch up on more of our coverage with this tag.

Ben Fritz states that Ike described Hollywood as"people at a country club making millions of dollars going to big parties." And Ike needed a way to keep his eye on the Hollywood operation. And that was the true purpose of the Marvel Creative Committee.

Brian Bendis described being on the Marvel Creative Committee as "we would be like the comic art dirtbags coming into the room bringing our comic book truth. The Creative Committee got set up to be mostly pre-production and post-production. We would read every draft of everything as it came in or anything Kevin wanted us to read. But it felt like almost everything was coming in, drafts of things outlines of things, concepts."

John Turitzin, Marvel's former Chief Administrative Officer, Executive Vice President, and General Counsel, recalled, "They wanted to make the finest movie they could. And if that required money, that required money. And that led to some conflict between Marvel New York and Marvel Studios."

The Moment That Could Have Ruined Iron Man

Ben Fritz reports that he heard that "during the production of Iron Man 2, members of the Creative Committee hated how Iron Man acted when he was drunk, including a moment when he pees in his suit. That scene stayed in the movie, but the Committee convinced Feige to trim some dialogue they thought made Iron Man seem cruel." At the time, I was told that this included a drunk Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., striking Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, in frustration and that the Marvel Creative Committee recalled how hard it was to bring Hank Pym back from a similar scene in the Avengers comics all those years ago, and got the scene amended. But Ben reports that it went beyond that into money. "

Journal reporter Robbie Whelan added, "Even though it is called the Creative Committee, my impression is that what the Creative Committee was doing was weighing in with a strong financial perspective in mind on certain creative decisions and served as almost a check on what otherwise might have been out of control spending from the side of the studio." And gave insight into Ike Perlmutter's perspective. "They would come to him and say, "Look." For the first Ant-Man movie, for example, they'd say, "Look, we can make this movie for $60 million." And he said, "Great. Sounds good. That's a pretty reasonable budget for a big tentpole superhero movie." Then, a few weeks later, Ike and the other members of the Creative Committee would get a call saying, "Actually, we need 80 million to make this movie." And then a few weeks later, it'd be $100 million."

Brian Bendis eventually learned how things were changing. "I didn't see it, but yes. And I must say, truthfully, everyone was super professional and respectful in front of me. I never saw anyone throw a chair or anything that… No secession moments or anything like that. But I do feel that the Creative Committee was a tool that was being used to help and that eventually, slowly, over time, it was being used as a tool to be antagonistic on some level. Again, it never happened in front of me, but I do know it went from a tool everyone was happy with to a tool that was frustrating people."

A frustration that would break out into civil war over Civil War…

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