According to a Hit Fix article linked through yahoo, Marvel, DC, and the Star Wars franchise has released their movie release schedules for the next 5 years. It's been described by Donna Dickens as "terrifying." I would have to say that the only thing scary about the article was her speculations of the super hero film industry.
First of all, I want to point out that Star Wars isn't a super hero film franchise. Yes, Jedi and Sith can do amazing things like make you look for other droids instead of the ones you're supposed to be looking for. However, they are not super heroes. Dickens says she added it as a 'bonus.' I think she was needing to pad her very thin article.
Now let's look at the remaining list, Dickens has 29 or 30 other films listed. Most of things I knew of like next year's Avengers sequel, the Fantastic Four reboot, Ant-Man?! Come on, that things been delayed so many times, I will only believe it when it comes on of DVD and even then, I'll have to watch it to make sure Marvel didn't trick me with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
One surprise was that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has been moved to 2016. I really thought that was coming out next year at about the same time as Avengers 2. but I checked and it comes out May of '16. So, the author of the article got that right.
Other than listing about 5 or 6 other films with definite titles and release dates, it's at this point that I really take point with Donna Dickens summary of the next five years. listing a release date as "????" with the title "Unknown Female Driven Spider-man Movie" does nothing to make me afraid of the current state of super hero films. Doesn't this woman know that movie studios always pad their schedules in order to make things look more appealing to potential and current investors? Unless Sony is planning on an Aunt May feature film, I don't think Dickens should be freaking out to much.
Most of the film of 2017-2020 are cited as "Unknown." That doesn't mean that studios will actually release those films. It's just their plan and like all plans they don't always come together, unless you're the A-Team and then you love when that happens!
I can see two camps reading this article: those who think super hero movies are going to kill comic books and those who are thrilled to death with the prospect that the unknown Marvel movie is 2018 will be a Deadpool movie! For both sides, I say 'calm down!' Even Dickens admits that there is too many unknowns to know for sure what the next 5 years of theatre releases is even going to look like.
I recently read some Stan's Soapbox's from 1992 or 93. You wouldn't believe how excited Stan Lee was that James Cameron was going to write, direct, and produce the live-action Spider-man film due in 1995. Wait, you don't remember that? That's because things changed- Cameron couldn't decide on a super villain and the studio Marvel gave the rights to ran out of time and lost all privileges to make the Spidey movie. Plus, a little known movie about a titanic ship wreck attracted James Cameron away from the world of super heroes.
So until you know for sure the 5 questions a reporter must answer "Who, what, when, where, and Why?" take everything Ms. Dickens says with a grain of salt. Oh, and one more thing- anytime you read an article and the writer complains that they had to make a" make a freakin' outline. An outline!", beware and stop reading. The outline is the most important tool any writer or reporter should use in order to clearly state their hypothesis. To bemoan the fact that you've got a great gig that means you have to make an outline says to me that you don't really care about what you're reporting about and might even have some serious questions about your career choice. Some of us would kill for a chance to be a paid published columnist.
To paraphrase an oft used proverb " if you don't like what's coming to theatres go do something else."
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