Reelz Channel: Avi Arad
Exclusive Interview with Avi Arad
By Thomas Leupp
There's more to Avi Arad than just comic books. The Israeli-born producer, credited by many with rescuing Marvel from the brink of bankruptcy when he took over the beleaguered comic book publisher in the early 1990s, is largely responsible for bringing successful movie adaptations like Spider-Man, X-Men, The Fantastic Four and more to the big screen. Having built Marvel Studios into a bona fide Hollywood powerhouse, able to finance its own projects without the help (and meddling) of major studios, Arad stepped down as CEO last year to start his own production company, the aptly-named Avi Arad Productions, with the intention of branching out into non-comics related projects. Its first production, Bratz, arrives in theaters this Friday.
Arad isn't planning on leaving the comic book world entirely, of course. He's listed as either a producer or executive producer on over a dozen upcoming Marvel film projects, including Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk and Thor. In an exclusive interview with ReelzChannel.com, Arad talked about Bratz, Wolverine and several other projects on his astonishingly busy schedule.
Bratz has been successful as a doll line for several years now. What got you interested in making a movie about a bunch of dolls?
To me, what really was interesting is the diversity of the line. Having been in the toy business all my life, I understood the success of the Bratz. The genius behind the doll line is what made it doable to make a movie, which is the diversity. This movie goes right to the heart of what I love to do, from the old days of the animated X-Men. It's about making kids the world over know that they're not alone. We all have the same problems. And until you know that we all have the same problems, you feel a sense of isolation. The pain is greater. High school is a damaging playground, as we all know. The home can be very difficult. The idea was to create a fertile ground to get to know the kids, to get to know the parents, to understand what it means to have divorced parents and what can be done to make things a little easier at home.
I really believe that every kid around the world who is going to see the movie is going to find something from their lives in there.
The Bratz are obviously quite different from Barbie and Ken.
I designed Barbie dolls. The genius of the Barbie idea, for many many years, is that she is very singular. And you don't give too much detail. She doesn't have an "open book" kind of a life. Bratz is the other way around. What I like about Bratz is that their perfection is imperfection. You don't have to look a certain way to be beautiful. It's like a line in that song -- everyone is beautiful in their own way. And that's what I see in these girls.
After Bratz, do you see yourself further diversifying into non-comic book projects?
Yeah. I'm a actually making another movie with (Bratz director) Sean (McNamara) right after Bratz, called Robosapien. I wanted to make a movie about a boy and a robot. Its' something that I'd had in mind for quite a long time. So a wrote a short story and a screenwriter made a script out of it, and it's amazing. In one hour it was sold worldwide. It's really a good, good story.
I'll still do comic book material. I'm continuing with that world. But in addition to it I'm finding some other fascinating world's to get into. What I did with comic book films, I'm going to do -- my way -- with video games. We'll see in the next two months -- I'm not ready for an announcement -- some pretty serious material.
Are you talking about adapting established videogames for film?
Established videogames and videogames that are about to happen. And some videogames that have withstood the test of time.
Gavin Hood was recently tabbed to direct the X-Men spinoff Wolverine. Hood's a pretty serious filmmaker. Does this perhaps signify that Wolverine will have a more somber tone than the X-Men films?
It's a very smart choice. From all the comic books out there, X-Men is probably the most message-oriented idea, dealing with mutants and discrimination. You have a guy like Hood, who thinks on-message, and you put him and Hugh Jackman together...I'll tell you, X-Men became so much on-message. Ian McKellen became literally a spokesperson for personal freedoms. I think Halle Berry went out and talked about being a woman of color and what that means to her. And you had the third move about the cure, about the choice. So this particular franchise deals with real issues. And then when you bring in a director who's interested in it and inquisitive on its philosophy, that will take a movie like that and raise the ante, especially when you have Hugh Jackman playing the character. Throughout the last three movies you can see the complexity behind Wolverine, his issues and what he wants to accomplish. This movie's going to give an opportunity to explore him much deeper.
Is the Punisher sequel finally moving forward?
Yeah, Lionsgate is doing it.
Why isn't Thomas Jane involved?
He elected not to do it. As far as I know, he elected not to do it.
Will its tone be similar to the previous Punisher film?
Yes.
Will it be R-rated?
Oh yeah.
What about Ant-Man?
That's one of my all-time favorites. Unfortunately, I'm no longer involved with it.
I love Edgar Wright's stuff. It would be interesting to see what he could do with Ant-Man.
You know, it's almost like a "small world" thing. He wrote a treatment for Artisan many years ago. He wanted to do Ant-Man, which we didn't even know. And then Artisan became Lionsgate, but then they lost the rights. Edgar is busy but I think he's getting there.
Bratz opens nationwide this Friday. Check out ReelzChannel.com's Bratz page for trailers, interviews, clips and more!
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