In the past week, Avi Arad vented his anger over a Businessweek.com article that placed most of the credit for Marvel Studios success on Kevin Feige, the current president of Marvel Studios. He especially didn't like being described as someone that doubted Marvel's strategy to leverage film rights of their characters for a half a billion dollar loan, which went to making Marvel's first films. He responded with an email (click here) and even sent out some additional comments to Deadline :
“We had a list of titles, but the slate didn’t have Iron Man or Hulk, and I had a very tough time getting Iron Man back from New Line, but we got it back. I always loved Iron Man. I left because I wanted to leave. It was nothing other than it was time to go. The company was growing and I didn’t like committees and I was 60 and was doing well as it was. I took a walk and thought, ‘I’m too old for this.’ And I thought if I keep nothing but Spider-Man, I will continue with Marvel, but I can do other things. I wanted to do other things … and I am now. The company is in good hands with Kevin who doing a great job.” - Avi Arad
Producer Avi Arad certainly loves taking credit for the Spider-Man, Blade and X-Men films, yet you don't hear much from him about Daredevil, Hulk, Elektra, Punisher, the Fantastic Four films, Ghost Rider and Man-Thing. Let's not forget, Avi wants all of you to know instrumental he was in reacquiring the film rights for Iron Man from New Line, but is that even deserved? A source for Latino Review shines some new light on those dealings.
"Let’s be clear here. Arad was happy to renew Iron Man with New Line for a total of FOUR years. He was happy with a script by Tim McLanies in which Iron Man was dressed by his toaster. He sat in meetings with Bob Shea who insisted that Iron Man not fly and he was okay with that. His vision for Iron Man was to try to pretty much do anything Shea and Emmerich wanted to do. So how did he get it back from them when the new opportunity arose? Simple. He lied. He lied to New Line and Emmerich for months telling them that they were in negotiations for an extension, leading them to believe the project was going forward, then on the day the option was up he pulled it. Arad so baldy and boldy lied to everyone back in those days, it’s astonishing he wants the unearned credit now. Track record? Outside of Marvel that consists of the Bratz movie. Feige was and remains the waterboy, that was clear then and now, but to talk about “forgiving” Kevin is just hilarious."
Source: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/nailbiter111/news/?a=99672
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