Say it ain’t so!
Samuel L. Jackson has told the Los Angeles Times that he may not reprise his role as Nick Fury for Marvel Pictures. Saying “there seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world,” Jackson said that someone else may be playing Fury or that Fury won’t be seen at all in “Iron Man 2,” “The First Avenger: Captain America” and “The Avengers.”
“I saw [‘Iron Man’ and ‘Iron Man 2’ director] Jon Favreau at the Scream Awards and we had a conversation. He said, ‘I hope things are working out for you because we’re writing stuff for you.’ Then all of a sudden last week I talked to my agents and manager and things aren’t really working that well,” Jackson said.
“There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down. I don’t know,” he added. “Maybe I won’t be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won’t be in it. There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they’re saying to me], ‘We’re not making that deal.'”
It could be that Marvel is looking at the price tag for “The Avengers” movie, which could feature the acting talents of Robert Downey, Jr, Edward Norton and the as-of-yet-uncast roles of Thor and Captain America. Affording Jackson for a minor role as Fury may be a bit expensive for Marvel.
Of course, Jackson does have a leg-up on all his competition. The new Nick Fury in the Marvel Comics is based on Jackson.
I’m thinking since only the uber-geeks sat around until the end credits to watch a 20-second cameo, that not retaining Jackson isn’t the biggest crisis in moviemaking.
It is true that a version of Nick Fury is modeled after Jackson, but only in the Ultimate Universe titles (Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four). These on-going titles depict an alternate Marvel universe where the familiar characters are clearly unfamiliar in certain ways, and have differing back stories from their original counterparts.
reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Fury#Ultimate_Nick_Fury
I’ve liked what Marvel has done with movie adaptations of their comic properties since spinning off into their own creative entity – let’s hope they don’t muck things up by starting to nickel and dime the talent.
Iron Man alone has made $500+ mil worldwide…I think they can afford Jackson.
Also if they are continuing with the “ultimates” feel to the movies they have coming out, Jackson as Fury should be a slam dunk.
Not keeping Jackson in the role of Fury would be a huge mistake.