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Marvel's The Inhumans (IMAX & ABC) (1 Viewer)

Adam Lenhardt

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'Marvel's The Inhumans' Coming to IMAX & ABC in 2017

Version of first 2 episodes of new ABC series to premiere exclusively in IMAX® theatres for two-week window!

DISNEY|ABC, IMAX AND MARVEL TELEVISION FORM INNOVATIVE PRODUCTION, MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT FOR

‘MARVEL’S THE INHUMANS,’ A NEW MARVEL TELEVISION & ABC STUDIOS TV SERIES SET FOR ABC

Version of first two episodes of new ABC series to premiere exclusively in IMAX® theatres for two-week window in late Summer 2017 prior to network run

IMAX Corp. (NYSE: IMAX), Marvel Television, a unit of Marvel Entertainment, and Disney|ABC Television Group today announced an innovative agreement to exclusively premiere the new ABC series “Marvel’s The Inhumans” in IMAX commercial theatres, marking the first time a live-action television series has debuted in this manner.

Under the agreement, a version of the first two episodes of Marvel Television’s new series “Marvel’s The Inhumans”--produced in conjunction with ABC Studios and filmed entirely with IMAX digital cameras--will run worldwide exclusively in IMAX for two weeks at the beginning of September 2017. ABC plans to then premiere the weekly series in fall, with additional exclusive content that can only be seen on the network.

The Inhumans, a race of superhumans with diverse and singularly unique powers, were first introduced in Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1965. Since that time, they have grown in prominence and become some of the most popular and iconic characters in the Marvel Universe. “Marvel’s The Inhumans” will explore the never-before-told epic adventure of Black Bolt and the royal family.

ABC, IMAX and Marvel Television also intend to work together to create a joint marketing and promotion plan for the series across their proprietary media platforms--which would be the first such cross-platform marketing launch of a television series. Today’s agreement also marks IMAX’s first time as a financing participant in a TV pilot and series.

“This unprecedented alliance represents a bold, innovative approach to launching great TV content for a worldwide audience,” said Ben Sherwood, co-chairman, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney|ABC Television Group. “It highlights Disney|ABC’s unrelenting commitment to finding new and creative ways to showcasing our very best programming and increasing global engagement and reach.”

“This first-of-its-kind multi-platform production, distribution and marketing agreement brings together Marvel Television’s unique brand of entertainment, ABC’s unparalleled audience and IMAX’s brand and global fanboy demographic,” said IMAX CEO, Rich Gelfond. “It also takes our decades-long relationship with The Walt Disney Company to a whole new level, jointly breaking new ground in the industry. We are confident our exhibition partners will be excited to work with us on this innovative launch of a series across the IMAX network.”

“We're happy to see this unique deal come together, working with our partners,” said Dan Buckley, President, Marvel Television, Publishing & Brand. “In an ever-changing world of distribution and consumption, it’s very exciting to be part of a groundbreaking initiative that takes us to the forefront of this evolution.”

This deal also provides audiences with high-quality, compelling entertainment options during what have traditionally been lulls in the summer blockbuster season. These IMAX audiences also tend to have high engagement and positive response to comic book fare.


More on Marvel.com: http://marvel.com/news/tv/26993/marvels_the_inhumans_coming_to_imax_abc_in_2017#ixzz4Q2DG7trO
 

Sean Bryan

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Interesting.

The Inhumas movie was taken off Marvel Studios' schedule a little while back. Some guessed it was because Marvel Television was using the concept too heavily on Agents of SHIELD. Regardless of why the nature of the project changed, I'm much more interested in this series than I would have been in the "Most Wanted" AoS spinoff.

Hopefully they'll have the budget and creative talent to pull off a Netflix quality series.

Vin Diesel has long been rumored for the role of Black Bolt. Not sure if he'll want to do it now that it has changed from movie to television.
 

Sam Favate

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Adam Lenhardt

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Thanks for sharing that article, Sam.

Interesting that it's not being considered an "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." spinoff. Given how heavily that show has played up the Inhumans, I figured that would be the obvious route, perhaps with moving the Daisy character over to new series. But a clean break (hopefully with a fresh team of writers) is more exciting to me.
 

dana martin

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for those who , will wonder, this is going to be about the "Royal Family" Black Bolt, Lockjaw ..... I have a feeling that this may be one of the properties to carry over to the MCU, and Infinity War. I don't see them really tying into SHIELD, they could have the whole series set around the moon, but instead of waiting a few years, for 1 film this will compress it to the equivalent of 4 before Infinity War happens, and since this is getting a 2 week run exclusively in IMAX, and is co-financed by them I see this as possible A-listers playing these parts, even if it ends up finishing out the last 6 EP's on TV
 

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The Hollywood Reporter says that this show will only be eight episodes. Could it be a mid-season replacement for Shield?

Interesting that it's not being considered an "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." spinoff. Given how heavily that show has played up the Inhumans, I figured that would be the obvious route, perhaps with moving the Daisy character over to new series. But a clean break (hopefully with a fresh team of writers) is more exciting to me.

I think there's a really good chance that Agents Of SHIELD might not be on the air anymore by the time this series premieres. The ratings for the show have never been the television equivalent to what the movies do at the box office, and I think they continue to decline. The show has been moved from the 8pm slot to a 9pm slot and now has been shuttled to the 10pm slot, which often is the pathway towards cancellation. The show is neither critically acclaimed nor beloved by fans. I love all the Marvel movies, and I watch the show, but it often feels more like an obligation than something I need to watch. When the show first premiered, the big hook was that it would bridge the gaps between the different movies, and make the Marvel universe seem more connected; in reality, they've had a couple of looser tie-ins to the movie world, but it's never been "must see" for fans of the movies to know what's happening next, and for the most part (and certainly since the ending of the first season), the movies don't really impact the show. All of that's to say, it's on the schedule, but no one seems super excited about it. And their previous attempt to do a spin-off from SHIELD didn't even get picked up, so I don't think spinning a new show off of SHIELD is necessarily the best way to launch a new show.

From what I understand about Inhumans, the original plan was for their to be an Inhumans movie that wasn't really related to the SHIELD show, and the reason it was a movie had to do with dysfunction between the Marvel television unit (run by Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter) and the feature film unit (run by Kevin Feige). It supposedly smoothed out some difficulties between Perlmutter and Feige. But the situation between the two grew intolerable, and Feige finally asked the Disney board to be allowed to report directly to them rather than Perlmutter, which Disney allowed. Once that happened, the Inhumans movie dropped off the feature schedule.

Anyway, it seems like Inhumans is being readied to launch regardless of what happens with SHIELD, which is probably the smarter decision.
 

Sean Bryan

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Yeah, I'd be surprised if the Inhumans tied into the movies in any significant way. When they make these movies, they have to appeal to a broad audience. It's already a bit of an ask to expect the audience of the big team up movies (Avengers) to have seen the other solo movies, though they have said at this point, like with Civil War, they are going to assume the majority of the audience has seen the preceding films and embrace that. However, tying characters and stories establish on television into these films would be a mistake. It just makes it way too much of a "special club" at that point. Anyone remember how The Matrix Reloaded had several little things that tied into a video game and the animated shorts? Yeah, fun for the little club, but 99% of the viewers of the movie didn't see that stuff.

As much as some folks (weirdly) think there may be too many super hero movies, if there are three MCU movies a year I think most people can find six hours over the course of the year to watch them. But there's a much smaller audience that will commit to watching a TV show. Plus, people are fickle and have short attention spans. A movie is over and done in about 2 hours, and it does what it does (for better or worse) in that span. But a show is paced completely differently. It may take a few episode for things to build or progress and often people check out before then. I enjoy long form story telling, but I'm just saying that the reality is that lots of people don't.

The Russos have said they'd be open to using characters like Daredevil but they wouldn't want to just do pop in and out cameos. If they were to use him (or JJ, Cage, etc...) they'd need to actually work them into the story, introduce to the audience and have a purpose (like they way they handled Spidey). So considering how the next two Avengers films are something of a culmination of the preceding 18-21 movies, it's really unlikely that they'll be shoehorning any of the the TV stuff in there.

I think it's good that this show will be about the Inhuman Royal family and focus on its own corner of the Marvel universe. Part of the issue with SHIELD is that the story is right out there in the main world in which the movies take place and they do things that affect society and the world on a significant scale, like the emergence of all the Inhumans, but the movies can't assume that their audience watches the show and aren't really acknowledging the Inhuman stuff. So instead of feeling connected it feels superficially connected but yet separate (which reflects the nature of the division between Marvel Studios and Marvel Televison). And it just feels awkwardly forced when the show tries to tie itself to what the movies have done, like with the Hellicarrier last year. Better for the TV shows to be part of the world but on a more self contained scale like the Netflix shows.
 
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Adam Lenhardt

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“Marvel’s The Inhumans” has found its Showrunner in Scott Buck (“Marvel’s Iron Fist,” “Dexter”)!

Buck will serve as Executive Producer on the series, which will explore the never-before-told epic adventure of Black Bolt and the royal family.

“Marvel’s The Inhumans” will premiere a version of the first two episodes first in IMAX commercial theatres, marking the first time a live-action television series has debuted in this manner. The series, produced in conjunction with ABC Studios and filmed entirely with IMAX digital cameras, will run worldwide exclusively in IMAX for two weeks at the beginning of September 2017. ABC plans to then premiere the weekly series in fall, with additional exclusive content that can only be seen on the network.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for the latest on “Marvel’s The Inhumans” and Marvel Television!

I have mixed feelings about this news. I was kind of rooting for a fresh exciting new voice, and of the Netflix/Marvel showrunners announced so far, he's the one I've been most apprehensive about since his three seasons as showrunner of "Dexter" are the most reviled of the series.

On the other hand, Marvel must be really happy with how "Iron Fist" has turned out if they're handing him the reins of an important new collaboration with IMAX like this.
 

sidburyjr

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How many of you are willing to spend $15 to see a couple of TV episodes on the (very) big screen a few weeks earlier than they appear on TV even if they are extended?
 

Josh Steinberg

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How many of you are willing to spend $15 to see a couple of TV episodes on the (very) big screen a few weeks earlier than they appear on TV even if they are extended?

I think it's the other way around - that the IMAX version will be shorter, and then the versions airing on ABC will be extended from the IMAX premiere. That should entice people who liked the IMAX version in theaters to watch it again when it airs on TV.

I will likely give this a shot. If it's in 3D, I'm definitely there. If it's in 2D, it won't be automatic, but likely.
 

Aaron Silverman

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Then again, knowing that the IMAX version will be cut is not much of an incentive to spend money to see it.
 

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Then again, knowing that the IMAX version will be cut is not much of an incentive to spend money to see it.

I guess the idea is that you're paying to see it early, and on a big screen in surround sound. Most people don't have IMAX-size screens at home. IMAX did something similar with HBO's "Game Of Thrones" last year where they showed two previously aired episodes in IMAX, and they sold a bunch of tickets. I imagine it's just meant to be extra money for IMAX, and bonus exposure for ABC. The dates that this is scheduled to bow in IMAX are during a slow point of the year when they don't usually have anything to show, and before the fall TV season has officially begun, so it's probably a way to get the die-hards to see the show early and get a little extra cash and exposure along the way.
 

Aaron Silverman

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Well, sure. I'm just saying that the TV broadcast having extended material makes people less likely to pay for the theater experience.

I wonder whether they're more interested in selling tickets or getting eyeballs on the broadcast. Maybe ABC and IMAX have opposing viewpoints on that. :)
 

Josh Steinberg

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Well, sure. I'm just saying that the TV broadcast having extended material makes people less likely to pay for the theater experience.

It's possible - I think they're counting on the type of audience member that will wait on line in a Comic Con panel all day to see next week's episode a few days early. It probably won't hurt that it's the first episode, and that it'll be feature-length. I imagine the theatrical program will include some kind of exclusive peek on whatever the next Marvel theatrical film is, and/or a free poster giveaway, something to try to boost the audience. There's also a huge audience that goes to see Marvel movies in theaters but (so far) has not been motivated to watch any of the television spin-offs. This might be a way to reach some of that audience as well.

I wonder whether they're more interested in selling tickets or getting eyeballs on the broadcast. Maybe ABC and IMAX have opposing viewpoints on that. :)

I think IMAX is just happy to have something playing mid-September when normally their theaters are either dark or having difficulty selling tickets. September/October has been slow for them in recent years, and they've struggled to find something to play in their theaters during that time of the year that will attract an audience. This year, they put out Deepwater Horizon, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and Inferno in that window, and all were flops for the format - and they had to know ahead of time that none of those were going to be big IMAX titles. Last year, they had flops in the same time period with The Transporter Refueled, Everest, The Walk and Crimson Peak. In 2014, they had flops in that period with a Forrest Gump reissue, The Maze Runner, The Equalizer and Dracula Untold. Their only real September/October hit was Gravity in 2013. This year, in between the flops, they had very limited engagements of previous IMAX space movies (both fiction titles like Gravity and nonfiction titles like A Beautiful Planet), and Harry Potter reissues, and those seemed to be doing at least decently. So I think for IMAX, whatever they do with this Marvel show, it'll be better than what they've been doing in recent years in that time period.[/quote][/QUOTE]
 

Adam Lenhardt

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One of the big selling points for this is that it's being filmed entirely in the IMAX format, which exceeds the technical specs for even most of the Marvel feature films.

So while I'm in Aaron's category with just waiting for the ABC broadcast, I can see why there'd be a geek contingent that would want to get the full experience on the BIG screen. And as Josh pointed out, September is a real lull in the blockbuster calendar.

The big thing is that in addition to delivering a strong drama, they'll also have to deliver IMAX-level spectacle, at least for the first two episodes.
 

Josh Steinberg

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One of the big selling points for this is that it's being filmed entirely in the IMAX format, which exceeds the technical specs for even most of the Marvel feature films..

For what it's worth, in the case of this show, it's not being shot in a 15/70 film format. It will use the same digital Alexa camera with the proprietary IMAX enhancements that was used for the airport sequence in Captain America: Civil War, and for Clint Eastwood's new film Sully. The aspect ratio on that camera's sensor is 1.90:1. The camera is meant to emulate 70mm film, and captures in 4K. I'll be curious to see at what resolution they do post-production for. Marvel/Disney have been very comfortable with 2K was a release format on their blockbuster films. Their ABC shows were done at HD level, but Netflix requires 4K for their original series, so the Netflix Marvel shows were done at 4K. I assume that the ones that are shown in IMAX theaters will be finished in 4K but I wonder if they'll keep it up for the length of the series.

I'm hoping for something big and fun, but I'm also not expecting Christopher Nolan level of IMAX bigness.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Yes; I should have been more clear in my wording: As you say, this is a showcase of the new the IMAX digital format, using the IMAX variation of the Alexa 65 cameras, which record in greater than 6K resolution. As opposed to 2K, it's still a big technical step up from most of the Marvel films.

Does anyone know whether IMAX has announced whether its new digital format uses the full 6.5K resolution of the cameras? I would imagine it's at least 4K.
 

Josh Steinberg

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No worries Adam, I just wouldn't want people to see "IMAX" and think 1.44:1 on their tallest screens. When Sully was about to come out, some people thought "filmed in IMAX" for that title meant something different than it did. For the record, I'd love to see this or any Marvel project using the 1.44:1 on IMAX. Would be great to see all of that real estate filled with cosmic special effects battles.

That's a really good question on the cameras. I thought it was 4K but I'm not 100%.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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The stupid thing about Sully is that they shot it in the 1.89:1 digital IMAX aspect ratio and then released it in conventional theaters in 2.39:1. Wouldn't it have made a lot more sense to shave 2 percent of the picture off the sides, instead of cropping 20 percent off the bottom?
 

Josh Steinberg

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The IMAX framing was exclusive to their theaters. I think the idea is that the largest conventional screen size is supposed to be 2.35:1, and that the IMAX 1.90:1 is supposed to appear taller/larger. On conventional screens, 1.90:1 would be smaller than 2.35:1. It's meant to be a bonus for IMAX and I think the extra height is meant to be more peripheral "immersion" than anything else. I'm guessing his viewfinder was marked for both ratios when he was filming.

Eastwood must prefer the 2.35:1 framing for smaller screens, since that's what the BD has been announced as being. I would have preferred the 1.90:1 for the disc since that's the way I saw it in theaters, but that's usually how these things go. Same for the BDs of Skyfall, I Frankenstein, Oblivion, Prometheus, Tomorrowland and a few other titles that were 2.35:1 or thereabouts in conventional theaters but 1.90:1 or thereabouts in IMAX.
 

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