Marvel's 'Runaways' Slowing Down En Route To The Silver Screen

You can probably disregard any casting rumors (like these) that have cropped up about the Marvel Studios big-screen adaptation of Runaways. Deadline reports that, while director Peter Sollett is still on board, Marvel has "invited [him] to take another film first," as the studio "has too much going on" and will take a little more time to develop Runaways as it moves full speed ahead on The Avengers and Iron Man 3.

So the March 2011 filming date is likely scrubbed for now, and we'll have to wait to hear what Marvel decides to do with Runaways.

I've not read the comic, but I've seen many opine that it would work better as a TV series than a feature, and we know Marvel has television plans in the offing. But I wouldn't put too much money on a wager that we'll hear this is moving to TV. There is also some talk that this decision has to to with the performance of Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim, but Deadline tries to refute that talk.

(And, as we've talked about previously, while Scott Pilgrim remains an underperformer with a $44m worldwide take against a $60m production budget, Kick-Ass has done fine in the long tally, with $96m worldwide against $30m production. Prints and advertising need to be taken into account, yes, but Kick-Ass isn't the bomb it was said to be for some time.)

Runaways follows a group of teenagers discover that their parents are an organized group of super villains called The Pride. On the run from their homes, the group bands together and begin a journey of discovery, both of their parents' origins and of their own inherited powers.