Five Projects That Could Use Some Joss Whedon Magic

Now that Joss Whedon's Avengers is quickly on it's way to become one of the biggest films of all-time. Whedon will likely be getting dozens of offers from other studios with the hope of creating a new franchise or rebooting old ones. Hopefully this new success solidifies Joss as a feature film director and he keeps making large scaled films. A bunch of budding projects and ones stuck in development limbo could use some Whedon magic.

AKIRA: This horribly handled adaptation by Warner Bros. had recently put on hold when the studio couldn't lock down a budget. One of the bigger issues was that the film would have almost zero similarities to the original manga and anime. Changing the characters (white-washing casting) and setting to be completely Americanized rather than embracing it's Japanese roots. Whedon has proven he's able to faithfully adapt similar material while creating more of cinematic scope and balls out action. An Akira film needs thrilling action set pieces and solid three dimensional characters which Joss could deliver with a brand new script.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: MOTU is finally back in the works thanks to Universal. Whedon's stunning Cabin In The Woods script proves he could handle something like this. If you seen the film you know what I'm talking about. It could even use the satirical elements that were used in Cabin since it's going to be tough to make a serious He-Man film without going along with the joke.

GHOST IN THE SHELL: Yet another another manga/anime project that's been in development for ages. Dreamworks and producer Steven Spielberg haven't really done much with this besides hiring Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Battle Angel) to write a script a few years back. I feel that Whedon could really knock this out of the park with being able to create strong female leads and supporting casts. Plus his background with Firefly means he can create a sci-fi focused futuristic world.

FLASH GORDON: Gordon has to be one of the greatest swashbuckling characters ever created. It's last live-action film made in the 80's is considered one of the best camp science fiction films ever made. The tongue-and-cheek action flick seems like a perfect project for Joss and seems like he could spread his wings creatively in the process. A script and director had been put together for a new film back in 2010 but nothing has come of it.

HALO: One of the biggest missed opportunities has to be this video game adaptation as at one point with both Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) and Rupert Sanders (Snow White And The Huntsman) had been attached to direct the film. The two budding directors had directed popular live-action Halo commercials before jump into their own franchises. Blomkamp actually had started pre-production on it before the studio and Microsoft shut it down. Sanders had been more rumored but he would eventually remove himself from the running as he's now focusing on a Huntsman spin-off to Snow White And The Huntsman. I'm sure a new Halo film with Joss Whedon directing and handling the script could spark another bidding war to make it.