Take notes, Barack Obama. You think a health care do-over is so hard? Hollywood is here to show you that you can press that reset button any old time, and just like that, it's like a bitter past of faltering ratings or uninspired remakes never happened.

Fox to reboot Fantastic Four: Sure the film series is only a decade or so old, but ten years ago Miley Cyrus wasn't even, like, born. On the heels of Disney's Marvel acquisition, Variety's Mike Fleming notes, "one thing to remember about Marvel assets is, they don't seem to wear out. We're about to see the second example where successful Marvel movie franchises are going to be reinvented." Over at Sony, bosses had already given the green light to tearing up every trace of the Sam Rami-helmed Spiderman franchise and starting anew. How much you want to bet Spidey 2.0's twitters? [Var]

Academy reinvents Best Picture voting: The Wrap's Steve Pond broke the news that even more changes are afoot in the Oscar Best Picture race. Following on the heels of expanding the list of Best Picture nominees from five to ten films, the Academy will now introduce preferential voting, in which members don't simply choose their favorite film but rank their picks one through ten. The idea is that in a ten field race, preferential voting would prevent a film winning with a mere eleven percent of the vote. As to whether this actually means that the actual best film of 2009 will have any chance of winning instead of some overwrought middle-of-the-road, message film, Oscar could not be reached for comment. [The Wrap]

Teen Wolf lives: Once you start re-booting, it's hard to know where to stop. MTV has ordered up a pilot presentation of the 80's classic. [THR]

2009 is #1!: With a week still to go, this year just became the highest grossing summer for domestic box office with 4.17 billion in receipts to date, smashing through 2007's paltry 4.16 billion. Transformers 2 led the team with 399 million. [Var]

Marvel's mogul maniac: Who is the masked man behind the Marvel/Disney deal? The Daily Beast's Kim Masters has a fascinating profile, including the tale how the man no one had ever heard of found it necessary to attend the premiere of Iron Man in a fake moustache. [TDB]

Marvel reax mania!: The web is still aflutter with reaction to yesterday's big news. Read the tea leaves with industry punditry all-stars Nikki Finke, David Poland, Patrick Goldstein, Sharon Waxman and Steven Zeitchik.

For decades, young MBA's have stepped off the Greyhound with little more than an attaché case and a dream — a dream of making their fortunes by turning a moribund 1960's comic book character into a gazillion-dollar international film franchise. Today that dream just fell out of reach for many young dreamers.

The news that Disney has shelled out $4 billion to buy Marvel comics means, for all purposes, the ownership of America's beloved cartoon characters is now in the hands of two companies — Disney and Warner Bros.

Of all the issues facing Washington now, superhero rights no doubt fall low on the list, but what will it take for the government to step in with anti-trush legislation and let these animated citizens enjoy the full pleasures of the free market?

Facing off each other across from opposite ends of Burbank now, America's cartoon titans stand amassed in two armies like The Legion of Doom and The Teen Titans.

Serving now on Disney's payroll:

The classic Disney characters; Mickey, Minnie and the Country Bears

The Pixar Universe - from Buzz Lightyear to Up's formidable Carl Fredricksen

The Muppets

And now Marvel's Spiderman, the Moon Knight, Kingpin, Captain America and the Human Torch.

Here's what's in the Warners camp:

The DC Universe from Batman right on down to Mr. Mxyzptlk

The hangdog but never to be counted out Hanna-Barbera world — including Scooby Doo, a Tom and Jerry film in production, and the perpetually unquenchable demand for updated versions of the Jetsons and Flintstones, not to mention a little outlet known as the Smurfs.

And how could we forget Bugs Bunny and the Warner Brothers cartoon empire

Which leaves very very little for the other studios to pick over.

In fact, if one looks at Empire Magazine's list of the Greatest Comic Characters of All Time, Art Seigelman's holocaust allegory Maus stands as the lone member of the Top 20 not now in the Disney or Warners camps. Of the complete Top 50, the ten remaining free agents are a fairly motley collection of satirical characters (The Tick), untranslatable imports (Astro Boy) and edgy "alternative" characters (Harvey Pekar). When Steven Spielberg's work-in-progress Tin Tin finallys hits the screens, it may be a brave last stand for independent comic book characters, free from the iron chains of the Disney/Warners duopoly.

But ultimately, the greatest losers on this historic day are certainly the other studios whose coming summer slates are heavily dependent on help from their Marvel friends. Sony's Spiderman franchise, Paramount's Iron Man films and Fox plans for a thousand year reign of Avengers origins and team up films are now dependent to some degree on the good will of their friends at Disney.

And all that assumes the winds don't pick up and the fires raging in the hills don't consume us all in flames sometime before tea time today.

More important than printing comics (which, they actually still do!), Marvel is valuable for the merchandising and movie rights to all its characters—over 5,000—many of which have become the massive film franchises that are the lifeblood of the movie studios. The only two studios that aren't dependent on Marvel for summer tentpoles are Disney and Warner Bros. (which bought out DC Comics and its stable of characters including Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman). Paramount has Iron Man, Sony's long been living off Spider-Man, 20th Century Fox lives and dies by how many X-Men,Wolverine, or Fantastic Four films it can spin out and Universal would like you to like The Hulk.

All of a sudden, those studios have just discovered that Disney may be in control of their summer fates. Welcome to your new groveling life, studio executives.

Now she'll really be considered a serious actress. Action heroine Angelina Jolie has inked a deal with Fox 2000 to star in a possible movie franchise based on the searing, probably-some-kind-of-award-winning mystery masterpieces written by our finest authoress, Patricia Cornwell. [Variety]

Every movie Tom Cruise ever does needs to have a big round of script doctoring. Which, you know, says something about the kinds of movies that Tom Cruise does. [Variety]

Anthony Jaswinski come on down. Your script Kristy has just been picked up by Dimension, and the all-star producers behind such hits as Martian Child, Miss Potter, and Secondhand Lions will produce the college campus thriller. Movies! [Variety]

Booooo. NBC has once again messed with Kings, their weird series about kings and stuff that no one watches. The actually pretty good show has been pulled from the schedule, of Saturday night no less, and will return on June 13th. In the wasted heat of summer. Sigh. [THR]

Do you already feel like a superhero when you shuffle your miserable bathrobed self into line at Walgreens? Well get ready to feel extra fantastic then, because the CVS for sad people has just inked a merchandising deal with Marvel. [THR]

Mere months after Marvel had to sub in Don Cheadle for Terrence Howard when the latter found Iron Man 2's War Machine suit not sufficiently baby-wiped, Samuel L. Jackson has announced that he may not be returning as Nick Fury. The character was introduced in a quick scene after the original Iron Man's closing credits, but Marvel had big plans to keep Fury (whose comic-book redesign was actually based on Jackson) around for the sequel and, ultimately, its superhero crossoverpalooza The Avengers. Now, not so much, Jackson tells the LAT:

"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."

"There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down. I don't know. 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.'"

Still, like I told the actor, he has a big advantage on his side: Who else wants to wear that patch, especially since the character is based on Jackson? Jackson laughed. "Maybe nobody will wear it. Maybe they'll decide Nick Fury won't be part of it."

We were always curious how Marvel planned to budget an Avengers movie that would include the well-compensated Downey Jr., plus Cheadle, Jackson, Edward Norton as the Hulk, and the yet-to-be-cast stars for Captain America and Thor. Now, we feel we're getting the picture: Downey Jr will no doubt return, but Marvel will enact its third recast for War Machine (how about that kid from 90210?) and fill out the rest of its dirt-cheap Avengers with the entire cast of Gossip Girl. Westwick SMASH!

• Nick Fury no more? Samuel L. Jackson says 'Maybe I won't be Nick Fury' [LAT]

After the jump: What polarizing cable pundit will be with us for four more years?

· Keith Olbermann has renewed his MSNBC contract for four more years, despite losing the title of handsomest host at the cable network to its newest sensation, Rachel Maddow. [Variety]
· Lifetime has picked up a full season of its mom-in-a-garage-band sitcom, Rita Rocks. [THR]

Those with intimate knowledge of the situation suggest a far more dramatic backstory: Howard was the first actor signed to the film and, on top of that, was the highest-paid. That's right: more than Gwyneth Paltrow. More than Jeff Bridges. More than Robert Downey Jr. And once the project fully came together, it was too late to renegotiate his deal. It didn't help that, according to one source, Favreau and his producers were ultimately unhappy with Howard's performance, and spent a lot of time cutting and reshooting his scenes.

...As such, when Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux went to map out the sequel they found themselves minimizing Howard's story line. Once Marvel learned that Favreau was thinking of curtailing the role, the studio went to the actor's agents with a new and drastically reduced offer — a number that's similar to what supporting cast members were paid for the first movie. The agents, according to sources, were so taken aback by this new figure — estimated at somewhere between a 50 and 80 percent pay cut — that they questioned it.

Yes, it's hard to believe Howard wouldn't take Marvel up on their awkward offer. "Hey, uh, Terrence! So, we're going to start the sequel with you already in the War Machine suit. And, uh, you never come out of it. Plus, no musical number. So, how about $500 grand and a few net points?"

• 'Iron Man 2': How Terrence Howard Lost His Metal [EW]

TH: It was the surprise of a lifetime, you know? It really was. I was like, "Wait a minute, How did this take place?" There was no explanation, but it was gone. It was gone like life; it up and vanished. Then I read something in the trades that implicated it was about money or something. But apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on. [...] And now the challenge is not to be angry, but you just keep moving forward. You keep moving forward. Like a lot of Americans, I lost my 401(k), basically, because that was a very promising thing. But to have to keep working, that's even more promising.

NPR: You've played pimps. Is there a difference between their business principals and the ones in Hollywood?

TH: No. Promises aren't kept, and good-faith negotiations aren't always held up. You know? Even friendships, people you support. When it comes down to it, the only true support you have is the work that you've done — the laurels of your work and the ethics by which you stand.

For Marvel's part, president of production Kevin Feige first offered no comment to MTV News, later implying that even Cheadle isn't necessarily booked for the sequel: “As is the policy with most people, when you talk about dotting I’s and crossing T’s, certainly that isn’t the case yet on a number of things we’re doing. But that [Hollywood Reporter story] was not an announcement. That was, as it tends to happen in the business, is rumors and leaks and things like that. I do think there will be clarity soon.” No rush, Kev — only 18 months until Iron Man 2 opens, and Justin Theroux was desperately hoping to cut Howard's climactic, contractually obligated musical number anyway.

• Terrence Howard Talks Tunes, Family, Science [NPR]

• Terrence Howard Calls ‘Iron Man’ Casting Switch A ‘Surprise’ [MTV News]

After the jump: David Gordon Green gets animated, Robert Duvall ponies up and Ellen Burstyn does serious drugs with Tim Robbins.

· Finally, at age 77, Robert Duvall is bravely venturing into the uncharted career territory of Westerns, attaching himself to star in an untitled drama about the Pony Express. From AMC, of course, which makes him a likely Emmy front-runner in 2010. [Variety]
· Talk about dodging a bullet: By going straight to TV with his animated Fox surfer comedy Good Vibes, a relieved David Gordon Green won't be forced to follow Matthew McConaughey's recent beachgoing high-water mark Surfer, Dude. [Variety]
· Jesse Ventura's predictable career arc will continue ever-skyward when he hosts an untitled "conspiracy theory" reality show for truTV, in which the ex-wrestler/actor/politico will "hunt down answers, plunging viewers into a world of secret meetings, midnight surveillance, shifty characters and dark forces." Or, as they call it in Minnesota, running for reelection. [AP]
· Ellen Burstyn will join fellow Oscar-winner Tim Robbins for his Showtime pilot Possible Side Effects, a drama set in the pharmaceutical industry — kind of like Mad Men, but with scores of exquisitely photographed pills in the place of cigarettes. [Variety]

boomp3.com

Spider Man star Tobey Maguire showed the paparazzi that they wouldn't like him when he's angry while attempting to leave Madeo in West Hollywood. The persistent flash from the cavalcade of paps enraged Maguire, but it was their relentless begging for Maguire's leftovers that really set him off.

[Photo Credit: X17]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

· After a season of slumping ratings, Idol's finale matched last year's, pulling in an estimated 31.7 million viewers—roughly the same number of people who revisited their own gag reflexes upon hearing Mike Myers's pedophilic suggestion the David Archuleta would soon sprout "hair in weird and wonderful places." [Variety]
· We mourn the death of the once great and mighty television movie with news that the Tiffany network is "dumping" two long-completed examples of the genre—Mary-Louise Parker in Vinegar Hill and a Jessica Lange-starring remake of Sybil—in the Saturday night TV burial ground. RIP CBS MOW. [Variety]

· Former NY Times theater critic and op-ed columnist Frank Rich will serve as a creative consultant to HBO, an "informal" position that might involve him "picking up the phone and saying, 'What do you think about meeting with this writer or picking up this property,'" said network co-president Richard Plepler. It's an exciting arrangement that might well lead to the sexually explicit take on Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music we've long wanted to see. [Variety]
· Sam Neill and Sean Bean join the cast of NBC's Crusoe. [THR]
· Marvel heard your anguished and outraged cries over the lack of worthy superheroines in overblown, overstuffed CGI blockbusters, and seeks to snuff this evil with an adaptation of Runaways—a relatively new title about a group of troubled, super-powered teens who split from their supervillain parents and band together. Jesus Christ, the Lohan jokes write themselves. [THR]

1. The Schlub Factor. Like Sam Raimi, who guided Marvel's previous blockbuster franchise Spider-Man to its own record openings in 2001, 2004 and 2007, director Jon Favreau is kind of a schlub — a normal dude who came up through the ranks and pretty much is his audience. He's not Ang Lee, whose misunderstood Hulk is disavowed to the point that its own studio is remaking it this summer (with another non-schlub, French action auteur Louis Leterrier), or even Bryan Singer, whose X-Men franchise coasted on star power before burning itself out at the hands of patronizer extraordinaire Brett Ratner. Favreau imposes a fan's vision and an indie mandate (i.e. character development, budget-mindedness) that works primarily because it threatens no one — neither the studio that paid for it nor the viewers spreading word-of-mouth months in advance and lining up around the block on opening weekend.

2. The Downey Factor. Repeat everything above, but substitute Tobey Maguire and Eric Bana (the miscast Hulk whose 2008 replacement, the relatively inaccessible Edward Norton, will likely suffer a similar fate). Robert Downey Jr. is a smart, funny adult actor who appeals to men and women alike (especially women), while also an innocuous enough leading man who won't overshadow the brand among fanboys. He's also his generation's most powerful Hollywood comeback story; this guy was virtually uninsurable after his umpteenth drug bust six years ago cost him his role on Ally McBeal. His casting was about as brilliant as it gets.

3. The McDreamy Factor. Or: There was nothing else to see over the weekend. Sony says it's happy having done $15 million with Made of Honor, but it thought its Patrick Dempsey rom-com would pull in at least $6 or $7 million of what went to Iron Man — on the basis of counterprogramming alone. What it didn't count on was...

4. The Female Factor. Iron Man was more of a chick flick than most "experts" anticipated, which Variety noting today that women made up 38% of last weekend's audience. Again, Marvel can thank Downey, but it shouldn't forget leading lady Gwyneth Paltrow. Her presence likely accounts for at least $12 to $15 million of that opening windfall.

5. The Critic Factor. The film was arguably critic-proof, but no one can deny the taste- (and profit-) making influence of reviewers who pushed Iron Man to a 94% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes. That is the stuff of franchise phenomena — Iron Man 2, here we come.

Historically, in superhero movies, the only way for an actress to get a piece of the action is to be a piece of action. While all these female characters will certainly be smart, capable women, their primary function will still be as the hero's love interest. These perilous roles virtually guarantee that no amount of brains or pluck will be enough for a damsel to save herself from distress; her endangerment serves to ratchet up the tension of the film, which is always nicely resolved with the tender coda of her rescue. ... What does it take to get some superequal rights up in here?

The author does cite the presence of Selma Blair as the "pyrokinetic" romantic interest in Guillermo del Toro's upcoming Hellboy II — essentially the exception that proves the Hollywood rule. Meanwhile, Film Experience proprietor Nathaniel Rogers spent the weekend at New York's Comic-Con, recoiling from the near-second-class citizenry afforded icons like Supergirl and Batgirl while a new Jenna Jameson comic book sold like mad elsewhere in the building. Yes, we know that Elektra and Catwoman tanked, but Halle Berry's folly is no good reason for the long-awaited Wonder Woman movie to eternally inhabit Development Hell — at least not when Marvel will spend $300 million making The Incredible Hulk twice before throwing a quarter of that into spinning off Ellen Page's Kitty Pryde character from X-Men. We're just saying, boys.

• Where Are the Roles for Superwomen? [Vulture]
• Super Women or Cheap Whores? [Film Experience Blog]

THE FULL TEXT OF EDWARD NORTON'S E-MAILED STATEMENT

"Like so many people I've loved the story of The Hulk since I was a kid, so it was thrilling when Marvel asked me to write and help produce an altogether new screen incarnation, as well as play Bruce Banner. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and always loved the mythic dimension and contemporary themes in the stories, and I'm proud of the script I wrote. In every phase of production, including the editing, working with Louis Leterrier has been wonderful...I've never had a better partner, and the collaboration with all the rest of the creative team has been terrific. Every good movie gets forged through collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed and respect the validity of each other's opinions is the heart of filmmaking.

Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a 'dispute,' seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal and I refuse to let happen. It has always been my firm conviction that films should speak for themselves and that knowing too much about how they are made diminishes the magic of watching them. All of us believe The Incredible Hulk will excite old fans and create new ones and be a huge hit...our focus has always been to deliver the Hulk that people have been waiting for and keep the worldwide love affair with the big green guy going strong.''

Again, we are terribly sorry to have latched on to any misrepresentations, especially the ones of Norton being a handful to work with. Sure, as EW's Gregory Kirschling reports, that legend of his commandeering American History X is true, and Leterrier does diplomatically acknowledge Norton and Marvel couldn't agree on a cut, and Norton did take a month to reply to EW... but whatever. As for Norton's claim that "knowing too much about how [movies] are made diminishes the magic of watching them," we totally agree. We will stop asking unanswered questions — like whether or not Norton will promote the film (is it too much to suggest this doesn't reassure us?) — or even being interested right away. For Norton's sake, we trust you'll do the same.

• 'The Incredible Hulk': Behind-the-Scenes Drama [EW]

· Foreigners aren't picky. They love 10,000 B.C.! [Variety]
· Big Brother is sent back to the summer TV gulag, after a freakish, strike-necessitated winter edition, which never quite caught on with the show's easily confused, seasonally dependent viewership. [THR]
· Ken Davitian has been cast in Fox's Bernie Mac sitcom Starting Under, where audiences will do everything they can to wipe away the image of his flabby, fur-covered ass cheeks squeezing the last gasps of air from Sacha Baron Cohen's heaving lungs. [THR]

• incrediblehulk.marvel.com

· Marvel Studios joins Lionsgate in signing an interim deal with the WGA, a move that should get a handful of uncredited superhero-movie specialists back to punching up scripts for Magneto and Deathlok scripts immediately. [THR]
· Disney will re-release Pixar's Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3-D in late 2009 and early 2010, hoping kids will scream until their parents take them to see the vastly improved version where Buzz Lightyear flies out of the screen every three minutes. [Variety]

The company signed a new multi-year licensing agreement with Fruit of the Loom, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., to make children's underwear lines based on its popular characters.

Fruit of the Loom will initially create products based on upcoming Marvel Studios feature films 'Iron Man' and 'The Incredible Hulk.'

There is always the possibility of the introduction of an adult line as well, where crotch-level labels such as "Incredible Hulk" and "Iron Man" will offer some boastful free advertising for any man who happens to be sporting them. And lest we forget Marvel Studios latest box office triumph, a special collection is in the works to satisfy Rise of the Silver Surfer's enthusiastic fan base. The company's ambitious initial plans for the line, however—involving a "Fantastic 4-pack" which was to include a pair made from a highly flammable fabric, one with a super-elastic waistband, one made from solid brick, and a girl's panty made out of transparent vinyl—were later scrapped in favor of a far simpler, all-blue design featuring the familiar, circled-four logo.

[Photo: juvenileclothing.com]

• Marvel in deal with Fruit of the Loom, Crocs [Reuters]

[Ian] McKellen's participation in "Magneto" will likely be limited, since the film is an origin story. In a storyline hinted at by the original "X-Men" films, Magneto comes to grips with his mutant ability to manipulate metal objects as he and his parents try to survive in Auschwitz. Magneto meets Professor Xavier (played as the wheelchair-bound mutant leader by Patrick Stewart) when Xavier is a soldier liberating the concentration camp.

Magneto hones his powers by hunting down and killing Nazi war criminals that tortured him, and his lust for vengeance turns Xavier and Magneto into enemies. Both characters will be played by actors in their 20s.

Director David Goyer has his work cut out for him, as the margin of discretionary error tends to widen when one segues from tales about bat-suited vigilantes to a mutant coming-of-age story set inside history's most efficient death factory. Still, the subject matter seems far richer than your average "fell into a tank of toxic sludge at the Ace card factory" supervillain origin, and we for one are looking forward to witnessing our unlikely hero, equal parts Simon Wiesenthal and Uri Geller, carving up the bad guys using nothing more than some intense concentration and his former SS tormentors' own Nazi uniform belt buckles.

• Fox, Marvel move on 'Magneto' [Variety]