AceShowbiz -

"Runaways" was slated to join Marvel's list of comic books which are getting big-screen treatment, but the project was barely heard again in the past few years. According to screenwriter Drew Pearce, the success of last summer's box office hit "The Avengers" has caused the plans to fall apart.

"We were really close to being made, and then this movie started to happen called The Avengers," says Pearce, who was tapped to write the "Runaways" movie, during a podcast following a screening of "Iron Man 3" at the Los Angeles Film School. "Oddly, it pulled focus from the unheard-of brand 'Runaways', and it really did kind of consume the Marvel Cinematic Universe."

Pearce still holds out hope that the movie adaptation of "Runaways" will see the light of day in the future. He continues, "It's there -- maybe it'll be a Phase Three movie. I really hope so. I'm really proud of it and I think it'll be a brilliant film, but I think it all depends what Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel, his master plan is."

"Iron Man 3" director Shane Black confirms that Pearce's screenplay is "one of the better screenplays that's sitting on a shelf somewhere." The helmer additionaly notes that even if "Runaways" will be included in Marvel's Phase Three movie, it will be years before that's happening. "They make two [movies] a year, but that's still at least three years down the line [until they run out of films already in progress]," he explains.

"Runaways" comic book series follows a group of teenagers who discover that their parents are actually supervillains. Running away from their homes, the teens band together and begin a journey of discovery, both of their parents' origins and of their own inherited powers, while trying to make up for the evil done by their folks.