-- What do you know...it's me and my new hat! Now let's see about posting video...
-- hmmmm...not sure that worked, but we're posting anyway.
-- Posted from my iPhone
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Testing
So I'm testing out a blogging app from my iPhone...nothing to see here unless I can get a picture posted as well.
-- What do you know...it's me and my new hat! Now let's see about posting video...
-- hmmmm...not sure that worked, but we're posting anyway.
-- Posted from my iPhone
-- What do you know...it's me and my new hat! Now let's see about posting video...
-- hmmmm...not sure that worked, but we're posting anyway.
-- Posted from my iPhone
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Spider-Mouse??? And just where will Superman be coming from?
So the big shock at the start of the week was the announcement that Disney was buying Marvel Comics for $4 billion (hmmm...wasn't that a number similar to some unused funds from the government bailouts of one of the banks or something???)...
As the week has worn on, there has been lots of muscle flexing and few real answers to some major questions.
Disney did state up front in their press release that any existing deals between Marvel and other companies would be honored until they came to an end. All nice and good, but does anyone really expect Disney to sit by and let Universal Studios have the Hulk & Spidey walking around taking photos until that deal ends (and I have no idea when that is). Universal was quick to release their own statement about the Marvel characters remaining an integral part of the Orlando park's experience.
Fox also did some "damage" control by announcing a producer & writer for a previously barely mentioned 2nd reboot of "Fantastic Four" (which had been mentioned a few months ago with a reboot of "Daredevil" as well). Apparently, Fox has rights to make movies from the Marvel characters they've licensed for as long as they continue to make movies based on those characters (apparently not a problem for the X-Men franchise which has made enough money to keep chugging along, but FF makes two movies that gross $154 million and $131 million and those numbers are considered bad).
The head scratcher here is why Disney would make a deal and then have to wait for the real heavy hitters (on the movie front) to come back into the fold. Spider-Man is tied up at Sony for about another 10 years. The X-Men, Fantastic Four and Daredevil are at Fox for who knows how long. Blade is at Warner (for now). Everyone else is still in the Marvel Studios "box", but some of them are tied to distribution deals with other studios (mostly Paramount who has distribution for Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, but I believe that Universal still has those rights for the Hulk).
Maybe they're willing to wait on those deals and just exploit the rights to everything else they can get now (just because Spidey's at Sony doesn't mean Disney can't slap him on underwear of all shapes and sizes).
Another oddity to this deal comes on the comic book front. Disney's had a presence for years in the comic book market and owning the largest publisher of comics gives them easier access...but how does this affect the deal Disney made with Boom Studios (a much smaller comic book company) who has been publishing comic books based on various Pixar properties and The Muppets for about a year now?
This will most likely be a good deal all around at the end of the day (especially if Disney treats Marvel how they treat Pixar and keeps their hands off the creative end)...but there are plenty of questions that need answering before everything makes sense.
It will be an interesting development.
In other comic book legal news, a judge has given various rights to the heirs of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster concerning the creation of Superman. The specifics can be found online elsewhere (and by more knowledgible people), but it seems that Warner has until 2011 to make another Superman movie before they lose the rights they have to the families. On top of that, unless they cut a separate deal with the families certain "origin" info is off limites (like all the planet Krypton related material).
I expect at the end of the day the families and DC/Warner will come to a financial arrangement to keep everything together (its not like the families would take a Superman without Lois & Lex to Marvel and restart everything from scratch -- and I don't see Warner letting go of Superman's background). But it could get more nasty before its all over since there are lawyers involved.
Anyway...be seeing you.
As the week has worn on, there has been lots of muscle flexing and few real answers to some major questions.
Disney did state up front in their press release that any existing deals between Marvel and other companies would be honored until they came to an end. All nice and good, but does anyone really expect Disney to sit by and let Universal Studios have the Hulk & Spidey walking around taking photos until that deal ends (and I have no idea when that is). Universal was quick to release their own statement about the Marvel characters remaining an integral part of the Orlando park's experience.
Fox also did some "damage" control by announcing a producer & writer for a previously barely mentioned 2nd reboot of "Fantastic Four" (which had been mentioned a few months ago with a reboot of "Daredevil" as well). Apparently, Fox has rights to make movies from the Marvel characters they've licensed for as long as they continue to make movies based on those characters (apparently not a problem for the X-Men franchise which has made enough money to keep chugging along, but FF makes two movies that gross $154 million and $131 million and those numbers are considered bad).
The head scratcher here is why Disney would make a deal and then have to wait for the real heavy hitters (on the movie front) to come back into the fold. Spider-Man is tied up at Sony for about another 10 years. The X-Men, Fantastic Four and Daredevil are at Fox for who knows how long. Blade is at Warner (for now). Everyone else is still in the Marvel Studios "box", but some of them are tied to distribution deals with other studios (mostly Paramount who has distribution for Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, but I believe that Universal still has those rights for the Hulk).
Maybe they're willing to wait on those deals and just exploit the rights to everything else they can get now (just because Spidey's at Sony doesn't mean Disney can't slap him on underwear of all shapes and sizes).
Another oddity to this deal comes on the comic book front. Disney's had a presence for years in the comic book market and owning the largest publisher of comics gives them easier access...but how does this affect the deal Disney made with Boom Studios (a much smaller comic book company) who has been publishing comic books based on various Pixar properties and The Muppets for about a year now?
This will most likely be a good deal all around at the end of the day (especially if Disney treats Marvel how they treat Pixar and keeps their hands off the creative end)...but there are plenty of questions that need answering before everything makes sense.
It will be an interesting development.
In other comic book legal news, a judge has given various rights to the heirs of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster concerning the creation of Superman. The specifics can be found online elsewhere (and by more knowledgible people), but it seems that Warner has until 2011 to make another Superman movie before they lose the rights they have to the families. On top of that, unless they cut a separate deal with the families certain "origin" info is off limites (like all the planet Krypton related material).
I expect at the end of the day the families and DC/Warner will come to a financial arrangement to keep everything together (its not like the families would take a Superman without Lois & Lex to Marvel and restart everything from scratch -- and I don't see Warner letting go of Superman's background). But it could get more nasty before its all over since there are lawyers involved.
Anyway...be seeing you.
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