I’m still trying to figure out what all this means but my God, what a breaking news story we have today.
Disney have bought out Marvel!
The New York Times say the home of Mickey Mouse has spent $4 billion in cash and stock to acquire the rights deal to over 5,000 Marvel characters and their licensing, publishing and future film possibilities. The deal mirrors Disney’s multi billion dollar acquisition of Pixar a few years back, which gave that company a new lease of life and the movies Up, Ratatouille and Wall*E.
Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada was quick to tweet...
JoeQuesada: If you’re familiar with the Disney/Pixar relationship, then you’ll understand why this is a new dawn for Marvel and the comics industry.
A new dawn/Pixar?
Can you imagine it – a fully realised Marvel universe set within the realms of Pixar animation, with the best animators and storytellers we have working today crafting tales with Spider-Man, Magneto and Tony Stark?
Marvel is now owned by Disney who could take the franchise and make it into a global leader for superhero entertainment (which it was well on it’s way to doing so anyway) or it can boil it down to nothing more than a corporate entity. A gimmick for theme park rides and worlds, with guys paid to wear the costumes to hug the kids.
After all, we must remember this is the company that have let Mickey Mouse simply exist now as a symbol and no longer a character. But again, you look at the work they did after they acquired Pixar and it fills you with hope. If they could hire someone who has the brains to look to the future, a guy like John Lasseter (they must work closely with Jon Favreau one would think), then they could make Warner Bros. green with envy at the possibilites. Especially with WB/DC losing Superman in four years.
Here’s a few updates, as transcribed by AICN from a conference call earlier today…
UPDATE #1: In a conference call, the companies said that the deals for movies for characters at other studios (Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.) will stay in place under the terms set by Marvel and the other studios.
UPDATE #2: John Lasseter met with Marvel last week about a possible team-up between Marvel and Pixar and got “pretty excited, pretty fast.” They say there’s definitely an opportunity there.
UPDATE #3: The deal with Paramount Pictures to distribute “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” “Captain America” and “The Avengers” stays in place as well, but Disney would like to self-distribute down the line. “When the time comes we’ll take a closer look at it.” It was actually stated that the deal still included five films, so that is one more film after “The Avengers.”
So after Paramount have made The Avengers and all the characters to do with that movie, do they then become Disney properties? The Avengers 2, Iron Man 3 any sequel to Thor and Captain America would presumably be a Disney thing?
And by the looks of things… Spider-Man and X-Men at least will stay with their current studios.
Lots to think about here. I would recommend keeping tabs on AICN who seem to be tracking this breaking story real well. I’ll update with more when I’ve figured out more closely what all this means!
7 Comments
im pretty sure this is BAD NEWS…since now, all the superhero films we’re gonna get are gonna be watered down, kiddy films. not the dark films we got in the past like iron man, spiderman, and a few of the others, or at least that had dark elements. disney is gonna let the characters go through a kid-money making machine, and all we’re gonna get are exaggerated cartoons with stupid jokes and probably disney music.
A lot of people are scared of this deal, but the Pixar angle alone might be worth it. Can you imagine a Pixar HULK movie? That would be sweet.
If they do water it down then they have killed the all things Marvel stands for. The concept was way a head of it’s time, which ment the film industry couldn’t reproduce the stories until computors got good and the writers really understood what the audience where yearning for. Spiderman showed the way.
Marvel understood what is wanted from them, for the younger generation, but they are always thinking of the elders for it is them who take the children to the movies. both fires need to be fueled Disney and as the saying goes don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. If you did then every thing would get bland, because only one force working on it’s own.
The Hunk VS Mickey mouse Spideman to rescue Sleeping beauty! What the hell does this mean to for the future of our beloved super heroes?
I can’t see it being good for anyone but the people in Stan Lee’s will.
FUCKING HELL!!!!!! We are all DOOMEDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, at least Marvel’s damned animation will get better.
Personally, I think it’s no big deal that Disney bought Marvel. Disney has been hlpeing to bring porn to hotel rooms for years, so the whole “watering down” thing is no issue to me.
But to me it’s great that Fox, Paramount and all the other brainless losers who were too stupid to know a gold mine when they saw one made this happen. If Marvel had been able to get those studios to get off their asses and make more movies, an hence generate more income Marvel might have felt secure enough that they wouldn’t need to sell out.
Oh well. At least they might have a more aggressive merchandising strategy now.
Alot of people are saying that the positive thing is that pixar may be making animated movies with the marvel characters, but really….do you really think that’s gonna happen?
pixar is reputed for its original content, not for taking other things and putting it into its own. we’re not going to get a pixar animated Hulk…i can tell you that RIGHT NOW. that in itself is a very silly idea, and im sure pixar would laugh at it as well.