"We get away with murder. It's what we DO." ;)
Posted on 08/31/2009 6:49:44 AM PDT by relictele
BURBANK, Calif. - Spider-Man and Iron Man have a new boss: The Walt Disney Co.
Disney announced this morning that it is buying Marvel Entertainment -- and the more than 5,000 Marvel characters.
They include X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor.
"This is a great fit for us," Disney boss Bob Iger told CNBC this morning. He said the acquisition was a way to attract more boys.
Disney said the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share -- or about $4 billion. Iger said the acquisition will grow both Disney and Marvel.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
I’d love to see a series of movies about what Indy did during WWII.
Of course, they’re wearing their usual costumes with a tophat each. And spats.
That’s something they arrived at later. Can’t remember the guy before Iger, but he was a big time gay activist, and started really hammering that culture home throughout the organization. I know the CEO of a games company that worked at Disney back then, and he told me about some of the meetings. If heteros tried some of that stuff, they’d have to have brand new careers in some other place in the world.
It’s true though - gay couples don’t have kids, and kids drive the profits, hence you better be hetero friendly, or the kids stay away.
So they can make a bunch of WtP movies, I'm sure.
You're familiar with the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act," right?
"This is a great fit for us," Disney boss Bob Iger told CNBC this morning. He said the acquisition was a way to attract more boys.
"We get away with murder. It's what we DO." ;)
Actually Jack Kirby (who created Captain America with Joe Simon, if I recall) did successfully get some of his creator rights reinstated.
It was called “work for hire” but there was a provision within the law that the creators could still reclaim ownership after a period of time (50 years?) after which I believe the characters were sold back.
I remember some of the ongoing arguments. I remember that Jack did eventually get some of his artwork back. I don’t recall the particulars of the different artists/writers who sought a stake of the money in the 1990s.
To be fair...
1. The pro-gay era at Disney ended when Eisner left.
2. Disney has trouble in the area of getting and keeping boys as audience members. They have Disney Princesses and Disney Fairies, all their Disney Channel sitcoms revolve fully or partly around some teenage girl, etc. Not much there for a boy, but superheroes might help their problem.
Now you’ve done it. I’ve got this image in my head of the Marvel Comics characters all singing Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast...
BTW, I don't mean to brag, but...you have to read my entry in the commentary on that page. Same callsign as I use here.
"Used to" is the operative phrase for sure.
You and me both. Finding out (in the last movie) that he had worked for the OSS was great, and a series of movies about the war years would be really, really cool.
Disney has to know what is going on. Marvel Entertainment has big problems with Stan Lee Media and the lifetime contract Stan signed in 1988 -— a month before he signed nearly the identical contract with Marvel. Hey, Disney investors, don’t count your money yet. You will be giving away an enormous chunk of it.
OCT. 15, 1998 CONTRACT between Lee and Stan Lee Media: http://www.secinfo.com/dsVsb.5Dg.1z.htm
NOV. 1, 1998 CONTRACT between Lee and Marvel: http://contracts.onecle.com/marvel/...998.11.01.shtml
Ever see this? (Do NOT watch in front of small children.) ;)
They gave Kirby back all the originals they had left in their warehouse; unfortunately the warehouse had been systematically looted for many years, and Kirby received only a fraction of the more than 10,000 pages he drew in the 1960s.
All the really good stuff, including all the covers and the key issue art (Fantastic Four # 1, Amazing Fantasy # 15, Spider-Man # 1, Avengers # 1 and 4, X-Men # 1, Hulk # 1, etc., etc.), had been looted a long time ago; In the current market the original covers to these issues would be in the half-million dollar range. Mind-boggling.
While they may have been “looted” or given out as gifts by the publisher over the years, as with other stolen property, when it comes up at auction, it could still revert to the estate.
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