Disney will Boycott Georgia if the Anti-Gay RFRA becomes Law

The Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios is coming for Georgia!

If Governor Nathan Deal sign an anti-gay RFPA bill, they will not do business with them.

Deadline reports:

“Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law,” said a Disney spokesman today over a bill that the Georgia legislature has passed. House Bill 757 would permit faith-based groups and organizations in the state to discriminate based on sexuality.

Gov. Deal, get it together

5 Characters Katee Sackhoff could be in upcoming Marvel projects

Comic fans have heard the news that actress Katee Sackhoff has been talking to Marvel studios. Most of us think it's all about Ms. Marvel, but what if it wasn't? What if there are other characters she could be?

With that said, I have a few ideas of who Katee could be in the next wave of Marvel movies and TV.

See them after the jump

Take a Look at Disney/Marvel's BIG HERO 6

"Big Hero 6," an action comedy adventure about brilliant robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, who finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the fast-paced, high-tech city of San Fransokyo. With the help of his closest companion—a robot named Baymax—Hiro joins forces with a reluctant team of first-time crime fighters on a mission to save their city. Inspired by the Marvel comics of the same name, and featuring comic-book style action and all the heart and humor audiences expect from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the CG-animated "Big Hero 6" hits theaters in 3D on November 7, 2014.

Stan Lee's Former Company Sues Disney over Marvel Heroes

This is some mess ala mode.

Stan Lee former company, Stan Lee Media, Inc. claims that Disney doesn't own the characters Stan created, and they are seeking “the maximum statutory damages allowable” and the full control over Iron Man, Spider-Man and the X-Men.

Deadline reports:

In its suit, SLMI says that Lee signed over the rights to comic book characters that he created or would create to its corporate predecessor in October 1998. The comic writer and publisher was paid for the rights in shares in Stan Lee Media, Inc. The shares later proved worthless when the dot-com bubble burst at the end of the 1990s, leaving the company to unsuccessfully seek bankruptcy protection in 2001. 

In its complaint today, SLMI says an amended version of that October 1998 agreement was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2000, clearly indicating its rights. “Oddly, in November, 1998, Stan Lee signed a written agreement with Marvel Enterprises, Inc. in which he purportedly assigned to Marvel the rights to the Characters. However, Lee no longer owned those rights since they had been assigned to SLEI previously. 

Stan's group is seeking a nice slice of that 5.5 billion Disney made from the Marvel films.

Jon Favreau leaves Iron Man 3

Wow, Jon's not coming back to Iron Man 3.
Hero Complex has the scoop

Jon Favreau said Tuesday that he is walking away from the billion-dollar ”Iron Man” franchise and will join filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and David Fincher as part of a next wave of filmmakers making major live-action feature films rooted in the imagery of Disney theme park attractions and classic characters.

Favreau is set to direct “Magic Kingdom,” which the 44-year-old filmmaker described as a family fantasy adventure that will tap into the vintage Disney imagery that “loomed so large in the imagination” of his generation. Favreau said that Fincher (expected by many to be a strong Oscar contender for “The Social Network“) will direct the studio’s ”20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” a Jules Verne bookshelf classic that is closely associated with Disney after the landmark 1954 film and the submarine theme-park ride, and Del Toro has already been announced as director of a new “Haunted Mansion” film.

So the search begins, who will direct Iron Man 3?

Disney Has 3 Live-Action Marvel TV Series coming around the bend

Disney/Marvel are moving forward with TV projects, showcasing some of our favorite heroes. In the Wall Street Journal, Disney CEO Robert Iger reveals a little bit of info:

WSJ: In the past year-plus you've made two splashy acquisitions: Marvel and Playdom. How are the integrations of those two companies progressing?

Mr. Iger: [With Marvel] we've taken back distribution, or bought back distribution from [Viacom Inc.'s] Paramount, for some critical franchises. Notably, "Iron Man 3" will be distributed by us, and "Avengers." We're developing three live-action series for ABC and ABC Family. You can buy Marvel products at Disney stores. And we're working on Marvel games. 

3 live action series? I wonder which Marvel heroes will be gracing the TV screen in upcoming Fall season?

FYI, the pic above is Cloak and Dagger, a Marvel comic that may be ABC Family's next TV show.

The Hulk and other Possible Marvel projects coming to TV screen?

Marvel Studios are working on future projects that could be on the tube in the next few years.
The Live Feed has the scoop:

Hulk is one of two projects that are priorities at Marvel Television, Marvel Studio’s TV division, which has been operating under the radar since Jeph Loeb took the reins at the end of June.
The second hot property is "Cloak and Dagger," which is being developed for ABC Family.


Both are in the early stages of development; Hulk has a “showrunner wanted” placard around its neck. ABC had no comment. Meanwhile, Loeb is meeting with writers to hear ideas for "Cloak and Dagger."
Marvel began narrowing it list of possible TV adaptations in May with a presentation on the Disney lot. 

Executives presented ABC suits with a list of titles they identified as possible series:
• "Heroes for Hire" (focusing on ex-con Luke Cage offering to take on bad guys for a price);
• "The Eternals" (a race of superpowered beings live amid humanity in secret, inspiring legends);
• "Agents of Atlas, Alter Ego" (private investigator Jessica Jones takes on cases involving superhumans);
• "Moon Knight, the Red Hood" (a low-rent criminal discovers a cloak that gives him superpowers);
• "Ka-Zar" (a Tarzan-type and his saber-toothed tiger must journey to the concrete jungle to seek justice);
• "Daughters of the Dragon" (a dynamic female duo, one with a bionic arm and the other a granddaughter of a samurai, open a private-detective agency); and
• "The Punisher" (one man wages a war on crime; already adapted as two feature films).

Looks promising, maybe a couple of these could be a hit

Who Asked for This?: Venom

Why Goddammit, Why?

Already spinning a web with a rewrite of “Spider-Man 4” for Columbia Pictures, Gary Ross will follow by taking over the Spidey spinoff "Venom."

Ross will rewrite to direct the picture. Marvel Entertainment, Avi Arad and Ross will produce. In “Spider-Man 3,” Venom was a reporter rival to Peter Parker, who became infected by an alien organism that grafted itself to his skin, giving him superior superpowers and a generally pissed off attitude.

Even though Marvel Entertainment was just acquired by Disney in a $4 billion deal, Columbia Pictures is able to turn Venom loose in a film because the studio holds rights in perpetuity not only to Spider-Man but the villains in his universe.

Again, this is why Marvel/Disney needs to get all their sh*t back. Nobody, or rather not enough folks want to see this. Who told them we were screaming for Venom?

A cartoon flick maybe, but live-action? Hell Naw! This will be an exact replay of the Elektra mess.

And I'm still healing from that.

Cease action now!

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The House of Jack Kirby wants Marvel Back from Disney

Uh-oh the Phoenix Force is coming for Disney in a huge way. The heirs of the Jack Kirby estate (Oh, Kirby is the co-creator of characters of X-Men, Fantastic Four and many super folks) shot out 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel, Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Jesus it seems.

They are not happy about this merger and want it to end like last week.

The legal notices expressed an intent to regain copyrights to some creations as early as 2014, according to a statement from Toberoff & Associates, a Los Angeles firm that helped win a court ruling last year returning a share of the copyright in Superman to heirs of the character’s co-creator, Jerome Siegel.

Disney said in a statement, “The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.” Fox, Sony, Paramount and Universal had no comment.

Marvel shareholders must still approve the sale of the company to Disney, which is already battling criticism from some Wall Street analysts that Marvel comes with too messy an array of rights agreements. The worry is that Disney will have a hard time immediately executing a coordinated exploitation of Marvel’s various brands.

Could this be over before it starts and I wonder if other shareholders will join the Kirby Force? This is going to get interesting.

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The Future: Marvel/DC shack up presents... Duckerine

The Marvel/Disney shack-up details

Since this morning's news, more details are released. Here they are:

• Existing licensing and distribution deals should remain where they are.
• Disney believes there’s real opportunity with the Marvel catalog of characters and will work on where those opportunities are greatest and how best to leverage them across the existing Marvel and Disney infrastructure.
• Disney executives went to great lengths during the call to make the point that they don’t pretend to be more expert than Marvel is in handling their characters, citing the hands-off relationship Disney has had with Pixar since the acquisition of that studio. Disney said Marvel manages the properties from a business perspective very intelligently and trusts them to make the right decisions for these products for a long time to come.
• Disney said the deal was attractive not just because they’re buying great characters, stories and brand, but about working with people who know these characters best and how best to work with them in other media.
• Again, referencing the Pixar deal, Disney finds working as one company with Marvel removes friction and creates value that’s very compelling. Licensing offers very attractive opportunities, but nothing is better than being one. International expansion of Marvel properties through Disney was cited as a potential growth area.
• Cable channel Disney XD is currently running about 20 hours a week of Marvel content and Disney has been looking to license more Marvel content and this deal gives them that opportunity as well as the opportunity to expose these characters internationally.<.li>
• With regards to video game publishing, Disney praised Marvel’s licensing agreements with some of the best video game producers and publishers in the business and said moving forward they will consider what’s best for each individual property as each licensing deal comes up for renewal and that there would likely be a blend of licensed and self-produced/self-distributed titles.
• With respect to Paramount’s distribution deal with Marvel and the Iron Man franchise, Disney has every intention to respect the deal that’s in place, but noted that it’s in their best interest, overtime, to become the sole distributor of Marvel films.
• Will Disney3D be used for Marvel movies? That will be determined by those who are in charge of producing Marvel’s theatrical films.
• When asked if there was potential for cross-polination between Marvel and Pixar, Disney said that Pixar’s John Lasseter has met with key Marvel creative executives recently and the group got “pretty excited, very fast.” Disney will look at all opportunities and thinks there are some exciting product that could come from this sort of partnership.
• Disney said this deal is expected to benefit Marvel’s retail efforts, being able to leverage Disney’s shelf space and relationships with major chains and distributors.
• The deal began when Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger reached out to Marvel Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter earlier this year. Again, Disney noted that they believe in the creative team at Marvel and see no reason to upset that applecart.
• Disney has not made any real estate decisions and sees no reason to move Marvel Studios from their headquarters in Manhattan Beach, California. No mention of Marvel Publishing’s offices in New York City was made.

Marvel + Disney = Fear in this Comic Book fan

I'm not sure how I feel about this piece of news right now, but I fear for the worst.

The Walt Disney Co. claims it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock. In other words, they want to bring Ororo, Jean Grey and The Wasp into the Disney family and make them princesses.

Then, there's this...

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Disney said Monday that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own.

It said the boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the transaction, but it requires an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

I feel like Disney will make Dr. Doom and Mr. Sinister best friends and the Fantastic Four a family that fights for love and peace in the kingdom. I hope the shareholders stand their ground and make tight demands.

I mean, look at Spider-Man the musical, that's enough to convince me this could be a bad idea.