Marvel? A Mouseketeer?

I had to catch my breath over the cereal bowl this morning when Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger announced this morning that they had, in fact, purchased Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 Billion, making it the second largest acquisition the Mouse House has purchased since they bought PIXAR for $8 Billion! Just think, in my last post, I mentioned the slow dissolution of the industry. Now, I get to eat some of that posting--- or do I?

Stan 'The Man' Lee reportedly leapt out of his chair, thrilled at the news, stating that "From every conceivable point, this union is a perfect match".

Check out some of the great benefits and minor hurdles this deal will yield:

Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures is developing the next three "Spider-Man" sequels, starting with "Spider-Man 4" set for a May 2011 release. News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox has the long-term movie rights to the "X-Men," "Fantastic Four," "Silver Surfer" and "Daredevil" franchises.

Separately, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures has a five-picture distribution deal for Marvel-made movies, the first of which will be "Iron Man 2," set for release next May. Paramount said it expects to continue working with Marvel and Disney.

General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios has an attraction called Marvel Super Hero Island in Orlando, Fla., that will stay in existence as long as Universal wants to keep it there and follows the contract terms, Universal said.

Despite beginning to make its own movies, starting with "Iron Man" last year, licensing remained a key driver of Marvel's $206 million in profit and $676 million in revenue last year. Iger said Disney could give Marvel broader global distribution and better relationships with retailers to sell Marvel products.

Marvel shares shot up $9.72, or 25 percent, to close at $48.37 on Monday.

Marvel plans to release two costly blockbusters, "Thor" and "The First Avenger: Captain America" in 2011. DVD sales of those films likely won't roll in until fiscal 2012.

Marvel's chief executive, Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, will pocket a hefty payday. He snatched Marvel assets out of bankruptcy in 1998, in a deal that valued the company at around $450 million including debt, outmaneuvering investors Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman. His 37 percent stake in Marvel is now worth about $1.5 billion.

Now, out of all of this, WHERE ARE THE COMICS?! Here's a deal that will change the face of mainstream comics, yes, but with such a monstrous deal designed to elevate the stakes of the playing field, it doesn't change the game... Who will have to up their game--- Them or Us? The Mainstream muscle definitely got a steroidal shot this morning, but the real trick now is whether or not this deal can maintain that muscle. Disney has never made no secrets about its business... Remember MIRAMAX? Remember the PIXAR dispute? These fallouts came only AFTER Disney claims big payoffs from these mergers. Hmmm... Mice don't eat spiders, do they?

When The Mainstream Gives No Other Alternatives

The Alternative Press Expo, founded by Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics founder DAN VADO (Hi Dan, it's me again!) in 1994 as a showcase for independent and self publishers to display their works and spread the word on works that don't carry a Marvel or DC stamp. In 1995, Comic Con International took over the event. APE started as one day events until 1998, where it gained an extra day and continued the tradition up till now. One question BEGS to be asked here:

What's wrong with this picture?

Comic Con International, to many of us, once represented the mecca of comic conventions in the United States... At least once in your lifetime, you had to make the pilgrimage. Today, it seems like Comic Con is becoming less a comic convention and more like SHOWest, as Hollywood's presence has become the dominant force of the show. Where publisher tables were open and inviting, they seem more like roach motels--- The comic powers-that-be spend more time pandering to the publicity than the public, and the term 'intellectual property' sounds more like an oxymoron than ever before. Even USAToday covered Comic Con as '...the hot spot where you may actually find comics...'

Many of the small press publishers, like Fantagraphics for example, have publicly stated that they're considering moving away from the vibe of Comic Con to shows like APE and SPX in an attempt to bring indy comics (and comics in general) back to the public.

It almost seems systematic, doesn't it? Comic Con, attempting to stave off the implosion of the comic industry, cozies up to the Hollywood machine to bring in new John Q. Public readers who don't normally read comics... John Q. Public, for a larger part, considers the Hollywood presence more viable than the comics that surround them; thinking it's kid stuff... Comic Con buys out shows like APE, so that at least they have somewhere to keep their artist alley, despite the fact that there's no money in it... The face of a dollar bill says more now than an intelligent man with no money, huh? It's almost the Big Boys way of saying, 'you can still have some, just not much of it...'

Truth is, with the business, such as it is, being in such straits, the powers-that-be (all of them!) should know that the industry--- mainstream and indy alike--- should thrive as a whole, not by strangling off its parts. This is why foreign markets that once emulated our industry, now laugh at it. Our market is becoming a VH-1 special, y'all... To all my NEXT 100, I urge you not to lie down on this... Our fight has truly begun.

Support the indy movement and the industry... What's left of it.

Gut Muncher With A Laugh: Zombieland!

Director RUBEN FLEISHER is a relative unknown to Hollywood, but come this October, the world will soon see the horror/comedy he created known as ZOMBIELAND. I don't know about you, but PLANET GRIFFIN can definitely give the trailer alone a big thumbs up as one of the funniest gut-munchers I've seen yet--- and I'm an undead burnout right now! Check out the Red Band Trailer and see for yourself!

Sena, Rucka Resurrects Carpenter With Whiteout

"I remember saying, 'This is an interesting idea for a movie. Imagine if you took a bunch of people, put them in some horribly cold environment a long way from anywhere, mostly in darkness [and] cold, frigid temperatures, and put them there for weeks or months or years,'" he says. "And then a couple of years later Whiteout came out. And I read it and I was like, 'This is the idea.' It's just like another world." -DOMINIC SENA

PLANET GRIFFIN WEEKEND EDITION continues at broadcast depth to bring you another coming-sooner-than-you-think to multiplexes nationwide... The below freezing conditions of Manitoba, Canada (doubling for the icy wasteland that is Antarctica for the bulk of the shoot) is the epicenter for the Oni Press comic adaptation of GREG RUCKA'S WHITEOUT, starring KATE BECKINSALE, GABRIEL MACHT, and TOM SKERRITT.

As the sole law enforcement officer stationed at a research station in Antarctica, Carrie Stetko uncovers a dead body, prompting a race against time to solve the crime as the base is preparing to shut down for the winter... And the killer is closer than she thinks.

DOMINIC SENA, the director of SWORDFISH and the remake of GONE IN 60 SECONDS, jumps back into the lensed saddle again to helm the project, already a smashgenre of JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING and OUTLAND, Sena even admits that he looked to those films as inspiration for the shoot.

"All these people caught up in this claustrophobic, frigid environment where you can't go outside... Two minutes outside and you're dead," he says. "And there's nothing to do down there [in Antarctica]; you're bored silly. And all of a sudden there's a killer amongst you. And you go, 'Sh*t, that's pretty good.' ...The cold and the whiteouts and the 120-mile an hour winds and all of that seem so alien and foreign that I thought, 'I love the idea to do it.' I mean, I didn't stop to think about how hard it would be to do!" - DOMINIC SENA

The Inglourious Return Of The Smashgenre King

PLANET GRIFFIN WEEKEND EDITION returns once again with a little something different... Y'know, we as a society are an amazing piece of work--- we are the only social order that cheers our pop culture icons when they're on top, spite them when they fall, just to cheer for them again when they claw their way back to the top... Take writer/director QUENTIN TARANTINO for example--- film upstart with RESERVOIR DOGS, smashgenre phenom with PULP FICTION, topping himself with the essential payback flick in two parts, KILL BILL 1 & 2--- here's a critical darling who can do NO wrong... Until the loopsided backfire of GRINDHOUSE, where the critics panned it and audiences largely avoided it, citing online chatter of whether or not the director's still got it. Now, with the post-release hype of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, it would seem that even the hardened doubters got their answer--- and, of course, he's loved all over again!
Listen to the re-emergence of the film wunderkind in a recent interview with NPR radio. Oh, and go see this movie--- it definitely warrants the PLANET GRIFFIN CERTIFICATION OF BADASS MOVIE GOODNESS!!!

John Carter Of Mars: The Cliffhanger Continues?

In tonight's Triple Feature Friday here at PLANET GRIFFIN, we bring you a true classic... Published back in 1917, EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS warmed up his future Tarzan muscles with a rip roaring sci-fi adventure that's still as inspirational now as it was then! JOHN CARTER OF MARS centers around John Carter, a Civil War soldier mysteriously transported to Mars where he finds high adventure and intrigue protecting a princess from the world's inhabitants who give true meaning to the term 'impossible odds'... Past forward to now. ANDREW STANTON of PIXAR STUDIOS has scoured through several rewrites ( even getting assists from MICHAEL CHABON), in an attempt to produce what they're now calling '... A perfect hybrid of CGI and live action...'
The MARS project has now gone into Pre-production after solving the ever-twisted script problem (Which I can believe... How can you adapt 6 separate installments of an adventure serial into 1 solid tale?), but now instead of being a Pixar project, it's now a DISNEY project on the fast track (obviously, the Mouse House smells big franchise bank a la' Pirates Of The Caribbean). The Dramatis Personae is still evolving, but currently locked in is TAYLOR KITSCH (Gambit of Wolverine) in the title role, LYNN COLLINS as Dejah Thoris, WILLEM DAFOE as Tars Tarkas, SAMANTHA MORTON as Sola, and DOMINIC WEST as Sab Than... And steadily growing...

Of course, like the original story almost 92 years ago, all of this is to be continued...

BOOM! Is Bringing The Rage To The Page

PLANET GRIFFIN continues at broadcast depth with the arrival of the partnership between BOOM! Studios and FOX ATOMIC at unveiling the 28 DAYS LATER comic series by Michael Alan Nelson and newcomer Declan Shalvey. The series follows Selena, the movie protagonist from the original film, living in a Northern European refugee camp, trying to figure out how she's getting sucked back into the horrific struggle against the infected. The series will bridge the gap between the original film and it's sequel, 28 WEEKS LATER.

I'm still geeking on the TIM BRADSTREET cover alone! Seeing as how this film series turned the entire 'zombie' premise on its ear, judge the series for yourself by checking out the preview HERE.