Legendary hero-smith Stan Lee has set in motion 3 projects with Disney, we get wind of this news today thanks to the catastrophic cannibal caves of yahoo:
Comic book legend Stan Lee has set up three projects at Disney, which houses his production shingle POW! Entertainment. The projects are based on stories and ideas from the 85-year-old man behind Spider-Man and the Hulk, who will executive produce with his POW! partner Gill Champion.
“Nick Ratchet” revolves around the exploits of a private eye. Richard LaGravenese (“P.S. I Love You”) is attached to write and direct The action-adventure project “Blaze” is being written by Gary Goldman (“Next”). “Tigress” (working title) follows a woman who starts getting tiger-like instincts. The project is being written by relative newcomer Zoe Green, who wrote for BBC’s “Wolverine & the X-Men” cartoon series. Lee and Champion hope the projects will have franchise potential, with the first installment intended to serve as an origin story laying out the mythology of the plot and characters.
We heard about Lee joining forces with Disney a little while ago and it looks like their collaborative efforts are about to take shape and an epic franchise machine is about to begin. Lee is a man with a brain full of limitless possibilities when it comes to super heroes, and with the backing of Disney the films will certainly have all the tools necessary to succeed.
I am curious to see how these new characters are received. Part of the reason super hero films bring in such insane amounts at the box office; is because we are familiar with them. Everyone knows Batman, Superman, Spiderman and when we have a film about them – people support their heroes. International Friends – will the lack of familiarity hurt the box office success of these films, or is the demand for superhero films so hot right now that we will all take what we can get?
You know, it actually doesn’t matter whether or not people are familiar with the super hero or not. That’s why when Marvel started it’s real big super hero movie launch, they started with “Blade” (a character not many people were familiar with; not in general anyway). And the movie made bank.
And then there was that movie with Jack Nicholson awhile back (“Wolf”) and that wasn’t even a comic book character. But that movie was the shit and I think it did pretty well.
So if these movies look good, then it is my opinion that they will do GOOD (or well or whatever the correct grammar may be).
I’m glad somebody is making something original for once. When people gotta make all these movies based off of already produced stories it just shows that creativity is going out the fuckin window in the entertainment industry.
I think you over estimate the number of people who see comic book adaptations because they were fans of or readers of comics. I think what has been appealing about these films is that the stories and characters are just great fun and touch on very basic themes that are broadly appealing. I know I for one was never a comic fan but love the genre in movies.
I think the audience for the entire genre was developed early by Superman and Batman on both TV and Film. The success of those projects created far more demand for these films than just being published comic books ever did. And fortunately for the genre, most of the subsequent films in the comic book genre have delivered entertaining product and in several cases truly great movie going experiences (first two Superman, First Batman of each franchise chain, first two Xmen, First two Spiderman). That’s what sustains the popularity of these projects
The comic fans undoubtedly make up a core of the most enthusiastic fans of these films, but most film goers do not read comics.
If Lee delivers the kind of compelling characters with interesting and fun stories that he is famous for then these can be winning projects for him and Disney.
Long live Stan Lee!