Welcome to the show folks...
They're busy little beavers at Warner Bros. this week. First they settle the lawsuit with the Tolkien estate, opening the way for The Hobbit, and now there's a major shake-up at DC Comics and its relationship with the movie company. You read the details at Nikki Finke, but I'll give you the gist of it all.
Basically all the deals with producers that have left characters like The Flash, and Wonder Woman in development limbo have been ixnayed. Plus, the comics company itself will be reporting directly to the head of the entertainment company, and its business affairs, namely movie development has been put under Diane Nelson.
Nelson's got a good record managing franchises, having organized the extremely lucrative Harry Potter money factory for the company, and has recently been running Warner Premiere.
I'm taking this as a positive step. Warner Premiere is the direct to DVD division that's been producing those animated DC- Universe movies that have proved popular among comic geeks, and are, in comparison to the live action movies, a model of efficiency. And by that I mean that they actually make the movies they announce that they're going to make.
Now live action movies are a different kettle of fish. The amounts of money and ego are exponentially larger than in animated productions. However, I don't think the situation there can get any worse.
Remember this is the company that successfully pissed away $65 million before shooting a single frame of Superman Returns, and currently seems completely incapable of developing anything successful that doesn't involve Batman or Christopher Nolan.
So while I'm cautiously optimistic, I will be waiting and watching to see how this pans out. I wish them luck, because they're going to need it to straighten out the current mess.
They're busy little beavers at Warner Bros. this week. First they settle the lawsuit with the Tolkien estate, opening the way for The Hobbit, and now there's a major shake-up at DC Comics and its relationship with the movie company. You read the details at Nikki Finke, but I'll give you the gist of it all.
Basically all the deals with producers that have left characters like The Flash, and Wonder Woman in development limbo have been ixnayed. Plus, the comics company itself will be reporting directly to the head of the entertainment company, and its business affairs, namely movie development has been put under Diane Nelson.
Nelson's got a good record managing franchises, having organized the extremely lucrative Harry Potter money factory for the company, and has recently been running Warner Premiere.I'm taking this as a positive step. Warner Premiere is the direct to DVD division that's been producing those animated DC- Universe movies that have proved popular among comic geeks, and are, in comparison to the live action movies, a model of efficiency. And by that I mean that they actually make the movies they announce that they're going to make.
Now live action movies are a different kettle of fish. The amounts of money and ego are exponentially larger than in animated productions. However, I don't think the situation there can get any worse.
Remember this is the company that successfully pissed away $65 million before shooting a single frame of Superman Returns, and currently seems completely incapable of developing anything successful that doesn't involve Batman or Christopher Nolan.
So while I'm cautiously optimistic, I will be waiting and watching to see how this pans out. I wish them luck, because they're going to need it to straighten out the current mess.
Could it be that someone at WB is actually interested in running a 'business'?
ReplyDeleteThat would be awesome.