First off, Christoph Waltz of Inglorious Basterds (which I saw again this week, and it still rocks balls) is getting some more than deserved attention on US screens. He's been signed as Nick Cage's replacement as the villain of the upcoming Action/Comedy remake of Green
Hornet starring Seth Rogan. Not sure of the viability of a Rogan superhero movie, but its great to see Waltz utilized in a more widely commerical venture, and he's a welcome replacement for Cage.Seriously, has Cage tried to act since The Rock? Every film its the same lack of emotion and the stupid crazy eyes.
Why has Cage left? Its all speculation, but it could have something to do
with the pre-production beginning on a new Ghost Rider movie. Ugh. As if the first one wasn't shitty enough. Prep yourself for more of Cage's brilliance. A man being stung to death by bees, or mildly annoyed by a lack of whipped cream in his latte? Perhaps he's singing a jaunty tune? You decide.In other crazy-assed news, and this is what all the exclamation points were about, more shit hits the fan in the general direction of Marvel Comics. It seems that, following the footsteps of the Siegel and Schuster families (complete with same lawyer), the decendants of Jack Kirby are trying to re-claim the copyrights he might have held on 45 key Marvel characters.
Now, who is Jack Kirby, a few of you (like my girlfriend) may ask? While everyone knows Stan Lee, Stan the Man only put the words in the mouths of his characters and gave them shit to do (and then market the holy hell out of them), he didn't draw anything. Jack Kirby is the legendary artist and costume designer of all those amazing characters. And while Stan sold away his rights to Spider-Man, The X-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Thor and all those costumed-cats years ago, Jack Kirby just never did anything with his part of the copyright, and it was forgotten. Now his family has realized that, and has come to collect.
I can't really sum it up better than the LA Times so far as the legal jargon, but I'll give it to you in brief.
-Does his family have rights to the characters? They actually have a good precident for their case, yeah. Work for hire laws were very shaky back in the 60's, and Kirby appears to have worked all those years without any sort of contract at all. Since its public knowledge that Kirby helped create the characters, the lack of paperwork might well screw Marvel. Creators have the rights to reclaim their works 56 years after acquisition by another body. The effects of these suits won't be felt for another 7-10 years.
- What characters does this affect? Fantastic Four, Spider-Man (loosely, Steve Ditko is credited with his creation, generally), Thor, X-Men, The Hulk, Iron Man, The Avengers, and all of their ancillary characters and villains. Captain America was created under different circumstances, and is owned squarely by Marvel.
- How does Disney feel about this? Disney responded very cooly saying they were prepared for this. Seems Marvel knew this was a possibility and let Disney know about it ahead of time. In fact, looking at it now, its possible Marvel couldn't afford the litigation required to defend their position, or buy out the Kirby family in a loss, and NEEDED Disney's finances to protect the line. It might also explain why Disney got Marvel for so little, a fact that has some shareholders threatening to sue for mishandling of their stock properties. It seems if this buyout does become final, Disney already has a plan.
- What will happen to the Marvel Universe? If the Kirby family wins, Marvel will go on, but with a large portion of their profits going to the family. That is unless someone with deep pockets, like Disney, buys out the rights after the case. One interesting thing that could happen, is that the Kirby family could use their ownership to pull the film rights for Spider-Man and X-men back from Sony and Fox respectively, who would have otherwise held them in perpetuity, and then re-sell them back to Marvel Films/Disney, who would then be able to profit off of their own in-house movies.
In fact, one might even see this as part of some sort of larger plan...
Regardless, the comics universe is being shaken to its foundations, and I have to wonder where it'll all end.
While Marvel might greatly benefit from its new ownership, DC seems to be sweating under the reconstruction under the WB. Warner has squandered its comics treasuretrove for years, but seeing action by Disney, they seem to have noticed what kind of value their properties have. Their answer: add another layer of corporate beuracracy to the mix.
As a result, long-standing editor of DC Paul Levitz has decided to retire from his post. Rather than take his advisory position, Levitz is leaving for greener pastures where his many great decisions won't be shat upon by a corporate giant. Levitz did some great things for comics and for the industry as a whole in his time, and often fought for the rights of independent creators and small shops. His loving efforts on the part of the DC Universe will be missed.
More on Paul's story HERE.
Of course, thanks to NeilAlien and Bleeding Cool, who will probably forever scoop me on this stuff.
A final thought:
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