Update 2: Disney buys Marvel
Does this mean the end of dark superheroes in the Marvel universe? Are they all going to be fluffy and good, and like the A-Team television series, no one's ever really going to die?
The deal means that Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, X-Men, etc. will be moving into the hands of the Disney banner, although it would seem that any existing deals for films will move forward as planned.
It seems that details of the deal are starting to get confirmed, and while The Hollywood Reporter has the deal outlined, SuperheroHype have the updates that all the films that are already signed deals will continue as per normal, it's only the new deals that will be affected.
So Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 will definitely be all right, perhaps even X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, and maybe Deadpool. However anything after that will be with Disney.
It's not clear exactly what will happen, but Disney will obviously produce and the word is that the want to be the sole distributors for all Marvel related films.
However, here's the other side of this deal which might mean something to you, Pixar. Think about Pixar getting involved and then imagine that Justice League of America Avengers film done by them, now there's a part of the idea that could work.
However the Iron Man films, with a real Tony Stark story, don't seem to fit quite right with a Disney studio to me. Spider-Man feels like it could, as does Captain America, but X-Men?
I don't know, I wonder if Disney have been done out of a lot of money in the deal which is worth US $4 billion. Are all these superhero films, the as yet unsigned ones remember, worth all that money?
Plus, are you convinced that we will see Marvel superhero films in their intended light, or are we going to see them all Disney-fied, lightened up and simplified?
Update: Here's an interesting point that Variety reminded me of, what of the financially troubled Spider-Man musical? Alan Cummings pointed out on British television that the production was on hold for serious financial difficulties, but that he still expected to play the Green Goblin, but what does the Disney deal mean for that?
Well not much apparently. The deal, according to the article doesn't mean anything for the production and there's not anything in the contract saying that Disney will save the production.
That said the Lion King had a fair run on the stage, so perhaps there's the feeling that this production could be the next one to fill the gap for Disney. Maybe they will invest something and save the day. Then again, I can't see anyone being interested in a musical of the superhero, so maybe they'll have the sense to let it go.
Update: Here's another update from the story on the Fantastic Four reboot I wrote earlier. Variety tells us that 20th Century Fox controls both the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil and Silver Surfer properties as long as they keep making films. So X-Men could stay they way they are, Fantastic Four could get better (let's face it the last one smelled like a Disney production anyway) and if Silver Surfer keeps going they'll all be with Fox still. As for Daredevil, I think they'd happily let that slip to Disney.
Here's a tip for Disney, get hold of Daredevil and make a completely hard version of Daredevil: Born Again, giving the character the chance to leave behind the Daredevil we knew from the first film and come out as a darker, harder, Daredevil we all wanted.
However this means we'll definitely see more X-Men from Fox, but perhaps the rest will fall back to Disney to make? That, I think, would be good news for Fantastic Four, but not for Daredevil. With X-Men it means we're likely to see Deadpool and Gambit appear, more Wolverine, Magneto's beginnings, and more.
Promotion