Insert Mel Brooks "Engulf and Devour" Joke Here
posted September 3, 2009 5:27 AM
Well, as you may have have heard, The Mouse has acquired the House of Ideas.
From the New York Times business section:
Disney said on Monday that it would pay cash and stock to acquire Marvel, the comic book publisher and movie studio whose library of 5,000 characters includes some of the world’s best-known superheroes: Spider-Man, The X-Men, Thor, Iron Man and The Fantastic Four...
Marvel has forcefully exploited its most popular characters through motion pictures, video games and consumer products. But Disney sees an opportunity to plug Marvel into its vaunted global marketing and distribution system...The brooding Marvel characters tend to be more popular with boys — an area where Disney could use help. While the likes of Hannah Montana and the blockbuster Princesses merchandising line have solidified Disney’s hold on little girls, franchises for boys have been harder to come by...
I must confess I don't have much to add to this, except that these media conglomerates (would it be in bad taste to use the word monopoly?) generally make me feel a little queasy.
That said, I have a word of fanboy advice to the new behemoth on the block.
Dudes -- what ever you do, don't try to build a movie franchise around this character.
I don't care if he was a charter member of The Avengers. He's lame.
Seriously -- if your big power is the ability to shrink to the size of an insect, there's no way you can call yourself one of Earth's Mightiest Super-Heroes.
You're welcome.
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Steve Simels has written about music and movies for Sound and Vision magazine (formerly Stereo Review) since the early 70s. He has also contributed to Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and the Wall Street Journal. He’s the author of “Gender Chameleons: Androgyny in Rock n Roll” (Arbor House, 1985), and blogs at PowerPop.blogspot.com. His ambition in life is to play the Leslie Howard role in a remake of “Petrified Forest.”
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Gummo said:
Unfortunately, the producer most suited to doing an Ant-Man movie is long retired -- I'm speaking of course of the "legendary" Bert I. Gordon (B.I.G.), whose specialty was movies featuring things that were very very big or very very small.
Who can forget the giant grasshoppers crawling all over black and white postcards of New York city in The Beginning of the End? Or The Amazing Colossal Man? Or the menace of the giant breasts in Village of the Giants?
Maybe we should coax 87 year old Bert out of retirement to do an Ant-Man movie!
September 3, 2009 6:26 AM
Cousin Kevin said:
Yes, Ant Man was lame. But not as lame as Ice Man.
His origin? He was bitten by a radioactive ice cube. Can't imagine what Stan Lee was thinking when he came up with that one.
September 3, 2009 6:28 AM
kurt b. said:
Maybe if they called him Fire Ant Man. I still shudder thinking about the time I stepped barefooted into a fire ant mound. Think I'd rather take my chances dipping my foot into a pool full of piranhas. But yeah, even Fire Ant Man would be kinda lame.
September 3, 2009 9:51 AM
ms. rosa said:
Fire ants are EEEEvil! They're the number one reason I always walk THROUGH grass rather than ever standing ON it.
Ant Man's helmet reminds me of the glam band glam-music-lover Kid Charlemagne introduced to me to via Yootoob. HEY HERB! DO you know which one I'm talking about?
September 3, 2009 10:57 AM
Kid Charlemagne said:
Ms. Rosa, I suspect you are referring to the great Zolar X!
September 3, 2009 12:13 PM
Kid Charlemagne said:
Or maybe Jobriath?
September 3, 2009 12:14 PM
ms. rosa said:
JOBRIATH!! He's Ant Man...From Space! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXks3Xjydh0&feature=related
September 3, 2009 12:58 PM
Steve Simels said:
I actually have Zolar X's greatest hits, if anybody wants a copy.
I'm not kidding about this....
And Jobriath wound up playing Cole Porter songs in a piano bar down the street from me in the early 80s under his real name. Talk about how the mighty have fallen.
Of course, then he died unpleasantly, which of course was a bigger bummer.
September 3, 2009 2:49 PM
quentintarantado said:
Ant Man is under production with director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). Distributor is Paramount. I think if anyone has a chance, Wright is the best choice of making it any good. Ant Man is truly lame, but that's why a comedy action approach might work.
September 3, 2009 11:06 PM
Steve Simels said:
You know, now that I think of it, I read something about that Ant Man movie, but I must have blocked it. For obvious reasons.
:-)
September 4, 2009 3:55 AM