In what looks to be a mega deal, the Walt Disney Co. has acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in stock and cash, giving Disney ownership over Marvel's 5,000-or-so characters, including Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man and The X-Men. There's no immediate word on how this will impact the upcoming Marvel slate of movies, like Captain America, Thor and The Avengers (which are being distributed by Paramount, who also just lost DreamWorks), but what was a creative process that took place entirely in-house -- allowing Marvel to decide what happened to Marvel characters on screen -- could turn into a more collaborative effort with Disney, who are known for wanting to keep their films family friendly. Keep in mind that Disney will not own the film rights to characters like Spider-Man, Fantastic Four or The X-Men since those are currently in the hands of other studios, like Fox and Sony.
A potential collaboration that could be very cool for Marvel fans is a team up between Marvel and Pixar, with the latter turning their creative geniuses loose on one or more Marvel characters. According to a press conference call earlier today, Pixar's John Lasseter has already met with Marvel folks, and the peeps at Pixar are ridiculously excited to have at some of those Marvel characters. Whether that means a Pixar movie featuring a lesser known Marvel character or someone more well known is yet to be seen, but, nevertheless, there could be some very exciting projects brewing on the horizon.
What do you think? Is this a good move for Disney? For Marvel? Sound off below…
Erik is a leading movie commentator who has worked for outlets such as AOL Moviefone and Movies.com.
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