Yesterday, some very big news was announced over at Warner Bros. and DC Comics. If you didn't read the official press release, head over to the news post here. To summarize a really long PR statement, WB is creating a new company called DC Entertainment, Inc. This division will still obviously be owned by Warner Bros., but will report directly to Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. The main job of this new company is to prioritize the DC properties into all forms of media by specifically focusing on them alone.
I know a lot of people are going to immediately associate this announcement as a reply of what happened last week with Disney and Marvel. For those of you who strictly stick to the DC Universe, let me inform you of what happened. Disney announced that they were buying Marvel for around $4 billion. Now while the internet blew up all over the place about that, the range of feelings towards that announcement ranged in every direction. Some thought that Disney could ruin what Marvel has been doing, while others believed it was just a way for Disney to reconnect with the younger male audience. My thought is that we probably won't see very much come out of this for awhile, mostly because Marvel has things spread all over the place with all kinds of different studios. While the marketting giant that is Disney will probably help Marvel in an area that they need little help in, we are still years away from seeing any kind of major impact.
The reason why I tell you all of this, is so that you understand why some have immediately made this out to be a counter measure of that deal. While at first glance it seems that it just might be, according to Deadline.com it has something that has been in the works for awhile:
I know what everybody is thinking: that this move is in response to the announcement August 31st that Disney is buying Marvel. You can think that, but you would be wrong. This change has been in the works quietly for two years ever since Robinov moved into the top slot. "It was Jeff's idea to have DC Comics reporting to him, and DC will be his direct responsibility with Diane Nelson," an insider confided to me. I've also learned that Robinov for months has quietly gone to producers like Chuck Roven and Joel Silver and Akiva Goldman and "called back" all their high profile DC titles in development like The Flash and Wonder Woman. Not only was that shocking to the producers, but even more so when they found out this was part of Robinov's strategy to severely limit the number of gross participants on the projects. Because the producers were told that they may get the titles back to develop, but with far less rich deals. "Jeff always wanted some kind of oversight of DC, and now he wants Warner's to hold onto ownership," my insider explains.
Now with all of that said, could this be the reason why so many DC properties have been announced and then have completely fallen of the map? It just may be. It seems as if this was something that they may have been planning for awhile and be that it just comes off the heels of the Disney/Marvel announcement. If so what does it all mean?
First, let's go over what this means for the DC Universe in general before we get to Batman. Basically, what I interpret out of the press release is that DC Entertainment will get a lot of our favorite superheroes on to the silver screen, the small screen, or into video games. We have been wondering for quite some time why WB has not been working with comic book characters, especially since there are so many they could capitalize on. WB has owned DC Comics for over 40 years. It all started with Superman back in the seventies. Batman came into the late 80's. But besides the two big names, there really has not been much in terms of use of the rest of the Universe. We are just now starting to see more heroes come out. Putting aside the animation aspect of things for a moment, we will finally be seeing some other characters break on to film. With Green Lantern and Jonah Hex already underway and announcements last week about Deadman and Lobo attaching key production members. We also know that Human Target is getting it's own show that will start airing in January. Could more things be announced in the future? Only time will tell, but my money is that we hear some big news about a truckload of properties come Q1 of 2010.
That all being said, what does this mean for us Bat-Fans? In my opinion, not much at all. Batman is currently the most successful property coming out of DC right now for WB. Batman has the billion dollar plus film franchise, a critically acclaimed video game, and a TV series that is being adored by fans of all ages. I don't think that the new DC Entertainment will be super concerned about what Batman needs to do to become more successful. They just need to get Chris Nolan and his team back, make a sequel to the now world-record holding video game, and keep making more episodes of BTBTB. Could we see more? Yes. But I think their focus will be more on the under used properties over at DC. Wonder Woman. Flash. Aquaman? Well, maybe not all of them.
In closing, I think this is a great thing for all DC fans. This will be what most have been waiting for in one way or another. Many fans have asked themselves, "Why are we not getting the same treatment for our characters as Marvel is giving their characters?" Wait for the announcement coming in January 2010. Then DC fans, we will.
Posted by Dustin
