Halloween costumes!
Thanks to Ryan, Wyatt and Cody as well as the attendees at Ryan’s Halloween party for getting in on the fun and sending me some Halloween costume pictures!
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween, Nerdage readers! Hope you enjoy the spooky holiday.
Great Wolf Lodge aims to provide family-friendly entertainment
GRAPEVINE, Texas — Colder weather doesn’t mean Oklahoma families can’t enjoy a family-friendly, water-themed vacation. Just a few hours from the Oklahoma City metro area, vacationers can find Great Wolf Lodge, an eco-friendly, nature-themed vacation resort with an indoor water park.
Use of the water park is exclusive to those staying in the lodge.
Great Wolf Lodge aims to provide one-stop shopping for weary moms and dads looking to grab a weekend away with the kids.
Kirby heirs go after rights to characters
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Jack Kirby’s heirs have served notices of copyright termination for 45 characters they believe Kirby to have created or co-created. The companies named include Marvel Entertainment, Disney, Sony Pictures (owners of movie rights to Spider-Man), 20th Century Fox (owners of movie rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four), Paramount Pictures (distributor of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Avengers) and Universal Pictures (distributor of Hulk).
The Kirby children have hired Los Angeles law firm Toberoff & Associates, which represented Jerry Siegel’s heirs in a similar case involving Superman.
The LA Times explains:
Under copyright law, creators and co-creators can seek to regain copyrights they previously assigned to a company 56 years after first publication and can give notice of their intentions to do so up to 10 years before that.
Kirby’s children would be eligible to claim their father’s share of the copyright of the Fantastic Four in 2017, while the Hulk would come up in 2018 and X-Men in 2019. The copyrights would then run for 39 more years before expiring, after which the characters would enter the public domain under current law.
This is all interesting stuff, though ultimately what exactly will happen? Hard to say. I know Kirby contended he was involved in the creation of Spider-Man, but I can’t really see a court giving him creator or co-creator status, so you’d think Spider-Man would be in the clear. (Except in the event the reclusive co-creator Steve Ditko were to file suit.) Marvel, I believe, owns Lee’s rights in perpetuity as part of the deal they signed with him not too many years ago.
Another question would be the X-Men. While Lee and Kirby created the original team, most of the breakout characters throughout the years were created by other writers and artists. Could Marvel still field an X-Men film featuring Wolverine, Storm and Nightcrawler, for example, and call it “The X-Men”? Not sure if the name of the team is part of the deal. That’s something else I guess we’ll have to see. (And of course, Chris Claremont, Len Wein or Dave Cockrum’s estate could file down the line for other X-Men characters, I suppose. But that would be another 12 or so years down the line.)
I’m also not sure how “work for hire” agreements would enter into this. Kirby’s status at the time of creating these characters may very well have been different than that of Siegel and Shuster at the time of creating Superman.
In any case, a court will likely work all this out. I wonder if plans are afoot to file similar paperwork with DC over the Fourth World characters?
- Matt Price
Stacey Thunder to be honored in Tulsa
Stacey Thunder
American Indian actress Stacey Thunder will join the cast of “Crash” in its second season, debuting this Friday, Sept. 18. The actress will also be honored at the National Center for American Indian Enterprise at the black-tie Native American 40 Under 40 Recognition Reception to be held at the 2009 Indian Progress in Business Event (INPRO) in Tulsa on Friday.
Based on the motion picture “Crash,” the TV series stars Dennis Hopper and Jocko Sims. Along with Thunder, who will play Judith Turandot, new cast members this season include Eric Roberts (”The Dark Knight”), Linda Park Dana Ashbrook and Jake McLaughlin (”In the Valley of Elah”).
Click past the cut for the full release.
Details revealed on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Universal Orlando has revealed some of the details of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a destination inside the Orlando resort’s Islands of Adventure. It’s set to open in spring 2010.
The land will include Hogwarts castle, the entrance to Hogsmeade station, and shops including Zonko’s and Three Broomsticks. The Harry Potter films’ production designer, Stuart Craig and art director, Alan Gilmore are working with artisans from Universal to complete what is intended to be a very immersive Harry Potter experience.
Click past the cut for the full release.
Kate Beckinsale keeps her cool in sub-zero temperatures filming Whiteout
LOS ANGELES — The freezing weather of Manitoba, Canada, doubled as the South Pole for the Kate Beckinsale film “Whiteout,” in theaters today.
At news conferences in Los Angeles, where it was ironically warmer than usual, Beckinsale said the weather gave the cast and crew something to bond over.
Disney to buy Marvel for $4b
In this July 24, 2008 file photo, Marvel Comics "Incredible Hulk" looms over attendees at the Comic-Con 2008 convention in San Diego. The Walt Disney Co. said Monday, Aug. 31, 2009, it is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.(AP Photo/Denis Poroy, file)
This is coming straight from the wire today
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.
Analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. said the acquisition will help Disney appeal to young men who have flocked to theaters to seeMarvel’s superhero fare in recent years. That contrasts with Disney’s recent successes among young women with such fare as “Hannah Montana” and the Jonas Brothers.
“It helps Disney add exposure to a young male demographic it had sort of lost some balance with,” Joyce said, noting the $4 billion offer was at “full price.”
Disney said Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50 based on Friday’s closing stock prices.
Marvel shares jumped $10.17, or 26 percent, to $48.82 shortly after the market opened. Disney shares fell 47 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $26.37.
Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvelshareholders.
Disney last made a big purchase in 2006 when it acquired Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the creator of the “Toy Story” franchise, for $7.4 billion in stock.
Disney CEO Robert Iger said the latest acquisition combines Marvel’s ”strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters” with Disney’s “unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties” and ability to maximize value across multiple platforms and territories.
Marvel earned a net profit of $206 million last fiscal year, up 47 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $676 million, as it took movie production in house instead of just cutting licensing deals.
New Swamp Thing movie may be in 3-D
LOS ANGELES — At the press conferences for “Whiteout,” producer Joel Silver talked briefly about another comic-book movie that has been long in development. When asked what movies might work well in 3-D, he mentioned a new version of the DC Comics property “Swamp Thing.”
“I’ll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time,” Silver said. “We think that would definitely be great to do in 3-D.”
Silver said some movies do work well in 3-D, and others might not, and it’s still early enough in the development of new 3-D technology that it’s important to pick and choose.
“Certain movies fit really well into that situation, and others don’t need it,” he said.
Len Wein said in 2004 he was working on a script to a “Swamp Thing” film.
“Swamp Thing” was created by Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Alec Holland was transformed into a crusading force for the swamp in moody, atmospheric comics by Wein and Wrightson in the 1970s. Writer Alan Moore turned the concept inside out during his influential run on the character in the 1980s.
The character inspired two films and a TV series, in which the muck monster was played by Dick Durock.
- Matt Price
Olivia Munn (naked?) and Clark Duke
Check out this clip from Attack of the Show at OliviaMunn.com featuring Clark Duke and Olivia Munn and their previous “work” together. As teased by Olivia pre-show on Twitter, she makes a naked appearance — kinda. Funny stuff!
Clark Duke and I are best friends
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Or click past the cut for the video.
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