Disney poised to buy Marvel for $4 billion
Story by Jack Foley
DISNEY is poised to buy Marvel as part of a deal that’s rumoured to be worth $4 billion.
The surprise deal, which was announced on Monday, would put Disney in charge of all of the superheroes and crime fighters in Marvel’s comic book factory, although existing franchises would remain with the distribution companies they are presently associated with.
Explaining the deal, Marvel impresario Stan Lee, who created Spider-Man and Iron Man, told Variety that it “gives Disney a library of literally hundreds of unique and colorful characters that have the potential to make great, high-concept movies and long-lasting franchises – and nobody knows how to play in that ballpark better than Disney”.
However, it won’t mean that Marvel will be re-branded as Disney.
In addition, Sony will continue to control the Spider-Man franchise, with three further movies planned starting with Spider-Man 4 in summer 2011.
And Paramount will continue to distribute Marvel’s next five releases, beginning with next summer’s Iron Man 2.
Twentieth Century Fox will also retain the rights to the X-Men franchise, as well as any Daredevil or Fantastic Four movies, so long as the studio has movies based on those characters in active development. A Wolverine sequel and Deadpool spin-off are already in production as part of the X-Men universe.
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