Can Pinocchio lead a Disney style Justice League?
Warner Brothers owns DC comics. Paramount distributes Marvel Studios properties. Universal has a first look deal with Dark Horse. Disney has…has…well, no one.
And that’s why they’re creating they’re opening their own graphic novel division, says The Hollywood Reporter. Disney’s plan is to develop their own properties with an eye on then bringing them to the big screen. It’s as if they can’t make friends, so they’re building their own artificial friend instead.
The new factory will be called Kingdom Comics. Writer-actor Ahmet Zappa, executive Harris Katleman and writer-editor Christian Beranek will rule the Kingdom. They’re looking to bring in established as well as new talent to quickly build potential franchise material. Disney publishing will get first look at titles for distribution rights, but if they pass on something, Kingdom can bring it elsewhere to try to get it out.
This is a lot like when a new owner buys a sports team. Let’s say a baseball team, since there’s no salary cap to worry about. A new rich owner comes in and wants to win quickly. Said owner tries to sign up all the big name free agents on the market, usually overpaying in the process to draw them away from their other homes. A few home grown talents land on the team, with the hope that they’ll learn from the proven winners. The result might be an instant title, but usually one with a short life, as the big stars probably already at the top of their career, age quickly and get out of town. Or sometimes the big quickie mix just creates bad chemistry and you get a bunch of disgruntled, but very wealthy losers.
So we’ll see what kind of talent they can bring in and whether they can produce anything worthwhile. Like a Justice League made up of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pinocchio.
