Marvel Deal With Paramount: Captain America, Nick Fury Movies Planned

Wow. Huge news broke today for comic fans like myself. Marvel Comics' film division has evolved into a production company which means that they will no longer license out their characters for other companies to make movies with, but instead they will make their own movies and partner up with studios for marketing only. The first such deal is with Paramount, which accounts for 10 films, including a Captain America movie and one for super-spy, Nick Fury. Basically what this means is that Marvel will finance their movies on their own and bear the brunt of the risk involved, but stand to make much more money should the film and subsequent dvd release be a success. This also gives them greater creative control and the chance to use more characters in one movie, whereas before characters could only be used by the studio they were licensed to (which is why we could never see Spider-man fight the Kingpin or Captain America and Iron Man together in an Avengers movie). So what does this mean to the average movie-goer? Not a whole lot. For us comic fans however, this is a very stirring story as it brings up a lot of questions about a company we care a great deal about, including what happens if it doesn't work out, and more importantly how this is going to affect the publishing division which is the backbone of both the company and the entire comic book industry. More on this story including the press release and quotes from Marvel can be read here and here.