Thursday, September 10, 2009

Warner Bros. Rejiggers

A bit of restructering goes on at the Time-Warner empire.

... Warners Bros. is creating a new company called DC Entertainment.

Diane Nelson will head the division as its president; Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics since 2002, will become a writer, contributing editor and consultant for DC. The restructuring was announced Wednesday by Warners chairman and CEO Barry Meyer and president and COO Alan Horn.

"What we've done with Harry Potter -- working together across Warners and even Time Warner to develop a focus and a strategic point of view -- is a good model for what we want to do with DC Comics," [Nelson] said. "It will be a reciprocal relationship, working closely with the executives there and with the executives within each of our divisions to incubate and build new brands. It's a great opportunity to bring more coordination and to focus and integrate DC with Warners more effectively."

A Warners employee told me today that Levitz is shifting to "consultant" because the conglomerate doesn't want the killjoy who's headed DC comix to tell the Big Guys what they should do and not do when they morph comic books into Big Screen entertainment.

If they want Superman to wear a green cape, they don't want someobdy telling them "Unh unh."

That's the story, anyway. Either way, between Disney Co.'s new acquisition and Warner's new division, we will be up to our armpits in super heroes and caped crusaders over the next several years.

They will, no doubt, impact animation in some major ways.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just when you think the super hero cash cow couldn't get any bigger it does. Ten years ago, having to work on comic book franchises was considered a step down for the live action elite. Now producers are trampling over each other to get in on the action as their various traditional Hollywood palaces crumble.

With all the 8x10 glossies of newly promoted executives being crammed down our throats for the latest incarnation of an A-list actor in tights, I suspect the corporations are trying to obfuscate the idea that all it takes is a geek in his room with a pencil and a piece of artboard to create comics.

Ooh! Diane Nelson and Paul Levitz will finally share with us their genetic creative spin on crotch pieces and man nipples. Ooh! I can't wait!

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