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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Mar 8, 2015 20:30:08 GMT -6
www.comicbookresources.com/article/chinese-powerhouse-dmg-entertainment-buys-into-valiant-for-ambitious-movie-slate?utm_campaign=chinese-powerhouse-dmg-entertainment-buys-into-valiant-for-ambit&utm_medium=email&utm_source=breaking_bulletinCHINESE POWERHOUSE DMG ENTERTAINMENT BUYS INTO VALIANT FOR AMBITIOUS MOVIE SLATE Since its reestablishment in 2012, Valiant Entertainment has promoted its desire to finance its own superhero movies alongside its comics line. With a new deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars, they have found a way to do just that. Valiant tonight announced that Chinese media powerhouse DMG Entertainment has partnered with the publisher to create an unprecedented slate of independent tentpole movies over the next several years. The two-pronged deal will first see DMG inject Valiant with an undisclosed eight-figure amount of equity investment capital to continue developing its characters across all media channels. Additionally, the Beijing-based company will put up nine figures of film financing capital to produce a slate of live action film and TV projects based on Valiant properties. A major player in the fast-growing Chinese film market, DMG has already co-financed a number of U.S. action movies including the sci-fi hit "Looper" and Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 3" which featured a number of China-based plot points as a result of the deal. However, their deal with Valiant stretches far beyond anything they've done before. For its part, Valiant already has a number of film projects in development including their own production of "Harbinger," a take on "Bloodshot" set up at Sony Pictures, an adaptation of "Archer & Armstrong" and a version of "Shadowman" scripted by J. Michael Straczynski. How the DMG deal would specifically impact each of these projects is unclear, however the PR from Valiant mentions several such projects in relation to their plans with the Chinese company for a shared film universe. "Valiant's iconic stable of intellectual property and world class management team coupled with DMG's unmatched skill with entertainment brand building in China make a formidable partnership," said Valiant Chairman Peter Cuneo in a statement. "We will look forward to introducing some of the most popular superheroes of all time to the world's fastest growing market across all media forms.” Valiant CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani added: "Today marks one of Valiant’s biggest milestones yet with a huge step towards bringing the Valiant characters to the big screen and forging the foundation of the first truly international cinematic universe. By bringing Valiant’s biggest heroes to theaters around the world in concert with our new partners at DMG, we look forward to making Valiant not only an iconic name in comics, but global entertainment as well." That global focus is a major part of the DMG deal. Beyond making the Valiant investment for the future of a film universe, the company's partner's spoke highly of the potential to expand the publishers licensing and merchandising into East Asia. "Global markets, like China, offer the greatest opportunities for monetization from merchandising, licensing, as well as revenues from film and television properties. Comic superheroes are the most lucrative and sought after IP for movie franchises, so taking a stake in the last independent massive comic universe is a strategic investment for DMG that will produce movies and TV that are both appealing and relevant to a global audience,” said DMG CEO Dan Mintz. “We are excited by the opportunity to bring these incredibly engaging characters and their stories to the big screen.” Stay tuned to CBR for more on the film future of Valiant Entertainment.
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Mar 9, 2015 13:27:11 GMT -6
deadline.com/2015/03/chinas-dmg-and-valiant-entertainment-to-expand-superhero-universe-1201388594/China’s DMG And Valiant Entertainment Partner to Expand Superhero Universe The superhero universe just exploded. After setting up its character series Bloodshot at Sony and Shadowman and Archer & Arrow with The Mummy producer Sean Daniel a couple of years ago, Valiant Entertainment – the indie publisher of comic books and graphic novels with a library of more than 2,000 characters — has just partnered with Beijing-based studio and production company DMG Entertainment to develop their properties for motion pictures, television, publishing, and licensing. The announcement was made via a Beijing press conference Sunday evening at the Kerry Centre in what they said was a deal where DMG has made “an eight-figure series C round of equity investment” in Valiant for international business development and “an additional nine-figure for film financing capital” to be used for production of film and television projects. They are looking to the stable of Valiant characters to create tentpole movies for distribution simultaneously in the U.S. and China. And DMG does have a track record. In 2013, DMG co-produced and co-financed Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3– the highest grossing foreign film of 2013 and sixth highest of all time in China. DMG is currently co-producing high-octane thriller Autobahn starring Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley, Felicity Jones and Nicholas Hoult; and the extreme actioner Point Break, directed by Ericson Core. Both will be released this year worldwide. DMG’s other films include the sci-fi hit Looper, and the techno-thriller Transcendence with Johnny Depp (which sank like a stone at the box office), and some of China’s highest-grossing films, including No Man’s Land, Founding of a Republic and Go LaLa Go! “I think our companies fit very well together. It’s interesting because the two companies, well, we are in very different worlds and when we sat down to talk about how we could work together, it was very exciting, because we realized that we had complementary skill sets and we’re both global brands. So one and one, in this case, equals three.” Valiant CEO/CCO Dinesh Shamdasani told Deadline. “Our fan base are the fan boys. DMG has been there for 20 some years and they’ve developed a really strong brand. We were able to bring these two global brands together.” The two companies began talking in 2013 and had already been working with film partners Sean Daniel and Neil Moritz. Valiant did what Shamdasani called “a big roadshow” over a three month time period with potential partners all over the globe before deciding on DMG.“We started doing our own branding and we knew the next level was movies and TV because we wanted to get the larger fan base aware and emotionally invested so we needed able to control to a certain extent our characters to stick to the core. The concept should remain the same and we wanted to protect that and protect the core. At the end of the day we knew it had to be DMG. They were enthusiastic and understood the potential of what we had. They basically built the Marvel brand in China. It was successful before that, but we were really impressed with what they did with it.” The agreement may be the first of its kind between China and a leading indie publisher of comic books. They are currently beginning development on television projects. Having covered marketing for many years, the first thing that comes to mind is Merchandising. The merchandising alone with a deal like this could be worth millions if properly marketed. To that end, DMG and Valiant will work together for China-focused licensing partnerships for Valiant comic book heroes running the gamut of categories: publishing, animation, online gaming, toys, apparel, live events, theme parks, and more. The focus will be to introduce Valiant’s to the Asia-Pacific region. Valiant’s characters also include X-O Manowar and Harbinger. Established in 1989 by a host of comics creators, including former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter; Iron Man writer and artist Bob Layton; and writer and illustrator of Wolverine: Weapon X, Barry Windsor-Smith, the company is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary. The company re-established itself in 2005 as Valiant Entertainment. It’s currently run by Chairman Peter Cuneo, CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani, COO & CFO Gavin Cuneo, President of Licensing, Promotions & Ad Sales Russell A. Brown, Publisher Fred Pierce and Vice Chairman Jason Kothari. “Global markets, like China, offer the greatest opportunities for monetization from merchandising, licensing, as well as revenues from film and television properties. Comic superheroes are the most lucrative and sought after IP for movie franchises, so taking a stake in the last independent massive comic universe is a strategic investment for DMG that will produce movies and TV that are both appealing and relevant to a global audience,” said DMG CEO Dan Mintz. “We are excited by the opportunity to bring these incredibly engaging characters and their stories to the big screen.” DMG Entertainment China is publicly traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange. “Valiant’s iconic stable of intellectual property and world class management team coupled with DMG’s unmatched skill with entertainment brand building in China make a formidable partnership,” Valiant Chairman Peter Cuneo said in a statement. “We will look forward to introducing some of the most popular superheroes of all time to the world’s fastest growing market across all media forms.” “Audiences in China and the rest of the world are hungry for heroic stories that they can more easily relate to, and with the international box office accounting for the biggest piece of the total gross, the time is right for a truly international superhero franchise. DMG will bring its unique global perspective to the task of transforming the Valiant Universe into the first international comic-movie universe,” said DMG President Wu Bing in a statement.
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Mar 9, 2015 14:29:19 GMT -6
variety.com/2015/biz/news/chinas-dmg-buys-in-to-valiant-comic-book-slate-1201448608/China’s DMG Buys Into Valiant Comic Book Slate DMG, the Chinese and US film production group, is to take an equity stake in independent comic book company Valiant Entertainment. It plans to adapt Valiant’s characters into movie franchises. The company said that the deal is “a new partnership to span motion pictures, television, publishing, and licensing that will culminate in the big screen debut of Valiant’s universe of characters in theaters around the world.” “Today marks one of Valiant’s biggest milestones yet with a huge step towards bringing the Valiant characters to the big screen and forging the foundation of the first truly international cinematic universe,” said Valiant CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani in a statement. DMG, which was an investor and co-producer of Disney/Marvel’s “Iron Man 3”, says it has made “an eight-figure (USD) series C round of equity investment into Valiant,” which the company will use to further its efforts in international publishing, film, television, licensing and beyond. DMG said that it has agreed to provide “an additional nine-figures (USD) of film financing capital toward the production of theatrical films and television programs based on Valiant’s library of iconic superhero characters.” Valiant owns some 2,000 characters that include X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong. Current Valiant feature films in development include the previously announced “Bloodshot” from Sony Pictures in partnership with Original Film; “Shadowman” in partnership with the Sean Daniel Company from a script by J. Michael Straczynski; and “Archer & Armstrong”, also with the Sean Daniel Company from a script by BenDavid Grabinski. The companies say that the partnership creates the ability to develop and co-produce tent-pole theatrical films for distribution and release simultaneously in the U.S. and China, respectively the world’s two largest theatrical markets. “Global markets, like China, offer the greatest opportunities for monetization from merchandising, licensing, as well as revenues from film and television properties. Comic superheroes are the most lucrative and sought after IP for movie franchises, so taking a stake in the last independent massive comic universe is a strategic investment for DMG that will produce movies and TV that are both appealing and relevant to a global audience,” said DMG CEO Dan Mintz. “ “DMG and Valiant will work in concert to form China-focused licensing partnerships for Valiant’s stable of characters in areas such as Chinese language publishing, animation, online gaming, toys, apparel, live events, theme parks, and more, with a focus on bringing Valiant’s iconic heroes to new audiences in China and Asia-Pacific,” a statement continued. Valiant was formed 25 years ago by comic book creators from including former Marvel editor-in chief Jim Shooter, and “Iron Man” artist Bob Layton, and has sold over 81 million comics.
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Mar 9, 2015 19:34:49 GMT -6
comicsalliance.com/valiant-cinematic-universe/ X-O Manowar. Harbinger. Bloodshot. Archer & Armstrong. Shadowman. These are the heroes of the Valiant Universe. In the 1990s, they were some of the hottest properties in all of comics. With top-notch talent and huge amounts of buzz, Valiant became a legitimate challenger to the dominance of the big two publishers, Marvel and DC. Their first issues (along with their fancy-schmancy chromium covers) became enormous collector’s items, and their series dominated the sales charts. Valiant was eventually sold to Acclaim, who later shuttered the imprint, but in 2012 Valiant returned with relaunched series, and it’s been steadily growing ever since. So it’s next area of growth, naturally, is movies. Deadline reports that Valiant will follow Marvel and DC into the film world with an attempt to engineer its own “cinematic universe” of interconnected titles. The publisher already had a few comics in Hollywood development, including Bloodshot (about a super-powered, chalky-skinned assassin) and Archer & Armstrong (following a pair of immortal buddies). Now they will partner with “Beijing-based studio and production company DMG Entertainment to develop their properties for motion pictures, television, publishing, and licensing.” DMG “co-produced and co-financed” Iron Man 3, and they also had a hand in Looper and the upcoming Point Break remake. DMG CEO Dan Mintz said in a statement, “Comic superheroes are the most lucrative and sought after IP for movie franchises, so taking a stake in the last independent massive comic universe is a strategic investment for DMG that will produce movies and TV that are both appealing and relevant to a global audience.” Children of the the ’90s like myself fondly remember Valiant, but their characters are still pretty obscure to mainstream audiences (and several of their most popular books from that era, including Magnus: Robot Fighter and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, were licensed from other companies). But they do still have some fun concepts (X-O Manowar is basically Iron Man piloted by an ancient warrior) that could make for some very cool movies. Or universes.
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Mar 13, 2015 0:30:40 GMT -6
Under its new partnership with Valiant, as reported Monday, DMG will mine the indie comic book publisher’s stable for characters to spread across film and TV properties aimed at a global audience. For those unfamilar with the stable, there are now two exclusive videos below the original post that provide some illumination.
PREVIOUS MONDAY 10:03 PM PT, The superhero universe just exploded. After setting up its character series Bloodshot at Sony and Shadowman and Archer & Arrow with The Mummy producer Sean Daniel a couple of years ago, Valiant Entertainment – the indie publisher of comic books and graphic novels with a library of more than 2,000 characters — has just partnered with Beijing-based studio and production company DMG Entertainment to develop their properties for motion pictures, television, publishing, and licensing.
The announcement was made via a Beijing press conference Sunday evening at the Kerry Centre in what they said was a deal where DMG has made “an eight-figure series C round of equity investment” in Valiant for international business development and “an additional nine-figure for film financing capital” to be used for production of film and television projects. They are looking to the stable of Valiant characters to create tentpole movies for distribution simultaneously in the U.S. and China.
And DMG does have a track record. In 2013, DMG co-produced and co-financed Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3– the highest grossing foreign film of 2013 and sixth highest of all time in China. DMG is currently co-producing high-octane thriller Autobahn starring Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley, Felicity Jones and Nicholas Hoult; and the extreme actioner Point Break, directed by Ericson Core. Both will be released this year worldwide. DMG’s other films include the sci-fi hit Looper, and the techno-thriller Transcendence with Johnny Depp (which sank like a stone at the box office), and some of China’s highest-grossing films, including No Man’s Land, Founding of a Republic and Go LaLa Go!
“I think our companies fit very well together. It’s interesting because the two companies, well, we are in very different worlds and when we sat down to talk about how we could work together, it was very exciting, because we realized that we had complementary skill sets and we’re both global brands. So one and one, in this case, equals three.” Valiant CEO/CCO Dinesh Shamdasani told Deadline. “Our fan base are the fan boys. DMG has been there for 20 some years and they’ve developed a really strong brand. We were able to bring these two global brands together.”
The two companies began talking in 2013 and had already been working with film partners Sean Daniel and Neil Moritz. Valiant did what Shamdasani called “a big roadshow” over a three month time period with potential partners all over the globe before deciding on DMG.“We started doing our own branding and we knew the next level was movies and TV because we wanted to get the larger fan base aware and emotionally invested so we needed able to control to a certain extent our characters to stick to the core. The concept should remain the same and we wanted to protect that and protect the core. At the end of the day we knew it had to be DMG. They were enthusiastic and understood the potential of what we had. They basically built the Marvel brand in China. It was successful before that, but we were really impressed with what they did with it.”
The agreement may be the first of its kind between China and a leading indie publisher of comic books. They are currently beginning development on television projects. Having covered marketing for many years, the first thing that comes to mind is Merchandising. The merchandising alone with a deal like this could be worth millions if properly marketed. To that end, DMG and Valiant will work together for China-focused licensing partnerships for Valiant comic book heroes running the gamut of categories: publishing, animation, online gaming, toys, apparel, live events, theme parks, and more. The focus will be to introduce Valiant’s to the Asia-Pacific region. Valiant’s characters also include X-O Manowar and Harbinger.
Established in 1989 by a host of comics creators, including former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter; Iron Man writer and artist Bob Layton; and writer and illustrator of Wolverine: Weapon X, Barry Windsor-Smith, the company is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary. The company re-established itself in 2005 as Valiant Entertainment.
It’s currently run by Chairman Peter Cuneo, CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani, COO & CFO Gavin Cuneo, President of Licensing, Promotions & Ad Sales Russell A. Brown, Publisher Fred Pierce and Vice Chairman Jason Kothari.
“Global markets, like China, offer the greatest opportunities for monetization from merchandising, licensing, as well as revenues from film and television properties. Comic superheroes are the most lucrative and sought after IP for movie franchises, so taking a stake in the last independent massive comic universe is a strategic investment for DMG that will produce movies and TV that are both appealing and relevant to a global audience,” said DMG CEO Dan Mintz. “We are excited by the opportunity to bring these incredibly engaging characters and their stories to the big screen.” DMG Entertainment China is publicly traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange.
“Valiant’s iconic stable of intellectual property and world class management team coupled with DMG’s unmatched skill with entertainment brand building in China make a formidable partnership,” Valiant Chairman Peter Cuneo said in a statement. “We will look forward to introducing some of the most popular superheroes of all time to the world’s fastest growing market across all media forms.”
“Audiences in China and the rest of the world are hungry for heroic stories that they can more easily relate to, and with the international box office accounting for the biggest piece of the total gross, the time is right for a truly international superhero franchise. DMG will bring its unique global perspective to the task of transforming the Valiant Universe into the first international comic-movie universe,” said DMG President Wu Bing in a statement.
Harbinger (do not adjust your sound, there is no audio on the videos)
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