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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 14:31:08 GMT -6
www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/boom-disney-fox-deal-puts-studio-comic-book-business-again-1067791Boom!: Disney-Fox Deal Puts Studio in Comic Book Business Again The studio now finds itself a minority owner of Boom! Studios, the company behind 'Lumberjanes' and 'Goldie Vance.' Disney’s acquisition of Fox has fans beside themselves over what it means for their beloved X-Men franchise. Political types are pondering the meaning of Disney CEO Bob Iger staying on until 2021 and his potential run for U.S. president. Lost in the shuffle is the fact that Disney, which bought Marvel in 2009, is now involved with yet another comic book company, in this case, Boom! Studios. The studio finds itself with a minority stake in the company, after Fox became an investor into the indie publisher in June. The two companies could not be more different. Marvel primarily focuses on superheroes and has a marketshare of upwards of 40. Boom! is not in the cape business (minus one or two titles), and boasts some strong and buzzy original series. It has a focus on licensed material such as Planet of the Apes and Big Trouble in Little China (and ironically, publishes comics featuring Disney and Pixar characters). Its marketshare hovers around the three percent mark. Insiders say it’s too soon to tell what the Disney deal means for Boom!. Disney could sell off its stake or it could go all in. But a Disney-Boom! axis could be a strong fit for both as Boom!, a creator of original material, has several titles that seem primed for a wide Disney audience, whether for theatrical or streaming. Many have been in development for some time and already has considerable talent involved. Disney could stay on that development track or start from scratch if it wanted to. Among the titles with strong Disney appeal: Goldie Vance: written by Hope Larson, it features a mixed-race teen girl detective who lives in a hotel. Rashida Jones just came on board to direct an adaptation with Kerry Washington as one of the producers. Lumberjanes: a fan favorite co-created by Noelle Stevenson, it tells of a group of girls at a summer camp who battle the strange and supernatural. Cat Vasko wrote the current script. Mouse Guard: the long-running series is an epic tale set in medieval times and features mice to form a brotherhood to fight predators. Wes Ball, the filmmaker behind the Maze Runner movies, is attached to direct and Matt Reeves is one of the producers. Rust: Carlos Saldanha of Rio fame is attached to direct this story of robots big and small. It centers on a family struggling to keep its farm afloat when it encounters Jet Jones, a boy robot with a mysterious past.
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 14:32:15 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 14:32:50 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 14:33:13 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 14:48:44 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 14:50:37 GMT -6
variety.com/2017/film/news/fox-disney-merger-history-timeline-1202636152/Fox Merges With Disney: The Storied Studio’s 102-Year History Movies weren’t yet talkies and the headquarters were located in New Jersey when Fox Film was founded in 1915. William Fox couldn’t have imagined that his modest film company would get bulked up by merging with 20th Century, produce some of the highest-grossing movies of all time, and become a global empire. Here’s a look back at Fox’s long history as it prepares to merge with Disney. 1915 Fox Film Corp. created by William Fox. A key element was the Fox Theatres, which went into bankruptcy in 1933 and sold to National Theatres. The company moved from New Jersey to Echo Park and then Hollywood before settling in its present location west of Beverly Hills in 1926. 1935 On May 31, Fox merges with 20th Century, created by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck, and becomes the last of the “big six” studios to be established (though film historians still argue whether this was the start date, or whether it traces back to the 1915 founding by William Fox). 1939 Pint-sized Fox contract star Shirley Temple was named No. 1 box office attraction for fifth consecutive year. In the 1940s, the studio’s Betty Grable became No. 1. 1950 “All About Eve” wins the best picture Oscar and five other Academy Awards. 1953 Fox releases “The Robe” in its own new Cinemascope, a format promoted for its wider screen and more depth without 3D glasses; it was one of Hollywood’s big screen attempts to lure viewers away from the new medium of television. 1953 Marilyn Monroe, under contract to Fox, became a star with three high-profile projects: “Niagara,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “How to Marry a Millionaire” 1956 After two decades at the company, Zanuck resigns as head of production and moves to Paris to become an independent producer. Nov. 24, 1958 Variety reports that Fox president Spyros Skouras is near a deal to sell 176 acres of the Pico Avenue back lot for $40 million. The land was purchased by William Zeckendorf and turned into the current Century City shopping and office development. Hollywood legend says “Cleopatra” was to blame, but it hadn’t even begun filming. The real culprit: the growing popularity of TV forced a rethink of studio finances. 1958 The company launches 20th Century Records, which lasts until 1982. June 27, 1962 “Cleopatra,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, ends principal photography, two years after the start of production. Originally budgeted at $5 million, it ended up costing $44 million, including marketing costs. That translates to $360 million in current dollars — still one of the most expensive productions of all time. 1962 Darryl F. Zanuck returns to Fox and installs his son as Richard Zanuck as head of production. 1963 “Cleopatra” opens and becomes the highest-grossing film of the year. Still, it took years to earn a profit and because of its enormous costs, the lavish production forced massive layoffs and ended many planned productions. 1964 20th Century Fox TV debuts “Peyton Place,” America’s first prime-time soap, airing two new half-hour episodes each week. 1965 “The Sound of Music” becomes the all-time box-office champ, earning $158 million, winning the best picture Oscar, and helping Fox rebound. 1972 The Korean War-set series “MASH,” starring Alan Alda, debuts on CBS and the beloved half-hour comedy has a lengthy 11-year run until 1983. The finale earned a record 125 million viewers. May 25, 1977 Under Fox production head Alan Ladd Jr., the George Lucas-directed “Star Wars” opens and becomes the all-time box-office winner, with $775 million, passing the 1975 “Jaws.” 1977 Fox pioneered the new format of home video. When Andre Blay pitched all the studios on the idea of transferring films to videocassettes for consumers; Fox was the only studio interested. 1981 Oil exec Marvin Davis and financier Marc Rich buy the studio for $722 million. 1984 Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. buy Rich’s interest in 20th Century Fox for $250 million. Murdoch later buys Davis’s stake for $325 million. 1985 20th Century-Fox drops the hyphen. 1986 “The Late Show with Joan Rivers” launches Fox Broadcasting Co., a bold bid to launch a fourth broadcast network and challenge the decades-old dominance of ABC, CBS, and NBC. 1987 “Married … With Children” helps kicks off Fox’s first night of primetime programming on Sunday. 1989 “The Simpsons,” the animated comedy spun off from Fox’s “The Tracey Ullman Show,” debuts on Fox Broadcasting and becomes an instant hit. The show is currently in season 29, breaking longevity records for an American series. The show is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, making it hugely profitable for the Murdoch empire. 1993 Fox launches “The X-Files,” a prestige drama that becomes a massive global hit for 20th Century Fox Television. 1994 Fox launches the FX cable channel. 1996 Fox News Channel debuts. By 2009, it was airing 9 of the top 10 cable-news shows. 1997 “Titanic” opens and holds the No. 1 position at box-office for 15 consecutive weeks, earning a record $1.8 billion and winning best picture at the Academy Awards. Fox has worldwide rights to the film, while Paramount distributes it domestically. It becomes the highest grossing film ever until it’s dethroned by another Fox movie, “Avatar.” 2000 Fox Music created. 2009 Director James Cameron breaks his own record as all-time box-office victor, as his “Titanic” is bested by “Avatar,” which scores $2.7 billion. Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” wins the best picture Oscar. 2013 News Corp. remains a publishing company and spins off the media and entertainment portion, which becomes 21st Century Fox. Fox Searchlight’s “12 Years a Slave” wins best picture Oscar. 2014 “Birdman,” another Fox Searchlight title, wins best picture. 2015 Brothers James and Lachlan Murdoch take on oversight of 21st Century Fox as CEO and executive chairman, respectively. 2017 The Murdochs begin discussions with Disney and other suitors for the film and TV operations of 21st Century Fox.
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 15:32:17 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 15:59:00 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 14, 2017 23:53:53 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 15, 2017 0:02:39 GMT -6
variety.com/2017/film/news/fox-disney-deal-bad-for-movies-1202639920/Why the Fox-Disney Deal Could Be Bad for Movies Disney is poised to swallow up Fox’s film and television assets, a move that will dramatically reshape the landscape of Hollywood, while making it increasingly difficult for producers and directors to find a home for movies that don’t fit into a comic book box or fantasy mold. Creative types are looking at the $60 billion-plus deal with dread, dismayed that Fox, a studio that has backed a number of risky dramas and comedies for adults in recent years, is about to be absorbed into the Magic Kingdom — a creative fiefdom that scrubs movies of their edge. In recent years, Disney has been almost exclusively interested in making superhero films, animated adventures, and Star Wars sequels and spin-offs. In particular, the company is no longer interested in releasing anything rated R. Disney will most likely allow Fox’s film studio to continue to operate with some autonomy and to continue making movies for adults. But most industry observers believe that no matter what happens, Fox’s film division will exist in diminished form. “There’s always anxiety about the possibility of one less buyer,” said “Gladiator” and “The Great Gatsby” producer Doug Wick. RELATED Trump Has Some Words of Praise for Disney-Fox Deal Could Fox Acquisition Finally Make Disney an Awards Power Player? Other producers said that the sale was a sign that the old way of doing business was vanishing. Fewer people are going to the movies, theatrical revenues are down, and media companies making more money from television. The film industry is looking tired and passé. “The current model cannot sustain itself,” said Mike Medavoy, CEO of Phoenix Pictures. He notes, however, that despite the turbulence, Disney has managed to thrive because it has such a deep bench of brands like Marvel, LucasFilm and Pixar. “Disney has been the best positioned and [most] successfully run company in the past few years,” he said. Matt Baer, the producer of “Unbroken,” said that a decade ago it would have been inconceivable to drive by Fox’s Pico Boulevard headquarters and think of it existing as an empty shell of itself. However, the business has changed so much in recent years that he’s not sure the impact will be as seismic as it once would have been. Gone are the days when big studios handed out production deals to producers and filmmakers, helping offset their overhead and subsidizing the projects they developed. “The unfortunate reality is the way that producers were able to make movies at studios is so much a part of the past,” he said. “Most of the films are being made outside of the studio system with independent financing.” Not everyone is mournful. John Sloss, a sales agent and founder of Cinetic Media, doesn’t expect that the merger will greatly affect the media landscape. The rise of companies like Netflix, Amazon and others have increased the number of overall buyers, he contends. These companies have helped fill a void, backing films such as “Mudbound” and “The Big Sick” that are too idiosyncratic to get a greenlight at more traditional studios. Moreover, both companies have money to burn and a thirst for content to help attract subscribers. Anxiety by some in Hollywood, Sloss said, is likely based on the usual uncertainty that surrounds a major media consolidation, but he thinks it’s unfounded. Hollywood creatives have a plethora of available buyers, Sloss said. “It’s still a sellers market,” he said. “There’s so much capital in this industry. The scarce resource here isn’t delivery mechanisms — it’s creative talent.” Others are less certain. Fox boasts a number of top-shelf franchises, including the likes of “Avatar” and “X-Men,” which is likely a major reason that Disney is comfortable shelling out billions for access to its vaults. Yet, the studio also fields Oscar-bait such as “The Post,” and offers a robust slate of indie releases through its art house division Fox Searchlight. Will Disney really want to make “The Shape of Water,” an odd love story about a mute janitor and fish man? Even if that Fox Searchlight offering is a hit, it will be lucky to make what “Thor: Ragnarok” can pull in over the course of its opening day. Disney, of course, has shown an unmatched ability to anticipate what moviegoers want. It successfully revived the Star Wars franchise after George Lucas squandered goodwill towards a galaxy far, far away with his misbegotten previews. It created the concept of interconnected cinematic universes with its Avengers films. And it pushed the boundaries of what animated films could deliver in terms of heart and narrative complexity with its Pixar delights. It stands to reason it can be a good steward of Fox. On a conference call with analysts shortly after the sale was announced, Disney chief Bob Iger sought to reassure worried Fox employees. He noted that the company has tried to integrate the companies it acquires into the Disney fold without losing their unique qualities. “As we’ve demonstrated in our acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and LucasFilm, we have not only respected the culture of those organizations but respected and appreciated the talent that came with those acquisitions,” Iger said. As the mega-deal looms, that track record isn’t silencing all the anxiety. “It feels like there will be one less chance of a place to discover some movie magic that isn’t built by formula,” said a producer who declined to be named. “The fear is just that it’s going to become more cookie cutter.” Dave McNary contributed to this report
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 15, 2017 0:55:19 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 15, 2017 1:03:56 GMT -6
variety.com/2017/biz/news/disney-fox-studio-zoning-trips-1202641765/Disney-Fox Deal Casts Future of Fox Studio Lot Into Doubt The Fox lot in Century City has been a movie studio for more than 80 years, the place where classics like “Hello Dolly!” and “How Green Was My Valley” were filmed. But with the massive Disney-Fox merger on Thursday, the future of the 53-acre lot has been thrown into doubt. The remaining Murdoch empire will hang on to the property for now, and has agreed to lease the studio space back to Disney for seven years. But that’s a relatively short horizon given the glacial time scale of real estate development, and it has led to speculation that the Murdochs will look to offload the property, perhaps even before the lease expires. It is possible that another content producer — such as Apple, Amazon, or another digital provider — may seek to acquire the property, or just rent out any space that Disney opts to vacate. But purely as a business proposition, the land may be worth much more to a luxury residential developer. “There’s going to be pressure from shareholders to sell the assets,” said Tucker Hughes, managing director of Hughes Marino, a corporate real estate firm. “I have a variety of clients who would be interested in purchasing the lot.” The property could be worth upwards of $1.5 billion. A developer could transform it into a master-planned mixed-use campus, with high-end luxury condos, retail and office spaces — the largest such project in Los Angeles since the Playa Vista development two decades ago. There is, of course, a major obstacle: zoning. The site is currently governed by the Century City South Specific Plan, and any change would require an amendment to the city’s general plan. “It’s very much tied to the studio use,” said Craig Lawson, a land use consultant. “To change that would be a long-term process. You’re talking several years. They could try and do it, but it would be very contentious.” The site also could be subject to historic preservation restrictions. The lot has more than 80 buildings, of which 58 were considered to have historical value in a 1994 survey. Any move to develop the property could trigger an effort to save those buildings on historic grounds, as is now happening with CBS Television City on Fairfax Avenue. A new development might have to retain and repurpose the historic buildings, which would add to the project’s cost. “There could be a real war over some of the preservation issues,” said Dale Goldsmith, a real estate lawyer at Armbruster, Goldsmith & Delvac. There is also the issue of traffic. Under current regulations, any development plans on the lot are subject to a “net-zero” traffic impact condition, which mandates that any increases in traffic be offset by operational changes. The rule is in place to accommodate Cheviot Hills homeowners who commute on Motor Avenue, which is already deemed to be at its maximum traffic capacity. The L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Agency is extending the Purple Line subway, with a stop in Century City scheduled to open in 2025. That could allow for greater development in the area, as planners would factor the commuting trips that would go by train. “For the foreseeable future it’s going to be maintained as a media use,” said Jerry Neuman, a land-use lawyer at DLA Piper. In order to change the land-use, he said, “the whole lot would have to be rezoned and re-imagined. The community would certainly have a lot of concerns over that.” Goldsmith worked for Fox on the existing specific plan in the early 1990s, and remembers bitter neighborhood opposition to the addition of office buildings and a parking garage. “Is it impossible? Not if you have the right land-use lawyer,” he said. “It isn’t easy. It would be a lot of heavy sledding to get anything other than a studio use.”
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 15, 2017 1:04:47 GMT -6
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 15, 2017 1:06:57 GMT -6
variety.com/2017/biz/news/disney-fox-deal-bob-iger-rupert-murdoch-inside-the-deal-1202641771/Disney-Fox Deal: How Secret, ‘Smooth and Cordial’ Negotiations Drove a Blockbuster Acquisition The spark came in August over a couple of glasses of wine, as two media moguls chewed the fat about the state of the business. Disney chief Bob Iger and 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch were having a casual get-together at Murdoch’s Moraga Estate winery in Bel-Air. They found themselves in agreement about trends they were observing that were heavily impacting their respective TV and film businesses. Iger left the winery with a feeling that Murdoch might be open to a deal that could be transformative to both Disney and 21st Century Fox. “We were talking about our businesses and the industry generally and the forces of disruption that are happening,” Murdoch told Sky News. “We genuinely like each other and respect each other,” Iger told CNBC. A few weeks later, Iger called Murdoch for a more serious conversation about exploring the possibility of a merger. Iger’s hunch was right. Murdoch was game. Really game. A little more than two months after Iger’s call, top Disney and Fox executives rose before dawn on Dec. 13 to unveil the $52.4 billion acquisition pact before the stock market opened. The news release came with a two-shot of Iger and Murdoch, all smiles and arm-in-arm atop a skyscraper with London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background. Sources close to the situation said the Disney-Fox negotiations were held in secret at the highest levels of both companies. Prominent senior executives at both shops were left out of the loop in an effort to keep the discussions quiet. There were no outward signs that Fox was considering a sale – no scramble to gather financial data going back years, no hasty efforts to assemble Power Point presentations on the company’s various divisions. The cover was blown after about a month when CNBC’s David Faber reported Nov. 6 that Disney and Fox had been in conversations. The industry was stunned. Murdoch a seller? In what world! The Disney-Fox discussions had quieted down briefly around the time of CNBC’s report, but the talks resumed not long afterward. At that time, Comcast knocked on Fox’s door to express interest in the same assets that Disney had zeroed in on. Sony Pictures Entertainment also lobbed an informal inquiry about whether Fox was engaging with other bidders. Verizon, which had floated an overture to 21st Century Fox earlier in the year, also was seen as a contender if Fox initiated an auction process. The Murdochs, however, seemed focused on a deal with Disney. Comcast said as much in a statement issued Dec. 11 declaring that they were no longer in the Fox hunt, after it was abundantly clear that Disney was racing to the finish line. “We never got the level of engagement needed to make a definitive offer,” Comcast asserted. Iger described the negotiations as “smooth and cordial” to CNBC. But he still counts himself among those who are surprised the Murdochs would part with so many of their crown jewels. “I thought it was a long shot but the more I thought about it, the more Rupert thought about it, the more we talked about it, the more it made sense,” Iger told CNBC. “If you were to ask me in August as to whether I would get to this point, I’m not sure that I would have bet that I would have.”
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 15, 2017 16:08:25 GMT -6
deadline.com/2017/12/scary-movie-math-disney-fox-deal-1202228089/ There's Some Scary Movie Math Lurking In The Disney-Fox Deal Here’s some scary math to go with the giant Disney-Fox merger deal: Disney could raise the number of feature films it will release in 2017 by half, and still distribute less than half as many movies as Fox and its Fox Searchlight unit. By the generally reliable tally and release schedule on Boxofficemojo.com, Disney’s film distribution arm, which just opened Star Wars: The Last Jedi, is now up to eight feature releases for the year, and there it will stick. But Fox, which will soon be absorbed by Disney in a $50 billion-plus acquisition, is up to 12 films from its big-studio operations with this weekend’s release of Ferdinand, and will add both The Post and The Greatest Showman, for a total of 14, before the year ends. Along with those, the Fox Searchlight specialty unit has released 11 films, for a total of 25 from the corporate units. Viewed simply in terms of film counts, the Fox output was more than three times that of Disney for the year. Of course, Disney will swamp Fox in terms of box-office revenue. Even without this weekend’s Star Wars surge, Disney – powered by monsters like Beauty And The Beast and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 – has had over $1.8 billion in domestic ticket sales for the year, while the Fox complex took in roughly $950 million, or just over half as much (counting spill-over 2017 sales for 2016 releases from both studios). Through last weekend, those 11 Fox Searchlight films, plus some revenue from 2016’s Jackie, had under $80 million revenue all in – less than the just-released Star Wars will have made by Saturday morning. So Disney’s film operation generates far more revenue that of Fox, with far fewer movies. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that. In all likelihood, Disney, with its effects-heavy blockbusters, creates more jobs and more economic activity than does Fox, with its larger output of smaller films. More, it remains possible that Disney will keep much of the Fox film apparatus intact, boosting its own film counts, at least for a while. The companies have said it will take between 12 and 18 months to integrate operations; in that time, Disney could easily decide to preserve prestigious Fox Searchlight for its Oscar value, or much of 20th Century Fox for its experience with filmmakers and existing properties. Thus, Fox could boost the Disney film output. But history suggests a different sort of arithmetic. Since a corporate renaissance under the Michael Eisner-Frank Wells-Jeffrey Katzenberg regime in the mid-1980s, in fact, Disney has repeatedly expanded its feature film output, only to pull back when it became apparent that a small number of large films could be much more profitable than a large number of smaller ones. For a time, it operated two full-blown labels – Hollywood and Touchstone – but the two-studio model quickly withered. Later, it acquired Miramax, and flooded the market with awards-style movies; but that led to divestment. Still later, Disney struck a deal with DreamWorks, promising to add a rich run of live-action comedies and dramas to supplement its super-heroes and animated fantasies. But that, too, ended. Along the way, Disney occasionally emerged as a veritable film factory, churning out what now looks like a shockingly high number of feature releases each year. In 2000, for instance, it released 21 films from its principal units – including live-action movies as varied as Remember The Titans, High Fidelity, and Coyote Ugly – and another 25 from Miramax and Dimension, for a total of 46. That’s more than five times as many films as Disney will release in 2017. Five times as many writers. Five times the stars and directors. Five times as many stories told. But the biggest seller among those films, Scary Movie, had only about $157 million in ticket sales, or roughly $260 million if adjusted to today’s prices. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, will do as much in its first week. And that’s very scary math for a film industry that has been watching Disney – soon to own Fox – make more by doing less.
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