Fantastic Four Billion

Disney yesterday morning announced that they are paying 4 billion dollars US to acquire Marvel Productions, a deal which gives them access to almost all the Marvel Characters. Yesterday evening, Fox weighed in.

20th Century Fox is the latest studio to start the process of overhauling one of its big Marvel Entertainment franchises, “Fantastic Four,” which has already hatched two films. The studio has hired Akiva Goldsman to oversee the re-boot as producer.

New script will be written by Michael Green, the “Heroes” co-executive producer who co-wrote “Green Lantern,” the Martin Campbell-directed Warner Bros. film that will star Ryan Reynolds.

Ha ha Disney, it's clobberin' time! (Green Lantern, BTW, is from the DC universe where Superman lives, and is not affected by this deal.) Meanwhile, across town in Culver City:

With “Spider-Man 4” moving toward an early 2010 production start, the studio recently hired James Vanderbilt to write a fifth and sixth installment of the web-slinger franchise, with the understanding that one or both could give that franchise a makeover with a new director and cast (Daily Variety, Aug. 16, 2009). Whether director Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire return or not, Sony smartly has given itself the chance to shorten the gap between its superhero installments.

And with state-of-the-art visual effects on superhero franchises pushing these pictures toward the $250 million-$300 million range, reshuffling the creative cast gives the studio a chance to save money, since actors and directors usually have a pre-negotiated option or two before the studio is held over a barrell by talent and their reps.

It's not as dire for Disney as you'd think, by the way. Sony and Fox stand to make plenty of money from these movies, but so does Marvel Productions. And who owns Marvel? And let's face it, everybody is probably owned by Coca Cola.