Monday Mouse Watch : Are you ready to go back to “The Black Hole” ?

Jim Hill

16 years ago

As Summer gives way to Fall, Disney executives are now reviewing the revenues that the Studio’s films produced over the past few months. And to be honest, the sharp pencil boys aren’t all that happy.

Everywhere you look, there are disappointments. Be they big (“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” earned just $141 million during its initial domestic run. Which is less than half of what “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” earned during its stateside release back in 2005) or small (With the $220 million that “WALL-E” has earned domestically to date, this Andrew Stanton film is officially a blockbuster. But that said, Pixar‘s latest still fell short of what Disney’s internal box office projections said this extremely well-reviewed animated feature would earn. Which initially suggested that “WALL-E” would sell $260 – $270 million worth of tickets during its stateside run).

As to why these two high-priced projects (i.e. “Prince Caspian” reportedly cost Disney & Walden Media $200 million to produce, while “WALL-E” allegedly cost Pixar $170 million to produce and an additional $55 million to market) didn’t meet expectations, Mouse House officials had a variety of explanations. “Caspian” ‘s under-performance is now blamed on a poorly chosen release date (“We should have stuck with December,” said one suit that I spoke with. “The first ‘Narnia’ movie did well over the holiday season. We should have stuck with that time of year and not tried to turn ‘Narnia’ into a summer tentpole”), while “WALL-E” missing its initial box office projections was supposedly caused by a certain caped crusader (” ‘The Dark Knight‘ came out three weeks after ‘WALL-E’ was released and immediately became the must-see movie of the summer,” this Disney exec continued. ” That sequel sucked all of the air out of the room. ‘WALL-E’ & anything else that was released prior to ‘Dark Knight’ didn’t stand a chance after that.”)

Given the $512 million that “The Dark Knight” has grossed domestically to date (or — for that matter — the $317 million that “Iron Man” has earned and the $227 million that “Hancock” has hauled in this summer), the Walt Disney Company is now wondering if it too needs to get into the comic book movie game. The only problem is … The movie rights for most of the really good characters & franchises have already been snapped up.

This is why Mickey signed Stan Lee last year. With the hope that Spider-man’s creator might then be able to cook up a few new super heroes for the Mouse House to use. And while that development deal has already begun bearing some fruit with the “Time Jumper” franchise, Disney — with an eye toward creating the sort of heat within the fan community that film adaptations like “Sin City,” “300” and “Watchmen” regularly receive — is now getting ready to move into the graphic novel market.

Now where this all gets interesting is that the team that the Mouse hired to run its graphic novel division, Kingdom Comics — Ahmet Zappa, Harris Katleman and Christian Beranek — was given some very specific marching orders. In that these three were told to go through the Studio’s live-action library and then identify titles that would lend themselves to graphic novel adaptation.

And according to an interview that Oren Aviv, the president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Production, recently had with Disney Newsreel (i.e. the Studio’s in-house magazine) … Some of the films that Ahmet, Harris & Christian have recently been looking at are sure to intrigue / excite the fan community. To whit:

” We’re looking now, for example, at what the graphic novel today would read and look like for ‘The Black Hole‘ and what it would be for ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.’ “

And when you take into consideration that Walt Disney Studios will actively be eyeballing all of these Kingdom Comics as possible fodder for future feature films … Well, this late 1970s / early 1980s revival that we’ve been seeing lately at the Mouse House what with “Race to Witch Mountain” and “TR2N” could actually continue with a brand-new, big screen version of “The Black Hole.”

Mind you, if comic book fans had their way … Well, Disney wouldn’t be releasing a new graphic novel version of this December 1979 release. But — rather — a collection of those “Black Hole” panels that comic legend Jack Kirby drew for that “Walt Disney’s Treasury of Classic Tales” Sunday strip from September of 1979 through February of 1980. This is the one & only time that “King Kirby” ever did a movie adaptation. But that’s a story for another time …

Anyway … What do you folks think? Do you like the idea of the Walt Disney Company using Stan Lee and Kingdom Comics as a way to get into the super hero game? Or would you prefer that the Mouse stick with the super hero franchises that it already has (i.e. “The Incredibles” & “Sky High“) ?

Your thoughts?