No real details on this yet, so no idea if they're going to find another big guy to paint green or try to do Hulk CGI on a television budget.

Cloak and Dagger looks to be planned as an ABC family series.

The Punisher is mentioned as a possible cable show in the future.

Most interesting, to me, was the list of properties that Marvel apparently pitched to ABC executives, including:

The Eternals
Heroes For Hire
Agents of Atlas
The Hood
Ka-Zar
Moon Knight
Daughters of the Dragon
Alter Ego (apparently Jessica Jones' "Alias", but the Jennifer Garner series already used the name.)

Cloak and Dagger wasn't on the list, but it's one that actually is going forward. Personally, I would have been excited by the Eternals (described as "a race of superpowered beings live amid humanity in secret, inspiring legends")... but then I'll wait and see how well they do bringing these shows to the screen before I wish it on any properties I like.





http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/10/incredible-hulk-tv-show-abc.html

Since I know that the Daughters of the Dragon have worked with the Heroes for Hire in the past & were actually on one form of the team so they could all be on one show. Moon Knight & The Hood could also work in the show.

But that is an interesting list.

I just hope that any of the shows that go forth don't end up like Birds of Prey (Name of a comic and only kind of related to what it's based off of) or Mutant X (name of a comic but totally unrelated to anything from any comic).

I suppose it's only natural that they'd cram the two together and see how much of the billions that they paid for Marvel they can make back.

Honestly, rather than jumping right into ongoing shows, I think they should consider the miniseries route. I suppose elaborate miniseries with big special effects might not be the rage that they once were, but it seems likely that, if they picked the right project, they could get some good video sales in addition to whatever ratings they pulled in. Then, if it's a hit, they can launch it as a full series... or just do a completely different miniseries for the next year.

What's odd to me is that Marvel seems to be interested in taking their most down-to-earth concepts into other media, but in all honesty those concepts are nothing special once outside of comics. There are so many vigilantes, spies and detectives and such already on TV and film that I can't help but wonder why any studio executive would get excited by the pitch.

So I'm not terribly surprised that ABC passed on all of the more down-to-earth properties Marvel tried to sell them.

So that adds a hefty hit to the budget of "The Avengers" right out of the gate. Still, it's obvious that Disney sees this as the start of a new franchise for them, and who would want to see their new franchise launched by another studio? Now Disney's marketing machine can go into high gear without worrying that they're spending time and money promoting some other studio's film.

As I understand it now, it doesn't really change the cost of "The Avengers much at all. They were always obligated to pay Paramount 8% of the gross for distribution fees (Which averaged $56m per Marvel film apparently). Additionally they paid back all of the distribution and marketing expenses that Paramount took on.

Now, Disney will pay that $56m to Paramount up front, but do all of the marketing and distribution themselves (which, just as it would have been for Paramount, will be taken out of the gross.) Assuming the Avengers and Iron Man 3 make at least as much as the Marvel average, then it comes out to equal costs. (It does mean, however, that Disney has to set aside the cash in their own budget now for the marketing campaign, and they need to devote the time of their own marketing people.)

On the plus side, for the same cost, Disney gets to make all of the decisions and not have to consult with Paramount at all. Paramount is guaranteed to make their normal share of profit off of the films and doesn't have to do any work at all. So... a pretty sweet deal.