Universal Pictures and Dark Horse Entertainment have signed a three-year production and distribution agreement that establishes a studio home for all of Dark Horse's creative properties going forward. The agreement was jointly announced by Marc Shmuger and David Linde, Chairman and Co-Chairman of Universal Pictures; and Mike Richardson, founder and President of Dark Horse.
Under the terms of the deal, Universal would have creative access to all Dark Horse characters and properties, as well as any material that Dark Horse might acquire on its own and want to develop as a motion picture. In addition, Dark Horse would have the opportunity to distribute movies through Universal.
Universal Pictures is opening Hellboy II: The Golden Army, directed by Guillermo del Toro and based on Mike Mignola's Dark Horse Comics character, on July 11, 2008.
"Dark Horse is one of the most creative and innovative brands in the entertainment industry, as well as an incredibly supportive home for some of the most exciting storytellers working today," said Shmuger and Linde in a joint statement. "Their unique connection to youth culture is proven, and we are thrilled to be part of their expanding film production work."
Mike Richardson responded, "We've worked with many studios and have had several great experiences, but we are particularly happy to be joining forces with Universal Pictures in this deal. We feel a real connection with their vision and the energy and creativity they bring to developing our properties. We are also excited by the option that we'll have to independently produce our own material and distribute it through Universal; their flexibility in this collaboration is what we were looking for, and we're glad we found it."
Donna Langley, President of Production, Universal Pictures, added, "We are very much looking forward to working with Dark Horse's talented writers and artists, and to realizing their wealth of creative content onscreen."
Does DARK HORSE still have rights to Alien, Predator and Alien Vs. Predator comics? How will that work? Is universal making a push at that franchise or franchises?
Good question, Sony. And let's not forget that Dark Horse has been putting out an excellent Conan for about 4 years now. I agree, this is a great deal for both parties. Dark Horse has been willing to take risks with different types of titles while Marvel and DC rest on the laurels. Granted they built a bit of their name on every different Star Wars comic imaginable but they've been moving forward ever since.
Dark Horse may only have the rights to publish AvP and Conan comics. Being other entity's IPs (at least thats my assumption), Dark Horse might not have the right to deal for those movies' rights.
How about a Buffy film? Season 8 from DH has been fantastic. Also what ever happened to those proposed Angel tv movies? Could this deal spark Whedon to possibly revist the buffyverse on film? I know i'd like to see it :)
I know there is rights issues and all that involved, but we can hope.
I think you're right Necronomitron. I'm sure they just have a licensing deal with those properties. Otherwise we'd be seeing a crap load of Star Wars related stuff not done by George Lucas. Wait a minute.....that doesn't sound half bad.
This is sweet. What they need to do is adapt Blade of the Immortal, Hard Boiled, and Give Me Liberty. With the exception of Hard Boiled, I can totally see BOTI and GML as a franchise run. Then move up to Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot for the kiddies.
This is only a distribution deal with DHE, and doesn't really mean much at all.
EVERYTHING that people have listed so far is either licensed or creator owned, and not a part of the deal. It only covers properties actually created and owned by Dark Horse exclusively, not stuff they publish. They'd have to deal with Frank Miller in order to produce his works, Hiroaki Samura for his, and so on.
On it's own, Dark Horse owns pretty much squat when it comes to it's 'big' titles, and the only reason that Hellboy's a part of this is that Mignola and DHE already have a very amicable production agreement.
If Dark Horse was in charge of the Alien/Predator franchises I think we'd be in infinitely better shape. The comics from Dark Horse were better than anything from either franchise in over a decade. Earth War was awesome. Ripley made a better android than a clone.
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