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Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion

Deal requires antitrust review

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

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LOS ANGELES -- The Walt Disney Co. says it is acquiring Marvel EntertainmentInc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man andSpider-Man into the Disney family.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters.

Disney said Monday that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own.

It said the boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the transaction, but it requires an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

ENIGMA: A TRAILER

Jon Molly sent this classified video link today. Embedded below:

Coercion, blackmail, reward, extortion, assassination, "Honey traps" -- all are fair game. After all, there's a war going on right underneath our noses.

Who or what is Enigma? Who's side is it on?

Who's side are you on? Do you even know?

How to Make Money with Free Media..

People look at me aghast when I tell them to put their movie up online for free. They look at me aghast when I mention merchandising and advertising and p2p networks. They look at me aghast when I tell them to forget about festivals and sending out screeners to distributors. They look at me aghast when I tell them Twitter , YouTube and Facebook will increase their sales more than a distributor or an award win.

(and if you're not on these networks, go now and join - then friend, follow or add me)

They look at me aghast when I tell them to quit living in the 20th century. To rethink what it means to be a filmmaker. To rethink what it means to be a distributor. To rethink the economics and methodologies of all of it (which was long overdue). To rethink things like copyright and user friendliness.

Would it help if you listened to this guy instead? Because seriously - if you want to survive in the next decade as a mediamaker; If you want to make inroads into the entertainment industry...

Then you are going to have to listen.

H/T to Ted Hope at Truly Free Film

ENIGMA: The Truth is a Weapon

The truth is the greatest weapon ever devised... unassailable, razor sharp and hidden within the scraps of lies, secrets and half-truths.

Those that can get to the truth and expose it are deadly to those who traffic in secrets. Secrets and lies make them powerful. The truth renders them useless... dinosaurs.

The (R) evolution has begun.

(This excerpt brought to you by Stefan Blitz)

The Future of Entertainment...

Means everyone is involved...

Whether it's singing, dancing or capturing images via cell phones and cameras and posting them on YouTube. Now if only they were zombies and the song was Thriller...

ENIGMA: THE PUZZLE FINDS ANOTHER PIECE

This comes from my buddy Stefan Blitz, editor at FORCES OF GEEK.

Will you answer the call?

Enigma: More Conceptual Stuff

(c) 2009 by Bill Cunningham and Mad Pulp Media all rights reserved
We are watching you...

I Know The Feeling

THE CON IS ON! 3RD SEASON OF LEVERAGE ORDERED

From the TNT Newsroom:

Television’s hottest team of con artists, grifters, hackers and thieves will be back again as TNT lines up a third season of its fast-paced drama seriesLEVERAGE, starring Academy Award^® winner Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), Gina Bellman (Coupling), Christian Kane (TNT’s Into the West),Beth Riesgraf (Alvin and the Chipmunks) and Aldis Hodge (Friday Night Lights). The network has ordered 15 episodes of the series, which is currently in its second season, airing Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). The show’s summer finale will air Wednesday, Sept. 9. It will then return to complete the second season in winter, with the third season slated to air in summer 2010.

“Thanks in large part to its engaging cast and clever storytelling, LEVERAGE has proven itself to be one of the most exciting and fun hours on television,”said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “The producers, cast and crew have been incredible to work with, and we anticipate another wonderful season.”

LEVERAGE is executive-produced by Dean Devlin (Independence Day, TNT’s The Librarian) and creators John Rogers (Transformers) and Chris Downey (The King of Queens). It comes to the network from Devlin’sElectric Entertainment and is one of six high-profile original dramas that have populated TNT’s Monday-Wednesday lineup this summer. The six series, which include The Closer, Raising the Bar, HawthoRNe, Saving Graceand Dark Blue, are part of an aggressive TNT strategy to build a slate of quality original programming in primetime.

LEVERAGE scored big in its first season, ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 show in its timeslot with an average of 3.9 million viewers. The second season has averaged 4.1 million viewers* and ranks as ad-supported cable’s #1 Wednesday program in delivery of adults 25-54, viewers and households. The show is enjoying solid growth when compared to its first season, with viewers up 5% and households up 7%.

LEVERAGE scores tremendously well with DVR users, garnering an extraordinary 66% growth among adults 25-54 when comparing Live to Live + 7 viewing.

In LEVERAGE, Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator determined to bring down the kind of corrupt bigwigs whose neglect led to the death of his son. His highly skilled team includes Sophie Devereaux (Bellman), a grifter who uses her acting skills to corner her marks; Eliot Spencer (Kane), a “retrieval specialist” with bone-crunching fighting skills; Alec Hardison (Hodge), a gadget and technology wizard who keeps the team connected and informed; and Parker (Riesgraf), a slightly off-center thief adept at rappelling off buildings or squeezing into tight places.

Electric Entertainment is a full-service film, television and new media production company and studio, established in 2001 by veteran writer/producer Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate, The Patriot) and led by Devlin along with partners Kearie Peak, Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan. Dec. 7, 2008, marked the TNT premiere of Leverage, the new action-packed series from Electric Entertainment executive produced by Devlin, who made his directorial debut on the pilot, and the debut of The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, the third installment of the company’s popular Librarian franchise, starring Noah Wyle (ER). Electric is in pre-production on the animated feature film Tikis and the feature film Ghosting, a supernatural thriller which Devlin will produce and direct.

Electric’s previous films include the World War I action/adventure Flyboys; the politically charged documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?; Cellular, starring Kim Basinger, Chris Evans and Jessica Biel; and Eight Legged Freaks, with David Arquette and Scarlett Johansson. The company’s television credits include The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, starring Noah Wyle, which aired on TNT in December 2004 and was the highest-rated movie on cable that year; its sequel, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines; and The Sci Fi Channel’s (now SyFy) The Triangle, which won a Visual Effects Emmy^® and was the highest-rated miniseries on the cable channel since Steven Spielberg Presents Taken. Electric Entertainment recently teamed with TNT for the crime thriller Blank Slate, starring Eric Stoltz, a microseries that debuted last fall on the network, as well as on tnt.tv. Additionally, Electric Entertainment owns and operates the online pop-culture and entertainment magazine IF (www.IFmagazine.com), which reports the entertainment industry’s daily news.

CONGRATULATIONS GANG!