Platinum Adapting Hero By Night for TV
Posted by: Dustin Christian // Category: Small Press, TV
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and don't forget to tip your waitress!!
One of the biggest problems with being away from blogging for awhile, at least for me, is trying to come back. I feel like I need to write something really interesting to justify all of that time away and the longer I’m gone the bigger the pressure I put on myself to find something good, which makes it even harder to come back and I stay away even longer.
That spectacular post will probably never come, so I’m going to try to just go back to writing about what catches my eye and hopefully something good will come along in the meantime. This will probably mean you’ll get some reviews of old comics issues, since I’m still a bit behind there. I apologize in advance.
Anyway, on to posting. Word is spreading around the web about Platinum’s plans to adapt Hero By Night as a television series. Here’s an excerpt from their press release:
IM Global a worldwide financing, sales and distribution outfit for big-budget genre movies and specialty films and Platinum Studios, Inc. an entertainment company that controls an international library of more than 5,600 comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media, announced today that they will develop a television series based on the Comic Book Challenge® winner Hero By Night.
Under the agreement, IM Global will handle worldwide distribution for the project and will produce Hero By Night through their IM Global Television banner run by television veteran Gavin Reardon, who brokered the deal along with the Rigberg Entertainment Group.
Hero By Night, created by 2006 Comic Book Challenge® winner, DJ Coffman, tells the story of young landlord, Jack King, who uncovers the lair of the legendary Hero by Night. Determined to make a little extra cash, Jack auctions the Hero’s journal on eBay. His plans backfire when he attracts the attention of Hero by Night’s old arch-enemy. Jack must now embrace a buried legacy to stop a madman from completing his diabolical schemes.
Platinum Studios’ Chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and IM Global’s Stuart Ford and Gavin Reardon are set to executive produce the series along with Rigberg Entertainment Group’s Glenn Rigberg. Platinum Studios’ vice president of Film and TV Rich Marincic will co-produce and former Universal Pictures’ senior executive, Randy Greenberg, of The Greenberg Group, who negotiated the deal, would co-executive produce.
The press release goes on and on, but it basically consists of a bunch of patting themselves and eachother on the back and performing oral sex on one another.
You may recall that DJ Coffman is no longer with Platinum after a huge fracas regarding them being late on payments. If you don’t, just type “DJ Coffman” or “Platinum” into the search field on this blog and you’ll find several articles on the subject. DJ does, however, still get a cut of any money Platinum makes off of his property and commented on this development in his own blog:
No, I was not informed. I can’t say that I’m surprised because Platinum Studios probably were afraid I’d blab about it on my blog, which has been known to kill deals and stuff I’m told. And I can’t say I’m surprised at all as how things have gone down this year, which is probably no secret at all to anyone who knows anything about this stuff in the slightest.
I’m going to bite my tongue a little here, but only for the sake of having OTHER things going on that NOBODY in the outside world knows about, so having my name and creation in the Hollywood Reporter and out in the BUZZ isn’t a bad thing. (although sometimes I feel like I do need to shower afterward)
I can say this about Hero By Night. It is without a doubt the BEST thing Platinum Studios has in it’s entire library. The best universe for sure. And that’s not meant to slam anything else, and it’s not meant as just cocky-creator speak… it’s truth culled from a thousand destinations.
How do I feel about the news? Well, it’s a press release, and that doesn’t mean a whole lot about actually getting something made, as you can learn from the plethora of press releases that fire out of Hollywood daily. It’s buzz, I guess. I’ve never heard of IM Global before. You’d hope they would consult the creator, and I’d be happy to talk to them. Hero By Night could be a big success for anyone who goes about it properly.
As for Platinum… well, I’ll bite my tongue and see if they even contact me at all about this now after the fact. I know they don’t HAVE to but…. (I’ve been down that road before) - Ironically, just yesterday I was thinking about sending them communication about what they owe me from my other contract regarding the so far 12 installments of the animated comic online and I noticed that Hero By Night is the #4 downloaded thing on Wowio, so I’m owed something from the downloads there too. Yeah, I keep tabs, I kinda have to. I just figured there was “no money” there. Maybe that’s changed? Hurm. Maybe IM Global or the new advisory board at Platinum will tell em “Hey, just let this guy go and make the comics!”
I also have a sort of “Be careful what you wish for” feeling again this morning. Wherein my hero is Jack Kirby. I sit in an office surrounded by homemade Jack Kirby Mr. Miracle wallpaper.. there is a nice framed photo of Jack by my office door, strangers even think it might be a relative or something. And believe me… being the GIANT Jack Kirby nerd that I am, don’t believe for one second that I don’t see very clearly the complete irony of the whole situation I’ve been in this year. And that’s only a tiny TASTE of what that poor guy went through. I know that. I also know I don’t even have the talent that that guy had in his pinky finger. You know, the finger that stablized the pencil?
None of this (the bad business side) sours the fact that Hero By Night is awesome. Sometimes I can’t even believe I did it at all.
As a fan, I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I really enjoyed Hero By Night and would love to get more of it. On the other hand, I really don’t like the way Platinum has treated DJ, formerly their biggest chearleader, and I hate to see them make money off of his creation, not to mention my doubt that they could really pull it off without DJ’s participation.
Technorati Tags: DJ Coffman, Hero By Night, Platinum Studios
Popularity: 2% [?]
