In an era where Warner Bros. owns DC Comics and Disney owns Marvel, 20th Century Fox has figured out a new way of getting comic movies off the ground without having to buy a publisher outright. They’ve put together a deal with Boom! Studios – on the heels of their feature film adaptation of the comic 2 Guns – wherein they get first-look rights for Boom!’s ever-growing catalog of independent comic properties (including Archaia Entertainment), and when movies are made, Boom! gets a share of the “first-dollar gross” and splits that profit between themselves and the actual writers and artists who created the comic book being adapted.
Boom!’s Ross Richie made a mockery of how badly the Big Two companies have treated the legendary creators that built everything they make billions off of today. “In an era where Jack Kirby doesn’t get paid for The Avengers, we are bringing the Jack Kirbys into the circle,” he said. “They can use our expertise in the field while they focus on being creative.” Richie and Archaia editor Stephen Christy will also be producers on the movie projects that get made from their properties.
Interestingly, the deal goes both ways – Boom! now has the right to Fox’s back catalog, and they’re allowed to pick and choose from that to reboot classic old movies into comic form… which, in turn, Fox may use to spur revamps and remakes in the future. Boom has already done a few Fox books in the past, like Die Hard: Year One and Planet of the Apes.
So, what Boom!/Archaia books would you most like to see turned into movies? And, conversely, what old Fox movies would you like to see as comics? Personally, I’m voting for Extermination and Porky’s II: The Next Day.
