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UPDATE: Paul Levitz To Transition Out As Warner Bros Restructures DC Comics
Finally, here’s the official Warner Bros statement confirming my scoop:
WARNER BROS CREATES DC ENTERTAINMENT
Diane Nelson to Serve as President, DC Entertainment
Paul Levitz to Segue from President & Publisher of DC Comics
To Writer, Contributing Editor, and Overall Consultant to DC Entertainment
(September 9, 2009 – Burbank, CA) Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI) has created DC Entertainment Inc., a new company founded to fully realize the power and value of the DC Comics brand and characters across all media and platforms, to be run by Diane Nelson, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, and Alan Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros.
DC Entertainment, a separate division of WBEI, will be charged with strategically integrating the DC Comics business, brand and characters deeply into Warner Bros. Entertainment and all its content and distribution businesses. DC Entertainment, which will work with each of the Warner Bros. divisions, will also tap into the tremendous expertise the Studio has in building and sustaining franchises and prioritize DC properties as key titles and growth drivers across all of the Studio, including feature films, television, interactive entertainment, direct-to-consumer platforms and consumer products. The DC Comics publishing business will remain the cornerstone of DC Entertainment, releasing approximately 90 comic books through its various imprints and 30 graphic novels a month and continuing to build on its creative leadership in the comic book industry.
In her new role, Nelson will report to Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, in order to best capitalize on DC Entertainment’s theatrical development and production activities and their importance to drive its overall business with each of the divisions of Warner Bros.
Nelson will bring her expertise and more than 20 years’ experience in creative brand management, strategic marketing and content development and production to ensuring DC Entertainment’s dual mission of marshalling Warner Bros.’ resources to maximize the potential of the DC brand while remaining respectful of and collaborative with creators, talent, fans and source material. Additionally, Nelson will continue to oversee the franchise management of the Harry Potter property, which she has done since 2000, and also continue to represent the Studio’s interests with the author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling. Nelson will segue from her post as President, Warner Premiere but maintain oversight responsibilities of that division. (An executive succession plan for Warner Premiere will be announced shortly.)
Paul Levitz, who has served as President & Publisher of DC Comics since 2002, will segue from that role to return to his roots as a writer for DC and become a contributing editor and overall consultant to DCE. This transition will take place as expeditiously as possible without disrupting DC’s business operations.
In his new role, Levitz will be called upon for his deep knowledge and more than three-decade history with DC Comics, both as a comic creator and an executive. Besides serving as a writer on a number of DC Comics titles, he will be a contributing editor and consultant to DC Entertainment on projects in various media. Additionally, he will consult as needed on the transition and integration of the DC Comics organization into DC Entertainment and will utilize his unique experience, knowledge and relationships with the comics industry’s creative community to help achieve DC Entertainment’s goal of maximizing the value of DC properties. Further, Levitz will advise DC Entertainment on creative and rights-holder relationships, in particular regarding the legacy relationships that have been a part of DC Comics for decades.
Widely recognized and respected for his support of writers, artists and creators in the comics industry, Levitz is best known creatively for his work with DC Comics, having written most of the classic DC characters, including Batman, Wonder Woman and the Superman newspaper strip. At Comicon International in 2008, Levitz was awarded the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award as part of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the only industry executive ever so honored.
“DC Comics and its super hero characters are truly touchstones of popular culture, and the formation of DC Entertainment is a major step in our company’s efforts to realize the full potential of this incredible wellspring of creative properties,” said Meyer. “Diane knows our studio as a creative executive, a marketer and a senior manager, and this varied background will help her effectively and creatively integrate the DC brand and properties across all our businesses. We’re also thrilled that Paul will remain involved with DC and we’ll be able to tap his expertise to help us reach our goals for this new business.”
“It’s no secret that DC has myriad rich and untapped possibilities from its deep library of iconic and lesser-known characters,” said Horn. “While we’ve had great success in films and television, the formation of DC Entertainment will help us to bring more DC properties across additional platforms to fans around the world, while maintaining brand integrity and authenticity. Diane is a terrific choice to lead DC Entertainment, and with Paul in his new role as a valued consultant and contributing editor, both our company and comic fans win.”
“Based on the great success we’ve had working with DC Comics to create some of the most popular and successful super hero films of all time, I’ve long believed that there was much more we could do across all of Warner Bros.’ businesses with this great body of characters and stories,” said Robinov. “The prioritization of DC and the creation of DC Entertainment is a great opportunity that reaches far beyond the film group. There are endless creative possibilities to build upon the many significant successes already achieved by my colleagues Kevin Tsujihara and the Home Entertainment Group in the videogame, home video and direct-to-platform arenas and Bruce Rosenblum and the Television Group in live-action, animated and digital series. Collectively, we have the ability to grow a body of properties highlighting the iconic characters and the diversity of the creative output of DC Comics.”
“The founding of DC Entertainment fully recognizes our desire to provide both the DC properties and fans the type of content that is only possible through a concerted cross-company, multi-platform effort,” said Nelson. “DC Entertainment will help us to formally take the great working relationships between DC Comics and various Warner Bros. businesses to the next level in order to maximize every opportunity to bring DC’s unrivalled collection of titles and characters to life.”
“After so many roles at DC, it’s exciting to look forward to focusing on my writing and being able to remain a part of the company I love as it grows into its next stage,” said Levitz. “It’s a new golden age for comics and DC’s great characters, and I hope my new position will allow me to contribute to that magic time.”
DC Comics will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2010 (NEW FUN COMICS #1, the first DC comic, began publishing in 1935), at which time more explicit details regarding DC Entertainment’s corporate and management structure, film and content release slate, creative roster and business objectives will be unveiled at a multi-faceted anniversary celebration and press conference in the first quarter of the year.
Current DC properties in development and/or production at Warner Bros. Entertainment include:
– “Human Target” is being produced by Warner Bros. Television for a mid-season debut on Fox.
– “Midnight Mass” is in series development at Warner Bros. Television for consideration for the 2010-11 season.
– “Jonah Hex,” Warner Bros. Pictures’ supernatural Western starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich, recently wrapped production in Louisiana.
– “The Losers,” Dark Castle/Warner Bros. Pictures’ action-adventure drama starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, began principal photography mid-July in Puerto Rico.
– “The Green Lantern,” Warner Bros. Pictures’ next big superhero tentpole release, recently cast Ryan Reynolds as the titular character. The film has a projected second quarter 2011 release date.
– “Lobo,” based on the DC Comics anti-hero, has Guy Ritchie attached as a director; Joel Silver, Akiva Goldsman and Andrew Rona are producing for Silver Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.
– Warner Premiere’s direct-to-platform DVD animated release of “Green Lantern: First Flight” debuted July 28.
– Warner Bros. Animation currently produces “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” which airs on Cartoon Network.
– Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released “Batman: Arkham Asylum” on August 25, a dark, action packed videogame adventure for Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows.
Prior to being named President, DC Entertainment, Nelson most recently served as President, Warner Premiere since its founding in 2006. Before that, Nelson served as Executive Vice President, Global Brand Management, Warner Bros. Entertainment, with the primary responsibility of working cross-divisionally and throughout Time Warner to maximize and optimize all the various windows and outlets available to the Studio’s signature franchises, brands and event properties on a global basis. In this post, Nelson’s primary focus was the management of the Harry Potter brand, which she has overseen since the brand’s launch at the Studio in 1999. These efforts have helped drive the success of the brand to become the most successful film franchise of all time, as well as a respected consumer property that has generated billions of dollars for the Studio. At Global Brand Management, Nelson and her team of more than 15 employees worked in all media and platforms to support a number of other key franchise properties, including “The Matrix Reloaded,” “The Matrix Revolutions,” “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight,” “Happy Feet,” “Polar Express” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” among others.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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This is a catastrophe for comics. Does anyone expect Warner Bros. to “maximize” the DC brand any better than they’ve done with the Hanna Barbera characters — or for that matter, their own Looney Tunes line? Both properties are invisible today, and nearly unknown to a generation of grade school, high school and college kids.
Mmmm, I can smell the fresh-baked spinoff IPO!
Does this mean they’ll actually make some of the movies they’ve been announcing?
This is a long overdue move on Warners’ part. Whatever their reasons for not being able, or willing, to put this together five years ago, I hope they’re snapping out of it.
The problem, however, remains that Warner Premiere’s feature animation of DC comics has sucked from the word go. The stuff is watchable only out of loyalty to the characters. I hope to God Nelson holds her new properties medium(s) up to a higher standard than, say, Superman/Doomsday. You’d think it was a given, seeing as one is merely animation and the other a big budget feature, but after Superman Returns, I think any f*ckup is possible.
And Levitz? Good luck to you, dude. I can’t imagine how often you banged your head against the wall listening to Warners dawdle on DC/Vertigo properties while Marvel went full steam ahead.
Thanls for the great scooP, Ms. Finke. I’m excited to see what DC Entertainment brings us.
Gee first they pull the bright ideas from the producers who created
1. Batman Begins
2. The Dark Knight
3. While I understand the Superman/Watchman move, those franchises can be salvaged with the correct writer director combo.
4. But the Bat made a lot of money.
5. A Joker series of films with Batman/Robin/ Bat girl on vacation would make billions.
6. The penguin’s asylum as noted by the rave reviews for the video game would make even more billions.
Sole creativity is great for a book, a new concept etc. But when you have such a long history with the Bat never put that much power in anyone’s hand to quote Bruce Wayne. That is a mistake you’ll live to regret.
Caz Spiderman, The Hulk, Thor, Xmen, Star Trek, Captain America are about to stomp out the bat before the Joker can laugh his off.
There really was no point in forming DC Entertainment, WB has always produced DC’s movie adaptations, they’re just slapping another name on it now.
The problem in developing DC-based movies was that it was always WB doing it, and since WB owns DC, there’s a conflict of interest. Marvel got around this by licensing their properties to whomever could foot the bill.
So basically, this will just be more of the same.
What I would like to know is… what does this mean for DC/Warners execs Gregory Noveck and Will Hackner? They are smart, passionate guys who “get” the DC brand. Would be a shame to see them go…
Oh crap. This is always a bad idea. Putting an executive in charge of a comic book company. The same thing happened at Marvel a few years back and it nearly bankrupt the company. I sense dark times ahead for DC Comics.
Yup, SF/Fantasy is just a niche, it will never sell.
If you want to make “it” sell, just rebrand…Syfy!
Stop fighting it and embrace your inner geekdom. Pixar/Disney and now Warners has, you can, too!
P.S. Here’s hoping they don’t muck up the stories and devalue them.
Outside of Batman DC sucks for the most part. Marvel will make them their bitch.
about time!
Nelson seems to have done a good job managing the Harry Potter brand and making a lot of money off it. Problem: Harry Potter fans are NOT what DC Comics fans are (or could become). Can Nelson revamp DC Comics so that it once again appeals to twelve year old boys (and that age in most guys?) Instead of the late thirties guys who make up most of the readership? Can Nelson get comics out of solely Comic Shops (only 2,500 of them exist) and into supermarkets and drug stores, and price them appropriately so that young boys will buy them? [Comics can now cost over $5.] Time-Warners gets Time Magazine everywhere, why not “Adventures of Superman” or “the Flash?”
Can Nelson find new writers to create winning new characters, situations, and stories that appeal to a young male audience? Using the comic books as the “minor leagues” for writers look at a shot at movies?
What worked for tween girls entranced with wizards and spells is unlikely to work for a moribund “boy’s franchise” and say, “Impulse the Movie” starring Michael Cera is unlikely to appeal to the core boys and men audience that make comic book movies so profitable when they hit. Jonah Hex, Vertigo, are as likely to make as much money as the Constantine movie did [Hey, I love them too -- but they're not exactly appealing to young male audiences.] I don’t see either objective happening: no opening up DC to new writers and readers, and no movies appealing to the younger male audience.
As long as they focus on the story and stay true to the characters, I don’t care what division makes the movies. My advice is to let DC’s writers have a big say in any creative decisions.
I just split myself laughing. Noveck is despised by all of DC writers, by Warners execs and producers. He is a pompous windbag who thinks he is Avi Arad- and that clown got cut down by Karma. Noveck is Levitz’s man- he’ll go if there is a god in heaven.
Diane Nelson is the new Dawn Steele.
Marketing always takes over the creative job and it’s never pretty or successful.
whiskey, as anyone who knows anything about the comics industry knows, comics will never be sold on newsstands like in the days of yore. That day is long gone, and it’s not coming back. Heck, there would be no comics today if it wasn’t for the direct market and the few comic book stores scattered across the country.
You mention Time magazine — I guess you’re not aware of how the magazine industry is spiraling downward even worse than comics are. Comics aren’t sold on newsstands for a reason, and it’s not because that’s the way comic book companies wanted it. (They didn’t.) No one wanted to sell comics — why would they want to waste all that retail space on such low-margin products? The magazine industry is not something emulate.
I know it’s a fanboy dream to claim that “appealing to the kids” will somehow save comics. But kids don’t want comics. It’s not a price issue — they’re buying video games.
Heck, boys and young men in general don’t want mass media — have you seen the television ratings for those demographics? They go to movies less often, they don’t watch TV but you think they’re going to go to a drugstore and buy comics every week?
And let’s be honest: The Iron Man, X-Men, Spider-Man and Nolan Batman movies succeeded not because they appealed to young men and boys. They succeeded because they ALSO appealed to everyone else — women, older folks, couples, etc. That’s what makes a blockbuster.
Good point. Where is Looney Tunes on TV?
Now as DC ENTERTAINMENT,with they do the right thing and settle with the Jerry Siegel Estate over the SUPERMAN rights once and for all? (and Joe Shuster’s too?)
It will be doing the right thing AND make good PR!
Can Nelson find new writers to create winning new characters, situations, and stories that appeal to a young male audience? Using the comic books as the “minor leagues” for writers look at a shot at movies?
The answer to this is “no”. Nobody truly creative is stupid enough to create sparkly new characters for either DC or Marvel. What this is – and the move by Disney before this – is the attempt to strip-mine the past 40-70 year’s worth of stuff that those companies do own (soon no more: Superman), strip-mine, repackage, squeeze the last drop of virgin blood out of it. And that’s because movie technology has caught up with the visuals of comic books circa 1967. You can now do an Iron Man movie that parallels the visuals that have been around in comic books for decades. The comic books themselves have devolved to little more than glorified fan fiction and/or storyboarding IPs for dim-witted Hollywood executives, which is the reason the entire, yes, the entire US comic book market has a size of roughly 300,000 people buying these products month by month (they do buy a lot of stuff, but that doesn’t change the size of the market). Hence the fact you don’t even have the actual comic books being addressed in the PR release. It’s “synergy” and “IP libraries” and what-have-you.
Oh, the other thing I find somewhat funny? How Nelson gets touted, esentially, as the mother of Harry Potter’s success. “Managing the harry Potter franchise” Hilarious! There is a mother to Harry Potter, and her name is J.K. Rowling! You know, the woman who actually created the “Harry Potter franchise”?
But thank god that is no longer a problem with the DC stuff! Here, there are no pesky “creators” to deal with! I mean, what the hell? Who wants that? Creators? People who think they own what they have created. No way!
This chick knows nothing about comic books… Warners is making a mistake.
Remember knuckleheads at WB, the reason Marvel Studios had success with Iron Man is because – it was made by people who know the universe and fully understood it’s audience – combining to make films that appeal to its core and bring in tons of new fans.
WB will fuck this shit up – and make Catwoman 2 with Jennifer Aniston fighting a cosmetics mogul trying to take over the world, or something really really stupid.
Good job boneheads.
You just signed your ticket to lose $500 million over the next few films.. and you will be Marvel’s/Disney/Pixar’s bitch.
Diane is not producing any further DC movies or TV shows. Rather, she is just finding better ways of doing promotional tie-ins and finding better ways to promote upcoming DC movies, TV shows without the red tape from producers. Essentially, she and Robinov are taking these undeveloped properties from the producers sitting on them (like fatass Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman) and put them in development.
That doesn’t mean she has to be a comic book buff to be qualified. If she can apply her expertise to DC Entertainment like she has with the marketing and publicity for “Harry Potter”, then it’s a good step-up from the morass we had before.
Nicki, does this Nelson chick know anything at all about DC Comics? Serious question.
Human Target is going to bomb big time. Was never a great or popular character. Same with The Losers. Jonah Hex? Small audience, the book has been OK but then Marvel’s Punisher books by Garth Ennis were spectacular, and despite the obvious roadmap of a great series of books that you could use as a storyboard, and sparkling dialogue that could be lifted out and dropped into a film… Marvel managed to screw it up twice inside of a decade. So I don’t hold out a lot of hope for Hex.
Green Lantern… big maybe. No Dark Knight, but the potential to be big and visually stunning if they budget it right.
It’s over for comic book films.
Dark Knight represented the pinnacle of the subgenre and it’s all downhill from here. When corporate buys it out and the vacant suits make moves like this to protect their do-nothing jobs, you know the passion is gone and the creative forces have taken a backseat to soulless marketing.
Soon, a new, original film (without vampire screwing) will come out and no one will care if Antman ever gets made.
Diane Nelson just keeps falling upward. Premiere has sucked ass so far. Trick r Treat is the only bright spot – and its not even their movie. I’m sure Nolan isnt getting kicked off Batman. It should read “we’re screwing everyone except those people who made us a crap load of money.”
She ended up “managing” the Harry Potter franchise cause J.K. decided she wouldnt speak to anyone else at the studio cause they all sucked.
An unnecessary me too move. Warners already has demonstrated they can get these right when they put effort and thought into them (or at least let the right people do it) but you know all the Marvel buzz has been chapping their asses because what’s being talked about is more important than what is being made apparently.
Hopefully it will mean more good movies with proper resources. Warners has shown some leadership here already but this is not one of those times.