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EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that an internal memo just went out at DC Entertainment announcing that Gregory Noveck will be transitioning out of his job over the next three months. He’ll be resuming his producing career. Noveck spent the past 6 years with DC Comics as SVP of creative affairs, hired by president/publisher Paul Levitz to help mine the library of DC properties for movie and other media adaptation until Diane Nelson took over the newly created DC Entertainment last September to better integrate DC’s theatrical and TV releases with Warner Bros.
Noveck was most hands-on with the DC Universe line of direct-to-video animation, and also the production of the Secret Origin: The Story Of DC Comics documentary, and, most notably, the upcoming film Red. He’s an executive producer on that Summit Entertainment release this October adapted to the big screen from Warren Ellis’ and Cully Hamner’s comic book.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Angela Cheng Caplan set up Red. Noveck’s EP credit was only for arranging DC print tie-ins.
Angela did a fantastic job on Red, but Gregory did heavy lifting on this project from the get-go.
Actually – I believe Gregory Noveck and Lorenzo DiBonaventura/David Ready put the project together. Angela provided the writers. It sounds like DC does have a lot of print tie-ins as well.
I hope they’ll continue to do Direct to Video Animation.
About three years overdue but Diane Nelson just went up about ten notches in my book for this decision. Noveck sucks.
It’s about time! Nice guy, but he’s hardly the exec Kevin Feige is.
He deserves credit for the DC DTV movies They’re all great. I’m sure that producer Bruce Timm deserves most of the credit, though.
Greg was the best thing there. Real loss for the studio and the publisher.
Not a surprise considering Geoff Johns essentially took Noveck’s job description (and then some).
Honestly, it was expected. It’s never good news when someone loses a job but still, I don’t think he ever lived to expectations.
And like what Nick Graham said, Geoff Johns essentially took over Greg’s spot.
At one point, he was taunted as the next Ari Arad when he first got hired at WB and DC but he didn’t do enough. I really think that Jonah Hex and The Loser didn’t help his cause either.
Let me clarify, it’s not ALL his fault and I’m sure he did work really hard for the company. I really think that WB didn’t see eye to eye with DC and their properties. And it wasn’t until DC Entertainment was formed that they are getting their act together. But that’s when Johns came into a picture,and that man knows his comics and movies.
I’m sure he was like the one man army at WB trying to set up DC projects and no one budged. B
Kevin F the train wreck ? Ha!
i do not blame Greg for leaving dc after so long given that his job. is now being done by Geof as cco and Diana doing what Greg was trying to do with the dc characters. guess Greg figured there was really nothing more he can do might as well find some where else to put his talents to use. and the dc animated movies will continue though they will proalby just be now mostly batman and superman stuff to sell the movies.
about time. but i’m sure he’ll set up some shows with ari (greenburg’s) clients. another exec who didn’t live up to his job. karma.
What are any of you talking about? He was hated by producers because of his arrogance and smugness. He was hated by executives because of his lies. He was hated by creators most of all- the list of major talent at DC who hated the guy is ENDLESS. He is the number one reason why Levitz was fired. This is the beginning of a very good era.
Amen, and good riddance!
FTW – was waiting for someone to say this. Absolutely true. A smug would-be gatekeeper who prevented Warner Brothers from capitalizing on their DC characters and convinced many a creator to walk away from DC knowing that anything they developed, particularly for DC’s Vertigo-line, would be shackled with “golden handcuffs” as Noveck wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing with them in the entertainment space.
Anyone who doubts this should look up all that happened around the deal Showtime was making to turn “The Exterminators” into a TV series. It leaked to the trades, Noveck hadn’t dotted his i’s and crossed his t’s and the project dropped dead.
I think you’re confused about Exterminators — WBTV has never (to my knowledge) sold a show to a premium cable outlet (even its kissing cousin HBO), so that deal probably came about because DC no longer had the rights to the book. They let properties go all the time, which is why you see collections of some former DC/Vertigo titles coming from other publishers (2020 Visions, more recently The Crusades).
And again, nice to blame everything that didn’t work on the guy who lost his job, while finding reasons to credit other people with all the success from the same period.
Wow man – the guy just lost his job and you want to rag on him that bad? It’s easy to blankly say “so and so was hated by everyone” without any evidence. How about some names? And do you think that Levitz, a celebrated comic icon and corporate president, who was at the company for 30 years, would lose his job because of his SVP? I read this site for real information and opinions, not for diatribes from someone who probably never had a meeting with the man.
Ouch!
Working for Paul Levitz in a job like Mr. Noveck’s is a thankless task where most of the time you’re saying “no” to people who want to play with the company’s valuable toys. The alleged “endless” list of people who hated him is awfully speculative, but any truth to it probably comes from creators who have producers tell them all the time “I could get a movie made of your great book, but the guys at DC won’t blah blah etc.”. It’s not going to be long before Geoff Johns has the same problem, since the WB structure that can’t get Superman or Wonder Woman moving doesn’t seem likely to get anywhere with DMZ or Northlanders or any of DC’s less tentpolelike properties.
As for Noveck’s track record, while you probably can’t give him credit for Dark Knight, it’s not exactly fair to say Jonah Hex and the Losers are solely his fault, either. Jeff Robinov, who engineered DC Entertainment as a way to prove himself worthy to take over WB when Barry and Alan leave — and is gambling everything on Green Lantern to do it — is more responsible than anyone for the Akiva Goldsmans and Joel Silvers who run roughshod over comics-based properties.
Noveck was, by many accounts, the guy who stopped the Jack Black GL movie, and also worked with the studio to put together their writer/director team. He got Red going — Angela Cheng Kaplan’s great, but no lit agent has that much power without someone helping on the inside — he got DC its first TV series not based on Batman or Superman to go to a second season (Human Target), got plenty of shows to the pilot script stage (Fables, Global Frequency, something called Midnight Mass) even with the limitations of having to work with WBTV, and, oh yeah, got the studio to hire Geoff Johns as part of a “dream team” of DC consultants.
Hate the guy if you like (I don’t know him, but he ran some good DC animation panels last year), but if you judge on results, Diane Nelson’s going to have a hard time filling his shoes.
IntheNo isn’t. “Red” is a creator-owned property and DC did not control the film rights. Angela Cheng Caplan, who also represents the screenwriters of the film, set up the film. Ford Gilmore was also involved as the manager of the artist. Noveck got involved only because the studio wanted publishing tie-ins and merchandising holdbacks. The credit he got as EP should’ve gone to Ellis and Hamner.
I agree with the Tree in the Forest. Noveck was a trainwreck and universally despised. The reason DC is a “should be” in contrast to Marvel’s current largesse lands directly at his feet for mismanaging up and mismanaging down. He alienated nearly everyone he touched. And as far as the animation goes, he did very very little in terms of contributing to its success. WB Animation did a phenomenal job (with Batman among others), well before he showed up on the lot.
Diane (not Diana) took Levitz’s job not Noveck’s. Johns who is universally very well liked was put in above him and its about time that Diane and Geoff pruned some dead wood off the tree. Diane has made nothing but great hires in running DC Entertainment.
Gregory is a great guy who works hard and did a very good job at dc. I wish him well and a lot of success in the future!
Best of luck in your next venture.
This was not hard to see coming. People, DC is a division of a massive media conglomerate. Get it? People who love comics have been pushed to the side (Levitz, Noveck) and people who are management types have been empowered (Nelson, Robinov, Roth). Geoff Johns is a key piece – the guy with geek cred who makes comicbookers feel they are being protected.
But the reality now is that Roth can pick titles he wants to play with like Wonder Woman, Sandman, etc and do whatever he wants without having to run it by anyone …
And Robinov can hand the bigger properties to his producers without having to get creative approvals from anyone.
Nelson has read about as many comics as Noveck has read management books. This is about a transition from a creative steward to a marketing exec.
Sadly, Geoff Johns is stuck in a powerless job. I know firsthand. He hasn’t been in the process on any tv or movie stuff in the past six months. Not sure what he’s doing other than taking credit for a GL movie that he hates (his version didn’t move forward)
Noveck and Levitz don’t get enough credit. We all fell for the Marvel PR machine. Spiderman was no Batman. And it wasn’t Marvel that masterminded it, it was Amy Pascal. And Iron Man was brilliant, but Iron Man 2 might be the worst movie ever. Thor does look good.
But in the meantime, DC has built cool ani, direct to video, and secondary titles … Marvel has no tv biz.
It was all a Marvel v DC pr battle to build enterprise value and get a sale. They got it. Now, back to making stuff. DC will have GL, two giant tv series, and hopefully the Flash and Superman. They are in fine shape.
So, what’s the lesson? Watch your back when execs are looking to expand their empire (Robinov), marketing execs are looking to make the leap to creative (Nelson), comic book writers sell out to corp america (Johns), and especially watch your back when you are consistently the only person in the room who has a) read the material, and b) cares about the characters.
Good luck Paul and Greg.
Yay, that means we get less (more?) DC animated stuff…or…something.
bye, bye man no one ever knew that existed until this news post
Levitz was forced to hire someone to be his second in command by his former boss, Kevin Tsujihara and Noveck was the result.
I only dealt with Greg once, on a big movie project based on a DC property, which I was writing. He seemed like a decent guy, but he was over-protective of the property which the studio had already decided was going to be a movie. If push came to shove, he was going to lose. If that was his modus operandi elsewhere, no wonder he’s gone. My impression was that he was deeply embedded in tne comic world, which was not necessarily the best thing from the point of view of the movie studio, which had other fish to fry. That said, I liked him and thought he had good taste.
Come on everyone, do you really think Diane Nelson or Geoff Johns have any connection to the fan community or any credibility among creators or the film/TV community that creators want to work with? Noveck was the only real voice at that company with any vision – he should have been given the job Diane took.
Hey frodo… get a clue. Both the fan community, and film/TV people respect the hell out of Geoff Johns. He’s proved time and again that he “gets” these characters and can make them commercial… whether big Warners let’s him, that’s another story.
As far as Noveck, I personally loved the guy and never really saw the gripes most say above while working with him… but always felt he was a little powerless. Who knows what he could’ve done with real ability to make decisions?
Wow – the gentleman just lost his occupation and you want to rag on him that bad? It’s easy to perplexedly say “so and so was hated by everyone” without any confirmation. How about some names? And do you think that Levitz, a distinguished comic icon and shared president, who was at the company for 30 years, would lose his job because of his SVP? I read this site for real in sequence and opinions, not for diatribe from someone who in all probability never had a meeting with the man.?”
Wow great post………….very interesting one……..
I only dealt with Greg once, on a big movie scheme based on a DC property, which I was symbols. He seem like a decent guy, but he was over-protective of the belongings which the studio had previously strong-willed was going to be a movie. If push came to shove, he was going to lose. If that was his modus operandi elsewhere, no wonder he’s gone. My thought was that he was deeply surrounded in tne comic world, which was not unavoidably the best thing from the point of view of the movie studio, which had other fish to fry. That said, I liked him and thought he had good taste………
Noveck was a bad guy for DC. I can never forget what he did with SR. He gave complete control to Bryan Singer and see what happened..good riddance for dc..geoff johns rocks