acquisition Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Disney's $4 billion purchase of Marvel means the gloves are coming off when it comes to comic books and all the possibilities for making money off of them, from toys and cartoons to movies and video games – and video game movies.

Disney is just one of the media conglomerates that's digging deeper into the video game world, and while that does include some rather unfortunate tie-in titles like "Hannah Montana: Rock Out the Show," it also includes really good games like "Kingdom Hearts," a role-playing game featuring classic Disney characters like Goofy, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse. And while I haven't played it myself, at least one video game girl professional told me I absolutely must play "G-Force." Seriously.

Right now Warner Bros. is definitely beating the other media giants, both with movie/comic book tie-ins like "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and innovative new games like "Scribblenauts." Now that Disney has its mitts on Marvel, we can expect plenty of Marvel superheroes and villains getting the Disney (well, hopefully Pixar) treatment. Is it possible that Disney will step up its game, so to speak, when it comes to competing with WB and DC's superior titles?

Gossip in the press lounge: everyone's talking about the reported $10-12 million that Paramount has allegedly plunked down last night for Little Miss Sunshine (no deal has formally been announced yet). The received wisdom is that the deal was half-done before the festival even started – and that Paramount, afraid that another studio would come in and best them, offered way too much money. A behind-the-scenes indie film legend was overheard saying that a certain Hollywood reporter had already branded it "this year's Happy, Texas" – that is, the film that will be acquired for way too much, and then fail to do the kind of business that could even recoup its investment. But the indie legend disagreed – he's a fan of Steve Carell's performance in the film, and he said that, if anything, Sunshine could be this year's Napoleon Dynamite - that is, Paramount probably payed to much for it, but commercial prospects look very, very good. The film was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, first time feature makers perhaps best known for their video for The Smashing Pumpkins' Tonight, Tonight, which was inspired by Georges Mellies' A Trip to the Moon. Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear star, but neither is here to promote it – I was told by someone who tried to get the two together for an interview that the actors "hate each other's guts."

As Karina explained a couple of weeks ago, in order to be able to pay the roughly $1.6 billion that Dreamworks cost them, Paramount knew they would have to sell off the rights to their new acquisition's rather substantial film library, a collection that includes such hits as American Beauty and Gladiator. There was talk in December that a deal was near, but no names were known, and that deal either fell through or stalled, because no further information ever appeared. Until now, that is.

According to a new Wall Street Journal report, Paramount is in discussions with a "private-equity fund" headed by billionaire investor/financier/philanthropist George Soros. Though a Paramount spokesperson refused to comment on the story, it's understood that the talks are exclusive, and that a deal needs to be done by the end of the month. No matter who buys the library, Paramount will "continue to garner a fee for distributing the films in the library," so that, in addition to the initial payment for rights, the Dreamworks films will also be a source of long-term income for Paramount.