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Saturday 1 June 2019

Atlas into Movies. NOT the pre-Marvel Atlas Either A 2021 Update

Here we go. In 2019 every comic hyper and shyster was pushing Atlas comics and over inflating prices "because" the characters were going to be in movies. GoCollect wrote: 

"Not sure if everyone remembers, but Atlas Comics was hot around this time last year. This was due to Paramount Pictures acquiring the rights from them to make movies. Think of Paramount trying to make a superhero universe with this comic brand. When this news came out, people started searching their long boxes and going to their local comic shops trying to find the books in dollar bins. The hype was contagious as Atlas Comics were flying out of eBay like crazy. So, now a year later, is there any movement with the values of these books?"

Well, according to a few sources Paramount went cold on the movies because of cost and various other considerations. TV shows? That seemed to fall at the first hurdle. I think the characters that could be bought were just a grab but seeing how they might have to compete with Marvel movies...could you?

The whole sale was taken and spum into some sort of major deal and these movies would make the comics worth a fortune (that never really worked for Marvel...unless you were conned into buying at a high price?

No "stars attached" hype. Nothing.

Buy the comics at a real price but only if you are curious or...enjoy comics!



This article was posted on Film in mid-May and was written by Ben Pearson but I missed it:

 There is one HUGE error in that Atlas referred to is not the pre-Marvel company but Goodman's 1970s publishing house. It just so happens that recently I updated one of my posts on the company (I've written a lot about Atlas over the years):


Atlas Comics
"For years, Paramount Pictures has a handful of franchises that have kept them afloat: TransformersMission: ImpossibleTerminator, and a few scattered others. But the studio is perpetually in need of major intellectual property – and in today’s Hollywood, that means they especially need source material for comic book movies.
"Now they’ve struck a development, production, and distribution deal with Steven Paul, a producer who recently acquired a majority interest in the Atlas Comics library, to adapt several of those original comics into movies. A writers’ room will be formed “to develop and build out the universe of characters from the expansive Atlas library,” and if you’ve been paying attention to the development of rooms like this in the industry, you already know that there’s apparently only one person ever hired to oversee them: writer/producer Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Batman & Robin).
"The Hollywood Reporter brings word that production on the first of many Atlas Comics-inspired movies is slated to get underway sometime in the second quarter of 2020, and the first film in this pact will be released in 2021. The plan is to produce and release at least one superhero project each year after that. Paul, who wrote Baby Geniuses and produced films like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and 2017’s Ghost in the Shell, will produce these movies alongside Atlas production president Spike Seldin (The A-Team) and Goldsman.
"Atlas Comics was a precursor to Marvel Comics and was the early home of heroes like Captain America and the Human Torch. But when superhero comics began to fall out of popularity, Atlas chased what was selling and expanded to cover tons of different genre material. “What an opportunity that we have with the Atlas universe, which spans so many genres: superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, horror, creatures, vampires, cops, cowboys, soldiers,” Goldsman said. “The breadth of this material is extraordinary.”
"No one revealed any specifics about which characters were going to make the jump to the big screen first, but at a press conference in front of “a dozen blown-up Atlas covers including Tiger-Man, Sgt. Stryker’s Death Squad and Devilina,” Paul said they were still counting the characters they had the rights to.
"Atlas Comics featured characters like The Scorpion, an immortal adventurer; The Grim Ghost, a dead robber forced to work for Satan and bring evil souls to hell; and The Demon Hunter, a magical cult member who has the power of invisibility. (You can find some more characters from Atlas’s old roster here.)
"Goldsman will oversee a nine-person writers’ room for these films. For those keeping count at home, this will be at least the sixth major writers’ room Goldsman will be involved with over the past several years, factoring in his work on Star TrekTransformersG.I. Joe/Micronauts, the Ology series, and Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Universe. Granted, some of those projects haven’t been made yet, but here’s a thought: maybe hire someone else to oversee this stuff? How is it possible that Goldsman’s skillset is this valuable to major studio filmmaking? I understand that managing a team of writers is a difficult job, but you’re telling me that no one else in the industry is capable of fulfilling that task? "
end article
There are big problems of course. The developers will not -not- have access to use all of the 1970s characters since a lot of copyright issues are going to get in the way.
The last incarnation centred around The Phoenix (disasterous), Wulf the Barbarian and a cameo by Ironjaw and equally disasterous and AWFUL Grim Ghost followed up by one issue of an equally awful crossover -Atlas Unified.
My guess is that it will be a "harsh reality" setting and most characters will be in black leather ,,,,
You may have gathered that I have no real faith in this project?
We'll see...IF they can sort out copyright -and we'll see if its movies or whether the steong rumours of TV series development pan out.

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