We end the week with the interesting news that legendary Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee has just signed a deal with The Walt Disney Company to continue his line of work under their roof. As GeorgeC says in our Animated News & Views Forum, “all things considered, it’s a good deal for Stan, but a waste of money for Disney. The best things Stan created and worked on are all products of the 1960s and are owned by Marvel. [Apart from] bread crumbs, what’s Disney going to get? The next Mosaic or Chameleon character?”

He has a point, which is the first thing that sprang to my mind as well. Despite the Mouse House’s president of production Oren Aviv being very enthusiastic about the first-look deal between Disney and Lee’s production company POW! Entertainment, there’s little to get excited about. Home video exec Bob Chapek has been spoken about being instrumental in bringing Lee to Disney and will remain heavily involved in the projects, which points to direct-to-DVD features more than anything else even though POW will supposedly “develop and produce all forms of entertainment for various platforms”. I really hope Lee has one or two big – and original – characters left in him, but he really is trading off his considerable name and past glories, which include Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and the Hulk, of course. It comes as no surprise that these heroes are the main supports in several studio’s big tentpole releases in past and coming years.

Disney are clearly aiming for a piece of that pie that has so far eluded them. Aviv states that “Stan has so many fantastic new ideas for films. [He] is a living legend in the world of pop culture, and his characters have been the inspiration for some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. We’re very excited to be working with him and his talented team in creating some incredible new motion picture experiences”. I’ve been an on-off follower of the ludicrous but strangely addictive Who Wants To Be A Superhero?, from which Lee only gets more praise for being “The Man”, but here’s hoping that both Disney and Stan are able to fish out a final true classic instead of his last original spin-off series, the 2003 Spike TV cartoon series Stripperella, which featured the voice and, um, physique of Pamela Anderson…

Speaking of “heroes”, I’m happy to report that NBC’s Heroes (featuring cheerleader Hayden Panettiere, pictured right) is set to continue. I liked the show, but I took a long while to warm to it. At first, its ideas outweighed its budget and it didn’t look as good as it did by the time the first season ended, with special effects that weren’t too special. Things changed dramatically as the show gathered pace and since the direction-altering major flashback episode it became a series that defied expectations and remained totally unpredictable, with bad guys that aren’t bad and good guys who may be much more than they seem. The effects were much better too! Creator Tim Kring has re-upped with Universal to forge ahead with the ongoing saga, while also spinning the property off into an anthology program, Heroes: Origins, as well as various offshoots in print and digital media. I remain interested in where all this could go, though hope that, as with our friend Stan Lee above, Kring doesn’t become diluted in spreading himself too thin, and still has his best stuff in him.

Finally before the weekend, I’ve been trawling through some of my old haunts in London recently and came across a couple of things that may be of interest to our UK readers. On Sunday 17 June on the South Bank’s Royal Festival Hall, the former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will be staging an event in his Meltdown music and arts program (16-23 June). The Forest Of No Return concert will have “master of the tributes” Hal Willner presenting the Vintage Disney Songbook, featuring Cocker and very special guests performing reworked versions of film songs from classics including Dumbo, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book and Pinocchio.

As an aside, film score fans may also want to know about The Music Of John Barry, again at the Royal Festival Hall, on Thursday 21 June, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and guest appearances by Barry and Cocker, who chooses his favorite work from the five-time Academy Award winning composer, best known for his many James Bond themes. For more details on these and other events, head on over to the Meltdown website, and maybe I’ll see you there!

Have a great weekend! – Ben.