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I hope you have all read Padraig’s incredibly remembrance of writer Steve Moore. Coincidentally, a movie is being made of the Hercules comic which Moore wrote for Radical. I know this was a corporate “movie” comic, but I will call it Steve Moore’s Hercules from now on. And here are some pictures of the Rock playing the title role! And the poster, which you will note says “based on the Radical comic Hercules by STEVE MOORE.”

RIGHT ON.

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We’ve written before about OBLIVION, the SF movie that seemed to be “based’ on a graphic novel by director Joseph Kosinski, adapted by Arvid Nelson and Andree Wallin — although a mock-up of the project was apparently used to lure Tom Cruise into starring in the film (which opens later this month) — Ksinski now says it will most likely never be published::

As for whether we’ll ever see the printed version of the story? “I don’t have any plans to do it right now. To me it’s feels like it’s in the rear-view mirror, you know? It’s like part of the development process. The film is the end result. But never say never. Maybe at some point it will be fun to go back and show the steps and the journey.”

Farewell, we never even knew you, Oblivion the graphic novel.

Tweet Just the other day we were telling you how Radical Studios has ridden the comics-to-movies rollercoaster to some success with a movie based on the not-really-a-GN Oblivion on its way to a multiplex near you. And now, Variety tell us, they’ve raised $3 million of a wished for $9.5 million to “help broaden its [...]

You may have noticed a few trailers for OBLIVION, a new Tom Cruise SF film that seems to fuse the themes of I am Legend, Mission Impossible, War of the Worlds and Minority Report into one handy epic. (It also destroys New York, just as all futuristic movies must.) The film comes out in April and in addition to Cruise it stars Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Melissa Leo, Zoe Bell and Andrea Riseborough. The director is TRON: UPRISING's Joseph Kosinski, and he's also the source of this film's tenuous but fascinating "graphic novel" connection.

After a year long stint with Random House as their book distributor, Radical Publishing is back at Diamond, we are told by press release.

The announcement is a bit of a no-brainer considering that Radical was at last months Diamond Retailer Summit.

Radical Publishing has finalized negotiations to return to Diamond Book Distributors (DBD) for distributing their graphic novel titles and products to book stores, mass-market merchandisers, libraries and other outlets worldwide.

“We’re very excited to be rejoining Diamond Book Distributors,” said Radical Publishing Director of Sales, Teddy Cabugos. “In this industry, we recognize that a publisher really needs to be with a distributor whose expertise is the world of graphic novels. Diamond’s influence in the book market and ability to secure placement for their publishing lines means that we’re at the right distributor to grow our business.”

The deal commences in April, with DBD handling previous backlist titles and new frontlist titles offered to the book market for June release. Radical was previously distributed by Random House. “We are pleased to welcome Radical Publishing back to our client roster,” said Kuo-Yu Liang, DBD’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “I am very excited that we can bring their titles to book market customers once again.”

Founded by Barry Levine, Jesse Berger and Matthew Berger, Radical publishing released their first titles in May 2008. Since then they have recruited a long list of top creators and published a number titles already making headway in the industry. Unlike other comics’ publishers, Radical focuses on character- driven mythological or genre-based stories, such as Hercules, Aladdin: Legacy of the Lost, Earp: Saints for Sinners, Legends: the Enchanted, and Caliber. Many of their materials are developed with an eye on the film industry.

Back in August, 2010, we told you all about the story behind OBLIVION, a graphic novel concept by director Joe Kosinski (TRON: LEGACY) that was optioned to Disney Studios for a cool $500,000. It seemed like a lot of money for yet another “celebrity comic” so what was so hot about it? At the time we wrote:

As regular BEAT readers know, studios optioning comics are a weekly occurrence, and yet this one not only gets a coveted Nikki Finke TOLJA! (signifying an important story) but $500K just for some typical comics-to-movie pitch after FOUR STUDIOS were in the running to get it? What gives?

The answer lies in the identity of the celebrity brainstormer. Although TRON: LEGACY is still months away from release, Disney has set its eyes on TRON as its franchise of the future, and they are very, very — as in VERY — high on Kosinski, even though he’s a virtual unknown: TRON: LEGACY is his first film and prior to that he was best known for that GEARS OF WAR TV spot with the song from Donnie Darko in it.

Mouse House picked up the project from Kosinski last August after the book bowed at Comic-Con.

Studios are looking at a rewrite by Karl Gajdusek, and I’m told this is a $100 million plus project (not including star salary), so it’s an opportunity for someone to pencil in a tent pole. Calls to Disney haven’t been returned on the subject, but I’ve heard that the reason Disney stopped work after developing the script and going through a soft prep process is that the studio decided that a gritty PG-13 science fiction action project didn’t fit into the Disney mandate. Considering that Paramount, Fox-based Chernin Entertainment and Universal all chased the property before Disney stepped up to keep its Tron: Legacy helmer in the studio fold, I’m told this will get bought by somebody. It will have an easy exit, as the deal came with progress to production language. It’s unclear if Kosinski will direct this next; he’s got Black Hole at Disney, and the studio’s developing a Tron: Legacy sequel.

There is hardly a company that does not have some kind of celebrity “vanity project” comic out there made mostly to show to producers as a bible for a film. And all of this is despite the fact that not a single movie has yet been made from a

15 Comments on Anatomy of a Press Release, Part 2: Disney DROPS Radical’s OBLIVION, last added: 3/30/2011

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Naveen Malli said, on 3/30/2011 8:13:00 AM

So does that mean Kosinski gets to keep the $500,000? If so, talk about a profitable comic!

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 8:32:00 AM

Cowboys & Aliens isn’t a Radical project.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 8:38:00 AM

Naveen, Radical would have split the $500k with Joe IF it had gone into production, but as it didn’t, Disney doesn’t have to pay it.

jimmy palmiotti said, on 3/30/2011 8:46:00 AM

Option money is not returned. I never had to return a single Cent on a paid option ever.

As for Radical, They are a pleasure to work with and let Justin , Paul and I have the time of our lives putting together TIME BOMB for them exactly th way we envisioned it.

I have nothing but well wishes for them. Stuff like this always happens in the business.

Jason Green said, on 3/30/2011 9:07:00 AM

Dave Elliott: “Cowboys & Aliens isn’t a Radical project”

Well, no, but it is “a movie made from a comic book that was published just to be turned into a movie,” which is the exact, non-Radical-specific comment from Heidi’s post we’re all referring to.

CitizenCliff said, on 3/30/2011 9:53:00 AM

Jimmy is right. In my case, Rat Bastard never aired on UPN, but Ron Howard’s Imagine Television gave me a nice chunk of change for the rights for one year. They spent $450,000 on the project, but in the end dumped a project by Howard Stern, one by Todd McFarlane, and my show when UPN parent Viacom merged with CBS I’m 2000. At the end of one year, I got the rights back. Kevin Altieri did a nice job directing, and Robocop creator Ed Neimeier wrote the script . You can see the mini pilot here: 
http://m.youtube.com/index?client=mv-google&desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US&rdm=4m2ax5fyg#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=1XBLUGxMSsA

Joe Lawler said, on 3/30/2011 10:56:00 AM

Cliff, clicking that link took me to a “Katy Perry’s Cleavage Traumatizes Mother!!” video, along with a few others.

The Beat said, on 3/30/2011 10:59:00 AM

All: It’s possible that Dave, as a former Radical E-I-C might know more about this deal than we do, but whatever the facts in this case, it is common for option money to be quite low — sometimes nothing, which is ridiculous — with a big fee to kick in should the property get actually filmed. Most deals that I know of (and my eyes tend to glaze over about this stuff) include a progressive fee chart — you get so much when a script gets accepted, so much when a pilot is ordered, so much when it gets filmed…every deal is different.

Jimmy, from the sound of things, everyone at Radical is good to work with, and they may be putting out some good books. Unfortunately, their book that got the most attention was negative (the Nick Simmon’s plagiarized comic)…at the retailer’s summit, retailers kept mentioning books that Radical doesn’t even publish. As I said previously, a marketing push wouldn’t be a bad idea just to get more of their properties out there and lift them from the pack of #6, 7 and 8 publishers.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 11:11:00 AM

Two things:

Jason – You are 100% correct. I misread that quote because it was exactly the same quote that was used recently to describe Radical.

All: It may well be the use of the word ‘option’ here. Options are extremely rarely paid out in those large numbers. The $500k was the purchase price and a fraction of that was paid as an option which Radical and Joe do get to keep.

Nikke Finke covered this very well last year.

Purchases are often paid out in increments starting with the signing of contract, first day of production and final wrap of the project. Anything paid out when a studio cans a project is non-refundable.

Gianluca Glazer said, on 3/30/2011 11:34:00 AM

Poor Arvid. Unless Variety recently edited the article, they say that the illustrated novel is being written by Rex Mundi.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/30/2011 11:40:00 AM

Poor Arvid. The Beat is using the original teams cover with Ian Edginton credited on it and the cover by Kai Lim of Imaginary Friends.

Gianluca Glazer said, on 3/30/2011 11:59:00 AM

Which brings up a good point about how, after years of promoting “Oblivion”, they now have to sell it as “Horizons” because the film name is already copyrighted by a game company.

Regarding Heidi’s last comment: As someone who worked for Radical and had prior experience in Marketing/Production, doing billboards and giving away concert tickets, by getting your picture taken with a free printed sign, doesn’t cut it. Especially if you only do one fan convention a year and only release 2 to 3 comics a month.

Boom! Studios has the model for a successful publishing company down pat. They do the conventions. They give retailers incentives through deals and variant covers. They provide press and arm the retailers with promotional items. They also aquire license deals from commercial properties in order to increase sales, provide more comic product and introduce new fans to their other, non-license titles. Boom! Studios has had many film options deals, but aren’t reliant on them to stay afloat. I lot have of those deals have come and go, that’s the nature of the business. If one pans out, like the Two Guns looks to be, then great. Until then, you have to be the best “publisher”, until those years of setting up the films pays off.

horatio Weisfeld said, on 3/30/2011 3:02:00 PM

Who is this, Katy Perry?

horatio Weisfeld said, on 3/30/2011 3:07:00 PM

+ Thanks to those discussing reality.

horatio Weisfeld said, on 3/30/2011 3:53:00 PM

Sorry for the 3 some — but one more thing:

jimmy palmiotti
03/30/2011 AT 10:46 AM
Option money is not returned. I never had to return a single Cent on a paid option ever.

>>

I’m not so sure this discussion is about people being asked to return money on option (No, I’ve never heard of that) as much as people going around saying, “They ‘bought’ it for X” — which of course leads humans to believe that X was actually “paid” for something, when in fact 5% (or so, or whatever) X was “paid”, with a promise made to pay the other 95% if something happens (of which the likely hood of that happening is probably something like .00099%) — So did Dreamworks REALLY “pay” 500K for ASH, did somebody REALLY “pay” 350K for World War Robot, or with Oblivion: did Disney “pay” what they “bought” it for? What a tangled web..

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