Adult Swim Nabs 3 New Anime, Loses 2

The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim announced on air via title cards that it had lost the rights to show the anime series Death Note and Blood+. The entire Death Note anime series was shown on Adult Swim at least three times, while Blood+ was shown just once in its entirety (50 episodes).

The Anime News Network is reporting that Adult Swim followed the news of the expiration of the rights to Death Note and Blood+ with a cryptic announcement indicating that on a recent visit to Tokyo “we think we bought three series (maybe).”

It should be interesting to see which new series that Adult Swim, which has been aggressive in producing its own animated series and has even added live action shows to its lineup, has picked up. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the sequel to the FMA series that had a very successful run on Adult Swim, is a likely candidate, as is Inuyasha: The Final Conflict, the finale to the long-running Inuyasha anime that has a rich history with the Cartoon Network that goes way back to the early days of Adult Swim.

Funimation, which handled the original Full Metal Alchemist anime, has acquired U.S. rights to FMA: Brotherhood . Viz Media distributes the Inuyasha manga and anime series as well as the Full Metal Alchemist manga in North America.

Venture Brotherrs Action Figures

Bif Bang Pow! will produce a line of action figures, bobble heads, and vehicles based the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros. First up is a line of 7” resin bobble heads due out this spring. Articulated action figures will follow in the summer, featuring Dr. Venture, The Monarch, Brock Samson, Hank & Dean Venture, and others.

The deal was reached between Bif Bang Pow! and Cartoon Network Enterprises, which handles licensing and merchandising for Adult Swim.

Bif Bang Pow! has produced other tv-based toy lines, including one based on the hit show Lost

'spider-Man 4' Delayed

Shooting on Spider-Man 4 has been pushed back and the May 6, 2011 release date is in jeopardy, according to Deadline Hollywood. The problem is the script, which has been on a second rewrite since the summer and is still not ready to shoot. Crew members are being told to stand down until a new shooting start date is set.

Marvel movies (both from Marvel and its licensees) have aggressively staked out the first weekend in May (Free Comic Book Day!) for years, especially for Spider-Man, so the date will not be given up lightly, but a script would have to be approved soon for production to be completed in time.

'Deadpool' Movie Gets Writers from Zombieland

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been signed to write the screenplay for Deadpool , according to Variety. The pair wrote Zombieland and also did a draft of the Venom script.

The Deadpool movie is set to star Ryan Reynolds, who’s about to begin shooting Green Lantern.

'Dune' Gets New Director

Pierre Morel (Taken) has signed a deal to direct a remake of Dune, according to Variety. Morel replaces Peter Berg, who had been working on a Dune pic , but got diverted to the Battleship film.

The 1984 David Lynch Dune film wasn’t a commercial success, but did spawn a wide range of merchandise.

Disney Expands Ties With Stan Lee After Marvel Acquisition

The same day that its acquisition of Marvel was finalized, The Walt Disney Company announced that it was expanding its ties with Stan Lee’s Pow! Entertainment. The Disney Studios signed a “first look” agreement with Pow! in 2007 . Under the new agreement, Walt Disney Studios gains enhanced rights to the creative output of Pow! Entertainment as well as exclusive consulting services. In addition Disney has taken a 10% equity stake in Pow! with an investment of $2.5 million.

Bob Chapek, President of Worldwide Distribution for the Disney Studios, commented on the new agreement: “Stan has incredible creative energy and continues to come up with great original stories that can work across many of our platforms, ranging from console games to motion pictures and from our boys-focused Disney XD network to mobile devices. Put that together with his knowledge and familiarity of the Marvel universe and it makes perfect sense to extend our excellent working relationship with Stan and POW!

'Ghostbusters 3' Progressing

Harold Ramis who co-wrote the original Ghostbusters films and starred as Dr. Egon Spengler, told an interviewer that the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3 “is progressing with plans to shoot next summer and release in 2011.” The GB3 project will include much of the original cast as well as a new generation of younger Ghostbusters.
Ramis told Heeb.com “Dan (Aykroyd) did write a spec GB3 screenplay a few years ago, but no one was motivated to pursue it. Now, 25 years after the original, there seems to be some willingness to proceed and apparently a substantial public appetite for a sequel.”