DISNEY - BATTLE OF SUPERHEROES TAKING SHAPE

BATTLE OF SUPERHEROES TAKING SHAPE

Warner Bros. executive Diane Nelson may well be sporting a "This Is a Job for Superman!" t-shirt any day soon, after Time Warner named her to head its newly formed DC Entertainment division. Nelson, who has been responsible for managing the studio's Harry Potter franchise, is expected to revive long-shelved DC Comics properties and return such DC characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and others to the screen. The move comes days after it was announced that Disney was acquiring Marvel Entertainment and its stable of superheroes for $4 billion. "I come into this not as a comic-book fan per se but someone who knows Warner Bros. and how to bring value to the DC properties," Nelson told today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Times. The newspaper observed that until now there has been little coordination among the studio's executives, producers, and the DC Comics publisher. As a result, the Times disclosed, plans to produce a TV show based on the Robin character in the Batman comic books was shot down after it was announced when Motion Picture Group President Jeff Robinow and Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan complained that they had not been consulted and expressed disapproval of the project.

10/09/2009