Am I misunderstanding Monday’s announcement, or are you also in charge of Direct-To-DVD as well as television?
In animation. I don’t think we’re going to do any live-action Direct-To-DVD, at least, not to start. In terms of animation, Marvel’s had great success [with Direct-To-DVD releases] – I’m a huge fan of Planet Hulk, Next Avengers, and some of the other ones that they’ve done have really been terrific. That’s an area we’ve been talking about continuing in the future, if we have the right project and the right team.
Joe Quesada was in charge of Marvel Animation, is that entirely under your control now?
Now that he’s become CCO [of Marvel Entertainment], he’s in charge of all matters creative, so he’ll have his hands in everything. But my responsibilities are television, and that includes live-action, animation and Direct-To-DVD.
Are you going to be using the same Creative Committee [of Marvel Comics, including Quesada, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction and other comics creators] that’s been working on the Marvel movies?
We already have a version of a Creative Committee that’s been working with the animation group, and not only will that be something we work with, it’s something that I particularly welcome. It’s obviously had a great benefit for the movie group, and having that kind of input on the television side will be extremely valuable.
Is there a possibility that someone like a Brian Michael Bendis or a Matt Fraction could work on one of the live-action television shows in a writing capacity? Or are they too busy with the comics work?
Let me be as vague as I can be: My personal feeling is that fans will not be disappointed by the people that we are looking to get involved not only in live-action, but animation as well.
Through working on shows like Heroes and Lost as well as comic work like the Ultimate books, you’ve built up a relationship with television writers like Jesse Alexander and Aron Coliete. With both Heroes and Lost ending this year, is it too early to talk about their potential involvement?
It’s way too early. But, I value all the relationships from Buffy and Smallville and Lost and Heroes… They were all, in some way, seminal works of the genre, and the good news is, the same people that we want to be in business with are the same people that ABC and ABC Family wants to be in business with. The other thing that we’re finding is that an awful lot of those people are also Marvel fans. It really is an amazing opportunity for Marvel to take a leap into this new medium. The timing just couldn’t be better, in terms of the creative resources that are out there, hoping to move into this brave new world.